I remember watching the original Tron movie and back then it was the best. With all the fancy graphics these days though I can’t really go back and watch it again without ruining it for me.
This updated version though I am really looking forward too. Do I really have to wait until December?!?!?!?!?!
I run a number of applications on my Blackberry Bold 9000 that not only run in the background but also communicate with the network. This causes the battery life on my blackberry to be very very short. I would unplug it about 9am and it would need to be recharged again at about 9pm. This was roughly 12 hours of regular use.
A few of the applications I use include Socialscope (for twitter, refreshes every 2 hours), BeejiveIM (for 4 different IM accounts, always connected but in a standby mode), Google Sync (to sync my calendar/contacts and sync’s almost every 4 hours), SmartWiFi (enables/disables WiFi based on location) and WhatsApp Messenger (always connected).
These applications are pretty much required for me and I have made adjustments to them to try minimize how much power they require but I needed to find something more to help me out.
I read an article last week on BlackBerryCoool.com about how to increase the battery life on my Blackberry. To summarize the tips without going into much details (you can read it for yourself) here are the main points.
I actually decided to do some of my own testing to see what I could do to increase it and attacked each of the above items.
1. I actually did better than that. I upgraded to the latest OS 5.0 for my device (5.0.0.509) and wiped out all applications on it to start fresh. I then installed each application one by one and ran it for a day while I monitored the battery life and memory usage. As I installed more applications the memory usage went up and the battery life went down. This is expected. What we are trying to do is reduce the amount.
2. I did this and actually was shocked that I did not notice a difference. I now run it at 10 just fine.
3. This was the game changer for me. I always just used my keyboard lock to lock my device. I always hated to press the standby button on the top as it was a pain in the ass. However the standby mode trick probably made the biggest difference. I also use an application called AddOnis, one of the features in this application is to auto lock or automatically put the phone into standby mode. This in conjunction with the ‘A’ hotkey on my Blackberry to put into standby (only on OS5) will ensure my phone is locked and in standby every time. One thing to note from what I have read is that the phone is also put into standby when you use a holster made for the Blackberry. These holsters have a magnet on them to trigger the change.
4. I didn’t notice any big changes when disabling Bluetooth when I did not require it. I usually just leave it on. However disabling WiFi added little improvement. The app SmartWiFi does this for me automatically, however I am wondering if the power it uses to scan for my location uses battery life.
5. This is more of a habit. But if you need to use your phone you need to use it.
One extra tip I have shared with a number of people, on a Blackberry that has 3G on it I would set it back to 2G. 3G uses up a lot more power and if you don’t need things such as the speed for surfing or a data connection while on a call then why keep it on? I always have it turned off and this is a big improvement to me.
One thing I also noticed is that when data coverage was minimal or non existant, certain applications seemed to trip out and start eating up my battery. I think they were just trying to connect over and over and over again. In these situations I just made sure I logged out and closed them off totally.
I guess to sum it all up I have my on set of tip’s to increasing battery life.
That is pretty much it. If you have a tip send it along and I will update the list.
Rogers released an update to their digital boxes last year that changed the way the guide button worked. Previously when you pressed the guide button it would go into the program guide. I guess that is obvious. They then introduced a quick start menu that came up instead when you pressed the guide.
This quick start menu was probably meant to help you get to specific channels easily but in the end it seemed like a bigger hassle as you had to actually press guide twice to get back to the old program guide.
A LOT of people complained and Rogers has finally made a change to the interface to allow you to select the way the guide button works. The solution is not perfect however as you will need to press the guide button twice to get back to the normal picture, which is not as annoying. But it works. Hopefully in a future release they can let us get rid of the quick start menu entirely.
I must say that this is impressive as it shows you that they were listening. And when a company listens and does something it goes a long way in customer satisfaction. A lot of organizations should learn from this.
See below instructions from the Rogers blog.
Here’s how to modify the settings:
1. On remote, click the guide button
2. Select “Self-Service”
3. Click “Change GUIDE Order” option
4. A screen that looks like this will appear:
5. Select one of the following options: “Quick Start menu first” or “TV Listings first.” (Your option appears in red)
6. Repeat for each digital box in your home.
Source: Rogers RedBoard
Seriously now! (I type like I speak). When did I lose the right of way when making a right hand turn on a street to somebody making a left in front of me? Has there been a change to the driving rules in the last few years? Do I need to upgrade my skills? Somebody please let me know!
In the last few years driving in my neck of the woods has gotten extremely bad. I have almost seen it all and it doesn’t look like it is going to get better.
I will sum up a few things here.
Stop signs are not optional. And this includes red lights! You must stop. At all times. Especially when there are other people around. I will however forgive those rolling stops when nobody is around. Even though it is against the law I will let that slide.
Don’t pass the school bus when the lights are flashing. This is one of those situations that once you see it the first thing you say is ‘where is a cop when you need one?’. It doesn’t matter if you are making a right or left just wait until the lights stop flashing.
Be patient when making that left turn. For some reason people love to make that left turn in front of me at the very last minute making me slam on my brake and horn. It has happened numerous times. The part that pisses me off the most about this is that 90% of the time there is nobody behind me. IF they just waited for me to pass the road would have been clear for them. But I guess that isn’t as fun.
Continuing on that note. Stop pulling out in front of me at extremely slow speeds when I am coming down the road. Why must I suffer because you don’t know how to drive. Just wait until the road is clear and then cruise at your own leisure. This is extremely dangerous especially on a road where the speed limit is 70 km/h.
Stop trying to squeeze in that left turn when the light is red. This one is really getting ridiculous. These days my advance green is finished before I can even turn left because I am stuck waiting on all the people turning left on the red light ahead of me. You are only creating a hassle.
Now I don’t know what can be done to improve the situation. Maybe the police should get a little more strict with their tickets. If I get one and I truly was doing something wrong I will pay for it. But of course we are always innocent.
I could recommend that everyone should be retested every 5-10 years but I do not feel this would help. Whoever these people payed to get their license from in the past they will pay again.
I think we need to go to the root of the cause and examine the people that are giving out these driving licenses. They need to get harder on the tests. I can honestly say that a lot of drivers in my area do not look comfortable behind the wheel. This makes me nervous. Its amazing how easy it was for me to get my motorcycle license.
The only positive thing in all of this is that I am now a very good defensive driver.
Thanks for putting up with my rant.
This is why the Toronto Raptors have the best mascot in the NBA. This was good!!!
While growing up I was constantly told to respect my elders. And if being told isn’t enough to convince you this here is video proof as to why you should.
Keep in mind the bearded man is 67 years old. This occurred on a bus in AC and since the incident the bearded man has gained huge publicity on the internet and even has been doing radio and television interviews.
Please note there may be some foul language in this video. But you will get a good laugh out of it.
Recently Blogger sent a notification to all of its bloggers that had their sites hosted on their own domains and published via ftp. This notification basically let us know that they will be cancelling this service.
I took the opportunity to look around at some more advanced tools and decided to switch everything over to WordPress.
With that being said you are now looking at the new blog. It pretty much looks the same but is a lot more powerful. I am even publishing this post from my Blackberry.
You may have to update your RSS feed in your feed reader. I couldn’t get around that. But I have modified it so that if I change again in the future the feed will be th same.
Hopefully I don’t have too many things broken from the transition. If you find anything let me know.
