So, I was going to make this a nice long detailed review, but I can’t find time or the will to bring myself to do it. There are plenty of other excellent review out there of this device done by authors who are much more versed and well-written in mobile phone reviewing than I am. I apologize in advance if this isn’t what you’re looking for, but these are my few thoughts on the device.

I do NOT like this device. Plain and simple. That doesn’t mean other people won’t love it, but that’s my take on this device, sadly.

Why you may ask? I wish I could tell you exactly. I trialed the N8 not too long before the E7 and I LOVED that device, everything except for the lack of hardware keyboard, so I figured I should be able to get on nearly as well with the E7. Oh how sadly mistaken was I. Here are a few things I didn’t like about the device, though they may not be specific to the actual device itself, just the experience:

• There is no Pixelpipe app for Symbian anymore, in fact there isn’t an “app” for any device anymore. That has always been an integral part of any of my mobile usage, the ability to quickly and easily upload photos to multiple social media outlets.
• The SIM card slot is nearly impossible to open. I had to carefully use on of my mini screwdrivers in order to get it open to drop in my SIM to use the device.
• Alternatively, the “flip” to expose the keyboard is a bit odd to figure out initially, and maybe it was only the device I trialed, but the actual flip itself seemed a bit loose/flimsy when it was opened. Not quite as bad as the G2 was, but still, not as taut as I’d have liked to see.
• EDoF….’nuff said. Compounding on that though, coming from the N8 and my normal N900, the lack of “half-press” on the camera button to focus a picture seems unintuitive to the normal operation of a camera. I was not really very pleased with the quality of the pictures, especially for being an 8MP camera. Comparable pictures from my N900 are of much better quality.

The positives? Not many, but here they are:

• It is a hefty device, and that’s not a problem to me. I like my devices to have a bit of weight to them, makes them a bit easier to keep track of and more firm to hold on to.
• The screen is spectacular. It was crisp and clear, and the glass was practically invulnerable to anything. Kudos to Nokia here!
• I loved the keyboard on the device too, it was well spaced and the keys had very good feedback like I’d expect. Much easier to use than the keyboard on my N900.

I wish I could say more. I really wish I knew exactly what it was about the device that I didn’t like, but I can’t. I’ve tried long and hard for the last few months to try and pin down exactly what it was about the device that I didn’t like, but I couldn’t. I’m not sure if it was how kludgy some operations felt with the device, or how the flip bothered me, or how the device just didn’t seem to do well with orientation changes and the keyboard.

Sorry everyone, but this device was a miss with me. Between this and the N8, even without a hardware keyboard, I’d have to say the N8 is a much more stellar device.

TTFN.

-Michael

I was recently alerted to an unbeatable deal on a Logitech Momo Racing Wheel and Pedals. A friend of mine found a set, in presumably working condition, at a local Goodwill store. After I did a bit of on the fly research and investigation, I figured it was an unbeatable deal and had him pick it up for me.

I’ve been using this for over 2 months now and the only bad word(s) I have about it, is the lack of a clutch pedal. This was my first true force feedback wheel and after my first 2 days of getting used to the feedback, I’ll never use anything else again. This setup was in nearly mint condition, with only very very minor scratches on the bottom of the wheel setup from being put on/off a desk/table. The rubber on the wheel was in excellent condition and the reverse, retractable as well, carpet grip on the bottom of the pedals is amazing at keeping it from sliding across the floor, far better than the setup from my old Thrustmaster wheel.

On to the actual use…The setup is relatively easy, a cord from the wheel to the PC (USB), a cord from the pedals to the wheel (7-pin plug), and a wall power adapter to plug into the wheel. It’s a few cords to push out of the way, but not too bad. The installation of the software was simple, it’s Logitech software, so it’s a bit bloated, but it works well and it’s easy to configure extra macros, mappings, etc. I’ve used this in both Need for Speed Shift and Test Drive Unlimited 2. I must say that it’s an awesome wheel and works very well out of the box. With Shift I had no problems and didn’t need to modify any settings to be usable, but with TDU2 I had to mess with the steering sensitivities, deadzones, etc to get it the way I’d expect the wheel to react. With both games the pedals worked perfect out of the box. The feedback is nice and strong, the vibration doesn’t feel too artificial, it adds just enough to give you a good feeling. It is all very customizable via the Logitech software and in every game I used it with.

