My mobile history....pt5

I have just remembered that I got to part four and stopped. There's a reason for this - I can't remember the new phones! We're up to about mid-2007 with the Windows smartphones and by this time I was deeply entrenched in the mobile phone industry myself.....which meant that in a very short space of time I went through:

3 x Imate pre-production phones

LG Chocolate

Nokia 6300

Nokis N73

Nokia N95

Samsung U600

Blackberry 8800

Blackberry 8100

Blackberry 8310

Palm 500V

Sony Ericsson M600

There are probably others - I genuinely have lost track of the most recent phones.

But most recently I have been using a Blackberry Curve 8900 as my own phone and in my last job I was given an iPhone for work use. The iPhone was awful - well....awful as a phone and communications evice at least. The on-screen keyboard simply didn't work for me and I just couldn't get used to it. The email, calendar and contacts software were basic in the extreme - great for casual use but simply not ready for use day in, day out in a corporate environment. And the battery lasted less than a day.

But for games, it simply couldn't be beaten. Free and very cheap games from the App Store made it easy to fill the phone up with the likes of Flight Control, Harbour Master and others (one of the reason why the battery didn't last too long I guess) and these games are the only reason I actually miss the phone. Must get myself an iPod Touch soon!

My Blackberry....what can I say? It just works! The keyboard means I can type faster than on my PC. The screen is a gorgeous 480x360 pixels - that almost as big as my very first laptop! 3.2MP camera gives me photos I can print out. The software makes keeping contacts and calendar up to date and sync'd with the desktop (via Funambol online sync) a breeze and all my Hotmail email accounts sync perfectly.

I can't see me moving away from Blackberry.

At least not until the iPhone gets a slide out keyboard and major software overhauls.

Free Cinema (again....)

Took advantage of Showcase Cinema's free kids offer yesterday morning (kids write a book review, they get in free, so do accompanying adults - runs through the summer holidays on Wednesday mornings) and took William and Tommy and one of Tommy's friends to see Bolt.

Wasn't expecting much, but I really, really enjoyed it. One of the better animated movies I have seen - worth a watch if you get a chance.

Next week: Night At The Museum 2 - am expecting Night At The Museum 1 with seven new jokes.

Still loving the lappy.

Been a couple of weeks now and am loving my little laptop more and more every day. Mrs Brykins is now doing her CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) exams and needs the desktop computer for two evenings every week plus a couple more for homework. Have basically lost the desktop (and my study!) for four or five nights per week.

So have moved myself to my laptop - everything important syncs between it and the desktop, my email and Twitter and Facebook and everything is all in two places so I have re-discovered the joys of sitting in the garden or even watching some TV while I Tweet.

Shame the battery is turning out to be only good for two hours...but then the extended battery (that gives five hours) makes the laptop a horrible shape. And there's plenty of sockets around the house!

So now am thinking about a hard drive upgrade and an additional 2GB of memory.......

Coolest Pic Ever?

Packard Bell Dot M/A Laptop

Having had to give back my laptop and iPhone when I left my last job, it very quickly became clear that the house doesn't function if I can't get to a computer. Then Mrs Brykins decided that she would do her CIMA course online.....requiring the computer for three lots of three hours each week!

I've also been thinking more and more about re-starting my own business (and maybe doing it properly this time) and so I justified the expense of a new laptop. Tesco's had a nice offer on with £70 off the price of a Packard Bell Dot M/A so now a nice shiny black one is sat in front of me. In fact I am typing this on it right now.

11.6" screen (1366 x 768 pixels)

2GB RAM

160GB hard drive

1.6Ghz AMD Athlon 64bit processor

Webcam

Wifi

etc, etc, etc

It's great! It's very small (not even an inch thick) and light and the battery does a good three hours with careful use. It's as fast as my desktop in most things (though I may get a faster, bigger hard drive and an extra 2GB RAM for it to make it a bit quicker)