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Last night I was having a conversation via Twitter with my friend @twspreach about the new electronic readers such as the Kindle 2, Kindle DX, Sony’s Reader. I have read articles about people catching the attention of big companies on Twitter and getting help solving problems. Usually this begins with a use going on a tirade about a product or poor customer service, etc.

However, it appears you don’t have to be bashing someone to catch their attention. This morning I discovered the following Tweet:

Companies are using social networking to monitor their brands, reach out to customers, and do damage control where necessary. Now I am trying to find something worthy of complaining about to see if I can get a resolution! Big Brother is watching…

Obviously the webcam thing is nothing new, even though relatively few people still have them. Tonight I came across a new site that is rather interesting. Qik.com allows you to stream live video to the web from your cell phone. But that is just the beginning.

Once you download the software to your phone and create your account, you can immediately start streaming video to Qik.com. The entire setup process took me less than five minutes including creating my account and profile. Video appears on your page at Qik.com and includes a chat feature should you choose to enable it. The video stream also allows you to turn the audio on or off depending on you settings. These setting can be changed on your phone, even while streaming video.

Once you stop streaming, the video is automatically uploaded and saved in your profile so you can view it later. Of course, as with most sites, people can post comments about your video. If you don’t want other seeing the video, you have the option to set it to private. The website interface also provide a permalink and the code to embed the video into your website.

If that isn’t good enough, you can also share it with any of your friends on Facebook or similar sites, or post it directly to your Facebook profile. Another thing I also found interesting is that you are provided code that allows you to create a streaming video channel on your website (or where ever you choose to put it). This way, your streaming video can be broadcast on the site of your choosing.

What about Twitter? Well, there is a setting in your profile that allows you to send an update to Twitter with a notification that you have uploaded a new video. You can also press 55 during or after a video to send it to Twitter if you don’t have automatic settings configured.

The software was unbelievably easy to download and setup. If you want to capture quick videos or stream live, this is a great free way to do it.

The next time you are arguing with a friend about something and you want verification you are correct, ask an expert. ChaCha is a new service where you text a question and it is routed to someone that knows about the subject matter. You receive a text message back shortly with your answer. Kinda cool.

Questions are sent to a worker, or “guide,” who searches the Internet using sites preapproved by ChaCha. When the guide finds the answer, he or she text messages the user back in less than 160 characters — all for free. ChaCha’s Web site promises answers within “just a few minutes.”

And if you are knowledgeable about a particular subject, you can sign up to be guide. Here is a CNN article that describes the service well.

Recently, the church I attend had a couple of laptops stolen. Last year, a teacher’s laptop at my wife’s school turned up missing. A coworker of mine had her SUV broken into and two laptops were stolen last month. This is a common occurrence. My wife and I both have laptops, and mine travels with me to work most days, so I worry about it being stolen or disappearing. I recently came across a program that will help you (meaning the authorities) recover your laptop should it ever be stolen.

I looked at Lojack for Laptops years ago but decided I didn’t really want to pay the $40 to $70 per year that the service costs. I had also heard that this type of software allows the company to track where your laptop has been, even when YOU still have it. Not that I would really worry about my privacy, but it still didn’t thrill me. And I know some people that would totally freak out that they might be tracked by “the Man”.

Adeona is a program developed by the University of Washington school of Computer Science and Engineering. According to the product description on their website:

Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner’s choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop.

With Adeona, only you (or someone you specify) can track the location of your laptop. And if you are using the software with Mac OS X, the laptop camera can be turned on to capture pictures of whoever is using the laptop (this works, I know someone who has used it to find their laptop!).

For a more detailed review, visit the CNET Review here or watch the PC Mag video below.

It has now been a month with the new phone, so I guess I can fairly review it. If anyone finds this post while looking for detailed technical information on the Tilt, this is not that review. (And Trey, check out Deuteronomy 5:21).

The Tilt gets it’s name from the screen. After the keyboard slides open, the screen rotates up forty degrees. This is good if you have it sitting on your desk watching a video or using it as a mini laptop, but 98% of the time, I don’t use the tilt feature. It is easier to see the screen with it flat when you are holding it. There are also two menu buttons at the top of the keyboard that are difficult to access with the screen tilted. My biggest complaint is the time it takes to redraw the screen when you slide it open and it changes from portrait to landscape. I had read about this before I got it, but those few seconds are somewhat annoying.

One thing I did NOT want was a regular phone keyboard. With a data plan, I figured I would use this thing for email and web surfing and I did not want to mess with pushing one key multiple times to type a letter. What I did not expect was the QWERTY keyboard to be as big as it is. I have large hands and still I almost wish the keyboard was a little smaller. The large keys do prevent me from hitting more than one key at a time, but I am still getting used to how much movement is required to type. This is not a negative, just something you have to get used too if you have been using any other phone’s keyboard.

