What do those little icons mean anyway?

I think I’m going to start an new catagory, ‘smartphone’. My trusty Audiovox SMT5600 is always by my side. I originally purchased it (used on eBay and unlocked from the tyrany of carrier chains) because it was the first, and only (at the time) phone that played Windows DRM protected content.

I use it on a daily basis to listen to podcasts on my commute. I have a cassette adapter for my truck and then switch to the ‘buds for the train ride. I can burn through a good 2+ hours of content on a daily basis. I’ve up’d the storage card to a 1GB device and although I get the occasional ‘jitter’ in playback it has worked well despite the fact that the specs for the phone indicate a limit of 512MB.

Lately I’ve greatly increased my use of the on-board camera. With the addition of an app from ShoZu I can now directly upload my phonecam shots to my Flickr account immediatly after taking the shot. No need to sync the phone, attach the pic to an email, or other thumb-wrentching exercises, just a simple ‘Yes’ to the ‘Send this to Flickr?’ prompt.

Sweet.

Anyway, what I really wanted to mention was a good description of several of the icons that appear on the status bar of the phone. This entry goes into some detail about the antenna and data connection type icons. I always suspected that the ‘G’ indicated a GSM data connection but now I know for sure.

Windows Mobile Team Blog : What Are These Arrows (and why are they still here)?

A New York State of mind…

I’m in serious like with my EZPass. Massachusettshas a similar program named “FastLane” but the devices were free from EZPass and the FastLane program wanted $20. Guess which one I got? 😉

One of my favorite immature things to do is to wave at all the people waiting in the toll booth lane as I zip through the aptly named “FastLane”. One of the greatest benefits of this device is that works in so many places; the Mass. Turnpike, NY Throughway, several bridges and tunnels in the NY metro area, right down to the parking garages at the Newark airport.

Sweet.

For those of you who are not familiar, EZPass is a small (deck of cards) device that is attached to the inside of you car’s windshield. When you pass through specially configured toll booth lanes an antenna mounted above the lane activates the device and reads a unique identifier. This id is then used to verify that you have an account in good standing, record your passage, and then indicate the status of your account via a traffic light like device in your lane. It then debts your account for the toll.

On a recent trip to New York state I noticed a difference in the indicator lights. In my home state of Massachusetts the green light is labeled ‘Thank you’. However, in the home of the ‘New York Minute’ the same green light is labeled simply ‘Go’. Just how much of a hurry do you have to be in for the time it takes to read ‘Go’ vs. ‘Thank You’ matters?

Maybe NY really does have the cold, soulless, ‘You talkin to me?’ mentality after all. Or maybe it’s just easier to read ‘Go’ because the letters are bigger when overlayed on a signal light. 😉