Kindle!

Reader, I bought one.

Thoughts to follow in due course.

Kindle?

I love the look and size of the new Amazon Kindle.

I like the idea, and the cost seems reasonable. But I have some doubts. So I'm weighing up the pros and cons... your opinions are appreciated.

Pros: Compact, portable, user-friendly, good battery life, large (and growing) selection of titles available, bookmarks in lots of books, no more piles of books cluttering up cupboards and wardrobes in my house, it now views PDFs natively, (some) titles are (a bit) cheaper than buying a physical book, instant purchase and read anywhere - no more 'I have nothing to read tonight'...

Cons: DRM, you can't lend books to other people, approx 2/3 of the books on my current Amazon Wishlist are not on Kindle, e-books aren't (on the whole) that much cheaper than physical books, some are even approx the same price as physical books, which is just cheeky...

One of my biggest concerns is related to the DRM. With my iPod, i'm still one of those people who buys the physical CD and then transfers DRM free mp3 to my iPod. That means that all my songs are on my current iPod, and I can transfer them to my future iPod, or future non-iPod mp3 player, etc. And even the DRMed downloads I have from the iTunes store are physically on my computer (with licenses), I can back them up to disc and keep them safe should anything go wrong.

I believe you cannot do this with the Kindle. Kindle titles are 'backed up' online by Amazon, so I have no control of my own media. If they muck up (which might not happen to me, but statistically is highly likely to happen to someone) then they'll lose the books that have been paid for. Potentially, you could end up paying for nothing. Also, I was reading into it and the book licenses are limited to a finite number of devices. OK, I don't need my books to be on many devices at once, but what if I upgrade the reader every couple of years? At some point there will come a time when I cannot add a book I have paid for to a new device that I own, because all the licenses have been used up on previous devices. A book on my shelf will never expire in this way, although it could get worn out by over-reading and need replaced.

But is this an important issue? I don't know. Its all hypothetical.

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Update: just compared prices of all the books on my wishlist which are on Kindle...

If I bought all of them on Kindle compared to real books, I'd make a saving of £27.12, or 22% of the real book price. One ('hard to find') book in particular has a Kindle price of only 36% of the real book price. But then again, one on the list was more expensive on Kindle than in paperback, only by 45p, but hey.

Still undecided.

Benq E72 Smartphone: An exercise in downsizing...

My Toshiba Portege G910 gadget phone died last week. Its still in warranty and will be fixed, but its demise caused me to reconsider what it is I need in a phone. As I've said before, I used to have an i-Mate Jamin which I loved. Its primary failing was the lack of a keypad which made text entry on public transport near to impossible. So when, after two and a bit years of loyal service, it expired, I replaced it with the Toshiba which did all the stuff that the i-Mate did but also had 'mobile internet', GPS and a full QWERTY keyboard.

But. The Toshiba was a brick and not very user friendly in practice. It also crashed quite frequently and couldn't play videos. GPS was good (and very handy when driving through Germany last September). And although the keyboard is fantastic (best keyboard on a PDA that I've ever used) it is still quite clumsy for use on the go as it requires two-handed operation...

So. I've decided to downsize. The things I'm looking for in a phone are the abilities to:

• make and receive calls, preferably in a user-friendly manner
• send and receive texts and photo messages
• sync contacts and appointments with MS Outlook
• wi-fi for checking e-mail and basic web browsing (generally checking to see if trains are running late in the morning)
  
• playback videos (nice, but not essential)
• play music (similarly)

Also the ability to view MS Word documents and other e-mail attachments would be nice, but is not essential.

Things I don't really need in a phone:

• GPS. If I ever need this (rarely) I can dig out my Portege (when its fixed).
• Touch screen. I know this is the way things are going, but I found the touchscreen actually slowed down the process of doing most things on my previous phones. Give me buttons and well designed menus anytime.
• Mobile internet. I rarely used this. GPRS and wi-fi were fine on the i-Mate.

So. I thought a 'Windows Mobile Standard' smartphone might be more suited to my needs than a 'Windows Mobile Pro' PDA phone. Its cheaper too.

So I got a Benq E72 phone from Expansys for £99 (actually £89 as I had a voucher; I have another if anyone is interested). SIM free, so my old Vodafone PAYG sim could go in.

