If you’re into mobile devices and enjoy open discussion around the same, check out the new podcast from Mobile Tech Addicts. Why am I promoting this ? Well, my little bro, Gareth, is a contributor to Mobile Tech Addicts and now also a co-host on their new podcast.
Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Plaxo recently announced that is has sold out to Comcast - the axis of all things evil in the cable industry (though much more reliable than Adelphia).
I signed up for Plaxo years back thinking it would be a good central location to store all my contacts in ‘the cloud’. But there’s really no point to it any more. For one, I’m a .Mac subscriber which makes my contacts available across all my Macs, online and iPod.
Plaxo was headed in the social networking direction, but with LinkedIn and Facebook as competition, there really isn’t much point to using a third service. Now with the Comcast acquistion, Plaxo’s control of your data just can’t be trusted, IMO. Comcast is notorious for poor customer service and screwing you on the service you get. I’m dropped Comcast years back and after a short stint with DirecTV, I’m fully in the arms of glorvious fibre thanks to Verizon FiOS for TV and Internet and Vonage for VoIP.
So today I’ve deleted my Plaxo account. You can do the same via the following link:
For the past few years I’ve been listening to music and podcasts on my various iPods in the car over FM transmitters. They work… okay, but not great. It’s all about getting a clear enough frequency and being able to sustain the signal long enough.
I’d whittled it down to two reasonably clear channels in the Boston/Cambridge out to metro west areas - 88.5FM and 92.3FM. But, depending on the weather and the quality of the recording, my listening enjoyment fluctuated daily. By last week I’d had enough. 2hrs a day on the road and I want to be able to enjoy what I’m listening too.
I have a 2005 Jetta, the new style. Great car and VW offers an iPod Adapter which can be installed by a dealer. But every review I read pretty much stated it was pure crap.
Finally I found the PA11-VW6 from USA Spec. It works great with all ranges of current and most past iPods and runs off the CD changer port on the back of the car stereo. Installation took around 30mins by an experienced car audio guy for a fraction of the cost a dealer would charge. Best price I got on the device was from Enfig Car Stereo.
I just recently purchased the Logitech Z-10 desktop speakers. My objective was to buy a set that worked via USB to reduce the number of cables I need to remove from the MBP. There are many choices of notebook speakers, most of which are USB, but just about all of them are poor in the low base range and I really didn’t want to sacrifice the sound quality too much.
The Z-10 speakers have an interactive panel on the right speaker which displays the current iTunes song information and allows you to advance tracks and change the volume level directly on the front of the speaker. The big problem here is that Logitech had no support for Macs.
Enter LogitechLCDTool. This is a great tool to enable display of the iTunes info on the front panel. The tool needs a script update to support Leopard, which can be found in the developers forums.
There is an even more advanced Multiscreen tool for the Z-10 which enables the 1-4 context buttons with information such as weather, date/time, email details etc. I followed the details in the forums but never quite got it to work, always ending up with a blank screen. If anyone else has managed to get Sei’s Multiscreen update to LCDTool working, I’d love to hear from you.
I’m in the market for a new cell phone. My contract with Verizon expired a few months back and I’m seriously considering the move to Cingular to get on a GSM network since I travel aboard every so often.
Recently I’ve been reading-up the Treo 750v on Vodafone in the UK and waiting for it’s release in the US. The Treo 680, which launched on Cingular just before Thanksgiving, isn’t up to par (VGA camera, not 3G broadband), plus I’m actually keen on Windows Mobile 5. A few colleagues have the Motorola Q which is a pretty impressive device, but only available from Verizon (and soon Sprint) and not with a GSM carrier.
The Samsung BlackJack was released a few weeks back and I’m reading great reviews about it online. The question is, should I continue waiting for the Treo 750 or jump for a BlackJack now ? My holding off has my wife and I (we’re on a family plan) both stuck on Verizon for the time being.
Or should I wait until January to see if Apple announces the iPhone at Macworld ?
Technorati Tags: Blackjack
This is funny, funny, funny. Great move by MS to produce this training video. If anything, it’s a moral boosting video.
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, The Office
