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Anna sat up in the bed and yawned. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but lying there sleep had taken hold. It was dark out now, the afternoon sun fading into darkness. She felt groggy, and disoriented from her unexpected slumber.

She staggered over to her desk and sat down across from her laptop, still coaxing the sleep out of her eyes and trying to focus on the screen. She opened her email and found it overflowing with items. It had been empty a few hours before, and in frustration, Anna closed the program. She’d answer emails tomorrow. She turned her chair to face her television and flipped it on. One of her favorite sitcoms was on, replaying last week’s episode. She watched and got up to use the bathroom as the show ended. When she returned, she found another episode on. It was the same show, but she’d never seen this episode before. It wasn’t the show’s regular night, so she sat watching the episode and wondering how she could have missed it when it first aired. Oh well, at least she’d seen it now.

When the show ended, she got up and wandered out of her bedroom into the kitchen. She was hungry, but found that the leftovers from yesterday she craved had been eaten, no doubt by her parents who were not home now to yell at. She glanced at the clock and saw it was 8:30 PM. She was surprised her parents would go out without leaving a note, but shrugged it off. She was sitting on the couch in the living room when her mother and father walked through the door. They saw her in the living room, but quickly walked the opposite direction.

“Hey – who ate my salad?!?”, she called out as they passed. She wasn’t going to let them sneak away.

They both walked toward her with the strangest looks on their faces. Half astonished, half scared. Why were they acting like this? It wasn’t the first time she’d called them out on stealing their food, and it wasn’t like she was overly angry – it was more a playful thing than serious.

“What? Neither of you wants to admit it?”, she said with a slight chuckle.

“Anna…. how do you feel?”, her mom asked nervously as her father walked around her, eyeing her as if he hadn’t seen her in months.

“I feel fine Mom… what’s up with you two?”, she said.

“Julie, it might be her – really her”, Anna’s dad said to her mother. Her mother nodded, as tears flowed down her face.

“What’s going on?”, Anna said as her dad sat down next to her.

“Honey, you’ve been… sick… for months now”, he said slowly.

“What do you mean? I woke up from a nap, I feel fine!”, she said.

“What month is it Anna?”, her father asked.

“September”, Anna replied confidently.

“No dear… it’s March”, her dad said in reply.

Anna stared at him in disbelief. It wasn’t until she realized that some of the odd things she’d noticed earlier made sense, and she didn’t remember putting on these particular clothes that morning either.

“What happened?”, she asked quietly.

Her parents explained that she’d been in a sort of shell-shocked existence for months. She’d wake in the morning, go through a regular routine of preparing for her day, eating breakfast, and then simply return to her room and fall asleep again. She’d occasionally be up at night, but wouldn’t say anything, or do anything, except sit for a few moments and then head back to bed. Tonight when they walked in, they assumed she’d do the same, and were shocked when she called out. Her doctors were baffled, but her parents were happy to have her back.

To Anna, however, it was all just a groggy afternoon’s nap.

“Ouch! That burned a bit”, Amiee said as she felt a warm heat on the back of her neck.

“What was that”, she asked her friend Mary.

“Dragonfly, probably”, Mary responded. “Sometimes their fire breath gets a bit intense!”.

About an hour earlier, Amiee had walked along minding her own business when a rock appeared out of nowhere and tripped her (Amiee wasn’t exactly the most careful person in the world, so it’s possible the rock was there the whole time, and she simply failed to adjust her course). Mary found her a few moments later, unconscious. Since she woke up, after having only been unconscious for a minute, things started getting strange.

“What happened?”, Mary asked as she peered at the wound on Amiee’s forehead.

“I must have tripped”, Amiee responded.

“Well, we’d better get that cleaned out”, Mary said as she guided Amiee toward her home. Her mother, Mrs. Black, came outside as the girls approached.

“What happened!?! Did anyone else see her trip? What’s going on?”, she asked, and Amiee let Mary explain the short story of it. Amiee couldn’t help but notice that something was different about Mrs. Black. She was moving from side to side, as if she couldn’t keep comfortable in her own skin. As they were washing out the cut, Mary spoke of her mother.

“Sorry about Mom – she always needs to be about everyone’s business. She means well though”. Mary said. Once they finished up, they returned to the park where they’d both been walking. It was there that Amiee saw the strangest bird. It appeared to be wearing a black hat and cloak. Why would a bird be wearing clothing?

“Look at that bird”, Amiee exclaimed.

“What? It’s just a mourning dove”, Mary said as she glanced at the animal.

“But why is he wearing black clothing?”, Amiee said. She was relieved when Mary failed to respond with something challenging her view of the bird.

