Las Vegas and Kick Ass

Posted by on April 21, 2010 No comments

So I haven’t posted much this last week because I am in Las Vegas for a Microsoft conference. I love traveling because it gives me the chance to scope out what gadgets other people are using for their trips. Personally I am traveling kind of gadget lite with only my laptop and my Droid, but I love walking through the airport or even around the conference floor and seeing what phones, readers, and laptops people are using. Amazingly enough. I have only seen a grand total of 2 iPads! Guess people haven’t jumped on the bandwaggon just yet. Also got to see 1 Nook e-reader out in the wild. Now this may be just because I am at a MS conference but the primary phone has been the blackberry, followed by the iPhone, an then a mix of Droid and WinMo phones.

But anyways, enough with the geeking out, I am really enjoying the conference and learning a ton more about server management. I also am taking this trip to Vegas much lighter that others because I am getting to the point where it’s not about sight seeing and more about relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing, I took a break last night and went to see Kick Ass. For those of you without a TV or internet (how are You reading this?) Kick Ass is a new superhero movie about an real life version of a comic book hero. Instead of super powers or mass ammounts of money it’s just a guy who wants to help people. It is very based in reality and amazingly graphic. I highly reccomend that You pay attention to the rating on this one as it is not for kids at all. Personally I thought it was amazing. It will certainly set the bar for upcoming superhero movies and center them in reality. Given that I am writing this on my Droid I don’t want to go into too much detail but I will say Go See It! Hopefully there won’t be too many copy cats that get themselves killed. Remember kids, don’t try this at home!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Posted by on April 8, 2010 3 comments

Marlow, Haggard, Sweetwater, and Sarge all return for the sequel to the Battlefield Bad Company line of games. I just finished the single play campaign for BC2, and am in the midst of the multi-player side.  The multi-player will no doubt be occupying many many hours of my gaming time, especially since I have such good friends to play with.  That’s what this game is really all about.  The multi-player aspect of BC2 is designed around you and your friends, not you and 16 of those random people you meet up with in game.  You and your friends start a squad and go to town!  But more on that in a moment.

As I said I finished up with the mingle player “multi-player tutorial” campaign.  Well, that’s what it felt like at least.  With BC1 the game was build with both the single play and the multi-play worked in.  The campaign was rich and well written, with some good funny bits and a solid story.  BC2’s single play is just hollow.  It felt like I was just being walked through and shown all the different things I would be able to use in the multi-player area….”Here is how to drive a tank”….”here is how to use the UAV”…etc.  The writing and dialogue didn’t even pick up to a serious pace until the last chapter.  Also, the collectibles were laughable.  In the first game you were searching for certain guns and gold chests…because they tied into the story.  The second one it’s like “You may run across these blinky chests and a few guns along the way, blow up the chests and take the guns…..if you want”  I was very very very disappointed.  Not even the constant Modern Warfare 2 bashing helped with that.  (Ok, maybe it helped a little.)

Now, to switch gears, the Multi-player is amazing.  Yeah, I said it, Amazing!  I have one word for it….Destructible!!  Everything is!  I love that I can take down an entire building if I don’t like someone on the top of that tower…Boom, no more tower.  Currently I believe I am level 4 (spent most of the time playing single player) and I have found that when you play as a medic, they just hand you points.  You get points for dropping a med kit, reviving players, oh and for that whole killing people thing.  I highly suggest if you are just starting out, run as a medic for the first few levels!

So here I am, torn, because I really feel that, as a multi-player game, this game is outstanding.  But I bought it because I really loved the Single player game from the first one, and that fell short.  Well, honest opinion….buy it.  It’s damn fun to play online.  If you are looking for a game that you and your friends will enjoy for hours on end, this is it.  Sorry if I am not going in depth on any one aspect specifically, but I don’t want to spoil anything of the game, but seriously, you know what you need to about the game, go buy it, run through the single player campaign first so you know what to do in multi-player, and enjoy!

Trying to resist.

Posted by on April 4, 2010 No comments

So back in January we saw the announcement of the iPad and now the time of the tablet is upon us.  I wrote up a small preview back when it was announced and mentioned a few of the issues I have with the device.  Mostly it came down to some of it’s capability and it’s price, two things that I still hold as the primary reasons for holding off on buying one.  The problem is that there are so many reasons to check one out.

