UNRENOWNED

I've been a Blackberry user for a few years. I was a loyal Treo user that needed to have a device that was more reliable and made by a company with a solid future. You can understand my excitement when I heard about the anouncement of the Blackberry Tour. I would have the opportunity to upgrade from my Blackberry 8830 and get all the new bells and whistles RIM had to offer. Design The Tour looks and feels very nice. If the Blackberry Bold and Blackberry Curve were married and had a kid, it would the Tour. It's bit smaller than my 8830 and has a rubber coating on the sides w/ rubberized keys on the keyboard. One of the biggest reasons that I wanted the Tour is because of the full QWERTY keyboard. I enjoyed using the 8830's keyboard and the Tour is similar with the keys close and angled. My wife has a Curve and I really don't like the spacing of the keys on keyboard at all. Call Quality Users out there that have one of those other smart phones cry like little girls at a Jonas Brothers concert when there are updates or new software is released. They talk a lot about the features that they have and explain why they are so important while they also downplay features that aren't included and act like they really don't need them anyway. Let's be real here. We're talking about Cellular Phones. The primary purpose of a cellular phone is to make and receive calls. To me, this is the most important feature. If I can't make and receive phone calls when I want or need to, then the device (or carrier) is a piece of crap. I earn money each day by going to a job that I don't even like. The things that I spend my hard earned money on had better work exactly as I expect them to without equivocation. </rant> The Blackberry Tour is possibly the best phone that I have ever owned or used. The call quality is crystal clear via the handset as well as the speaker phone. I'm reading that people are getting about 6 hours of talk time out of a single charge even though it's rated for 5 hours. Display The display is very vibrate and looks far better than my 8830. I didn't mind the display on my 8830 but holding the two side by side I wondered how I could be satisfied with it at all. Messaging Messaging is very good. If you've ever seen or used a Blackberry in the past, you'll know that this is one of its strong points. The Blackberry Messenger (BBM) is still in tact and possibly the best chat client around. (It will be getting even better with BBM version 5.0 that has been "leaked" to the Internet.) Quick links to install GTalk, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ (people still use this?) and MSN are included on the device. My IM preference (second to BBM) is BeeJiveIM which is a $20 third party application that handles the most popular IM clients in one. Applications Social networking enthusiast will find quick install icons for Flickr, MySpace and Facebook included. Facebook 1.6 even integrates with the messaging inbox so you don't always have to hunt down those messages by opening the application. DataViz Documents to Go Standard is included so that Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be viewed and edited. However, in order to create new documents you'll have to upgrade to the Pro version. Some of this stuff is crapware but is easy to remove or hide the icons. Camera It is so nice having a camera phone again. I used to take a lot of pictures with my regular camera and when it was inconvenient to take carry, I had the camera on my phone to suppliment. The Tour has a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus, image stabilization and a blinding bright flash. I'm not a photographer but I think the pics are good enough. You can also record video (as long as you have a sd card). Media Player The multimedia is pretty decent. You can sync music with iTunes via the Blackberry Media Sync application from your desktop. I think it's easier to do a file copy of music directly to the sd card. I was extremely happy to finally have a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on my phone. Video playback does very well thanks to the high resolution screen and can player various formats. Browsing Experience The Blackberry is known to have a crappy browser. I never thought it was that bad. I also don't expect much from it because it is a mobile device. When I want to look up something quickly or when I have some extra time to read The NY Times, it works well for me. I also tend to only view sites that have a mobile version. So, the Blackberry browsing doesn't compare to the experience that I get on my iPod Touch. Complaints

• It is a little slow changing screens. I read on a forum that this is normal and may improve over time once it gets broken in. (I think this is a bogus explanation, but we'll see. If not, I hope it'll be fixed soon in an OS update.)
• It takes literally 5 MINUTES to boot up. Don't pull the battery or restart if you're in a hurry and need to get access to something in the next minute. You'll have a wait on your hands. After installing an application I accidentally chose "Reboot Now" when I wanted to do a couple other things before rebooting. I hope this also will be fixed in an upcoming version.
• Mico USB - Why did they change the USB type? Now I have to buy all new accessories. Not particularly happy about that.
• Theme -There is only one theme available w/ the Sprint version? What's up with that?
• No Wifi. I never really cared that my 8830 didn't have wifi. For me, wifi connection are less plentiful than they are for many of the people who complain about not having wifi on a device. As a security guy, there are few wifi connections that I would bother to connect to anyway out of paranoa. I've also carried an unlimited data plan since I had my Treo so I've never had a problem. Rumors are saying a new version of the Tour might be available next year to silence those who are unhappy about this.

