- If you're on Facebook and enjoy D&D podcasts, please join the ODP fan page. bit.ly/185QX9 #
- I have seen the Halls and KQ10 come together, and they are both top-flight. I am, however, totally wrecked. To bed. #
- Car engine overheated, sitting at the side of the road. :( #
- Wow, Mouse Guard beat D&D 4E, winning the Origins Award for Best New RPG. Just an astonishing upset. Congrats to Mouse Guard! #
- Last of the twilight is slowly fading into the west. Time to fire up the Shadow Project. #
- Confirmed: Pathfinder RPG will cost $9.99 as a PDF. This seems like a great price for players and DMs. tinyurl.com/nvex3v #
- Alas, must drop Sprint and the beloved #PalmPre. My wife can't get a connection from Sprint at home; their tech/hardware support = fail. #
- Trying out TwitterBerry on the Curve. Not as sleek as the #PalmPre, but call quality is a ton better. #
- Win $1000 in FREE games for you and your favorite game store. bit.ly/tEk4K #
- Monstruo de Lunes: Cieno de Mercurio, Traducción por José Montero bit.ly/Wdhg6 #
- Still loving the #PalmPre but wife can't get decent signal at our house. May need to change carriers. :( #
- Last call for the 3E/OGL version of Halls of the Mountain King. We're in final galleys for this limited edition. bit.ly/7VVcQ #
- The 2nd Open Design Podcast is up, with WotC's Bruce Cordell and Paizo's James Jacobs. preview.tinyurl.com/kvy44a #
- Interview about the early days at TSR at Grognardia. bit.ly/odEeT #
- W00t! Welcome to @gnomestew, who should certainly be worth following. #
- Galleys for the 3E/OGL version of Halls of the Mountain King are in final layout. It's a massive project; don't miss it. bit.ly/7VVcQ #
- Er, @nikchick I'm visiting Portland soonish, would love to hear about places you like. Also, are these any good? tinyurl.com/p7y6vq #
- Yes, yes, that's a double tweet. Sue me. #
- The best fire trap I've seen in ages is up at KQ.com. bit.ly/Qekqd #
- At the shore. Sand buckets and feathers are all the toys a little girl needs on a summer day. #
- Ducklings have just arrived. If this could be any cuter I don't know how. #
- Thanks to all the new follows and thanks especially to @unclebear. Ye olde @monkeyking has hit 400 followers. #
- RT @stirlingsteam great DIY old-tech Steampunk bookseller: www.lindsaybks.com/ #
- Setting up wifi at home. And about time, they're up to 802.11n and dual-band routers... #
- Today is turning from bad to suck-tastic. On the upside, I wrote a review of the #PalmPre just to clear my head. tinyurl.com/n8nkn9 #
- RT @grandoglwiki RPG Countdown (17 JUN 2009): Publisher: Moonstew Productions Welcome to RPG Countdown. tinyurl.com/lr8no3 #
Weak Points
Battery: This thing eats battery life insanely fast. That's compared to my old dumb phone, and yes, I am using it for hours on a typical day to grab data, check mail, Twitter, etc. Fortunately, there's the Touchstone induction charger, but even so, I was surprised how often I need to charge it; every day, sometimes twice. Fortunately, you can swap out the battery yourself, unlike an iPhone, if you really need to juice up on the go.
Photos: The 3 MB camera is slooooow. I can't seem to get the hang of the shutter; it's cripplingly slow to take a picture. I really, really wanted this to work a lot better. Major disappointment.
< 50 Apps: The apps store has all the basics, but it sure is less than Apple. OTOH, they're rolling out more every day.
Strong Points
Palm Ease of Use: Everything just seems to work, from the beautiful box and components, to the 30 second tutorial and the fluent gestures. The integration of gmail, calendar, contacts, Outlook, and multiple email accounts all are almost magically mapped together. Best of all, this feature is free, unlike the MobileMe feature on the iPhone.
Apparently the staff that designed the Pre includes a number of former Apple designers... So perhaps it should be no surprise that it's a mobile OS design triumph. It's smooooooth.
