Maybe I was wrong about Mudede.

If he's not being facetious... then Amen, brother.

skyscanner.net

Skyscanner.net is a site endorsed by G-Unit himself. It has the potential to be the Expedia of low-fare European carriers., but I don't think it's there yet. I haven't played with it much, but it's worth a look. Never too early to plan for TdF2006!

In Praise of the T610

OK, so what are the drawbacks to using the POTY2003 in 2006? I will address the three main flaws and try to present a case for sticking with the T610 for now.

1. The built-in memory is pathetic. This is true. But a way to stretch that memory a little further is to delete all extras that you never use: games (I never played them, so I deleted all of them) and pre-installed wallpaper and images (who needs them?) can go.

2. The built-in camera is pathetic. Yep. But! With a nice tiny digital camera like the T-33 or the Optio S6 in your pocket, who cares? Instead of taking bad pictures on your T610, shoot nice ones with your real camera and put them on your Mac. Then crop them to the same size as the T610 screen, use the Save For Web option in Photoshop, and then Bluetooth them over to the phone. Your pictures will usually be a third to half the size of a photo shot with the built-in camera, and the resolution and quality will be much higher. So, save space and get nicer looking pictures. The T610 can display great color and is very bright, but you'd never know it based on the photos taken by the phone.

3. It doesn't play mp3s. Nothing is going to change this, but as an iPod user, I can't say that it bothers me too much. I like the idea of the W800 and I would be open to it if I didn't already have an mp3 player. A good companion to the T610 in 2006 might be the iPod nano, but that's material for another post.

In somma: the T610 is a workhorse and my battery still holds a great charge almost two years later. The design is elegant and SE have yet to sell something that looks better in the same form factor, W800 included. If a new, better SE phone can be had for free (or if Amazon wants to pay you to take it) then there is no sense in clinging to the T610. But for someone without a US-based cell plan, it still makes sense. It still looks great when you set it on your table at a bar (as everyone seems to do immediately in Italy). The T610 has its limitations, but none that make it unusasble in 2006.

SIMoY2006 / The cheapest phone of all is the one you already have

I say it's time to SIMmer down with all this talk of new phones, because my PoTY2006 is still the tried-and-true Sony Ericsson T610. I just rang up the downtown T-Mobile store to find out about buying a Pay As You Go SIM, and they'll sell it without the phone for $50, which includes 150 minutes of airtime. They charge $25 for 150 minutes, so that essentially makes the SIM cost $25. At that $25/150 min. rate, that's $0.167 cents per minute for national long distance. I think that's less or equal to what we end up paying Vodafone. If you buy a higher-cost recharge, then the rate goes down to $0.125 per minute.

At first glance, the Cingular prepaid plan is not as good of a deal. Plus I like having full compatibility with my T-Mobile phone, finally.

I don't think this is a long-term solution to owning an American mobile phone, but as a way to have decent service for about a month in the US, without signing an annual contract, I'm sold.

PoTY06

Cingular is now selling the SE W600 which is the W800's ugly little sister. It's $200 with a contract. Now, paying that is RE-TAR-DED since you can get it on Amazon for free. Eh! But man, I am getting antsy waiting for the W800. C'mon! What's taking so long? If they had that phone available, especially on Amazon it would sell like hotcakes. I saw a new Nokia phone that was very similar to the W800 but I'm dismissing it because of my Memory Stick marraige.

Other notes: I saw somewhere that you can get a decent little adapter to get around the proprietary headphone issue - which yes, sucks. I also read that Cingular will in fact unlock their phones if you insist on it. This is good news because T-Mo reception at the new Reignpad is lacking.

Get with it Cingular!!!

DCoY06 - News from Sony

I only follow Sony cameras because 1) I am wedded to Memory Sticks and 2) time. So here's what I know. I bought the T-33 last year. It works well for me - nice photos, compact, big screen, and sweet video. The video format works now with Tiger's iMovie - no problem.

The latest buzz from Sony is about the new T-9. It is an improved version of the T-33. Smaller, slimmer, same big screen, simplified controls, 6 megapixels, improved flash, and image stabilization for low light, new tripod mount. It sounds pretty sweet. $449, available soon.

The Optio S6 also sounds nice. There are actually some basic comparisons - the Optio is smaller and lighter. But CNet doesn't say good things about it's image quality. Go figure.

If you already have memory and batteries for the Optio - those are strong reasons to lean toward the Optio. Hard to make the argument to switch to the T-33 againt that. But it is a quality camera.

Mudede stinks

And here is a great letter to the editor of The Stranger that states just that:


DAN SAVAGE: coming from Norfolk, Virginia, where brothermen writers, musicians, artists, are plentiful, I am not at all impressed with Charles Mudede. Just 'cause he comes from Africa and has managed to guilt PLU out of a paycheck, he's still a corny-ass brother to me. Let me see Mudede make that Dickens-Nietzsche work at Norfolk State University (kickass, prominent black university in Virginia). The university prez would bust out laughing.

But let's get to the point: I am pissed at Mudede for ruining a perfectly good column with his transparent boredom of everyday crime. Lately he turns each Police Beat column into a stupid-ass "classics" hour. All that is missing is a red robe, a fireplace, and a pipe. I want to read about crime; fuck Nietzsche, Dickens, and all that other corny classics bullshit you've been trying to cram down our throats for the past few years. You want to cram classics? Why not Henry Miller? Grass? Hugo? Anything but religion disguised as classic literature or worse yet, your terrible poetry. Please, Dan Savage, give Mudede a book-review column, or better yet, give him a 10-part series reviewing Emily Dickinson, but get another Police Beat writer who will just give us all the facts, nice and dirty, without crazy hidden religious agendas.

Ray Godinez