“Well because he’s a mourning dove, silly! Never have quite understood whom they mourn for though.”, Mary said in reply.

Amiee was amazed, and while she stood there thinking, Mary pulled her to the side as a whooshing sound was heard, and the wind swished by them. Amiee saw something flash past, multiple colors and sounds intermingling, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Those boys always rush through here like a freight train”, Mary said. Amiee was astounded – they certainly had. What was going on here? How did one small trip change the world into a place where there was no such thing as a figure of speech, everything was literally as it sounded.

“Mary”, Amiee began, “Did anything out of the ordinary happen while I was unconscious”.

“No, not that I can think of”, Mary said. “You hit your head and cut it, and were out for a moment or two. Nothing happened here”.

“But everything that we talk about is literally occurring”, Amiee said.

“Of course it is – it would be strange if I had told you something different from what was really happening, right?”, Mary replied.

“No – it’s hard to explain Mary, but before I hit my head, I was in a world where we used language differently – we spoke about things using examples. The mourning dove was named because of its call similar to a cry – not because he was really in mourning”, Amiee said.

Mary looked at her for a moment, trying to figure out what was wrong with her friend.

“I think we should go to the hospital”, Mary said, and Amiee reluctantly agreed. As they walked into the emergency room, Amiee slumped over in her friend’s arms, and the attendants took her quickly into examination.

—

“Amiee”, a voice said as Amiee opened her eyes and began to focus. It was her mother.

“Mrs. Black called me and told me that you were here – I drove like lightning to get here”. Amiee was relieved that she didn’t see any visible scorch marks on her mother.

“Mom… my head hurts”, Amiee said.

“I know it does sweetie, but it will get better. You were out for about 10 minutes, and it had us very worried when you were groggy for so long. You had a fever, but that seems to have broken now”. her mother explained.

“What happened?”, Amiee asked.

“When you hit your head and cut yourself, you stumbled into a bush. Apparently you’re allergic to something in it, and the cut made the allergy even worse.”, her mother said.

“Mom, do fireflies breathe fire?”, Amiee asked.

“Of course they don’t, honey”, her mother chuckled.

“Language is weird”, Amiee said, as she smiled at her mom.

This morning I had to pick up a vehicle from the mechanics and while it was raining and around 50 degrees out I had the wild idea to walk up there (Rather than drive up and pay, then pick up the car tomorrow). So I put on my earbuds (attached to my Zune) and my SeV sweatshirt; dug an old umbrella out of the closet (My usual one was in the vehicle I was going to get) and walked out into the rain. Yes, continuous rain

“Easily share your coordinates with others through Email or SMS. Simply select a recipient then press the ‘Send’ button. It is that quick! No extra typing required. The messages are automatically constructed for you by LocateMe.”

LocateMe provides a novel way to let others know what’s going on when you’re running late, or simply want them to be able to find you. I can see myself wanting this for those moments I know I’m going to be a bit late and want others to know where I am so they can estimate when I’ll be there. And for those of us who are late and lucky, Applied PDA Software has offered to give away 5 copies of LocateMe to lucky Thoughts readers. All you need to do is tell us what you would use LocateMe for. When the contest closes, the publisher will pick their top answers and we’ll announce the winners! You have until 12 Noon MST on 1/29/2009 to enter in your answer. Good Luck Everyone!

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“Alarm Master is a convenient and powerful utility that helps managing personal alarms and reminder on your Windows Mobile Classic/Professional device. If you need a reminder solution for a variety of purposes from daily alarm-clock to parents’ calls and monthly bills, this flexible tool is an ideal solution for you.”

So indulge me for a moment and pretend there is a mythical monster named ForgetAllAboutis, and further suppose that he/she/it likes to make you forget about various things you should do (e.g. call people you don’t particularly like, clean out pesky facebook friend requests from ex-girlfriends, or in my case, pay your quarterly taxes). Now imagine that some wonderful program existed that kept alarms apart from Windows Mobile’s calendar, included a today-screen plugin, and generally was customizable as one could wish. Now further believe that it has a trial version available and the full thing costs about 2 1/2 fancy coffees (e.g. around $13). If your (my) dream became reality, you’d have this new release from Connective Tools.

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Product Category: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional SmartphoneManufacturer: SamsungWhere to Buy: Expansys [Affiliate]Price: $689 USD (16 GB), $634 USD (8 GB)Specifications: 5 MP Camera, 3.2 TFT WQVGA Touch screen (240 x 400), Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11g, Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, HSDPA 7.2 Mbits, TV-out, FM Radio, Integrated GPS, microSDHC, 1440mA battery

Pros:

• Fun to use & responsive;
• Sleek design;
• Innovative value-added features (e.g. flashlight, haptic feedback).

