You would think after 25 years of marriage that I would learn that women are rarely impressed with ‘tech gadgets’ for Sweetest Day gifts? Perhaps I’m a slow learner in replacing my wife’s old Palm Treo 600 with a new Palm Centro, but I did … to a mixed response. She was glad for a new phone, but made it clear that it wasn’t the kind of intimate ‘thought’ that she was expecting from a husband that should know better.
🙂
With that aside, I’ve played with the new ‘small’ smartphone a couple of days now and have found it really impressed me. First, the Sprint promo price of $99 with a 2 year contract extension make the Centro the best buy going … in my opinion. The phone quality seems better than average and it has most of the features that are part of the larger Treo line of Palm phones. The phone comes loaded with a good selection of Palm software to start, as well as the very functional touch screen operating system.
The smaller keypad will take some getting use to as will the small display, but it is clear and very sharp. Those in the ’40+ something’ age group may want to consider using a pair of reading glasses. That said, its not as bad as I expected once I started using it. The keys are easy to use with a finger nail … and not really any slower than my current thumb-tip keyboard on my Treo 700p. The phone has the same 1280×1024 camera with video clip capability as the other premium Palm phones and include a much better speaker. (much better) The speaker makes the Centro into an excellent pocket radio capable of playing streaming internet station or an MP3 collection with the pTunes software. Of course it can also be used with headphones or an adapter that can be played through your car or home audio system as well as run in the background while working with other features.
Phone quality is very good and the EVDO high speed data service seems as fast as, if not faster, than my Treo 700p. There is plenty of internal memory but also a micro-SD slot and removable battery. If you are looking to own your first smartphone, and appreciate the Palm OS, I have no problem endorsing the new Palm Centro … its an excellent value.
I’m a long time Apple Macintosh computer user and am currently running the Tiger OS 10.4.10 on my desktop, although am running Microsoft Vista on my notebook. It is interesting to see what the creative folks at Apple are bring to the table next … no doubt it will continue to be a blend of “form and function.” The current change coming in about a week is an operating system release called Leopard. For any computer owner, an OS update is often a time to worry; it means learning a new interface and unfortunately the frustrating glitches when working with existing software. My question is whether or not to take the early leap and install Leopard?
Over lunch today I watched Apple’s web-based Leopard presentation and was impressed with a couple of items. The most important addition being something called “Time Machine” which makes backing up your computer easy and restoring something even easier. This feature, in my opinion, would be the number one reason to upgrade. (it uses a large low cost generic external harddrive to archive your entire computer) The second thing that impressed me was the improvements to the impressive video conferencing software packaged with the Apple OS called IChatAV. The improvements that I thought were attractive were in the productivity area; for example when partnering on a document, project or presentation. The ease of being able to talk and share all kinds of documents, videos and presentations immediately and ‘live’ to actually working on a document located on the desktop of your coworkers computer was nice. Its certainly a great feature that would be helpful in finalizing a presentation or document between parties located a distance away. The video chat component also had some cool enhancements … like allowing you to replace the background of your chat window with something other than your surroundings. (a kind of like ‘green screening’ … the demo looked near perfect)
Finally the challenge of ‘doing the upgrade’ looks to have been simplified. According to the presentation, it a few clicks and the walk away; in about and hours your Tiger OS mac will restart in Leopard with all your programs and data. Sounds good … but is it worth the $129?
According to Leftlane news, Audi will bring a 3.0L TDI clean diesel to the U.S. market in 2008. The first vehicle will be the Q7 and then the all new A4. No time frame was announced, just 2008.
Output for the 3.0L TDI V6 is rated at 240 horsepower and 406 lb-ft of torque. Despite all that power, Audi claims the new engine is 35% more efficient than a comparable gasoline engine and can get up to 40 mpg highway. The engine is also clean enough to earn it certification in all 50 states.
Fellow Sonex Aircraft builder Don Gum flew his AeroVee powered Waiex (V-Tail version of the original Sonex) successfully on October 14th. I would like to extend my congratulations to Don who lives north of me in Beavercreek, Ohio. Making a successful first flight in his beautiful tri-gear experimental airplane is indeed a grand accomplishment … one that I hope to eventually duplicate. Nice job Don. (larger photo)
Subaru was ahead of the game featuring all-wheel drivetrain which offered safe, practical and reliable cars which had performance all in a small sized passenger vehicle. Their boxer engine design has proven durable and the utilitarian Forester and Outback came out well before other manufacturers decided to produce ‘car based’ cross-over SUVs. Unfortunately they have lagged behind in improving engine efficiency and desirable design — the ant-eating Trebeca – need I say more?
