Hello, and welcome to In My Bag! My name is Jenn, and this is my product review blog. 
Towards the end of January I treated myself to a T-Mobile G1. You know, I never thought I would own a Google phone. I never thought I’d have a Google-owned/tainted anything, besides my gmail account, which I use for business correspondence. But the phone is just too damn sexy for its own good.
I didn’t pay much attention to the hype surrounding it, until a friend of mine came over one night in early January with his new T-Mobile G1. I watched him play with it for a bit (ignore the dirty connotations that sentence brings up, please), and then I asked to check it out. My big thing is the keyboard — are the buttons easy to maneuver? Feel? Press? Well yes, yes and yes. The combination of touch screen, full QWERTY keyboard (plus separate numbers — no more hitting the ALT key to type in a number, or ALT + ALT to type in a whole string of them and ALT again to exit out of the number mode) and call/home/menu/back/end buttons made navigating the phone’s numerous features quite easy. Bonus: the spiffy little clickable mouse ball that I only discovered after buying the phone. Hah.
I had been having the “itch” to upgrade from the phone I had then, the T-Mobile Dash. A very nice phone, not a thing wrong with it (besides it totally laying the smack down on its original battery, which I replaced last December), but I bought it back in August 2007, and I was getting… bored.
So, while I was in Philadelphia on January 27th, I decided to check out the T-Mobile G1 in person. Then I had to call several stores and drive to three different ones in order to track down a white G1. Apparently white is in high demand. I’m not exactly sure why that is, besides the obvious fact that the Apple iPhone is available in white, so wouldn’t it be neat to have its competition in the same color? I do admit, I love having the phone in white. Both my friend and Dan (Dan liked my phone upon sight, and I got him one in black two days later) have theirs in black, and the black is okay… but just not for me. The big downside to having a white G1 is that the keyboard contrast, quite frankly, sucks major ass. Thankfully, I am a typing queen, and I quickly memorized the placement of the keys and spacing between them and such, so I only occasionally slip up and use a double quote instead of a single, or type a period instead of a comma.
Hardware-wise, the phone feels nice. It feels even nicer with the clear case I bought for it and put on the phone before I even turned it on. I also left on the original clear plastic shields. They don’t interfere with the look of the phone or the ability to view, read and use the touch screen, and I’m grateful for the added protection. Whether the phone falls off our furniture or gets jostled around in my purse, it’ll be good to go! The area surrounding the call, home, menu, mouse ball, back and end buttons aside, the phone will be in pristine, mint condition for years to come!
The keys are wide and raised just enough to distinguish one from another. They’re not spaced too close together, which was a peeve of mine with the Dash. All of the buttons and keys are very responsive, and the mouse ball is almost too fast.
The screen’s orientation is vertical when closed (the screen slides over the keyboard area), and automatically switches to horizontal when open.
Software-wise, this phone is just AMAZING. It’s fast to start up, fast to power down, and switches through applications seamlessly. Oh, and the apps… don’t even get me started on the Android Market. There is an application for just about anything. I’ll give you a perfect example of “anything” with the list of apps I have installed:
- Backgrounds: lists categorized backgrounds from Flickr that are the perfect resolution for use as G1 wallpaper
- Flashlight: turns the whole screen white, and disables screen timeout. Great for using as a flashlight, and yes, I have used it!
- Lexic: word game. You have three minutes to create as many four letter words from a 4 x 4 or 5 x 5 grid of random letters. Insanely addictive.
- Mileage: handy app that logs mileage for vehicles. Logging options cover the cost of gas, the number of gallons you purchased, and your current odometer reading. It also supports multiple vehicles.
(On a related note, we’ve put over $100 in the Hyundai in less than a month. Ouch!) - OI Shopping List: a cute app that lets you create shopping lists. Check or mark off items as you purchase them.
- PingDroid: quickly update Ping.fm.
- ShopSavvy: some sort of shopping app. I haven’t used it yet.