Cons:

• Widget Bar: full of promise, low on usability;
• No multitouch ability;
• Price and availability.

Summary: I’ve posted news on the Samsung Omnia over the last few months and found it to be interesting enough to purchase. What I found when I opened the box got me excited to be using Windows Mobile again, something I doubted could ever happen. Read on for my experience re-discovering the OS through Samsung’s vision of usability.Getting To Know The Omnia

The Omnia measures 113 x 49 x 15.1 mm (4.45 x 1.93 x .59 in) and weighs in at 140g (4.94 oz). It feels nice and light to the touch without feeling cheap. The first thing that a Windows Mobile user will notice is the absence of a normal D-Pad. The Omnia sports a call send, call end, and action button on the front, with the action button holding a surprise. Not only does it work like the normal center button on a D-Pad, it IS the D-Pad. Moving your finger from side to side or up and down will scroll as if using a normal D-Pad. And if that doesn’t float your boat, Samsung has also built in a mouse function that will let the little black action button control an on-screen mouse pointer. Functionality similar to a laptop’s touch pad is provided, with fairly good accuracy while mousing around the screen. Turning the device on shows Samsung’s unique homescreen, slightly customized below (I needed a time readout!).

Figure 1: Samsung’s widget bar, which is shown by clicking the arrow has widgets that can be dragged onto the home screen. The widgets, however, are not customizable (e.g. you cannot add new or remove existing).

For those of you not into Samsung’s new look, they also provide a more normal home screen layout sans widgets. Below is the layout I’ve been using.

Figure 2: Alternate home screen, pressing Settings slides the icons to the right and shows Figure 3.

Figure 3: The settings panel, allowing you to quickly toggle vibrate, Motion (the ability to detect orientation changes and adjust screen rotation), USB mode (Activesync vs. Mass Storage), on-screen mouse, and flashlight (activating the LED flash in continuous mode).

In addition to the funky home screen that is pretty usable, the device also has its own Main Menu, in a further attempt to prevent you from ever having to deal with Windows Mobile’s ugly Programs menu (well, ugly by some standards – I actually like it…)

Figure 4: Samsung’s Main Menu.

Figure 5: Modifying the Shortcuts.

The Omnia also includes Samsung’s “Touch Player”, a more finger centric and friendly interface to listen to music compared to regular old Windows Media Player that we’ve had since the stylus-intense days of old.

Which brings up an interesting point regarding a stylus and the Omnia – namely they don’t want you putting the thing anywhere near the screen. Sure, they include a stylus (a retractable one at that), but it doesn’t have a silo in the device to store it. In fact, the best they can do is put a loop on the end of it so you can hook it to a hook on the device. Why? Well, they want you using your fingers see – and they will not be deterred by us old timers who long for our styli!

Figure 6: Samsung’s Touch Player

Integrated Camera

The Omnia sports a 5mp camera, with LED flash as well as video recording support. The camera works very well under direct lighting, and in the dark thanks to the flash. It’s medium lighting situations where you may get some blurring (as in the third example shot below). Overall the Omnia’s 5mp means that I don’t have to carry around my pocket camera/camcorder, however I find myself still putting it in my bag – just to be on the safe side. For each of the sample shots below, click on the image to get the full, undoctored, picture.

Figure 7: Looks warmer than it really is…

Figure 8: Everyone needs a dressed-up Jamaican Head.

Figure 9: Notice how the medium light makes this picture the blurriest of the three.

“Wow Cool” Features

The Omnia shines in the areas that Samsung has taken the time to improve over a stock Windows Mobile 6.1 core. While WinMo 6.1 is extremely powerful, it’s not anything new or interesting for those of us who have been using these devices for quite some time, and it darn sure isn’t anything that would make you stop and go “Wow… Cool”. But here are some things I found somewhat innovative and “Wow… Cool”-ish about the Omnia.