Initial experince is great. It does all I want it to, is tiny compared to my previous PDA phones (actually smaller than any of my previous just-phones) and plays videos fine (with freeware divx player; I never liked the pre-installed windows media player). I'll let you know how I get on...

Iron Man

I never managed to see Iron Man at the cinema. Something to do with it being released in the same week as the birth of my son... By the time I was able to get back to the cinema, the film had finished its run.

But I got given it on DVD for Christmas.

It's great.

This was the summer of superhero movies, with The Dark Knight (which I did see in the cinema) generally being held up as the biggest and best. Well, the Dark Knight was certainly the biggest (and longest), but I'd say Iron Man is in competition with it for 'best'.

You see, all the best superhero movies are origin movies. Batman Begins was fabulous because it showed us what made Bruce Wayne become Batman, Spider-Man is better than both its sequels for the same reason. Likewise Superman.

And likewise Iron Man. It does all it needs to do with style, tells the story and then stops, before its overstayed its welcome. The Dark Knight, great as it was, was a bit flabby - it had too many bits, some of which were unnecessary.

The only thing that leaves me uneasy about the film is the ending. Because having ended like that, what will they do with the sequel? But next time I'll find out in the cinema...

The future is finally here...

Remember when you were a kid and people in sci-fi shows had really cool gadgets in their watches, like Dick Tracey's video watch, or Michael Knight talking to KITT through his watch...?

Well, that future has arrived.

A few years ago I heard tale of a mobile-phone-in-a-watch called 'Wristmo' - it looked really clumsy and was remarkably feature-free. And you only got it in Japan.
Now you can get something so much better that that, in the UK, for a surprisingly reasonable price. The sWaP watch. Get one (appropriately enough) from iwantoneofthose.com for a mere £250.

How cool is that? It is a watch combined with all the features of a contemporary mobile phone. So you can send and receive texts and multimedia messages, it can play mp3s or even mp4 video clips, it has a built in speaker / microphone so you can actually use it as a phone without attaching any extra bits. But if you want to attach stuff you can include a wired 'hands free' kit or even a bluetooth headset.

Here's the features list:

• A watch, a mobile phone and a media centre all rolled into one.
  
• Choose from a number of different watch faces stored in the sWap Watches' memory.
  
• Pop your SIM card into the watch and it's easy to make and receive calls
  
• 1.5 inch TFT colour touch screen so you can watch movies!
  
• Includes a hands free kit, Bluetooth headset and a stylus (plus one spare) for negotiating the touch screen.
  
• The stylus is stored in a handy slot built in to the watch strap.
  
• No need to buy a new SIM card - simply take it out of your mobile and pop it in the watch.
  
• Receives SMS, MMS and can display recent and missed calls.
  
• Store up to 300 contacts.
  
• Built in alarm clock has 5 different tones to choose from.
  
• Compatible with all UK networks except 3.
  
• Record audio using the hands-free kit's mic and use the craftily concealed 1.3 megapixel camera to take pics and record video.
  
• 128MB memory can be expanded up to 2GB with a Micro SD card (not included).
  
• Supports MP3, MIDI, WAV, AAC and MP4 files.
  
• Standby time: 100 hours.
  
• Talk time: 150-180mins.
  
• Requires a 650mAh rechargeable battery (included).

Sounds fantastic! The only alarm bell I get while reading that list is the word 'stylus' - can it not be operated using fingers?

But can I justify buying one? No.

:o(

I already have a gadget phone that does all that and more. And I have an iPod. The combination of those two satisfies most of my portable gadget needs. And the sWaP doesn't do wi-fi, e-mail or mobile internet (well, it does GPRS, but...).

But it is highly cool.

Booting an Eee PC with Windows from SD card?

I've got one of these:

Running this OS:

(which is great for the kids)
But occasionally (for work purposes), I'd quite like it to run this OS:

(Which I have a legitimate copy of)
And I believe that the thing can be set up so that it can boot from one of these:

So why, oh why, can't I find any simple instructions on t'internet regarding how to actually go about setting this up?

Anybody got any good ideas?

Bearing in mind that I'm only a lower-level computer geek and haven't worked my way up the geek ranks very far...

I know what's inside a television...

A few days ago my four year old daughter and my wife had this conversation:
"Mummy, what is inside a television?"
"You should ask Daddy that"
"Does Daddy know what is inside a television?"
"Yes"
"Good"

And that was that. She has since then never asked me what is inside a television, she simply seems content in the knowledge that I know.

