Research - Sansa e200 series

Okay, so I researched the second possibility on my wish list, the iPod Mini replacement. Because I mainly use the Mini to listen to podcasts and music in my car, it had to be small enough to easily fit into a cup holder. Also, it had to be light, since I don't leave it in the car, to keep down the weight of my work bag.

Flash-based MP3 Players seemed to be what I wanted (Flash memory being more resistant to bumps than hard drives).
The first MP3 Player I looked at was the SanDisk Sansa e200 series.


The SanDisk Sansa e200 series has a lot going for it. I first mentioned it in my Blog on Wednesday, April 12, 2006: "Technology moves fast (sometimes)" , but to recap:

Available in four storage capacities, 2GB (Model Number e250), 4GB (e260), 6GB (e270), and 8GB version (e280). SanDisk had an 8GB Flash-based player out months ahead of Apple. Until September this year, the 8GB version was known as the highest-capacity flash-based player in the world. It also cost the same as the 4GB iPod Nano.

The e200 series was initially my first choice, being packed with features, the most important being a user-replaceable battery. There is a major downside to iPods and many other MP3 Players - the battery only has a limited life (100 full charges or so). When the battery finally dies, unless it is a user-replaceable battery (and they are few and far between - the manufacturers would obviously rather have you buy a new MP3 Player). Anyway, Apple apparently does have a plan where you send in your dead iPod with about $70 and they send you another one, usually a refurbished one.
With the SanDisk Sansa e200 series a replacement battery costs about $20, and all you do is remove 4 screws to replace the battery.
The Sansa e200 series also has an FM Tuner, can play videos (on a 1.8 in screen), and has MicroSD expansion slot. Music can either synchronized to the player using Windows Media Player (a requirement for subscription music), or copied via drag and drop. You can also run myPodder software from PodcastReady.com directly from the player to manage podcasts. This feature really excited me. That was, until I found out that if you lose your place in a 30 minute podcast it is difficult to Fast Forward and find your place again - the Sansa just doesn't offer the fine control with Fast Forwarding and Rewinding that other players do. That was the deal-breaker for the otherwise promising Sandisk Sansa e200 series for me.

You can get a 6GB Sandisk Sansa e270 for slightly less than a 4GB iPod Nano, but no amount of useful features and even a highly competitive price matters if the MP3 Player doesn't do what you want it to.

Touchscreen iPod?

According to TrustedReviews the "Touchscreen iPod Comes This December". That would make the Microsoft Zune look a so last year.

Cellphone Research Stopped!

Actually it is only temporarily suspended. My (early) research for a new cellphone has temporarily halted. The reason: I'm drawing up a Christmas "Wish List". Cellphone research can resume after New Year.

My wish list so far is:

Nintendo DS Lite game console.
But it has two counts against it - the majority of games are mainly aimed at children, and I already have a Sony PSP. If I want a more portable gaming device than the PSP I always have the Tungsten T3, which has a number of games on, as well as the Tapwave Zodiac, which I often take with on shorter trips.
OR
A replacement for my iPod Mini - its battery life is getting worse - either the iPod Nano or Sandisk Sansa or maybe a Creative Zen V Plus.
OR
"Media Carousel" from CyberGuys.com - the black one which takes 150 CD/DVDs for $132 - but it is maybe rather large (physically)
OR
Microsoft Flight Simulator for PC with airplane controls (or similar for Sony Playstation 2) or Nascar PC game with Driving controls
OR
iGo charging kit - consisting of iGo juice 70 ($129.99 - power from wall/auto/airplane) or iGo wall85 ($79.99 - power from wall only), iGo dualpower (free with iGo juice 70 or iGo wall85) - allows charging of notebook and another gadget simultaneously, also need iGo power splitter ($14.99). Also iGo powerXtender($24.99) - power from 4 AA batteries.
iGo power tips for devices cost $9.99 each - Need 5 Tips =$50
Cost = iGo wall85 ($79.99) + iGo power splitter ($14.99) + iGo powerXtender($24.99) + iGo power tips ($50) = $169.99 (plus tax). This would be useful, but it is not really appealing as a Christmas present (too practical)
OR
Nintendo Wii (or maybe not..)

Of course, I can only choose ONE item from the list above...

Outfoxed

Firefox 2.0 has been out for a while now, but I've held off on trying it, being quite happy with version 1.5.

Then last night I setup Firefox 1.5 with all the addons I use and did an upgrade to version 2.0 on a test machine. The one addon which wasn't compatible was Tab Mix Plus - which is probably the Firefox addon I use the most. I can get some of its functionality with the Tabbrowser Preferences addon, but it messes up the automatic loading of URLs selected from the address bar's history list. I looked around and found New Tab Button, which simply "adds a new tab button to the tab bar".

I'll have to keep on looking for the other functionality I miss from Tab Mix Plus.

Too much technology

No, I'm not referring to this blog, but just how overwhelming technology can be sometimes. On the flight out during my short vacation, a fellow passenger was trying to turn off the radio of her Treo 650. I could hear it shut down and restart again. Eventually I was asked to help. It took a bit of fiddling, and eventually I got the wireless to turn off somehow. The owner of the Treo said she had the cellphone for over a year, and still did not know how to turn off the wireless. So much for ease of use.

Seeing RED

Well, for a good cause...



(RED) is not just about the new Red iPod Nano, but also several other red products, including a red RAZR. A portion of the purchase price of these red gadgets goes to "the Global Fund, to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa."

More Apple iPhone Evidence?

An Exclusive story from AppleInsider:
Apple seeks rights to iPhone trademark.

Evidence, or just another rumor?

Cell Swap

That's cellphone swap.
Several months ago, when I was looking for a cellphone the final choices were the Motorola V325 and the Motorola RAZR V3c. I was seduced by the cool factor and good reviews of RAZR.

Now I've swapped the RAZR for a V325, a phone with fewer features, but with which I'm much happier.... (and now I can read the display in sunlight!)

Google to Buy YouTube?

According to MyWay News and the blog TechCrunch Google is said to be in talks to Buy YouTube.

GoogleTube!

Misquoted

Firstly, and apology to The General for misquoting him in yesterday's post - I guess I may have more than paraphrased what he said. Anyway, it was noted that a number of my alternative cellphone choices were with T-Mobile.

I'm quite tempted to return to the flexibility of GSM again, although Verizon's CDMA has clearer reception (imho). For definitions and explanations of CDMA and GSM see "FDMA, TDMA, CDMA & GSM - What is the future?" or (even better) "Mobile Phone Terms Explained".

The Motorola Q is one of the few Verizon phones that really interests me, especially since Verizon apparently released it without crippling the Bluetooth.

Some alternatives

The General asked me today when I was going to get over my griping about the Motorola RAZR. Anyway, my reply was that I'd stop griping about the piece of crap RAZR when I finally replaced it.

On a positive note, the cellphones I've been looking at as a replacement are:

T-Mobile SDA (aka HTC Tornado)
The built-in Wi-Fi in this phone intrigues me

T-Mobile MDA - but I'm not sure about another fully-fledged smartphone.

Samsung SGH-D807
A slider for a change...

And, a phone from Verizon Wireless - the Motorola Q - but I really need to do some more research on this one.

Maybe a good idea

I came across the following site while going through one of my fairly frequent periods of dislike (to put it mildly) for the Motorola RAZR V3c. Even on a cloudy day I was unable to read the screen outside. Why bother getting VZ Navigator if you cannot see the maps on the freaking stupid cellphone screen! Looking for a cheap way to replace the V3c, I found this site: "Cheap No Contract". Basically they sell used cellphones at fairly decent prices. This is ideal for people who have either lost their cellphones or had them stolen, and are still under a contract.

This is a good idea if the used phones are in good condition.

Verizon RAZR bug

The Motorola RAZR V3c from Verizon has a security bug.

There is a way to bypass the automatic lock option which asks for a password when the phone is powered up. Normally, after powering up the cellphone, it asks for a password if you have set the "Automatic Lock" option on. However if you turn on the cell and immediately close it for a few minutes (I haven't timed how long) it appears to bypass the security lock and doesn't ask for a password. A weird side-effect of this is that the phone seems to work as normal except you cannot receive calls - they go straight to voicemail. You can make calls though.

I've only tested this with version .3 of Verizon's firmware, and don't know if it affects the original Motorola firmware.

Cellphone Vending Machine

According to an AP article on MyWay News, Motorola is planning to Sell Cell Phones via Vending Machine. The Instantmoto machine is on a pilot program in Chicago. (If the vending machine was female it could be "She sells cellphones by the sea shore...")

I wonder if the machines accept Credit Cards?

Audio and Video Podcats?

Actually, that should be Podcasts.

I've only recently got into podcasts, first just audio podcasts on my iPod Mini, then video podcasts. For the uninitiated, podcasts are basically like recorded radio shows. The ones I've heard so far are either like music radio without advertisements or news type discussions on particular subjects. See the Wikipedia article about Podcasting here.