- Sudoku: self-explanatory.
- The Weather Channel: should also be self-explanatory.
- Tiproid: quickly calculate tips and bill splitting for restaurant bills.
- Toddler Lock: Ryan really likes this app. Basically, it “locks down” the phone, and it can only be removed by pressing a certain sequence of letters and numbers. While in the lock down mode, shapes in various sizes and colors float around the screen, and quiet music plays in the background.
- ToggleWifi: one-click to turn wifi on or off (as opposed to going to Menu > Settings, etc.).
- Twidroid: keep tabs on your Twitter friends and post updates, and photos, too!
- World Traffic Cams: just what it says. I haven’t used it yet.
- Yellowbook V2: app that enables you to search yellowbook.com directly, without loading up the browser.
In summary, since this review is long enough by now, the T-Mobile G1 is an amazing phone, and I have no regrets about purchasing it. The battery life leaves a little too be desired, but turning off GPS and wifi (when not in use) and keeping the screen brightness turned to the low end of the scale can really make a big difference. I’d say that I have to charge my phone every two days, and I can go two days or so with frequent use before it will die completely. The “inconvenience” of having to remember to charge isn’t too bad — Dan and I have a charger in the living room, two in the bedroom, chargers in each cars, and USB cables in case we want/need to connect the phone directly to a computer. So, we’re good to go!
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Babies and toddlers, especially those babies that are just learning to eat and those toddlers that are more interested in playing with food than eating it, can create quite a mess at the kitchen table. And underneath it, and all around it. Normally the clean up involves paper towels and a broom, or turning loose the family dog.
You know, we have a family dog, but for some reason her stomach is sensitive to things like hot dogs, pop corn and French fries, and she turns her little Pug nose up at green beans and peas. And I admit, even though it’s not that difficult to sweep a floor, it gets rather tedious and annoying when it’s something you have to do day after day after day.
So, where am I going with this? Well, let me tell you about the Wupzey. Wupzey may have a silly name, but its purpose is quite practical. It’s a food catcher designed for use with high chairs and booster seats. A durable plastic/vinyl food catcher enhanced with Velcro and elastic enables the Wupzey to be situated underneath and around your baby’s high chair or booster seat, and keeps it securely in place.
I had the opportunity to try out a bright blue Wupzey with my son’s booster seat. My husband installed it for me a few weeks ago (don’t get me wrong, it’s easy enough to install, but my husband is better with spacial perception than me, so I let him have at it with the Velcro!), and it’s working pretty well. Any food that my son drops (or throws) falls into the Wupzey, rather than onto the floor. The food catcher can then be easily removed, shaken over a trash can and then washed and dried just like my pots and pans.
The Wupzey is $19.95, and is available in ten different colors, including a few bright patterns. You can purchase a Wupzey from Sears, Babies ‘r Us, at any of the local stores listed here, and from wupzey.com!
or…
You can win a Wupzey!
Wupzey and I have teamed up to offer one lucky In My Bag reader a Wupzey in their color/pattern of choice!
How do you enter the giveaway?
You can enter the Wupzey giveaway by commenting on this blog entry. Tell me what food you hate cleaning up the most!
You can gain an additional entry by posting on your own blog about this giveaway!
You can gain yet another entry by posting the following to your public Twitter account:
Win a Wupzey at In My Bag! http://tinyurl.com/wupzey
All together, you have three chances to win a Wupzey!
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Giveaway details:
- The giveaway begins on March 16th, 2009 and ends on March 23rd, 2009.
- A winner will be randomly selected on March 23rd, 2009, and then contacted and announced on In My Bag.
- The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.
- Only one entry per person!
Good luck to everyone who enters!
Like I said in my product review for Hanes Women’s 100% Cotton Hi-Cut Panties, I usually purchase my underwear from Fashion Bug and Lane Bryant, but once in a while I’ll pick up a few more basic types of underwear. My mom always swore by Fruit of the Loom, so when I saw their line of Fit for Me, I decided to try them out.
