Jake’s Life

I’ve had a 2GB media card for my phone for a while. I used it with my Dash, my Wing, and now it sits in my Blackberry Curve. The only thing is that besides storing ringtones and photos that I take with the camera (so that the onboard memory doesn’t get filled up) I haven’t done much with it. There’s plenty of space for video though, so I decided to start encoding some TV episodes and other video files for it.

Blackberry Desktop Manager comes with a modified version of Roxio Media Manager 9, but as is usual with bundled software, it’s bloated and not very flexible. It is pretty easy, grabbing your media files from your computer and dropping them on your media card, choosing to convert them for the device, and watching the bar slowly creep towards 100%. I prefer to use slimmer apps though, such as MediaCoder or SUPER.

Both programs are fairly straight forward, although SUPER is a bit more flexible, and the interface a bit more crowded. Both apps will let you save presets, which is great when you find just the right format to encode video files to. My issue was finding that format since so many forums and sites slightly vary based on the author’s experience, and this one will too. I converted a video using Roxio Media Manager which output a file as follows according to Media Player Classic:

Video: MPEG4 Video 320×240 [Elecard MP4 Video Handler (ehs)]
Audio: AAC 44100Hz stereo 96Kbps [Elecard MP4 Audio Handler (ehs)]

The audio bitrate varied from conversion to conversion so it’s probably set to not mess with it unless it’s too high. Given widespread issues of audio not being in sync with video I’m inclined to keep it where it is, but others have had success changing it.

In Media Coder I used a different format:

Video: MPEG4 Video 320×240, 300 Kbps, 20 fps
Audio: LAME MP3 44100Hz stereo 96Kbps

The file played great, and cut a 6MB file down to just under 1MB. (If you want to load my preset download it here.)

I added my Blackberry PIN to the sidebar, so if you’re a reader who also has a BB feel free to PIN me!

I love it.

I never realized just how much I missed the form factor of my T-Mobile Dash until I got my Blackberry. I’m finding that I don’t miss Windows Mobile though. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those Crackberry addicts that hate the Windows Mobile OS, I just don’t feel it’s right for me. And no, a Mac is not next on my list of things to buy.

The one issue I’ve had with my Berry so far is the small piece on the very bottom in the middle of it, which happens to be the mass produced piece that carriers stamp their logo on and snap on to cover the antenna.

Since it was ordered online the store “100% cannot” exchange it, and according to them by the time that I do get it back to the warehouse it will be out of the 14 day exchange period, and will then be covered under warranty, giving me a chance of getting a refurbished one as a replacement. So, I’ve decided to go at it myself. Hopefully my big sausage fingers and a small pry tool, maybe with a dab of some sort of super glue, will fix it.

Back to what I like about it. The messaging app, is great. All of my accounts in one box (and no, I didn’t make that snazzy @tmo.blackberry.net address for myself yet). Blackberry users are also issued a PIN which identifies yourself on RIM’s servers, and you can send peer-to-peer messages which are not taken out of your SMS.

Aside from the usuals; calendar, address book, tasks (all of which sync with no problems with my Outlook), messaging, IM, web browsing,the interface is great. Besides looking for the settings initially, there’s been no hunting for anything: Everything’s right there.

Battery life is amazing as far as handsets go. It was at 40% when I went to sleep the other night, and 2pm the next afternoon it was at 35%. Another great thing I like is the option to turn an e-mail into a task. From the messaging screen you open a menu, click the option to turn it into a task, and the e-mail is copied into your task list. So simple, yet so smart.

Anyway, all in all, I love it so far. If you have a Blackberry and want my pin, just let me know.

I love it. Sandro said I wouldn’t, but I do.

I love the fact that I can press one button and be in my mailbox with four accounts coming to it. I love not having to always hit “Send/Receive” to check my mail because of Blackberry’s push e-mail. I love having an intuitive user interface that’s easy to use and smooth. No hiccups, no hunting for things, everything is right there.

It takes better pictures too!

The Blackberry I ordered has been processed and will be shipped in the next few days! I can hardly wait!

Come on….come on! Come on! Come on!

Thursday was rough. I’m not going to get into it, but my looming halfway-to-fifty birthday coming up, missing my mom, and being tired really affected me.

Friday Sandro came over and we went to the mall for lunch, then walked around looking at things. We stopped by the T-Mobile store so I can play with my new toy which is coming soon. We went grocery shopping and I’m not sure why, but when I can get a bunch of stuff for not a lot of money I love it. Adidas antiperspirant was two 2-packs for $5. I also picked up a pint of Arrogant Bastard to try, which was very good. Danielle, my new roommate cooked dinner consisting of steak, pasta salad, salad, green beans, and vegetable dips which hit the spot. And my other roommate’s cute hot younger brother spent the night.

Today I didn’t do much. I woke up after dreaming about my new Blackberry, and being the true knob that I am I’ve already downloaded a bunch of themes and programs for it. I may sell my Wing to my roommate, who is a complete texting whore. Sandro and I picked up my grandmother and drove her to my new place to show her how close I actually am…for some reason she thought that just because I moved to the next county that I was far enough away that it’s a helluva drive to see her. Then we took her grocery shopping. Sandro was very affectionate in the store today. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t bother me at all, and I actually liked it. It just stood out to me. Once we got back to my place he left and I took a nap, then woke up and went to Aaron’s house to watch COPS. His boyfriend and I recently met and after a rough start but ended up hitting it off pretty good. I came home after dinking around there for a while and am now enjoying a pint of Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, with solid plans to work out tomorrow!

By the way, my roommate’s little brother is asleep on the floor in the living room right next to the sliding glass door, and he just kicked it which scared me.

Yesterday I ordered a Blackberry Curve through a friend of Sandro who works at T-Mobile. It’s something I’ve been considering for a while now, even though I have always been a Windows Mobile fan. I’ve had some frustrations with Windows Mobile in the last few months and looked around at different mobile platforms. The Smartphone Round Robin, an event put on by a group of mobile web sites, had users of the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, and Windows Mobile trade in their native device for another for a week at a time, until they had a chance to experience all of them as their everyday device. Reading through them everyone liked the simplicity and messaging of the Blackberry.

Don’t get me wrong, Windows Mobile is great. I’ve always considered myself a power user when it comes to technology. With Windows Mobile I can tweak the phone all I want, customize nearly every aspect of it, and have access to thousands of third party apps–many free. I’m not sure why, but messaging, which us a huge part of why I own a mobile device, has been bugging me on my Wing. I have my blog address on it, along with work e-mail, Live e-mail, Outlook sync, and SMS/MMS. In Pocket Outlook each of these are listed in different inboxes, so to get to a specific e-mail it can get involved, especially one-handed. Messaging on a Blackberry has all of your messages–SMS, e-mails, etc.–in one inbox. SMS is also threaded, a huge plus for me and wish that Windows Mobile would catch up on.

Overall, one handed operation and getting to what I want quickly has become important to me. Instead of hitting a hard button, scrolling, getting the stylus out and tapping, the trackball on the Curve makes it so that I don’t have to have my hand all over the place to open a program or send an e-mail. Another thing I like about the Blackberry is that the hardware is made by the company which makes the software, so mostly everything works well together, instead of different speeds, types, and configurations of hardware with the same operating system.

Anyway, I’ll report back when I get it to see if it’s all that my mind says it will be. Either way, I’ll be having either my Wing or a brand new Curve for sale soon!