Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Sensuous Sextopus will Satisfy your Needs
My life was a mess; Sextopus has saved me from embarrassing, inexcusable, inappropriate, unmanageable, and extreme entanglements. It was love at first sight. The sinewy appendages, the inviting receptacles, and the penetrating blue eyes were irresistible. Instantly, I knew I couldn’t live a moment longer without Sextopus.
Sextopus is so amiable and highly adaptable; its only purpose is to conform to the master’s needs graciously without complaint. It’s just a matter of appendage adjustment.
Similar to the octopus, a distant cousin with eight tentacles, Sextopus only has six. But oh what it can do with those six appurtenances. It is a wonder to behold.
A characteristic peculiar to the echinoderms of which the Sextopus must be related is the ability to regenerate severed appendages. Lop off the arm of a starfish, and it will grow a new one. A Sextopus has the same ability, but even better. You can just rip one off, and it can be instantly replaced with one more suitable to your liking and special needs.
Are you beginning to think a Sextopus might be right for you too? Let me tell you a little more about what this little beauty will do for you.
Evenly situated around its silvery, circular, sensuous body are seven receptacles. One is a mini USB port for energy input. The other six are sockets for appendage attachment. Each tentacle radiating from the axis is approximately three inches long. The terminus of each extension can come in many forms depending on what you wish Sextopus to accommodate and make happy.
With the introduction of Sextopus in your life, you will immediately experience a newfound freedom from an angry, intricate network of electrical conduits that seem to grow by accretion with no organized plan. You will no longer depend on this snarling, sinuous snake pit powered by cumbersome charging units that take up two plug spaces and may require extension cords, multiple outlets, and power strips.
Sextopus will gladly give a charge to six of your friends at the same time without any compunction whatsoever. All you have to do is make sure Sextopus has a commensurate counterpart and is ready for action.
I tend to be quite discriminating about the company I keep by exclusively selecting companions of the mini USB species. This includes Windows Mobile devices, Bluetooth headsets, headphones, keyboards, GPS units and receivers, cameras, video eyewear, satellite radios, MP3 players, car kits, chargers, and more. But once in a while some aberrant form will creep in such as an iPod. But no problem, a sextopod can even give pleasure to an iPod and related forms.
One of the tentacles I received has a female USB tip. Accordingly, I can plug any USB cable into it to charge whatever thirsty pal I please using the USB cable that came with that device, which may have some weird proprietary connector.
Down with weird proprietary connectors. Up with mini USB!
The breeder of the Sextopus is a company known as Callpod. (I think they should change the name to Sextopod, but that’s just my humble opinion.) Actually, Callpod could probably ramp up its breeding program and create even more engaging species including Octopods and Decapods. Maybe then the company name should be something like Multipod. Podapus?
If you visit the Callpod Website, (www.callpod.com) you will find an exhaustive list of appendages that will accommodate almost any species of device you can imagine. Unfortunately, it didn’t have one for one of my cameras, so it still has some evolving to do. The nice thing about it though is the genetic engineering. Just let them know what you want and they will try to accommodate the demand. By the way, this charger is not meant for high energy consumption units such as laptops, so don’t ask.
There you have it. Sextopus is a solution to the universal problem of cable confusion. Why not let a Sextopus simplify your life and satisfy your frustrations? Just imagine a peaceful stable with your favorite devices radiating out from and serenely surrounding a sensuous Sextopus providing soothing sustenance. You will get a real charge out of a Sextopus, which could be yours beginning at $49.95. You can also get a car charger from Callpod to sustain the mother ship and take your feeding farm on the road. It even comes with a zippered nylon carrying case.
If I have not painted a clear enough picture for you, check out this video: http://callpod.com/tv
Keep connected!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The Dream Machine
What if you could design the perfect pocket pal, the ultimate PDA, the most fantastic phone? What would you like to see? Here's my template.
Of all the phones out there, some of which call themselves “smartphones,” I don’t pay much attention to any that are not compatible with computers. That means the most serious productivity platform is Windows Mobile devices because they use the same programs that I use on my desktop and laptop. I want to be able to read, edit, and compose my Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations on my handheld. I want to be able to sync my Outlook information, and I do not want to have to use some mickey mouse third party work around.
Yes, Nokia, Symbian, Palm OS, and iPhone have some nice features, but they are all playing catch-up as far as I’m concerned. Probably iPhone is the most innovative of the group, but it is a long way from what I would consider a real productivity tool; it is mostly a flashy consumer product with some fun, flashy stuff for finger fixated nose miners.
Out of the box a Window Mobile device certainly comes with a myriad of features for instant productivity and entertainment. However, as you learn more about the potential of the device, you begin to wish it could do even and long for more applications to make it happen.