I would absolutely recommend this wheel and pedals for both the entry level and seasoned driver. It might not have all the bells and whistles (read clutch pedal, H-shifter), but it has enough to suffice for nearly every game and every style. I will admit, mine was a steal at $15, but I would gladly pay much more for the quality and functionality of this wheel.

TTFN

-Michael

Tonight I was thinking, as I so often do, about mobile phones, how my current usage dictates what I buy and use, and how a different device, in one way or the other, can benefit or change my current experience of a mobile device. As many (if not all of you readers) may know, Nokia just announced many new devices, all running Symbian of some sort, most notably Symbian S^3, including the C6, E7, and N8. Each device tailored to a different usage style and audience and all with their major pros and cons based on each user. This has really gotten me thinking and dwelling on my current situation.

I initially got into Nokia devices with the AT&T branded E71x. While the E71 is an amazing device, the E71x is a horribly neutered version of that. I wanted a good smartphone though, which had a decent hardware QWERTY keyboard, wifi net capabilities, all while still not requiring a data plan to be relatively useful. The E71x was the device that best fit that profile, not to mention its extraordinarily good battery life and signal reception (especially for cell/3G). The one thing I could never really get used to was the small width of the keyboard. It was just too hard for me to be really accurate on it, though it was a large step ahead of T9. Which leads me to my next point.

My second (and current) Nokia device, the N900 with Maemo. This is definitely a different animal than the E series devices I have seen, used, and heard about, but that was a good part of the draw to it. Not to mention the hardware QWERTY, 32GB storage, camera, and form factor. From the first time I saw and started investigating the device, I’ve fallen in love and had to have it, lack of AT&T 3G not-withstanding. Sure, the device has a few drawbacks, one being the bleeding edge Maemo phone, lack of 3G, and software infancy, but I was prepared for it. The more and more I find myself relying on my phone, mainly due to the sheer flexibility and power of the N900, the more I find the drawbacks to be more detrimental. The biggest is probably lack of 3G, for more than the obvious speed reasons, though that is a large portion of it. I’m quite frequently on wifi so cell speed isn’t huge for me, but it’s nice to have, especially when uploading pics via @pixelpipe when not on wifi. The other issue is with the failure in technology in general to handle a large data stream while still allowing calls to come through. I’ve lost count of the number of calls that are ignored and texts that are delayed because of that issue. Moving along though, another big issue of mine is some of the stock software, like the phone app and calendar. Even my E71x has a more robust app for both. The phone app has a proper history with call timers, proper groups, and software priority. All places that the N900 falls short with. As for the calendar, you’d think a device such as this would have a proper calendar with subscription support, even if it is read-only, but alas, this doesn’t even have that. Yes, I know the device and platform are open and there are other apps out there that might help with some of my problems, but that isn’t the point. The point is the basics such as that should be covered in stock firmware. This brings me to some of the pros of the N900, the software available. Since the N900 is Maemo Linux, many Linux apps have been ported and/or just work with Maemo, leading to a very large application catalogue with infinite potential for new and exciting things to happen. I especially love this part of the N900 and a very big reason for this blog post.

TL;DR? Skip to here.

If you’ve made it this far, I’d appreciate your feedback on the following questions.

1. How would you compare the N8 or E7 to the N900? I find it near impossible to give up hardware QWERTY, but if the pros are enough, I could do it.
2. How does the available software on S^3 compare to that of the N900? In terms of games (not too important) to customization of applications being used for twitter, facebook, etc (I know about Gravity, what about others?)
3. How does the battery life compare? I’m lucky to get a full day out of my N900, but I’m hearing of people easily getting nearly 2 days or more from their N8.
4. Given what I’ve said here, if you’re in the same boat or understand my POV, how do you think I’d feel with a real Symbian device vs Maemo for the points I’ve made (software catalogue, calendar and phone apps, battery life (I know it’s more hardware dependant but Symbian is designed to extended battery life unlike Maemo which isn’t as much))?
5. Would it really be worth it to wait it out and go bleeding edge with the (rumored still) N9 and MeeGo or go to the tried and true Symbian platform for the stability and usefulness it offers?
6. My company is finally ditching Exchange for Google Apps for Domains, so outside IPs can finally use our “exchange” capabilities, which means my device would get a lot of work related use as well. Would the E7 or N8 have enough differentiation between work and play/personal vs the N900 to be worth the switch?