Armed with that knowledge, she has since been overheard asking other kids at her nursery "Does your Daddy know what is inside a television?" - but other four year olds don't seem to care about this issue.

Toshiba Portégé G910 gadget phone review

For over the past two years I've had an i-Mate JAMin PDA phone as a constant companion. I really like it. It had all of the things I was looking for in a PDA/phone/gadget when it came out, and it has generally been great to use ever since. But it is getting a bit old and tired, scratched and scuffed and doesn't behave itself as much as it used to (it hardly ever needed reset for the first 18 months or so, then got a bit crotchety). So I've got a new gadget phone. But before I tell you about that, I need to put it in context of the JAMin.

Most people use a phone primarily as a phone, or at least as a text-machine. But I don't get too many incoming calls on my mobile and make even less outgoing calls. My previous phones had been primarily text-machines with occasional calls. Upgrading to the JAMin meant my 'phone' became primarily an e-mail and text machine, with occasional calls. The thing has wi-fi, so the i-Mate became my primary means of checking and responding to e-mail when I was at home. You can also browse the web with it, and it was regularly used to check for the (late) running times of the trains to and from Dalmeny station, read the BBC news and even shop on eBay and Amazon. But most websites are quite annoying on a 240 x 320 screen, even if you rotate the device and make it 'landscape orientation'.

But one of the greatest features of the phone was as an entertainment device. Occasionally as an mp3 player, but more commonly (on planes and trains) as a video device. Load up TCPMP and a DivX movie (resized to 320 x 240 or the processor couldn't cope) and its great for passing the time on short European flights or trains across Scotland. OK, the screen's not as big as an iPod Touch or iPhone, but its bigger (though the same resolution) than the standard iPod Video.

However, that's not to say the device was perfect. It has a few limitations. The main three (according to the way I use the thing) were:

1. The stylus text entry is clumsy at best, becomes hard on trains and impossible on moving buses. I have an external bluetooth keyboard, but you can't just pull that out to send a text from a bus.
2. If you keep the thing in your pocket (as I do) you need some form of hard case to protect the screen. This makes it more bulky.
3. There's only so much you can fit onto a 320 x 240 screen.

And since I got the JAMin some other cool features have become standard on phones like this, including GPS and 'mobile internet' via 3G and HSDPA services.

All this by means of introduction.

After reading up about all the current gadget phones, the best one - for my purposes - seemed to be the Toshiba Portégé G910 which came out in May. On paper it appeared to do everything the JAMin did, but looked like it would score above the JAMin on these criteria:

1. It has a QWERTY keyboard, so texting on a bus becomes possible.
2. Its clamshell, so the screen is protected when the thing is in your pocket.
3. It has an 800 x 480 WVGA screen, much better for websurfing.
4. It also has 'mobile internet' for surfing and e-mail outwith wi-fi zones.
5. It has GPS for satnav purposes.
6. It has Windows Mobile 6 (pro) rather than 5 (pro).

But, after three weeks of use, does it live up to expectations?

Well, mostly. The keyboard and screen are brilliant. Text entry is a breeze on the full keyboard, either with two thumbs when held in your hands or even with several fingers when the thing is on a desk. This is unquestionably the best keypad on a current PDA phone that I've seen or used, way better than the HTC TYTN II and all flavours of Blackberry. You can actually write sensible length documents on this if you want.

And the screen is great. You can adjust the default text size so that you can balance the amount of information to text size to fit your particular eyesight level (I've opted for small, but not smallest text). In the web browser you can switch 'hi res' mode on and finally get to see web pages in their entirety on a PDA screen without excessive amounts of scrolling left to right. Fab.

But. The video drivers aren't very good. I was really looking forward to the larger screen for on-flight video watching, but until Toshiba updates the video drivers, watching video isn't really an option. The screen seems to refresh only two or three times a second, which is way too slow for sensible video watching.

The GPS/satnav is great - I bought 'Route 66 Mobile 8' which is apprently the only software that works on the G910. So far I've not been to anywhere I don't know, so can't really rate it in practice, but the thing was able to tell me how to get home the other night...

Mobile internet is also great (except exactly where I live where there is no 3G coverage) and e-mail and web pages load much faster than on GPRS on the JAMin.

