Houston, We Have Contact…

I’ve fixed the contact eeeemail above. If I start getting too much shpam I’ll kill the address, but for now we’ll see how bad it gets.

I’ve Had it With Dating

After what seems like a completely half-hearted attempt at dating I’m pulling the plug on Jdate.

Again.

I’m just not at the place where I need to be mentally in order to really make a go of it. I’ve gone out with one woman once, who seems quite nice. We’ll see if we go out again- Both of us are really busy. My work schedule just isn’t allowing me to date on any serious level. I need to get a new job, or at least get out of this 5 days on 5 days off, graveyard lifestyle. It isn’t working for me.

New! Improved! With Moxie!

RSS feed! Click the orange button! You know you want to!

Hello…? Hello? HELLO?!?!?!?

Well… My boss said as soon as the iPhone was announced that I would buy one within six months of the release. Now… I *DO* have a Verizon xv6700 that I really enjoy from the PPC and Internet point of view, and I *DO* have a Motorola Q that I enjoy and use from the phone point of view, but to be honest both have their problems:

The xv6700 is a great internet device- The web browsing is *OK* for a small screen device and JournalBar is simply an INSPIRED today screen widget. But as a phone it is “ok” at best.

The Moto is *OK* as a phone, but as a PPC it is ass.

Basically neither does anything particularly well. The xv6700 could benefit from a larger screen, a scroll wheel, and much better phone software. the Q from… well, from better software all around to be honest.

So I admit, I am still searching for that all-encompassing phone.

What the perfect phone would have is this:

1. Rock solid phone software.

2. A “today screen” that lists appointments, something like Journalbar, time/date, new email (This is a whole different problem), active tasks, etc…

4. A timer application that would have multiple countdown timers, alarms, and a world-sunlight clock.

5. Voicemail like the iPhone: You get a list of voicemails and you simply click on whatever one you want to listen to.

6. AIM, MSN Messenger, YIM, and IRC built in. *SIGH* Why does no one get this? The only phone that does this well is the T-Mobile Sidekick. I used a sidekick a long time ago, in fact i still have it somewhere, and really liked it for the data side. The phone side I thought was pretty meh, but to be honest I never gave it a really good shot.

7. A KEYBOARD THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY USE with your thumbs. The xv6700 ALMOST does this well. I would like to also see some sort of keypad for the phone side, because I don’t like screen based keyboards. The Q *ALMOST* does this well, although my massive thumbs are not great on the little bump-keys. The Sidekick seems to have the best keyboard of the bunch.

8. A media player that will handle divx, mp4, etc, and pause as soon as the phone rings. As well, it should have a separate jack for headphones, and a headset- I want to be able to plug the phone into the car stereo as well as a wired headset. I only use a wired headset- My headset is amazing, and no bluetooth headset can touch it. I refuse to replace it. I have a noisy truck and this is the only headset that has ever been 100% reliable. I have to replace the filters frequently, and the flanges once in a while, but it is well worth it.

looprumors says that there will be a full line of ipod phones within three years. But do I want to wait for three years? No. I want a convergent device that works well, dammit, and I want it soon. I figure the Sidekick is close, but I’m not happy switching away from Verizon. I’ve been a Verizon customer for years, and they waive a lot of fees and generally try to make me happy. I had to get my xv6700 replaced out of warranty (for the second time) a few days ago, and without my even asking they waived the $50 deductible for non-warranty replacements.

The xv6700 is SO CLOSE… If only it was a slightly better phone, I’d kick the Q to the curb.

If only Windows-i-mobile did the media player thing a bit better, and if only it had ANY sort of decent IM client I’d be happy.

Well, a little happier at least.