Feature-Rich: Yes, the Palm Pre does voice calls, WiFi access, the web, Pandora, iTunes, YouTube, TV, PDF reader, ebook reader, Twitter client, copy/paste, etc etc etc. It offers some features that I don't think the iPhone does, like turn-by-turn navigation. And er, NASCAR stuff.
On the hardware side, having a real keyboard works wonderfully. And it takes a standard headphone jack.
Multiple Apps: Running 5 or 6 apps at once is beautiful. I can click a link, go see the site, and then flick back to the active card/app that I left behind. Or I can launch a complex browser page, then go check my Twitter account and come back in a minute.
Value for Money
One major element that struck me most about the Palm Pre and that has gotten no play in reviews I've seen is that it offers all of what the iPhone does, for less money. "But Monkey King," I hear you Apple fans say, "the iPhone is the same price or less, how can you say that?"
Well, it's easy. Because smartphones are subsidized by the carriers, the upfront cost of the iPhone device is not the real price you pay; the real price is in the service contract. AT&T's monthly service adds up to about $2360 over the lifetime of the contract (that includes texting and two years of the MobileMe price to make this an apples-to-apples comparison, but I didn't add in a GPS nav contract).
The Sprint contract, by comparison, will run me just $1,512 over two years. A little haggling at sign-up got me a massive 27% discount off the listed monthly price.
From my experience, AT&T reps will not haggle at signup. Ever. And even the pre-haggle rate from Sprint is just $69/month. That's for all-you-can-eat, no limit usage on data, texting, photo messages, etc. Compare the Apple/AT&T price of $90+/month.
Summation
The Pre is as impressive a device as the iPhone, for about $850 less. Oh, HELL yes.
- RT @bluestem: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised -- www.gilscottheron.com/lyrevol.html #
- Playing Slumbering Tsar with Greg Vaughan at #paizocon , using the Pathfinder iconics. Great game, great DM, fun table. #
- Hugo Solis gave me the original for art that appears in Halls of the Mtn King. I keep thinking #Paizocon can't get any better, and then... #
- Sue Cook is sharing her editorial wisdom at #paizocon. I can always learn new tricks. Plus, Sutter is sharing some house style tips. #
- Off to day 2 of #paizocon. Panels await! #
- At Monte's talk on dungeon's design: dungeon dressing, meaningful choices, 3D terrain, and exploration vs quests. #paizocon #
- RT @RobertsonGames: Excellent post: In Praise of Gygaxian Combat tr.im/ogZQ #
- Gah! The #PaizoCon goodie bag is Awesome! It includes a copy of Key Largo, great boardgame, lots more. #
- An interview with mapper Sean Macdonald, who explains his technique. www.koboldquarterly.com #dnd #
- So I have to make a decision on what I'm reading tonight. Decisions, decisions. twitpic.com/74mlj #dnd #
- W00T! Will have a surprise to show at #paizocon ! #
- Posted an awesome 4E epic destiny for patrons today. Halls of the Mtn King keeps surprising me in the best way. #dnd #
- Posted an awesome 4E epic destiny for patrons today. Halls of the Mtn King keeps surprising me in the best way. #dnd #
- Heading home to read E2. Very curious to see where it goes. The battlemat is awesome! #dnd #
- The PaizoCon crowd is starting to trickle into town. Excellent dinner and conversation with an Open Design patron tonight. #
- Awake but not really ticking over. Must ... find... coffee. #
- Lucius Shepard's original novellette of the Dying Earth is now available at bit.ly/5IvqO #
- Two free tickets to PaizoCon. paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPubli
shing/paizocon/fREELIMITEDTIMEOFFERPAIZO CONTICKETS # - Wow, I can't believe those free #PaizoCon tickets are still available. tinyurl.com/mgx2tt #
- RT @greywulf Tony DiTerlizzi's blog is downright inspirational! diterlizzi.com/blog/ #
- RT @LesterSmith New blog entry: Sean D'Souza asks, "Do you know when to shut up?" www.copyblogger.com/shut-up/ #
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the_monkey_king- Wolfgang Baur
- Kobold Quarterly
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