Why Sony Sucks

That's it. I've had it with Sony. My handycam camcorder that I've had just over a year broke this week. The LCD screen wont turn on. The reviews were great when the camcorder came out, but a year and a half later people submitted bad reviews because the LCD would stop functioning after a year and a half. Out of the 13 reviews on this site, HALF of them mentioned the same exact problem I had. And guess how long the Sony warranty is? Yes...1 year. So now Im yet again stuck with a Sony camcorder that doesnt work and would cost $200 to fix. Oh, did I mention this is my second Sony camcorder? My first one broke too. I cant transfer any video from it to your computer. I bought lots of Sony stuff because of my Sony credit card. That's where they got me. I was addicted to racking up all those Sony points by purchasing with my Sony Card.

After buying and redeeming my Sony points for Sony products I learned a couple of things about Sony.

1. Quality stinks - How many of you have Sony products that broke or dont perform well? On the outside Sony products look really cool and sleek. But its very cheap on the inside.
   
   
2. Proprietary - Sony loves to have their own proprietary interfaces and equipment. They have the Sony memory stick which only their camcorders, cameras, and TVs use. They have an iLink cable, which is suppose to be just a firewire cable. They have Blueray discs that they are trying to promote. It's always Sony, Sony, Sony. But they do this on purpose, so that it forces you to buy more Sony products.
   
   
3. Sexy - I have to give it up to Sony, their products are sexy. They probably spend 90% on looks and marketing while the rest of the 10% goes into the actual product.



4. Screens - I decided that Im on a Sony boycott. I will never buy any Sony product again...unless it's an LCD TV :) Why the exception? The one thing that Sony has always done well is making TV's. Their laptop, computer, and LCD TV screens are the clearest, sharpest, and best in the market.
   

My final word of advice. Dont buy Sony unless you are buying a LCD TV, but be ready to shell out twice as much $$$.

Have you had a bad Sony experience? Feel free to comment (vent) on your experience.

Verizon Wireless - Transfer your contact list to your new phone for FREE!

I just got a new Motorola KRZR K1m phone. I wanted to transfer all of my contacts on my old phone (Chocolate) to my new KRZR. What's the cheapest and easiest way? I found a way that is free and you dont need any cables. At a Verizon Wireless store, they will charge you $10.

1. Go to verizonwireless.com and sign up for a my account.
   
   
2. On your existing phone, follow the 4 steps in the image above. It will prompt you to accept a $1.99 monthly charge. Go ahead and accept it, because if you created a Verizon Wireless my account (step 1), they will NOT charge you. I know its scary to accept it, but just check your monthly statement to make sure they are not charging you. That's it. So from now on, your contacts will be backed up daily.
   
   
3. On your new phone, follow the same 4 steps (in the above picture) and it will prompt you to download your backed up contacts.

Check out https://www.getbackupnow.com/ for more details.

My 3 Most Favorite Cars

Can you guess what they are?

A)



B)



C)

Amazon Unbox on Tivo

Amazon Unbox is a cool and easy way to download movies directly to your Tivo. You must have a Tivo connected to your home network. If your Tivo is only connected using a phone line then this wont work. You need it connected to your home network, so that it can download the movie from the internet.

A couple of months ago, when Amazon launched this service for Tivo, they offered a free $15 credit which I took full advantage of. All I had to do was to register my Tivo with Amazon and I was all set. 5-10 minutes after you purchase a movie rental, I would see a blue light on my Tivo signifying that it was downloading

Pros:

• Flexible - You can either go online to rent or use your Tivo to rent. You can also keep your movie on your Tivo for 30 days after you rent it just as long as you dont start playing it. If you start playing the movie, it will automatically expire in 24 hours.
• Easy - You dont need to stick a dvd into your dvd player. You just play the movie straight from your Now Playing list in Tivo. I feel right at home using my Tivo to watch movies.
• Instant - No need to wait a couple of days for my DVD rental to arrive in the mail. I can watch a movie I rented on the same day.
• Video Quality - Video quality is really good. I cant tell the difference between the unbox video vs. a DVD.
• Specials - Sometimes they'll have rentals for only 99 cents. I've rented 3 movies already and still have $9 left out of my $15 credit.

