Just draw and shoot.

One of the Blackberry's advantages is the speed with which you can "shoot" an email. Starting from how fast you draw the device from the holster/pocket and having it readily available to type in the email right away, going to the way in which the email travels to the receiver. The push way makes email sending experience similar with shooting. The "bullets" though in this case are the bits of information that travel wirelessly.

Pearl has extra shooting advantages as it can shoot also pictures with its camera. Then, as with an email you can "shoot" them to your loved ones using MMS or Bluetooth.

Being so small, Pearl makes the "draw and shoot" experience a pleasure. Having it in your pocket you just draw, press the right side Convenience Key to activate the camera and shoot. Then press the menu key on the left side of the trackball and you are ready to send the picture as MMS.

In this way I have acquired the new "draw and shoot" addiction.

Santa Parade through Pearl's eye.

Check out these Santa Parade snapshots taken in Kitchener last weekend with my Pearl.

Strong as an oak.

Blackberry Pearl grows in oaks in Victoria Park in Kitchener as a proof that it is not only cute, sensitive and smart, it is also strong as an oak.

It's fast! BAM! BAM!

I didn't tell you anything about the Pearl's main feature, that of wireless communication (it's a Blackberry after all). Pearl's browser doesn't just grab web pages, it snaps them. The main reason is the high speed wireless network (EDGE) Pearl is using.

It's the magic of Pearl's pearl.

Where is my trackwheel? One thing that strikes you on first Pearl glimpse is its beautiful pearly trackball, that replaced the trackwheel. It makes Pearl so easy and intuitive to use.

I must to confess that by the power of habit I was always searching with my thumb the trackwheel when I started playing (as usual) with Pearl's keys and buttons. The magic of pearly trackball convinced me that it suits better the consumers.

I never took pictures so easy. It takes just a gently roll up or down to zoom in or out with the camera. And just a quick press will take a picture holding the Pearl only in one hand. On top of this the applications menu navigation is much easier. And guess what was my first Pearl accomplishment. While playing with its buttons in the store I was surprised when I took my first picture by mistake.

My advice for Pearl users is don't keep the eye on the pearl since it keeps an eye on what you are doing and tries to serve you better. I find this approach kind of similar with the keyboard suretyping. Blackberry use is about reading your mind.

Picture taken with Kitchener City Hall's Wheels as a background.

A Pearl with feelings.

It is said that a picture is worth 1000 words. Let me add some of the missing words to the previous and below pictures for those skeptics that think a picture is worth less. In spite of Perl beeing much smaller than any in its family, it provides more features.

I mentioned before that Pearl is sensitive without going though into details.
First of all the Pearl can "see" with its camera. It can "hear" with the Send Voice Note and Voice Dialing feature. It can "sing" and play videos with the Media application. It can talk with Google Talk. Lastly, but not the least among other non-mentioned features, it can guide you with Google Maps and GPS if you get lost. If you are wondering how a Perl could do easily all of these then wait till my next post to find out.

From pearls to MY PEARL.

Have you seen anything else so small, cute, sensitive and smart? Being amazed I have no comments. I leave the picture and the links to do the talking.

From seashells to pearls.

It is said that some of the Great Lakes were part of a tropical ocean in the past (see below picture). There are geological proofs to this as seashells of that age formed the limestone and dolomite rocks of the Niagara Escarpment. Well, if there are seashells then there is the possibility to find pearls. I found recently a treasure place, not too far from Niagara, with lots of seashells that produce pearls. We can think the place itself as a pearl.

From dark matter icebergs to seashells.

Well, it is not the dark matter I talked before and the icebergs are not the way we know them, but I like how they look like. See also the ferrofluids on the first picture of this link. And you'll be surprised that there is something in common between dark icebergs and seashells. They are both nanoengineered. The first ones are human engineered while the second ones are engineered by nature.

A video story of the analogy could be found if you click on "Nanotechnology 101" link on this page.

The tip of the iceberg.

Our visible universe is like the tip of the iceberg. There is much, much more of the unknown physical world than the known, visible one. This was one of Damian Pope's idea relating to the mystery of dark matter during last week Black Hole public session.

The tip of the iceberg, is one of the recurring theme that comes up during PI's public events. Almost each time, I hear how little we know about the physical world. Last year, for example, during the Einsteinfest intriguing Inventors, Inventions, Conquerors and Conquests - The Ingredients for Success Bistro Banter, when the debate about how much we know (minute 29:26) was on, an analogy was drawn between how little we know about universe (minute 32:58) and our knowledge of the bottom of our oceans (minute 30:21). Also, Lisa Randall during hers "Warped Passages" public lecture on March the 1st this year, said that "secrets of the Universe are about to unravel" and that there are "hidden riches in the Universe" (see below picture).

If we don't see the dark matter how do we know about it? In physics it is not unusual to know that something exists without seeing it. Take for example the magnetic/radioactive forces or electromagnetic waves. They are there but we don't see them. We experience though their presence. Sometimes such an experience could be quite helpful (as in the antimatter case).

Among the many explanations regarding dark matter's existence Damian used the Rubin-Ford experimental observations to convince us. I will explain next time how he did it.

Lest we forget.

This is written on veteran's poppy flag as a message to us, I guess, that the red poppy is a reminder of the sacrificies of our heroes. Yesterday, as always, Canada and the rest of free world proved that its heroes are not forgotten.

The rain didn't stop the crowd gathered in Kitchener at the cenotaph close to Market Square to pay tribute to those fallen.

Click here, here and here to see some of the clips I took during the ceremonies.

Browse also forward from here to see some of the pictures I took.

The courage of a prediction.

It takes courage to be big. Watch Jeff Immelt's courage in action here or read the full transcript here).

Hockey and Dark Matter.

You maybe wondering how these relate to each other? Stay tuned till I'll explain how Damian Pope was playing hockey with galaxies today to solve the mystery of dark matter.

Bless you.

It is that time of year when a good sneezing tip is helpful. Sneeze on your sleeve if you want to stop spreading that virus. Now you have to be careful that nobody leans on your sleeve :)

Bless you.

UW Most Innovative.

University of Waterloo did it again, being ranked as Canada's Most Innovative. I talked before about UW prestige here and here.