My two favorite audio podcasts at the moment are both CNET podcasts, "MP3 Insider" - about MP3 Players and related topics, and "Buzz Out Loud" - about new technology - mainly Consumer Electronics. Both are done by two or three professional journalists, and are quite entertaining. Obviously they cover subjects I'm very interested in, so if you want to try podcasts, choose one covering topics you find interesting. Of course Apple iTunes makes subscribing to the podcasts very easy, but there is other free software out there like Juice (previously known as iPodder) which does the same thing. It is also possible to use iTunes podcasts with non-iPod MP3 Players, since audio podcasts seem to be mainly in MP3 format.

Video Podcasts are a bit more tricky. Since I don't have an iPod video, I need to use other software to subscribe to and convert the video Podcasts. The Sony Media Manager software (not free) works for audio Podcasts for the Sony PSP, but I'm not sure about video Podcasts. The Creative Zen Vision:M comes with "Zencast Manager", which handles subscribing and converting audio and video pod Podcasts. Not all of the video podcasts need conversion. My favorite is the short and wacky video blog "RocketBoom".

Borland's answer to Microsoft's Express

Okay, for the uninitiated, first some clarification (those who understood the blog title can skip to the next paragraph). Firstly, Microsoft's Express refers to the set of free development products Microsoft has released called Visual Studio Express - which includes Visual Basic Express - and SQL Server 2005 Express. These free products are stripped-down entry level versions of their Visual Studio (.Net) 2005 Windows and Web Development suites, as well as a stripped down version of Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 database. Borland, previously known as Inprise before changing its name back to Borland, makes world-class development tools, very popular in Europe. Delphi is a Development tool which was first released after Visual Basic, but was always ahead with innovative features which appeared in later Visual Basic versions.

Borland has announced the availability of the "Turbo Explorer" family of products (see this review in PC Magazine), which includes Turbo Delphi, Turbo C++ and Turbo C# among others. According to Borland's press release, the "Turbo Explorer editions, available as a free download, are fixed, all-in-one solutions that let programmers learn and develop in a single language and platform environment.". The development tools are available here. I can't wait to start "playing" with Delphi Turbo, it will be interesting to compare it to Visual Basic Express.

Borland first released a free version of Delphi, called "Delphi 6 Personal Edition", way back in 2001, and also released an open source version of their Interbase database server.

Battery Malfunction

After all the news about the exploding notebook batteries, I remembered that I had a similar experience with a Dell. It was a Dell Axim Pocket PC, and the battery was not from Sony. I had bought an extended battery for my Dell Axim from a highly rated seller on eBay. When I tried to put the fully charged battery into the Pocket PC it ignited. Fortunately the handheld wasn't damaged. After sending the photos below to the seller I got a full refund (for the battery):

First Picture

Second Picture

The Browser that could

A few months back I realized that my web browser of choice had become Firefox. This was despite my desire to avoid hype and stick to Mozilla's original "Seamonkey" browser suite (not to be confused with the new Mozilla Seamonkey browser suite!). Trying to identify how this happened, I think it was when Firefox improved to the point that it could handle most websites. Also, I finally had found enough add-ons to customize Firefox the way I wanted it. Even when add-ons were not updated to keep compatibility with newer versions of Firefox (like PrefBar), there are so many out there that finding a replacement is easy. The built-in password manager works with most sites and is free.

The only web browser which may have a chance of dethroning Firefox as my browser of choice is Opera. Completely free since version 8.5 or so, Opera features everything Firefox has and more. Since version 9 Opera has a built-in BitTorrent client - useful for downloading "Virtual Appliances" for VMware, which are often only available in BitTorrent format. Also, you can sign up for the free Opera Community which allows you to create a website and a blog, among other things. There is also a version of Opera for cellphones and other mobile devices. My Sharp Zaurus Linux-based handheld came with Opera pre-loaded. Opera for Pocket PCs really rocks. Although not free, it is the fastest browser for Pocket PCs, and easily displays websites which choke Pocket Internet Explorer.

Smart and smarter

In my previous Blog "Returning the Q", I was not knocking the Motorola Q so much as highlighting some of the confusion caused by the Windows Mobile Operating System on cellphones. It seems like there are two distinct flavors of the Windows Mobile 5 OS: Pocket PC (which can also run on some cellphones), and "Windows Mobile powered smartphones" (Microsoft's terminology)

On the Microsoft Windows Mobile Website, one of their FAQs tried to answer the question:

Q: What'’s the difference between a Pocket PC and a Smartphone?

"A: Pocket PCs come with mobile versions of Office applications in addition to Microsoft Outlook Mobile. Though there are different Pocket PCs, many come with Wi-Fi to enable you to connect to the Internet when you are in a wireless hotspot. With a Pocket PC, you'll be able to use Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile and browse the Internet if you have a device with Wi-Fi and are in a wireless hotspot.
You can compose e-mail messages and send them by synchronizing with your desktop computer or wirelessly when you're in a hotspot. You can do everything with a Pocket PC Phone that you can do with a Pocket PC with the addition of wireless access to the Internet and cellular phone capabilities. If you have a Pocket PC Phone, you can access the Internet through your wireless connection - you won't need to find a wireless hotspot.
You can add a wide variety of software titles to your Pocket PC and Pocket PC Phone..."

Here's the smartphone which is not a Pocket PC phone:

"A smartphone has phone capabilities and comes with a smaller set of applications. though you can add third-party software titles to your smartphone, the smaller keypad and screen are designed to give you quick one-handed access to important data. A smartphone is a good choice for business users who need to check e-mail, keep track of their calendars, and take voice notes, but who don't need the added functionality of Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile. If you find yourself wanting more functions after you've purchased your device, there are good third-party software titles designed to extend the capabilities of a Windows Mobile powered smartphone."

A few weeks back I spent some time with a Sierra Voq smartphone. Although it wasn't running the latest version of Windows Mobile. I soon realized that it was a smartphone and not a Pocket PC phone. I could "extend its capabilities" by installing some applications (like SplashID for Windows Mobile Smartphones), but other's, like DayNotez, only have a version for phones running the full Windows Mobile Pocket PC, not the smartphone edition.

So, when hunting for a smartphone, some smartphones are smarter than others, so smart that they are Pocket PC smartphones. Of course, at the moment Palm OS based smartphones are extra smart, and who knows about Sybian-based smartphones. Linux based ones will naturally be smarter...

Returning the Q

Verizon is experiencing an unusually large percentage of Motorola Q returns, according to MobileWhack

Verizon had the following answers to customers complaints:

"The Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition does not come with and WILL NOT run Microsoft Office for Pocket PC (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). The Motorola Q will however open email attachments for viewing only. These include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDFs and many graphic files. It CANNOT create or modify attachments or any documents."

The Touch Screen Does Not Work:
"This Motorola Q, unlike all Windows based and Palm based devices currently in our lineup, does not use a stylus or have touch screen functionality. This is by design to provide one-hand functionality."

The Treo 700w which is not nearly as slim and sexy as the Motorola Q runs Windows 5.0 Mobile Edition, and features a touch screen, as well as Pocket Office - a pocket version of Microsoft Office. Palm-based Treo's also have this functionality which the Motorola Q lacks..

Free Virtual PC

I wasn't surprised to read on the StrongCross blog (which seems to be temporarily down) that Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 is now free. This is the way Microsoft has dealt with competition since the "Browser Wars". The competition in this case is VMware, who have a free VMware Player and VMware Server. VMware also has a full range of virtualization products which run on both Windows and Linux.
Virtual PC 2004 is similar to VMware Workstation in that it allows you to create Virtual Machines on Windows 2000 or later Operating Systems.

Okay, after that techno-speak explanation, basically both products allow you to run another Operating System in its own environment. So you could have Windows 98 running in a window on Windows XP, and install programs on Windows 98 which would not know about the Host Operating System (Windows XP in this example). Virtual PC officially supports DOS and most flavors of Windows. Unofficially it also can run some Linux distributions and other Operating Systems (see "What works and what doesn't in Microsoft Virtual PC 2004" here).

It's a great way to have a test box to try out programs - when you shutdown an Operating System in Virtual PC you have the choice of keeping any changes or discarding them. There is also a choice to keep changes separate and merge them later.

Virtual PC 2004 is easier to use than VMware Workstation, but that comes at the price of flexibility and powerful features. Virtual PC doesn't emulate USB ports, whereas VMware Workstation does (although only USB 1.1). VMware Workstation of course isn't free, but VMware Player is. VMware Player allows you to run Virtual Machines (called "Appliances") others have made.

LG VX8300, one month later

The Verizon LG VX8300 after a month:



Initially I had tested the phone, and really liked it. My wife said we could swap, and I was really tempted. However, apart from having to transfer our cellphone numbers, I didn't want to jeopardize the Amazon rebate for the Motorola RAZR V3c. I had read that they make sure that a phone is still activated to the buyer before actually sending the rebate.
Anyway, my wife says she hasn't liked a cellphone so much since the Ericsson (T series?) phone she had in South Africa about ten years ago. Ease of use is one of the great aspects of the LG.

My opinion of the LG VX8300 has not changed, and I'm looking forward to trying it out with a microSD Card soon. In the meanwhile I use the RAZR, its only highlight being its small size.

