Got an early start today, which was a good thing because the trail was busy. Mile marker zero was way too tough to find! We did finally locate the little white marker right behind Thompson Boats. We then went and suited our bikes at the hotel and used their bathrooms to get the worst of the trail grime washed off. We are now having brunch at Bus Boys and Poets. Sweet potato pancakes, yum!
Yesterday was a pretty long day. We started off slow trying as best we could to avoid mud. After a really slow 15 miles or so the pace was able to pickup. We did have beautiful scenery again which has been a constant on this trip. We have seen deer every day on the trail usually multiple times. Lots of squirrels, a big girls and more than our share of midges. We got to Horsepen Branch where we were supposed to camp and didn’t like how close to the trail it was so we pressed on to Swains Lock which was much nicer and only leaves us 17 miles to D.C. Ate delicious IndianVegetable Korma we brought with us.
After such a promising start and a few delicious smoothies at Desert Rose, about five miles out a thunderstorm hit. Twenty miles in a down pour, through mud and silt was not a good time. I made an executive decision (since more storms are predicted) and got us a hotel in Shepardstown. There was no shelter for that span of the trail and it was really slow going because of the ruts in this section. Fortunately the hotel had a hose and we were able to clean us and our gear up. Most everything is wet and we have things strewn all over our room in an attempt to dry out. We did do a full load of laundry which was sorely needed. The storms should be done tomorrow by around 9am, so we may get a late start. We did about 53 miles today, only 72 more trail miles to go! Off to play some games…
Our Wednesday night stay at the C&O Cycle Bunk House. Met a young girl traveling North solo here. There was a Sheetz a few blocks away so I got several large waters and two large chocolate milks for our late night snack.
A nice ride from Hancock to Williamsport about half done for the day. Having lunch and smoothies at the Desert Rose Cafe.
Lil Ben’s Milk Stout at Buddy Lou’s. Waiting on my Crabcake Sandwich and Brussels sprouts. Yum!
58 miles in to our longest ride and I’m spent and ready to keel over when up ahead I hear Stefani…. singing. :-)
Another rough day complete. We ate our lunch by the Paw Paw tunnel after we were chased away from our fist stop by little flying bugs. The tunnel was not fun, muggy, narrow and bumpy. We had to walk the whole thing and we were both dripping wet by the end. Nothing like the previous tunnels. 210 down.
We had a great night’s sleep at The Bruce House Inn and we can smell something delicious in the air while finish packing. We played a few games last night and then hit the sack early as we were both very tired.
We had Pad Thai from Good To Go meals on our first camping night which was very good and easy to make. Tonight we are having our Mountain House Raspberry Crumble with some fresh bananas we picked up at a Save A Lot for dessert. The crumble was good, just a little too sweet for me. We are both looking forward to a good nights sleep in air conditioning.
We made it to the Divide!
Woke up early and rode to Meyersdale. Having breakfast at the G.I. Dayroom. We have about 8 miles to go to the Divide. Overcast and humid but much cooler ride!
Lots of beautiful bridges and scenic views. Today was much better weather wise but the millage was still very difficult. We stopped at the Lucky Dog Cafe in Confluence for lunch which was delicious. Staying the night in Rockwood and thankful to get a shower. I really thought I was in better shape! Riding with all that weight is very tiring. Stef is awesome, no complaints, and keeps the pace consistent.
Yesterday was brutal. Hot, humid headwind in the sun. By the time we got to Roundbottom camp we were both exhausted. I had cramps in my legs while riding, mostly from the heat. Beautiful scenery though, absolutely gorgeous along the river. We got a late start with a little confusion on which trail we were on so we did about 55 miles for the day. The camp was very primitive but we got there just before a brief thunderstorm and the three sided shelter kept us dry. We setup the tent without the fly to keep the bugs off. The late start did let us vs have s delicious lunch at the Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe.
On our way.
Why does any vacation start with the feeling that you have forgotten something?
Prep day!
Thoughts on the Pebble Time - Year 2… While it still has some bugs to work out, the Pebble is a fantastic watch overall. My most missed feature is compatibility with MapMyFitness apps. (this was also my most used feature of the original Pebble. I do like the Voice text message response quite a lot more than I thought I would. Not having to charge my battery for several days… priceless!
