The “tabbed” home screen browsing takes a little bit to get used to but is actually pretty smooth and intuitive once you get going. I wish there was a way to add or delete custom tabs in the list, because I don’t ever see the Downloads tab getting used on my phone.

A few of my favorite applications don’t work as well on OS 6 as they did on OS 5.

SocialScope, my favorite app, works but scrolling is unavailable, rendering it virtually useless. I suppose that is made up for with the Social Feeds native application, but I still prefer SS.
*** UPDATE ***
SocialScope is working once again. Deleted the app, battery pull, and reinstall fixed this issue.

BatteryEx, which I use to show my realtime battery status, works from the home screen in the notifications bar, but when in a full-frame application such as the native Browser app, the icon is simply just the battery without the % of battery remaining. Again, not a big issue but annoying.

Bugs

I’ve noticed that the Browser doesn’t work using the WiFi network I’m currently connected to, but works when I turn it off. I doubt that has anything to do with the WiFi itself because it has always worked in the past, so I’ll have to try other networks to see if there’s any difference.

I’ll add some more stuff as I find out more, but til then, I’d have to give a thumbs up for the time being.

» QuickLaunch / ShortcutMe

Two wonderful shortcut applications. They both offer their unique ways of displaying on-screen shortcuts to frequently used applications. Somewhere on my blog are screenshots of my setups for both of these apps, and they both have their ups and downs. Currently, I’m using SMe (won the license in a contest from CrackBerry a while back and never really utilized it) and like the ability to color code and group similar shortcuts.

QL offers grouping via a folder process, however I feel that SMe executes it more efficiently. QL doesn’t allow you to assign colors to your shortcuts, either. However, QL’s appearance is much more aesthetically pleasing.

I think one feature both lack (and would benefit from) is the ability to add the icons that are associated with each shortcut to the menu you create. Yeah, this may be a little bit like how the Windows Mobile OS works, but hey, its neat.

Without statistics to back me up, I would venture as far as to say that a considerable (10-15%ish) number of BlackBerry users utilize either QL or SMe. For something so seemingly simple for 3rd party developers to do, RIM should strongly consider their own version of custom shortcuts or even outright purchasing the rights to one or both of these apps.

RIM makes excellent devices, and I’ll always use them. I wish that they would see what users post-purchase do with their phones and make an excellent implementation on future OS releases.

Part 2 to follow…. . If you read this, let me know what you thought, I’d greatly appreciate it.

The most frustrating place to be when you feel the “love bug” bite you is where you’re afraid to tell the person with who you have become eternally fond of. Is it the fear of rejection that keeps us from saying things? Or do we rather feel like we should wait for the other party involved to express their feelings (if any) first?

Spending time with somebody that you feel very strongly about can be absolutely euphoric. I’ve caught myself of late seeing that person and smiling at her and getting a smile back. The shudders that trickle through your body when things like that happen are indescribable. Putting your arm around that person makes your mind race with possibilities, wondering when the perfect opportunity to move in for a first kiss will arrive.

It often comes so close, but sometimes that is enough to make somebody feel like they are cared about in the same way they wish to give care. At the end of the night, saying goodbyes as you part ways with the object of your affection the kisses on the cheek are frequent. Her lips start on the side of your cheek, kissing in small increments closer and closer to the corner of your lips…

I don’t know about you – and maybe I’m old-fashioned – but these moments are the ones that stand out in my life. Spending so much time in your own head thinking of the person you care so deeply about, wanting everything to be perfect.

I remember reading much of the Norton Anthology of English Literature in AP English when I was a senior in high school. I can’t, however, remember if I read this in a poem or in a story in said anthology, but it went a little something like this….

‘Unrequited love is the worst pain and suffering a human being can go through.’

(I use the single quotations to denote a very, VERY rough paraphrasing; I hope I don’t get sued by a deceased writer for that.)