I picked out Fruit of the Loom Fit for Me in the hi-cut, low-rise style. These underwear are soft, comfy and a “true” fit, but there’s one little issue that can be quite annoying. So annoying, in fact, that I have banished these underwear to the very back of my drawer, and only wear them if there is nothing else. So, what’s the little issue? One word: cameltoe (also referred to as frontal wedgie).
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I have a cell phone, and I absolutely love it, but a great and cheap alternative to pricey and complex cell phones and cell phone plans is most definitely the Peek. (Plus, even if I wanted to save money by switching to the Peek, I couldn’t. My teenage brother, who is at a residential school, has snagged my Peek and enjoys keeping in touch with me and our mother with it!) The Peek, which I reviewed last fall, is a handheld device that looks and functions a lot like a Blackberry or Windows Mobile phone, except it only does email and text messages.
Anyway, I was doing some more reading on Peek recently, and found that an in-depth comparison has proved that a Peek really is cheaper if all you want to do is send and receive email and text message your friends and family members! For instance, someone with Verizon could save almost $1000 over the life of their contract by using Peek for their email and texting needs.
Want to learn more about how Peek can save you the big bucks? Check out Peekonomics.
P.S. Are you ready for Peek? Hit up Costco and check out their Peek lifetime deal. For $399 you get the Peek device (in your choice of red, aqua or black) and LIFETIME service (the normal service is $20 per month)! Considering that in a year you will pay approximately $240 in monthly fees, plus the cost of the phone, you can see how $399 for LIFETIME service is a great deal!
Suffice to say, without the aid of weight loss products or a strength and determination that I haven’t yet come into possession of, I will continue to wear a specialty bra size that isn’t available in most stores. I even have trouble finding my bra size in plus-size shops like Fashion Bug and Lane Bryant. But my problem isn’t the band size, it’s the cup size. I can find my band size and then some in most plus size stores. But try finding my band size + DDD. Let me tell you, it’s not happening!
So when I know of a reputable brand of bra, I tend to stick with it. Last week I was browsing eBay and found a listing for a Goddess bra, and since I know and trust Goddess bras from my days of nursing and wearing nursing bras (can you believe I scored six of them for just $5 apiece at an outlet store?!), I went ahead and bought the bra.
I got the bra a few days ago, and I tried it out the day I got it, and then wore it again today. It’s comfortable… mostly. There’s a weird lump of strap right near the strap adjuster on the right side, and it itches and pokes beneath my shoulder blade. I had to adjust that strap to a tighter-than-usual position in order to alleviate the lump of strap. But other than that, the support is excellent, and the girls are very well showcased.
However, I must admit that I have my doubts on how long the bra will last for. You see, the underwires and numerous side panels are made out of plastic. I know this because I have been listening to them creak since a few minutes after trying on the bra for the first time. You would think that bra manufacturers would provide big-chested girls with underwires and panels made out of metal more often, and not cheaper plastic which will definitely break sooner!
Well, time will only tell… I’ll continue to wear the bra, hand wash it and air dry it, and report back when the underwires do finally give way, which they eventually will (I’m sure of it).
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Usually I buy my underwear from Fashion Bug or Lane Bryant, but I’ll occasionally stock up on a few more basic styles… if I can find them in my size. Well, Hanes does carry basic, fashionable underwear in my size, so I went ahead and picked up a two packs of Hanes Women’s 100% Cotton Hi-Cut Panties.
Now here’s the thing. The Hanes underwear is comfortable. It fits. It is pre-shrunk. But… not only are they hi-cut, but they are also low rise. Extremely so. If you have a bit of a baby “pouch” or “pooch”, or simply don’t like the waistband of your underwear to be several inches beneath the waistband of your pants, then these underwear are not for you.
(And, subsequently, they’re not really for me, either!)
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