I Say Goodbye, You Say Hello

Posted by: PatrickJ on Jun 02 2008 - 578 views

I’ve never been big on sharing much of my personal life here on JAMM.  I hope you’ll all forgive me if I change that a little now on this final post for me here, though I’ll keep it pretty brief.

I have cancer.  Found out beginning of last year.  Things had been going well / better for me for several months in terms of this illness.  Now they are not anymore, they are going significantly worse. 

I have found over recent months that I was not able to put in the amounts of quality time on JAMM that I really wanted to, and now this situation would only get worse.  So, for a number of reasons, it is best for me to bow out of running and actively contributing to the site.

Since I started this site almost exactly two years ago, I’ve had an absolute blast being involved with it.  A blast working with and sharing ideas with superb people like Doug, Charlie, Brandon, Lauren, Peter, Thomas, and many others.  A blast talking with and trading comments with many of you.  Lots of fun keeping up with all the latest and greatest mobile gadgets and applications, and sharing our thoughts on them with all of you.   I feel very happy and proud about where JAMM has got to in a couple of years, and all the good friends that I have, that the site has, made during this time.

I’m also very happy to say that as I step out of the site, our good friend and former colleague, Doug Goldring, is returning - and will take over running JAMM.  Doug has been a huge contributor here since the very beginning (as many of you know) and it feels great to leave the site in the way more than capable hands of Doug, Brandon, Peter, Charlie, Lauren, Thomas, TJ, and all the rest of our excellent crew here.

I look forward to being a JAMM reader and commenter in future, and keeping in touch with as many of you as possible here as well ….

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It’s Important To Vote - For a Keyboard Skin!

Posted by: PatrickJ on May 27 2008 - 401 views

Many of you will recognize the name spmwinkel (or Stefan) - as he is one of our most frequent and favorite commenters here at JAMM - and a very frequent past contest winner as well.  He was also one of our first ‘Show & Tell’ participants - you can check out his entry HERE.

Stefan has recently entered the Resco Keyboard Pro Skin Competition, and voting in the competition is going on right now.  Up for grabs for the winner is an HTC Touch - and it would be just great to see Stefan win this, for his very sleek skin work!

So … if at all possible, take a moment away from thinking about silly political elections, and make your way over to HERE and vote for Stefan’s creation.  Just look for ‘Gesta Skin’ by spmwinkel and hit the Vote button (assuming of course that you agree it is deserving).  Your IP is tracked, so stick to just voting once

Good luck Stefan!

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Shootout At The (Checking If The Weather Is) OK Corral …

Posted by: PatrickJ on May 20 2008 - 204 views

 

Here it is.  High Noon at the MTS Corral.  We’re standing at the crossroads in the center of town.  Ahead of us, the doors to the saloon swing open as our first competitor strides into the street…Fizz Weather.  The wind starts to blow gently, just enough for a tumbleweed to kick up some dust on the far side of town …

I’m betting that many of you very much enjoyed Doug Goldring’s flair for the dramatic (with a slice of humor thrown in) in his reviews, as so nicely displayed in the above excerpt, as well as some of those epic Head-to-Head reviews that he and Lauren have done here at JAMM. 

I know I always have - so it’s great to see that over at MyTodayScreen Doug and his colleagues have started a ‘Shootouts’ series, where they’ll regularly be matching up the leading contenders in specific application categories and giving their verdict on which one is the current champ.

The first in the series throws weather apps into the ring - three excellent and popular ones in this case, Spb Weather, Fizz Weather, and SBSH’s Pocket Weather.  It’s a great first entry in a series that I know I’ll be following and looking forward to.

Head over HERE to check out the weather apps shootout and find out who ended up winning it …

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‘The eWallet’ Gets Its Big Break on TV

Posted by: PatrickJ on May 16 2008 - 174 views

eWallet has long been a favorite, and essential, app for many of us here at JAMM - so it’s fun to see today’s news at The Ilium Software Blog, letting us know about a big TV appearance for eWallet and Marc Tassin, Ilium’s marketing guru.

The local NBC TV station did quite a good little story on eWallet, which their reporter seems to like calling ‘The eWallet’ - hey I’m sure Ilium won’t complain about that title. 

Check out the story HERE - and watch the video via the link under the photo along the right-hand side of the article.  I should also pass along that the emphasis on the iPhone in the video is down to the TV station’s editing - not Ilium’s choice:

The emphasis on the iPhone is theirs - Marc showed versions of several devices, and they picked which parts to use (in the car, going back to Detroit, apparently. I’m impressed).

Here’s hoping all this celebrity stuff doesn’t go straight to Marc’s head

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Judie’s Got Xperiance

Posted by: PatrickJ on May 14 2008 - 184 views

Our good friend / colleague / mentor and all-round gadget guru, Judie Lipsett from Gear Diary, is at a Mobius event in Seattle this week - and was at a presentation this afternoon from Sony-Ericsson on the much-anticipated Sony SE XPERIA X1.

She’s got some news on progress being made on the X1, and lots of great photos, including some useful size comparison shots.

Well worth a visit to Gear Diary to check it out HERE …

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A Zune Ad, That Doesn’t Suck!

Posted by: PatrickJ on May 14 2008 - 168 views

I am one of those rare and mythical creatures - a (very) happy Zune owner.  I have a Gen 1 Zune and really have no complaints with it and use it all the time.  I have not been a fan of Zune advertising however, which I just may have mentioned in the past on this site.

This week I just caught a Zune ad on TV for the first time ever - and I was really almost shocked to find that I like it.  I think it’s a well done advert for the Zune … finally.

Things I like about it:

• No enormous pink bunnnies starring in it at all
• It’s simple
• The track used in it (I don’t know what it is) is not lame IMO
• It highlights the single biggest selling point of the Zune - the Zune Pass all-you-can-eat music plans
• No pink bunnies

Have any of you seen the ad yet?  (if not, click the image at the top of this post to have a look) What do you think?

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