HanDbase usage as a check-list is very good. You can set-up a single page list on a tablet and eliminate horizontal scrolling. Comparison of HanDbase to Memento Pro on Android: HanDbase lets you tap check boxes while in list view, Memento sort of lets you do the same thing in a less flexible way. Are either of them needed by the average user since Sheets and Google Keep?
I love Pathfinder ACG, it has fun RPG elements with loads of options during play. This game has quickly made it to my number one “want to play it” game. Setup time is average and there are tons of things to keep track of which makes it easy to get things wrong or miss rules. I still am not sure we have played it completeley by the book yet. One big negative is that the card backs from the latest adventure sets are distincively different from my original set. Not a deal breaker but could slightly affect game play.
Skulls is a fun, quick game that is easy to teach. We tried it out over the weekend. It was also the loudest game played at game day!
The one thing I do miss on the iPhone is the Drafts app. I have yet to find an Android replacement. It makes working with any kind of text easy and really shines when combined with other apps. I have used it for years and I’m still not using the app to its full potential.
Interesting article on privacy and where we are headed.
Soon I will be riding from Pittsburgh to D.C. on two trails, The Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Trail. At around 330 miles, the plan is to bike from Sunday to Saturday and then take Amtrak back to Cleveland. I hope to Journal a little each day about how things are going as well as post tips for anyone who is thinking of taking a similar trip.
Yes, Pokemon Go is a fun little pass time, can we please have something else in the news now? Anything?
Sigh.
Stefani and I rode 32 miles this morning to start getting in shape for the big trip.
So far I’m not too sore, let’s hope it stays that way.
“If you can’t run, you crawl. If you can’t crawl– you find someone to carry you.”
― Joss Whedon
Just finished reading All Star Superman again. What a fantastic story. One of my all time favorites.
I gave up on the new Pebble Time this past weekend. Although I really love the Pebble watches, two frustrations with the new Time model have pushed me back to the original Pebble. The main issue is that I can’t control MapMyFitness from the watch. The original Pebble shows my mileage, time and lets me start and stop my workout with a touch of a button. I use that feature more than any other on the watch and that includes the nice SMS voice response on the Time. The other issue is a minor quibble, even though the color e-ink screen is pretty, it is slightly smaller and can be more difficult to read without my glasses. Both still have the 4-7 day battery life that I consider the minimum edge for me, any less and I would find myself with a dead watch at the most inopportune times. I guess I will just keep checking the forums to see if Under Armor adds support for the Time… until then, back to the drawing board.
I know I definitely have a love/hate relationship with Apple. Apple does so many things right, their products are generally easy to use and for the most part they are well made. It is the things they do wrong that infuriate me. The iOS walled garden makes it tough to exchange data between apps, also apps never “crash,” they just occasionally exit with no explanation :-(, over priced hardware with limited storage, planned obsolescence… and finally the bloated mess that is iTunes. There are two things I do miss however, Android Cut and Paste is not quite as easy as on iOS and I really miss the ability of double tapping on the top of the screen to go to the top of web pages! In general, I really don’t like the iPhone keyboard, it is not very user friendly. Multiple tapping to get keys and weird shifting, Swype is so much easier to use! Who knows, the next new Apple shiny might lure me back… for now though, Android is my daily driver.
One way you can use Cryptsync files with Android is with a combination of FolderSync and ZArchiver Pro. You can set the .cryptsync file extension to automatically open ZArchiver and then just use the encryption password you have set. With FolderSync, you can sync specific folders over to your Android device from a variety of sources such as, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, or even a SFTP site. Then you extract the file to wherever you want. It’s a little round-about method but all of this work keeps your files more secure and in your control. Encryption take place on your device, not on your cloud service. This only works if you are using PKZip style encryption not GnuPG.
Wadsworth Library Book In 5k. Felt really good and took off almost 4 minutes from last years time…
Interesting.
This tool is now in my standard install for Windows machines. Tremendously useful and easy to pick up, this lets me do everything from automate quick text replaces to sticking a custom date stamp into my text files. I am keeping my scripts in Dropbox to share them between machines.
1) microSD card slot - Is expandable storage really that hard?
