I’m waiting for a native hybrid theme that’s ready for WordPress 3.2, which basically would include for templates for at least asides and links. I can grasp the theme framework so well and I prefer making my modifications following the best practices – and those would be those deemed proper by the source. And then, as a bonus, if there was some native HTML5 love, that’d be great too.
Monthly Archives
Upcoming PHP 5.4 Features – Arrays
The post tile was a little misleading. PHP.net has the full changeset for the PHP 5.4alpha.
Two remarkable language features coming in PHP 5.4.
Array dereferencing, or calling a function and acting upon it directly as if it were an array.
foo()[0] $foo->bar()[0]
In addition, a new short syntax for creating arrays akin to the JavaScript array literal syntax.
$a = [1, 2, 3, 4]; $b = ['one' => 1, 'two' => 2, 'three' => 3, 'four' => 4]; $c = ['one' => 1, 2, 'three' => 3, 4];
These two features will obviously make it impossible to be backwards compatible with older versions of PHP, but that’s really bad. Sadly, nobody on shared hosting will use this for a couple years.
New TWiT Studio – Today!
I’ve been following the TWiT.tv move for months now. I remember when I was young, I would come home from school and watch The Screen Savers with my dad. It was pretty good back then. But eventually, it ended with the slow creeping of G4. Since then, I’ve on and off of watching Leo. I tried last year but without a phone it never stayed apart of my routine. This year armed with a capable phone and more than computers than you could shake a stick at, I’ve stayed on top of the new episodes.
And thus, the new TWiT studio is being populated today after this afternoon’s The Tech Guy. It is momentus moment for technology enthusiests and doubly so for those at TWiT – they’re going to be armed with even better technology and locations for providing what they love providing. And they’ll be great.
Since the initial work has started, there have numerous walkthroughs and you should seriously check them out. Tonight, I’m going to sit down with a bit of bubbly of my own, watch the live stream and enjoy this fantastic occasion.
Triumph Deal on Activation at Best Buy
On page 20 of this week’s Best Buy Ad, you’ll see the Motorola Triumph in all its glory. Further, if I understand the meaning correctly, purchase of the Triumph will net you an additional $50 Best Buy gift card.
Sadly, it appears that this deal does not extend to current customers. That’s indeed a pity but you can see why Best Buy is offering $50 off – $300 is steep and with the new plans, it’s almost two months of service converted from the phone price.
Poll: MacBook Air or Phone?
My plans originally included buying both the new MacBook Air and the Virgin Mobile Motorola Triumph. Right now, I’m not entirely sure which to buy first. I don’t have enough money to buy both immediately, but I will soon.
I trust the build quality of the MacBook Air and besides, if something did go wrong with it, I could fix it easily with Apple Care. The problem is the MacBook Air costs four times more than the phone, nearly $1500. My intention is to get the MacBook Air 13” with the 128GB SSD, so the $1299 model. The price will remain the same over time.
The Motorola Triumph is much cheaper at only $300 but the build quality is questionable and there aren’t enough reviews to sway me in favor of an unknown product. Since it’s cheaper, I could buy it right now, but I’ve had problems with dusty phones before and I don’t need a repeat of that. On the other hand, I do have a couple of trade-in Rumor Touch phones and a 10% discount. Eventually, the phones will almost have no value for trade-in and the discount will expire as well.
I thought this poll might help me decide which to buy first.
After much deliberation and in conjunction with the poll results, I will be buying the MacBook Air first.
Note: after using Polldaddy, I have to say, really? Signing up for yet another Automattic service and then installing yet another plugin and adding multiple silly looking buttons in the admin-interface. Well? The poll’s over and I’m removing it.
Trade In Old Phones at Best Buy
With the release of the Motorola Triumph, you might want to trade in your old Virgin Mobile phone. If you plan on it, here are the estimated amounts offered by Best Buy via their Best Buy Trade-In program.