LG? No, give me Cadbury

Okay, so Cadbury's chocolate is edible (very edible!), and LG Chocolate is a cellphone aka the LG VX8500.



PC Magazine has gone nutty and given the LG Chocolate its "Editor's Choice" award. This for a cellphone without a speakerphone, crippled by Verizon and according to PC Magazine's otherwise too sweet review: "The Chocolate's buttons take some time to get used to".
CNET is more to the point and their review says "The LG Chocolate's unique touch pad and controls entail a steep learning curve, and the phone suffers from poor streaming video quality and low talk-time battery life. The lack of a speakerphone is disappointing."

If I read it right, this is a cellphone with awkward buttons, poor battery life and worth considering only if you must have the latest, coolest gadget. Okay, but no thanks.

Yet another fake Apple iPhone?

This one, from Engadget, is apparently a fake picture:



I'd like to see what the Apple (i)Phone will look like if and when it does come out..

Updated Cellphones getting smarter

The only thing I've updated here are the example cellphones

First a cellphone with a keyboard which is almost a smartphone, but not quite, the LG VX9800 (aka the V):



When opened it has a full QWERTY keyboard:



This is a text messaging and music phone on steroids, and has a calendar with scheduler, an alarm clock, a calculator and a notepad. But it is not a smartphone.

Then there is the T-Mobile SDA, called the HTC Tornado elsewhere:



PCWorld listed it as one of the Top 10 Standard Cell Phones in this article , but CNET rightly referred to it as a "Windows Mobile 5 smart phone" in their review.
It doesn't have a keyboard, but runs the Windows Mobile 5 Operating system.

Cellphones getting smarter

Cellphones are getting smaller and smaller but also getting smarter, while adding features which were previously only found on smartphones - To Do Lists, Calendars with appointments, synchronization with PCs, World Clocks, email and now playing MP3 Music files.

According to this Wikipedia definition, a smartphone is "any electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other information appliance."

However, in the same article, they go on to say "It is increasingly difficult to define exactly what qualifies as a 'smartphone'. Nearly all new mobile phones have some rudimentary PDA functionality such as phonebooks, calendars, and task list"

Even an assumption that a smartphone should have a keyboard can be wrong. Take the case of the Nokia 6810:



When opened it has a full QWERTY keyboard, interesting:



It is not a smartphone, but instead is a text messaging phone.

Then there is the Motorola MPx200:



No keyboard, but it runs Windows Mobile 2002, and is therefore a smartphone (see Wikipedia's article)

I'm sure there are other, better and more up to date examples, but I couldn't think of any. Maybe Engadget Mobile will help me.

By the way, thanks to the General for pointing out Engadget Mobile, which surely must be the mother of all Mobile Technology sites.

Big and Smart

Unlike the svelte Motorola Q smartphone, some early smartphones were really big.

I got to thinking, what is the biggest Smartphone out there? Is it the Sierra Wireless Voq A11 with dimensions of 5.25" x 2.16" x 0.96" (133 x 55 x 24 mm) and weighing 5.11 oz (145 g)?



This smartphone has neither a camera nor Bluetooth, but does have a cool flip open QWERTY keyboard:



But it is easily overshadowed by the huge Hitachi G1000 Pocket PC Phone, which weighs in at 8.4 oz (238 g) with dimensions of 5.8" x 3.3" x .9" (147 x 84 x 23 mm).



The Hitachi G1000 has a 3.5" 320 x 240 pixel color transflective display, a standard QWERTY keyboard layout and an integrated VGA digital camera.

The first GSM Pocket PC 2002 Phone from T-Mobile weighed in at 6.80 oz (193 g) and was 5.08" x 2.87" x 0.71" (129 x 73 x 18 mm), with no keyboard:




To get away from Microsoft OS based smartphones, the first Treo Phone, the Treo 270 weighed 5.40 oz (153 g), and was 4.20" x 2.80" x 0.82" (107 x 71 x 21 mm).



There are a number of smartphones reviewed at MobileTechReview.com

Ubuntu #1

Ubuntu Linux 6.06 is the number one Linux distribution according to DistroWatch.
The All about Linux Blog refers to the "Kubuntu" variant of Ubuntu as "An excellent Linux distribution"

Microsoft's planned iPod Rival

From My Way News - Microsoft Confirms Plans for IPod Rival. According to this article, and the BBC News article "Zune challenge beckons for iPod", the name of the new device is the "Zune".

Somehow Listen to a tune on a Zune is not that catchy...

Spyware!

I was going to call this entry "Spyware Begone!" but that is the name of a dubious-looking spyware scanner.

I recently tested a trial version of an AntiSpyware program from Ashampoo. Firstly, the company is aptly named, because although they produce some good utilities, it is a shame how they use spamming to sell their products (pooh!). They are generous with their trial periods though - usually 10 days, and then if you give them your email address you get another 30 days for a total of 40 days. Unfortunately the Ashampoo AntiSpyware program refused to update its definitions as it was a trial version. That sucked, as most other AntiSpyware programs will update to the latest definitions during their (admittedly shorter) trial periods. Then the program to over an hour to do the scan - okay, it was running on a 500MHz machine, but I have read complaints elsewhere that it is slow. Finally it found 800 plus cookies. I wasn't impressed. The program is advertised for $29.99. Not too long after registering for the extended trial I got an email advertising the program for 50% off, if I buy it now. If I ignore this email (which I will), I'll get another offer in a few days time for about 40% off the full price (better buy it now, the discounts are getting less!).

I bought ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite from ZoneLabs. During its 15-day trial on another machine, I got rid of a pesky folder which opened with Windows on every startup, no matter what I tried, as well as some other less innocuous spyware. Much better than Ashampoo AntiSpyware,

To Ashampoo's credit I have bought several of their software titles - Ashampoo WinOptimizer Platinum is one I use almost every day.

LG VX8300 thoughts

"The recipient" read the"No end in sight" blog entry over my shoulder and let me order the LG VX8300 cellphone.

Before I get to the cellphone some mild gripes about Verizon's online ordering service. Although I supplied an email address they didn't send any order confirmation. They also didn't email me when the phone shipped. However it arrived on the Tuesday after being ordered on Saturday evening.
What always amazes me are how small the boxes are that cellphones are packed in. The Verizon boxes seem particularly small.
Okay, the contents, I know, I know.

I'm not going to do a full review as there is a fairly good one (albeit badly in need of a spellchecker) with pictures at HowardForums.
Admittedly it is bigger and thicker and doesn't look quite as cool as the RAZR.
However, unlike some other LG cellphones I have seen though (notably the VX5200), it looks professional.

Okay, first my doubts - I'm not sure how good the RF would be it borderline areas with patchy coverage. In pseudo-scientific tests, when one bar of signal strength showed, conversations tended to break up a lot.

As a counterpoint, when the signal strength is two bars or more, conversations are clear. The microphone also doesn't pick up as much wind noise as that of the RAZR.

Customization is a pleasure with the VX8300. I liked being able to silence the Verizon power on and power off jingles. The backlight of both the main screen and the keypad can be set to "Always On". Unfortunately the brightness of the main screen cannot be adjusted though. This would make it more readable in sunlight, but it is already miles better than the screen of the RAZR.
The Flash Lite interface offers two animated interface themes in addition to Verizon's standard interface themes.

I prefer the way that LG handles messages (showing unread/total), as well as the way speed dial numbers can be assigned to numbers after the fact. The keypad is easy to use, and it didn't take long for me to get used to the layout.

Although the LG VX8300 is bigger and bulkier than the RAZR, I would swop in a heartbeat

Windows 98 Permanent Shutdown

Microsoft shuts down Windows 98 from The BBC

No end in sight

This hunt is tiring me out. If it was for a cellphone for myself I would have ordered my top choice today just to get it over with. However since the recipient has said I should wait another week...
At the moment my top choice is the LG VX8300.



I have overcome my dislike for LG handsets after spending a week with the low-end LG VX5200. Its main screen is readable in direct sunlight, and the phone is a lot more customizable than my Motorola RAZR V3c, allowing the power on and power off tunes to be turned off, something I would love to do with my RAZR. Still, I would not swap the RAZR for the LG VX5200.
Okay, so why the LG VX8300? Ease of use is one reason. It also appears to be the smallest and lightest cellphone featuring an memory card - this is excluding the RAZR V3m, which is not even in the running. The only "Con" from the CNET editors' review was "The LG VX8300's Bluetooth feature does not support file transfers." which of course applies to all Verizons cellphones. My second choice is the Samsung SCH-A930, its main disadvantages being the skimpy external display and unusual rectangular shape.



It may cool and different look different but oddly shaped phones are more difficult to hold.

Then there is the Motorola E815, which is unfortunately a bit too large and "long in the tooth".

No Rumors Rule

I'm not one for spreading technology rumors. Yet an interesting one about Microsoft has emerged : that Microsoft is working on an "iPod killer". This story has been spreading like wildfire - its even being mentioned in magazines like PC World "Next iPod Killer - From Microsoft?" (so far, there hasn't been an iPod killer, so maybe they mean next attempt at an iPod killer),
PC Magazine "Microsoft's iPod Killer Plan".
Even Fox News has a story "Sources: Microsoft's 'iPod Killer' to Hit Stores by Christmas" (Oh, it must be true!).
Of course the tech rumor site Engadget has "blurry pictures"

It sort of makes sense that Microsoft would go after the lucrative MP3 Player market. Time will tell though.