Those are just a few questions I have. I’d really appreciate any and all feedback you may have. (No need to register on the site if you have twitter or facebook as both logins will work for commenting ). Thanks for taking the time to read all this drivel, and for the record, this entire post was drafted on my trusty N900.

TTFN

-Michael

Well, lets see what we can do with this update…

Not a whole lot is new. We’ve dropped off all our application material to the USDA Rural Housing division and are waiting to hear back from them about whether or not we’ve been approved for a mortgage…I can only hope. I can’t describe how happy I would be to have a house of my own, one where we don’t have to listen to the park’s bullshit rules, deal with the ever increasing rent, etc. By their application it says 21 days is when it should be completed in, but they said it would be between 4 and 8 weeks because of their current workload…so we have to wait a bit, but we can only hope. There’s a few houses we like, and if we could move before the snow flies, that would be amazing.

I’ve been neglecting my blog a lot lately, but I’ve been really busy, working at least 60 hours/week most weeks lately. It’s been that way at work, lots to get done and I’m the only one who can do most of it. I am getting a fair bit worn out, but it happens. Hopefully things slow down a bit so I don’t have to work all the time. After this week it should slow down quite a bit. Only a few smaller projects that I have to take care of now.

Today is Sophie and Lola’s second birthday. That means we’ve had Sophie nearly a year already. She’s still quite the puppy, but she’s definitely pretty well behaved. They’re some of the best dogs I’ve ever had. Lola is a bit more of a spoiled puppy than Sophie is, a lot like Romeo because that’s how she was spoiled from her previous owner.

I’ve got to get my N900 sent in again to get the dust cleaned out from under the screen and fix the 2 bright spots that are in my screen. Though, Nokia World is coming up here in 10 days, and they’ll be announcing their new phones there, including the N9! I’m very excited to hear about it and see that exactly the phone is and the specifications. If it’s anything like what I’ve heard, I’m definitely going to be purchasing one. I miss AT&T 3G support very much.

Now…the weather…WTF. It’s been low-mid 60s pretty much all weekend, yet it’s supposed to get 80s this week, and then 60s in between them…oh Michigan weather, how I love you. Now hurry up and get some snow here so I can have some fun in it!

Well, I hope everyone (In the US at least) is enjoying their Labor day! That’s all for now.

TTFN

-Michael

Just a very quick update for everyone. I now have a mobile version of my site setup, and it’s live. The theme is very close to the normal site so you shouldn’t see many differences.

To see this, either visit the site from (nearly) any mobile device (and if yours doesn’t work, just let me know), or you can click the “Return to the Mobile Edition” link that you can see in many places on the site.

As always, if you find anything wrong, just let me know in the comments!

TTFN

-Michael

So…a fair bit to talk about this time, let’s see if I can get it all down without forgetting anything this time.