Let me explain.  I have a Droid, and before that I had a Blackberry Storm.  I am on the Verizon network and have no plans to change that anytime soon.  My phone plays music and runs apps and plays videos just finr so the things I would use an iPod for are all covered…..except the litany of custom iPhone and iPod apps that are available.  It would appear that since Apple was first to really grasp the App market mentality that many of the primary developers have embraced that as the high visability area to produce their applications.  Due to this, most of the more utilitarian and high quality apps are produced for that platform.  Not to say that there are not any good apps for the Android market, there are, but they are still playing catch up.

Because of this, I have been kind of yearning for the ability to make use of some of these apps.  Until now, the only way to acomplish this has been via the iPod.  Andrew has an iPod and I have toyed around with his for a while, but it would be wrong of me to monopolize it.  So, that means my option has been go out at buy myself an iPod touch.  But again, my phone does more of that and so getting yet another small touch screen device for only a little functionality doesn’t seem like a wise use of funds.

Enter the iPad.  So over the last 4 months there has been a lot of talk about what the iPad will be able to do, as well as an ongoing war between Apple and Adobe over Flash.  (FYI, for those interesting, I am in the Flash camp.  It’s damn hard to do things on the Internet without flash.) Other things that have gone on are all about showing how many new and cool things the iPad can do.  From Specific games designed for the larger screen to the ability to stream Netflix Watch now movies.  (Which personally, I think is huge.) So now we have a device that is 1/2 way between a netbook and a iPod, that has full access to all the apps available to the iPod and iPhone crowd.

Gizmodo has a great set of articles that covers why you should, and shouldn’t get the iPad.  I am still riding the “Not gonna get one” side of the fence, but from what I have seen as of late, it’s becoming increasingly difficult.  The biggest issue, of course, is still the price.  I can’t see dropping $500 on something like that just yet.  I also have a feeling that we may see a price drop within the first few months.  I have changed my original estimate of $300, to a good solid $400 for something of this worth.  So a simple $100 price drop on it would totally entice me to buy it.  It is just still too early to jump on the bandwagon and grab one.

But the gadget guy in my is screaming in the back of my head.  It’s gonna be a long month or two.

The iPadd, the only thing that may….may tempt me to get an iPad

Posted by on March 31, 2010 No comments

Gizmodo posted this today and I know I am not the only person to have thought this right out of the gate.  The PADD from Star Trek is the iPad from today.  It’s really that simple.  It would probably be better if you could do some more interacting with your household systems too but, you never know, there may be an app for that.  In any case, it’s stuff like this that may tempt me to think about maybe possibly getting one.

maybe.

Skype, aka, “Hey everyone it’s 2003 and I’m having a grand ol time!”

Posted by on March 25, 2010 1 comment

I know I know, I am on near about everything in the ether but I never managed to get around to using Skype.  I don’t know what it was but I just never found a use for it.  I had Google Talk for voice and video, I have Google Voice for calling outside of wherever I would need to call, and about 5 different IM clients that I can chat on.  So why would I need Skype?  Well, to be honest I am still occasionally asking myself that question.  So here are some pros and cons

Pro: It does Audio and Video chat
Con: So does near about everything else, Google Chat mainly.

Pro: It does Screen Sharing
Con: So does MSN messenger through Remote Desktop which also allows for screen helping

Pro: It does Conference calls with multiple people
Con: I have been using Ventrillo and Team Speak, Of course those require a dedicated server.

Pro: Sound and Video Quality are amazing
Con: So are Google Chat’s

Pro: International Calling to a Landline number!
Con: 1: I don’t know anyone overseas and 2: Google Voice does that

Pro: Mobile App that allows voice to PC connections
Con: Ok No con here, that’s just fraking cool

Pro: All of that is in one package.  You don’t need to run Google Voice, Talk, MSN, and Ventrillo, to do what Skype is doing all on it’s lonesome.
Con: Personally, I believe that these other programs sometimes do their tasks better than Skype.

