One Month with the HTC Touch

After a month with the HTC Touch I have found myself more and more amazed.  Amazed at what I was missing in a phone and amazed at what other truck drivers who own and operate their businesses “on the go” must be missing.  Check out this review at Mobile Tech Review and see what I am talking about.  Is it perfect? Heck no.  Is it well on the way to mobile nirvana?  Yes.

The awesome contact management is where this unit really shines.  If you can do something in Outlook, you can probably do it in the Touch contact software; of course it seamlessly syncs with Outlook and other MS Office software.   I can tag a contact with key words like “FL,” “Broker,” “Produce Receiver,” “Produce Shipper,” “NJ,” and many other tags.  This makes this phone flat out amazing.

I will agree that the processing power of the Touch is a bit lacking, especially when trying to directly input a raw telephone number that isn’t already in the contact list.  While your punching numbers on the touch keypad it is going through the contact list trying to match it up.  If you quickly dial the number and hit the “talk” button, it will dial up something or somebody in your list by mistake.  “The 201MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 850 feels underpowered…” was the statement in the review and overall I agree with the statement.  This is the reason, actually, that I have so long waited to buy a smartphone, because I am very fast on a computer and even the fastest computers out there are behind my mouse clicks and keyboard shortcuts.  I knew that a smartphone of a year ago or more would just be frustrating.  While I find the Touch struggling to catch up with me at times, I don’t find it too slow to adjust to.

I was in Miami at a warehouse the other day and I was using my Touch to get some work done and make a phone call and a receiving clerk walked over with his iPhone and we did a very detailed, feature for feature, comparison.  He would perform a task and then I would perform a task and visa versa.  I was shocked to learn that my Touch performed just as good as his iPhone.  I thought I was taking the “2nd best” phone to the iPhone, but in all reality there was only a couple things that the iPhone could do that my Touch couldn’t do and those were countered by my Touch doing things that his iPhone couldn’t do.  Overall, I was satisfied that I had made a good investment.  The biggest beef with my Touch, in comparison to the iPhone, is I HATE Windows Media player and the Sprint Music Store.  I have a vast iTunes collection (about 18 gb) that has been purchased via the iTunes software.  None of this music will work on my Touch unless I convert it over to mp3 or whatever.  So, I still have to tote my iPod if I want my iTunes music – which I do!   The screen on the iPhone is slightly bigger and that is an Apple advantage as well.  Trust me, at this size every millimeter of resolution matters.

Speaking of the screen, when browsing the Internet I find great success browsing sites that are “mobile” coded, like CNN’s mobile site and Google’s Mobile site (my homepage).  But, the iPhone tauts that it can view any page on the Internet as long as it is properly coded in HTML 3.  Well, if it can do that, that is another advantage.  On sites like Internettruckstop.com it shows the headers, then the tables on the left and then the content, so it means allot of scrolling to get to the content.

Overall, I am very happy.  Yes there are things that could be better, but if it were perfect people would be out of a job making it better   What job security!  I talk to truck drivers in the truckstops and places where I pickup and deliver and I am amazed at how disconnected they are and wonder how in the world do they even keep the wheels rolling.

Eating Coffee Beans Off of the Tree!

I was at the NC Zoo yesterday courtesy of Thomas Tire Company of Asheboro, NC.  They have been our preferred tire vendor for the trucks for a couple years now due to their strong emphasis on technology based solutions.

While at the zoo, we were in the African Pavilion around all of the monkeys and such when my wife noticed…”Isn’t that a coffee tree?”  Oh my!  It was a Arabica coffee tree!  And we took pictures of every solitary thing there BUT that tree!  I quickly partook, pealing the skin off of the cherry and getting to the meat of the matter and finding the bean at the end.  You know, they were good eating!  And after the children and I had four or five we were WIRED!  I still can’t believe I didn’t take pictures!

Sumatra Blue Batak

Kevin at Crema Coffee Roasters called me the other day and told me that I just “had to have” some of his latest find:  The Sumatra Blue Batak ($15.50 lb).  I have never been a fan of Sumatra or any other South East Asia coffees for a few reasons, but Kevin seems to be able to find real jewels and this one qualifies.

It has strong berry notes, black and blue berries.  It is smooth with a mild acidity.   Nutty aftertaste seems to be the best descriptor.  This coffee deserves a look!

Congrats to Miss M’Lissa

Absolutely wonderful and deserved! Congrats to Miss M’Lissa and the gang at Octane. I have been absent for about a month, I must get back in there, but I have been up and down the east coast on I-95 from Miami up to the top of N.J.  I will be back soon!