I’ll start with the “new pup?” Part first, for those who are curious, I won’t make you suffer through the rest of my ramblings just to get to it. So, you should all know about Sophie by now, our Mastiff/Husky mix. Well, Nicole was texted by Sophie’s old owner because she has Sohpie’s sister, Lola, and due to her job she has to move and can’t take Lola with her. She thought to text us since we do have Sophie and they are sisters. So, last night we went to go see Lola, she definitely has a resemblance to Sohpie, but she’s a bit taller and has more Husky in her, the hair color/type and her tail. She seems to have a bit more of the Husky temperment and energy too. We decided to bring her home and see if she would fit in, since there’s only so much you can do/tell in a 30 minute span at Lola’s house. She is used to a bigger yard and invisible fence, as well as being the only dog, but she seems to be getting along alright. We usually cage our animals at night just so we aren’t dealing with messes in the morning or constant moving. Well, Lola came with a cage, but we left it in the Escape last night when we came in as we don’t have a spot for it right now. So we put Patch and Romeo in his cage, and we put Sophie and Lola in Sophie’s cage. Patch and Romeo got along just fine, as always, but we had some issues with Lola. I think it was more nervous excitement more than anything, but Lola was growling/whining/barking and scratching at the cage, so I let her out, that is until she decided to start eating the cat’s food; she had about 15 minutes out of the cage after going outside, so I put her back in the cage after that, thinking that she’d calm down a bit, boy I was wrong. So, to remedy the situation, Sophie got to hang out outside the cage since she’s good at night, and Lola hung out in the cage alone. After a few squirts from the water bottle for barking and scratching, she settled down and we all finally slept. So far, it seems that she’s getting along well, her and Sophie play a LOT and seem to really enjoy each other, Romeo has been staying out of it mainly for now because of his leg, which I’ll get into later, and Patch is pissed off as I expected. We’ll see how Lola continues to adapt, she’s not quite as behaved as I’d like, but she’s also new to the house and a bit more energetic. As I told her owner, this isn’t for sure, if she’s not going to fit in well, she’ll have to find another home, but if she will, she can absolutely stay with us. So we’ll see how it goes.

And a few pictures of Lola!:

So, next since I’m thinking about it is Romeo’s leg. The little shit somehow broke his outside toe leg bone, right below his “knee” joint. Its a very small break and the ER vet doctor had to take about 20 xrays to find it. We got him casted up there, 2 Sundays ago and then took him to the vet on Friday, they said there was no reason for a cast so big, so they just wrapped it up with gauze and an ace bandage and sent him home. It was much smaller, but it turned out it wasn’t placed right because gis foot started swelling below it. So we had to go back to the vet office and he re-wrapped it with a bigger ace, and wrapped it around his paw this time because it had slid down last time. So far he’s doing good with it, walking on it and all, but if he twists it wrong or gets hit there he’s in a bit of pain, but it subsides quickly, so he’s got to be careful for a while yet while it heals.

Moving on again; Project alientank has commenced. For those who don’t know what that is, I’m putting a small 2.5 gallon fishtank on my desk between my monitors which I’m going to put glofish in with a blacklight so it looks neat. Hopefully finishing it up this weekend and can’t wait! Here’s a few pics of how it’s going now, all that’s missing are some plants in it, a light, and fish:

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Here’s what it looked like before (a mess I know):

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In other new, Nicole and I are looking at getting a mortgage so we can get into a house and out of this place. It’s a good starter place, but it’s falling apart, rent is going through the roof again, and it’s actually cheaper for a mortgage than the rent and bills we have to pay here, hopefully soon enough.

I was going to put more here, but I’ve decided for the time being I’ll keep that to myself for now, at least until I’m more sure of the situation.

TTFN

-Michael

So here I sit in the doctor’s office waiting for mom. It took them over an hour to get her in, and it’s taking a lot longer than normal. IRRITATING! Ahh well, that gives me time to push my N900 a lot more than usual. So here goes, let’s see if I don’t miss anything.

Nokia finally updated firmware for the N900 to PR1.2 after a very long wait. I’m still up in the air if it was worth it or not. Two things I’ve absolutely noticed is that I’ve got a lot more space left on rootfs (about 32% instead of 9% that I had before), and that the whole os is much more responsive. I don’t have nearly the lag that I used to have, which is really nice, a major improvement seems to be with MicroB. I have noticed that the OSK is redesigned and doesn’t have all the keys with the D-Theme that I used, so I had to go back to the default theme. I do like the type to search in the app manager and the menu no longer having a “more” button. Other than that, I haven’t tried any other “new” features like skype video calling.

In other news, I’ve applied for a job with GRCS for a summer job moving computers, maybe turning into something more, that would be awesome. I’m also going to apply to @LiquidWeb in Lansing and see if that is an opportunity that would work. I’d love to work out there, it would be a great opportunity and I’m sure I could learn a lot from there and I’d be more than willing. I’ve been doing quite a bit of side-work with computers, and one of the jobs has the potential to turn into something more, and hopefully it does. This makes me sound like a workaholic, but I like to have a job I enjoy. I’m also working on getting my MFR (Medical First Responder) license, which would be awesome, always been something I’ve wanted to do.

