When I got home I almost immediately ripped (well, not literally) into the box.  I found more than I expected.  I found a stereo headset and a USB cable (which doesn't look like a charging one, but I already have one of those that might work).

So, I wanted to check out the video stuff right away, especially the TV.  (Hey, we don't have cable so that's exciting.)  I pulled up the menu, went to On Demand, and got confused as to what the zip code was for.  Well, I thought maybe it was for adjusting the TV streams for regional differences.  After this it then needed to upgrade.  Alright, that's fine but a little odd.  After that, it asked me for the zip code -- again!  Then I get in.  Ah, man... this is the news and information portal.  Most of the services are premium (e.g. costs money) services, too.

Hmm, well, that's not the TV.  So I looked around some more and found the music application by pressing right, which is applications on most Verizon phones.  Alright, not what I want right now.  Down got me to the applications where I found trials of eBay and The Weather Channel Java apps.

Some more looking around and I saw a listing for Pict Bridge.  Ooh, that's something I'll have to try out to our printer (I hope it supports Pict Bridge...).

Alright, I finally found the TV stuff.  It was, by default, "left" then "channel listing."  Well, now, isn't that obvious? (As a side note, it took me a while to find that the "media player" and the "channel listing" off of the left button were actually the same things.)

So, I chose a channel and saw a loading rotating icon.  After that, I saw a loading scrollbar.  Two progress bars?  Strange.

Closing the flip to turn it off didn't.  It actually left the TV playing on the outside.  Hey, that's cool!  Then the backlight went off.  Hrm, not so cool.

After a short bit of watching I saw a dialog saying "Press a key to continue" -- what's that about?

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The rest I've already talked about in one way or another.  So yeah, a bunch of confusing stuff -- as both a consumer and (even worse, really) a gadget freak.  Admittedly, I'm much more familiar with Verizon phones and they aren't perfect.  They're probably not even any better, but it's hard for me to tell.

Posted by Shane on March 12, 2006 7:29 PM | Permalink