Y.A.C.H.

Yet Another Cellphone Hunt, and so soon.

No, I didn't return the RAZR V3c.

My wife's cellphone contract ends soon and I'm looking for the best deal I can get for her. The criteria is different of course, and now, so soon after the last purchase I'm hopefully a bit wiser. This time I don't want to buy a cellphone which is replaced by an upgraded model within a month. Also, my desire for high tech needs to be balanced with ease of use and practicality issues. The simplest route would be to get the Motorola RAZR V3m, as the V3c is quite easy to use - except outside in sunlight where the main (internal) screen washes out in bright light, and is totally unreadable.

Verizon's choice of phones is somewhat limited. Sure they have Smartphones, and Camera/Video/Music phones and simple phones. But there are no Sony Ericsson models and Nokia has stopped making CDMA phones. Basically the big names are Motorola and Samsung. Then there is LG, which used to stand for Lucky Goldstar, but now on the company's website it seems they prefer "Life's Good" (Good for the company's owners/shareholders or for their customers?).

At first my main criterion was for Tri-mode phones - in the CDMA world this means phones with analog roaming capabilities. The idea behind this is that the old Analog networks pretty much cover the whole US, so if you travel a lot (or surprisingly, just around Long Island) you should always get a cellular signal, even when their is no digital signal. Anyway, after owning three Motorola cellphones in a row (including the Motorola RAZR V3c), with a detour into smartphones with the Palm Treo 600, I naturally first looked at the Motorolas.

To my surprise, the only Motorola tri-mode cellphone currently available for Verizon is the Motorola V325. I don’t particularly like it, but it got added to the shortlist. The only other tri-mode cellphones were some LGs. Verizon has very few analog-capable handsets. Sprint, on the other hand, carries a large number of analog-capable handsets. However, from my personal experience with Sprint's customer service, or lack there of, I would not deal with them again.

The Sprint story:
The first cellphone I owned in the US was a dual-mode Samsung on the Sprint network. I didn't use it much, as it was mainly for emergencies (cellphones were regarded as a required safety device in South Africa). Then the earpiece stopped working. Of course the phone's 12-month warranty had expired. I phoned Sprint's Customer Service, who basically said "Sorry, there is not much we can do, come in and buy another phone and sign up for another contract". Instead I saw a free phone advertised with a years contract with AT&T Wireless, and signed up with them. Of course when I called to cancel my Sprint month-to-month account, they decided they could offer me a free phone. Too late, I told them.

To get back to Verizon, I read somewhere that they were scaling back their Analog network. So I began looking at their "All Digital" handsets.

Another cellphone hunt continues...

Customer Service, Major flaw

Last night I had the opportunity to experience Verizon customer service when I canceled the VCAST V PAK while still in the one month trial period.
Their customer service was friendly and efficient, and deserves the high Consumer Reports rating.

I've found one problem with the Motorola RAZR V3c, one that I have not seen mentioned in any reviews. The main (internal) display is unreadable in sunlight and with no way to increase the brightness this makes it almost impossible to dial calls outside. This is a major flaw in an otherwise excellent phone. I really though that Motorola would have fixed this by spending more on a better screen - but keeping costs low may have been their primary concern. After all, who uses their cellphones outside?.
My old, soon to be sold, Treo 600 has an extra bright screen to overcome this. Inside you need to keep it at the lowest brightness setting, but outside there's plenty of brightness on the slider bar to make the screen readable. I have on occasions used it as a torch (flashlight).

Got Gripes?

While searching for a review of ZoneAlarm software the other day I came across this detailed gripe about ZoneAlarm.
I had struck the mother lode, a site dedicated to both software and hardware Computer Gripes: computergripes.com

They also have a link to PC World's 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time.

V3m vs. V3c

Just after I bought the Motorola RAZR V3c, the Verizon Online Site had its successor, the Motorola RAZR V3m on special for $69. That’s a lot more than I paid for the V3c, but it still grated a bit. Of course Amazon’s price for the newer RAZR is $199 after rebates, they must have a lot of the V3c’s in stock.

Anyway, a comparison on Phonescoop.com reveals that the differences between the two are not that important to me:

First is a Memory Card Slot for microSD / TransFlash cards. No Comment.

Then the V3m has better battery life - standby time is increased from 215 hours (9 days) to 325 hours(13.5 days). No change in talk time though.

The updated RAZR has a Music Player. No big deal.

Oh, a converged device; music player and cellphone, you say.

Sorry, my Treo 600 had that, on top of being a handheld computer with a keyboard. I prefer the sound of a dedicated DAP (Digital Audio Player).

Also, the V3m is all of 1mm thinner than the v3c (or 0.03 inches). Now, that really makes a difference.

RAZR Early impressions

So far I'm really impressed with Motorola RAZR V3c. Fortunately I was expecting the Verizon interface and the crippled Bluetooth, otherwise may have been disappointed. It certainly is the coolest cellphone I've owned, easily surpassing the Motorola V600. The main color screen is bigger than I expected for a cellphone. The keypad is really cool, especially when it is lit up. My only minor gripe is that I seem to press the directional keys sometimes instead of the main "Select" button in the main navigational keys. Not being able to fully customize these keys is what I expected. If I really wanted to use the EVDO highspeed features I would be frustrated as EVDO reception is patchy and variable in my home. I have also since discovered that the North Shore and South Shore of Long Island are not in the EVDO coverage area, which I guess explains the bad reception. The cellphone itself is small and light, very easily pocketable. In my tests of the most important cellphone functionality - voice reception - it is pretty good.

By the way, thanks to The General for pointing out that the "Q" in the Motorola Q stands for "Qwerty" - that makes sense as it has a keyboard.

RAZR not Razor?

Questions for Motorola:
Why drop the "o" from Razor to make it RAZR, or the "b" and "e" from PEBL? Okay, so short CAPS are eye-catching - ROKR instead of Rocker. I guess V60 or V600 wasn't catchy enough. Now there's the Motorola Q. Does Motorola have to pay royalties to Ian Fleming's estate? ("The lasting impact of 'Q' does not refer to the Motorola Q")

Target Acquired

Bullseye!

(I hope, and not "Mission Accomplished")

Cutting Edge technology:


....a year ago

Can you hear me (now)?

Non-Mobile cellphone

A cellphone by definition should be mobile.

I was very interested in the VZ Navigator feature from Verizon. When it first came out I had read about it, probably in PC Magazine. Now, this seemed like a really cool and useful technology. A cellphone is something you carry almost all the time, and is (usually) smaller than one of those handheld GPS devices. So basically you shold have access to GPS whenever you really need it (assuming there is coverage in the area you happen to be lost in, but that's another matter). The way Verizon prices it is appealling - either $10 a month (for the constantly lost), or $2.99 for a 24 hour period whenever you need it. From a flyer (aka junk snail mail) Verizon had sent me, it appeared that they only offered 2 cellphones which were GPS enabled: the Motorola V325 and the LG VX 9800. At first the VX 9800 sounded like a cool phone loaded with features like BlueTooth, a Megapixel Camera etc,, but then I realized it's a brick.
Dimensions 4.57 inches, 1.97 inches, 1.0 inches, weight: 5.19 ounces. For a cellphone that's a brick.


The LG VX9800 as a cellphone


The LG VX9800 is not a PDA, as it doesn't have an OS, but is a text messenger.

(Mobiledia has larger pictures of the LG VX9800 in their review)

As for the Motorola V325, it was the first to have VZ Navigator, and had good user reviews on CNET, Phonescoop and even on Amazon. Yet it lacked bluetooth - kinda ironic for me to want bluetooth, since I have it on my Motorola V600 cellphone and have never used it. I also have it on a couple of my handhelds, but never have tried hard enough to get it working - infrared works easily between handhelds (this includes Palm and PocketPCs).
Anyway, I digress.
Also, the Motorola V325 only had a VGA camera, and since I was upgrading a better camera would be nice (the camera on the V600, although low resolution, takes pretty good pictures for a cellphone). The one nice thing the V325 had was a World Clock.

The General (the cellphone expert) mentioned the RAZR. I had a look at it on the Verizon site, and saw that it supports VZ Navigator. Sneaky Verizon - they don't want to tell you that upfront - it would affect the sales of "The V" (the VX 9800, I guess V stands for Very Big cellphone). The Motorola RAZR V3c goes for $99.99 after rebates on the Verizon site and in their stores.
On Amazon.com however, it can be had for free after rebates.

The prey was in my sights...

Smells like a Hunt

Before the last blog entry about Ubuntu, I was so engrossed in a hunt that I didn't have time to blog.
What? Yes thanks.

Anyway, I didn't expect to find myself on a hunt, especially considering I've basically blown my personal technology budget for at least the next year.
I've being wracking my brain trying to figure out how I got into research mode, which quickly morphed into hunt mode.
No, I don't hunt Polar bears - this is a technology hunt.