This morning the Skype mobile app got release to the Verizon based phones and I was really looking forward to it!  Until, that is, I ran it and discovered that to even run it had to turn off my WiFi.  Seriously?  I have not even seen a app on the droid that requires you to either be on or off WiFi.  When I am at home I leave WiFi on so I can make use of it.  Now if I want to use Skype on the phone, at all, I have to have WiFi off.  That just seems lame.  Haven’t had the chance to test out the quality of the calls yet so Stand by for that one.

The Desktop app, however, is pretty damn stellar.  I know that version 4.X has been out for like a year now but again, it’s new to me.  I did quite a bit of testing as was impressed with the audio quality (especially if someone has a really good Mic).  The video quality was about as expected.  I kind of expected the audio quality to drop when I added people to the call but was happy that it didn’t.  Even running Skype in the background and STO (Star Trek Online) in the foreground was great.  Add in the screen sharing, which helped my father install some somftware with my guidance.  I even ran the screen share with my friend while I was running STO and he claimed it showed it running smooth, which amazes me.

So yeah, I will be adding Skype to the arsenal of contact methods for me, if you would like, my Skype username is Wizzer2801.  Feel free to pop on by for a chat.

Toy Soldiers (Micro Review)

Posted by on March 20, 2010 No comments

So I have been a little out of it this week due to some crazy injury to my back.  Don’t ask, I am not sure how it happened either, I just know it hurts like all hell and I apparently did the worst thing I could do for it.  You see, the Doc tells me that I strained the cartilage on my ribs.  So when you strain a muscle you want to apply Ice to reduce swelling and heat to encourage blood flow.  Yeah, when you strain cartilage, you apply ice, and that’s it.  When you apply heat it only makes it worse.  So the other night when my back was hurting to all high hell, (and I hadn’t been to the doc yet) I came down and slept with a electric blanket balled up on my back……alll night.  Needless to say the next day was insanely painful.  They gave me lots of good drugs and I am spending most of my time laying down on an Ice pack.  So I have had lots of time to sit and play on the Xbox.

Enter Toy Soldiers.  Toy Soldiers is a new Arcade title that was released about 2 weeks ago.  The premise of the game is more tower defense style set with your old fashioned Toy Soldiers (Duh).  Now, back in the 90’s there was a game called Army Men, which took your old green army men and animated them to a strategy game.  This game is nothing like that.  The soldiers in this one are the old old style, think the old metal soldiers your grand dad would have had.  (for some of you, your great grand dad, damn I am getting old)  In Toy Soldiers you have your toy box and an unlimited stream of soldiers at your disposal.  You however only control the defensive aspect of the game.  You can queue up your offensive force and hope they make it to the other side.  You can take control of the various turrets and defenses to add more of a human element to the defense.  But that is all just the basic game play.  Some of the best parts of the game come from the overall design.

So lets charge into it, shall we?

The Hoo Rah’s!!

  • The overall look of the game is awesome.  The setting of making the backgrounds look like a bedroom where you are really sitting and just playing with your soldiers is great.  Add in the period music and it’s a great package.  I could almost just set the menus and leave with the background playing and enjoy it.
  • Upgrades Upgrades Upgrades!  Each unit has a series of upgrades which not only make the unit perform better, it changes the look!  A machine gun turret changes to a cannon and it has a completely different look of the soldiers.
  • No Launch and leave.  Most Tower Defense game you can build them up to a specific place and then just leave them alone to finish the job.  Like it or not, you can’t do that here.  You have to stay engaged.

The “Don’t Ask Don’t Tells”

  • It’s a race!  When playing multi-player you pretty much are in a race to get your upgrades done the fastest.  If I can get my howitzer up to level 3 it will have the range to destroy your guns.  So first to get there usually wins.
  • The AI is smart, but not that smart.  You need to be on top of almost every aspect of the defenses if you want to catch everything before it gets to your toy box.  It can get a little “Micro (no pun intended) Management” like.,
  • No Specials for teams.  Maybe I just haven’t found it yet but it looks to be just two Teams, the Brits and the Krauts (British and German troops) and they all seem to have the same equipment.  It would have been nice to have the Germans get a special gun that the British don’t, and vice versa.

