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UFC 107

ufc107

BJ Penn will be defending his Lightweight title this Saturday against Diego Sanchez. Diego is no slouch and he always comes in with great intensity. Diego’s career as a welterweight was more than impressive, and now that he’s down to the 155lbs division he has earned his shot at the title. Penn is arguably one of the best MMA fighters in the sport, but the lack of consistency of his fights makes it difficult to place him among other great fighters such as Fedor, Anderson Silva, and GSP which they all have dominated their division. As for Penn this would be his only second title defense.

Penn’s last fight with Kenny Florian showed how versatile and how great of a fighter he actually is. Penn was seen to have poor condition and only relied on his skills and experience to win fights. It took a devastating loss to GSP to make him realize his woes and his win against Florian showed what he learned from it.

Since dropping down to the lightweight division Diego’s ability to finish fights haven’t been prevalent. But with his outstanding cardio and ability to keep the fight at a frantic pace makes him so dangerous. Many think that Diego’s pace will wear Penn out in the later rounds and is the X factor that may give him the win.

There’s something about BJ Penn that makes his opponents change their fight game completely. Kenny Florian is a tactical fighter with devastating striking and good BJJ, but when he fought Penn he looked so timid.  In fact, he look liked a TUF fighter trying to survive his first UFC fight. Diego always pushes the fight, but will he do the same when fighting Penn? It’s something that we have to wait and find out. If we look at Diego’s record his only losses came from the welterweight division against two fighters who are the top 5, and they were decision losses.

For Diego to win he will need to take the fight to Penn. He needs to back Penn up and use his flurries of punch to keep Penn moving back. Diego will also need to take Penn down whenever possible. Penn’s BJJ is world-class and he can be dangerous on his back, but as long as Diego is able to avoid Penn’s rubber guard and dish out some damage he will earn points in the eyes of the judges. Diego should use his proven cardio to keep Penn on defense as much as possible. A countering strategy against Penn is a losing one.

Penn can win the fight easily if he’s able to control and dictate the fight. It’s his stand up that sets up his finishes. Penn’s heavy hands makes his opponents shy and it’s where Penn is able to take them to the ground where he is most dangerous. It is the top position is where Penn will end the fight.

If the same BJ Penn that fought Kenny Florian is back again, then Diego will have his hands full. If Penn comes in better than he did against Florian then Diego is in huge trouble. This fight is a great test for both fighters. A win for Penn places him closer to greatness and questions about his cardio is a thing of the past. A win for Diego Sanchez would prove that the lightweight division is where he belongs and would give him the opportunity to dominate the division and be placed among fighters like GSP and Anderson Silva.

My Picks:

BJ Penn beats Diego Sanchez
Frank Mir beats Cheick Kongo
Jon Fitch beats Mike Pierce
Clay Guida beats Kenny Florian
Paul Buentello beats Stephan Struve

Alan Belcher beats Wilson Gouveia
Matt Wiman beats Shane Nelson
Johny Hendricks beats Ricardo Funch
Lucio Linhares beats Rousimar Palhares
Edgar Garcia beats DaMarquez Johnson
Kevin Burns beats TJ Grant

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Blackberry Bold 9700 Review

9700

RIM’s newest device is the Blackberry Bold 9700 and like many other reviews out there that says it’s the best Blackberry device so far I would definitely agree. The 9700’s form factor is takes after the Curve design. When held in my hands it feels like my old 8310. And prior to my Bold 9000 the Curve 8310 was my favorite Blackberry. It was small, well-built, and it was a Blackberry.

Compared to the Bold 9000 the 9700 feels much smaller. For me, I was so use to the bigger size of the original Bold that when using the 9700 it felt cramped and difficult to type fast. It took me less than a day to adjust by then I was typing just as fast as I was when using the 9000. People with larger hands they will probably prefer the size of the original Bold.