Well, now it’s over 24 hours since I started this post and I haven’t written much….nothing really too exciting is happening. Though, yesterday Nicole’s car decided to fall apart, so we’re currently down to one vehicle while she finds something to replace her car. It looks as if the rear lower ball joint (if it can even be called that) blew apart so her rear passenger’s side tire didn’t sit right. With the other issues we’ve had with the car, it wasn’t worth fixing if we’d need to replace it by winter anyways. This wasn’t the optimal way I’d like to have replaced her car, but you gotta do what you gotta do I suppose. What she’s going to get is up in the air yet, but it looks like another car similar to what she had.

In other news, I got my Logitech G15 finally from Newegg, and so far I love it! The keys are nice and quiet, as well as feeling very solid and easy to use. The LCD screen is very useful, and as soon as I find some more applets, I’ll be sure to use them. I also have to allow unsigned drivers for 64bit Win7 yet so…some things don’t work yet. Its definitely something I’d recommend to anyone looking for a good, solid gaming keyboard.

Well, I think I’ll wrap this one up for now, I don’t think I missed much.

TTFN

-Michael

So, I’m working on updating the site a bit. Added some new features to the blog, and there will probably be more to come. I’ve redone the sidebar, though to most people it will look the same. Most of those changes were on the back-end with styles.

For those of you who don’t recognize the changes so far, I’ve added a latest tweet feed at the top, with code thanks to @Roamer145 and themed it to fit in with the current layout. I’ve also added a “Follow Me” button in the sidebar for twitter, as well as adding rewteet options to each blog post. So now, if you like my content (yeah right…anyone like my content?!?) you can follow me on twitter or share an article with twitter.

I’m still tinkering with the theme so there might be some oddities here and there. If they persist or something doesn’t look right, let me know and I’ll look into it. I’m also considering adding in a facebook connect module so that you can share stuff with facebook as well (even liking posts, thanks again to @Roamer145).

There’s all kinds of other things going on. I fixed my graphics lag on my computer finally. After a lot of headache of trying this, that, the other thing, changing these drivers, deleting these files, closing this application, changing these settings, etc…I had finally decided that i should just swap out my motherboard because the one I have has a few oddities with it, and it could have very well been the issue with my lag…so, I ordered a new AM3 motherboard with all kinds of goodies, enough to keep me upgrade-happy for a long time, and of course I got new DDR3-1600 RAM to go with it. Little did I know, it wasn’t going to be easy. I’ve had my current setup for just over a year, and this has been the same setup, except for the case. The CPU I have in it is an AMD Phenom II x4 920, which, somehow I’d forgotten this, is an AM2+ CPU. For those of you who don’t know, an AM3 CPU will work in an AM2+ and an AM3 board, but an AM2+ CPU will only work in an AM2+ board..Yeah, you see where this is going. I get the parts unboxed and go to put them in my computer, pull the processor out of the old motherboard and go to put it in this one, and I had a bent pin, unbent it, tried it again, rinse/repeat 3x. Then I tried it back in my old motherboard again, works like a dream. So yes, the new motherboard/RAM I got I cannot use with the current processor I have…So, after getting frustrated I go to put my old Motherboard back in and I see the PCI-Ex16 slot selector again. The motherboard I have has 2 PCI-Ex16 slots, and can run crossfire, but the board has a selector that runs them at either x16/x1 or x8/x8. I have the selector as x16/x1 as it should be, since I’m only running a single card setup…but I had the GPU in the x1 slot instead of the x16 slot. I swapped it into the correct slot when I put it back together, and wouldn’t you know it? All of my lag is gone now. So yes, this geek failed hard, and learned a lesson from it.

I do believe that’s all I’m going to post for now.