Cons:

• Download - The download takes a couple of hours. So I would recommend either downloading the night before or in the morning. You cannot play the movie until the entire movie has downloaded.
• No Surround Sound - Though sound quality is still good.
• Selection - The selection is not that great. I found myself clicking "next" many times to find something to rent. They dont have too many new releases.
• New Releases - Newly released movies will have a rental price of $14.99 instead of the regular $3.99

Overall, I'm really impressed with the service. Both Amazon and Tivo did a great job integrating their services as well as keeping inline with making the rental process smooth and easy as both companies are known for. I think $3.99 per rental is a little too steep for me so Im not sure if I will continue to rent after my $15 credit is used up. If they lower their prices to $2.99, I'd probably use it once in a while. If they lower it to $1.99, I'd probably use it all the time without a doubt.

All the Deals You Ever Wanted on One Page

Ever wonder where I find all of my deals and bargains on the internet? We'll look no further. I created a coldfusion page which pulls in all the current deals from my favorite bargain sites (slickdeals.net, stealdeals.net, techbargains.com, fatwallet.com). Here was my thought process in the creation of this page.

1. Single Page - I visited these multiple bargain sites not daily, but hourly because I was afraid of missing a good deal. These sites are updated quite frequently. So I thought to myself, wouldnt it be cool if I could just view all the deals on one single page?
   
   
2. Layout - Since I was trying to fit as many deals as possible on the page and to try to minimize scrolling, I felt that a 3 column layout would be perfect. 2 columns would result in a lot of downward scrolling and 4 columns would be too squishy.



3. Content - Again, to save space I only included the title of the deal. A lot of the bargain sites may include pictures and descriptions, but that just meant a lot more scrolling and page navigation. I just want to see the headline which is descriptive enough. If I want more details, then I would click on it.



4. Readability - This is probably the most important aspect of the site. Scanning through a page with just text is efficient but it has to be easy on the eyes. I compared all the web friendly Font families and just picked the one that seemed easiest to read. I chose the smallest font size I could get away with which was 11. I chose dark text over a light background which was the overall consensus that this combination was the best for readability. Someone even did a study whereby they found that green text over a yellow background was the overall best combination to use in terms of readability. But I didnt choose those colors because it looks ugly.



5. Date - Since these sites get updated frequently, I would visit this page multiple times per day. Therefore, I needed a way to let me know which deals are today's deals. I needed to have a cutoff point where I could distinguish between today's deals vs. past deals, so that when the next day comes, I can just scan today's deals since I already scanned yesterday's deals. Confusing? Dont worry, you'll know exactly what Im talking about once I get you hooked on this page. Anyways, instead of adding a date next to each item, I just bolded the deals that have today's date. Although currently, stealdeals does not have this feature because it does not have date in their current feed. I emailed them and they said they will put that on their to do list. Also, stealdeals feeds are not automatically generated. therefore, the feed might not be as up to date as their website.

Ever since I created the page, I never visit the actual sites anymore. I love it because its so efficient. So what are you waiting for? Check out the deals! *Warning...can cause severe addiction.

New 180-hour TiVo HD DVR

Tivo came out with their new and cheaper HD box today. The main difference between this one and the Tivo Series 3 version is the price...$299 vs $799. That's a $500 difference! Tivo Series 3 always was overpriced. I mean...you can almost get a 42 inch plasma tv for that price.

Tivo HD - 20 hrs in HD, 180 in SD (Standard Definition?)
Tivo Series 3 HD - 30 hrs in HD, 300 in SD

Comfort Access by BMW

You know I love simple technological things that make everyday life more simple and convenient. Take for example, driving a car.

Here are the steps for getting in and out of a car everyday.

1. Get key out of pocket or purse or what have you.
   
2. Put key in door.
   
3. Adjust seating, mirrors, etc.
   
4. Put key in ignition
   
5. After driving to your destination, pull key out from ignition
   
6. Lock the doors.
   
7. Put key away.

w/ BMW Comfort Access

1. Push ignition start button
   
2. After driving to your destination, push ignition stop button
   
3. Lock the doors.
   

What is Comfort Access?

Comfort Access is an optional feature from BMW that allows you to get in and out of your car as well as starting your engine, without ever inserting your car key. Im sure Mercedes and other high end car manufacturers have a similar option. In any case, not only is it cool but it is efficient. The only thing that I could suggest is to eliminate the 3rd step of locking the doors (that would make it only a 2 step process!). With comfort access, you still have to place your finger on the a specific area of the door handle to lock the doors (see tiny grooves in above picture). Instead, as soon as you move a certain distance away from your car, it should auto lock. I believe this is how it works for some of the BMW cars only in Europe.