Now all that being said, I really do like the game.  It’s a great way to spend some time while I am laid out on the couch.  And I am sure I will find more good in it the more I play.  (I could do without the creepy gas mask Avatar award though).  If you enjoy the old timy aspect of classic Toy Soldiers, I Highly suggest you at least download the demo and check it out!  If you buy it then feel free to send me a game invite!

Picard never Hit me!

Posted by on March 10, 2010 1 comment

Some new Star Trek news real quick for today.  I am, of course, still playing Star Trek Online which has been going good with one small exception that I will go into in a moment, but I want to discuss a few other Trek related things first.  DragonCon is coming and quite a few new guests have been announced and many of them are Trek related.  I don’t know if Shatner and Nimoy got back and passed the word about how much fun they had but there is a HUGE guest list of Trek people:

I am eagerly awaiting the chance to find and get signed a picture of Q and Sisko in their boxing gear from DS9.  This list, no doubt, will be growing as we get closer to the time of the Con, which is Sept.

levitra generic ordering

3-6 of this year.  I will in attendance and, if I can manage it (without ending up with a restraining order), I will get as many interviews as I can with some of these folks.  I would love to hear what they think about some of the more modern versions of Trek either in Game or other new media.

Also on the radar is a new project that some friends and I are working on….the creation of the “Maroon Monster” costume, which I understand is the nickname for the Wrath of Khan style uniform from Star Trek.  The patterns have been ordered and work will start soon.  I will be more than happy to post progress pics and eventually a full production blog on the process.

Ok, lastly, my progress in STO has slowed only slightly because of a problem I am having.  I made it to Deep Space 9 in the game and noticed that you can purchase a Danube class Runabout from one of the vendors.  This is a small Shuttle that you can fly and outfit with weapons.  It’s purely a luxury item and fun to fly.  The problem lies in that when you buy it, all of your stats on your equipment get cut in half, or at least they display that way.  No one has determined exactly what happens.  I put in a ticket about the issue and was brushed off with a “Yeah we know about it, we’ll fix it soon”.  Normally I would be ok with that except that, from what I have read about this bug from others, No one is sure if it’s a display issue or a real game effecting issue and no GM has stated one way or the other.  Players also claim if you decommishion the shuttle, your stats get resolved, and that’s great but I paid 149k credits for the shuttle and I would hate to waste that.

So I mentioned all this to the GM’s in the ticket I submitted hoping to get an answer on if it was a display issue or real issue, and if they would take the item from me and refund the amount.  Neither of which happened.  I was told again “Yeah we know about it and the devs will get to it” with a side glancing “we don’t give refunds”.  So as of now, you can still purchase the Danube class ship from DS9, it WILL break your stats, and there is NO WAY to get a refund even if you put in multiple tickets.  How hard is it to get a ticket, remove the item, refund the credits?  it has no effect on the economy because the goods are removed.  It would remove the headaches of dealing with players afflicted with this bug, and if you remove the item from sale and implement it when it’s fixed, all the better!  My ticket is still open and there is a thread open on the STO forums.

Sigh.

Still Plugging Away, Captain in sight!

Posted by on March 3, 2010 No comments

Ok so I have been splitting a lot of my game time up for the last few weeks.  Star Trek Online really has me stuck in the holodeck and has taken control of the ship.  When I can get some escape from it I have been working my way through Bioshock 2.  Since the time is split on both and finishing up neither it has left me with some wonder on what to post to keep things current out here on the site.  So I will give you the thoughts so far on both of these.  First up, a State of Rapture.

So I am quite a ways into B2 and it’s just, finally, starting to get to a near playable state.  I say that because the first few levels were spent figuring out how to play and building up weapons so they can actually hurt someone wearing just a dress and a plastic mask.  Where as the junkie with a pipe can kill me in my deep sea armor plated dive suit.  Yeah, it’s a lot like that.  It would also appear that the Xbox version has a few bugs.  None of the vending machines give off the familiar “Welcome, to the Circus of Values!”. And I still miss the little sisters reacting to your rescue of them (“No No, No No!”).  Now that I am past the build up phase and getting more into the game, it’s getting a little better.  I may have to agree with the guys in the Joystiq Xbox fancast when they say that maybe using Bioshock 2 to follow Mass Effect 2 is a bad idea.  When you go from a game that is very heavily story based and rich in it’s plot, and you go to something that is basically a re-hash of the first game, it’s bound to leave you a tad bitter.  Fret not though, despite all this, I am still enjoying the game and it’s probably better that I take it slow so that I can enjoy the good parts and be away long enough to forget the bad.

