My new BB 9900

I bought my long awaited new phone this week, the Blackberry 9900, and have been playing with it for a few days now. My initial opinion is that it is a great update over my current Bold 9000.
The OS is intuitive and seems to be very well thought through.

I have been a BB fan since my work gave me a Curve 8320 years ago - it is still going strong and the build quality is clearly fantastic. It has been dropped and (accidentally!) kick along the floor - no harm done. My Bold 9000 fell and acquired a few bashes but again its so well made that it never missed a beat. I have had other phones which died completely after much less abuse.....

The thing I didn't like about the 9000 was the battery life. It didn't take much for it to die. I don't think I am the only one though.

Back to my lovely new phone. I have installed most of the applications I was used to - no Weather app yet but I am sure it will be upgraded for OS 7. I am a heavy user of REX's ToDOMatrix and IdeaMatrix, both of which are now running fine on my 9900.The transfer process was fairly easy although their FAQ section was years out of date. I did finally find the correct help and all went smoothly.

I haven't yet worked out how to edit the RSS feds but that will be this weekends adventures - I try to work it out, and rarely resort to help files. I get a great sense of achievement when it all finally works...

I thought long and hard about moving to an iPhone - I have 2 macs at home and love them - but just couldn't bring myself to move away from the physical keyboard. It is even better now than on either the 8320 or 9000 and RIM have done a great job of fitting loads onto a tidy little package. I saw a 4 inchLG in the shop and can't imagine having to lug that around. I can read everything I need to ( now I have my new Varulux glasses!!) and zooming works fine - no need for so much screen IMHO of course.

I can't recommend it highly enough. Here it is after the unboxing ;-)

Mamma Mia in Glasgow

I have to say I was disappointed this afternoon. I have seen the show 4 times now and this one was much less well presented than before. The sound was very strange. Someone would start to sing and you couldn't hear them until 2 lines in - like someone forgot to turn up their mike. Many of the songs missed their normal magic. The female leads were OK, if a bit shouty in places, but the men were a disappointment. Maybe it was the afternoon show blues but this just missed the point. There was no spark.

Its a shame as this is normally great fun - I did have fun but that was due to the music not the singing.

I hope it's normally better than it was today.

The first version I saw was in Dutch and when I saw the English version (Edinburgh a few years ago) it was just as good. This time wasnt.
Not wanting to be too critical  - but Sky was cardboard and Bill wasn't singing at all - he sounded like he just shouted the words.

Maybe its just me. I wonder what others thought.

Why I hate Novamind 5

A year or so ago I decided that I wanted to get into MindMapping but didnt like what software was offered by work. It was not intuative and too complicated. I tested as many as I could find - Mindjet, Buzan, Brain, etc etc and found them all too much like hard work, until I finally found NovaMind 4!!!

It was fantastic - easy to use, made great coloutful pictures and good images. I downloaded the Mac version for use at home but that was horrible. I loved the Windows version but the mac one seemed odd.

So, as ever, I bought it to use at work and sold my soul to the IT dept to be allowed to install this non standard software on my work PC. I was only about 12 days into my 30 day trial of NovaMind 4 when I bought it. By the time my 30 days trial would have been up they had introduced the free upgrade to NovaMind 5. I questioned if I didnt also get a free upgrade as had I waited till the end of my trial I would have qualified but... - no luck.

So I used my NovaMind 4 version  all year - loving every minute of it. I used it for everything -home work- everywhere.

I was kept up to date with the development of NovaMind 5 described as the biggest advancement ever in mindmapping. So when it was finally launched I upgraded immediately.
WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY.

What I got presented with was SLOOOOOOWW, and no where near as intuative as the v4. The tools which made it colourful were hidden in the million of menus. It is a disaster for me. I have tried to get used to it - I have installed all the updates hoping that one of them will make the things quicker - but, no - its still as slow as treacle and horrible.

I regret upgrading and am going to uninstall it  - what a waste of time.

My advice  - get Mindjets Mindmanager

jings is that the time??

well here I am again after a looong long time.
my last post was mid way through my attempt to get to run 5km. I am now half way through the 10k training but have had a 2 month winter break in between... hated the snow in the end, it was like it was never going to end. But never fear, it finally melted and I could get back out to run on pavements and be able to see the dog poo - so I didn't run in it. Many dog owners appear to be unable to pick the stuff when its cold outside.... leaving it in the middle of the pavement for unfortunate passers by to dodge.

Having chickened out twice this week ( was not feeling brilliant) I think its time to get back to the grind tomorrow. Ill be there fighting for the bike path with the cyclists and other nutters out at 8am on a Sunday. Watch this space for pretty pictures if i manage to take any...

C25K Week 5

I have been doing this beginners running program for 5 weeks now and its going remarkably well. I have never been a sporty person but I am determined to got rid of the last few kilos of ugly fat.

As I mentioned before, having children can have a terrible effect on your body and mine made me become the size of an elephant. I added a total af 35kilo from what I always was to my heaviest and it was really difficult to get rid of it.

I come from a line of larger women, some may say I am genetically predisposed to retain weight. Others in my family had children and lost the weight soon after, with me it took years.....My paternal grandmother was a large woman and other great aunts were too. I have always had the traditional tree trunk legs.....
But now I might actually getting somewhere.. dont hold your breath but you never know.

I am using Ullreys podcasts ( recommendation from a friend) and its all going OK. Today was my longest run ever at 20 mins so I am super pleased with myself.

Lets see if I get through week 6

Mobile Application Viira Helps People Get Things Done with Their BlackBerry Devices

Mobile Application Viira Helps People Get Things Done with Their BlackBerry Devices

Posted using ShareThis

I have just downloaded the Free Trial and from what I see so far its looking good and very like the book.

ll report back later if I find it really useful.

Blogging and other things

I have been playing with this blog for a few months new and at about the same time I discovered Facebook ( really quick off the mark me....). I like Facebook and I have managed to refind people from school. I have the Blog linked to my facebook account too.

There was a piece in the paper this morning saying that Facebook, Hyves, Twitter etc had  ( or will ) remove the need to Blog. It also claims that of the 133 million blogs only 1.1% are updated weekly. I certainly never have any more..

I have Facebook on my phone so its always there to be updated when I feel like it. The blog isnt, I have to prepare them.. this takes time and I just am wondering if I can me bothered.

I gave Twitter a go, it was tediously boring, what is the point of following famous peoples lives or the non famous........ I am clearly missing the point. I dont want to find it this time though.
I am looking far something to allow me to relax from my work. Facebook is currently doing a good job.

But while i am here.. Look what I found!! an intelligent coffee mug which keeps my coffee at the right temperature to drink ... no more cold coffee

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,643702,00.html