Salty Tech

Samsung Behold (SGH-T919) Review for T-Mobile

Posted by Admin on July 3, 2009 at 17:47 pm

The Samsung Behold is a T-Mobile exclusive feature phone with a 3 in. touch screen display and a 5.0 megapixel camera with flash. The phone also features a GPS with voice navigation, a full HTML browser, Instant Messaging (AIM, ICQ, Live, Yahoo), IMAP and POP3 e-mail, music and video playback, voice control, and more. The phone has a build in accelerometer meaning you can view photos, videos, and web pages, in landscape or portrait by simply rotating the phone. Now the keypad, you have two choices, using the portrait alphanumeric keypad or the landscape full QWERTY keypad. I have no problem typing on the Behold, it takes a little bit getting used to though.

Browser and e-mail
The browser on the the Behold is not the best, it’s very slow when opening pages on T-Mobile’s poor 3G network, e-mail is also slow when opening your inbox or a single message. However 10 e-mail providers are supported which a plus. (AIM, AOL, Yahoo, Comcast, CompuServe, Earthlink, Gmail, HotPOP, Juno, Mac)

Camera
The 5.0 megapixel camera is located on the back of the phone, it also has a flash and a vanity mirror. The camera does a great job outside but inside the photos might turn out unfocused. The Behold also records video, although it does poorly in low light conditions.

Texting and IM
Instant Messaging works great but it might be a disappointment to some because you can only have one IM app open at a time. Texting works great, you can also send photos(MMS), videos, and sound files. Like I said the keypad works great but you might need to get used to it.

Call Quality and Service
Unfortunately the call quality on the Behold is bad, it sounds very close to someone talking in a tube. This is very disappointing. I’ve been getting around 3 bars in my house with the Behold, however with my old phone I usually had full bars.

On the front of the phone you see the 3 in. display, the speaker, and the 3 physical buttons. The send and end keys and a back button between them. On the right side of the phone we have the dedicated camera button right next to it you see the unlock button. On the left side of the phone there’s a volume rocker and underneath it we have the proprietary Samsung charge/headphones/data port. Nothing on the top and bottom of the device.

Conclusion
I think the Behold is a great cell phone,  there are some let downs here and there but overall I think it’s worth it. One thing I am disappointed about is the lack of a 3.5 mm. headphone jack, you’re stuck with the included Samsung set which in my opinion are horrible. So if you are on T-Mobile and are in the market for a new phone check out the Samsung Behold, it comes in two colors, brown and pink!

NEW Twitter 150 API Limit

Posted by Admin on July 2, 2009 at 21:29 pm

If you haven’t noticed yet twitter have updated the hourly API call limit from 100 to 150. What does that mean to you? Well you will be able to receive twitter updates more frequently. I am expecting the change to spread to all twitter clients sooner or later, but it’s not confirmed yet. Twirl and Tweet Deck are the two I heard have been updated.

Do you notice your twitter client updating more frequently? Let us know in the comments below! Oh and let me know what twitter client you’re using.

gdgt launches

Posted by Admin on July 1, 2009 at 18:03 pm

Today Ryan Block and Peter Rojas launched gdgt! So what is gdgt? Well think of it like a social network, a forum, and a gadget blog in one. But the user can view a huge list of gadgets and add them to their “own”, “want”, or “had” list. If a gadget you own is not in the database you can add it by filling out a simple form with information about the gadget. You can view specs of the gadgets, discuss them in the forums, read or write reviews, and compare prices.  There aren’t many sites like this which is why the site is so unique. I really like the idea and have already registered an account. The site has been hammered with traffic so it’s been crashing all day, so if you can go register here.

Destroy Twitter, Why?

Posted by Admin on June 27, 2009 at 11:16 am

I use Tweet Deck for my client of choice right now but that might change quickly since I always like to try new twitter clients to find the best one. I have been trying out Destroy Twitter for a few days and I am here to give you my impressions of this twitter desktop client.

DT is an Adobe Air application so it can run on Mac, Windows, and Linux. The client has a navigation bar at the top with 6 buttons, Home, Replies, Messages, Groups, Search, and Saved. Home is your timeline with all the tweets form the people you follow, replies, messages (DM), search, and saved are self explanatory. Groups is something new to me, I haven’t seen this feature in a twitter client before. It allows you to make groups and invite people you follow to you group.

At the bottom of the window you have Preferences, Account,  People, Away, and the “Send a new tweet button”. When you activate the Away feature your timeline will freeze until you disable it. When sending tweets you have a URL shortener, ability to send a photo via twitpic, and shorten your tweet using tweetshrink.

Overall the client is very good but I still like Tweet Deck better and most likely will continue to use it. You can download DT here, and test it out for yourself.

myHomework Review

Posted by Stuart on May 6, 2009 at 14:55 pm

Today I am here to review an app from the App store. This app is called “myHomework”. It is quite a simple yet useful app for anyone who needs a better way to write down their homework (or unless you don’t even write it down!). myHomework allows you to create classes, set the start and end time, set the days of the week, and more. Everything is put into a simple layout that makes it look like your typing on a notepad! Also, on the icon in your iPod/iPhone’s home screen, it will show any upcoming or late assignments. You can change the icon shows in and more in the preferences. On the bottom of the screen, there are three sticky notes. One for the homework list, one for classes, and one for preferences. Each has simple interface and is easy to read.

myHomework is a GREAT app. Especially if you are a person who writes down homework but doesn’t read it. The best part is, it’s FREE!

myHomework is avalable on the app store, free, here

Tweetie for Mac

Posted by Stuart on April 20, 2009 at 15:31 pm

If you haven’t heard of Tweetie, it is a Twitter app for the iPhone/iPod touch. Today, April 20th, Atebits released the Mac version.

Just like all good Mac apps, Tweetie is easy to use. There is a sidebar on the left. On the top of the sidebar there is your account picture. When you have that account selected, it will show four buttons under it. One for the timeline, one for mentions (replies), one for direct messages, and one for search. On the top there is a navigation bar that tells you where you are in the application (for instance, if your looking at a reply from someone, it would say “Mentions > Conversation”. A cool feature about Tweetie is the direct messages. When you go to the DM’s section, it will show all the people you have sent/received messages from. When you click on that person, it will come up in an iChat-like chat. There is also a “Reply…” button up at the top if you want to send a message to that person. Another cool feature is the user info. When you click on a person’s profile picture, it will show their name, username, & their tweets. There are also four buttons under their name: tweets, people replying to that person, starred, and their profile info. You can also add the bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar which will pull up a tweet message with that page’s URL.

Tweetie for Mac costs $19.95 or $14.95 if you buy it before May 4th. There is a free version with ads, also.