I was looking at getting onto a "Family Plan", and after checking when my wife's cellphone contract ended, I quickly checked when mine ended. To my surprise my contract had ended last year, and I've been on month-to-month since then.

Aha, research mode became hunt mode. I checked out my current cellular provider, Cingular, and saw that their cheapest plan was $39.99, which is $20 more than my current plan, but with 10 times the minutes I currently have. But their free phones were not particularly inspiring.

Instead, since I'm eligible for a discount from Verizon (don't ask why, it's a state secret), I had a look at their plans and phones.

The first phone which interested me was the Motorola V325, to be seen here on its own blog. One of it's most interesting features was the VZ Navigator which allows GPS Navigation from a cellphone - see PC Magazine review here.



This phone seemed ideal, it even had analog roaming, but...

The hunt continues...

Linux for Astronauts

A new version of Ubuntu Linux has been released, version 6.06 (6.06 meaning the release date of June 2006, not June 6!)

Why Linux for Astronauts?
Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu project, was also the first South African in space, having paid $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket in 2002 (see his website)

Virtualization and another Buzz

Virtualization is causing a buzz in Technology right now.
It has Microsoft's attention at the moment in the software world with Microsoft releasing the latest update to Virtual Server, Virtual Server 2005 R2 as a free download. Of course this has nothing to do with VMWare offering their VMware Server Beta for free. Then of course there is the buzz about virtualization in the hardware world with Xen for Linux and Intel's whatever...

Without going into too much detail virtualization refers to running more than one Client or Server Operating System at a time on a single hardware box. Of course there is more to it than that, with another flavor of virtualization being an implementation from Altiris that allows applications to run with controlled access to the underlying OS (Altiris SVS). What's great is that a lot of the software tools have free versions. VMwares Virtual Player is one of them.

Virtualization is something I work with almost every day, but another buzz is about something I only just heard about for the first time: Rails for Ruby.

Rails for Ruby, which is being hailed as a successor to Java as it is a whole lot faster to develop web-based database applications. The language itself, Ruby has been around since about 1993.
"Rails is a full-stack framework for developing database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern. From the Ajax in the view, to the request and response in the controller, to the domain model wrapping the database, Rails gives you a pure-Ruby development environment. To go live, all you need to add is a database and a web server." this is according to the official website RubyOnRails.org

Instant Rails for Ruby on Rails which includes everything needed to setup Rails for Ruby can be found here

AOL Music canceled

Well, I finally canceled my trial of AOL Music Service, before the 30 day trial period had ended of course. It was just that it was so difficult. First, because I wasn't sure that the Music Service was what AOL calls a "Premium Service", I got put through to the wrong department who put me through to Bangalore or somewhere similar. I was then advised to phone the number I had phoned. By the time I go through to the right human being it was hard to be civil.

Canceling Rhapsody was easier and they actually asked why. AOL it seems couldn't care.

U3 and PortableApps

That is U3 and not the famous U2.
Both U3 and PortableApps are methods of storing and running Applications from USB Flash Drives. U3 is a platform and a USB Flash Drive has to be a "U3 smart drive" to run U3 applications. PortableApps on the other hand will work on any USB Flash Drive. The other difference is that PortableApps features mainly Open Source (free) software, whereas U3 has some freeware but mainly commercial applications, like ThinkFree Office for U3 (I guess the "Free" of ThinkFree is Free of MS?) and WinRAR for U3.

My boss remarked that this was like the old days of DOS and floppy disks - remember when you could run a program from a floppy disk? In fact, right now flash drives of 512MB or less would be recognized as a floppy drive when it comes to booting from them.
There are a number of ways to make a USB Flash Drive bootable with everything from DOS to Windows versions to (of course) Linux. Unfortunately this will work only if your PC or Notebooks BIOS supports booting from a USB device, and this is limited to PCs from the last year or so. See Bootdisk.info for more information.

Successful Downgrade

This week I successfully downgraded from Graffiti 2 on my Tungsten T3 to Graffiti 1. Why would I do that you may ask? Well, I got tired of not being able to write the letter "x", no matter how hard I tried.

Admittedly, Graffiti 2 is a lot closer to normal handwriting, although each letter needs to be formed individually like in the first version of Graffiti. I was actually starting to get used to it, but then had to write something on a handheld which had version 1 on it. It reminded me of how quick easy those shortcut strokes are to write.

There are lots of articles on how to downgrade the web, like this one from Palm Infocenter.

As a comparison, the two versions of Graffiti look as follows:

Graffiti 1:


Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has an excellent article on Graffiti and why Palm brought out version 2.

Graffiti 2:


The Palm site has an article on how Graffiti 2 is "intuitive and easier to learn".

Something cool on a warm night.

No, I'm not referring to an ice cold Bud Light, but a Tech kind of cool: Specifically a network update of the Sony PSP firmware to version 2.70. The network update feature has been there since the PSP came out, but I've just never used it before. Of course it makes perfect sense to allow updating the operating system and other features of the console over a wireless connection, since the PSP has built-in Wi-Fi.



Up until now I've done it in the "old-fashioned" way, downloading using my PC. I had forgotten about this feature until I was browsing the Sony Playstation website with my PSP (seemed a logical thing to do), and read up about the new features of the firmware upgrade and decided to apply it. Initially, before I even got the PSP, firmware upgrades were more for taking things away, locking down the PSP and making it more difficult to hack. In fact, the firmware version my Sony PSP came with (2.0 I think), is pretty much un-hackable. Version 1.5 was a favorite of the Homebrew crowd, they could add their own web browser and other software. Then games came out with firmware upgrades on the UMD (disk) - if you want to play the game you had to upgrade your firmware. Anyway, now Sony has been adding features: 2.0 had a Web Browser, 2.6 added support for RSS Feeds, and 2.7 adds support for Macromedia Flash (not a favorite of mine - those Flash ads bug me so much I've disabled them in Firefox, and unless the otherwise excellent Opera browser allows Flash to be disabled I'm not going to bother to use it). More importantly, this upgrade supports audio Podcasts (called something else - "Audio content" - of course), and the saving of multimedia content from the web browser to a Memory Stick. Video podcasts have been promised in a future update.

As an aside, CNET.com has the Sony PSP Rated as the most popular PVP (Personal Video Player). I've watched a movie on the Sony PSP, and the aspect ratio of its 4 inch screen is perfect widescreen movies. Of course a protective case like the Logitech PlayGear helps, as it can be flipped around to hold the PSP in the right position for movie watching. The stereo speakers are also adequate for the task.

Web on TV? No: TV on Web

After several attempts to get internet content on television, none with much success, now the big guns are trying to get Television content on the Internet. Like AOL Television

Online Music Services

I was going to do a review on the Online Music Services, including subscription music, "Music To Go" and straight download services. However someone has already done this:
Here's a blog, which reviews Music Subscription Services:
TechCrunch

PC Magazine also did a review "Subscriptions for a Song"

Still, here is my take on the services I've tried so far:
Rhapsody Online is one of the most expensive Online Services (for downloading Subscription Music). But they were offering a 30-day free trial. To use their service you have to download their software. Its actually quite easy to use, and I had no problems downloading Subscription tracks to a Sandisk Sansa as well as an iRiver H10. They have a wide selection of music, and when you view an artist they list other similar artists. This works quite well. Some groups and tracks are for purchase only.

Then I tried AOL Music Service. My initial impressions were not good, especially compared to Rhapsody. Although this is supposed to have a web-only interface, you still have to install the AOL Music Download Utility. The Web interface to AOL Music is pathetically slow, even on a broadband collection. otherwise, they have a fairly good selection of music, although you are left on your own regarding similar artists.

Frozen Mini

Last night my Apple iPod Mini starting giving trouble. At first I thought it was frozen, but the player can play songs using the wired remote. So it seemed that the click wheel wasn't working.
I scoured the web for solutions. After trying to to reset it according to instructions on the Apple support site, I did the next suggested solution: drained the battery and recharged it. The reset still didn't work. Then I tried restoring the iPod to factory settings. I can transfer songs to the player, and play them using the remote, but the clickwheel - probably the single best feature of the iPod - still doesn't work.
Of course it is no longer under warranty. The 30 day warranty ended over a month ago.

What really burns me is that I could have got a refurbished second generation iPod Mini (this one is a first generation - main difference being 2nd generation gets 18 hours battery life instead of 8) directly from Apple.com with a better warranty for less than I paid for this piece of crap...

Technology moves fast (sometimes)

One technology which is moving particularly fast - probably because there is so much consumer demand - is MP3 Players.
I guess I should have realized when I bought the SanDisk Sansa 240 1GB MP3 Player on special that there was a new one coming (I suspected that something was up).
Now I see that SanDisk has come out with the Sansa c100 and Sansa e100 series of MP3 Players. Instead of boring mono screens, these new ones come with full color screens, and the e100 series can play video.

