Nokia 1020

First impressions (vs iPhone):

Pros

Great Camera (still learning to use it and all the options --more to come later with that)

HUGE Size

I like the live tiles, but still getting use to them.

Sound quality is great on  calls

Cons

iOS default email does a better job integrating with hotmail than MS does. It appears if there is a email sub-folder you need to keep track of you need to push it to a live tile to get notified that a new message was pushed into it.

Single volume control. I miss at least a separate volume control for music.

No DND setting other than putting phone face down (then it just mutes everything). I still need my phone to ring between 2200 & 0600 but I do not need to hear every email alert or text message at the same time.

Can not link my dropbox folders as an album in the default picture manager.

Not really a Pro or Con:

Lack of apps but we will see what I miss and can't live without as time goes on.

Arranging the tiles is a bit fidgety but I like that you can re-size them as needed.

The WP Mac App is nice.

Calls on the phone sound better than my GS2 ever was and reception has been better as well (especially with having LTE now).

Work pays for my iPhone 4S and it can be used for personal calls as well but I still wanted a separate cell for calls that I do not want tracked on my work phones (i.e. photography, legal, and medical calls).

I really like the iPhone (and will probably upgrade to what ever the next version is when my renewal hits for work) but am trying to separate work and home life as I've been overly burnt on being "off work" and being too assessable especially on the weekends when I try to take care of my son so my wife can have a break.

More to come as I use it.

Babies have two settings

You know they say babies show signs of hunger before going into a full blow cry. Why is it unless you watch them like a hawk you miss it and they go into full blow siren shrieking mode for food?

Why can't they have three modes? Like a grunt or something that comes just before the howling cry? That would be awesome!! At least then I'd have a chance to appease my little guy before my ears ring in pain.

I love my little Graham but man... it would be nice to have a medium setting between the calm cute side and the howling blood curtling needy side.

So I am a Father now...

It is a very happy and tiring time in my life becoming a new father. I honestly love it and hate it but I think all new parents go through this. Having your life turned upside down, then thinking you may have a handle on it only to have the little one throw more curveballs at you then Roy Halladay throwing a no hitter.

So to honor our little bundle of Joy that is our son Graham and to celebrate life with him I made a new blog about him: Graham Crackers.

I think now I better understand Jonathan Coulton's song: "You Ruined Everything" now. It makes the song even better after Graham's birth.

Jason

Getting Closer to kiddo hour.

Today Andrea and I did a little nesting.... by nesting I mean we tried to pile everything in the spare room more into one corner so there was just just a bit more cleared space on the floor than have everything spread over.

We really need to find a house. We know the kiddo will come before we are able to move into it even if we find one in the next few weeks.  It would just give a nice feeling to know we would finally have room for all our stuff and the kiddo without feeling like we are rapidly running out of space.

32 Weeks...

Andrea is now at 32 weeks being pregnant.

This past Saturday was her baby shower so now we have all this baby stuff in the apartment.

Suddenly I feel like "OMG Baby is coming soon!!!!!!"

How to feel small

Step 1: Go here: http://htwins.net/scale2/
Step 2: Click start once site is loaded
Step 3: Move Slider to the right
Step 4: Realize how tiny we are compared to the universe as a whole.

Reorganizing Part One

Over the last few weeks I have been on the fence about making the jump to only use my laptop as my main everyday computer. I use it a lot more than my desktop and lately due to the shear size of the PC case under my desk it has been getting in the way she trying to do work at home.

So I ordered a nice laptop stand, a USB 3.0 hub and an adapter to use one of my two 24" monitors as a second screen for my laptop. This set up will let me still use a keyboard and mouse on the slide out tray so I can still be somewhat ergonomic and not be slouched over my desk top killing my back. The USB Hub is for plugging in all my external drives for making backups of the pictures I take along with my Keyboard and iPhone/iPod.

I don't always use the laptop screen. When I do it's usually so I can have YouTube/Netflix playing in the background while doing work on the larger screen. It's pretty easy to to take off the stand and go sit on the couch with the laptop as well when Andrea sit together and do house searches.

Here is the desk now:

To my right there is now writing room and a place for my feet as well (next to the black laptop lap cushion under the desk). Which is really nice to have when studying items for work or photography and writing notes on it.

In addition I have my email, contacts and calendars all synchronized and forwarding into one place (iCloud) as well for better management. The iCloud interface is not as nice as Hotmail or Gmail but until Hotmail and Outlook for Mac match what you get from Outlook on the PC then it's just easier to forward my Hotmail account for now.

So far it's been nice to use this setup and not have to worry about synchronizing things across my Skydrive account between machines. Also nice have Lightroom and Photoshop Elements available to use anytime I want instead of being on my PC and having to switch to my laptop. The only draw back so far is giving up my Logitech wireless headset as they do not have drivers for it. I do have a nice corded headset that works great for when I need it.

Now if I can just get organized and find about another 40 hours in a week to catch up on project work I'd be all set!

Thanks for reading.
Jason