Note: I estimated all of these numbers via Best Buy’s web calculator and with the default options; none of the options were altered.
The old LG Rumor Touch can still take the bite of tax off in most areas coming in at an estimated $36.
Gift Card Value: $36.00
Mail Check Value: $24.00
The iky Intercept is still work something after; the trade-in value of $53 – certainly that will pay for a huge chunk.
Gift Card Value: $53.00
Mail Check Value: $35.00
The good ol’ BlackBerry 8530 isn’t too bad either, coming in at just over $60.
Gift Card Value: $63.00
Mail Check Value: $41.00
Finally, although you may not want to part with your precious LG Optimus V, it might just be worth it. Coming in at a value of nearly $70, it’s a huge chunk of that initial Triumph investment.
Gift Card Value: $72.00
Mail Check Value: $47.00
You should be able to trade in your old phone at Best Buy in person, get your card and then promptly turn around and buy an awesome phone. I would lower every estimated price by just 10% or so and keep in mind that I changed no settings in the calculator. You should really try it for yourself.
Happy trading!
I checked this numbers yesterday. I wouldn’t be surprised if this numbers quickly changed over the coming weeks as more people turn in their old Virgin Mobile phones.
New Gmail Gadget Only for Webkit Browsers∝
A new and improved Gmail gadget for iGoogle
The Gmail Gadget of old is getting updated over the next few weeks. Cleverly, the plan is to only cater initially (or forever) to Webkit browsers, you know, like Safari or Chrome (but mostly just Chrome, if possible). Really, anyone using Chrome shouldn’t be using iGoogle now, they should have their homepage set to the speed dial. Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera are left out of the update, probably due to fancy CSS3 transitions that work.
MacBook Air Updated! New SSD, RAM & Processors
The new MacBook Air models have been released! Finally, after months of anticipation, it has finally arrived. Online orders are now taking place while it will be in stores tomorrow. There is a complete press release of course.
The 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air are available for order on the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) today and in Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers starting July 21.
The new models almost follow my plans. The low end model is still 11-inches, still with 2GB of memory, but with an updated Sandy Bridge i5, 1.6GHz processor and expanded 64GB SSD.
The higher end models have increasing SSD sizes and an across the board 4GB of memory. The higher end 13-inch MacBook Air models contain a 1.7GHz i5, but an 1.8GHz i7 is also available as an extra. I’m targeting the low-high end – the 128GB SSD 13-inch model, at $1299.
Really, this is what I’ve been waiting for. A light but not weak laptop; built to stand strong and retain value over a long period of time.
Flight achieved.
Virgin Mobile Site Updated with Triumph & Pricing
The Virgin Mobile USA website has been updated with information and ordering capabilities for the Motorola Triumph. As the phone rolls out to Normal People™, the reviews will start to roll on to the review tab.
The Triumph's Information Page - Now Ready For Order
Android™ Gone Wild. Rev up your smartphone experience with a superfast 1GHz processor, 4.1″ touchscreen, 5MP camera, front-facing VGA camera, 720p HD camcorder with HDMI output, Google Maps with Navigation™, Android Market™, and more. All on the Android 2.2 platform.
In addition the Triumph, the new $35/monthly pricing scheme at entry levels has also been added to the website.
New Beyond Talk Pricing
The Virgin Mobile website is still in the process of updating all their copytext and imagery to match up with the Triumph additions and pricing changes. The Optimus is still promoted in some places, but much has switched to focus on the Triumph.
My Android Apps
Since I’m switching phones soon and I made a list of the apps I used on my previous Android phone, I thought I’d share.
