Samsung Captivate: Initial Impressions

A beauty of a screen. The Captivate is indeed a good looking phone. It didn't take me long to get used to it. Longer and wider than what I'm used, but thinner and much lighter. Fits in the hand well. Performance was quick and the touch screen very responsive. I've had a few mis-keys with the keyboard; but that might be solved by using a different keyboard setting. It's pretty intuitive. Setting were easy to find.

I'm still getting used to the UI. It features 7 windows that can hold widgets. Very easy to navigate. I like the interface. It can show social updates from Facebook & Twitter, without going into the actual application. And there's a weather, stock, & news widget. All fully customizable, so I'm still working with what widgets I need and where to put them.

My early complaints? Battery life. The jury is still out, since I'm basically going non-stop with the phone, downloading apps, tweaking settings, testing apps. But I'm going through battery quickly. I have a charger at home and at work, but my old chargers won't work this time. Note to self: get a charger for work and in the car.

 

Samsung Captivate: Initial Impressions

A beauty of a screen. The Captivate is indeed a good looking phone. It didn't take me long to get used to it. Longer and wider than what I'm used, but thinner and much lighter. Fits in the hand well. Performance was snappy & quick and the touch screen very responsive. I've had a few mis-keys with the keyboard; but that might be solved by using a different keyboard setting. It's pretty intuitive. Setting were easy to find.

I'm still getting used to the UI. It features 7 windows that can hold widgets. Very easy to navigate. I like the interface. It can show social updates from Facebook & Twitter, without going into the actual application. And there's a weather, stock, & news widget. All fully customizable, so I'm still working with what widgets I need and where to put them.

My early complaints? Battery life. The jury is still out, since I'm basically going non-stop with the phone, downloading apps, tweaking settings, testing apps. But I'm going through battery quickly. I have a charger at home and at work, but my old chargers won't work this time. Note to self: get a charger for work and in the car.

I'm pretty happy so far. Definitely no dealbreakers. However, I have yet to test my reception at home. But I get a solid signal at work, where I spend 40-hours of my week.

1 week, 3 games

The Toyota Sports Center Hockey administrator, must love having to schedule the rec games during the Summer; 'cause it can be quite wacky at times. I think it's because of all the clinics that are held there. Once again, my "Friday" league has a game on Monday. It doesn't seem as quick a turnaround as last time. I think this is because it doesn't take me 3-days to recover from playing anymore. Now, I have more of a residual soreness that never really goes away. I played last Friday, will be on the ice again tonight and this Friday. I like getting a more regular playing pace going, as it helps my game. I need ice time, more than anything. The best part is that it's the Summer and the family comes to watch my games. It's still new and fun for everyone involved, so I'm soaking it up. A few years back, going to my roller games got old pretty fast for them.

I'm pretty stoked, as I am starting to learn how to stop on ice. In warm-up, I can kinda stop while turning to the left, and moving pretty slow. I have been unconsciously slowing myself to make stickhandling moves around people. It's encouraging, but slow progress...

Samsung Captivate: Coming Soon!

So I am currently on day #5 of cell phone withdrawls. It's not so much that I talk on the phone a lot, but I'm addicted to the wireless interweb access. Also, I had several good photo-ops that were blown, since my always-with-me-camera was gone. Add to that the need to make sure I wore my watch everyday. Usually my watch is decorative; with my phone-in-hand I've worn a watch that didn't have a working battery only to notice it at the end of the day. Finally, my alarm clock is my cell phone. I woke up late this morning, since I forgot to set my iPad alarm. All of this should be fixed by this afternoon according to FEDEX tracking.

I ordered a Samsung Captivate. It's from their Galaxy S line of phones which runs Android. I'm a bit of a Google fanboy, so I think I will be able to integrate with this phone quite easily. Most phone companies and providers have gone with an exclusivity model, not Samsung. They launched a Galaxy S model of phone on all four major carriers at the same time! It seems like a solid piece of hardware by the reviews. So, regardless of which major carrier you are on, you can run a model of this phone, with the respective carrier putting their spin on the phone.

The AT&T version is the Captivate. It's got a great screen, is mid-sized (bigger than iPhone but smaller than Droid X). Seems a bit iPhone-esque, but I guess that's a good thing. One feature is HD video. (I'm not a big video shooting guy, though) Regardless of the features, I'm just excited to get my wireless life back. I will probably of review posts in the coming days, weeks...

New Phone!

I have a bad habit of leaving stuff on the roof on my car. I'll pull out of the driveway, look for my coffee and realize that it's still sitting on the roof. 10-years ago, I did this with my cell phone, but didn't remember it was on the roof. Apparently, 35 mph is about the speed that a phone will finally have enough wind resistance to jump off the roof of a moving vehicle. That phone broke apart with pieces all over the road. To my surprise, the phone still worked once I got it all back together! I've been a Nokia fan ever since. But electronics are getting more and more fragile. The next phone didn't survive the impact of 40 mph, but maybe it was the cars behind me had run over the phone pieces. Now, I'm on the 3rd phone that's jumped off the roof of my car. It didn't survive either, but it was such a bad phone-splosion, that the sim card stopped working! Needless to say, I am currently looking into getting a new phone.

 

Nocturnal Weekends

With both the Wife and myself playing hockey, we have been logging long hours at the Toyota Sports Center during the last few weekends. Not just that, but very late nights there. One night I had a 8:15 game, while she had a double-header at 10:00 & 11:15. My last game was 10:45, her's the night before was 10:15. Occasionally, the kids come with us. They love being out of the house when it's dark outside, much less midnight. So, we have had a habit of going noctural on the weekends; getting up mid to late morning each day. This makes for a brutal Monday morning. Of course the Wife and kids are not in school and get to sleep-in. I have to get up for work and factoring in the morning workout, my Monday afternoons are a real struggle.