2) HDMI out
3) removable battery
4) 7"+ screen size
5) lightweight and speedy
6) No bloatware. Some extra software is fine, as long as I can remove it if I want to.
7) A physical Mute button would be a bonus
1) Reasonable size - This means roughly around the size of the iPhone 4 or Razr M
2) Removable battery with decent battery life - It has to make it through a full day!
3) Ability to completely backup my phone to a PC - This shouldn’t be that hard! Why can’t I just connect to a pc, run backup software and save all of my crap! The cloud is nice in theory but never gets everything, iTunes does who knows what (it is not a full backup, that’s for sure!) I can do this but it requires rooting/unlocking/jailbreak and I shouldn’t need to do that just to backup my phone.
4) Waterproof and gorilla glass (no, not actual glass, Apple do you hear me!?!?)
5) Customizable software - If I want to change my soft keyboard, let me, add a clipboard extension? No problem.
6) Stable
7) Removable storage - Yes, the cloud is nice, but I’d still like my data without downloading please.
Why is it so hard to quit Clash of Clans? I think it is difficult to delete that game and others like it because the time investment is so visible. Everytime you go into the game you see what you have built and are reminded of how long it took to get there. Ongoing “building” games differ than other games in that reguard, nostalgia sucks you back in so easily. You lie to yourself - Well, I can keep the game around just in case I want to go back to it sometime… Then over time the icon just sits there… mocking you. “Your town needs a leader!” whispers CoC. What, I thought I shut those notifications off? Well, maybe just a few minutes to clean up my town and re-arm my defenses. Sigh. Delete the app. It’s the only way to really be free.
One thing iOS does better is the way it handles text editing. I can never seem to position my cursor on Android devices without multiple tries. The tap and hold with magnifier method iOS uses is more accurate and easier to use. Android does have an edge when it comes to clip board add-ons . I would like to see more apps to enhance the clipboard.
Here are some thoughts on the HP Folio 9470m versus the original Folio. Why? HP, why did you put a useless slot on this laptop? Not only did you put a SC slot on this machine, you took away the SD Card slot! This makes no sense at all. The laptop itself is not bad, aalthoughthe original Folio tops it in many ways. The original had much better battery life, a SD Card slot, NO POINTER STICK (I just can’t get used to the darn thing), and a better size. The main advantage the 9740 has is one additional USB port. (Three USB ports on laptops should be standard on all laptops or *at least* put the two USB slots on the same side!) Both machines are plenty zippy with adequate storage space. They both have good screens, the 9740 is larger and has less screen glare because the original Folio has a more glossy finish. The 9740 has dedicated Page Up and Down keys which is nice but not critical. I prefered the HDMI port of the Original over the 9740’s Display Port. All in all, how to make the Original a perfect machine for me? Add one USB 3 port. Oh, and get HP to start selling it again.
Stefani and I rode 32 miles this morning to start getting in shape for the big trip.
So far I’m not too sore, let’s hope it stays that way.
“If you can’t run, you crawl. If you can’t crawl– you find someone to carry you.”
― Joss Whedon
Just finished reading All Star Superman again. What a fantastic story. One of my all time favorites.
I gave up on the new Pebble Time this past weekend. Although I really love the Pebble watches, two frustrations with the new Time model have pushed me back to the original Pebble. The main issue is that I can’t control MapMyFitness from the watch. The original Pebble shows my mileage, time and lets me start and stop my workout with a touch of a button. I use that feature more than any other on the watch and that includes the nice SMS voice response on the Time. The other issue is a minor quibble, even though the color e-ink screen is pretty, it is slightly smaller and can be more difficult to read without my glasses. Both still have the 4-7 day battery life that I consider the minimum edge for me, any less and I would find myself with a dead watch at the most inopportune times. I guess I will just keep checking the forums to see if Under Armor adds support for the Time… until then, back to the drawing board.
I know I definitely have a love/hate relationship with Apple. Apple does so many things right, their products are generally easy to use and for the most part they are well made. It is the things they do wrong that infuriate me. The iOS walled garden makes it tough to exchange data between apps, also apps never “crash,” they just occasionally exit with no explanation :-(, over priced hardware with limited storage, planned obsolescence… and finally the bloated mess that is iTunes. There are two things I do miss however, Android Cut and Paste is not quite as easy as on iOS and I really miss the ability of double tapping on the top of the screen to go to the top of web pages! In general, I really don’t like the iPhone keyboard, it is not very user friendly. Multiple tapping to get keys and weird shifting, Swype is so much easier to use! Who knows, the next new Apple shiny might lure me back… for now though, Android is my daily driver.