Adobe Reader (v10.0.2)
Audible (v1.2.2.5 Market)
Battery Widget (v1.6.7)
Data counter widget (v1.5.5)
Docs (v1.0.10)
Facebook (v1.6.1)
Goggles (v1.5.2)
Google Reader (v0.9.3)
Google Voice (v0.4.2.32)
Google+ (v1.0.2)
HotSpot Toggle (v1.61)
Hotspot Widget (v1.2)
JuiceDefender (v3.5.6)
LastPass (v1.74.2)
LauncherPro (v0.8.6)
Listen (v1.1.4)
MyAppsList (v1.6)
Pandora (v1.5.10)
Retro Clock (v1.6.3)
ServeStream (v0.2.11)
Speed Test (v2.0.3)
Twitter (v2.1.0)
Wifi Analyzer (v2.5.9)
I suppose a couple of notes are in order.
At school, I frequently have to read PDF notices at a glance, so having Adobe Reader despite how atrocious it is can be incredibly useful. Audible is the greatest thing since the iPod since I’m not always in the position to hold a physical book or a kindle. The battery, data usage, hotspot and clock widgets are more like toys – are they apps? No, but did I install them? Yes. I find the battery icon on the notification bar worthless as it tends to visually over-estimate the remaining battery life. The data usage widget is something that should be built into Android and it is a mystery as to why it is not. One day I wanted to tinker with the secret hidden hotspot feature on this phone – I surprised and please to say, it works. The clock was worthless.
I store some documents in Google Docs like my dad’s working schedule, as a spreadsheet. It’s nice to have at-a-glance functionality without having to actually know my Google Account password. Goggles is just a fun app to play with, there is no real use. Facebook is Facebook, Twitter is Twitter, Google+ is Google+, no story there. I like using Google Voice occasionally but since I’ve left the iPod world behind, it’s become pretty infrequent. JuiceDefender was an app I was trying will in school in order to stretch my battery life – personally, I don’t know how much of a difference it made, I always had 50% when I got back home.
LastPass is awesome on a computer but cumbersome on a phone. LauncherPro adds fancy shortcuts and smooth transitions to an otherwise bland but good enough launcher UI. Listen is my podcast app of choice; free, via Google and complete integration with Google Reader subscriptions. Oh, Google Reader, well, I’ve got to keep on the latest tech-news, after all. Pandora is good to listen to some music but I don’t do that so much anymore. ServeStream is an awesome app that allows me to listen to streaming MP3s, like TWiT.tv. SpeedTest and Wifi Analyzer are tools – I have a funky Wireless setup at my house and it’s certainly handy to have tools.
So, there are the apps I use on my phone. I’ll be upgrading soon.
Happy apping!
Motorola Triumph CPU & GPU – Dual Processor
I remarked that the Motorola Triumph did not have a GPU, but that’s not accurate. A commenter explained that the Triumph does indeed have two CPUs, one as a regular CPU and another as a GPU. We can all breath a sigh of relief now, as once again, this will not be another Intercept.
Ah the triumph does have a GPU too like the Optimus V, it’s an Adreno 205 GPU along with the scorpion 1ghz.
- via Derek
That led me on a quest to find the missing information about these two processors, the Scorpion and Adreno 205 GPU. Of course, being as ridiculous as I am, I needed some third party confirmation. Yet, I would’ve liked to see this on the spec-sheet on Motorola’s website.
1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8655 Snapdragon
- via GSM Arena
So that’s great, but now, what do they do? According to DroidGames, the Adreno 200 was made to compete with the GPU in the Nexus One. The best results probably lie straight from Qualcomm’s own website about it’s own GPU.
- Hardware-accelerated SVG and Adobe Flash
- Significant improvements in shader performance over Adreno 200 GPU
- Streaming textures that can combine video, camera, SVG and other image surfaces with 3D graphics
So at the very least, Angry Birds won’t be choppy.
The 1Ghz Scorpion processor should be blazing compared to the 600Mhz found in the Optimus V. There is a Wikipedia article with a table listing many phones that have similar processors. Some of the comparable phones may be, at least processor wise:
HTC Thunderbolt, HTC Droid Incredible 2 [1], LG Revolution, Sharp IS05(SHI05), Motorola Triumph
It’s nice to know that the Triumph is in the same league as the Thunderbolt and Incredible. I’d say that’s pretty incredible.
