fmajowich » Saving Money

Iphone Envy Reduction

fmajowich — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:26:16 +0000

Since getting my Ipod touch in christmas of 2007 I have wanted an Iphone. The only hold up for me getting an Iphone was my employer pays my cell phone bill. Then recently my company switched us over to the Blackberry Curve off of the Windows Mobile platform. My initial experience on the Blackberry has been good. I really like the Google apps for the Blackberry along with the Twitter and Facebook apps. However, I was still yearning for all of the “Cool” apps that the Iphone had. Granted I still have my Ipod touch, however, not everywhere you go has WiFi. My car being one of those places where I spend a considerable amount of time. Which brings be to the BlackBerry App World that was released at the beginning of the month. Granted the Blackberry App World is no where near the scale of the Apple App Store. However, it has alot of the applications that so far have given me the “Cool” feeling that the Iphone apps do. So my Iphone Envy has subsided for now, at least for a little while.

Blackberry World Apps Installed

Pandora – Streaming Radio

Shazam – Music Identification

Viigo – News Aggregator

Bloomberg – Stock Quotes

Gtalk – IM Client

Weather Bug Direct – Weather In App Icon

Vlingo – Enhanced voice control

1 Month with out Cable

fmajowich — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 02:38:54 +0000

So here I am. One month without having cable. The truth is…I don’t miss it. ESPN, The channel I thought I would miss the most has not even been on my radar. That may have something to do with football not being in season but time will tell. My Tivo is jammed packed with shows to watch. I have found myself needing Tivo days to catch up with all of my recordings and yes, I actually do enjoy watching the shows I’m recording/downloading. I wasn’t blogging when I decided to cancel my cable so I’ll give you a run down of my current setup.

TivoHD x 2 OTA turners for local channels
TivoHD for netflix streaming
TivoHD for video podcast
Netflix 2 at a time for blue ray movies
Xbox 360 streaming from my media center PC
Vista Media Center PC with 2 OTA tuners
Playon on Media Center PC for Hulu streaming
DB4 HDTV Antenna
VHF Antenna
Jointenna

Yes, all of those devices/subscriptions cost money but I already owned/paying for them. What I watch the most of OTA channels ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, next is Netflix Blueray movies, then videopodcasts, finally all of the streaming. Granted I have spent more time with my hobby of home brewing lately but I can honestly say I don’t miss cable at all. I have to thank my friend Ben Drawbaugh for inspiring me to drop cable.