Reviews Written By: AI4H1QU8H214Hprovided by Amazon.com |
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 | Blackberry Storm 9530 (Verizon) | |
 | "Spectacular Phone -- Woefully Inadequate User Documentation" | 2009-10-22 |
| This is the best, most useful phone I have ever encountered overall.
First of all, while I always prefer a phone with a real, rather than virtual QWERTY keyboard, the click-touch interface at least gives a tactile response to the user. This interface also helps distinguish between merely selecting (highlighting) something and commanding an execution. One of the great things about this interface is that it uses the type of contact used in the IPhone, where the device recognizes you with a mere laying of your finger onto the screen. Having previously used a Voyager which requires a physical push of the screen to recognize anything, this electrical type of interface is much easier. Unlike the push touchscreens which have a hard time discerning between merely selecting and executing a command, the fact that Research in Motion added a clickable aspect to the screen makes entering commands easier and more clear. By the way, even the IPhone can have that problem as it has to recognize a mere placement or swipe of the screen (highlighting) and a tap (executing a command). There are those who feel that the clickable screen slows down texting. Yes, that will be true compared to a real QWERTY or the IPhone's keyboards, but less mistakes will be made on this virtual keyboard. When selecting a link on a web page, for instance, you merely slide your finger over the screen until you get to the link you wish to click on, then push down with a click and you're where you want to go. Speaking of the browser, it's quite quick (The new IPhone also has a WiFi option, which IS really quick, and that's what you're using when you're in an Apple store.). On top of that, there's something pretty great with the Storm I have not seen on other phones (just to say that I may not be aware of any, not that there aren't). You can set the internet browser to appear to the web page you land on as either a Blackberry mobile device or appear to the page as either a Firefox or Internet Explorer browser. Why is this important? Some sights work better with Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers. Sometimes, you don't want to get the webpage's mobile site. For example, The Boston Globe's mobile website,[...], is very limited. When I go there, I usually switch from the Blackberry mobile browser to either Firefox or Internet Explorer where I can get the full website. This phone has no problem with most full websites. I have encountered sites where you need to put in a user name and password and find that the full browser works better. This phone has an accelerometer. I'm not sure HOW they work, but, like the IPhone, it automatically changes its orientation depending on how you hold it. If you hold it vertically, it gives you a vertical orientation, etc. There are so many features built into the phone, including a GPS, which will map any area and provide directions, but no voice help. For that, you can use the Verizon VZNavigator, but that's an extra charge. The media player can play many types of music files including straight .wav files (which is the file type used on CDs, so you get the same quality sound you get from your CDs.). Most players can only play the very compressed .mp3 files. You don't even need special software to download files from your computer (though the Blackberry comes with a few programs to help you do this). Simply connect the Blackberry to your computer, then drop and drag the files you want from your computer to the Blackberry drive using Windows Explorer. The phone can multi-task. There is a task manager, which allows you to switch between open applications without closing them. The screen itself is pretty spectacular and the phone comes with a preview to a film just to show you how much it's capable of. While most downloaded files are not of great quality, I have streamed .mp4s and they show up quite sharp. The built in 3.2mp camera is sharp, but not spectacular. It's color correction is not adjusted as well as it could be, but overall it ain't bad. There is a built-in flash. There are lots and lots of applications now available for the Storm, and they take advantage of the power and screen quality of the device, including a dedicated YouTube interface. There is a Prodigy for Blackberry. This was really Blackberry's attempts at rivaling the IPhone for sure. Someone said to me that this is an IPhone for business people. Here's the downside to the phone and it's why I haven't given it 5 stars. The documentation for users stinks. A lot of this capability I only found through trial and error or talking with either Verizon's own Blackberry service (they have a separate group that handles Blackberry only) and Blackberry's own people. Comparing Verizon's literature that came with the Voyager and other phones I have used which talked about the littlest minutiae, Blackberry's