I’d love to get some real benchmarks between the Optimus V and the Triumph. There aren’t that many hands on videos and comparison from either given reviewers or Normal People™.
Of course, the Triumph is available right now in person at Best Buy while the Virgin Mobile launch is officially Wednesday.
Honored In Raising and Triumph∝
Beyond Talk Plans & Motorola Triumph
Title’s a pun but it’s so much fun being featured in a YouTube video. Honestly, I’d love to give videocasting a shot but I just don’t have the infrastructure setup here. Anyone want to include me via Skype? I will give my honest opinions, guaranteed.
Get a List of Apps on an Android Phone
In the next couple weeks, I’ll be upgrading to a new Motorola Triumph on Virgin Mobile. I don’t use that many apps but even so they are hard to keep track of. Honestly, my initial thought was that I’d remember the apps I used most and slowly rediscover the apps which I did not use nearly as much.
But instead, I needed to get a list of apps on my Android phone. I make a list of applications on Windows before every re-install and Android is not really an exception. I looked into the market for an app to do this and there it was.
Downloadable in the Android Market, MyAppsList allows you to easily export a list of applications you have either downloaded via barcodes/qrcodes or via the market. This little app can save it as HTML with clickable links to the respective pages in the market. You can then save that generated list for safe keeping via email.
MyAppsList allows you to quickly generate a list of all the applications you have installed on your device and save it to the clipboard, save it to the SD Card or email it to a friend.
It supports vB Code (to post to forums), HTML and plain text.
MyAppsList is also a useful tool to create a list of installed applications as a personal backup.
Apparently I run my phone with 23 installed apps and I now have them safely remembered in an email somewhere. So if you ever need to swap or restore your phone, by keeping a periodically updated app-list will certainly ease the transition.
Happy listing!
Buy The Motorola Triumph Today!
Apparently you can walk right into your local Best Buy and purchase the brand new phone on Virgin Mobile, the Motorola Triumph.
A SlashGear review demonstrates the strong points of the Motorola Triumph in a post with pictures and with an additional video coming soon. But the treasure was in the comments.
I have this phone and it’s activated. I went to Best Buy on 7/16/11 and bought it when it was discovered in the cabinets behind the register. They didn’t even know they had it and made no comments about whether or not it could be sold or activated. Swapped it out with my existing Virgin Blackberry plan with the phone activation… no trouble doing so. Love it!!
- via AOx4
Although there does seem to be a different story when it comes to activation; that is, you can’t activate until Wednesday upon launch.
I have this phone now, you can get it at best buy for 269 w/ a 10% discount coupon that can be found online. You can’t, however, activate it until 7/20…
- via John Zampier
Finally, you can use a coupon code to reduce the price a little. To find the coupon, read through the comments. GottaBeMobile is reporting continued success with early Best Buy purchasing.
Before I buy, I’m waiting for more reviews. I’m curious about battery life and responsiveness. Like Unlike the infamous Intercept, Triumph comes with only a single two processors. The Optimus V contained two processors, one for regular computation and then for graphics. That allowed everyone whom experience the molasses Intercept to breath a sigh of relief.I don’t have any specific information about the CPU and GPU in the Triumph so we’ll have to wait and see.
It has yet to be seen if the Triumph can truly triumph. You can expect more reviews up to launch from and thereafter when more Normal People™ get their hands on it.
You should really share your thoughts here if you buy this phone!
After Oneiric Ocelot – Ubuntu 12.04
My dad and I were trying to figure out what would come after Oneiric Ocelot or Ubuntu 11.10. Well, you can read some of the suggestions for the 12.04 name.
Some of my favorites are:
- Perpetual Phoenix
- Philosophical Pegasus
- Pragmatic Penguin