According to CNET "The SanDisk Sansa e200 series combines copious features such as subscription compatibility, an FM tuner/recorder, voice recording, and photo and video playback into a compact and durable device. We like the tactile navigation wheel, as well as the well-designed software interface. The user-removable battery and the Micro SD slot are nice touches, and the device has decent sound quality, processor performance, and battery life."
and
From CNET's SanDisk Sansa e270 (6 GB) review:
"The SanDisk Sansa e200 series offers a boatload of features for a reasonable price, in a package that is much nicer than that of past SanDisk models. For those looking for a high-capacity, compact, skip-free MP3/WMA player, start with the e200 series."


The Sansa e200 series starts with a 2GB capacity and goes all the way up to a 6 GB capacity, 2GB more than any iPod Nano at present.

The SanDisk Sansa m240:


The SanDisk Sansa e200:


Everyone say Ooooh!

Mobile Internet Part IV

(I use Roman numerals because they seem fairly well understood in the U.S., probably due to the Super Bowl)
Once again I tried using the wireless Internet on my Tungsten T3 with the CPU at full speed (400MHz). I may have been expecting too much, but eBay was extremely sluggish in loading. Only got past the login screen, and page just loaded too slowly, even with "Load Images" turned off. I tried again, and the T3 did a fatal reset, which messed up the Virtual Graffiti area. Is it due to a better Operating System (Linux) that the 200MHz Sharp Zaurus can browse not just eBay, but another page at the same time? Or is it the Opera Browser? There are rumors that Palm is working on Linux-based operating system for their handhelds - see this article at PalmInfoCenter

Apple boots Microsoft

Apple Unveils Software to boot into Windows XP, according to this article in My Way News. But that's what Microsoft has been wanting to do to Apple for ages!

How?

No, me not speak with forked tongue. In my previous blog entry I mentioned starting to cut the umbilical cord with the Treo. I didn't mention how. Well, I've started using the Motorola V600 as a cellphone now, leaving the Treo at home. Instead of the Treo I use a Tungsten T3 for handheld computer functions.

The Tungsten T3 is quite an awesome handheld. The Virtual Graffiti area is better than that of the Sony NX60 and the landscape mode really handy. The 400 MHz processor makes response times snappy, and the Treo 600 is slow in comparison.


T3 closed


T3 open (in Portrait Mode)


T3 in Landscape Mode

Untitled?

This blog entry was originally entitled: "Treos, T3s and the Dark Side", but it was just taking me too long to finish, and I just wasn't getting to the Dark Side. So I decided to post it in sections, not quite episodes, but smaller chunks.

This week I started to cut the umbilical cord with the Treo. It only has one or two programs that are not on the Tungsten T3, but I had to do it sometime. The biggest move of course will be getting the Tungsten T3 to HotSync with my main Desktop. I have to totally uninstall the Treo Palm Desktop, and then install the T3 Palm Desktop from scratch, and install the programs that need to synchronize with the T3. This is a multi-step process, as I need to have a running Treo Desktop on another machine (or partition) first.

Hold on, why am I moving off of the Treo?...

I sit corrected

In a previous post which mentioned subscription music and "Music To Go", I implied that subscription music and "Music To Go" were one and the same thing.

They are not. The Music Subscription Services offer "To Go" as an option - usually a more expensive one, which means that downloaded music can be transferred to a compatible device. Otherwise the music can only be played on one or more PCs.

Dell captures aliens!

Oh no, got that wrong, it should read - "Dell buys Alienware" - according to this article from My Way News

Sidetracked but successful

To back-track for a moment, before I started looking at the iPod Mini, I was sidetracked by a non-iPod Flash memory based player - a Sandisk Sansa - on sale at a local store. Cheaper than a 1 GB iPod Shuffle, it has a display, as well as an FM Radio. (No iPod that I know of has an FM Radio - although FM is not really a factor for me, as I am unable to listen to commercial radio because of the commercials). The 1GB Sandisk Sansa had fairly good reviews online, so I got it. It isn't as sleek as the iPod Nano, but it is small and light and has a readable mono display. The controls are quite simple too figure out. Downloading songs didn't require any special software either. The problem is, it didn't take me long to fill up 1GB with songs. This was especially true since the Sansa supports subscription music or "Music To Go", and I started a free trial of one of the subscription services.

What's subscription music or "Music To Go"? Basically, for a monthly fee you can download as much music as your portable device can handle. Then, as long as you keep on paying the monthly fee you can listen to the music. The players use Digital Rights Management (DRM) to disable playing of the songs if you don't synchronize with the music service as a paid up subscriber. The songs also cannot be burned to CD and cannot be played on devices (including computers) which are not "Authorized" by the subscription service. So, of course I filled up the player with songs I liked but don't have on CD, and albums I'm considering buying as well as music from artists I haven't yet heard.
CNET has a whole article about it here.

Okay, so 1 GB wasn't enough, so I begun looking at higher capacity MP3 Players, and that led me to the 4 GB iPod Mini. I made the mistake of buying a refurbished one from eBay. If I'd shopped around more I would have found a refurbished one on Apple.com for cheaper. Oh well..

Oh, and how is the iPod? I had to read the manual to learn how to use the controls, but once I got them they were intuitively easy. The sound seems better than the Sansa. Best of all I discovered that the accessories for the iPod Mini are deeply discounted since it has been discontinued, so I was able to get an FM transmitter (iTrip) for less than $10. Now I can listen to the iPod in the car or on my home audio system.

The Search narrows

One thing that bothered me when I read reviews of the iPod Nano was that because this is a product which was only released in September of last year, there would be no bargain prices for it yet.
What set me thinking was this "quibble" from Consumer Reports:
"A 2-gigabyte (500-song) Nano costs $200, which bought you a 4-GB iPod Mini before it was discontinued. There's a 4-GB Nano for $250, which used to buy you a 6-GB iPod Mini."

It got me thinking whether the iPod Mini was still available. It is!

CNET Review of iPod Mini

MP3 Player Hunt Continued

Back issues of PC Magazine and an odd copy of Handheld Computing magazine helped clear up a misconception I had about the iPod Shuffle: from the name I wondered if it could only play in "shuffle" or random mode. This isn't the case. I looked at the low-priced 512 MB shuffle first, but discovered that it could only hold about 100 to 120 songs, depending on format. The 1 GB Shuffle was sold out wherever it was on special. One thing that put me off was a reviewer who recommended the iPod Shuffle as a second MP3 Player for those who already have a larger hard drive-based player. The Shuffle has no display to tell you what song you're listening to. After much thought, I decided I could not do without this feature so I could at least see what song, or Podcast or whatever was that I was listening to - and be able to find a song. This was especially so since most non-Apple MP3 players in this price range have this display.

Sticking with the iPods, the cheapest model with a display was the iPod Nano. This iPod has excellent reviews, and a price to go with it. For $140 and upwards for the 1GB iPod Nano you are really paying a premium.



So, there is a tiny color (176-by-132-pixel 1.5-inch) screen, on which you can view photos or album art. If I really want to view photos I'd use the 480-by-320-pixel 4.3 inch screen on my Tapwave Zodiac.

Apart from there being MP3 players from other manufacturers with larger capacity and more features, what finally put me off the Nano altogether were reports that the device scratches easily ("Although the device is durable, it scratches easily; blemishes show up more drastically on the black version" - excerpt from CNET.com review). I didn't want to pay so much to have to baby an MP3 Player.

And yet the coolness factor of the iPod is so strong.

Oh, what to do?

MP3 Player Hunt

Okay, so I knew very little about the latest MP3 Players, but I wanted to get one (for why see Got an MP3 Player?). I had last looked at MP3 players in early 2003, before deciding to buy the Sony Clie NX60. Of course, things have changed a lot since then.

There seem to be two types of MP3 Players: Flash-based Players and Hard Drive-based Players. According to wikipedia there are three types, but I'm not counting MP3 CD Players.

There are also iPods and Everything else, or Anything But iPod.

My criteria was for a small player, definitely smaller than any of my handhelds or even my Sony Net MD Walkman MZ-NF520D.

Since I had recently seen one on special, I first looked at the iPod Shuffle:



(to be continued...)

Mobile Internet Part III

In a previous blog Mobile Internet II I said that the Dell Axim X30 with built-in Wireless "worked like a dream" at a hotel hotspot.
Okay, well that hotspot did not have encryption, and at home I have encrypted wireless. The Dell Axim runs like a dog on my home Wi-Fi (and I don't mean a greyhound!). Possibly I'm not using the correct wireless client - there are several available on the Axim. Anyway, the only site I can get onto is Yahoo.

My Linux-based Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 with a Compact Flash Wi-Fi card has no problems with this encrypted wireless network, and puts the Dell to shame. I was planning to sell the Zaurus, but not any more.

Just for interest, here is a picture of the Treo 600 next to the Sharp Zaurus (the Zaurus is closed, it is even longer with the keyboard opened).

Sony didn't invent Virtual Graffiti!

According to wikipedia, the first Palm OS Device with a Virtual Graffiti area was the HandEra 330 released in 2001.

