February 10th, 2008

Simple solution to a huge problem

Finding adequate amounts of potable water is a huge problem, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. I stumbled on this video introducing “Play Pumps” – in my opinion one of the most creative solutions to this problem that I’ve ever seen.

What do you think?

January 3rd, 2008

Why I’ve grown to hate my Treo 700w

My current Treo 700w seemed perfect when I bought it, but my opinion has changed. There are a few very fundamental things that have pushed me to switch to a Blackberry for my next phone.

The Alarm / Snooze Functionality

Setting an alarm for the morning is quite easy. They even have a visual clock that you can drag the hands around on. Very nice for a visual person like me. Unfortunately when my alarm goes off in the morning and I want to hit snooze, I only have two options. 5 minutes or 1 hour. This is can’t understand. I can’t fall back asleep in 5 minutes and snoozing for an hour just ends up killing the day. Please Micro$oft – an update with 20 or 30 minute snooze would be great

Add New Contact

A very basic feature of any phone (or so you would think) is to be able to click on a call you received and add that number as a contact. The Treo gives no such option. This means for the past year i’m stuck writing down a number in my received calls and entering it into the contacts. Lame.

ActiveSync Connection

Since I used to love Outlook, I bought the Treo thinking it would be an awesome way to sync daily tasks, calendars and email. They advertise it as a simple plug in. It worked occasionally but the connection on the plug is such a crazy design that it started to fail consistently. A regular USB mini plug anyone?

Ok so there are a couple Pro’s: 

Battery life is excellent. I’m still using the original battery after a year and typically don’t have to recharge for 4 days.

Solitaire also works well anytime i have a few minutes to kill.