documentation leaves a lot to be desired. Thank goodness I'm pretty intuitive in this area and I know to poke around. Still, there are things I would have liked to know from the documentation that are fairly basic. I'll cite just a few examples: You like that one can drop and drag files directly into the Blackberry Storm by using Windows Explorer? Nothing in the documentation on that. I found discovered this while talking to one of the RIM guys up in Canada. Want to customize your screen to eliminate icons of programs you won't use? Or how 'bout how to customize the "desktop" of your phone? Well, there's nothing in the documentation -- not in the booklet accompanying the phone, nor on the accompanying the CD, nor online. I went to the Blackberry website and did a search from the front page. I put in "icon" into the search. The only thing that came up were pages on how to create your own icons. Again, a tech was able to explain how to do this. Third example: When using the camera, there are several icons or numbers across the lower camera screen. Some of them are obvious, some are curious and one, as it turns out, isn't used (the designers intially put it in and then opted not to use it, though it wasn't removed entirely). There is NO explanation in the documentation as to what each of the icons or numbers represent. Contrast this to the Voyager's documentation which explains each and every button and visual. No stone unturned in that documentation. Yes, the flash can be turned on automatic mode, off mode or forced mode, but is there anything that mentions this? No. 4th example: That wonderful feature allowing you to switch browser-type I mention above? I only learned about this by talking to one of the techs when I was having trouble working on a website. Again, there is nothing in the accompanying documentation about this. So, there is a myriad of ways to customize the phone in terms of its functionality (not so much visually). Most of these are found by using the Blackberry's menu button. Unfortunately, some things you want to alter may need to be altered while in the application and others from the home screen. You'll have to learn which are which strictly through trial and error. Contrast this to the IPhone. Apple has mastered user intuitiveness. The IPhone's interface is so obvious, at least to me. I hardly needed to know the phone to know how to use it and how to get where I wanted to go. The IPhone does have an open platform so many designers are coming up with apps for it. The interface is quite elegant. The home screen is simple and then drilling down is intuitive. But I can download files of all types and attach them in emails using the Blackberry. An Apple rep told me that someone is working on a application which will allow downloading of files and attachment to emails. When that happens, I'll consider it. And while Blackberry's monthly fee is higher than Verizon's, it comes with unlimited data AND video and picture messaging, and I believe, the fee is less than AT&Ts monthly fee. Bottom line here -- the Storm is INCREDIBLY capable. The user interface just isn't as elegant or intuitive for the non-computer type users. If you can be patient, and will to make a few phone calls to the techs (Clearly, they value Blackberry users business, as you get right through, no waits and all from US call centers.), once you have learned the quirks (the learning curve on this is much higher than on the IPhone), it's a wonderful and very useful phone. The up and coming Storm 2 will apparently include WiFi (useful), but may not have the click screen (I, personally, would miss this feature, but I understand it can slow down the person who is a fast text message wiz.). I'm curious about the new Droid phone Verizon is touting. I stick with Verizon. Everyone I know who has tried AT&T has not been the happiest with the quality of the reception they get when in the US. | ||
 | Joe Cocker - One Night Of Sin | |
 | "One of Cocker's Best Recent Albums" | 2009-01-12 |
| For those who have thought that Cocker has retreated into more and more MOR type pop, this album is quite a hard driving antedote to that thought. There are stellar, brilliant covers of such songs as "One Night of Sin", an altered take on Elvis Presley's "One Night With You", and "Fever", but Charlie Midnight pens a number of tunes on the album, and none better than "Just to Keep From Drowning". Midnight was also penning at the same time for James Brown, one of Cocker's idols. "Just to Keep From Drowning" could have been a JB tune and Cocker delivers it with the force and gusto that JB would be proud of. This is one of Cocker's great albums. BTW, the UK LP version of this album has a different performance of "When the Night Comes" than was a hit in the US. | ||
 | Pray for Power | |
 | "I Am In This and Even I Think It's Lame" | 2006-09-01 |
| Start with the laughably bad dialogue and go from there. This film needs the MST3K treatment. There are some mostly silicone-enhanced women to ogle, but the story is so badly written and confusing that when the main characters' lawyer-friend explains to them what's going on about 3/4s through the film, it feels like he is explaining what's going on to the audience as well. | ||