I'm willing to admit that I'm addicted to the Internet and gadgets. I *need* to always have some type of computing gadget on me or near me at all times. You never know when you have to look up an arcane movie reference or find the true definition of a word in order to win a bet. The aid to my addition has been my cellular phone.
Palm Treo Then and Now
My first real "smart phone" was the Palm Treo 600. Back in 2003 Palm was the leader with this cutting edge phone. It sported the 5.2.1 version of the Palm OS, played MP3s & videos, had a digital camera, a touch screen (to be used with a stylus), MMS, SMS and Copy/Paste ;-). It helped me to stay up to date with my contacts, appointments, passwords, to-do lists and tons more. In 2004, I was able to upgrade to the Treo 650 and two years later to the Treo 700p. Each of these upgrades saw an improvement in hardware but little to no improvement in Palm's OS. (The 700p used Palm OS 5.4.9) Palm's future looked pretty bleak, especially after their failed spin-off of the software division only to bring them back into the fold later. Even though I had been a loyal Palm user and loved the OS for what it had enabled me to do, I needed something new and Palm wasn't going to make it. I set out to find a phone that would satisfy my mobile itch. I evaluated various carriers and found that for the price Sprint's plans for service and unlimited data was the best way to go. I've been a customer since 2000 and have never had any issues with service, quality or support. Looking at Sprint's handset selection the Blackberry 8830 caught my eye. I was familiar with RIM's reputation and knew that it could handle my PIM requirements. The functionality it had over my Treo was GPS and better quality media player. However, it did not have a camera and Palm's extensive list of free and open applications. I've been using the 8830 since 2007. At first, I didn't think I would mind not having a camera phone but after not having it, I realized that I used my old one quite a bit more than I remembered. Other than that, Blackberry proved why they are #1 for corporate usage. It's extremely reliable. Up to date access to email fed my addition for always being connected. Unfortunately, the fun was dampened by the 64 MB of RAM used for applications and onboard data. I couldn't have many apps installed and with memory leaks in the OS, the device had to be rebooted almost daily (if it didn't reboot on its own). Time for an upgrade and this time around, Sprint doesn't have much to choose from. The Palm Pre just came out on June 6, 2009. I couldn't really see myself to going back to another Palm device. Especially, since this is the their hail mary to become relevant again in the smart phone market. I'm not very interested in trying a brand new OS for a device that I have to rely on. I did consider it in the back of my mind though. When I tested it the store it seemed like a solid device and the OS worked surprisingly well. I wasn't happy with the keyboard by any means. My big man thumbs just didn't feel comfortable on the tiny keyboard. There had been rumors about the Blackberry Tour for months. Release dates had leaked out and we soon knew that Verizon would be releasing it July 12, 2009. What about Sprint? No word. Rumors said maybe Sprint would release later in the month or even in August or September. Fortunately they decided to release at the same time as Verizon. Although, Sprint only allowed orders via online and telesales. Even though I was worried about this process, I received my new 'Berry the day after I ordered it and have been in complete bliss since. So, what are my thoughts about the Tour? You'll have to wait till my next post for the details.

Since I heard about Sprint releasing the Blackberry Tour 9630 I have been holding my breath waiting to get my hands on it. My new device was delivered on July 14 after I ordered it online on the 12th and I raced home from work to activate the phone that would replace my Blackberry 8830 World Phone.

Tour Box (Front)

Tour Box (Back)

Blackberry Tour Contents

Blackberry Tour Beltclip

Blackberry Tour Stereo Headset

Blackberry Tour (Front)

Blackberry Tour (Back)

Blackberry Tour Battery

Blackberry Tour vs Blackberry 8830

Blackberry Tour vs Blackberry 8830 (Back)

Blackberry Tour vs Blackberry 8830 (Side)

I'll be posting my review shortly.

As a follow up to one of my former posts I found that The New York Times recently reported  a study from Message Labs that spammers are increasing their use of shortened URLs to drive traffic to their sites and malware. Check out their story here. Protect yourself out there.

