Joy of Gadgets

Sometimes, simple is good. And in the ScreenPlay TV Link from iomega, that’s exactly what you have. A simple device that you can hook up to any TV–component, composite, and SCART connections included–and play video files off of a USB drive, be it flash or a portable hard drive. If you have a HDTV, you can also hook it up with HDMI, but the cable isn’t included in the package.

What I had been doing to watch videos on my TV was to bring my MacBook down to my living room, hook it up with a Mini-DVI to composite cable, and use Front Row or Boxee to navigate my way to my videos to play. Works, but it’s a bit bulky and the video quality wasn’t always great.

This device works better. I did have a little difficulty when I first hooked it up, most likely because I have a nearly 20 year old television, but the included quickstart manual tells you how to resolve this problem. Shortly, I had a screen showing me a list of some of the movies I had shoved onto a USB thumb drive and plugged into the back of the unit. I could easily navigate with the remote control and select a video for viewing.

Why didn’t I have all the movies listed on my screen? They all weren’t encoded properly. The ScreenPlay TV Link doesn’t support every video encoding format, but it does support several common ones, including DivX and directories straight from a DVD!

After reencoding the videos that weren’t displaying on the list, I tried again. They were all there and played on my ancient TV in excellent quality!

Certainly there are other, more capable devices out there, but for what I need, this is perfect for both my home use and when I travel. It even includes interchangeable power prongs for US, UK, and EU use! I just wish it came with a small travel bag, but beyond that, it’s a fantastic buy!

(Originally posted ScreenPlay TV Link from iomega)

I have been letting my personal inbox go for too long. I’m now over 50 messages. Why? Because I’ve been too busy doing other things. Work. Sleeping. Reading Anathem–down to the last 100 pages now. So with an eye towards cleaning out my inbox, it’s time to do a “summary” post–something I haven’t done in ages. I’ll probably do a couple of these until I get things under control.

SIP Print launches SIP recording appliance at ITEXPO West: Theoretically, this affordable for small and medium businesses with the need to record up to 200 seats per location. To discover the power and simplicity of SIP Print, please visit www.sipprint.com. My personal solution: use Skype and avoid being recorded, thanks.

The Sonic Lighter for iPhone: What the hell is this crap? At least it’s cheap at $0.99, but really, do I want to pass the flame around between iPhones or use my breath to extinguish the flame. Is this really necessary? Oh yeah, you can’t publish any truly useful apps on the iPhone, thanks to Apple’s tight-fisted control over it.

PulsarBox Launches an Easy To Use Mobile Content System: Seems a bit like WidSets to me, except maybe an easier way to create the content. Am I missing something here?

Glubble Social Networking for Families: This might be a bit of a challenge for me to get my family to adopt since my children are smaller and my wife is not into social networking at all. However, if you want to give it a try–I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, join the network and let me know what you think!

Thomas Howe Wins Broadsoft Xtended Voice Mashup Contest: Thomas created Disaster Dispatcher, a voice mashup that integrates Twitter, BroadWorks and RSS feeds to provide a one-window communications tool for emergency operators. For his first place win, he will receive $5,000 in cash and a trip to BroadSoft Connections 2008 with a free Solutions ShowCase booth. Go, Thomas, Go!

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While writing for a blog network on their gadget blog, I got the idea to do my own blog on the subject. I reserved a domain name and went on my merry way. Shortly after leaving that network, I decided to give it a go.

There are a lot of gadget blogs out there that can write 50 posts a day. This won’t be not one of those blogs, instead opting for 3 to 5 posts a week. While I occassionally will cover something all gadget blogs cover, I am trying to find the more interesting items that not everyone is covering.

What are gadgets? While I certainly will cover electronic items of all shapes and sizes, being electric isn’t a prerequisite. It just has to do something useful, possibly in a new and different way, or in a different form factor.

The blog is getting off the ground, so expect drastic changes in the short term. Content is forthcoming and will be added as tiime progresses.

If you’ve ever tried taking a cell phone picture in low-light conditions, you know how crappy they turn out.  This example taken from a Nokia N73 last year shows you just how bad they can turn out. Notice the purple tint in the black areas?

The reason for this is simple: current cameras don’t see very well. The current sensors used on current mobile phones are an array of red, green, and blue pixels. Each pixel see it’s own color really well, but can’t see much of anything else, particularly when it’s dark.