In the meantime I have been enjoying the Trek experience in Star Trek Online.  I have a grand total of 3 characters (BTW, the max is 3), My Main, Boothby, is a Trill Science Commander (Commander 9, soooooo close to Captain) flying the U.S.S. Amazonia which looks like it’s ready to be hatched.  I hate the look of the Commander Science ships.  They have that horrible sphere instead of a saucer section.  I also have my Klingon Character which you are able to start playing after you reach LT 6 with your Federation character.  The nice thing is that you start at LT 6 with the Klingon as well so Lt Lock, Tactical Officer of the I.K.S VeS Qab (WarCrimes), is bringing hell to the Federation.  Finally I have my Alt, Lt Commander Wi’Zzer, Vulcan Engineering officer of the U.S.S. Fairfax.  This character I am running with my friend Doc so we are keeping the characters in line with each other.  When he isn’t on, I play Booth.

So the State of the Galaxy is that Boothby just managed to reach Deep Space 9 out towards Cardassian space.  I like that there are a specific set of missions for each area and a specific enemy that you are working against.  Something I would love to see, though, is a different set of missions based on what you are.  I’m a Doctor not a Tactical officer!  Where are my Science specific missions?  Why does my Engineer character get missions where he needs to scan Nebula’s and gathering Data?  My Science officer is running off on missions to take out 5 squadrons of ships that should be better suited for a Tactical officer.  Now it’s usually better if you are running in a team of course so you have 1 of each type, but that is rare.  Another big complaint would be in the stats and skills.  So I have my ship that I can outfit with a billion different bits and parts.  I loot a science console that gives me +10 to Astrometrics.  I have found no where to tell me what exactly that does for me!  Some of the skills are good in that they give you examples of the skills they benefit, but it’s really hard to keep the granularity straight.

On the plus side, the missions I have run lately have been great for the story.  Learning about the Hobus Star and what happened to Romulus was very intriguing.  Playing as my Engineer and being the tank while Doc tears through with his Escort ship, and even playing through as my Klingon even though it’s just PVP for him.  (Need more Klingon Quests!!!)  I can see that I will be very entertained for quite a while still.  Is it bad that I have had the urge to watch more of the TV show and movies as of late?  Not much else on the radar right now so I will be cooking up some non-review articles in the coming weeks.  Stay Tuned!

Stupid Ezio! or My trip back to Florence.

Posted by on February 23, 2010 No comments

There have been two bits of Down Loadable Content released for Assassin’s Creed 2 since I played and reviewed last month.  Sequence 12: Battle of Forli and Sequence 13: Bonfire of the Vanities fill the gap in the story between Sequences 11 and 14.  If you have played through the game you know about how apparently there is some degradation in the data stream that causes the two sequences to be corrupt and thus, un-obtainable by Desmond and the crew.  Well Rebbecca, your tech lead, manages to “repair” the data and you can now access it.

Sequence 12 opens up back in Leonardo’s shop and you are inspecting the newly acquired Apple.  It’s too dangerous to keep it hidden in some random spot (like is has been for the last few hundred years) so you clearly must put it in a fortress with lots of people around it.  A visit to Forli and the Strong willed Caterina Sforza brings trouble in the way of a full on attack from a new target for Ezio.  Without going too in depth, this story played out well, had good cut scenes, and overall good gameplay.  My only complaint about it was that it felt very short (and no achievements).

Sequence 13, however, had me crying out expletives about every 2 minutes!  The Apple was taken and ends up back in Florence under the control of the Mad Monk, Girolamo Savonarola, who is using the Apple to influence the people to do his bidding.  In order to garnner discontent umong the people, Ezio needed to take out 9 of the Monks top people.  Normally I would think this was fine but about 5 of these were “Oh by the way don’t alert the 80 bazzilion guards in the area when you do it”.  I think I may have scared the dog a few times screaming at the TV.  God Bless the invention of the Sniper Rifle.  I think this one went on a tad long (maybe to make up for 12 being short) and could have done fine with maybe 5 Assassinations instead of 9. Also….Needs Achievements!