RIM is getting rid of the their trackball and has replaced it with a trackpad. The pad is very similar to the touchpad found on laptops. It sense the movement of your finger as you drag it across the black square pad. It’s very sensitive on the 9700 and it takes some time to getting use to. Anyone who has been using Blackberry’s with the trackball has experienced it getting stuck which could be annoying and or frustrating at times. With the trackpad there are no moving parts and no reason for your courser to get stuck.

Other upgraded features of the 9700 includes a better camera, 3.2mp camera with auto focus, and an increase in internal memory. The 9700 has 256mb whereas the 9000 has 128. With the all the application on my old Bold I would have less than 20mb of available space at all times. And when I open several apps at the same time I get that dreaded spinning  clock. With the 9700 I have plenty of space for my apps and I haven’t experienced any slowness yet. If there’s one thing that RIM can improve on their products is to add more RAM to their devices. It doesn’t require anymore R&D costs. Just up the damn memory. It’s a no brainer. I think all new Blackberrys should come with at least 1GB of memory. Upping the 9700 to 256 is a welcome upgrade, but I wish they would have made a more significant upgrade.

If you’ve used a Blackberry before then you can rest assure the rest of the device is practically the same. With 5.0 OS there are many GUI enhancement but nothing revolutionary. Email and messaging is rock solid as always. Calling with the phone is clear and crisp, and it’s media features are more than enough to get by.  Web browsing is unfortunately the same. It’s one of the few things that I wish RIM would improve. Phones like the iPhone, Palm Pre, and those Android devices are years ahead in terms of web browsing. I hope RIM has something up it’s sleeve for web browsing otherwise it’ll get left behind in the case of cell phone dominance, and it’ll be a shame if it was because they neglected their web browser.

If you’re thinking upgrading from an old Curve then the answer is simple. Just do it. The 9700 is better in every single way. But if you’re coming from the old Bold, then you might want to consider its smaller size. Also if you constantly have a trackball that get stuck then the 9700 will solve it. Or if you run multiple apps and find yourself running near empty on your memory the 9700 has double the capacity for your apps. Currently AT&T and T-Mobile are the only carriers in the US that has the 9700, so go to your local store and give it a test run and see how you like it. It won’t disappoint.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★½☆

Pros:
More internal memory
Trackpad
Smaller form factor
Long lasting battery
Comes with 2GB MicroSD

Cons:
Wish there was more internal memory
Expensive
Uses MicroUSB, old MiniUSB are now useless

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Samsung BD-P1600 Review

bd-p1600

Over the Thanksgiving break I had the chance to do a little shopping and picked up the Samsung BD-P1600. This little box is essentially a Blu-ray player with a network connection that allows you to stream Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, and other streaming services. Some of the streaming services are free and some are premium paid content.

The BD-P1600 is the lower-end model of the three that are currently available (BD-P3600 and BD-P4600). The Samsung BD-P1600 is pretty cheap and I was able to pick one up at Fry’s Electronics for about $145. The main reason I got this was to replace my Xbox 360. I moved the Xbox out into the living room and the BD-P1600 was a good replacement for my Netflix/DVD player.

When I first turned on the box it asked me to upgrade the firmware, which I did. The upgrade took quite sometime. I would say about 40 minutes. I’ve been using it for a few days and all the functions it’s meant to do did so without any problems. The DVD up-conversion worked well and the Netflix, Youtube, and Pandora streamed as it would if you played it on a computer. The only thing I noticed is that the initial buffering time could be long. For Netflix it took about 30 to 40 seconds before it played.  Some users my get put off by the menu of the device. It’s just not user intuitive, but after playing with it for a while you’ll remember what each menu and selection does and you can breeze through what you need to do with a few presses of the buttons.

Anyone looking for a cheap Blu-ray player with Netflix capabilities this Samsung BD-P1600 maybe just the item for you.

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Pros:
Inexpensive
Streams Netflix, Youtube, and Pandora
Supports Wifi
Good DVD up-conversion

Cons:
Lengthy firmware upgrades
Non intuitive menus
Wifi dongle sold seperately
Long buffering times

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The Holidays

Thanksgiving is over and the rush for holiday shopping has begun. Black Friday came and went and so far it doesn’t look as good as we liked at least from an economic standpoint. The number one gift that many people are looking for this is year is getting a job.

