Category Archives: Nerd Girl Tech Toys

App Crap – Slurpee Nation

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slurpee

I gave this one months of  hope because I LOVE Slurpees. After installing it late last year, I tried it once a week or so to see if I could get the blasted thing to work. No such luck. I tried logging in after creating a new account through the app and then through their website. Neither ever got me past a consistent, “force close” warning, though sometimes I would be lucky enough to see the screen beyond that where a Slurpee mountain vomited fruit all over my screen…a mind-bogglingly useful screen to waste my battery life on, let me tell you.

To be fair, I did get in – once, but we were on our way to see Harry Potter and couldn’t stop for a Slurpee so I never got any real, practical use from it. After perusing the many and wildly varied experiences of users in the reviews (ranging from “It’s great!” to “It sucks!”), I am giving up – a painful decision as anyone who knows me will tell you since I have been drinking coca-cola Slurpees since back when they were called “Icees” and since I was little. Yes, I know, they’ll rot my stomach and kill me in the end…hopefully I’ll last longer than coffee’s planet-full of victims, but I will tell you this – I won’t waste my time any longer trying to get this brain-paralyzingly LAME application to work on my Android.

Update on Android/Vibrant App Review – iTriage

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Still sucks, even after last week’s update of the application.

 I was finally able to find “average” emergency room wait times – not “current” – as advertised. And that was for only a specific hospital when a search was done for the nearest facilities to my location. It was under “comprehensive emergency services”. Sorry folks – WRONG ANSWER!!!

 For those who think I am being too critical, let’s look at why you want to use this app. in the first place. You are violently sick, broke your leg or are dying. Your friend or relative is fumbling around on your phone to find the nearest and fastest help because you are too cheap to call an ambulance, or you are unconscious and your friend is too cheap (or too stupid) to call for an ambulance. You want an app that will, with only a couple of keystrokes, tell them where to take you and how fast they will get to you.

A better alternative to this stupid app. is to get the information directly from the hospital. For example, West Hills ER – the people who sent me the flyer on this android app. in the first place, included their text messaging info in the second flyer they sent me. Replying to the text gave me the instant gratification of knowing that their average wait time at that moment was 25 minutes. (For the locals, to do this you text “ER” to 23000 & reply with your zip code and then you’ll receive their average wait times) Awesome! Now we are getting somewhere! Now, assuming my HMO likes West Hills and will let me go there without asking them to amputate my arm and leg in payment, this could work out.

Bottom line? Use iTriage to find the nearest ER – look on their website or call them for a similar text info setup, then uninstall the app. to save hard drive space.

Android/Vibrant App Review – iTriage

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web_hand_logo

Hypochondriacs of the world united under one app…how awesome is that? For the rest of us who will use it for more practical purposes – like looking up great new diseases to call in sick to our boss/work with, we can keep busy with it, too. Me? I downloaded it because the flyer I got in the mail (you remember snail mail, don’t you) promised one could “view emergency room wait times”. While we all know these days to bring a really good book, your portable nintendo game or other time-waster to the ER, I would really like to be uber-prepared and oh, know what I am getting into with the wait times from hell before I get there. It’s the difference between packing “War and Peace” or your favorite bedtime story book for the kids in tow.

itriage-app-2

So, did this little app bring satisfaction? Uh, NO! At least not with the ER wait times. Crawled over all the options and missed it somewhere. If someone knows where to find it, please leave me a comment. If not, the next time I fall down an open manhole on the street while looking up the nearest place to get a flu shot, I’ll update this article on iTRiage’s other functions ;>

Hey, there’s a thought…an app to find the nearest funeral parlor when you break your neck falling down one of those manholes…no? Well, it was just a thought.

App specs and other commentaries by users can be found here at AppBrian.com.

iTriage.com’s website for you poor slobs still tied to a desktop PC.

The new Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant – I’m in love!

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t-mobile-samsung-vibrant

I have a friend that years ago when he got his first iPhone, he used to bring it everywhere with him. We would be sitting in a coffee house and he would ignore us, hunched over his new love with the obsessiveness of someone doing a crack line in public. It was irritating. It was insulting to us, but we put up with it because he was a friend and we all know the allure of tech toys.

I found out first hand when my cell phone bill had gotten to a point where getting a new toy would not cost any more monthly. So, armed with the name of a new networking contact who could get one for me without having to wait for the mail-in rebate, but do it instantly upon my purchase, I haunted Verizon and T-Mobile stores looking for the perfect new love of my teched-out life. Don’t tell my 3-month old Net Book, Amelia (after Amelia Pond from the new Doctor Who series). Wow, didn’t expect the love affair with her would’ve been so short!

Let me say that waiting times in these blasted store SUCK, and it would not have been so bad waiting for help if I could have played with the live demo phones there, BUT 95% of the demo phones didn’t work at the reseller or Verizon stores I hit. *snarl*

Then I went back to the T-Mobile mall store I bought my bluetooth headset and found the Samsung Vibrant demo. It was love at the first color-popping, insanely clear and beautiful touchscreen I saw. Gazing adoringly at it, I knew I need look no further. He (yes, mine is a “he”) latched onto my techy heart and would not let go. Now I squee in public when showing off  “Bracewell” (again a name from Doctor Who – very appropriate – ask me why!), my friends and roommate are plotting my death out of jealousy, and I suspect will have their own death match to see who claims the right to my Vibrant – if they can pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

Don’t hold your breath, guys. This baby is coming with me to the grave.