We just watched the documentary “More Than a Game” — the story of LeBron James and his highschool teammates. The film covers everything from their start as 4 best friends on an 11 yr old AAU basketball team all the way through their senior year and third state championship (beating the Nation’s #1 team Oak Hill Academy along the way).
The director/creator of the film started it as a college project (the original assignment was a 10 minute short). He was from Akron and had heard about this local group of kids who started playing together at a young age and decided to all play for the same highschool. The coach and highschool administrators allowed him to follow the team their junior and senior year as a fly-on-wall cameraman. He does an excellent job of capturing the essence of the team as a unit, each player’s story (not just LeBron), and their mentor coach (the point guard’s father).
I purchased the movie on Amazon.com and expected to learn a lot about LeBron James intermixed with a highlight reel of game footage. What I got instead was a wholesome story of friendship, family, and sports as a catalyst for something greater than “the game”.
While we weren’t state champions or anything, some of my fondest memories and closest friends were made on my highschool basketball team (and thanks to Facebook, I can stay in touch with them). I think Tia liked the film as well, she also played sports in highschool (and college). “More Than a Game” highlights many of the character-building aspects of sports which makes me hope our kids enjoy athletics as much as their parents do.
Price Comparison: iPhone vs Pre vs Droid vs Nexus One
On January 5th Google released its media hyped “iPhone-killer” the Nexus One (built by HTC). Being the kind husband that I am, I decided to gift my G1 (the first Android phone) to Tia, which left me with no choice but to upgrade to the Nexus One (N1). I ordered Tuesday morning right as they went on sale and received the phone Thursday afternoon.
Compared to the iPhone 3GS, the N1 has a larger screen, more memory, and a faster CPU — which makes it the first phone in my opinion that can truly compete with Apple.
Note: The Nexus One is not to be confused with the recently released Motorola Droid. They both run the “Android” operating system from Google, but they are two different phones.
Below I will provide a short overview of what I love about the N1 followed by a short video demonstration:
Free turn-by-turn GPS navigation
Google Account Integration:
Gmail
Contacts / Calendar
Google Talk
Google Voice
Picasa
Facebook Integration
Speech-to-text synthesis
20,000 Apps (mostly free)
Wireless Internet Sharing –> laptop
Brilliant User Interface
Interactive Widgets
3.7″ Screen
Touch / Multitouch
My favorite apps: (all of which are free, except for the Nintendo emulator)
Google Maps (w/ turn-by-turn GPS Navigation)
Facebook – I’m not much of a facebook’r, but the seamless integration here is pretty neat. For example, when I go to call someone in my address book, it shows me their latest Facebook update.
Locale – Automatically changes your phone settings (e.g. ringer / volume / brightness) based on your predefined criteria (GPS location, time of day, etc). For example, Locale turns off my ringer when I arrive in downtown Houston each morning for work.
Nesoid – Nintendo emulator. (play those nostalgic NES games in your downtime)
Pandora – Internet radio.
ShopSavvy – Scan a barcode on a product and it gives you a map of local stores selling the item (w/ price). It uses the phone’s camera to scan the barcode.
Shazam – The phone can “listen” to music and tell you what song is playing (with the option to purchase it).
Where’s My Droid? – Text your phone a secret word and it will ring for 3 minutes to help you find it. Also provides an enhanced option to have the phone text you back a link to Google Maps with its location pinpointed.
Scriptures – Instant access to the Bible, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine Covenants (and Koran).
Wireless Tether – Turn your phone into a wifi hotspot for your laptop. (requires that you void your warranty and install custom software)
Google Maps – Facebook – Locale
Nintendo Emulator (running on old G1) – Pandora Internet Radio
ShopSavvy: (scan your bar code and find the cheapest / nearest retailer)
Where’s My Droid? – Shazam
Scriptures – Wireless Internet Sharing – YouTube
I’ve also grown fond of the following widgets:
Webcam Widget – View webcam images on your phone. I use this to tap into my home surveillance system (first image below, green background).
Facebook Friends Status
Pandora Control
Weather / News
CalWidget
Webcam Widget(s) – Facebook Widget – Pandora Internet Radio
Weather / News – CalWidget
It’s only been a few days but I’m extremely impressed with the build quality and user interface of this thing. Definitely a huge improvement from the G1. If you’re in the market for a new phone you should seriously consider the N1 (especially if you use Facebook / Gmail / Google Voice / Picasa / Google Calendar / etc). Also note that the even though the Motorola Droid runs Android (like the N1), the Droid’s much more expensive with slower hardware. However, if you want a physical keyboard (which the N1 lacks), then the Droid is your best bet.
We just watched the documentary “More Than a Game” — the story of LeBron James and his highschool teammates. The film covers everything from their start as 4 best friends on an 11 yr old AAU basketball team all the way through their senior year and third state championship (beating the Nation’s #1 team Oak Hill Academy along the way).