• The front camera that is actually useful for those without voice calling: it detects light level to increase or decrease screen brightness, and also (in conjunction with the accelerometer) can enter an “etiquette” mode. You turn the phone over on its face, and it automatically mutes all sounds.
• The Finger Mouse. Toggle-able from the homescreen, it turns the D-Button (the black button that is sensitive to touch and can act like a D-Pad in one mode or control an on-screen mouse in another). Not useful in all situations, but in some it really shines. Hence the much appreciated toggle on the Samsung today screen for it.
• The built-in Samsung SIP that’s actually surprisingly useful for someone with big fingers to enter text into. For the ultimate dream though, a third-party app like SPB’s Full-Screen Keyboard really makes one forget about a dedicated keyboard.
• The flashlight feature that lets the light used for a “flash” actually serves some function. Hold the volume key down for 5 seconds and it turns on, letting you navigate your way through a dark room.
• The haptic feedback (how did I get to bullet four without mentioning this already): it’s very nice to get some responsiveness after a keypress, a screen rotation, even a quick button press. The weird thing? This could have been implemented years ago – we all had “vibrate” motors!
• The value added applications such as an RSS feed reader, world clock, reader, converter and even video editor. Nevermind the FM radio built in as well as TV-OUT capabilities.
• The smoothness of integration. While some gaps are present, Samsung excels at providing one of the best integrations of OEM components and Windows Mobile that I’ve seen to date.

Head to Head: Omnia vs. Touch Pro

The Omnia came to me mid-October, and after playing with it for awhile, I realized that I needed to view it in comparison to another popular device of its generation, the Touch Pro (a.k.a. the AT&T Fuze). So, without another Windows Mobile Maven around me to bum a device off of, I did the only sensible thing – I bought a Fuze at my local AT&T store (WM Devices are my only real vice, I decided to forgo excessive drinking in my undergraduate days to have cash for them..;). Anyway, it is that purchase that was the genesis of this piece of the review: the head to head comparison. I’ll compare the two devices on four important qualities: Touch Responsiveness, Windows Mobile Customization, Daily Use, and Subjective Value (i.e. my own opinion).

Touch Responsiveness

Quick Response is something near and dear to most Windows Mobile Enthusiasts, and let’s face it, our beloved operating system can at times have the quick response of a party-loving college freshman on Saturday morning. Especially important is the fact that these devices need to respond quickly to touch as touch is really the only thing that you’re encouraged to do with them. The Omnia has a nice haptic feedback feature that I’ve already mentioned that lets you ‘feel’ when some touches are recorded, which is nice if the screen doesn’t draw quickly to let you know that you’re changing. But the Touch Pro will not be outdone – its screen draws in a side-by-side comparison were faster about 80% of the time for me. I know others out there have been critical of the Touch Pro and Touch Diamond’s graphics performance, but at least for the devices I’m using, it seemed to draw quicker. Finally, the last test is entering text. Samsung gives a nice finger-keyboard SIP they custom designed, as does the Touch Pro. I swapped Samsung’s out for a copy of SPB Keyboard 3.0 and was not disappointed. But as it comes stock, I do have to admit that the Omnia does a bit better keying in data, of course the Touch Pro has a real keyboard that can prevent finger-tap-keying in the first place. It’s a touch decision, but in the end I’ll have to go with the one that vibrates.

ADVANTAGE: Omnia

Windows Mobile Customization

Samsung certainly has made a bold statement with their widget bar, and the Touch Pro’s TouchFlo interface doesn’t much resemble the home screen we all known and love (loathe) either. If you’re after information, and a quick way to find it, you’ll like TouchFlo much better than the widget bar, or even Samsung’s alternate interface (See Figures 2 & 3). TouchFlo, however, can be a bit sluggish until you learn the tricks (e.g. that you can hold down your finger on each icon at the bottom and rapidly scroll to the other icons). In the useful category, I’m going to have to give HTC Props, but in the “cool” category, the widget bar does have a more impressive show to put on. Which wins out in the end?

ADVANTAGE: Touch Pro

Daily Use

I recently took a trip to Chicago for a conference and brought both the Touch Pro and the Omnia along with me. Over four days I used the Touch Pro for 2 and the Omnia for the other 2. Interestingly enough, I found that while the Touch Pro could be excellent to browse quick e-mails (e.g. by using the e-mail and text tabs in TouchFlo), it had some strange quirks. The version of Google Maps I’d loaded on it took forever to get a GPS lock, even with a fresh “hint” file download. Google Maps also had the strange habit of going zombie on me. It would minimize but refuse to re-open, even if I stopped it in memory and tried to open it again. Only a soft-reset would help, causing some rather embarrassing moments while trying to navigate my way around another city (But on another note, Thank goodness for Google’s new public transit routing in major US cities!). The Touch Pro, aside from its zombieness did do an admirable job and does have a beautiful VGA screen that puts Samsung’s WQVGA to shame. It is my go-to device when I know I’ll need to enter a lot of text. The Omnia, however, never zombied up on me, got quick GPS locks, was adequate to read my e-mail, and has remained my daily driver ever since the trip.