It can become a point of frustration, however, when that person who holds the key to the lock of your heart (unbeknownst to them) may not feel as strongly about you as you do them. To find yourself in this situation is incredibly troublesome, because you can both be patient and saintly and wait for the time to be right for you and your love to be one, or you have to chalk it up as a loss and move on.

This dilemma almost begs the question…

“How long is too long?”

How long is one supposed to hold onto such strong feelings? I find myself wondering this so often that it drives me crazy. And to make matters worse, sometimes in the situation I am in, I have indeed given up on the idea of being happy with that one person. The romance stories of age have the party in love waiting his or her whole life for their soul mate. Perhaps they engage in relationships while maintaining their feelings in the vast recesses of their minds.

I think it would be interesting to have one day where everybody answered questions honestly, because I have one that could shatter the world as we know it:

Does there exist somebody in your heart of hearts that you would leave your entire life for (family, friends, work, et al.) if they presented themselves to you in the reciprocated manner you had hoped to receive for so long in the past?

Some people may vehemently answer, “NO!” Others may beat around the bush and waffle about the question. But in this hypothetical day of honesty and no hard feelings, I would say yes. There are always opportunities in life that you wish you could have explored. Or perhaps you explored them, but took a wrong path and ended up with an undesired result. Hindsight is 20/20, and we all know that, but if you could go back into the past, would you give up what you have for what you wanted and could have had?

Love is one of those things that make me happy to wake up every day. When I think about love and how I want my future to be, there is nothing short of a swift kick in the ass that can knock me out of my fantasy world. Perhaps I’m a dreamer and spend too much of my time living in a world that will never be.

I want to experience the ecstasy that so many literary figures of the past have written about for generations upon generations. Strange, I wonder how many guys actually want to spend their lives with one person. I know so many people who just sleep with whoever they can, whenever they can. Personally, that kind of shit makes me sick. Fuck, sometimes, I’m too shy to talk to a pretty girl at the bar because I’m afraid I’ll make an ass out of myself.

Love is a splendorous thing. Sometimes I think I look too far into it, but then again, this IS my opinion, right?

Most people don’t care about situations that don’t pertain to them. If you give somebody a tax rate chart on the eve of April 14, they don’t peruse the many pages looking at what rates other folks are being taxed at — they go directly to where THEY fall. This isn’t to say that we as a country don’t care about other people, because I believe history will show that the actions taken by the Obama White House in this term (God forbid there is a second) are the most expansive social reforms since Medicare and civil rights. I hope for the sake of the future of this great nation that Obama’s forays into policies that verge on socialism will come to be viewed in the same light as the major social overhauls of the past.

Unfortunately, as much as the White House and Congress would like to say that this bill has benefited everybody in the nation from the day it was signed into law that just simply isn’t true. Before you say “Well, Julian, nothing goes into effect until September 2010 at the earliest, anyways”, I know that. However, there are several ramifications that are not written into the bill that have already affected some very key corporations in America.

AT&T recently reported that it would have to incur a $1,000,000,000+ charge to its Q1 2010 books to meet the requirements placed on a vast number of companies in the United States. People might hear that and say “Poor AT&T. Fuck them.” Honestly, I’m glad they’re getting hit with a huge “loss” because I pay out the ass for my mediocre cell phone service from AT&T — it is about time they got an inconvenient bill.

On the other hand, $1,000,000,000+ isn’t chump change for anybody; even a major conglomerate like AT&T. Incurring this “unanticipated charge” (for lack of a better term I’m making up my own) is going to affect a lot more than just the end result of their earnings report.

What’s the first thing to happen when a business has a large bill it can’t pay? BAILOUT! Haha. Kidding, that’s a different rant for a different day. The answer: people get laid off or forced into early retirement; more promotion from within occurs, leaving fresh college grads ready to make their mark in a lurch and benefits (albeit not those pertaining to healthcare) are often reduced or even eliminated (401k matching, stock purchased at reduced prices takes longer to vest, etc).

