A Note on Earbuds

When I purchased my first iPhone back in the summer of 2007, I immediately rejected the hard, white plastic ear buds that came with the device. Instead, I went and purchased my first ever set of cool ear buds. It turned out to be a semisweet experience: economically painful, midly comfortable, and largely aesthetically pleasing.

$128 dollars (plus tax and S&H) later, I was the proud owner of black/white V-Moda ear buds. I kept seeing these ear buds mentioned all over blogs and Twitter at the time. Little did I know, it was a social media product placement technique. They were the most expensive ear buds I had ever, or would ever purchase. I loved the different sizes of silicone buds for comfort, the grippable textured metal ear bud and the quality of the product. The controls were awesome as well. Regrettably, they disappeared in the void that is my house after about six months, never to be seen again.

Back then I was the hasty victim of social media hype and little to no pre-purchase research. I learned my lesson: research must precede a purchase, form must follow function, and all must follow economy of cost.

Flash forward to 2011, when I was looking for ear buds to use with my Droid Charge. I went to my Verizon store to scope out any potential ear buds and walked away with Pure Gear's PureBoom flat rubberized cord ear buds. These made a horrible sound whenever I accidentally rubbed the cord while listening. Like nails on a chalkboard to be honest. That, and the fact I lost the travel case (if they even came with one?) and I started losing my patience a little with these. But otherwise were comfortable, relatively easy to clean, and didn't break the bank. At some point in time, over the last year or so, they stopped playing sound consistently on the right side, so I decided to look for a replacement.

Finally, I found success in ear bud shopping in spring of this year, when I upgraded my two year old Android Charge to a Samsung Galaxy S-III. Again, crappy ear buds came with my device. I decided I would do due diligence so I wouldn't be ashamed of my ear bud purchase, this time. I was looking for an economical purchase with comfortable buds, some aesthetics, and a control feature to use along with my smartphone's many purposes. Quite the shopping list.

After a Google News, Lifehacker, and C-Net search I ended up looking into Klipsch ear buds on Google Shopping and Amazon. I purchased the Klipsch S4 pair. These don't come with audio control, but they were economical, come with three different size silicone buds for comfort, and a cool, oval, silver metal case to store them in.  Love them and use them now for over 8-9 hours a day.

I liked my pair so much, I bought the upgraded version, the Klipsch S4-A Inline with Microphone for Android. After some investigation, I found out I'd need to download their  app (Klipsch Control, free) to add additional functionality. Google Play store reviews were negative, with many saying there was no real volume control. I was a little peeved. However, these are comfortable and are a nice upgrade/Plan B in case my original S4s disappear or are damaged.

It pays to research well. This is an accessory category that is absolutely exploding with potentially good products, making a choice can be difficult. Don't get swayed by what other people use, but read the technical info in the reviews to make up your mind. Don't try to ask for too many features, remember the KISS principle. And remember, everyone has return policies and you never really know what will work for you unless you try things out.

Useful resources:

• C Net Inside vs Outside Headphones, What's the Difference?
• Lifehacker Five Best Headphones and Five Best Earbuds

Long-Term Review: Droid Charge

So I've almost owned my Samsung Droid Charge for a year (it's actually been 10 months and some days). So far I think it's the best phone I've ever owned (since 2000). It might sound strange, since I've owned two 3G iPhones and one 3GS and everyone goes gaga for iPhones.

For starters, the Droid can do everything the iPhone used to, except the  call quality is excellent and calls are very rarely dropped. This may also have to do with two important facts: it's a 4G phone, and it's on Verizon instead of AT&T (like my iPhones used to be).

Also important, I've used a sturdy case for my cell phones since day one, and this Droid has suffered no major mechanical issues due to the occasional accidental drop. My last iPhone experienced such interference with the sound lever, the on-off switch, and other software issues that I had to stop using it. Now, the significant-other unit has had to use it because his cell was totaled during an accident. Poor him. He's resorted to buying another phone on eBay.

The Droid has good sound quality when reproducing music either from streams (Pandora, TuneIn, Amazon MP3) or from memory (mp3s, etc.).

The availability of applications, one of my original concerns when switching, ahs provided me countless hours of entertainment. The major apps (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Shazam, etc.) are all available and work great.

My only concern is that sometimes, when there are several updates due to some applications, the phone starts prematurely closing out of an application or two, or just seems to have a hard time with the touch screen. Not all app updates are indicated on the top bar. Whenever I feel the slightest interference coming on, I check the Google Play store update screen for my apps, and indeed, will find a few are either uploading updates or need to be clicked on to start those up. It's a subtle enough change in performance that leads me to question: isn't there a better way? 


All around I am enjoying my initial investment, and have been able to reduce my call time enough that I moved down two voice plans to savings of around $100 from my original plan back in August. Pending the occasional co-worker sent text message, since I don't have a texting message (non-plan texts are .20-.30 per text).


My only concern is that there don't seem to be plans for upgrading the OS to Ice Cream Sandwich for this phone, as of yet. The last update I am able to find on the interwebs is from March 2012, when all the online sources mentioned this phone as ominously left out of the upgrades list.


Well, time will have to tell whether it gets the upgrade or not, meanwhile, it's working fast and well, and it's the right phone for me.


NOTE/DISCLAIMER: I am not a technology fashionista or fad-o-phile who needs the latest gadget to show off to people. I usually wait for the first adopters to "beta" test the crap out of stuff that's just released, and I'll buy the follow up--which has been patched/mended/corrected/revamped--if and only it matches a practical need I need to fill in my life. But I love keeping up with the news of the latest and greatest to be a better-informed consumer that can help friends, coworkers, and family when the conversation about particular techie tools come up.

Hook Phone up to PC

You can use your Bluetooth to connect your phone with your PC if you don't have your tether/cord/whatever handy.

But it's not as intuitive as I first thought...especially when the significant other unit is in an **urgent** need to grab my Fergie mp3s (meet me half way) for his commuting/listening enjoyment.

So I found this really awesome website (http://www.makeuseof.com)that has tons of totally useful, smart, and easy to understand how-tos. Here's the how-to for connecting your phone to your PC using Bluetooth.

Njoy!