So, all in all, its a great device with one major (from my point of view) failing, its inablility to play videos.

I also have some very minor nit-picks which I may as well mention:

1. I don't like the stylus. Its too fiddly and thin. And stylus entry on the screen is awkward. Thankfully there's not much stylus usage needed on a device with such a great keypad, but you still occasionally have to use it. To overcome this problem I've installed Spb Mobile Shell software (only $30 - which is great value) which makes WM6pro far more fingertip friendly - most operations can be done by using my fingers on the screen, not having to use the stylus.
2. The clamshell opens the wrong way. I realise that they have designed the thing so that the 'front' of the device is kind of like the front of a pocket diary, so the hinge is on the left, but to my hands the device feels like it should open the other way. That would also place the camera behind the screen, rather than on the base, where it is kinda clumsily placed just now. Also, when in a call, opening the clamshell should automatically put the thing into speakerphone mode, which it doesn't.
   
3. You can't rotate the screen. It only operates in 'landscape' mode. Which is fine most of the time, but it means all your old software which assumes a portrait display can't be used anymore. So my much used Sudoku game has had to be replaced with a far inferior version which works in landscape mode.
4. The microSD card isn't SDHD, so 2Gb is the upper limit. Shame.
   
5. Finally, the camera is badly positioned and tricky to operate. Its also only a 2M pix camera, which is way below standard in these days of LG Viewtys. It really feels like they thought 'oh, and I suppose we have to have a camera as well, oh well, stick one in somewhere...'
   

I've read some reviews saying this device is unusable due to failings with WM6.0 and really needs 6.1 - can't say I've had many problems. I did neet to soft-reset it a few times in the first couple of days, but since then I've only had to reset about once a week. I can live with that. Not as stable as the JAMin was, but stable enough. Apparently it is now shipping with 6.1 installed.

Time for a new gadget?

I'm wondering if its time to upgrade my gadget PDA-phone...

I've had my i-Mate JAMin for about two years now and its beginning to show signs of age. But if I replace it, what should I replace it with?

Good features of the JAMin I'd like to keep:

1. Windows Mobile. OK, its not perfect, but I'm used to it now and would rather not have to change to Symbian or something else.
2. Touch screen control (i.e. Windows Mobile pro)
   
3. Wi-fi
4. Bluetooth
5. General overall size. It fits in my pocket, anything bigger wouldn't.
6. Memory card slot
7. Ability to play videos. Handy on short plane flights (i.e. those without in-flight movies)
8. Camera. Actually a low light, higher res camera would be great. Like the LG Viewty.
   

But I'd also like:

1. Some form of keypad. It is close to impossible to send texts using stylus entry on a bus or in a car (as a passenger!). Either a full QWERTY keyboard or just a simple numeric keypad with predictive text is highly desirable on the new gadget.
2. A bigger screen. Although this may not be possible in the same size of unit, I'd like a bigger screen, maybe just longer for widescreen movies. Like the Samsung F700? (but it doesn't have wi-fi or Windows, so its out - nice screen though), or possibly
3. Higher screen resolution. If the screen was the same size but had higher resolution, that would be good. Full VGA would be excellent, especially for PowerPoint previews.
4. VGA out. This is the ultimate. The ability to run a PowerPoint presentation from the gadget on an external projector or monitor. More and more gadgets have this. Cool.
5. GPS. This started appearing on phones not long after I got the Jamin. Would be nice as a bonus.
6. SDHC. That is, the ability to have memory cards with a capacity of more than 2Gb.
7. HSDPA. That is, 'mobile broadband' on the 3G networks.
   

Anyone any ideas as to what I should choose?

Eten Glofiish M700 and the HTC Tytn II seem to fit most of these requirements and the forthcoming i-Mate 9502 and Toshiba G920 look good too. Any advice?

---

I've compared the sizes of the new gadgets compared to the old one. All slightly larger, but hardly significantly so. Indeed the only one much bigger is the Toshiba. But because of the clamshell design of the Toshiba, it is the only one of the four considered here that wouldn't need some form of protective case, so the sizes probably ballance out totally.

Xobni

Click on it. Please.

Xobni is an application that works with MS Outlook and makes it cooler. But in order to get the beta version demo, I need you, the reader of this blog, to click on that button and find out about it for yourself. Then you can get your own button and other people can click on that too... and so on.