TTFN

-Michael

Following up from my post a long time ago about the Nokia N900 not supporting MMS natively here, this post is to elaborate on the state of affairs now.

frals from talk.maemo.org has written an application called fMMS. You can see the announce thread here. As of the time of this writing, it currently resides in extras-devel, but it is a very solid application and seems to work very well with minimal issues/configuration. Though, if you do need help, you can follow the help page here.

That’s all for now.

TTFN

-Michael

So, I’ve got a savings and checking account with National City, and when I want to put money away, I just transfer it into my savings account. Makes perfect sense no? I thought so too, but I knew there was some type of limit on the transfers, so I figured I’d call up National City and figure it out….so here it is:

Federal Regulation D limits the Withdrawals (or transfer OUT) from the Savings account to another account to 6 not-in-person withdrawals per month. Now, while that’s an arbitrary number, I can understand a limit to make sure you don’t try to use your savings as a checking account. Though, the fee for going over this regulation? $15/each, but there’s a catch, that’s ONLY for the first month. If you go over again in a subsequent month, there will be a $1,000,000.00 hold put on your savings account until you go into a branch and talk with a branch manager and regulation officer.

NOTE TO SELF: It’s ALWAYS good to make sure you know the implications before doing something. It could save you a LOT of headache.

The things you learn these days.

TTFN

-Michael

Here’s a good article on why global warming is just a load of crap.  FINALLY, a good post about it!

MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING THEORY IN TATTERS: 100 REASONS WHY CLIMATE CHANGE IS NATURAL.

So, as you all probably know by now, I’ve been very impatiently awaiting the arrival of my Nokia N900 that I ordered from Newegg on 11/4/09.  Well, yesterday, Tuesday, December 9th at 1019 hours, it finally arrived!  Yes, that’s right, it finally got here.  So first, here are some pictures from the unboxing:

1) Here’s the Newegg box as it came:

2) Here’s the Nokia box from the inside!  YAY!

3) Here’s what was in the inside of the Nokia box:

4) And a close-up of the phone in the box:

5) And the accessories in the box under the phone:

6) Here’s everything that was in the box:

7) Here’s just the phone out of the box, on the desk after I’ve customized a bit:

Here’s a better shot of the phone on the desk (coincidentally in my lego dock I made):

‘

9) And one more pic of it in my dock:

There you have it, the full unboxing of my phone.  Nothing too interesting.  No video, all the unboxing videos would be the same, so if you want to see one, just search youtube.

First Impression:

This is much more than just a phone.  It really is an internet tablet/mobile computer with a phone put on top.  You can tell just by the way it all handles.  It runs it’s own flavor of Linux, Maemo, which is really nice.  To the normal user, you won’t notice the fact that it’s a linux OS.  The UI is very easy to adapt to, and everything is very easy on the eyes.  The screen is very crisp and clear, it’s nice and precise.  It’s not a strain to look at, and leaves the user with a good bit of control over it as well.  The phone has plenty of horsepower to run anything and everything.  I’ve not stressed it much yet, as I haven’t found a lot that I want to push on it, but every feature I’ve tried, Ovi Maps, the phone, Conversations, Browser, Camera, sharing, etc, has all been very well done.  I don’t have any complaint at all with it yet.

One thing that most people wouldn’t even really think of with their phones, unless they are a true geek, is the fact that this phone can multitask better than any other phone out there.  I can have a phone call going, Conversations text convo and IM convo, Facebook open in a browser, Email open with my gmail account, and switch between then flawlessly without issues.  Plenty of room, plenty of power, and well thought out is a good way to sum up the phone.  I can’t say much for battery life yet, but from what I can tell, I should be able to easily get a solid 12 hours out of this phone without issue.  I unplugged it this morning at 8AM and I’ve used it pretty solidly throughout the day and its still got a fair amount of battery left.

So far, this phone is amazing.  I’m very pleased.  Nokia seems to have put in a lot of effort into making this a very easy to use, yet very powerful device, and I believe they’ve completely succeeded without fail.  Now it’s still early in the life of the N900, and I would like to see MMS support, but from the reports I’ve read, this should be available soon.  Once that is available and a few of the minor bugs are worked out, this phone will be perfect.

Well, that’s my post for now.