 | Leonard Cohen - Cohen Live | |
| "A Mesmerizing CD" | 2006-07-18 |
| Okay, I have not listened to a lot of Leonard Cohen performing over the past. I got the Ten New Songs album on LP and there are a few wonderful songs on there. I have an old Best of Leonard Cohen LP with some lovely songs, but I find that the delivery is often too dry. On the other hand, I have heard covers of his songs, one of the best being Joe Cocker's cover of Bird On a Wire from the Mad Dogs and Englishmen live album. A friend burned me a copy of this CD and I sat down in front of the speakers. The songs and the performances absolutely mesmerized me. I don't find that this happens too often, but when it does, I take notice. Most of these songs are extraordinary and beautifully performed. Yes, his singing is not going to win any awards, but the performances and arrangements are just right, with just enough space to show off his backup singers and musicians. This LP should be a used as a classroom example of what real songwriting craft is all about, what with all the processed and non-processed, computer generated pablum that exists in the singer/songwriter arena today. I'm generalizing, but name anyone younger than thirty two consistently turning out this many songs of sustained quality. I highly recommend this, as you might surmise. | ||
 | Palm TX Handheld PDA | |
| "Brilliant Piece of Mid-Priced PDA Engineering" | 2006-04-19 |
| First of all, I had been, as of late, only sporadically using a Zaurus ZR-5000, itself, a neat piece of useful and easy to use electonics. With a huge, b/w screen you can write on, it had amazing capability for its time, including wi-fi capable -- and this was for an item from the early '90s! However, with its built-in mini-keyboard and large LCD screen, it is relatively large and cumbersome. I used it primarily for contacts and sometimes for tasks and appointments, but it was really too large and heavy for me to carry around all the time (I don't carry a briefcase and rarely use a shoulder bag.). Using it for appointments just really didn't make sense if I wasn't going to carry it around. It had synching capabilities with a desktop, but it was slow and the built-in software was only marginally compatible with Microsoft's products. My wife has a Psion and, while more up-to-date than the Zaurus, was still in that league. I had been eyeing Microsoft CE products and Palms, but I thought they were expensive for what they did, and I wasn't too thrilled with the Graffiti writing. But finally seeing how streamlined, fast and capable the new ones are, I wanted to investigate. There are the Microsoft versions such as those put out by HP and Dell, but those are still pretty expensive. Then there were the Palms that were either high-priced as well, or the less expensive ones which were pretty much good for appointments and contacts. Not bad, and the new Z22 is a great value for something like that, but the Palm TX seemed, from other online reviews, seemed to be more reliable in terms of build quality than some in the recent past. Moreover, I have read that the Microsoft-based products tended to crash alot (the computer software has an internal conflict and inadvertently shuts down.). I saw this unit on Amazon for $270 with a short-term offer of a free Palm wireless keyboard. That sold me, and I knew Amazon offered a 30-day trial anyway. Having used it for about 6 weeks, I can tell you that it's brilliant for the money. The built-in office programs seemlessly integrate with the real things (and I understand that the software used by Palm is better than Microsoft's own stripped down PDA versions.). The internet browsing software works very, very well. It's not as robust as the one on your computer, but you'll be surprised as to how good it is. Blazer, the browsing software, is selective as to the sophistication of content it will download. While it's as fast as broadband, for sure, it's faster than my dialup used to be. There is also an option for text only downloads which is extremely fast. The screen is extremely bright and resolution is quite good. I use a Sony CRT at home, so I'm used to great color and resolution, but this is quite good. In sunlight, it's not great. This is not a substitute for a laptop, but for checking email on the go, or doing a quick Google, it's pretty amazing. We were in a theater a few days ago, and we were trying to figure out the background of an actress. There happened to be a wireless connection in the house, so I was able to quickly get on the internet and Google the actress and got our answer. As for the memory and processor, it's plenty for most lay-users, unless you're going to download LOTS and LOTS of games. On the other hand, with the SD card slot, you could load LOTS and LOTS of games on a card or two or three. The processing speed? Palm has chosen well for this price range. The