The new sensors that Kodak is coming out with incorporate a “clear” pixel that sees all wavelengths of visible light, making it more acutely aware of the overall lighting level. This would make for better low-light pictures, making the purple tint a thing of the past. Meanwhile, I’m not sure how this will affect shutter speed, but the Popular Mechanics folks say it will improve that as well.

They say the first prototypes devices carrying these sensors will appear early this year. We need to get these sensors into some Nokia devices, stat!
Via ZDNet/Russell Shaw

I suppose in a world where everyone has a mobile phone and no landlines, it may be desirable to have a fixed phone somewhere, yet continue to use the mobile phone network. In that case, you might want something like this: The FW-290 GSM Phone from Perfectone.

They appear to make both North American and worldwide versions of this handset, supporting either GSM 850/1900 (North America) or GSM 900/1800 (Europe and most everywhere else). It supports all the standard calling features and sports a nice, big antenna.

While the Perfectone folks emailed me the information about this device, they did not provide a release date or pricing.

As I wrote before, I have a WDS mesh at my house. While the computers hooked into the downstairs WiFi routers connect up to my upstairs WiFi router just fine, my Mac and my PC laptops seem to have problems connecting to the WDS mesh.

Part of the problem was that in order to get my WDS mesh functional, I had to set it up in an inconsistent state–”Lazy” mode enabled on one router, disabled on another. This was because I was running Tomato on two of my routers and DD-WRT on a third.

Several days ago, I switched all of my routers back to DD-WRT and I was finally able to make the WDS mesh configuration consistent. Lazy WDS is now a thing of the past. I also moved my primary WiFi router approximately 10 feet closer to my slave WDS routers, which seems to have improved the signal strength.

The Mac? My Lenovo X60s? I will have to see if they connect properly downstairs. Been too busy to try it.

Now that I’ve analyzed the snot out of my Nokia devices versus the HTC Mogul I got on loan from Qwest, it’s probably about time I give my final verdict.

Disclaimer: As I’ve said before, I work for a competitor of HTC and Microsoft in the smartphone arena. However, my day job does not involve smartphones except as a user. These are my opinions.

Before I give my verdict, I will mention a few other likes/dislikes about the device that I didn’t cover elsewhere. If you haven’t been following along, take a look at the entire series of articles where I compare my Nokia/S60 and the HTC Mogul/Windows Mobile combinations:

• PhoneBoy Going Windows Mobile?
• S60 Versus Windows Mobile: The Web Browser
• Nokia E61 Versus HTC Mogul: Mac Connectivity Test
• S60 Versus Windows Mobile: Exchange Email
• S60 Versus Windows Mobile: Contacts, Calendar, and To-Do

Likes:

• The physical “turn off radios” switch.
• USB charging.
• The 3G Speeds.
• The device handles auto-connection switching fairly gracefully.

Dislikes:

• The device lock. Even if I slide open the keyboard, I still have to tap the screen twice to unlock the screen.
• The device is not as quick at switching between landscape and portrait mode as I would have liked.
• The “soft keys” are not positioned under the appropriate area of the screen where they belong.
• The camera UI looks like your typical cheap camera UI: like crap.
• The camera doesn’t take good pictures.

The final verdict: I wouldn’t spend my money on it. What do you think?

You know, I’ve been following the iPhone story just like everyone else. I’ve read the stories of people unlocking their iPhone. I’ve also heard about Apple essentially not honoring warranties on unlocked phones. Today, they basically said in a press release that unlocked iPhones won’t be honored under warranty.

It was news to me that they were violating US Law, but assuming this policy holds in Europe as well, I’m sure they will run afoul of the various laws in the EU relating to mobile phone unlocking. As far as I know, and correct me if I’m wrong, in most EU countries, providers are required to provide unlock codes to the mobile phone at the end of the contract term. This means:

1. Apple has a way to unlock these phones.
2. Apple is going to have to honor the warranty on unlocked iPhones, especially if they buy Applecare.

That is, of course, assuming my understanding of the laws are correct and Apple continues down this “lock people out” path. What do you think?

I want to be up-front here. Yes, I work for Nokia, but I don’t have any real inside information related to this. These are just my own rambling thoughts and are not endorsed by anyone.

