I am in search of the best smartphone for my wife. She is NOT a techie and just came from a Palm Centro without a data plan, so getting a smartphone is big technological step up for her. As I noted in a recent post, in my view, the iPhone is definitely not it (and [...]

I’ve never been fan of Apple products. Yes, they are elegantly engineered and designed products. But I don’t like the authoritarian control that Apple asserts over its products and I don’t like the way  it forces me to use its stuff the way they want me to rather than how I want to. Apple puts [...]

The march of technology is inevitable and inexorable. We can’t stop it or even slow it down and we definitely can’t reverse it (nor should we want to). As I have noted in a previous post, one of my concerns is that this progress is so rapid that we don’t have time to determine or [...]

Recent research that has been making the media rounds lately has reported that when people are focused on a task they indicate that they are happier than when their mind wanders. This research is obviously not breaking news for the tens of millions of Buddhists and uncounted others who have experienced the phenomenon of being [...]

I have to say it again: I really love my Aria (though not quite as much as my wife and kids). It is fast, stable, and user-friendly (though perhaps not as user friendly as the iPhone). After rooting and flashing to a 2.2 Froyo ROM, I’ve gotten to the point very quickly where there isn’t [...]

Facebook founder and CEO, baby-faced billionaire, and unintended star of a hit (don’t miss the double meaning) film Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that it will soon be offering a new messaging system, Facebook Messages, that integrates email (so 20th century), IM, SMS, Facebook, and other social media into one seamless stream of cyber-communication. With [...]

The next time you’re walking down the street, at the gym, in an elevator, out for a run, or even at your local coffee shop, look at the people around you and tell me what you see. What I notice is the ubiquity of people with headphones in their ears. Though not quite in the [...]

Yes, I’m back (Did you miss me that much?)! But just briefly. The one knock on Android 2.1 was that it didn’t offer voice dialing with bluetooth headsets (how is that possible!). So, as I noted in my previous post, I was excited to learn that Android 2.2 (Froyo) would have it. But was I [...]

No, I didn’t die. I’ve just been busy with other projects. But I had to come out of semi-retirement to post two articles (second to follow shortly) on new developments with my HTC Aria. Let’s start at the beginning. Back in June, I made the bold move of putting my much-beloved HTC Fuze, running the [...]

I “bought” my Aria from AT&T over the phone a month ago. I put bought in quotes because AT&T actually paid me $150 to upgrade. First, they credited me for the full cost of the Aria including phone, taxes, shipping, and activation. Then they credited me $50 for downgrading from the $30/month unlimited data plan [...]