Claire's Random Thoughts

I hate how all the awesome higher end phones are always introduced in Europe and Asia and may or may not ever make it to the USA. This was also true for my current phone, the HTC Touch Diamond, which I had to wait several months in order for it to finally be available on Sprint.

The past few months, I’ve done some research on phones that are both pretty and useful, and I think I found the perfect one. I stumbled upon the Nokia N97 that was recently released in Europe, and I now have a new “dream” or perfect phone for my needs that will hopefully be officially sold in the USA around the time my Sprint contract ends in December. Since I’m a techie, of course I want a phone with a plethora of functions that I may not use frequently but can brag about, and the N97 is perfect for this. Nokia calls this phone the “world’s most advanced mobile computer” for a reason. Also, since I’m female, I might care slightly more about a nice looking phone, and for a Nokia phone, the N97 is really not bad looking either. Of course I have the option of buying the unlocked version of this phone for $700+ (the current price in Europe is 550 Euros), but I’m not sure if it’s tri-band or quad-band compatible at this point. Phones in Europe and Asia tend to run on 900/1900/2100MHz bands while AT&T runs on 850/1900MHz and T-Mobile runs on 1700/2100MHz. Thus, I will be able to get some service with either AT&T or T-Mobile in the USA, but I will only be receiving roughly half the maximum reception if the phone is tri-band at 900/1900/2100MHz

Features:
3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel screen
Slide-out qwerty keyboard
WiFi
GPS
3.5 mm headphone jack
Stereo Speakers
5 megapixel camera
30 fps video capture (excellent DVD quality)
32GB of memory

These specs are definitely some of the most impressive I’ve seen, way better than my HTC Touch Diamond that I just bought a few months ago, anyway. This seems like the one device that can be used for everything, maybe even enough so that I won’t even have to carry a Netbook around for internet browsing/note taking with a full qwerty keyboard.

As an added bonus to the specs that are superior to those of any other phone I have seen, the N97 is also sleek and attractive, as the picture shows. It measures a sleek 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9-18.3 mm or approximately 4.6 X 2.2 X .72 inches which is small and thin enough to store in a small purse or pants pocket.

This is post 7/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

My favorite open source game is Stepmania Advanced Rhythm Game. Since all my other posts in this week’s free software series were utilities, I decided to post about Stepmania instead of my original plan to post about GIMP, the open source Photoshop alternative, mainly because I’m trying to create variety instead of posting about all utilities and no games.

Stepmania is a game similar to the popular arcade game, Dance Dance Revolution. There are four arrows, up, down, left, and right. Arrows gradually scroll up the screen and are to be pressed when they reach the “target” arrows area to simulate dance moves. Of course, real dancing is still quite different (I know from experience that I can play this very well but can definitely not perform real dance moves), but I still think the overall concept is a neat idea. Users can also create their own “simfiles” to customize arrows to audio files of their choice. More commonly, however, songs can be downloaded. For song downloads, I recommend Stepmania Download Source. Even though their site is no longer being updated, the downloads are still all available.

If you like rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Stepmania is definitely for you. However, it’s most likely that if you do, you have probably already heard of it.

For really hard-core players, you can even connect a dance pad to your computer and use that to play instead of keys on the keyboard, so it feels like real DDR. I recommend connecting real pads to the computer for maximum enjoyment as well as an added benefit of exercise. Chances are, once you get into the game, you will want to try playing it the way it was originally intended, by stepping on arrows with your feet to simulate “dance” moves. If you already own pads for a Playstation 2, I recommend the PS2 Game Controller to PC USB Adapter from Dealextreme for only $5.63 to convert them to USB game controllers. There is an option in Stepmania to map keys, including buttons from external controllers, so PS2 controllers connected via my suggested connector will be compatible with Stepmania.

This post concludes my weekly series of my Top Free Applications. I hope you enjoyed reading about my favorite free software and will try using some of them! Check back in the future for more weekly “series” in closely related blog posts.

This is post 6/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

VLC Media Player by VideoLAN is perhaps the most compatible media player available. It is also open source and compatible with all popular Operating Systems. My top reason for using VLC is its support for virtually every video and audio format (except for real video), although I tend to use it mainly for videos. VLC Media Player is a must have if you frequently download videos from the internet, because you definitely don’t have to worry about needing to download the right codec or a separate program altogether in order to play your downloaded videos.