I could sit here and write a lot of flowery speech and spend a couple of hours coming up with a lot of supporting arguments, but it boils down to one key thing: Apple is proving if you make a great device, make it connect elegantly with everything, and advertise it right, people will line up to buy it. In the US no less. Hopefully the guys in Finland are noticing this and are adjusting accordingly.

The other thing that the iPhone has done is shown a new level of possibility for mobile phone functionality. Sure, we’ve had very capable web browsers on Nokia devices for a while now, but try and render any large page on them and you run out of memory. The iPhone can supposedly render multiple at the same time! And, of course, the touch-screen UI brings it over the top.

The iPhone “launch” is only two days away, so we really don’t know if people are buying it, but people say they will. We also don’t know if they can do everything they say it does. Demos and reviews are one thing, but holding the device in your hand and actually doing those things is another matter. I may have to trek down to an AT&T store–after the initial hype dies down, of course–and play with one myself.

What we have here is some opportunities created by the iPhone:

• Apple has completely changed the handset/operator relationship in North America. Could Nokia use some of that to it’s advantage?
• The iPhone has several weaknesses. Some of the weaknesses (like the lack of MMS) I consider overblown, others (the sole reliance on AT&T as a carrier, no 3G whatsoever) are considered showstoppers. Perhaps these can be exploited.
• While there is all this interest in the iPhone, perhaps Nokia can use this as an excuse to turn up the heat in terms of marketing in North America? Certainly Nokia devices are more widely available in the US now. They are comparable devices at better price points without the reliance on AT&T as a carrier.
• The iPhone does not allow third party applications to be installed or accessed except via Safari. One might argue that you can make web-based applications, with the assistance of Google Gears-like technology that makes them usable offline, that rival native applications. Not unless Apple has made a lot of APIs available from the web browser, which would make the web browser a bit more like Internet Explorer: subject to exploit. Nokia should be pushing the relative openness of the S60 platform and point out the wide variety of third party applications that are available.
• The same underlying page rendering technology that Apple uses, Nokia has been using in the S60 browser for a bit longer. Perhaps that’s a marketing point?

I’m sure there are other things I could point out, but let’s face it: whether or not you think the iPhone is really the shiznit, Apple is changing the rules of the game. I believe, with the right actions, Nokia can benefit. Am I right? Let me know in the comments.

When I landed at SFO this evening and eventually got over to the Rental Car Facility, I walked out into the National Emerald Aisle area and didnt find too many cars. To be expected for a Sunday night. At the very end of the lot, I was extremely surprised to find a Toyota Prius! Having ridden in one before, I was eager to see what driving one would actually be like.

The one thing I will say about driving most cars is that even though on the outside they look different, just like the inside, the basic controls are the same on all cars: they have a steering wheel, an ignition key, an accelerator, brake, gear shift, and a clutch if you drive a stick shift. While I may have to feel my way around finding the control to turn onthe AC or operae the cruise control, the basics of operating the car are substanially unchanged. Anyone who is a licensed driver knows how to operate these basic controls.

First thing, I noticed about this Prius was the key. The key wasnt a key, it was a small block that slid into a slot. Okay. Thereś a big power button you push. Okay, thatś´nice, now what? Shift the car into drive. Um, yeah, nice try. I try it again and manage to get the thing started. Has under 300 miles on it, so the car is basically brand new. Drive it just like any other car except it has this big screen telling you how many miles per gallon it thinks youŕé getting right now and how the car is regenerating the internal battery.

Along the way, I pulled off and stopped at an AM/PM store to get a coke. Again, fumble with getting the car started again, but somehow get it started again. Get it to the hotel in Sunnyvale, check in, and go to move the car. This time I cant get it started. Eventually, I get frustrated and go hunting for the manual. I found a quick-start guide, which is a step-up from the 200+ page monstrosities I usually see. Discover the secret: hold your foot on the brake while pushing the big power button. Life is, as they say, good.

When youŕe talking about something like a car that has a well-established interface going back to the beginning of the 20th Century, changes to those interfaces need to be made carefully. Itś not clear to me why Toyota decided to change a basic interface to the car, namely how to turn it on. I´m sure there was a logical reason for it. Unfortunately, it creates a small barrier to adoption, namely with those that expect their cars to work the same as it works on every other car.