After waiting patiently for the contract on my Samsung Blackjack to expire with Vodafone and being repeatedly turned away when trying to buy a new iPhone 3GS due to severely low stock – I finally got my hands on one.
If you wanted a pithy iPhone 3GS review, it rocks but more to come on that in the future.
I stumbled onto a neat site today named First & 20, which lets you show people how you have your home screen on your iPhone configured. The neat thing about the site is that it keeps track of how many times different iPhone apps have been used on a home screen, which essentially is like users voting for the best iPhone apps. The site doesn’t put any restriction on what type of application you use on your home screen either, just that you think it warrants being on your home screen, paid or free – it doesn’t matter. While looking through the different configurations I’ve just found a raft of useful iPhone apps that I didn’t even knew existed – so that’ll help me out for sure when I finally get my hands on a new iPhone.
After having my Samsung Blackjack for over two years, I’m out of contract and in the hunt for a new phone – and iPhone to be exact.
Last weekend I either called or physically over ten different shops on the Gold Coast looking for an iPhone to no avail. Initially I was calling different Vodafone stores over the Gold Coast and I got a consistent message – “we don’t have any but more stock is coming in constantly”. It wasn’t until I talked to Optus, 3, Crazy Johns, All Phones and more that I realised it was much worst than I had first thought. It appears a though every retailer is struggling to get any significant stock for the iPhone, having them delivered in dribs and drabs instead of by the carton or pallet.
I called the new Apple Store that has opened in the recently renovated Robina Town Centre and they had stock, which was great. Unfortunately it came with a caveat of sorts, I could have one right now if I bought it outright or I’d have to book in an appointment online for one of their iPhone specialists (read: standard phone consultant that knows the process of the major phone networks). I wanted to just walk in, like I would have to a Vodafone store and upgrade my phone but I couldn’t do that without buying it outright – which frustrated me.
While the Gold Coast iPhone stock is so low, I guess the iPhone is my unicorn.
I’ve had my Samsung Blackjack i600v for over 2 years and it has been an excellent mobile phone. In that time I haven’t treated the mobile phone with any special care, other than to make sure I don’t put my car keys in the same pocket and as a by product – it looks nearly as good as when I bought it.
It was the first mobile phone I’ve owned by Samsung and also the first with a ‘large screen’. While it certainly isn’t a large screen by today’s standards, it was definitely sizable at the time and coupled with great colour reproduction – has been very easy to use. I was really worried about the screen when I first bought the Blackjack and was overly cautious with it. For the first few days, I was so paranoid I was going to buy a case for the Samsung mobile phone, however opted against it in the end as I thought it went against the slimness of the design. After two years of ownership, I’m pleased with the decision not to go with the case as with limited ‘special care’ – the screen has lasted through more than two years and is still in good condition.
Features of the Samsung Blackjack I liked:
The feature rich operating system on the Samsung Blackjack has been a joy to use, in this particular case it was Windows Mobile 5 – however I could upgraded to Windows Mobile 6 I think. The navigation throughout the phone is consistent and predictable, which I personally like and rate highly. All of the features that you use on a day to day basis are easy to get to and if you use some features of the phone that aren’t prominently placed in the navigation – you can setup shortcuts to make it as fast as factory fitted navigation.
Features of the Samsung Blackjack that I disliked or needed improvement:
In typical Microsoft style though, the Windows Mobile 5 operating system isn’t without its hiccups and from time to time (maybe 2-3 times per year) – the operating system crashes and becomes completely unresponsive – even the power button doesn’t work. As soon as I take the battery out, immediately put it back in – the phone reboots and it functions exactly as you’d expect for another 4-6 months without turning it off.
When I first got the Samsung Blackjack, I was unsure how the keys were going to function with the grouping of more than one key to form the ‘traditional’ number pad interface. After using it for a little while it made complete sense but even I don’t think that it is clear enough as from time to time I still find myself scanning the keyboard interface and additional markings for the button in question.
While one of the features I really liked about the Blackjack was Windows Mobile, it also is the reason for a small criticism as well. Settings in the phone that you use sporadically, normally require me to go hunting for, as I can never remember exactly which section of the phone configuration that specific setting lives under. I think a lot of that is just labelling or grouping of different settings within the control panel. After using Windows on the desktop for so long, you kind of assume everything functions the same way and when it doesn’t – it is slightly irritating. While it sounds as though it is a harsh criticism, it’d normally take no more than 15-20 seconds at worst to find the setting I was chasing – so I suppose it is hardly worth complaining about.
I have been very impressed with the Samsung Blackjack; it is slim, light, feature rich and has been a very robust mobile phone.
Over the weekend I watched the movie Watchmen and I’m really not sure what to think.
When it was still coming soon to the cinemas and I saw the Watchmen movie trailer, I immediately thought it wasn’t your garden variety superhero movie like Superman, no the superhero’s in the Watchmen movie have a dark side to their personalities that they are more than happy to let out from time to time.
A 50,000 foot overview of the movie sees it set in an alternate reality in the mid 1980’s. In this alternative reality, superheroes exist and are integrated into the community. The superheroes are not active anymore and a number of them have ‘come out’ and let their previously secret identities become public knowledge. One of the superheroes is murdered, which sparks a number of other superheroes to start up their own investigation and in the process, uncover a much larger plot which they are pulled into.
The murder of the superhero happens quite quickly in the Watchmen movie – however then significant time is spent not doing a whole lot. There are sections of the movie that are quite excellent, a number of the fight scenes come to mind and their willingness to dispense unchecked violence on the bad guys is great. However, the movie goes for nearly two and a half hours but in my opinion – not enough is happening. I was sitting there watching the movie, constantly waiting for the next thing to happen and wondering if it ever would.
I love superhero movies, however if I were a reviewer – I don’t think I could give it more than 2-3 stars. While I was really looking forward to seeing it before it made it to the cinema, I’m really happy that I missed it in the cinema or I fear I would have left the theatre very disappointed in my value for money on the cost of the movie ticket.
While I didn’t personally rate the movie that highly, popular review site Rotten Tomatoes has it sitting at about 64% positive reviews. Reading through the comments, it appears that if you’re familiar with the graphic novel (read: comic book) – you’d absolutely love the movie as it was apparently quite true to form. Not having read or even cursorily being aware of the Watchmen background, I found it a little hard to really enjoy.
I’ve watched other superhero movies on DVD literally dozens of times, unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be putting the Watchmen DVD on my Christmas shortlist or be renting it from the movie store again.