Here is a little insight into my current Note-taking system.
[My Requirements]
simple no-frills note taking
system independent
flexible
No-hassle backups
[My Current Setup]
Web: Simplenote (free account)
PC: ResophNotes (free) coupled with Dropbox (free)
Droid: AndroNoter (free)
iPod Touch: Dropbox or Simplenote client (I really don't use this much but it is an option)
Using Resoph, you can set up your Simplenote account sync and tell the software to store the notes in a folder as text files. I use a folder in Dropbox for this purpose so everything is synced with ease to both Dropbox and SimpleNote accounts. Resoph can be a little quirky but it is very good at what it is designed for, dead simple sync of text notes to Simplenote. It also supports Markdown, a text to HTML conversion utility which uses certain text markers to do some basic text formatting.
In addition to this I use Evernote, which lets me take Notes is other formats like pictures or Web Pages. Evernote has clients on PC, iPhone, Web, and Android. It is very easy to take a picture or screenshot and zip it off to my Evernote folder. The basic service is free but you can get more storage and features for a fee.
I rarely use the web based versions of these solutions but it is nice to know they are there if I need them. There are certainly many other combinations of software to accomplish the same thing but so far this setup has been the easiest and most reliable.
Uniwar - Awesome! I can't seem to stop playing this game. I have run
the battery down several times already in an effort to "play just one
more round." I can't wait to try the online multi-player. This game
is basically turn based Starcraft. Seems well balanced so far.
Graphics are crisp and control is excellent. [Rating: A-]
Azkend - Fun tile based puzzle game with achievements and enough
diversity to keep my interest. [Rating: B]
FlightControl - Fun quick little game that I seem to be horrible at.
(But I keep playing?) Use your finger to control planes fight paths.
Land them without hitting other planes. Simple, right? Sure :)
[Rating: B-]
More to come...
--
Sent from my mobile device
Wurdle - A fun variation of Boggle. It lets you play the same layout
for multi-player games. (one person after the other)
Word Jong - Majohng tiles removed to make words. Fun and can be quite
challenging. Chicktionary is still my favorite!
iDracula - A side scrolling shooter? Yes, and it is ok, the controls
frustrated me so I haven't played much of this one.
LightBike - 3D Tron. Fun for a bit. Lets you play 2 player on the
same screen or 4 player with WiFi.
Blocked - This is Traffic on the Palm, get the object to the exit by
moving the other objects out of the way. Simple and fun, good for
short bursts.
Primrose - Reminds me of life crossed with Merlin. A fun and very
challenging puzzle game.
Puzzle Quest (Chapters 1&2) - Saved this for last, because I have this
game on PSP and DS as well. I really like this game, it makes
Bejeweled type game play fun. The iPod version falls in between the
PSP and the DS as far as playability. For a few reasons the PSP works
better, due in most part to a larger screen and more accurate
controls. The control on the Touch is very good for the most part, I
just think the Analog stick on the PSP is quicker and better suited to
the game play. Personally, I think this game is better that Aurora
Feint.
More to come...
On to the games:
TapDefense (Free) - A decent Tower Defense Game.
Topple (Free) - It is a game kind of like Jenga with different shaped
blocks that you try to balance. Fun.
Labyrinth LT (Free) - Try to get a marble from one point to another
without falling in holes along the way. Control the marble by tilting
the Touch. I got bored pretty quickly with this one.
CrystalDef Lite (Free) - Tower Defense Game, I haven't played much but
it looks pretty good.
Frotz (Free) - Play text adventures like Zork where all interaction is
through typed commands. Comes with a selection of good games and I
found it fun. You can download more games from within the game.
FieldRunners - Tower Defense Game. Pretty Basic but a lot of fun.
Good graphics and sound. Good controls.
Reign - RPG/Strategy. I want to like this one, but every time I play
it, I get frustrated with the controls.