The holiday is suppose to represent cheerfulness, fun, family, unity, and excitement. But as long as I could remember the holidays were never anything close to what we see on Christmas cards, movies, and in stories. Every year there are groups of people fighting over the use of “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays”. Fights and protests break out because of this these little phrases. They both mean the same if you asked me, and I’m sure it does for many people.

Shopping is a big part of the holiday season. People wait in line for hours in the cold to get those great deals. I remember last year a Walmart employee got stomped to death by a stampede of shoppers. It was very unfortunate. I sometimes wonder if anyone in that stampede realized that they were running over a person on the floor. I’m sure at least one person who wasn’t aware would have tripped over the doomed employee and caused some sort of disruption to the flow of people coming into the store, but instead the horde of shoppers stampeded over and around the employee as though they knew he was there. Again, it was very unfortunate.

The holiday season gets more commercialized and more detracted from it’s true meaning every year. It’s all about sales numbers for retail stores, awesome deals, and religious conflicts. I’m sure there’s still some true holiday spirit left somewhere in our society. We see it from time to time and it’s should be noted when it happens.

Anyways, happy shopping and happy holidays.

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UFC 106

ufc106

Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin

Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin are back at it again and this time it’s to finish what they started. Tito has been out of the cage for quite sometime. His last fast was in May of 2008 against the now Champion Lyoto Machida. For the past few years Tito’s back has been plaguing his ability to train properly, and now he’s all healed and is looking for a run at the title. Last time we saw Forrest he got clobbered by pound for pound king, Anderson Silva. Forrest is always evolving his game and always comes back stronger than before. It’s been about 3 and a half years since he fought Tito and Griffin as matured into as one of the top fighters in the division even holding the Light Heavyweight title for a short while.

When the fight was announced I had no doubt that Forrest would take this fight. But after seeing how in shape Tito is in. He looks great in the UFC Countdown and at the weigh ins. The big mystery is that is he really healed from his back surgery. I sat back and thought about Tito’s past fights and he has always been a dominating fighter that takes his opponent down at will and usually controls the fight right from the beginning. I believe if the Tito of old is back he will take this fight. If you look at it objectively, Forrest has been busy fighting top fighters and has been getting better and better. You’re only as good as you’re last fight and both of these guys are coming off losses, but in the end I see Forrest with his hands raised.  As much as I like Tito Ortiz I would love to see him have another good run at the title and win it.

Josh Koscheck vs Anthony Johnson

I’m more excited about this fight than the main event. Both guys are from my hometown, San Jose, and it’s great to see the two of them representing in this event. Anthony Johnson has been making a name for himself by smashing his opponents with ease, but this time he’s facing one of the top guys in his weight division.  Koscheck is a great wrestling with the ever improving standup. Koscheck might want to stick to his bread and butter and use his wrestling to nuetralized Johnson’s reach. I see Koscheck taking Johnson down and pinning him against the cage for some ground and pound, and as long as he sticks to that game plan he’ll get the win.

My Picks:

Forrest Griffin beats Tito Ortiz
Josh Koscheck beats Anthony Johnson
Paulo Thiago beats Jacob Volkmann
Luiz Cane beats Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Amir Sadollah beats Phil Baroni
Marcus Davis beats Ben Saunders
Jake Rosholt beats Kendall Grove
Brock Larson beats Brian Foster
Cao Uno beats Fabricio Camoes
George Sotiropoulos beats Jason Dent

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UFC 104

ufc104

Lyoto Machida defends his Lightheavy weight title for the first time. The guy facing him across the cage is Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.  Machida has earned his spot at the top of the division by beating every single person that was put in front of him. Shogun, coming off of an impressive knock out of Chuck Liddell, will be put to the test to see if Shogun of 2005 is back.