ADVANTAGE: Omnia

Subjective Value

Subjectively, I like both of these devices (after all, I bought both…). But the Omnia seems to have a certain sexiness that the boxiness and thickness of the Touch Pro lack. Now I know that the Touch Pro needs to be a bit more bloated since it has a keyboard, but why couldn’t it include some of the “sexy” features like a 5mp camera, or better use of the accelerometer like the Omnia does out of the box? But like I mentioned before, if I plan on doing a lot of work using text input, the built-in keyboard will always win over the graphical based one. So My recommendation: if you do a lot of text, grab a Touch pro. If you don’t, or you just really love finger tapping out letters, go with an Omnia.

ADVANTAGE: Draw

Conclusion

After using the Omnia for about a month, I can actually say something I’ve been wishing were true for awhile: this is a device that makes me excited to use Windows Mobile again! Samsung has done a good job on their first attempt to seriously tweak the OS, and may have even outdone modifying kingpin HTC in some areas. I didn’t even mention the fact that the Omnia has at least 8 GB of on-board storage to play with, and there are many other nuances that make the Omnia very attractive. The Omnia is my new daily driver, and I’m eager to see what the next generation hardware/software combo from Samsung will be.

Jon Westfall is a Microsoft MVP, frequent contributor to the Thoughts Media family of sites, avid City of Hero player, and most importantly a person adrift in the sea of a doctoral dissertation, looking for an island on which to rest. Track his journey and learn more than you really want to know at JonWestfall.Com

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This time mom tagged along.

I’m a lot of things… but not crazy

Walmart has a particularly interesting ad out, from a psychological perspective. Their latest message is that not shopping at Walmart is crazy, as shopping at Walmart (should) cost less than shopping elsewhere.

Now let me preface my argument below by saying that I know many people on both sides of the Walmart Fence. Some of my friends vehemently hate Wal-mart for engaging in practices that, lets be honest, most companies engage in (Wal-Mart does have a higher volume than most though). Other friends of mine believe that Wal-mart is fine, despite the effects that Wal-marts may have on local economies, especially mom and pop stores. Personally, I am of the opinion that Wal-mart is capitalisms at work, and while I think they could do a better job at providing for their employees, I highly doubt that they are a more insidious employer or presence in the market than anyone else. At least they don’t make you pay $5 for a cup of coffee, like some places

Anyway, here’s why I love this commercial. It doesn’t tell you that you’re stupid if you don’t shop at Wal-mart, it tells you that you’re crazy. If you walk down the street and someone calls you stupid, you can easily laugh it off. You know you’re not stupid, so who gives a rip if they think you are. However, Crazy isn’t quite so easy. Crazy seems to invoke a thought that perhaps the other person may be correct – and if they are, you’d of course think they weren’t. Look at it this way – if you see someone walking backward, mumbling to themselves, and wearing a barney t-shirt, you may be inclined to call that person Crazy. However, they probably wouldn’t agree.

What Wal-mart is saying in this commercial, ever so subtly is the following
If you decide that shopping elsewhere because you disagree with our business practices will make any difference in how we run our business, you’re wrong. And if you want to force yourself to pay more to make a meaningless statement, rather than pay less at Wal-mart, YOU’RE CRAZY

I like this sort of marketing – it uses an innocent foot-in-the-door approach (e.g. the whole gas price thing) to put the idea into people’s heads that they’re nuts for not shopping at Wal-mart. However you feel about The Wal, you have to admit – it’s a rather nice subtle message, isn’t it?

Ok, I don’t often ask for comments, but this time I thought it would be fun. Post a comment to this entry with your favorite OMG Moment. What is an OMG Moment you ask? Read on:
OMG stands for “Oh My God” (If you don’t believe in God, make it an OM moment). OMG is way overused by teenage girls on IM networks, however in this situation, it was the best abbreviation I could think up. Anyway…
An OMG Moment is a time in your life when something happened to make you stop and mentally think “Oh my god” or “Holy ****” or “What the ****”. In other words, it was a pretty intense moment. Reflect for a moment, then post in the comments what your OMG moment was. If you’re really psyched about this, I suppose you could copy it into your blog and have others do it as well.
So What’s Your Favorite OMG Moment?

I’ve decided to upload a lot of old photos taken from my various camera phones up to Fotki.  The album, Phoney Pics is protected by a password, since many of those photos are of my friends in moments they may not remember being photographed! If you’re on my LJ friends list and have a photo of yourself included in the Phoney Pics gallery, you can grab the password on This Post, however you must be logged into LJ.  Otherwise, Email me and I’ll be happy to provide it.