Impatient much?

Okay. I couldn't wait. I had to have it now. So I read through many of the hack sites about the Droid and downloaded the update to my SD card and booted it using the x key and the power button. Then it came up in recovery mode and I told it to update using the update.zip file. And off to the races we went. This took about 10 minutes total.

So early impressions...

I like. First thing I noticed is it takes longer to boot, but once it is running, it is hesitant yet faster. It is as if the screen is thinking for a moment and then poof, here is what you wanted. It seems responsive.

Text Messaging: Now it pulls pictures from Facebook and the Google Talk to place pictures beside names in text messages. Also a slight color bar difference makes it easier to follow text messaging threads.

Screens: Now it has five screens instead of three. While it has taken me some time to get used to using screens and being willing to clutter up my screens with app icons, they work very well. Plus, now there are small little screen buttons that allow you to swap back and forth through the screens though you can also swap screens using a finger swipe. I have yet to use widgets as they eat memory and annoy me more than they should. Widgets and animated wall paper use up the battery and I prefer the battery to last longer.

Camera: While I haven't taken any pictures I did visit the camera feature to find it has a lot more options for flash and focus. Plus it has settings for auto, incandescent, daylight, florescent, and cloudy. In video mode you can finally use flash while recording plus the day settings are available there as well.

New home button and launch pad. Now there is a launch pad for phone, apps, and browsing that is available on every screen. This is very handy. And as you go to different programs, the home button is available a lot more often. This is handy.

Gmail is a bit more streamlined.

That is it for today. More on the phone tomorrow.

I ain't got no FroYo

So supposedly FroYo, version 2.2 of the Android operating system, was released last week for Motorola Droid phones (original edition). However, it is into week two and I have yet to get my FroYo. Others online have gotten their updates but I have not. I heard rumors an error had cropped up and they were delaying it by one week on any other phones, but the rumor was last week and I am in week two with FroYo envy. Verizon, while I am well aware you do not love your customers, only our money, I was so excited when the Droid phone came out and it "seemed" as if you were going to allow an open platform where we could do anything with our phone it was capable of doing. I enjoyed having the coolest phone this side of Apple's iPhone. I have used many apps that I have downloaded and the GPS functionality has taken me many a mile down the road including 2,000 plus miles on a family road trip. I even bought the body glove hard body for my Droid and the GPS car mount. And now you delay my lust. And you take from my grasp new features such as tethering and mobile hotspot. These features you offer for free on the Palm Pre and for an additional fee of $20.00 on top of the $30 I pay for a data plan for my phone. My DLS doesn't cost that much and it is a hell of a lot faster. I never reach the unlimited number of 5 gigabytes of data. Which is strange as Merriam-Webster defines "unlimited" as:

Main Entry: un·lim·it·ed 

Pronunciation: \-ˈli-mə-təd\

Function: adjective

Date: 15th century

1 : lacking any controls : unrestricted 

2 : boundless, infinite 

3 : not bounded by exceptions : undefined 

— un·lim·it·ed·ly adverb

taken from Merriam-Webster.com http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unlimited

I am so confused. And yet, now, even with the limitations you are placing upon me, I will settle for you just giving me the update. I will wallow in the self pity of "no tethering" and at least be happy you love me enough to give me decent coverage even in my small town that is so far away from Silicon Valley. 

Please Verizon, love me like the Droid fanboy I am.

The trouble with Norton

So I have my Norton Antivirus set up for automatic renewal only because they make it near impossible not to. I am actually a McAfee fan as McAfee has pulled my butt out of several fires over the years so it is hard not to have some love for them. Norton made the world's best disk utilities and I didn't really love the idea of them becoming a security company. Symantec has bought a lot of good companies only to cast them aside after sucking what good marrow there was and then corrupted it beyond use or recognition. But hey, that is a post for another day. Back to the original story already in progress...

So my automatic renewal took place in June. I had installed Windows 7 (180 day trial) on to the PC over on top of Vista so the machine was actually useful for something. Norton continued to work okay. However the trial version of Win7 began to flake out in June as directed by Microsoft. So being a college student I took advantage of the Ultimate Steal and bought Windows 7 Professional for the computer. However, you can't just upgrade Windows 7 over the trial, you have to reinstall. So I moved everything from the C partition to the D partition and installed Windows 7 fresh on the C partition. This worked and I got to keep my files. However, Norton was gone and I could not find my install disk. So I tried to log on to the Norton site and it told me my password was wrong. So I told it to reset my password and send me an email. However, the email never arrives. I try this a couple of times and I give up a bit as I don't have time to keep beating my head against the wall. So today I call Norton and ask for assistance. The gentleman on the phone wanted me to allow them to do Expert installation. I told him, no, I just want to download Norton as I have renewed my subscription and I can tell him all my info to prove it including my renewal number. He tells me no, the only way I can get Norton is to get expert installation as he wants to ensure all my software works correctly on my computer. Then he tells me this service costs money that I will have to pay. This set me off. I am usually a patient person, but this set me off. Look, my subscription renewal says I have 60 days to cancel and I think I will. I happen to have a copy of McAfee that will work just fine and he can just refund me my money. Finally, he says he will transfer me to another group and they will allow me to just download Norton. So I am put on hold to hold music for twenty minutes then I hear a phone ringing then I get a busy signal and a disconnect. Grrrrrrrr!

aroyrichardson is theroyrichardson

I have been a Twitter user for a couple of years. It has taken a while for it to really jive with me. What really is all the fuss about saying things in 140 characters or less? Try having a conversation in that few characters and see if anything makes a lot of sense. Hemmingway wrote using lots of small words. He would probably think Twitter is the coolest thing. Then again, he didn't really like electric typewriters.

So I created a Twitter account to coincide with the Blog and as fate would have it, Twitter will not let me use my entire name. I can use theroyrichardso, but I hate that. Or I could do droyrichardson? So I decided to do aroyrichardson. I will post daily tidbits there if I am so inclined. Or so reclined... 

Why?

I decided to call my blog, Technology, Food, and Life... I decided to list myself as The Roy Richardson. I used to see the comedian A. Whitney Brown on Saturday Night Live. He used to say, "Hi, I am A. Whitney Brown. I hope to some day be 'The Whitney Brown'." I kind of feel that way. There are several Roy Richardson's out there. Some day I hope to be "The Roy Richardson".