tasty blog snack

We’re having fun here on vacation.. I’m much better at Sims fishing than real fishing

Leave me lots of questions!! Yay! <3

If you want to keep up with my mobile videos, check my otherijustine youtube channel and for photos, head over to my flickr page!

I recently bought the Verizon MiFi to test out because of my recent dislike for Sprint. I’m currently using them as an EVDO solution. For the past 6 months the USB on the device has been faulty and if I move my computer while it’s plugged.. the connection drops.

I’ve went into several stores to see if they’d give me another one, and they always try to send me to another store claiming they don’t have any techs available to look at my card and tell me if something is wrong with it. Well.. I’m not a tech but when something doesn’t work that’s a pretty sure sign!!!!!

Anyways, moving forward.. I visited the Sprint store after buying my Verizon card to test out and thinking my contract was up, Sadly I find out I have another few months to go!! Asking the guy what my options are, he offers me $75 towards a new card upgrade or I can cancel my service for $150. Oh great! What I’d REALLY like is some comped service and a new working card… but actually I’ll settle with paying $150 to never have to deal with you again.

Now moving on to this Verizon 2200 MiFi card. If you have no idea what this is, it’s basically a mini mobile wireless router that anywhere Verizon has service — you’ll have internet, allowing up to 5 people to connect to it.

Since I was still a little bit skeptical, I was calmed with their 30 day returned policy and $35 restocking fee if things don’t work out — not too bad. I had a few issues activating but once you’re over that hurdle, things should be good to go!

Right now as I’m typing this in the car, I’m listening to a youtube video and my sister is also browsing on Facebook. It’s surprisingly pretty quick and being able to have a mobile hotspot wherever you go is pretty awesome. It’s also great for other wifi enabled devices like the iPhone of Nindendo DSi! I’ve been using it to download apps that are over 10 megs on my iPhone and has worked perfectly.

My only big complaint (other than being capped at 5 gigs a month and charged $0.05 per meg over) is that the USB adapter is not one of the standard ones that you have a million of. It’s a small flat micro USB so you can’t just use any old USB cord you have laying around from your camera or other device. The mifi card is battery powered so you either have to charge it via the wall adapter or plug it into your computer to charge. The only downside to plugging it into your computer is that wifi will be deactivated and you can only use the internet on that machine.

So far this little guy is getting the job done! I’ll keep you posted on how it is and feel free to share your experience if you have one with Verizon or another provider.

UPDATE:

The device is $150 with 2 year contract but comes with a $50 mail-in refund (those things are so annoying) — Service is $60 for unlimited (actually 5 gigs) a month.

Commenter Fox shared this with me: “The USB socket on there is the new Micro USB format. Most major cell phone manufacturers and cell phone carriers have agreed to use only this for future cell phones. In a few years, these cables will be as plentiful as the mini USB we all have now and it should fit just about every phone (except for iPhone, because why should Apple work and play nice with others?)”

When they announced the “S” in the new iPhone 3GS was for SPEED, they weren’t kidding! This little guy is definitely a huge step up from the last gen.

Granted, the 3.0 software is a huge part of that.. you can definitely tell how much faster it is when playing games and even taking videos (which I do quite often and post on my otherijustine youtube channel)!

Sims 3 - $9.99
The first game I downloaded was the new Sims 3 game. It was a bit pricey, but these types of games for me will get a lot of usage on airplanes and traveling. The game is pretty fun and just like any other Sims game you’d normally play on your computer — get a job, buy things for you house, and make other Sims friends. My only complaint is that you really can’t do all that much and interaction with other Sims is a little bit limited. It’s still entertaining enough to kill some time. Tip: Go fishing and sell the fish — You’ll get quick cash! Oh, and meet my husband Luke above. We just got married and he moved in.

Star Defense - $5.99
This is probably one of the most fun games I’ve played in a long time on my iPhone. If you ever played the addicting Tower Defense game, this one is even more fun and all in 3D. It has a great user experience and also has a challenge level — this allows you to tweet or facebook your scores to challenge others.

Flight Control - $0.99
By far one of the MOST addicting games you’ll ever play!! The best part is that it’s only 99 cents You have to land plans and helicopters on the runway without them crashing into each other. Sounds simple enough but once you start getting to higher levels.. it’s not so simple! My highest score is 149 — I didn’t restore my new iPhone from my last one so it didn’t save it. Let me know what your highest score it!

Tweetie - 2.99
Tweetie is great because it has a great user interface, is quick, allows multiple user accounts, trends, find users nearby, and pretty much every feature you’d want in a twitter application. They’ve also added some themes too — dark, simple and bubble!

Tweet Deck - FREE!
Since tweetdeck is free, there is really no excuse not to try it. The interface is extremly impressive allowing you swipe through columns of all friends, mentions, direct messages and any custom one you create. The only downside is that this app is still early and is missing a lot of features. It doesn’t have trends, clickable hashtags, or a way for you to go directly to a users profile page. It’s also a little unstable at times, but hopefully this will all be resolved in a future update.

PixelPipe - Free
This app is great for syndicating photos and videos out to the web. I’m pretty sure it includes every major social networking and sharing site that you could ever want to send your content to — pretty crazy!

When I synced my new iPhone I left all of the applications off. I went a little overboard on my last phone and really never used ANY of those crazy things I downloaded. Other than these apps, I also have Facebook, foursquare, taximagic, nightcamera, and photogene installed currently on my phone. These are all great apps that server their purpose. On my new phone, I’m vowing to create less clutter with apps that aren’t needed.

This past year I’ve been a part of the Intel Insiders. Intel partnered with a group of social media gurus who they’ve kept updated with Intel news, events, and various products to test out.