This handheld had some impressive specifications for a Palm-OS based device at that time:

240 x 320 QVGA high resolution screen
Virtual on-screen Graffiti text entry areas
360° rotation of screen image with special applications (Portrait and Landscape modes!)
Ran with AAA alkaline batteries or with optional lithium-ion batteries
One CompactFlash Type I/II card slot and One Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard slot
Jog wheel and auxiliary button for one hand operation
Internal audio amplifier and speaker
Microphone to record audio files

Full Specs are here at HandEra.

Geek.com gave it a 4 star rating in their review. The Gadgeteer also liked it.

Unfortunately it wasn't too stable...

Got an MP3 Player?

I always thought I already had an MP3 Player. Since the Sony CLIE NX60, just about every handheld I've owned has a stereo headphone jack and can play MP3s. Even the Treo 600 comes with a basic version of the Pocket Tunes music software which has playlists and an equalizer. Since I usually have a handheld with me, its just a case of carrying headphones too and I have an MP3 Player.

The only problem is space. MP3 files take up space on expansion cards (SecureDigital Cards mostly). Since SecureDigital Cards which are 1 Gigabyte and larger are relatively costly (anything from $50 to $120), I mainly have 512 MB SD Cards. Being cautious (some would say paranoid), each handheld has its own memory card, and I keep multiple backups on a card. On my Treo where internal memory is low, I store and run software from the card. On the cards for the Tapwave Zodiac I have video files. All of these compete for space with MP3 files. I have a Sony Minidisc player, but a Minidisc can only hold just over 2 CDs worth of songs. It fits in my shirt pocket but is a bit bulky.

So maybe I need a real MP3 player...

eBay Bargains?

I was idly browsing through eBay (which can be dangerous) looking at iPods, and saw a new iPod Shuffle for $71, excluding shipping. Not really knowing the prices I looked elsewhere and found the new iPod Shuffle with the same 512 MB capacity for $65.99 on special at MacMall. It was also going for $69.99 at Circuit City and Best Buy.

Mobile Internet Part II

In a previous blog Mobile Internet I mentioned problems accessing certain websites with a Palm and a Wi-Fi card. I also referred to having better luck with a Linux-based Sharp Zaurus and a Wi-Fi card. Anyway, this "Handheldoholic" bought a Dell Axim X30 Pocket PC on eBay - the model which has built-in 802.11b wireless. I then did a real world test by taking it down to Atlanta with me, where we were staying in a hotel with free wireless access in the lobby. The "Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition"-based Pocket PC worked like a dream, once I had found out which of the supplied connectivity utilities to use. I did not have any problems accessing any website, including Google Mail and eBay. Being able to browse in landscape mode was great, but - a minor quibble here - Palm's implementation of portrait and landscape mode is far superior, both with ease of switching between modes and Virtual Graffiti area placement in Landscape Mode.
I can't wait to try the Beta of the Opera Web Browser on the Dell Axim.

High tech, high price

One of the things I enjoy when in South Africa is looking at the prices of electronics and software. It makes me feel a bit better about leaving the beautiful weather here and going back home to New York.

Since my renewed interest in gaming I looked at gaming hardware and software:
First I priced a Sony PSP Value Pack - the exact same one I bought brand new on eBay - 2600 South African Rand (ZAR) at a computer chain store. That is around $430 at a good exchange rate - $180 more than street price, and almost double what I paid on eBay.

Then there was a GameBoy (probably an Advance) for sale at a toy store for the equivalent of US$140, as well as a Sony Playstation 2 (I'm not sure if it was the Slim edition) for about $240, which is $90 more than I paid at NewEgg.com.

As for Sony PSP games, the cheapest I saw was "Metal Gear Acid" on sale for about $47 (normal price $65) - it normally goes for about $40 in the USA, and may drop to $30 on special. Other, more popular games like "Burnout Legends" or "Need for Speed Underground Rivals" sell for around $65 minimum.

The main reason for such huge price differences is the import duty the South African government levies on electronic goods.
Of course doing direct price comparisons like this doesn't take currency exchange rate fluctuations into account, or the relative buying power of the local currency

Different juice - technical problems

Since this is a tech blog, I won't refer to flight delays, although I have certainly had my share this week.
Instead I had electrical problems - due to an incorrect assumption.
Since my Sony NX60 handheld had a power brick which accepted the South African 220 volts without a problem, I assumed that the Tapwave Zodiac that I took with for gaming and my wife's Palm Zire 72 would be the same. They aren't - both come with power adapter plugs that only accept 110-120 volts input.
Fortunately, on a previous visit I had seen a 220 volt to 110 volt converter plug. It only cost slightly more than $10, and since we both required our handhelds for the important task of playing games we bought it.
I had initially thought of bringing my Sony PSP with, but decided that the Tapwave Zodiac would do, since I had several games for it as well as 2 pre-recorded TV shows on SecureDigital Card. Also, I left my Treo 600 behind, and brought an old unlocked GSM Motorola V60 for use with a PrePaid SIM card on one of the South African cellular networks. Ironically both the Sony PSP and the Treo would both handle 220 volts without an extra adapter.
Of course I couldn't do without a handheld computer, so I brought the Tungsten T3, for which I had just bought a travel charger for (otherwise it would require carting a cradle around just to recharge). The Zod (Tapwave Zodiac) would have been adequate, but I was concerned about "toasting" it with one of the games. I must confess that although I have had a couple of Fatal Errors from games they were only soft resets and the Zod is a pretty stable PDA.
However, I've grown to really like my Tungsten T3. With the slider closed it has a really small form factor and it has a more intelligent Virtual Graffiti area than the Zod (You cannot popup a virtual keyboard inside the Zod's Virtual Graffiti area). In fact the Virtual Graffiti and Portrait to Landscape mode is even better than that of the Dell Axim X30 Pocket PC - but that is another story. The Tungsten T3 also has the updated PIM applications (Alarms from Tasks etc.) and its screen is as good as, if not better than the Sony Clie NX60. The T3 is fast becoming my top choice to replace the handheld computer part of the Treo 600. Its main drawback is that the battery life sucks - possibly due to it being a used unit when I bought it.

Ooops!

In a previous post "Go figure" I wrote that the Handspring Visor Pro runs on 2 AAA batteries.
This is not correct. According to the Wikipedia entry for the Visor Pro, and other sources, it runs on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery

A Handheldaholic's nightmare!

From an article on Brighthand.com to a link in
The Inquirer: One man company fixes PDAs.

But I really do need a new one!

Mobile Internet

No, I'm not referring to mobile phones and the internet. I try to avoid paying by the kilobyte for checking email. I'm referring to accessing the internet via a Wireless access point using a handheld computer.

My experiences with my Palm handhelds were not promising:
First I tried to get status of eBay bids with Tungsten T3 and a Wi-Fi card - first couldn't get onto Google Mail, then I wasted 15 minutes trying to get onto eBay before I gave up. Using my Tapwave Zodiac and the Wi-Fi card gave me a Fatal Error - but I was running some utilities in the background, and need to try it with those switched off.

I had better luck with my Linux-based Sharp Zaurus.
I managed to get onto eBay with the Sharp Zaurus and a CF Wi-Fi card, and also managed to get onto Google Mail! The speed was also a lot faster than on the Palm Tungsten T3. The Opera browser also allowed me to have more than one window open at a time.

Go figure

Yesterday a Handspring Visor Pro with 16MB RAM, a 33 MHz processor and Palm OS version 3.5.2.H sold for $145.50 on eBay.

About three hours before that a Tapwave Zodiac 2 with 128MB RAM, a 200Mhz Processor and Palm OS version 5.2.7, sold for $130.11 on eBay.

The Handspring Visor Pro doesn't have a color screen, but a 160 by 160 pixel 4-bit (16 shades of gray) monochrome screen. It weighs 5.7 oz and runs on 2 AAA batteries.

The Zodiac 2 has a 480 x 320 (half VGA), 16-bit color backlit display (65,536 colors), and weighs 6.3 ounces. It has an ATI graphics accelerator, Yamaha sound system, Bluetooth, two SD slots, one of them an SDIO slot for Wi-Fi cards etc.

Tapwave closed it doors in July 2005 when venture capital dried up.

Handspring was bought by Palm in June 2003

The only possible reasons I can think of for someone paying more for an older handheld (released in 2001) are:
- Palm still supports the Visors (see Palm Visor Pro Support)
- There are still numerous springboard expansions modules available for the Handspring, everything from MP3 players to voice recorders to GPS devices.
- The Visor Pro runs off AAA batteries

Retro-tech

Just recently I got my hands on a HandSpring Visor Deluxe. This Palm OS handheld relic is the precursor to the Treo. I say relic, but the handheld still works - it uses AAA batteries so there is no rechargeable battery to wear out. The most interesting feature of all Handspring Visors was the springboard slot (see this article in the Wikipedia). This allowed the handheld to be expanded with peripherals like a GPS (which is why I got the Handspring), a backup module or "Memplug" memory expansion module. There is even a camera, a modem and a Wireless modem. One of the more interesting Springboard modules was the cellphone one. Slide it in and the Handheld was transformed into the first smartphone. Unfortunately the Handsprings were mainly bulky. the one which wasn't - the Visor Edge, allowed springboard modules to be attached via a sleeve. Handspring discontinued the Visor line in 2002 and brought out the first Treo. The rest, as they say, is history.