Overall I was very happy with the story except that it all should have been in the game to begin with.  It’s not like a new story, or a special side mission.  This was all info that was a part of the main story!  So why not include it in the main game.  I also found the DLC to be a tad glitchy.  There were many times where the Dialogue was not heard at all and just the subtitles were what I had to follow along with.  After one mission I was spawned inside a building and couldn’t get out without having to quit.  That mixed with the standard frustration of alerting guards and failing out of a mission about 50 times really made this part of AC2 more of a Chore than enjoying the added story.

My Advice?  Download the DLC THEN play the game so it’s all one coherent story.  Where I gave the Main game an 8.8 out of 10 Florins, The DLC is getting only a 6.5.

This IS the Droid you’re looking for.

Posted by on February 20, 2010 No comments

Well, I have been very remiss about my duties and haven’t written anything lately about things.  A lot of that has been taken up by Star Trek Online.  I am happy to announce that I have made it to Commander and have picked up my latest ship.  I resisted the urge to name it the U.S.S. Tennis Ball due to the giant sphere that makes up the Saucer, but once I hit Captain I will get the Intrepid class and will feel much better about the ship.  But enough about STO.  I am hoping to get in some more Bioshock 2 and possibly the DLC for Assassin’s Creed 2 this weekend, but we’ll see.  I did want to spend some time to discuss one of my latest acquisitions, the Motorola Droid on Verizon Wireless.  I know this is a bit of a departure from the Game reviews but I wanted to keep this open for various tech stuff as well.  I am quite the Gadget guy.

So I picked up the Droid just before the new year and have used it extensively for the last 2 months.  Before that I was using the Blackberry Storm.  I didn’t have too many qualms about the Storm, and for a while I was seriously contemplating picking up the Storm2, but a number of friends talked me into the Droid and I am VERY happy with the switch.  My requirements for a smart-phone were pretty simple.  I wanted a full screen touch interface that would run many of the main stream popular apps and could be used for it’s GPS and mapping.  Oh, and it had to be on Verizon.  (Sorry iPhone) Those were the main points which both the Storm and the Droid did very well.  The main difference was simply ease of use.  Compared to each other, the Droids screen was easier to use, there was no more full screen pushing, the Camera was better, the apps were better and more plentiful, and the overall feel was just smoother than the Storm.  So I switched.

The Droid runs Google’s Android 2.0.1, though I am currently awaiting the arrival of 2.1 to be in line with the Nexus 1.  Personally, I love Google.  I am an avid Google user for nigh on everything they put out.  Honestly even my older blog was even running on Blogger, which is a Google service!  I type out these posts using Google Docs, I pull much of my info from Google Reader, etc., etc..  So the Droid and I were a natural fit.  One of the things I love about it is that the applications, as of now at least, are about 60% free and 40% paid.  I haven’t yet needed to purchase a single app for it.  At the end of the post I will give a list of my Most used apps but in the meantime, lets get to the real loves and hates.

Yahoo’s

  • How Many Fart apps are there?!?! The library of applications is seriously starting to rival the iPhone App store.  Every time I load it it’s like a good 20 min of browsing and thinking “Oh, I could use that!”  Some of them have even made it into the Most used!
  • I see everything! The screen is amazing!  It’s plenty large that I can sit and watch a show it on comfortably and see everything clearly.  I was concerned switching from the Storm’s screen because I wasn’t sure I would be able to manage the Just touch, vs. the Touch and press in of the Storm.  Long story made short, it’s 150% better
  • The Power of the Sun in the palm of my Hand! Google handles everything.  My G-mail, my voicemail, my news. it’s all at a touch and it runs amazing.
  • My Phone is Faster than my PC! Ok, maybe not, but this thing is damn fast.  I have downloaded a few tech demos on it and even running 3D apps it’s fast.  One of the big issues I had with the Storm was that if I needed to shut down for any reason and restart, it would take about 5-7 minutes!  No, Not kidding there.  The droid takes about 30 seconds.
  • I can see my house from here. Google Maps added the Navigation Suite to their app which makes it rival even the best of the Garmins and TomTom’s.  (Not my TomTom though, because it’s already Retarded).  Adding in the street view and Satilite view to a Navigation system is Genius!
  • Making it my own. One of my favorite things is the ability to pick the functions I want for the phone.  If I don’t like the app that runs the SMS function, I can change it.  Don’t like the home screens?  Replace the Home program!  It’s like someone made “Pimp My Phone”