Go on. Click.

Make an old style mix tape...

These are cool. They look like old fashioned tapes, like the ones we used to know and love in the 80s, but there's a little USB flash memory stick inside it instead. So you can still compile your 'mix tape' but do it in MP3 instead... and you still get to hand write the track listing, just like you used to.

I had planned on getting a couple of these for a laugh for Christmas gifts. But at £20 for a 64Mb memory stick, I think I'll give it a miss! Tapes used to cost less than a pound each, you know...

I want one of these!

Kids today...

Kids today, eh?

You know, there's many, many cool things that kids have today that hadn't been invented when I was a kid, or were so overpriced that they couldn't be bought by anyone with a reasonable pocket money allowance. And in almost every instance, I don't wish they had been around or affordable when I was a kid.

It was fine growing up with only 3 channels on the telly (OK, so there were 4 by the time I was 12, but...), no video or DVD (I never had a VCR until I was a student), no iPods, no mobile phones, no handheld games consoles (apart from the occasional space invaders or pacman), no internet (i.e. no hotmail, msn, skype, bebo.com, etc.), and so on. I was even in that unfortunate generation that was slightly too young for skateboards when they were first popular and slightly too old for them when their popularity returned a decade or so later. But I had a great childhood. There's nothing kids have today that I would have wanted back then... except Heelys.

Why, oh why, were these not invented when I was eight? I would have loved a pair of them! I could have coasted around the streets pretending I was one of 'Bailey's Comets' (sorry if that reference was lost on anyone under the age of 35, it was a cartoon in the early 70s). How cool would that have been? Sigh.

Mp3 player RIP

My current mp3 player is on its last legs. I get the feeling it will shortly be an ex-mp3 player. It is about to expire. It has already lost the cap that goes over the USB plug and the battery cover. The multifunction on / off / play / pause / stop button only works about one time out of four presses. The forward / back / skip / select control frequently sticks, jumping to files that I don't want it to and occasionally deleting tracks that I don't want it to. Its been a good player and more-or-less constant travelling companion to me for the past two years. Not bad for £20 on eBay. But it is dying and needs replaced. So what should I replace it with?

Well, I am thinking I should probably go for an iPod, but the question is which iPod?I bought my wife a 4Gb iPod nano for her birthday a few months back. The 4Gb capacity holds about 3/4 of her CD collection - including all the albums she listens to on a regular basis and quite a few she only listens to occasionally.

I have a much larger CD collection. I figure I could store my entire collection in a 20Gb iPod with not much room left over for future addtions. So maybe I should go for a 30Gb model? I don't really need / wouldn't really use the video playback options of the current models, so maybe a second hand iPod Photo from eBay is the way ahead (20Gb models currently go for about £60, if you're lucky, 30Gb for about £75).

But I really like the way my current mp3 player simply hangs round my neck on a lanyard which has earbuds built in. You can get one of those for an iPod nano. But even an 8Gb nano can't hold even half of my CD collection. My current mp3 player only holds 256Mb, so I have no option but to select a few albums or podcasts, etc., each time I travel. Even with an 8Gb nano, which has 32 times more storage than my current player, I'd have to load and unload albums sometimes - perhaps have a 'core' selection of 4Gb of albums which is always on there, but have other stuff sometimes.

So the choice is big capacity (but has to go in a pocket) or ideal size (but only containing 60 albums or so)...? No decision yet. I'll let you know.

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And of course, if I do opt for an iPod nano, I can buy one of these - the ultimate in geek coolness.

Ambiguous wording...

I gave my wife an iPod Nano for her birthday yesterday. These things do not come with a charger, so if you want to charge it up without a computer you need to buy an extra adapter.

So I had a look in Argos. £19 for a charger or £29 for the cheapest charger with external speakers. Given that I wanted to buy a set of external speakers anyway, I opted for the £29 item.

But then I looked at the side of the box, it says:

"... for charging & synchronising via USB..."

The thing plugs in and comes with a power adapter, but that wording makes me wonder, is it:

• ...for charging & [synchronising via USB]..., or
• ...for [charging & synchronising] via USB...

If it is the latter variation, then the thing does not do the job I bought it for. Hmmm. I guess I'll find out tonight.