But how much would you pay extra for this option? Wait...remember that you will never have to insert your car key ever again. Okay, here is the price - $500. Worth it? You decide.

Below is the full explanation of comfort access from BMW.

"Also available for the first time on a BMW in this class is Comfort Access.All cars receive a newly designed key that replaces the conventional blade-typekey but with Comfort Access the key contains an ID Sensor that the carrecognises from a short distance away. On recognition, the doors are unlockedautomatically and the car can be started with one push of the starter button.The Comfort Access system also works in tandem with BMW's familiar key memorysystem to ensure that the seating position, door mirrors, personalised airconditioning settings and radio reception are automatically adjusted to thecurrent drivers' settings before they enter the car.Walking up to his BMWproperly locked and secured, all the driver has to do with Comfort Access ispull the door handle in order to open the door. Then, as he is taking his seatat the wheel, the Personal Profile functions serve to adjust, say, the driver’sseating position, the automatic air conditioning and the radio station accordingto the driver’s personal requirements.Over and above these three functions, Car& Key Memory (CKM) also sets the interior and exterior mirrors, the centrallocking and interior lights, the audio system sound effects and, in a carappropriately equipped, the presentation on the Control Display as well as thevoice entry setting.Once the driver is ready to go, he simply presses thestart/stop button. Once he has reached his destination, in turn, he presses thesame button to switch off the engine. Then, placing his finger on the markedsurface on the door handle after getting out and closing the door, heautomatically locks and secures the car without requiring any further action. Ifhe has forgotton the ID sensor in the car the doors will not lock and the driverwill receive an appropriate warning. And should the electronic key controlsystem ever fail to operate, the driver can insert the ID sensor into a slot inthe instrument panel in order to drive the car just as conveniently the“conventional” way."

Dell XPS m1210 and m1330

Remember my rule about new every two rule? Well my laptop was due. So I just got my new Dell XPS m1210 12.1 inch laptop *drool*. Its the laptop I've always coveted. XPS is the high end line of Dell desktops/ laptops and are hardly ever discounted or go on sale. Well...at least until Dell introduced and started selling its replacement - 13 inch Dell XPS m1330.


The decision for me was easy for me. I wanted a small 12 inch laptop that wont cost me an arm and a leg. There are only 2 Dell laptops that offer the 12 inch size - Inspiron 700m (which I have now)/710m and XPS m1210. The only thing about these small Dell laptops is that the batteries always stick out. Therefore, its not as clean as it could be. I dont like my fat battery protruding out on my small 12 inch laptop. Those batteries are so fat, that some of the Dell latitudes have the battery in front of the laptop, using it almost like a palm rest. UGLY. Maybe lightweight, thin, powerful laptop batteries dont exist, but I dont see the small Sony's laptops having that same problem. So Dell, let me give you some advice...start making your laptops more sexier by hiding the battery. Its that simple.


Speaking of sexy. Here is the new 13 inch Dell XPS m1330. No! No! Too sexy....! For a closer look check out the cnet video review.


One of the cool features of this laptop is the slot loading drive. I think its the first of its kind. Slot loading is the mechanism you see when you load a cd in your car. For really thin and lightweight (less than 3lbs) laptops, usually the laptop does not include a cd/dvd drive because it would add extra thickness and weight. But this slot loading cd/dvd drive solves that problem. Sick!

Anjelah Johnson: Nail Salon

iPhone - Hands on

I finally got the chance to get my hands on an iPhone. No I didnt buy it. I just went to an Apple store in the morning when it wasnt too crowded. They had like 10 on display. So is it worthy of all the hype?

YES! I played around with it for like 10 minutes and was drooling all over it. The screen is so sexy and delicious. Its definitely pleasing to the eye. The interface is responsive as I flipped through photos by swiping my finger across the screen. The onscreen keyboard is good and corrects your mistakes easily. Surfing the internet was cool because its not some scaled down phone browser version. Instead, its the real deal as if you were surfing on a laptop or desktop. You just need to zoom into the sections that you are interested in. Listening to music on it just like an iPod showing album art is oh so nice. The iPhone is what I expected and much more.

Paying $500-$600 for it, including a monthly fee of $60, and switching over to ATT from Verizon would be quite a jump for me. But my LG Chocolate phone stinks and my dial button is starting to break. *grin*