Enigmo - Weird Game, but fun. Reminds me of Rube Goldburg type
machines. You need to get dripping water into an flask by using
various tools.
Dr. Awesome - Remember Qix? Fun and cheap. Has some pretty nice
graphics but the game play gets a little repetitive. Basically you are
a surgeon closing off portions of the infection without getting hit by
the nastiness.
7Cites TD - A Very Fun Tower Defense Game. Adds a little variety to
tower defense with tower upgrades and experience points for new tower
abilities. Well thought out controls.
Tiki Towers - World of Goo Clone. Build structures to get your
monkeys to safety. Fun so far but WoG is better! :)
Aurora Feint II (Arena) - Puzzle Quest/Bejeweled type game.
Interesting game but a little hard to get into. Does not quite capture
the fun I experienced with Puzzle Quest.
Chicktionary $1.99 - Fun Word Game. Find different word in the 7
letters you are given. Lots of nice little touches like,
achievements, good graphics, and quick gameplay.
Drop7 $0.99 - Fun Bejeweled game with numbers. This game is so simple
but very hard to put down!!! Well worth the buck.
More to come as the days go by...
iTouch apps I have so far: (* denotes free)
General
*eReader - Excellent eBook reader (the Touch is a great ebook reader)
*Stanza - Very good eBook Reader
*Twitterrific - Manage Twitter account, it was free. They have a
version without ads for pay.
*Flickster - Movie Showtimes (might get rid of this, I think it duplicates i.TV)
*Remote - Control iTunes on your PC (haven't tried it yet)
*Shazam - Record and identify songs (you might get more use out of
this since you have a built-in mic)
*Google Earth - nifty
*i.TV - TV/Movie Guide - does NetFlix, Tivo (ad supported, I like it so far)
*PhoneFlix - mange Netflix Queue (might be replaced by i.TV)
*Ping Lite - useful for network diagnostics
*Watchmen - Loads of info & trailers for the movie
*SaiSuke Free - Calendar replacement that syncs with Google (free
version does 7 days)
*1337pwn - XBox Live friend list (slow but kind of fun)
*IGN - Game reviews
*Wathchmen - Info and clips of the movie
SplashID - Password Database Program (syncs to a desktop version)
Wikipanion - Reformats and allows offline viewing of Wikipedia articles
Photogene - Crop and simple photo editing
Converter - Measurement conversion (nice and simple)
HanDbase - Database Program (syncs to a desktop version, supports CSV/PDB files)
Brushes - Basic drawing program (sometimes tough to adjust the sliders
but it is a nice and simple app)
Take A Note - Text/Draw/Record notes and lets you share them with a PC
(I used this to get my Palm Memos copied over)
Air Sharing - Lets you view a variety of files and use your Touch like
a Flash Drive
Score - Keep scores for up to six players in any type of game
iSSH - SSH client
Toodledo - Task Manager (web sync)
Games:
*TapDefense - Tower Defense Game
*Topple - Game like Jenga
*Labyrinth Lite - Marble Moving Game
*CrystalDef Lite - Tower Defense Game
*Frotz - Text adventures like Zork
*Labryinth LE - Marble rolling
FieldRunners - Tower Defense Game
Reign - RPG/Strategy
Enigmo - Weird Game, but fun
Dr. Awesome - Remember Qix? Fun and cheap.
7Cites TD - Very Fun Tower Defense Game
Tiki Towers - World of Goo Clone?
Aurora Feint II (Arena) - Puzzle Quest/Bejeweled type game
Diversions:
*Lightsaber - Motion active lightsaber
*Flashlight - White Screen
*Backgrounds - Good background downloader (ad supported)
*PktSounds - A variety of sounds (sounds are soft when playing through
the speaker)
iFart - Gotta have fart sounds
MachDice - Die roller
I Want to look closer at these things:
Apps:
Pocket Informant - calendar replacement & google sync
Orb?
VNC?/Remote Desktop
MazeFinger (free)
Spore Origins
Pandora Radio
Fring - (trying today!)
Line Rider iRide
Manifesto (free?)
omz:software Newsstand
LateNiteSoft Sketches
FileMagnet
Tap Tap Revenge (free)
Accessories:
AirCurve - (Interesting speaker enhancement gizmo?)
Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 $125-220 (Headphones)
More to come as I continue to explore this great little device!
