Smart Phones for Smart Students Part III: Verizon Wireless

It’s that time again – time for me to show you the best smartphones for a specific carrier. Today’s carrier is…Verizon Wireless. I know a lot of people who have Verizon because they offer great coverage in many areas. I won’t get it because most of my friends are on Cingular and I can talk for free to them. Also, I won’t pay $60 to Verizon for just 450 minutes of service. All complaining aside, though, I would like to show you three powerful phones from a very powerful provider: the Samsung SCH-i730, the Verizon Wireless XV6700, and the Palm Treo 700wx.
Samsung SCH-i730: the Samsung SCH-i730 has a distinct style because its QWERTY keyboard slides out from the bottom, not the side (like the MDA or the 8525). The buttons on the QWERTY are small and raised, so they’re a bit easier to hit, even for people with larger thumbs. Some pros of this phone are:
a. Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC Phone Edition.
b. Nice interface
c. Built in Wi-Fi
d. EV-DO support
e. Bluetooth
f. SD card slot
g. Dual speakers
h. Speakerphone

The cons, though, are BIG:
a. NO CAMERA…wtf?
b. WiFi drains the battery big time
c. WiFi and phone can’t be used at the same time
d. Phone can’t be used as a modem
e. Talk time/standby time is weak – 150 minutes talk, 130 hours standby.

First of all, a phone without a camera? Are we living in the dark ages? Secondly, other phones have been able to use the Wifi as well as the phone at the same time, so what held Samsung back? So far, I’m not liking this device at all. I don’t know much about the call quality, so if someone could help me out with this, that’d be great.

Verizon Wireless XV6700: the Verizon Wireless XV6700 is styled like the Cingular 8525 and T-Mobile MDA, with its slide-out QWERTY keyboard and brick-like shape, although, this phone has an external antenna, which in my opinion is very unsightly and could jab you in the side if you bend the wrong way. The Pros:
a. Windows Mobile 5.0
b. Large screen
c. Rubbery texture for easier gripping
d. WiFi
e. Bluetooth (which can be used for file transfers with a PC, not just for accessories and headsets)
f. 1.3 MP camera/camcorder w/flash
g. Windows Media Player 10
h. 4 hour talk time

The cons:
a. Big size
b. WiFi and phone can’t work at same time (although this can be tweaked with a registry editor)
c. Poor call quality (echo-y on the other end)

If it weren’t for the call quality, I’d say this phone was a strong contender. Let’s see what the Treo has to offer.

Palm Treo 700wx: The Palm Treo 700wx is a spiffy little device. It has 64mb of RAM and runs Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition. The Treo has a full QWERTY keyboard, but it’s a bit small for medium to larger thumbs. The pros include:

a. More memory = faster performace
b. Touch screen
c. BroadbandAccess Connect
d. Bluetooth
e. Speakerphone
f. Wireless sync
g. 1.3 MP camera
h. Windows Media Player 10
i. Backlit QWERTY keyboard
j. SD slot
k. Voice activation
l. Use as modem via USB cable included
m. Good call quality on both ends

The cons:

a. Keyboard is a tad small
b. Resolution is weak at 240 x 240
c. No WiFi

The Treo is probably the best choice of the three. Verizon doesn’t offer a “wide” selection of smartphones the way other providers do, but what they have is ok. The XV6700 and the Treo both have decent talk times and standby times – about 100 minutes more to talk for the 6700 and 150 minutes more to talk for the Treo, and about and 170 hours more standby for the 6700 and 200 hours more for the Treo. Both the 6700 or the Treo are good choices (watch out for the 6700’s call quality), but stay away from the Samsung for its lack of a camera, draining WiFi and weak battery life.

So Many Notes, So Little Organization

We all have different ways of taking notes. Some of us use “old faithful” – the spiral-bound notebook. Others use loose-leaf binders, napkins, their own arms…and some use their laptops. Finding the right note taking program can be difficult. After a while, it gets hard trying to figure out what’s inside any of the 300 MS Word documents that comprise your organic chemistry data over the course of one semester. Even with each file numbered and dated, keeping track of all your notes is tricky. That’s why I’m here to help! I have comprised a comparison of my two favorite note taking programs for the PC and Mac (as well as links to sites with even bigger lists), so that no matter what class you’re in, you’ll always be ahead.

Microsoft OneNote is a note taking program that squeezes a ton of functionality into what should be a pretty straightforward task. You can not only take notes by typing, but you can write your notes (on a Tablet PC) and have the program import them using its handwriting recognition software. All of your notes are organized according to subject or class in tabs on the top of the page. For the ones you don’t need anymore, you can drag them to the side tab bar and free up the top bar for current projects. You can draw diagrams right on the screen (on a Tablet PC with a stylus and on a normal computer using your mouse) and move them anywhere to illustrate your point. There's another Microsoft product that’s useful for taking notes, but this one is for its adversary – the Mac.

A lot of people don’t know that Microsoft Word 2004 for the Mac actually has a notebook feature, which allows you to type on a piece of digital notebook paper and add bullet points, photos and footnotes very easily. There are also side tabs that keep all your data properly labeled and sorted. You can add pictures, draw (using the mouse) and even record lectures to help you remember what was discussed in class that day.

The Apple Blog has a list of other note taking software choices for the Mac (my personal favorite is Circus Ponies Notebook). For the Windows using crowd, EverNote is a great alternative to OneNote. For even more Windows-based software, check out Donation Coder. Good luck!

Too Much Tech?

The other night I was sitting in my car, waiting to pick up my fiancée from work when I came to a realization. Mind you, this realization came to me while I had my laptop in my…well, lap…my cell phone in my left hand, my iPod in my right hand, and my GPS system attached to the windshield. I looked around at the backlit gadgets that adorned my car and my body and I thought, “My God, this is a lot of crap.”

I, like many other people of my generation, have become so heavily dependent on technology that I couldn’t fathom living my life without it. What would life be like if I didn’t have my entire music collection with me at all times? No 24/7 access to the internet? No instant turn by turn directions? It’s hard to imagine, but our parents, grandparents and great grandparents did fine without the megabytes and gigabytes for years. Obviously, it’s impossible to imagine a life without technology because we’re immersed in it every day. We’re slaves to our keyboards and BlackBerries, prisoners of our pods of music. We’re a selfish, self-obsessed society that doesn’t have time for the important things in life if they don’t fit between yoga and business meetings in our PDAs.

I can’t say that I’ll ever stop using my iPod, my laptop, or my GPS (I’d probably be dead by now without it), but it is something to think about. Tell me, what do you think about our dependence on technology? How much tech do you have on you at any given moment? How much do you use to complete everyday tasks that you could have done by hand just as quickly? Drop me a comment and let me know – let’s get the discussion rolling.