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A friend recently asked me what apps I plan to download on day one with my Sprint HTC Evo (which I’m picking up in 25 hours from the time I started writing this post!)  I thought I would share my top 5 must have apps and ask you about yours.  There are several core functionality apps that come on the phone already, such as the phone app (duh), a messaging app, a contacts app, and a browser.  You will also see Sprint apps like NFL and NASCAR (don’t hate on my NASCAR app – I love it and there are more NASCAR fans than you realize – it outsells Football in merchandising, so zip it!)

Additionally, Google application integration is built in for core Google products such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, and YouTube.  These are essential for any phone I own.  My current Palm Pre did these apps very well, and I have come to expect great integration with Google’s core applications based on my Palm Pre experience.

Sprint Navigation will be on the phone, but with Android 2.1, we now have access to Google’s turn by turn directions in google maps – so I doubt I will be using Sprint Navigation much any more (on a sidenote for Verizon users – did you actually have to pay for gps navigation? Sprint includes it with the Everything plans).

The Evo will also come preinstalled with Qik, a video sharing application that allows you to stream video live as well as share video with Facebook and YouTube.  There has been a lot of chatter on the web about the video conference functionality that Qik will also enable you to do; there were  rumors of a $5 up charge (imposed by Qik, not Sprint) and Sprint’s site has this statement:

Video chat service available as an upgrade to the pre-loaded Qik app to enable conversational, interactive, real-time sharing between mobile devices or from mobile-to-desktop (link)

I do not believe the video chat will cost the extra $5 Qik will charge for “premium features” based on a post by our friends at Engadget.  With the front facing camera on the HTC Evo, I’ve expected the ability to video chat to be available without a nickel and dime situation; maybe that’s naive on my part.

So – what apps do I plan to download on day one (24 hours 30 mins and counting)?  Here are my top 5:

1. Google Picasa. – CORRECTION, Picasa integration is built in the OS – yeah!

I don’t know why this application isn’t included by default on a Google phone.  I plan to take a lot of pictures with the massive 8 mega-pixel camera the Evo offers and I want those pictures on my Picasa page (http://picasaweb.google.com/Dale.Sackrider)

2. Google Voice.

I get why this wouldn’t be included – its still an invitation only service that not everyone has access to.  But I do and I want to use it.  There are a few pitfalls to using Google Voice – for starters, if you call someone using it, your anytime minutes are being used even if they are on a mobile phone (which is normally a free on the Everything plans).  You also can’t receive or sent MMS messages through it (no picture mail).  But I use it for businesses so I don’t have to give out my cell phone number directly.  We don’t have a land line phone so this is the next best thing.  I can setup rules to automatically send certain numbers to voice mail and all of my voice mail is transcribed to email and sent to me.  I rarely have to listen to my voice messages since I setup Google Voice because of that feature!

3. Google Goggles.

This app allows me to take pictures of business cards and add them to my contacts without having to manually add the data.  It has other features but this is the one I care about most.  Have you noticed a Google theme here?  Yes, I am a Google fanboy despite my personal belief that they are trying to take over the world and very likely going to succeed.  One day we will find out they got into the phone market so they can record every conversation you have and make them searchable over the internet!

4. mSpot (http://www.mspot.com).

You can keep iTunes – I’ll use mSpot.  I can upload my music to the cloud and sync it to my phone wirelessly.  Not to mention the Video-On-Demand feature with mSpot Movies.  Even with the 4.3 inch screen, I don’t think I will spend a lot of time watching movies on my phone – but I don’t have to with the HDMI output port on the Evo!  I can stream movies directly to a TV.

5. Fring (http://www.fring.com).

I know the phone comes with Qik – and I believe video chat will be part of the free offering – However… No one I know is using Qik.  I had never even heard of it before the Evo.  Additionally, Qik is only available on cell phones and the Evo is the only phone available to the public today (while actually tomorrow) – what that means is Qik will only allow me to video conference with other Evo owners.  Not that I don’t want to chat with Evo owners – I’m certain I would actually enjoy that alot, but since I only personally know two other people buying the phone on opening day – I need Fring if I want to actually USE the feature.  Fring allows me to use Skype to chat with my Skype based friends and family – since Skype isn’t natively allowed on the Sprint network YET.

Well – that’s my list although I’m sure it will change several times over the next few days!  What apps are must haves for you on Day One of the HTC Evo?

A friend recently asked my thoughts on Arizona bil SB1070.  I usually stay away from political topics on my blogs because once they are published, you can’t take them back.  We all learn as we grow, and I still consider myself to be a student – so my opinions may be very strong today, not so black and white in a few years, and on the other side of the issue in a decade.  Having said that – here goes:

First the problem statement:

Illegal immigration in Arizona is a problem.  As a border state, we feel the economic drain when illegals work under the table, send the money back to Mexico instead of spend it in the local economy, and then use social services paid for by tax payers.  We also have higher crime in neighborhood with larger illegal populations.  Our teachers are often in the position of having to speak Spanish in order to communicate with their students and our ERs have 6 hour and longer wait times due to illegal immigrants using the ER as their general practitioner due to a total lack of insurance.  We must do something.

