I want an iPhone because it is probably the best phone out there (my opinion) but I refuse to deal with At&t.  All the rumors about the iPhone 4 coming to Verizon made me put off buying a new phone until I was sure that was not going to happen.

The obvious next choice for someone looking for a great smartphone with plenty of apps would be android based.  My problems with Android based phones are as follows:

1. Google made it and thus can track your every move.
2. Android devices have been known to have terrible battery life and nobody will accept responsibility for it.
3. All of the updates and inability to get those new software updates on a phone that is only a few months old.

First of all I use a lot of Google powered products every day (gmail, google docs, chrome) but I don’t trust what they do with the data Google gathers from my usage.  As long as users are aware that what they do online is being hoarded by Google then we can minimize the damage.  But that’s another topic altogether…

I went ahead and bought an Android smartphone because they are packed with all the features I want, I can tether my Android smartphone to my laptop, and they are much more customizable then a lot of the smartphones out there.

Out of the box the HTC Evo is an awesome phone.  Already loaded with great apps by default, like Facebook, Maps, Voice navigation and it comes with an awesome camera.  The major problem with this is that they are all turned on and running right out of the box!  There should be a setup process that lets a user decide which apps and connections (4g, 3g, email sync, GPS, Wi-fi, bluetooth!) to allow when the phone is first turned on.  This would have saved my battery the first day.

I got mine in the evening, messed around with it, then put it on the charger.  The next day I get up and go to work only to watch my battery life drain away with practically ZERO usage on my part.  I work ten hour days minimum so having a phone that lasts all day is a must for me.

I did research different solutions online but a lot of it is crap.  The main thing the Evo needs for decent battery life is to have some of those connections turned off.  I don’t need GPS to be running at all hours, I don’t use bluetooth most of the time, so those were the first connections that got shut off.  I’m not typically around Wi-Fi networks either so I turned that off but I don’t think that made a huge difference.  I also went in to the apps (settings > Accounts and Sync) and disabled most of the social networks from syncing at all hours.  These changes alone have taken the battery life from around 8 hours to maybe 24 hours.  I can live with that for now while I learn what else I can do to save battery life.

I used to go 2-3 days on my Storm without the need for juice but I couldn’t do half the things this HTC Evo does so all in all I am pretty happy with this phone.  Maybe in 2012 Apple will get away from AT&T.  In the meantime the Evo is a good smartphone that I’m still learning how to get the most of.

As far as this blog goes I guess I need to figure out what I want to do with it.  It’s been sitting idle for more than a few months and obviously has no direction but I figure that’s ok.  This internet thing isn’t going anywhere and if it does end up serving a purpose at some point, then more power to it.  And if it doesn’t, meh.

Anyway I’ve gone with the twenty-ten theme for it for now because it’s there.  I actually like the simplicity of it and it’s pretty easy to customize.  I’m using it on more than a few of my new niche sites to just because it is really simple and looks much more cleaner than the old Kubrick default theme that WordPress was using before.  I’ll work on the header.

More to come.  I plan on doing a small review on my new HTC Evo smartphone tomorrow morning!

I went ahead and blotted out the inappropriate stuff.  I guess Amazon doesn’t bother to screen what “other customers are looking at right now” results.

Go to The Keyword Academy and sign up for their Keyword Crash Course.  There is nothing they will email you that will not help you in your online marketing endeavors.

As for me I’ve taken many of their techniques and used them to find keywords that have heavy search volume but not much competition.  I’ve used these keywords to drive more focused traffic to my websites through organic search results and it has been easy.  Using the methods Court and Mark describe I have more than enough keywords to chase after.  I actually have a list of keywords that have heavy search volume and little competition that are just waiting for me to have the time to focus on them.

If you are looking for ways to increase your presence in organic search results, sign up for The Keyword Academy.  No affiliate links here, go do it for your benefit and make some money.  It’s there for the taking!

Anyone can enter to win and it really is a breeze to do.  Check out the Niche Store Site Contest and sign up for the contest!

Anyways I have been enjoying Mark and Court’s Keyword Academy, which I will also post about soon.  I’ve been using their techniques for the last few months and have been very successful with what they teach.  Today I found a long-tail keyword that averages 10,000 searches a month (exact phrase) but has close to zero competition!  I plan on sharing some of the stuff I have learned along with screenshots of increased traffic for my sites thanks to the techniques Mark and Court teach.

See you soon!

Alcohol and Blogging

My previous post attempting to defend my sister’s honor is a good example of why there should be breathalyzers on computers.  Google has a feature in gmail called Mail Goggles that prevents you from sending stupid things via email when you are annebriated.  I wonder if theres a WordPress plugin…

In other news, I found a plugin that easily turns your WordPress install into a mobile-friendly version for when someone visits you on a browser from a cell phone.  It works very well and is super easy to install. ]]> http://www.pedrob.com/2009/06/16/my-previous-post/feed/ 0 http://www.pedrob.com/2009/06/15/i-will-cut-you/ http://www.pedrob.com/2009/06/15/i-will-cut-you/#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:31:57 +0000 Pedro http://www.pedrob.com/?p=447 Continue reading →]]>

Destruction

Apparently, a searcher out there doesn’t know that I cut people.  Above is a search result that landed somebody on my site.  This is the danger of a) having a sister with the same name as a famous person and b) having a blog that mentions her name.  My site is the number one search result for this search.  Consider this fair warning.

Just know that that’s my sister and that I have your IP address.  And I will cut you.

Yeah I know.  If I can’t stand the heat, stay my a$$ out of the kitchen.

• HubPages
• Squidoo
• Today

These sites don’t do much moderation, you can post pretty much whatever you want to as long as it’s not crazy spammy.  I also write to the different article submission sites like goarticles.com and articletrader.com but these sites take quite a bit of time to moderate and get posted.

These sites are awesome for building authority and PageRank.  My favorite has to be Squidoo, even though it starts a new Lens off with all no-follow links.  With a bit of work/time those links turn to do-follows and really help you rank well.

According to Facebook’s page on usernames:

Starting on Friday, June 12th, at 11:01pm, you’ll be able to choose a username for your Facebook account to easily direct friends, family, and coworkers to your profile.

If you want your desired Facebook username, better be online 11:01 June 12th!