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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Google's news today is that their My Maps for Mobile technology will pinpoint your location based on cell tower signals, even on phones without GPS capability.
That's certainly useful, and I was wondering whether this really would be an alternative to GPS. Om Malik is typically on the ball when it comes to this story, and he's already given it the provisional thumbs-up. One point of confusion for me, though, is that he's saying it works best on newer generation phones like the Blackberry 8800. But the Blackberry 8800 already has GPS. What'll be interesting is if the tech works on my Blackberry 8700r, which does not have GPS. Stay tuned (literally).Labels: blackberry 8700, maps, mobile search
Posted by
Andrew Goodman
Sunday, April 08, 2007
I'm a user of Basecamp in part because other people seem to know what it is, and it works well for cheap project management without conflicting with various other logins (eg. Google's free stuff). I was a bit taken aback by Douglas Karr's post that stated he'd canceled his Basecamp account because he didn't like (1) their attitude on their blog with the f-bombs and all; (2) the substance of one post about offline web applications; (3) the substance of another post about email marketing and scrolling; (4) oh yeah, his colleagues weren't using Basecamp... only he was.
Hmm, so tell me again, why did so many people sign up for Basecamp in the first place?
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To provide some closure on my Blackberry dilemmas, see if you can recognize yourself in this situation. I went up to the Rogers Wireless storefront near me, because when it comes to stressful three-year relationships with monopolists, I need a lot of pampering. I was dead set on getting the 8800, as it sounds really cool, etc., and the 8300 isn't likely to be for sale in Canada until August at this rate. Problem was, depending on which plan I got, the device itself cost $350-375 more than the 8700! Even the Pearl was significantly cheaper. That's when I started to really ask myself what I needed it for. Don't need a media player, don't need GPS, and we're kind of running out of reasons to pay $350 more for cachet...
At that point, I thought: well, one of my main reasons for getting it is to use it as a phone also - so why not just get a Pearl even though I didn't like the Pearl's keyboard.
Then I came to my senses: I wanted a proper QWERTY Blackberry, with good phone quality, smaller than the old ones, for a newly-rock-bottom price. Ergo, the 8700! I began using the device immediately and am impressed with all facets. I've also downloaded several Google apps for Blackberry, including GMail proper and Google Talk, which could put a strain on my data plan. Good thing I saved $350 on the device.
P.S. to friends: I think this means I'll be on time for lunch!Labels: basecamp, blackberry, blackberry 8700, rogers wireless
Posted by
Andrew Goodman
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