In the last few years though, Subaru engineers have been working with Toyota to develop hybrid technology and at the same time worked on their new boxer turbo diesel powerplant. An article in LeftLaneNews has also mentioned that diesel is moving past the hybrid development and that they plan on getting a diesel car to the market next year … in Europe. Unfortunately, the article also hints that “the U.S. market could have to wait until 2012 to get the new diesels.”
🙁
As the 2007 baseball season inches toward a close, the Cleveland Indians move one step closer to becoming the American League champions by topping the Boston Red Sox 4 run to 2 in game 3. This was the first game against the Red Sox at Jacobs Field for the Cleveland fans which no doubt gave a tremendous boost to the players.
Although veteran Kenny Lofton is a fan favorite, particularly considering his 2 run homer put Cleveland up 2-0 in the second inning, Brady Sizemore has the specialty fans … known as “Bradys’ Ladies.’
🙂
Nevertheless, the real credit tonight goes to Jake Westbrook who’s impressive pitching quieted the Red Sox bats. He was able to control the game generating 11 ground balls out until being relieved in the 7th by fast ball pitching rookie Jensen Lewis. I think its “TRIBE TIME!”
Although my experimental airplane project is still moving slow, most of the parts are now ready to be put together this winter. The assembly process requires me to fit an engine mount to the fuselage, therefore I need to select a powerplant for that to happen. I had thought the U.S. dollar would strengthen against the Australian dollar so that I could import a new Jabiru 3300, but that hasn’t happened; instead, this past week, I purchased a 4 cylinder Aerovee 2180cc engine for my Sonex project. It has an early serial number, so I will have an engine expert look things over.
If you are married and enjoy a little ill-placed humor, you’ll enjoy this Toyota RAV 4 commercial below. If you don’t laugh at it … I’m sure you’ll at least smile? Actually I don’t know how long it has been out although I noticed it was posted to YouTube in 2006, but I never noticed it on television. It most likely caught my interest over at Autoblog only because my wife drives a RAV 4 … which she continues to brag ‘optimistically’ about. She has had a positive experience with ti as its a well used 1997 model at about 200,000 miles. About the only thing mechanically wrong is that it uses oil, which is particularly noticeable on startup. Don’t get me started on the cosmetic list since it would be easy to mention was doesn’t need to be repaired or replaced!
My EAA chapter (www.eaa284.org) met at Grimes Field in Urbana, Ohio today (AirNav) to see a vintage World War II Boeing B-17 G restoration project, or should I say ‘creation’ project. (many if not most parts are being manufactured onsite or locally) The project is sponsored by the Tech II Inc company and the many volunteers contributing time and money.
Jack Bailey and Dave Burdick (Project Manager) were extremely cordial, as were the volunteers working diligently on parts. The project is daunting considering the shear size of the B-17 Flying Fortress. Our admiration and appreciation go out to those devoting the tens of thousands of hours to reconstruct this part of aviation history.
In nail-biter fashion, #17 ranked Kentucky beat #1 ranked LSU on Saturday in some of the most intense college football I’ve seen in a long time. The game went into triple overtime and ended with each player giving their all and then some. It was quite the intense game.
Since I regularly comment about using my Palm Treo 700p, I couldn’t help but to include an interview photo with someone using their Treo to document the action. I’m not sure the video would be worth sharing, but its great to see the technology being used. I’m looking forward to the next generation that will sport improved resolution, better optics and image stabilization. (it would be nice to have some improvement in the audio too)
You would think after 25 years of marriage that I would learn that women are rarely impressed with ‘tech gadgets’ for Sweetest Day gifts? Perhaps I’m a slow learner in replacing my wife’s old Palm Treo 600 with a new Palm Centro, but I did … to a mixed response. She was glad for a new phone, but made it clear that it wasn’t the kind of intimate ‘thought’ that she was expecting from a husband that should know better.
With that aside, I’ve played with the new ‘small’ smartphone a couple of days now and have found it really impressed me. First, the Sprint promo price of $99 with a 2 year contract extension make the Centro the best buy going … in my opinion. The phone quality seems better than average and it has most of the features that are part of the larger Treo line of Palm phones. The phone comes loaded with a good selection of Palm software to start, as well as the very functional touch screen operating system. 
I’m a long time 
According to 
Although veteran Kenny Lofton is a fan favorite, particularly considering his 2 run homer put Cleveland up 2-0 in the second inning, Brady Sizemore has the specialty fans … known as “Bradys’ Ladies.’
My EAA chapter (
Since I regularly comment about using my Palm Treo 700p, I couldn’t help but to include an interview photo with someone using their Treo to document the action. I’m not sure the video would be worth sharing, but its great to see the technology being used. I’m looking forward to the next generation that will sport improved resolution, better optics and image stabilization. (it would be nice to have some improvement in the audio too)