There’s no secret between how these two fight. Machida is very elusive with his movement but very accurate with this strikes. His Karate background gives his style a unique and unorthodox fight game. His style gets many of his opponents frustrated which leads to mistakes where Machida can capitalize. Shogun is very dynamic and mixes his punches and kicks throughout the fight and his ground game is just as dangerous. In this fight Shogun will have the odds against him. His aggressive style will play right into Machida’s game. The only way for Shogun to control the fight is to get the Champ to the ground and utilized some vicious ground and pound. Another option is to corner Machida or pin him against the cage and work some dirty boxing, but that’s easier said than done . Machida will do what he does best and that’s to out-striking his opponent while avoiding getting hit. This fight will be exciting and no matter what happens it’s a win-win for Brazil.

Another bout on this card that I’m excited about is the Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell. When comparing fight records of Rothwell’s Velasquez is a rookie making his mark. The big equalizer for Velasquez is that he has a solid wrestling background that brings along a fierce competitive attitude, great work ethic, excellent cardio, and ability to endure punishment. But I don’t thing it will be enough to edge out the 30+ fight experience of Ben Rothwell. Not only does he has 30 more fights than Cain he weighs at the end of the weight limit of the Heavyweight division. Size and experience matters. If Cain can take big Ben to the ground and control him he might have a chance. Expect to see Rothwell utilize the brawl and sprawl tactic to score points and keeping himself from being on his back. As much as I like Cain, Ben’s wealth of experience and size gives him big advantage that Cain won’t be able to overcome.

My Picks:

Lyoto Machida beats Maruicio Rua
Ben Rothwell beats Cain Velasquez
Spencer Fisher beats Joe Stevenson
Anthony Johnson beats Yoshiyuki Yoshida
Josh Neer beats Gleison Tibau
Ryan Bader beats Eric Schafer
Antoni Hardonk beats Pat Berry
Chael Sonnen beats Yushin Okami
Rob Kimmons beats Jorge Rivera
Razak Al-Hassan beats Kyle Kingsbury
Chase Gormley beats Stephan Struve

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BIS Google Contacts Sync for AT&T

It looks like the BIS Google contact sync is working for AT&T. You can set it up directly on your Blackberry though its email setup.

Here’s an image of what you’ll see if you enable it on the AT&T’s BIS site.

gmailsync

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Windows 7 comes out tomorrow

windows7

Windows 7 comes out tomorrow and with a lot of fan fare. For the past two years Vista has been a thorn in Microsoft’s side. With Vista’s initial release the lack of third party driver support and the bombardment of poor reviews left users running away from the OS.

With Windows 7 Microsoft have right many of the wrongs and by maintaining the core code from Vista many of the existing drivers will work right out of the box. I’ve been using Windows 7 since it’s beta release through its RC then to it’s RTM debut. Windows 7 is without a doubt the best Windows operating system.  It’s wide range of peripheral and hardware support makes installing it so easy. They days of hunting down drivers… Okay, it’s still there but much less of a hassle. Those who still plan to stick with Windows XP will be missing out on many of the new features. So if you’re looking to buy a new computer now is the time, well actually it’s tomorrow, but you can be sure that the latest OS will be pre-installed. For those who recently purchased a computer check with manufacturer to see if you’re eligible for a free upgrade.

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Paranormal Activity

paranormalactivities

Movie critics and word of mouth buzz got me interested in this movie. The trailer made it look interesting and the solid reviews from yahoo and rotten tomatoes made it an easy decision to go catch this movie. But sometimes, reviews aren’t always spot on. Taking queues from the Blair Witch movie this shaky-cam movie tries to scare you with minimal special effects but lacks substance to keep me interested. Paranormal Activities has its moments but fails on delivering that ultimate scare found in other horror-suspense movie; The Ring, Sixth Sense, etc. Don’t expect to be scared out of your seats. The suspense will keep you slightly on edge until the ending. Even still, it isn’t satisfying after sitting through this slow-paced movie.

Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