It's been a year since I started using Priority Inbox, and it hasn't helped me one bit. It may be that I actually get too much email for Google to handle. It labels things important that aren't that important to me -- like GetGlue notifications. I miss things like invitations for Fresh and Easy wine tastings, which are very important to me and which I mark as such. Still, a new one comes in and it gets buried in my general inbox. Luckily I have friends in real life who ask "Did you get the invite to such-and-such event?" prompting me to frantically search my email in the hopes that I am not a suddenly ostracized blogger.
Google advertises:
Email is great, except when there’s too much of it. Priority Inbox automatically identifies your important email and separates it out from everything else, so you can focus on what really matters.
This little experiement has been a big fat fail for me. I have 500+ unread in my priority inbox that I need to sort out as "not important" since Google is not doing it automatically. This is not a time saver. Let's not even talk about my general inbox. I need to declare email bankruptcy at this point.
Has it worked for you? If so, what the heck am I doing wrong?
I've been keening for a Nook Color since about Mother's Day. I don't really *need* a tablet or a newer eReader, but I wanted one, because I am a gadget queen. I didn't even want one when it was announced last fall, mainly because I was looking at the Viewsonic Gtab as a tablet and already owned an Aluratek Libre Pro.
The Nook Color is being advertised as "the most affordable Android tablet on the market", and a pretty nifty eReader too. It's finally in my hot little hands thanks to @hankito. I was actually going to wait to save up the $250 (it's $249 from Barnes and Noble) but we can't pass up a good sale!
Now for the interesting bits.
Unboxing
I was so excited I didn't bother doing an unboxing video, but I was eerily reminded of when I unboxed my Nexus One. By the way, my Nook looks like the big sister of my N1! First impression - ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! and then the let down as I waited 3 hours for it to charge.
I still booted up that night before going to bed. The color screen is amazing! I had to turn the brightness down a bit for playing with it reading in bed.
Weight
Girlish accessorizing bits aside, I am loving this eReader/tablet. Some people have complained that it's too heavy. I also have an Aluratek Libre, bought just over 15 months ago. I like it. The battery life could be longer, but it has served me well. And it is incredibly light. The Nook Color is just under a pound and feels comparable to a hefty hardcover. I can hold it in one hand comfortably for over an hour and not feel fatigued.
Formats and Media Storage
The main reason I chose the Aluratek over the Kindle was the formats that it handles. The same goes for the Nook:
I am not confined to one book store! I tested this by adding books I had bought from Borders to the NC. You need to have Adobe Digital Editions installed, authorize your device, and voila! Any book from NetGalley and Borders that I had previously purchased now reside on my Nook. I am a happy camper indeed. I also tested out safaribooks.com on the browser. You can read the books in the browser (the text flows beautifully), or download the PDF for offline reading. Win! I can also add to the included 8GB internal storage with up to a 32GB micro-SD card.
Screen
The screen is quite bright, but both screen brightness and font are customizable. You can choose between six different font sizes, six different page flows/margins, and six fonts - three serif and three sans serif.
I got a cover to go with the NC to protect it and give me that feeling of holding a traditional book.
The only thing I miss is the "Back" button, but I am getting used to pressing the home button or the "app drawer" that brings up the menu to go to my library, shopping, apps, the web, or settings.
Apps:
Of the pre-installed apps, I am addicted to the crossword puzzle game. Fair warning, to download any free books, apps, or even start your 14-day free trial of magazines you need to have a credit card on file. I did install goodreads and Seesmic since they are free. I have Angry Birds for free on my phone and didn't feel like paying to have it on my Nook. Right now most of the apps are premium, the main motivating reason for me to get it rooted. I want access to the Android Market.
The on-screen keyboard is amazingly responsive, as is auto-rotate (which you can turn off in settings if you need to). I want to get HBOGo on it so I can catch up on episodes of Game of Thrones!
Test out the actual battery life. It's advertised as 8 hours of reading with wi-fi off
Nook Friends and LendMe - I connected to twitter and Facebook and my address book and it found a few of my friends who also use the LendMe option.
