To Be Calimquim

I just listed 7-day, no reserve auction to sell my Verizon Wireless Palm Treo 700w on eBay.

Click here to view the auction. Happy bidding!

After dumping my Palm Treo 700w, which I had used during my previous 2-year contract with Verizon Wireless, I’ve moved onto bigger (or smaller?) and better things. The two phones that I’m using now are the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 (when I’m USA) and the HTC Touch P3450 (during my visits to China). To get an idea of the relative sizes of the two phones, the above picture shows that the Touch is slightly wider than the Pearl, but the Pearl is a little longer than the Touch. In terms of thickness, the two phones are about the same, but since I use a silicon rubber case on my Pearl, it is slightly thicker.

Read the rest of this entry…

Now that my dreams of getting a Blackberry 8830 World Phone from Verizon Wireless are dashed, should I even consider getting an iPhone?

Read the rest of this entry…

Get ready to feast your on eyes on my latest laptop computer. It is an Alienware Area-51m 5550 that was delivered to me in June 2007, about two weeks after I placed the order online at www.alienware.com. If you didn’t know it already, my previous computer was an Alienware Area-51m 766, that I got in August 2004. Get the details in the My Tech Toys section of my website.

The 766 is still working and is a great computer, but I’ve gotten a few more BSOD’s (blue screens of death), in the past few months, which gets annoying after awhile. Most likely, I will re-format the hard drive and re-install Windows XP Pro. Hopefully, this will get rid of the BSOD’s, but if it doesn’t, then errors are most likely hardware-related. In that case, it is a good thing I got the new 5550 laptop, since finding replacement hardware for the 766 is next to impossible. Alienware no longer provides replacement parts and my 3-year warranty expires in one month 🙁 .

Oh well, let’s get to the fun stuff and the “unboxing” of my brand-new Area-51m 5550 laptop. Curtains please…

Read the rest of this entry…

Well, I was supposed to get the Blackberry 8830 at the Verizon Wireless store in Chicago today, but I found out a few things from the sales representative there:

• Although the BB 8830 has a slot for a SIM card, you only need to use the SIM Card to utilize the “world phone” capabilities like making/receiving phone calls and sending/receiving e-mails while you are in another country.  If you are in the USA, the SIM card is not required.  The one time cost of the SIM card is around $40.
• Another catch is that the phone is locked, meaning that you cannot use another SIM from another mobile carrier either from USA or an international carrier.   This is a bummer because when I do go to China, I use a SIM card from China Mobile, so the local phone calls are about $0.05/minute.  If I use the VZW Sim Card, the phone calls will cost about $0.60/minute.  Whoa!
• Furthermore, in order to use the “world phone” in another country aside from the USA, you will need to pay an additional $14/month for the international phone + e-mail service.   This is on top of the unlimited data service that I’m already paying for, which is $30/month.

So now I’m debating whether or not to get the BB 8830 now, or just wait until November of this year when my 2-year anniversary with my current Treo 700w is up.  If I wait, I can get an additional $100 off the phone price, from their “New Every 2” plan.  Right now, the retail phone price of the BB 8830 is $399, and there is current mail-in rebate promotion of $100 off.