The benefit of reduced labor costs does not offset the drain from the state treasury (read tax payers pockets) or the local economy.

SB1070 – a proposed solution

Please read the bill here.

My first issue with this solution:

My solution:

In closing:

<RANT>

I recently spent over a week trying to resolve an issue with my website business (http://sannsack.com).  During my troubleshooting, I spent hours upon hours searching through forums, refining my search terms, reading through posts, over and over.  First, I do want to say, if it weren’t for forums, I would still not know how to do more than half of what I know how to do on the web – building websites, configuring web servers, designing graphics, creating site templates – all products of information I found in forums.

Having said that – the number of people out there that are quick to respond without reading or understanding someones issue is beyond ridiculous!  From simple questions like “how do I create blah” to complicated queries like “in cpanel version 11.25, with apaches 2.2 and php 5.3.x, I am having an issue with the domain addon feature” – if you can think it, someone has asked it.  But my current frustration is with people that reply with smart butt responses like “RTFM” (read the f**king manual) or respond “can’t you just click next?” and my personal favorite – the amens “yeah, I had that problem too, but I don’t remember what I did to fix it”…

Most recently I had a question (too technical for you to care about) and I found a forum where a user had the exact same question – why can’t I do I do X and if I can, how?  He even gave the error he got while trying to do “X” and why he wanted to do “X” in the first place.  One helpful respondant actually wrote: “who said you couldn’t do it? I think it will just work” … the computer said he couldn’t do it – with the ERROR included in the orginal post!!!  Another person responded with “you can do that, you have to change a setting” … REALLY?!?!?!? Lets play 20 questions – I’ll start with “is the setting on my server?”; is the setting in the cpanel; is the setting blue? wait wait… this could take a really long time – how about you GIVE THE SETTING IN YOUR RESPONSE!!!

I know I could be considered not grateful that someone has taken time to respond to questions – but is it really too much to ask that the responses be helpful?  I have a few guidelines I would like to see followed on the web while answering questions:

1. Read the question completely BEFORE you click reply
2. If you feel the need to reply “RTFM” – close your browser and stop reading forums – like someone in customer service that hates customers, you will never be happy reading forums to help people and should just stop trying.
3. If the question does not make sense, ask followup questions if you want to help
4. If you don’t want to help, don’t click reply
5. If you don’t know why a person could possibly want to do what this person is trying to do, don’t click reply
6. If you have the same problem, feel free to ‘amen’ with “I have that problem too” but if you USED TO have that problem, but don’t remember ANYTHING about how you fixed it – do not bother telling us – its not helpful.
7. Do feel free to give partial answers – something like “sorry, I don’t remember exactly what I did to fix it, but I do remember it was a check box in the cPanel” could be very helpful.
8. If you know the answer, give it.  Its not helpful when you say “its a setting” – tell us what the setting is, or don’t reply.  It is however completely acceptable to post a link to a prior forum post where the same question was answered and could have been found if the poster had simply done a search before posting.  For some reason Google likes to send me to forum posts where there is a link to a forum that actually has the answer I’m looking for – usually I think its because the second poster worded the issue better than the first.

That’s it.  I know a list is usually 10 items or more – but I only have 8.  If you don’t like it – blog about how horrible my post is (and feel free to link to it in the process).

</RANT>

My son, Zander (6yrs old) asked me this morning about Google Finance.  He is fascinated by the Internet and often watches over my shoulder while I’m surfing/working/etc (sidenote for Dad’s – they are ALWAYS watching you on the internet – keep that in mind!).  When he asked what Google Finance was, I replied “this is an investment website, son.  I’ll explain it to you when you are older.”

Then I thought about that.  Zander seemed to accept that answer, but it bugged me.  When did my parents tell me about investments?  I don’t recall ever being taught about investments.  I don’t recall ever being taught about savings either.  I’m not saying there was never a conversation, only that it wasn’t part of the culture growing up.  I want savings, investment, and financial planning to be part of the culture for my children so they aren’t living paycheck to paycheck when they get older.

I decided that 6 years old isn’t too young to learn about investing.  I explained that companies need money to grow the business.  I went on to explain that the graphZander asked about was showing the price over time, that the low points were where the price was lower and the higher points was a higher price.  He listened and even asked questions, like “why do people buy shares”.  I showed him that over time the value of a stock can go up significantly.  As an example I told him “If my parents had purchased 10 shares of IBM when I was born, they would have paid just under $200” (history on Google only goes back to 1978, but close enough).

“The stock has split three times since then, once as a 4:1 split, and twice more in a 2:1 split.” I went on.  “So today, I would have 160 shares for those same 10 shares [10 x 4 = 40 x 2 = 80 x 2 = 160].  At todays price, thats about $20k.”