TTFN

-Michael

So, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice my issues with my last post about Newegg shipping the N900 and how we finally had an ETA of 12/7/09 for stock to get back in.  Well I got curious again today and decided to look.  Well, here’s what I found:

So I decided to give it a shot, since my Preorder was STILL On Hold, I’m not sure what to believe, so I went to Add To Cart and was prompted that the product I tried to add has insufficient stock.

Then I went back to the N900′s page and saw this:

Now it’s back-ordered again, with a different ETA of 12/9/09 now.  I don’t know what to say or do anymore, I can’t get a straight answer out of anyone for whatever reason, one person says one thing while another person says something completely different.  I can’t get a solid shipping date, or even an educated guess as to when I can expect this.  Here I was hoping to have it by Thanksgiving, while now it looks like I’ll be lucky to see it by Christmas.  Maybe I should just cancel it and wait?  It’s almost to that point now.  This is the most pathetic display of failure that I”ve seen EVER from Newegg.  I’ve always love them, and swear by them, and this is how I get treated? 

TTFN

-Michael

So today I went to check out Newegg’s Black Friday sales, nothing really of interest to me.  And I decided to take a gander at the N900′s page there to see if any news has changed since they removed the pre-order ability and set it back to the $649 price point.

This is what I found:

Yep, that’s right, now you can add it to the cart, and presumably have it shipped now.  Yet, my pre-order hasn’t begun to be processed?  There’s some major shenanigans going on, and this techie doesn’t like it one bit

TTFN

-Michael

**************EDIT*************

Wow…it gets better, look now:

****************EDIT***********************

Oh, it just gets better….

**************************************EDIT*************************************

And it gets better again!  Though this time an ETA is there! !!  12/7.  Maybe I’ll have mine on the 8th?!?!

So, I was getting a bit antsy about my N900 from Newegg, and since the order is under Nicole’s account I had her talk to them.  This is what we found out.

The original release date was 11/14/09 for the original shipment they received from Nokia, and since I wasn’t high enough in the queue to make that shipment, I got pushed back to the crowd for the 11/30/09 release date.  The rep couldn’t say how far back we are in the queue, or how many units they are getting in, so there’s no guarantee that I’ll even get my N900 with the next shipment next week.  I may have to wait ANOTHER 2 weeks (or longer) depending on how many units they get in and how far back I am in the queue.

So the wait for my N900 continues with no guaranteed answers in sight

TTFN

-Michael

This will most likely be the new theme for the site.  There may be a few tweaks here and there, but for now, here we are.  Enjoy!

TTFN

-Michael

Just a quick update, I’m working on finding a new theme for the site, I figure it’s due time.  So please, check back and comment on the current theme, and let me know if you have any suggestions.  I haven’t quite settled on a new one yet, but I’m getting there.

TTFN

-Michael

YouTube – Are you a genius? – coin puzzle.

A really good puzzle for those of you out there

I heard information about the Nokia N900 not supporting MMS upon launch.  I was curious about it so I decided to email their support and ask.  I didn’t get the kind of response I was looking for, but here it is nonetheless (formatting edited for readability).

From: Me
Sent: 07/11/2009 09:52:00 PM
To: nokiausa.customercare@nokia.com
Subject: Phone Features
I’ve been looking at the highly anticipated Nokia N900 and came across a feature that is rumored to be missing and was hoping that you could clarify for me.
I read that the N900 will not support MMS at launch. Can you please clarify/confirm/elaborate??
Thanks!

And here is the reply I received from them:

Dear Mr Michael Secord,
Thank you for e-mailing the Nokia Care Contact Center. We are glad that you are interested with the Nokia N900 as your preferred device.
With regard to your inquiry about the MMS feature on the Nokia N900, we would like to inform you that the N900 do not have MMS feature, because it uses maemo platform, it has a different settings and it is more like an internet tablet.
If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again. To ensure proper handling of your case, kindly continue using the current subject line.
Thank you very much for your email. Have a great day!
Kind regards,
Kamille G.
E-mail Specialist
Nokia Inc.

So as you can see, it’s not really a good reply, but one in any case.  I’m going to keep pressing the issue and see if I can get better information.