The Tilt come with Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition. If you search online, you will find this has numerous upgrades from WM 5, thought it still has a few faults. It also comes with a full suite of Microsoft Mobile Office. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe Reader. What I found useful was the ability to add a mobile version of Microsoft One Note, which I use extensively. You also get calculator, a clock, a ZIP manager, and a voice recorder, among other things. It comes with 256MB of ROM and 128MB SDRAM, however, I also added 4GB to that via a MicroSD card I got off Amazon.com for $25. I run most third party programs from the card, as well as storing about 25 CDs worth of music. Still, this only uses about half of the 4GB of memory. In fact, with the 3MP camera, I can fit just over 4,800 pictures at full resolution on the memory left over on the card.

On that note, there is a 3 megapixel camera. Camera options include Photo, Video, MMS Video, Contacts Picture, Picture Theme, Panorama, Sports, and Burst. In photo mode, you have 6 different resolutions to choose from all the way up to the full 3MP. Video recording also include audio via the on board microphone. The disappointment here is the lack of flash.

I can connect to any of the cell phone networks. These, in order of speed, include: GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 3G, and HDSPA. AT&T highly touts the speed of the 3G network, but I get annoyed when connected to it. Why? Simple, the Tilt can connect to the HDSPA network, which is even faster than 3G. What is interesting is this is not an option on the phone out of the box. I had to erase some software and add other stuff in order to be able to connect to that network, but it was sooooo worth it.

At home, I have AT&T U-Verse fiber optic television and a 3MB internet connection that comes standard as a wireless network. With my phone, I can connect to my home internet connection via Wi-Fi. Why is this cool? Well, the other night I was sitting in my backyard surfing the web on my phone and decided to run a DSL speed test. My phone was connected to the internet at 1.2MB. Before upgrading my internet connection, my home computers were connecting at less than half that speed! This is great for watching streaming video such as the Africam webcam or news updates from MSNBC.com.

Stereo Bluetooth is also included. Naturally, I purchased a Bluetooth head set. But the one I have has a second earpiece that plugs into the main earpiece to provide stereo capability for watching videos and listening to music. In all honesty, I prefer using a regular pair of earbuds for music because the sound quality is amazing, where as the Bluetooth sounds like a tiny little speaker set in front of your ear.

The Tilt also has a built in GPS receiver. For $10 per month you can get unlimited routes with TeleNav. I did not think this was worth it as I don’t stray from my beaten path too often. But it is certainly worth it with Google Maps. I downloaded it to my phone and it works perfectly…for FREE. When travelling down the highway, it showed exactly which lane I was in. When sitting in my house, I could tell which room I was in when I zoomed in close. It is accurate to within a couple of feet. And it is FREE. When I select “My Location” and activate the GPS, it centers my location on the screen and the map scrolls as I move. For FREE! Awesome.

I may add more details as they come to mind in future posts. I will also be detailing some of the software I have added to customize the phone to my liking.

For a more detailed review, visit the CNET Review here or watch the PC Mag video below.

Dashwire is a new service that mirrors your mobile phone content to the web. Their About page correctly states, “we believe that some things are just easier to do on your computer”. Once you signup for an account, a text message is sent to your phone. Click the link and install the software on your device.

Once installed, you will be able to sync your contacts, text messages, photos, videos, call logs, and phone settings such as ringtones, bookmarks, and speed dials. This is a great way to backup your content.

Now say you are at your desk and get a text message. You can respond from your computer and the message will be sent from your phone. No more need for typing on that little keypad on your phone. What I like is that I did not have type all of my contacts into my phone. I just got a new phone so I was going to have to enter every one of my contacts manually. Beating! But I first installed Dashwire (I had done some program research prior to getting my phone) and entered all of my contacts on my laptop. When finished, I synced my phone using the Dashwire software and in a matter of seconds, all contacts were on my phone.

Another handy feature is uploading of photos and videos. Because I have a very fast connection on my phone, it is no problem for me to upload a 3 megapixel photo to Facebook, Photobucket, or email it to someone. However, this is a pain if you are working with multiple photos. Now, I just click “update” in Dashwire and ALL of the changes I have made to my phone are updated online, not just the pictures. This saves a great deal of time. Once they are uploaded, you can go online and add titles, descriptions, and tags to your photos and videos.

I can also share my photos and videos easily. Every account gets a page online where people can view your photos and video. The address is Dashwire.com/YourAccountName. If you don’t want others to be able to access your images, you can set the privacy options. I prefer only to share certain images and videos. This is also doable because I can mark those I wish not to share as private.

One thing to note is that the service uses large amounts of your data plan, so be sure yours is unlimited. I also set my phone to update manually because I didn’t want it slowing down when I was trying to work n something else. Now I update once or twice a day just to keep it current and prevent future large uploads.

For a more detailed review, you can visit this article on ZDNet by Matthew Miller, or you can take a tour of the software here.