See VideoLAN’s page for full features.

This is post 5/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

Some may call OpenOffice.org “Poor Man’s Microsoft Office” but I will have to respectfully disagree. Open Source does not necessarily mean inferior to paid software. I use Open Office for my document composing needs, not only because it’s open source and free (which is also a great reason for using), but because I truly believe it is better written than Microsoft Office. Here are some of my comparisons below.

Looking at my Add/Remove Programs panel, Microsoft Office’s suite takes up over twice the memory as OpenOffice.org yet provides almost no additional features. Hmm…so which one is more efficiently written? Microsoft has a reputation for inefficiently written programs for a reason.

Now, let’s compare which programs are included in the two packages. For clarification, I am giving Microsoft as much credit as possible for their software by comparing Open Office to Microsoft Office Professional Edition, the biggest and most expensive package. Five out of the six programs in each suite directly correspond to one in the other, not to mention that the five that directly correspond are probably the five most frequently used.

OpenOffice.org Base features the same functions as those of Microsoft Access
OpenOffice.org Calc features the same functions as those of Microsoft Excel
OpenOffice.org Writer features the same functions as those of Microsoft Word
OpenOffice.org Draw can be comparable to Microsoft Publisher
OpenOffice.org Impress can be comparable to Microsoft PowerPoint

There are some slight differences. OpenOffice.org also features a math program that can perform advanced math operations, similar to functions of a graphing calculator. Microsoft InfoPath (I never use it anyway), a form designer is probably the only feature I can find that is offered in Microsoft Office but not Open Office. I don’t think it’s a very popular program anyway, but I’m sure there is someone out there who uses it. For my purposes, InfoPath is completely useless, but it is the only potential justification I can find for choosing Microsoft Office over Open Office.

Best of all, Open Office is compatible with Microsoft Office files, but not vice versa. This makes it extremely simple and painless to make the change over to Open Office if you are a current Microsoft Office user. If others who use Microsoft Office, like the majority of the population that hasn’t discovered Open Office yet, send you Microsoft Office formatted files, you will also still be able to open them with Open Office. If necessary (i.e. to send to someone who hasn’t yet discovered Open Office), you also have the option of saving your Open Office document in a Microsoft format.

This is post 4/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

Another free but not open source program I thought was worth mentioning is my favorite IM client, Trillian by Cerulean Studios. It features both a free and pro edition with the free edition only lacking features of video chat and support for jabber. If you frequently use video chat, then this program may not be for you, because the pro edition costs $25.
For all my Instant Messaging needs, I use Trillian rather than the “Native” clients. I’m sure you have seen a pattern in my previous posts this week about all-in-one software/bundles/suites. They are designed to make my life slightly easier by combining multiple features that I frequently use into one program. Trillian is also in this category, because it supports multiple popular Instant Messaging networks all in one program. I only have an account for AIM, MSN, and Yahoo Messenger, but the free edition also supports ICQ. The pro edition that costs a one-time fee of $25 also supports some other less frequently used networks, such as Jabber (i.e. google talk), Novel Groupwise Messenger, and Rendezvous. However, I feel like the free edition offers enough standard features (for those of you who do not use video chat) that the original applications are not even installed on my computer anymore, because I have deemed them obsolete.

Trillian features a beautiful interface, easy integration of multiple networks, plenty of opportunity for user customization, and no advertisements of any type. In my opinion, Trillian’s interface is far more attractive than the default clients for all three of AIM, MSN, and Yahoo, but again, that’s a matter of opinion. If it’s not beautiful enough to suit your aesthetic requirements, there are also downloadable skins that you can use to customize the looks to your liking. Buddies from all three (or four if you use ICQ) networks can all be displayed simultaneously in one window and are color coded by network (yellow for AIM, red for Yahoo, blue for MSN). They are integrated in such a way that it practically feels like you can be down to the simplicity of one Network but still have the opportunity to chat with people in up to four (or more with the pro edition). Customization is on par with, if it does not exceed those of the original applications. Furthermore, there are no advertisements in any form in the free edition making it an ideal replacement for the default clients that do feature ads.