The Daily Herald reports that Scaumburg, IL was testing red-light camera technology in order to reduce the number of accidents at high traffic intersections. This sounds reasonable to me but according to many of the comments to this story, nobody seems to think this is a effective strategy. It's the classic idea of negative reinforcement. If I'm going to get a $100 ticket for running a red light, I'm going to make sure that I don't run that light. My issue is not with the validity of the red-light camera technology. Many say that these cameras help to initiate tickets that wouldn't normally garner a traffic stop by an officer. I have no idea how the technology works. It is also possible that Mayor Larson isn't being completely truthful when he said "It was not our intent to use them as a revenue generator". Even though they generated over 10,000 tickets in 2.5 months and collected almost $1 million. It's reported that many of these tickets were for people who didn't make a complete stop when making a right turn on red. (Which I know I'm guilty of.) My beef is that enough people would complain and threaten to stop patronizing local establishments while these cameras are in place. Wouldn't it be more logical to stop running red lights? Are you really going to get to your destination faster by inching through the intersection in anticipation for the light to turn green? I'm mostly concerned about the people putting on their makeup, eating a cheeseburger and talking on the phone without bothering to look around before going through intersections or making a turn. So, the red-light cameras might be a complete sham solely to increase revenue. What if the Mayor is sincere in wanting to limit/prevent the number of accidents? If common sense doesn't help and hitting the pocket book doesn't help, what will get people to use more precaution while driving?

Long ago when using the web it quickly became necessary to block the big, annoying and blinking ads that take over the browser when you visit certain web pages. In fact, I'm so used to ads being blocked that it freaks me out when I use a browser that doesn't have an ad blocker. There are a ton of sites that have ads that I've never seen. I was recently asked what I used in order to make my browsing experience much more pleasant. Adblock Plus is my tool of choice. Adblock Plus is a Firefox extension and very easy to install and configure. Once installed choose Preferences From the Filters menu, choose Add filter subscription... From there you can choose EasyList for your location. You can also Add a different subscription if there is another that you'd like to use. It couldn't be any easier than that right?

URL shortening services such as TinyURL and Bit.ly have become the norm on the Internets. They were created as a way to make URLs memorable, easy to type and limit confusion when telling someone how to get to a site. As the name implies, it takes a long URL and creates a new and shorter unique URL. When the new, unique and shorter URL is clicked, it automatically redirects to the original (and longer) URL. TinyURL.com gives this example: Turn this URL: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?t ype=3&campid=5336224516&toolid=10001&customid=tiny- hp&ext=unicycle&satitle=unicycle into this tinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/unicycles It's all Twitter's Fault Long URLs weren't much of a problem at first because links were mostly shared in email or embeded within webpages. Then microblogging sites like Twitter, Identi.ca and Plurk came along that only allow 140 character messages to be displayed. It's hard to share a link if the URL can be more than 140 characters by itself. As a paranoid security guy, I've always been bothered when presented with these short URLs. I have no idea where it is going. Is it safe for me to click on while I'm work? Is it even same for my computer? It is very possible for the link to take me to a malicious site that infects my computer and eats babies. We're just getting to a point where many people understand that they shouldn't click on links in email. Now expect to blindly click short URLs without knowing where it leads? Surprise, Surprise URL Shortening Service Gets Hacked I read at ComputerWorld and SC Magazine that the URL shortening service Cligs was attacked and more than 2.2 million addresses were redirected to a site other than where it was intended. You can read more about it in the links above. In this instance, the site users were redirected did not seem to be malicious. What's an Internet Addict to Do? Fortunately, there are a couple things that can be used to help avoid this risk of clicking short URLs.

1. Don't click on short URL links.
   • Yeah, I know. This is like telling you to unplug your computer to keep your data safe. I follow the same standards that I do with email. If it's from someone that I'm not extremely familiar with, I don't click. If it looks abnormal or out of place, I don't click. Even if it's from someone that I'm familiar with but doesn't have any context, I don't click. I doubt any one link is going to make me miss out on some life enriching content.
2. URL Expanders
   • Bit.ly has an awesome Firefox plugin that expands URLs for bit.ly links as well as a slew of others. You hover over the link and it will show the expanded URL, page title and sometimes shows how many people have previously clicked on the link.
   • TinyURL has something similar but not as elegant. If you go to TinyURL.com and click Preview Feature on the sidebar, a cookie is set in your browser to take you to a TinyURL landing page that will show you where the link goes. Not the best solution by far.
   • LongURL Mobile Expander is another firefox extension and my expander of choice. At this time, it has support for 208 URL shortening services. Like bit.ly it pops up a preview of the full URL that the link goes to as well as the title of the page.

With so many different shortening services popping up from day to day, I'm surprised that I don't see more conversation about using them securely. If you have other tips please share them here in the comments. You may also want to share this post by choosing any of the services below.