One Year of the Samsung Blackjack II

I’ve felt inspired a bit.  Inspired by my phone and how much I love it.  You can keep your iPhones, I like my Blackjack II.  Roughly one year ago I decided to bit and upgrade from a basic cell phone to a Smartphone with data.  This came just before Botcon which was perfect because it allowed me to do some live blogging from the con.  Fact of the matter is, my hotel Wifi never worked properly and this was my only internet connection for the entire weekend.  Not that it was a huge deal, half the people I keep contact with online were at the con anyway.

This isn’t about Botcon though, this is about my Blackjack and how much my use of the thing has grown and evolved.  Initially I mostly used to just for email and Twitter.  I still use it for Twitter and email but I’ve added so much more.  It works as a quick GPS and phone book with the Google Maps program.  I use this anytime I am out of time and want to find a particular restaurant.

More importantly, I’m not using it as my primary media player.  My Sansa (which I won from chipchick.com) and loved bought it when it went through the washing machine.  Truth be told it might have survived except I opened it to help dry it out and then proceeded to accidentally crack the screen when I reclosed it.  Oops…

Anyway, so I decided that instead of burning  hundred dollars on a new player, I’d spend ten on a headphone adaptor for my Blackjack.  It works great.  I can sync it with Windows Media Player, the interface is all right.  It remembers my place in Podcasts.  I can make play lists.

Even better, I can now Scrobble my plays to Last.fm.  Something my Sansa certainly could not do.  Also the wifi allows me to stream internet radio using a program called Mundu Radio. 

Having mobile internet access is also great on it’s own right.  I can check my bank online, I can read and post to message boards anywhere.  I can blog from my phone easily as well.

In general, this whole mobile internet concept is certainly great.  The only real downside I can see is that the price is a little steep.  For my $30-$40 data plan I use maybe 2 gigs of bandwidth per month.  I have set up my phone for Laptop tethering but I don’t have a laptop (currently) to tether and supposedly they will detect that and slap you with some enormous over charge.  Still, if you enjoy the internet, I highly recommend getting a data plan and smart phone.