But it's a great problem to have. I'm sure the kids won't care less about our hockey games soon. I don't think we will be playing hockey at the same rink on the same night for much longer either. It's an equally exhausting and unique Summer situation. Good stuff.

Kovalchuk to LA Kings: Epilogue

Well, it's official. The Kings will not have Ilya Kovalchuk on the roster next season. He officially re-signed with New Jersey today. That deal set a few other dominoes falling as Simon Gagne was traded to the Lightning, clearing cap space for Philly. I would have liked to have either guy on the Kings, barring any locker room issues. Hockey is very much a team sport, and even a player as talented as Kovalchuk can do more harm than good in the wrong setting. Gagne would have been less of a locker room risk and more of an injury risk. If Justin Williams has taught us anything, it's that an injured player does you no good.

What now? The Kings still have some cap room. The big fish was not landed. There are rumors about Marc Savard being traded from Boston. I think it's crazy-talk. Savard would be awesome to acquire, but I don't put it in the realm of possibility. The Kings just signed 5 young players to one-year deals, so maybe that gives them some extra trade bait? Time for Lombardi to get creative.

Workout of the Day - July 16

I have had mixed results in the gym lately. Or rather, mixed effort. I added more cardio to the mix about 4-weeks ago, in an effort to get in better shape for rec ice hockey. But, lately I don't have the energy for the cardio or weights. This has led to lackluster efforts. Also, I've noticed that I skip a workout a week. I don't think I'm overtraining, but still feel burned-out. I keep asking Pinchy to be my workout partner, but most people can't fathom a morning workout.

I have been more careful about planning my leg workout. I made the mistake of doing one too close to a hockey gameday and didn't have any jump in my legs. So, planning is of the essence. It's further complicated by the fact that Fridays are not always gameday. I've had a random Saturday and Tuesday thrown in there.

But today I was feeling pretty good for once. So it was heavy leg press, regardless of having a game tomorrow night. I am addicted to maxing out the leg sled. I just found out that the team is going to be shorthanded and our best player can't make the game. Tomorrow is going to be interesting...

Blacklake Golf

Took a random Tuesday off of work and drove out to Nipomo. Golfed 36-holes at Blacklake. I don't remember ever golfing 36. I've done 27-holes a couple times. Swing was pretty rusty. But it was a good time. Lost a few too many balls, but there were quite a few waiting for me in the bushes. So it was a matter of recycling balls all day. Weather was great. No typical morning fog/haze to burn off, just sunshine and a little breeze. Perfect.

I am a Gearhead

..and pround of it. Here is just another example of why Jalopnik is awesome. Coming straight from the Question of the Day - "What makes a Gearhead" with 10 great answers. I represent all examples except the wacky Alfa Romeo ownership, and collecting car magazines. 1.) I'm not that much of a Euro-car guy and 2.) there's a thing out there called the interweb which saves the $6 magazine cost and/or I just browse car magazines at Borders/Barnes Noble.

 

http://jalopnik.com/5581995/

Kovalchuk to LA Kings

Update: So I've read this morning that Kovy is back at the bargaining table with the Kings. Turns out that Lombardi might have read Ilya's interest in LA as well as his market value better than previously thought. Do the Kings really want this guy after all? I can appreciate getting the most out of free agency and the fact that it's a huge career decision. But Kovalchuk is obviously trying to get more money out of the Kings or Devils. Could this be a warning sign? His signing with New Jersey was all but a done deal 3 days ago, then he had a decision to announce yesterday; that came and went. Now he's back to talking to the Kings.

 

If nothing else, his strategy is dizzying.

Fallen Heroes

I had a bit of a rough sports weekend. Shane Carwin couldn't close the deal after smashing Lesnar for 5 minutes. I love Carwin for his ability and more for his demeanor. Calm, confident and respectful. I was sure that the anti-Lesnar was taking home that belt. But, he'll be back and I'm still behind him. Kobayashi wasn't even in the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest this year. Contract dispute? Without Takeru there was no contest and Chestnut coasted to victory with 14 less dogs than last year. To make matters worse, Kobayashi was arrested trying to go on-stage after it was over. The whole situation leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Lastly, I got word that Bob Probert passed away. What a great pugilist and team guy. He had some epic battles on the ice. I have him way up there with my favorite fighters of the NHL: McSorley, Grimson, Domi. These were the baddest guys around in my mind. But the bittersweet news was that Probert had finally beaten some substance abuse demons. R.I.P. Bob Probert.

 

Kovalchuk to LA Kings

I don't know what he's waiting for... Kovy should accept that Los Angeles will be his home. I see it as a pretty good fit. A young and hungry team, good talent, & solid organization. He would be a marquee guy in a big city. LA has the nightlife and weather that can't be beat. Yet enough distractions, that he could go about his business practically unnoticed if he wanted to.

 

If Kovy wants big dollars, he should stay in Atlanta or go to the Islanders. I've heard that both teams are willing to throw money his way. As far as winning? That's not quite as guaranteed at these locales.

 

If Kovy wants a more established team, take New Jersey. They always contend. I don't think he was the greatest fit as a Devil, but that's going by the stat sheet. In my mind, the Devils are trending downward as much as the Kings are trending upward.

 

I don't think Lombardi is playing hardball, but I do think he's smart. He has an idea of what he can afford to pay Kovy, while still putting together a roster around him. This is a team looking for a finisher to put them over the top, not establish a team around a scorer. Take it or leave it. I don't want Kovalchuk on the Kings at any cost. If it doesn't work, it's for the best. If he can't see past his nose, it's his loss...