For employees of companies that are having to call a proverbial TIMEOUT to best evaluate how to handle the new mandates and floor requirements of this bill, the coming months will probably prove fairly tumultuous. Not only are they going to have to prepare for potential layoffs and major internal changes at work, they’re going to have to do the exact same thing (on a micro level) in their own homes.

The young, single male employee who has elected to not purchase health insurance from his employer to save money every month is going to be receiving smaller paychecks because he’s being forced to buy into something he had previously opted out of. Yeah, the government is going to give you a tax credit to assist in purchasing insurance, but what is seemingly unthought of in Washington is the fact that we rely on our paychecks *when we get them* and that a once-a-year “bonus” may not, in all cases, ease the transition into our new system.

The same young man has, however, elected to place 10% of his paychecks into his company-sponsored 401k because the employer has agreed to match up to 5%. Essentially, for every dollar this individual is making, right off the bat — before all CURRENT taxes — is grossing 90% of his earnings, sacrificing a little of his own personal income for a period of time so that his future can be full of golf and traveling.

This man is like most of us, struggling to pay our bills on a day-to-day basis as it stands. Perhaps having to dip into his 401k early and take a 10% penalty on that to make a mortgage payment. Beginning in the latter half of 2014, our nice fellow will have to suffer the receipt of even smaller paychecks. With prices of individual insurance differing between various industries — even between individuals within the same companies — it’s hard to say how much a premium will be.

Say he makes $32,000/year. Shit, I wouldn’t mind making $32,000 a year fresh out of college.

$32,000 split over 12 months equally

=

$2,666.67

-266.67 (elected 10% paid to company sponsored 401k where the company matches up to 5%)

=

$2,400.00

-576.00 (mandatory taxes asses [Fed, State, Medicare, Social Security])

=

$1,824.00 (as a ballpark NET paycheck per month, cold hard cash)

How fast does this go? (As if you don’t know already )

$1,824.00

-900.00 (mortgage payment — yeah the number might be high by % of income, but hey, he’s got an adjustable rate that sucks something ferocious right now. and just for fun, I won’t factor in homeowner’s insurance, flood insurance, etc)

=

$924.00

-300.00 (car payment of $250.00 plus comp/collision insurance for his Prius — so our friend is an Earth junkie, so what?)

=

$624.00

-275.00 (approx. water, heat, electric, garbage)

=

$349.00

-150.00 (cell phone, Internet, cable — he’s saving an arbitrary % for bundling as well )

=

***$199.00***

Our hard-working freshman employee at some company out there has $199.00 to his name after all his bills are accounted for. Sure, you could argue that the cell phone et al are luxury items, but let’s get realistic. Every year that goes by the need for access to the Internet is increased. In Indiana, the only way to initially file for unemployment is online for Pete’s sake. Our friend isn’t spending lavishly, and as we can see with $200 for food, gas, and any number of miscellaneous expenses that are too sporadic to even approximate he’s hurting, desperately.

This is the sign of the times of our current economy, where wages have NOT kept up with inflation, while the things we have come to depend upon daily (cars, gas, Internet, cell phones, etc) — all of which used to be considered elective luxury items at some point and now have become so commonplace it shocks us to find out a new friend doesn’t have one or all of them).

It is not right to make a man who is working hard, and barely getting by (really, this man is struggling financially very seriously) to buy something he doesn’t want? Insurance isn’t cheap. $100 a month would make a large difference in man’s life. He’d have to work a second job, pay penalties on his baby nest egg, or be forced to choose with whom he is delinquent that month. It’s an unfortunate situation, but it is the reality of what is going to happen (and what is ALREADY happening).

Like I said, I hope that the issues of all aspects of life change, and change soon. Low wages, a mortgage industry that is held up by balsa wood and the reality of the American society today are a scary combination. I hope things change — and not the way Obama wants things to change, either.