AOL’s

  • So, Many, Keyboards! This may be a bit different for different people, but I hate the hardware keyboard!  I have only used it on occasion and the feel of it just isn’t right.  I find myself using the on screen keyboard much much more.  I think the last time I used the HW keyboard was for writing out that iPad post last month.
  • What have you done to my Face….book! The app for facebook sucks.  There I said it.  The blackberry app and the iPhone app are both amazing, but the android app is trash.  They had better fix it soon.
  • Wheres my App? The organization of the App Market is Really Really bad.  Trying to find something through browsing will take hours of scanning, the rating system is good, but you can’t really sort based on it.  The categories need to be a little more granular with a few more sub categories.  Also, having something Web based or even just PC based that we could browse through would be awesome.  The iPhone has iTunes and the App Store there, we need that!
  • Which Android do you have? This complaint is more with the Android system itself.  It seems that every company wants to make their own flavor of Android.  The nice thing about the iPhone is that it’s standard across the board.  With Android you have the HTC version, the Motorola version, and even the various version of Motorola’s android!  It would be nice to just standardize the OS and let the companies just alter with App’s.  That way when an newer version of the OS comes out, everyone gets it!

Ok so here are some of my Favorite apps and why I like them:

G-mail, Maps, Voice, Goggles, Sky Map, Etc. Basically the Android version of Google Pack.  I can’t just narrow down each one because you really just need all of them.

GDocs – Ties directly in to Google Docs for easy Document Management!

Bic Concert Lighter – Ok, while it’s not one of my most used apps I felt the need to mention….What the Hell man!  the iPhone gets a Zippo and we get a MuthaF&%^$’n BIC?!?!

Where – Where is great for local gas prices, and Yowza is integrated for great deals!  As far as a “what’s around me” app, there are a few others that are a bit less kludgey (and yes, that’s a technical term)

iHeartRadio – An easy way to listen to broadcast radio from anywhere!

Movies/Fandango – Ok so it’s two apps that do the same damn thing.  Movie listing and ticket buying.  This is because some theaters are picky when it comes to buying tickets.  Movies gets a bump up though because of Netflix integration!

Sweet Dreams – This one is a new app that I am using a lot.  it allows me to set a time for the phone to be silent and when to wake up.  I am always forgetting to put my phone on silent when I head to bed.

wpToGo/Wordpress – This ties into my WordPress site so I can post on the go.  There’s two apps and I am still waffling on which I like.

Seesmic – Twitter app.  I liked this one because it was simple!

LastFM/Pandora – Streaming radio.  I am a big fan of Pandora because it gets the stations genres right, but LastFm has a good variety of stock stations.

FourSquare – Social check in app.  Lets me announce where I am to friends.

Home++ – This is a Home screen replacement.  It allows for 3-7 home screens, and a dock at the bottom for most used utilities.  It’s a must.

Jewels – Bejeweled game.  It’s a great time waster but Sarah is kicking my ass at it right now.

KeyRing – All those shopping discount cards in one place!

SMS Popup – SMS Augmenting program.  Lets the SMS messages pop up so I can read instantly and reply instantly.

NewsRob – It’s a Google Reader app that syncs with Reader so I can back and forth from the PC and the Droid.

Qik – Streaming video program, but streaming out.  I can capture video and stream it live to the web.  Where was this all my life!

ShopSavvy – I love this app.  You can scan a bar code on something and it will tell you where you can get the best deal.  Searches online as well as local stores.  Saved me like 20$ because Best Buy matched a price based on this!

WeatherBug – Weather app, pretty simple.

Wow, so this post ended up being huge!  Hopefully this will help anyone who is looking at what phone they may want to check out.  Now, back to gaming!

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