Of course, there are thousands of third party programs that will do just about everything on my wish list and more. Perhaps the advantage of installing third party applications is that they add more features than just the main one on my wish list. Probably, if Microsoft included all these features, it would put a lot of other companies out of business, which I would not want to see. It would no doubt also make the device that much more expensive. On the other hand, installing all the third party software to make my wish list come true could cost a tidy little bundle too.
The Wish List
My ideal machine would have almost every application and system information as well as files and folders available within a tap or two right on the desktop. Accordingly, we need a good desktop program launcher that allows tabs and nesting of programs within folders. System monitor indicators for battery and memory should be displayed on the desktop too.
For some strange reason, Window Mobile does not really close programs when you terminate them. They remain running in the background using up system hunk. Accordingly, we need a built-in task manager that actually closes the programs without having to do a tap dance to get at them deep within the system.
There should also be a wireless manager available on the desktop for easy access that would display the current status of the various systems.
A native SMS and MMS client should create threaded conversations, allow copy/cut/paste editing, with character counts, and easy access to contacts.
All Windows Mobile devices should come equipped with built-in voice command for ease of use and safety when driving.
Taking a cue from iPhone, as much as I hate to admit it, WM devices should have finger friendly navigation to take better advantage of the touch screen. While we’re at it, there should be a better input panel too. Why not just adapt the one Tengo has developed, which in my opinion is the best. It should be a system that allows one-handed or two-handed input.
I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest headaches is duplicates in my contacts and appointments from syncing multiple devices. Wouldn’t it be nice if WM offered a native deduping program? SK Tools has one that I can’t live without, but it should be part of WM.
SK Tools offers other utilities for keeping your system lean and mean. Junk tends to pile up from Web surfing, installation files and whatnot. An onboard system clean-up mechanism would be most welcome to free up memory and scour out the crud. SK-Tools should make a deal with Microsoft for this purpose.
Security is always an issue. I am amazed that Microsoft has neglected this important consideration. There should be a way to encrypt files, assign passwords, and compress files to save valuable storage space.
I have to say that I miss the way it used to be possible to adjust the ratio manually between main memory and storage memory, which you can’t do in the current versions WM.
Taking a cue from Palm, there should be an intuitive input panel on the today screen for telephone contacts, email, and Web addresses.
I would like to see at least 3 or 4 MPX dual cameras on every device or at least as an option poised for televideo transmission if the telcos ever get it together in this country. In the meantime, however, I find plenty of uses for dual cameras.
Another enhancement worth mentioning is VGA output for optical eyewear devices and for PowerPoint and other presentations through a projector. It won’t be long before we have pocket projectors to go along with our Pocket PCs, and it would be advisable to able to output to them.
The first thing I look at when I turn my device on is the time. There should be a nice big clock for easy reading on the today screen in the manner of Mobile Shell. The next thing I look at is the weather. I would like to see at least an optional weather panel for the Today screen with tabs for different locations. Others may wish to see stocks, sports, or news, and these should be options too without having to go online.
Every device should automatically come with built-in GPS, which to my mind is just as important as a media player.
Why don’t most manufacturers ship their devices with a cradle these days? Come on, my baby needs a cradle.
All machines should have an OK button or a functional equivalent to take you backward through previous open applications.
Another pet peeve is against manufacturers that do not use mini-USB connectors for charging and syncing. That way you don’t have to take a whole snake pit full of cables to accommodate different devices. Make mini-USB the standard.
Maybe I’m stuck in the good old days of muscle cars and dual slotted PDAs, but why can’t we have dual slotted machines? I know expansion cards are holding more data these days, but they are also getting smaller footprints so that two mini-SD cards shouldn’t be such a bit deal. It would also give an extra port for peripherals without having to remove your expansion card full of programs and data.
All WM devices should have the ability to act as a modem via Bluetooth for laptops.
Conclusion
With a lot of research, effort, and expense, you can really make a Windows Mobile device a pretty zippy pocket pal that you’re proud to present because it will do your bidding as if it were your personal concierge. But, that is a lot to ask from the average user. Instead, why not follow the iPhone example and try to offer the coolest possible device with all the gadgets included? Of course, the problem with the iPhone is that there’s not much you can add, and we don’t want to be in that position either. Given a choice, I would prefer an open system that can be amended as the user sees fit.
I suppose we shouldn’t look to the supplier of the operating system to include this wish list of add-ons, it should be up to the hardware manufacturer to assemble all the bells and whistles. In this arena, the difference between Apple and Microsoft is that one Apple not only supplies the operating system but also manufactures the hardware product or at least controls it and markets it. Maybe Microsoft needs to get into the hardware business too.
Anyway, now you have my take on building the perfect WM device, and it was a fun exercise.
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