We also offered our feedback and social media savvyness (even though I don’t think that is a word) to help Intel maximize their social media presence. I’ve had a lot of fun meeting everyone and even getting to tour Intel’s Santa Clara facility last year!

One of my favorite highlights this past year was attending CES with Intel. They had a huge presence there and they even sponsored a party where the Counting Crows performed! Not only are they one of my favorite bands EVER, but some of you might not know that in another life (a few years ago) I used to be a band photographer — so being able to shoot some photos the Counting Crows was really exciting. The full blog post is here.

Mose recently I worked on the fun Mobile Manners project with Intel. This was by far one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on to date. If you haven’t yet seen the series of videos yet, be sure to check those out here! Definitely let me know what you think

To read more about all of the insiders, check out Ken’s blog post here.

I love puppies.. I really do. I want one more than anything but I travel too much to have one. So, since the new iPhone has video I’ve been obsessively filming and uploading puppy videos to youtube (because they make it so so easy!) — I love them so much that I made a separate youtube channel for my obsession.

I’m not really actively promoting this channel, but if you enjoy a cute puppy now and then.. feel free to check ijustinesiphone on youtube

Ask iJ #13 is up! Ask your questions.. here

Don’t forget to follow Covino and Rich on twitter!

Made this video right after we snuck into the store. They weren’t letting people in who wanted to buy anything other than iPhones.. but thankfully we managed to get in and see if there was anything they could do about this 48 hour activation thing, and they said I’d just have to wait. BUT, I was able to swap the sim cards for the time being, so it is working.

[ this video was the first I posted this morning after getting my iPhone at 9am ]

Yeah, it might not be the most exciting video but I just woke up and had a nice little treat delivered to me — my new iPhone! This makes me wonder why anyone would ever even go to the store and wait in line? Other than for the experience of going there.. just order this little guy online!

Sadly though, it won’t activate yet. It’s saying it could take up to 48 hours for activation because of the large volume of people who are currently activating. That is really annoying and makes me even more angry at AT&T. You knew this day was coming, was there nothing you could do to resolve this issue??! You’re already making us wait for MMS and internet tethering.. I can’t even use my new phone yet!!!

Second video I posted using my iPhone! This is the most awesome little rig ever that Alex Lindsay from Pixelcorps made.. you can see their entire video of this little guy here.

Another video outside — audio sounds great even outside. A little harsh with the wind, but that’s pretty much with every camera.

Another video of some shoes.. yes, perhaps it might be boring but the fact that this was shot on an iPhone is AWESOME!! I so love my new phone. In. LOVE.

So, one tip that I didn’t put in this video is that you shouldn’t FORGET ALL OF YOUR SHOES!! I did that on this trip and it sucks. Most girls were tweeting me about how it’s a good excuse to go shopping.. but guess what — I hate to shop! lol

Anyways, I made this video in honor of howcast and jetblue (who now flies to NYC and Boston to LAX — this is huge because LA people would always have to drive an hour + to long beach) and because I was supposed to be flying on their inaugural flight, but was at the twitter conference instead.

Anyways, I have so many funny and odd traveling stories that I should share more of these and make them into tip vids! Could be fun.

I made these fun videos with Intel from the results of a survey they had conducted by Harris Interactive (online survey with 2,160 participants 18 and older) on mobile manners. Let me know what you think of the videos and feel free to take Intel’s quiz and see what your mobile manners are

The results were quite interesting and not really surprising.. I mean honestly.. how many times have YOU been annoyed by one of these situations?!

Also, if you tweet any of these videos or have a mobile manners pet peeve of your own, feel free to tweet it and add the hash tag #mobilemanners

Top Peeves:
• 9 out 10 adults reported having a mobile etiquette pet peeve
• 72% of adults said that their top annoyance is when others text or type on their mobile devices while driving a car
• 63% of adults cited talking loudly on an Internet-enabled device in public as irritating
• 55% said discussing private matters in public was a peeve
• 54% reported texting or typing on mobile devices in the presence of others as another top pet peeve

Strange Behaviors
• 80% of adults have witnessed someone doing something strange while on a call or accessing the Internet via a mobile device
• Top responses included making a cashier wait until a phone call is complete, typing while driving and using a laptop in a public restroom

Common Places
• More than half of adults reported that they are annoyed by people who do not follow mobile etiquette rules in cafes and restaurants
• Almost half felt the same way about movie theatres and concert venues
• Four out of 10 adults said retail and grocery stores were the top spots where they were annoyed by mobile etiquette offenders
• Quarter of adults listed public restrooms as a top spot for mobile etiquette offenses

If you’re around a TV/Radio tomorrow and watching/listening to the news.. I’ll be doing a mini media tour on the following stations about mobile manners! Yeah, that’s a lot of them..

KDKA-AM Radio, CBS Pittsburgh, PA
KEX-AM Radio, ABC Portland, OR
WHAM-TV, CW-TV Rochester
WDIS-AM, Boston
WJBK-TV, Fox Detroit
CKLW-AM Radio, Detroir
WYAM-TV, Hutsville
KFBK-AM, Fox Sacramento
KDVR-TV, Fox Denver
WKMG-TV, CBS Orlando-Dayton Beach FL
KUSA-TV, NBC Denver
KWT-TV, CBS Waco-Temple
WTBR-TV, CBS Richmond
WTOL-TV, CBS Toledo
KWGN-TV, WB Denver
WQAD-TV, ABC Davenport
WTIC-AM, CBS Hartford/New Haven
CRN Radio, National
KMBC-TV, ABC Kansas City
WWMT-TV, CBS Grand Rapids
Mom Talk Radio, Miami
WBMA-TV, ABC Birmingham
KAMX-TV, CBS Sacramento
KRLA-AM Radio, Los Angeles
WLA-AM Radio, Cincinnati

Big thanks to Studio 8 for helping out on production!