Things I miss:
Datebk5 - I have yet to be able to get my Calender in some form on the
Touch. I wish it would support Google Calendars!!!
PDA Cookbook - I haven't found a compelling replacement yet.
DragonEdit - Editing my web site offline and then uploading it later
when I am connected is probably a no-go on the Touch.
Connection to my Bluetooth GPS (I haven't looked to see if there are
Wireless GPS units yet)
Things I don't miss:
*Palm Resets*
Hacks to make the OS work the way it should!
Things that are much better on the Touch:
Web Browsing
Speed & Simplicity
Watching Videos and playing music
YouTube
eReading - This rivals the Zodiac for reading eBooks!
Things they could improve:
Battery Life
More on this as I continue my transition.
I think that finishing it (level 40) will be very tough. 39 was insane!
One irksome thing with Nintendo that this game brought to light is the inability for my Wii to get completely out to the Internet. Apparently I can get Web stuff and Machine updates but it is no go on game play for Mario Kart and some of the Network features of WoG. I just recently changed my firewall from IPCop to Smoothwall to solve similar problems with XBox Live! Nintendo apparently wants me to reduce my protection even more, sigh. So if anyone has had any luck getting their Wii *fully* connected to the Internet using a free hardware based firewall (pfSense, maybe?) please let me know...
Jeanne d'Arc:
Clean and simple with crisp beautiful graphics. Low learning curve.
Available as a download.
Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness:
Humorous, medium difficulty with good depth of play. Decent graphics.
Medium learning curve.
Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lion:
Mediocre graphics. Huge depth of gameplay. Daunting to learn.
___
-joe-
-joe-
1. It was the perfect ebook reader, I could comfortably hold the unit
in my hand, turning the pages with my thumb which rested right on the
left shoulder button. Nothing else comes close in my opinion, not
even the Kindle.
2. It had the Palm interface, with none of the NVFS crap that we now
have to put up with. So what if memory is erased when losing all
power, you had two sd cards to backup to! The wheel interface blended
in perfectly with Palm's Zen.
3. It had a separate processor for graphics, nice sounding speakers
with good audio, speedy processor and two sd slots.
4. When I wanted to play games, the form factor was actually more
comfortable than my PS or DS.
5. I had the Zodiac 2 with 128 megs internal memory, just the right
amount for usability.
The reasons I had for moving to the TX?
1. Extremely poor choice of HotSync connectors, syncing had become a
chore trying to get the connection to stick. Fix: Make it a mini-usb!
2. No built-in WiFi! This seems picky but it really expands the
usefulness of the device. Fix: Add Wifi (exactly like the Palm TX)
with the Enterprise stuff standard.
3. Flaky Digitizer. Ok, so the TX suffers from this too, who knew?
Fix: Give me a GLASS digitizer that works accurately with Graffiti!
Please?!?!?
One feature that the PSP did get right over the TX/Zod is the
*removable* battery, hey what a novel idea! If the Zod would have had
a removable battery, I might have kept it, just for reading.
If I ever get rich, who knows, maybe you will get a chance to buy your
very own Zodiac 3...