B&N Specials
Bring NOOK Color into any Barnes & Noble store to get exclusive articles from top authors, and great offers including cafe treats and unique deals.
Read NOOK Books free when connected to the free in-store Wi-Fi®. I can do this while the Teen browses for hardcover versions. He hates using an eReader.
Earlier this month I was thinking to myself "self....what's the worst thing I could run across in tech news to read?" Well, next thing you know I read a report rumoring that Twitter was looking to buy TweetDeck, the largely popular desktop app for an estimated $50 million. Yeah, I think that answered my question pretty easily.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Twitter by any means. Hell I spend a large part of my daily routine on there across multiple accounts so there is obviously love there. I'm personally not a fan of how they do things. Twitter likes to have tight control of the "user experience", which is basically anything we see or do on the service. Normally, this is all fine and acceptable from a business or their product. One small thing about this situation is how much larger Twitter has grown due to third party apps and the extra flexibility and features they provide. Let's face facts....using Twitter on their website or through their official apps is no party.
Twitter really blew up and became a household name thanks to these apps and what they let users do. They made the user experience what it is. Despite this, Twitter already brought the fangs out recently when they announced they were not allowing any new third party apps to be developed, and were tightening the leash on existing apps. Someone keeps trying to tell them that they do a horrible jobs in presenting their own view of a user experience and no one there is listening. How many people actually use the website or official apps? The numbers are not staggering.
Now, they've gone out and bought the most used desktop client out there. A large part of me is praying that they don't change anything on it, as I love almost everything about it. I don't want to have that taken away to keep it in line with their experience. I definitely don't want to have to start using the Seesmic desktop app. Not saying it's bad, just not my personal preference.
At this point, it's honestly hard to say exactly will happen with this deal. There is however too much potential for this to be a bad thing for the user which will force them to move to greener pastures, or possibly stop using the service. I do ask you Twitter, before you decide to strip it all apart and make it to your liking....remember who brought you to the ballgame in the first place. If it get's torn apart, that's gonna end up being a worthless investment you've got on your hands.
Finally it's around.....a pure Google phone on Sprint. I've been waiting a long time for it while the T-Mobile kiddies taunted us with their joys. Coming from an Evo 4G and Epic 4G, I've already got a high set of standards for performance and features. I'll admit I was hesitant to get it at first considering Samsung's track record on phones, but the phone not including their software was a win for me.
As for hardware specs, it stacks up pretty nicely:
Android 2.3 Gingerbread
1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor
1xEV-DO CDMA and WiMAX 4G radio
4 inch 480×800 pixels Super AMOLED display
Integrated 16GB flash drive with no expansion card slot
5 megapixel camera with LED flash
VGA front facing camera
Dedicated, touch-sensitive Back, Menu, Search, and Home keys
Proximity sensor, light sensor and digital compass
Integrated A-GPS
Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
3.5 mm headset jack
1500 mAh lithium-ion battery
Dimensions: 123.9 x 63 x 11.2 mm and 129 grams
I've had this phone about 4 days now and have really enjoyed Gingerbread. The battery life has gotten better, even with my constant abuse on it. Time for the run down on the device......
Display: The display is the Samsung Super AMOLED screens which are freaking beautiful. Some people I've heard from say it's not as good on quality as the Epic, but after some testing I've seen the opposite. One thing to consider is the UI that Samsung uses is a lot sharper and has brighter colors than Google. After installing ADW and changing out the stock icons, I found the quality just as good.
The screen itself has a slight curve to it. Not quite sure why this was done, but it didn't affect quality it any way.
Camera: The phone has what's become almost standard now with the front and back side cameras. I do wish they had gone with an 8MP camera on the back as it's in so many offerings, but I've been happy with the quality on it regardless.
One camera feature missing in the stock Android software is the focus option. If you hold down the shoot button for the picture, it will still do a fine focus on the image, but no zoom in and out option. That's.....well.....weird.