TTFN

-Michael

EDIT****UPDATED****

I emailed Nokia back as I wasn’t completely pleased with the original response I received:

Thanks for the information.
So the N900 will NOT have MMS support at launch. Are there any plans to
get MMS support in a future update? If so, is there any kind of timeline?
Thanks again,
-Michael Secord

And here is what I received in return:

Dear Mr. Michael Secord,
Thank you for your reply.
With regard to your inquiry about the MMS feature of the Nokia N900, we would like to inform you that since MMS is not yet being supported by the Nokia device you can check our website for future updates on this device. We highly appreciate your concern about the device and we will escalate your concern to the proper department for evaluation. Please keep posted to our website for the details and updates www.nokiausa.com.
I hope the information provided proves useful.
If you have any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again. To ensure proper handling of your case, kindly continue using the current subject line
Thank you very much for your email. Have a great day!
Kind regards,
Adrian B.
E-mail Specialist
Nokia Inc.
Check out all the phones and accessories you can purchase, direct from Nokia at NokiaUSA.com. If you have any questions, please call us at 1-866-596-6542 and we can help find the right product for you.

So, that’s where we stand now.  No support as of yet, and no confirmation of whether or not it will be introduced, though we can keep hoping that they add it

Since I pre-ordered the Nokia N900 from Newegg with FedEx Standard Overnight shipping, and was curious when I could expect to receive the phone.  I was especially curious since Nokia slated the US release date to be 11/14/09, which is a Saturday, and most shipping from Newegg never delivers on Saturdays.

So, I initiated a chat session with them, of which the transcript follows below:

System12:51:38 PM System says, Hello my name is Ethan. How may I help you today?
Customer12:51:53 PM Michael Secord says, Hello Ethan, I have what I hope is a simple question today
Agent12:52:13 PM Ethan says, Yes, please.
Customer12:52:25 PM Michael Secord says, I’m looking at purchasing the Nokia N900: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875205178&Tpk=N900
Customer12:52:33 PM Michael Secord says, and I had a question about the release date and shipping.
Customer12:53:09 PM Michael Secord says, the Release Date is 11/14/09, which, incidentally, is a Saturday, so if I ordered FedEx Next day Shipping, would I get the phone the 14th? or would I wind up getting it the 16th/17th?
Customer12:53:36 PM Michael Secord says, Excuse me, FedEx Standard Overnight
Agent12:54:53 PM Ethan says, Unfortunately, we are only able to try our best to ship the item out on 11/14 or a little bit earlier if possible. Since we do not deliver orders on weekend, the item is not likely to arrive on 11/14.
Customer12:55:33 PM Michael Secord says, That’s what I was wondering, it’s a precarious situation being the release date is on a saturday, that’s why I wondered if getting overnight shipping through fedex if the item would ship on the 13th and be delivered on saturday?
Agent12:56:08 PM Ethan says, Newegg orders are delivered only during the business week, Monday through Friday.
Customer12:56:22 PM Michael Secord says, Ok
Customer12:56:29 PM Michael Secord says, so I would more than likely get it on monday the 16th?
Agent12:58:16 PM Ethan says, If we manage to ship the item out on 11/13 by any chance, the item will be delivered on 11/16; however, we are not able to guarantee the ship date. We can only say that we will try our best. We apologize.
Customer12:59:17 PM Michael Secord says, No need to apologize, Nokia seems to have picked an unfortunate release date for the phone. There’s nothing you guys can do about that. I just wanted to check and see if you had a better idea of the logistics with this release.
Agent12:59:56 PM Ethan says, Thank you for your understanding.
Agent1:00:01 PM Ethan says, Was I able to resolve your issue or answer all your questions today?
Customer1:00:29 PM Michael Secord says, Yes you were Ethan. Thank you very much for your help!
Agent1:00:38 PM Ethan says, Thank you for contacting Newegg. I hope you have an eggcellent day!

So, that’s what they said.  I might call them tomorrow to clarify a bit more, but it looks like as of now, I can expect my phone on Monday, November 16th, 2009.

TTFN

-Michael