* CPU: Motorola i.MX1 ARM9 processor (200 MHz)
* Memory: 128 MB. 10 MB Dedicated to the System Dynamic RAM
* Graphic Accelerator: ATI Imageon W4200 2D graphics accelerator
(with 8 MB dedicated SDRAM)
* Display: 3.8 inch transflective 480 x 320 (half VGA), 16-bit
color backlit display (65,536 colors)
* Sound: Yamaha sound and stereo speakers, 3.5 mm earphone plug
* External Connectors: 2 expansion slots (both are MMC / SD
capable, one is also SDIO capable)
Mini-USB Connector, 3.5 mm headphone jack, mic
* Wireless: Infrared, Bluetooth, WifFi Enterprise
* Battery: Removable Lithium Rechargable
* Size & Weight: 5.6" x 3.1" x 0.55" (142x79x14 mm), 6.3 ounces (180 g)
* Colors: Charcoal Gray
* Casing: Synthetic rubber, anodized aluminum, plastic
* Palm OS 5.4T
* Built-In Applications - WiFi, Spoke Launcher, Background Music
Player, MP3 Alarm, BT Stereo Support,
Docs2Go, Datebk 6, Contacts, Resco Suite, CardReader, CardText,
eReader Pro, GoogleMaps, HotSync,
ListPro, IM, NotePad, MemoPad, PalmPDF, PalmPrint, UnitConverter
Pro, SnapperMail, TCPMP, NetFront
Hey, it's my dream, remember? :)
PSP Pros:
Very good graphics are possible
Analog Thumbstick
UMD holds a lot of data/video
Good Multi-player via WiFi
Quite a few highly rated games
Download-able games from the PlayStation Store direct to memory stick
Game Save to Memory Stick Pro Duo - Can be backed up to PC
Great "suspend" mode
DS Pros:
Good use of Multi-Player from one or multiple cartridges (game sharing) via WiFi
Cartridge format is durable and very portable
Loads of games out there - plenty for younger players
Fairly good load times
A fair amount of highly rated games
Touch interface is very useful and fun in some games
Great "suspend" mode
Two screens are usually used well and add to the game play
Built-in PictoChat programs is neat
PSP Cons:
Not many titles use game sharing and those that do, don't do it as
well as the DS
WiFi play could be better
So-so Load times - seems to vary per game
No second analog stick
Usually you get a little noise from the UMD during game play
DS Cons:
All saving is to Game Cartridge - usually limits the saves and does
not allow for backup
Friend Code for WiFi play is time clunky
Touch interface is used in some games just because they could, even
though it deters from the game
So-so graphics
Loads of crappy games (there are good ones out there, but a lot of junk as well)
Blowing into the mic for game play, novel the first time maybe, but
usually annoying
Quick comparison, Puzzle Quest:
Even though I own PQ on both systems, it is nowhere near as enjoyable
on the DS. The quality of graphics and the speed of play just is not
quite the same as the PSP version. This is not to say that the DS
can't have good looking games, if fact some games look very good on
the DS. Puzzle Quest is NOT one of those games! :)
Look for my next post to wrap things up. -TTFN-
2:00 minutes to boot to desktop (30 seconds is the post)
jDarkroom and Java installed for clean no-frills writing (hopefully
this will spur me on!)
OpenOffice 2.2
A working LinkSys NIC! - This took a bit of digging.
SSH & rdesktop to get in to my work PC securely
Quick and dirty backup of my docs to a CF card
I will try to post some more experiences as the come...
Comparisons:
Portability:
The DS is definitely more portable than the PSP, it is self enclosed
and more durable which makes it a better candidate for a younger
gamer. I have broken my PSP twice, both times it was in the Neoprene
sleeve that it is sold with. One time the power switch snapped and
the other time the screen cracked. The screen crack was just bad
luck, it fell and hit the exposed side fairly hard. The power switch
on the other hand was somewhat unlucky, but really the plastic
connection is pretty cheap. Both the PSP and the DS are easy to take
along anywhere. The DS Games are smaller and more portable than
Sony's UMDs. With the new addition of the PlayStation store, you can
buy games and store them on the memory card which is nice because you
always have a variety of games with you.
Multimedia:
Not much of a fair fight here, the PSP is amazing in this department,
music, movies, pictures, podcasts, internet radio, Location Free TV,
the DS has none of it. The ability to play movies from a UMD or from
a Memory stick is wonderful. I can watch TV or movies anywhere I can
get a WiFi connection with the Location Free Player. It automatically
can download you favorite podcasts for later listening.
Battery:
Both batteries last a long time, the PSP has the advantage of being
removable so you could swap it for a fresh one if you like. Even
using WiFi the batteries hold up very well in my experience.
Internet:
I have not used the Internet browser for the DS, I did not buy it
based of lots of reviews that said it was slow and barely usable. The
PSP Browser is fair, it works in a pinch but you won't want to do any
serious browsing sessions on it. I use it with mainly mobile sites.
Charger:
Both chargers are ok, the DS one is a little more portable.
Connectivity:
I am not sure there is any reason to connect the DS to a PC because
there is no internal storage/memory card. The PSP is easily connect
via USB, then you can transfer pictures, video, music, files... very,
very easy to do. I is nice to be able to backup the game saves!!!
Next post will be Controls followed by a post on Games... -later on-
