Hand Rolled Green Tea Hype?

I like to brew tea from time to time and recently have come across something I think is a bunch of crap.  Hand rolled tea "pearls".  As you can see in the picture the dried tea leaves have been hand rolled into little bundles of tea joy!  Really it just means they look fancy and some poor Indian or Chinese laborer got stuck with this unfortunate job.

I have bought a lot of tea from a lot of places and respect the fact that sometimes selection incurs higher prices.  A good example is teavana.com.  They offer a ton of selection with high-quality ingredients.  Problem I have is that you could end up paying a significant amount more for a product that is slightly, if at all, better than what can be easily procured down the street. 

Consider these tea pearls.  They claim to be hand rolled young tea leaves.  What do you get out of them that you don't get from normal tea leaves?  They slowly unroll to release just the right amount of flavor crystals?  Bah.

Do this and save yourself some money.  Go to your local Indian or Asian supply store.  Find the giant 1 lb bag of green tea for $12, go home, and compare the steeped leaf to any off the shelf version for...say....twice as much per ounce.  The size of the leaf and the quality of the tea is probably damn close to the expensive stuff.  Even compare it to a bag of Tazo green tea in a bag and you'll be blown away. 

And you know what?  Buying from your local Indian supply supports local small business which is good for everyone.  The second pic is what I purchases at the local store.  Look for the black Assam tea as well and steep some cinnamon stick in the tea while your at it.  Just can't beat it.

KTCK 1310 on the Android OS

I once owned a Blackberry and used to get so frustrated when I couldn't listen to The Ticket (KTCK) AM 1310/FM 104.1 in Dallas.  I found a simple app on my iPod Touch which is also ported to the Android OS.

Image care of zatznotfunny.com

TuneIn Radio. Enough said. Go here or TuneIn.com by RadioTime.  Not only does this app let you get The Ticket, but you can pretty much listen to any local radio station anywhere.  I travel some and this allows me to listen to PowerFM 89.7 when I am on the road as well as The Ticket.  You can set presets by making an account and then load them anywhere you have a internet connection.  ANYWHERE!  I love it.

I would pay for this service...but it is free so even better.  They even stream the metadata from the radio stream as well...not that it matters but still an added touch.  ..oh, on the iPad app you can record the stream. Very cool.

Thank you RadioTime.  I love you.

App Review - ScreenShots Plus for the Mac

I don't always give props where I should so here is one app that is well worth the time.  Steven Chaitoff over at tarcolesfilmarts.com has created a simple yet oh so useful OS X dashboard widget that is amazing.  

At first you look at this and say - I can perform screen shots with simple keystrokes such as:

1. ⌘+Shift+3 – Takes full screen shot and saves it to the desktop
2. ⌘+Shift+4 – Allows you to capture a selection of your screen and saves it to the desktop
3. ⌘+Shift+4 and tap the space bar – Allows you to capture an application window and saves it to the desktop

Simply add the Control key and the screenshot is copied to the clipboard.

With this dashboard widget, just simply hit F4, click on a small icon, size up your screenshot on your screen, left click, and then review your screenshot.  As the picture shows you above, you can then see a thumbnail of your screenshot with a magnifying glass.  When you click on the Floppy Disk icon, it saves a .png to your desktop.  If you don't like it you simply click the Redo icon and try again.

Voila.  

Tutorial - How to change the Droid Charge's dock icons

So you have a fancy new Droid Charge from Verizon with 4G LTE and you say, "You know what?  This is a great phone but I wish I could change the icons at the bottom of the screen."

Image care of phonearena.com

I came across this when I got tired of getting an icon update from both the Messaging and Handcent icons.  Well, here is how you do it.

1. Click on your Applications soft icon in the bottom right of the screen
2. If you have your applications in List View, then click on the hard Menu button on the bottom right of the face of the phone
3. Select Grid View
4. Click the hard Menu button again
5. Select Edit
6. Now you can long press your icons up above and drag them into the dock (or menu bar or primary icon bar or whatever it is called)
7. When done hit the Home soft button in the dock

Hope that works for you!  Enjoy.

Droid Charge is MINE!

I purchased a Droid Charge over the weekend to replace my ailing Droid Incredible. My DInc's power plug was getting finicky and I was talked into a 4G LTE phone for a small fee.

The Super AMOLED Plus screen is beautiful and blows away my DInc's screen. It is much happier in full sunlight although it is no iPhone. The resolution is outstanding for the screen size and it handles smudges as best as possible. I am pleased it has a front camera although I am bummed that there are so few apps that work cross platform. I am super ticked that Fring cannot get the front camera to work. I feel even with the Android fragmentation that occurs that this is ridiculous. I have read many Samsung Galaxy users have this same woe. The app is free and ad supported but at least offer a paid version and develop fo' real.

So far I am unimpressed with the processor. The interface is snappy however jumping back and forth between the home screen and apps can be a bit laggy. I miss HTC's Sense interface just a little as the widgets and calendar interfaces were top notch. I do love TouchWiz 3.0's ability to change my dock icons. Tutorial to come.

The unit feels good in my hand and is easy to navigate. I like the actual mechanical buttons over the touch screen buttons my DInc had. The plastic is a bit wonky but for being a larger phone than my DInc I am pleased with the weight to size ratio. Thickness is reasonable and the location of the outer buttons are reasonable intuitive. I do like having the power/wake button on the right. I am right handed and it works perfect for both hands to easily wake/sleep the phone when talking or simply waking it back up when it falls asleep because I didn't touch it soon enough.

The battery life has been fairly spectacular so far. The 4G LTE speeds will blow your mind. Also, the fact that it comes with a 32 GB SD card is pretty cool too. I think my DInc came with a 2 GB one. Overall, I am pleased with the purchase. I may note that my DInc still works and I added Cyanogen(Mod) with no problems. I figure I have 14 days to return this thing and if it doesn't make me completely happy I will claim insurance for my DInc and roll with Android OS 2.3.3 on the down low.

I suck

Here is how much I suck. I haven't posted anything in years. Thanks Bunterman for keeping this thing on life support.