Video recording looks good. Unfortunately Samsung elected to only do 480p recording as opposed to 720p HD like the other models.
One thing some might miss is a dedicated camera button on the side. This was a little different at first, but then I realized I was no longer hitting the button on accident. Easy replacement is just using an icon.
Android 2.3: This thing is FAST. Even with installing a ton of apps after my joy in how much storage it has, the OS hasn't skipped a beat and moves through everything very quickly. Google did a good job under the hood of kicking up the performance on this one. I did replace the stock home screen with ADW purely for the customization options.
The photo gallery software included in Android is great. It does a 3D tilt and angle kinda thing for viewing which is a nice touch. Samsung used the same feature with their Epic phone, so I was pleased I got to keep it. One thing I did notice when I first loaded in my pics.....let it sit there and load everything the first time. It wants to be left alone to load them all the first time, and it will let you know about it when you try to scroll through. Once loaded up, the pics scroll through seamlessly.
The stock browser works pretty well. Page load times are fast, no issues running flash, and no quirkiness. It's still not as good in terms of features and extra as some other options like you get with Dolphin Browser, and the gesture reactions aren't as good.
The stock keyboard is ok. I wouldn't be the first to praise about it, but it gets the job done. You're not going to get any extras in the stock build like Swype, but these can always be added to accommodate what you prefer.
Look and Feel: I kinda like the curved design to it. That along with the weight make the phone very easy to hold and use comfortably.
The shell has more of a plastic feel to it than most phones, but it still doesn't feel like cheap material. I admit I am more spoiled on the cases that HTC uses, as they feel more durable.
The phone does lack an LED light on the front for notifications. There are some other options which give you an on screen notice like NoLED. Some people are reliant on that light, so if it's a must this may not be the phone for you. Me personally, my phone always has a notice for something, so I usually ignore the light anyways.
Final Thoughts: I'll be the first to admit, this phone isn't for everyone. If you rely on extra features some manufacturers include in their UI, you will be left out. There are comparable substitutions on the market, but some features are still exclusive. Getting a pure Google phone though is a nice jump in performance and battery life.
Overall battery life is better on Gingerbread, which is much needed on Android in general. Believe me, it'll never make a Blackberry owner jealous. Then again, then can't do 1/4 of the things we can do with our phones. I personally would still recommend at least a task manager, or better something like JuiceDefender which manages that nasty data use when the phone is idle. I've yielded better results with this compared to most other apps, and the purchase for the pro version is worth it.
The selling points to the phone are it's pure Google with no carrier BS, which means it's first to get all the updates. There's no waiting for the manufacturer to make all their stuff work with it, and then the carrier. Google makes it, I get it immediate. Google has also done a solid job overall in the OS, so it holds it's ground with any other competition.
At the Google I/O yesterday, Google Music Beta has announced to much acclaim. Info has been flying around on this one for some time now, and we finally get an opportunity to get hands on with it. Ok, well those of us who get the beta invite. Yes, I'm anxiously waiting for mine.
The service let's you upload up to 20,000 songs (that's not a typo) to your online account and stream them to devices like your computer, phone, or tablet. You can make your own custom playlists, or use a feature called "instant mix" which is automatically configured based on one song you choose.
The service does require Android 2.2 or higher, and is currently only available in the U.S. right now. The link below is the app download for those who get their invites.
Well this is giving me some reassurance in Samsung, finally. The original Galaxy Tab is finally getting the 2.3 Gingerbread update....unfortunately it's only happening in Italy at the moment.
I personally don't have the tab, but it's some kind of peace of mind for the Galaxy devices patiently waiting like my Epic 4G. Come on Samsung, show us some love....quickly!
Build number for the release is XXJQ1 (baseband version P1000XXJPZ) for those looking out.
WebMD, one of the biggest online resources for health info, has finally released their Android app. The app has been pretty popular on iOS so far, so expect a good turnout for this version. Features include:
as a tablet and already owned an Aluratek Libre Pro.