You can't make this stuff up

(but some people try anyway)

This morning on WABC New York (channel 7), after 7am and just before a weather forecast there was some segment on words of 2005. One of them was "Podcast". The meteorologist admitted she didn't know what most of the words meant. The anchorwoman of the "Eyewitness News This Morning" show said "Podcast, you know, what those Chinese people do...sing".
Michelle, you should have looked up the word on Wikipedia before trying to act like you knew what the word meant..
Wikipedia?...Oh, nevermind.

Top 10 List

I did a Top 10 list for top tech products of 2004, so here's my top 10 list of Tech products for 2005, in no particular order. Some products were also on the 2004 list, which means they (or their updated versions) still are good.
I've limited this list to products I've actually used or own - how can
I put the Sony VAIO Laptop on my top 10 list if I don't have one?):

Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable)

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 browser

Opera 8.5x browser (finally advert free)

BackupMan PalmOS Backup software

Palm(One) Treo 600 smartphone

VMWare Workstation ( nudges out Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 with its powerful features)

Google Mail - Free 2.6+ GB

Partition Magic 8 - its been around for a while and has changed ownership, but is the most powerful utility of its kind out there

Palm(One) Tungsten T3 (yes I know it's been replaced by the T5 which has been replaced by the TX, but it still rocks)

peditPro PalmOS text editor (I write a lot of my blog entries in this excellent powerful editor)

Treo things that bug me

1. Although the screen is bright the screen resolution is a paltry 160 by 160 pixels, and can only display 3375 colors
2. Processor - 144MHz, which makes it slower than the handheld I replaced. To be honest, I only really noticed this when I was trying to do that failed restore, and the list of files took ages to refresh.
3. Rounded keyboard keys. These really hurt the tips of my thumbs (especially when writing a blog entry like this). Apparently this has been fixed on the Treo 650.

The rest are minor usability issues like two Power-on keys. One is the wireless mode button, and the other is the Screen on off key - the only difference is that if you keep on pressing the wireless mode button the phone switches on. These two buttons confused the heck out my security software until they released a patch to cater for switching on the device with the screen button.
I never expected the camera to be much good, but the same resolution camera on the Motorola V600 cellphone takes better pictures.

Backup problems

I switched on my Treo yesterday morning and BackupBuddyVFS had crashed the night before night at 11:30pm. So I installed the latest version of BackupBuddyVFS and my security program crashed at 11:30pm. Uninstalled BackupBuddyVFS and nothing crashed.
Decided to switch to BackupMan for backups until have sorted out problems with BackupBuddyVFS. BackupMan costs a third of the price of BackupBuddyVFS, and although it doesn't have features like encryption or compression, its scheduling capabilities are better than BackupBuddyVFS and it works.

Costly games

When the Xbox 360 came out recently I was taken aback at the cost of games - from around $60 ($59.99). I shouldn't have been surprised, as games for the Sony PSP go for $30 (on special) to $50 for new releases. In "Brick and Mortar" stores used games are only about $5-$10 cheaper.

Some examples:
Need for Speed Underground: Rivals costs $29.99 on CircuitCity.com after $20.00 savings (but it is "not available").
The same game goes for $25 on eBay - shipping included, and in good condition.
Ridge Racer is $39.99 and is "Out of Stock" on CircuitCity.com.
Brand new on eBay it'll cost you around $37.99 including shipping. A used Ridge Racer would go for about $15 including shipping, which is a big difference. Of course with the used games there is an element of risk.

GSM Rules

Well, most of the time.
Since my posting about temporarily switching from the Treo 600 to the Motorola V600 (" Smartphone struck dumb"), I've been asked by two people if I needed to phone my cellular provider to activate my old phone. One of the advantages of GSM is the SIM card. The SIM card has the telephone number and even phonebook entries. All I did was switch the SIM card from the Treo to the Motorola and turn the Motorola on.

Treo up and running

I finally got Treo restored, but all my data is not there yet. It now appears that Treo Butler was probably not the culprit, but more likely shareware program called ToDo2.

I'm also not too happy about BackupBuddyVFS
Professional - it was not a cheap utility and the restore just didn't work properly - I may be contacting their support...

My relationship with my previously trusty Treo has soured somewhat, not helped by the fact that using a normal flip cellphone was so much easier...

To be fair

Just to be fair - the software which I blamed in my last Blog Entry as having crashed my Treo (Treo Butler) may not have been the only culprit, or may not have been responsible at all. I had loaded a shareware program called ToDo2 and a freeware program called ToDo Archive just a day or so before - any one of them (or a combination) could have been the cause.

I also complained about Treo Butler on the website where I downloaded it, and was contacted by the developer the very next day to try to resolve the problem. Unfortunately after the hard reset there is nothing left on the Treo to debug.

Smartphone struck dumb

Okay, now I've run into one of the major problems with having a handheld computer and a cellphone integrated on the same device.

Last night I upgraded a utility program - Treo Butler, to version 3.4. I have been running earlier versions since just after I got the Treo. This time a minute or so after I had run the program the phone began making a low-pitched tone and froze. The only way to stop it was a soft reset. From there this just got worse. The noise persisted, so I hard reset the Palm (like Format C: in DOS) and tried to restore from a backup. The backup software, which I has restored from before, got to a file and then just reset the Treo. So I had to check the log and restore from after the file it choked on, a painstakingly slow process. After all of this, the Treo made that continuous tone on the first dialog and froze. After a few more hard resets and attempted restores, I was close to throwing the dumb smartphone against a wall.

Fortunately my cell service is GSM, and I had my old phone handy, so I
could just switch the SIM card to the old phone (after recharging it all
night). The handheld wasn't that simple. The Tapwave Zodiac was pressed into service temporarily. Fortunately Both the Treo and the Zodiac use a SecureDigital Card, so I was able to recover some of my data onto the quick
replacement.

For now at least, I'm back to carrying two devices...

Not quite bleeding edge

Firefox 1.5 has been out of beta since November 30th, and I've only installed it today. Of course my favorite (favourite) Firefox Extension, PrefBar, has not been updated for this version yet...

What about the games?

So I mentioned the Sony PSP was an excellent gaming console but what about the games?
I have five games, three of which I play more than the others.
Need for Speed Underground Rivals is one game I didn't expect to like that much. Instead, Need for Speed is the game I play the most - probably because I have managed to win a lot of the races.
Ridge Racer, on the other, hand has beautiful graphics for the racing locations and tracks, but I have yet to win a race - starting in 12th position is a big difference from starting in fourth position in a three lap race.
Then there is Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. This is one of the most popular PSP games to date. The game content is rather amoral but the game opens an intriguing universe to explore. It is a relatively difficult game - or at least I find some of the missions rather challenging - having to try several times, and getting "Wasted" each time before completing a mission. At least you are not totally stuck, as you can go off and take part in side missions or just explore the dangerous city. My character was exploring the dock area, looking for hidden packages (collect enough hidden packages and you get additional items available to you, from guns to motorcycles). There happens to be a strike on there and some of the strikers took exception to his presence and wasted him. Next time he went down there with a baseball bat and turned the tables on the attackers...

The other two games are Namco Museum Battle Collection & Wipeout Pure.
The Museum Battle Collection is a bunch of arcade games which just don't grab me.
Wipeout Pure is a Sci-Fi racing game, but I just haven't been able to get into it.

Sony PSP - one month later

Well, I've only logged about 15 hours for the month, as I don't play every day (too much else to do with my time). I have been mentioning the Tapwave Zodiac a lot, but that's because I'm playing with the software part of it. The Sony PSP is an excellent gaming console, and the games on it simply blow away the Zodiac.

With the 2.50 firmware upgrade, there is a usable web browser for the built-in Wi-Fi, so I can check my Google Mail, or Yahoo - really useful. Setting up the PSP to access a WEP encrypted wireless router was really simple. I still want to try one of the multiplayer games over the internet - once I'm good enough at a game that I won't get totally creamed...

As for video, I've watched a few movie trailers which I've downloaded, and the 4.3 inch screen is excellent for personal video watching. Apparently most of the major movie picture studios in Hollywood are planning to release their movies in the UMD (Universal Media Disc) format - there is a whole schedule of release dates for movies like "Batman Returns" and even "The Matrix" in this format.

I've also downloaded some pictures so I can change the wallpaper every now and then. As for music, I haven't really bothered - I'm sure it's a capable music player, and the latest firmware update, 2.60, adds support for Windows Media .wma files.

So far I'm quite happy with the Playstation Portable, and when I see the games coming down the line (like Sims 2), hopefully there'll be more R&R hours I can spend playing games on it.

Zodiac Recommendation

Would I recommend buying a Tapwave Zodiac?
Well, unless you really have the money to spare, I wouldn't recommend buying a new one. There is no longer a Tapwave Inc to back the warranty.

Instead I would recommend a gently used (and not too old, because of battery life) "pre-owned" Zodiac. Also, if you can afford it, go for the Zodiac 2 which has 128MB of RAM (which is not funky NVFS )

Used Zodiacs are available on eBay

New Zodiacs can be found at gp32z.com