TX cannot multi-task. When you leave one thing, it will close down when you open up another. This means the processor does less work. Because of the uncanny methodology of the browser, the speed of going around the internet is usually good, and has been tested to be faster than the basic Dell model which has a faster processor. The reason why the Dell seems slower is because the Microsoft operating system is more cumbersome. It is capable of multi-tasking, but it's greater sophistication results in slower everyday tasks performed on the PDA. The top of the line Dell is supposed to be terrific and potentially worth it for someone who is doing a lot of sophisticated stuff on their PDA, but it's almost twice the cost of the TX. For those who must have an even faster processer, the Palm Mobile Manager, retailing for $100 more than the TX, has a 33% faster processor and 4gigs of built-in memory (as opposed to the 128megs built-into the TX). For me, the TX is extremely impressive and I don't need the Mobile and I didn't want to spend more money. Considering the deal I got (w/free keyboard), it was a no-brainer. I have also bought two games for it, Village Sim and Bejeweled 2, and the bright, rich screen is just the ticket for them. And by the way, the Palm wireless keyboard works flawlessly. | ||
 | Palm Wireless Keyboard (3169WW) | |
| "Nice, Convenient Keyboard w/Almost Full-Size Feel" | 2006-04-19 |
| This is, overall, an excellent keyboard. Allowing the little TX to function practically as a laptop if a pretty brilliant piece of engineering. Once I figured out how to use it, it has worked flawlessly. The main thing is the almost full-size QWERTY keyboard with a very good feel. Some of the things like quotation marks are not laid out like the real thing, and this is where I take off a star in the rating. Otherwise, it does work very well. I don't see it as particularly flimsy. Is it built like a tank? No, but it's not flimsy. I got it free in an Amazon deal with the Palm TX, so I can't complain anyway, but even if I had paid the $45 that Amazon normally sells it for, I would think that it is worth it for what it allows me to do, and conveniently. | ||
 | Mark Knopfler - Ragpicker's Dream | |
| "Quietly Stirring Album" | 2006-02-24 |
| This is not over the top rock and roll from Knopfler. While there is clear joy to his music making evident here, this album is quietly thoughtful and sometimes with an edge. Somebody mentioned the Making Movies period of songwriting in speaking about this album. I'd say that this is about right. Think about the way that Knopfler creates a dream-like beauty to some of those songs on the first Dire Straits live album and you'll get a sense about what much of what this album is like. Yet, there are more straight ahead folk works on this album too. Knopfler's guitar playing, like the music itself, is not over the top but has a spare beauty to it, and there is probably no other guitar player that I know of that can create as beautiful a melodic line as Knopfler. Soundwise, the CD is quite good, though if you have the ability to play LPs and can find this one on the double-LP set, the LP sounds more real, and has more presence than the CD. On the other hand, the sound of the live tracks on the bonus CD (in those editions that include it) is wonderful. The sound is practically a demonstration quality disc. That's alot to be said for live recording. The sound is full, dynamic and natural, with deep, tight extended bass (which means that hall acoustic ambiences are more apparent) and the highs are soft and sweet, not boosted or etched. This is about as good as it gets for CD sound. There is a very well filmed video included on the bonus CD of the same live performance of "Why Aye Man." This is Knopfler singing the song with heart and his guitar playing at his sympathetic and lyrical best (I felt my heart being tugged in the quieter moments of the song.). It is clear that all the musicians thoroughly enjoy performing the song, as bittersweet as is the subject matter. Finally, this album may not GRAB you at first listen, but certainly the more I hear it, the more I am mesmerized by it. | ||
 | Little Jimmy Scott - Falling in Love Is Wonderful | |
| ""Falling in Love..." is Wonderful" | 2003-03-12 |
| Ray Charles wanted to highlight Jimmy Scott's ballad ability, and he does here. What keeps this CD from being rated 5 stars is that there is not much variation in tempi. Otherwise, Scott's ability to get inside a ballad and make it his own is exemplary. The title cut, for example, is the most moving version of this song I have ever heard and I think is the strongest cut. Charles' piano complements and, in fact, comments a bit on the lyrics and there is some great byplay between the vocalist and pianist. The stereo mix is a bit extreme (The mono mix might present a more coherent image, but you might lose Charles' piano, by himself, out in the left channel). This is thoroughly enjoyable and it's great to see it re-released. | ||
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