Then it hit me.  If my parents had invested $200 in 1978 for me, I would have $20k today!  Well… wait, I thought what about inflation.  I mean, maybe $200 in 1978 was $20k in today money.  So I checked using an online inflation calculator – and it turns out that $200 in 1978 would be about $650.47 today.  I get that $650.47 isn’t a small amount of money – but it ain’t $20k either! [the use of slang here is intentional for emphasis].

Zander asked, “why don’t you ask them to buy it for you now daddy.” — kids are soooo cute, right?

“Zander, its too late now”

“But you always tell me its never too late for me”

“That’s true,” I chuckled “but that was 32 years ago.”

Zander was quiet for a second, then responded very matter of fact “Won’t you live another 32 years?”

Uh… yeah.  I hope to.  Wow… out of the mouth of kids.  So… my goal over the next couple of years is to start investment accounts for all three of my children with no less than $650.47 in them.

I’m at McDonald’s using their wifi waiting for football practice.  All I got was a drink and a McDouble ($2.18).  I asked for BBQ sauce for my McDouble (I prefer it over ketchup).  Nope – thats an additional 10 cents at this non-participating location.  Ten cents isn’t much, but hey, really?  Ten cents?

I just said no thanks and decided to use ketchup, but as I was getting my soda I noticed someone had pushed the ketchup dispenser down until there was about a gallon of ketchup in the drain below.  While I would never do anything that wasteful, I couldn’t help but imagine someone deciding that they were going to get their 10 cents worth from this fine establishment.

Regardless – 10 cents? Really?  I know, its not that big a deal…

Game Day again – this time it counts (last week was pre-season).  Kick off at 1pm, players show up at 11am.  I knew this would be different than last week.  Last week I got a lot of playing time as the starter was willing to swap between each series – I actually played about half the time the offense was on the field.  This week would be different.

The first half, my team dominated the game.  I watched from the sidelines as we scored six touch downs (two by our defense) and a field goal.  Even though we missed two extra point kicks, we went into the half leading 43 to zero!

As we take the field for the second half, I know I’m going in and I’m excited.  The defense is lining up slightly different than we practiced, but the starting guard explained the differences to me and what to do in each situation.  I thought I understood what I needed to do, but when the ball snapped I blocked the outside linebacker into the play instead of away from it.  A few plays later, we punted the ball away (our first and only punt of the game).

When I came to the sidelines, I knew I messed up that play, so did everyone else, and even though we were well ahead on the scoreboard – the starter went back in and I ‘rode the pine’ for the rest of the game.  We went on to win 55-0.  While most of the team walked off winners, I felt more like a player on the other team.

On the way home, I heard Adam Lambert’s “Whataya Want From Me” come on my iPod.  A portion of the song spoke directly to how I felt and the message I want to give my teammates regarding my performance:

Just don’t give up I’m workin it out
Please don’t give in, I won’t let you down
It messed me up, need a second to breathe
Just keep coming around…

Just don’t give up on me
I won’t let you down
No, I won’t let you down

Standing in the locker room for the first time in over 15 years was a bit surreal.  Most of the guys in the room are about 10 years younger than me.  On the team website, my name is listed as OL/DL #72, but here in the locker room for the pre-season game I’ve been given #65 instead.  I still haven’t been told which offense line position I will play in the game, assuming I actually get to play.

I get dressed in full pads, ready to get out there and play this game I love!  Then I realize I must have gotten dressed twice as fast as the rest of the team, since I’m the only one standing there ready to go.  I take my gloves off, fidget with them a bit to look like I’m still getting ready.  Then I notice something else… the rest of the linemen are putting their jersey on without their shoulder pads.  I’m a bit out of place in full gear.

Not sure why they don’t have their shoulder pads on, but I don’t want to stand out as the rookie, so I take my pads off, pull the jersey off the pads and throw it back over my head.  I look in the mirror at the end of the locker room and notice that I’m much less impressive without the pads to make my shoulders look like I have bulk anywhere other than my gut.

A coach walks into the locker room and yells, “full pads guys, full pads!”  The guys repeat “full pads?” then start to pull their jerseys off and replacing them with shoulder pads.  Here I am having put my pads on, taken them off, and now putting them on again.  I feel foolish.  As I’m strapping my pads on, tugging at a belt, my hand breaks loose and I hit myself in the mouth.  I’ve just bloodied my lip and the game hasn’t even started.  I’m nervous, anxious, excited.

“Lets go, guys! The winner of today’s challenge get Patriots tickets!” a coach yells out and we all start to head for the door.  Another coach walks over – “what size helmet do you have?”  “Large” I reply.  “I need you to share”.  A player has shown up that doesn’t have his helmet and he is a starter on defense.  I’m a second string offense guy.  I guess I’m sharing my helmet.

We walk toward the door, another player trying on my helmet, my lip still a bit fat and bleeding, and all I’m really thinking is “Don’t screw up!”

If you haven’t looked at my youtube channel lately – I’ve uploaded a few new videos of the kids… enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/dalebert77

Merry Christmas to All!

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