Archive for June, 2007
In the past 2 hours, I have been trying to post a blog message here in Chinese with my Mac at home which marks the beginning of a decision that I have made for today but to no avail no matter how I tried.
I thought I had the work around to posting Chinese blog messages on a Mac down packed; and in fact, I had been able to do so on several occasions before already. Somehow I just can’t do so this evening which frustrates me a whole lot.
Perhaps, the decision, after all, is not meant to be….. As fate seems to have already shown so regarding the matter many times before.
Recent reports from the States reviewed some Chinese brand toothpastes contain some chemicals that’s not suitable to be used in toothpastes. The latest report reviewed that there is counterfeit Colgate being sold in some States which may contain diethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze, allegedly the same chemical found in Chinese brand toothpastes. These counterfeit Colgate comes in several flavors and are all printed with “Made in South Africa” on the box.
After setting up GPRS correctly working with Wi-Fi on my PPC phone, I tried the MMS function. I am on a brand new number/SIM card with PCCW 3G who had acquired Sunday Telecom a couple of years ago and now they have switched the entire Sunday brand to the PCCW brand.
Upon inserting the new SIM card to the PPC phone for the first, as soon as there was a connection with the Phone service, it automatically downloaded Sunday’s 2G GPRS and MMS settings to the PPC phone. I am not sure why the 2G settings since the phone clearly indicates “U” as in UMTS, as in I am connected to the 3G system. So I went a manually added the PCCW 3G GPRS settings as well as their 3G MMS settings as per their 2G settings accordingly.
While the 3G GPRS worked right away, the 3G MMS did not kick in. Instead, the phone tried to use Sunday’s 2G settings. No matter what I did within the “Connection” setting in the WM5’s setup menu, it always default to Sunday’s 2G MMS setting even when I had swapped all the settings within that particular item with PCCW’s 3G MMS settings.
Apparently, other than the “Connection” setup within WM5’s “Setting” menu, there is one more MMS setting within the “Messaging” app. Inside the “Messaging” app, under the “Menu” soft button at the bottom of the screen, select “Tools” and then select “Options”, press the item “MMS” once and up pops the setup menu for MMS. Select the “Server” tab in the bottom of the screen and it showed “Sunday MMS” being the default server. Press “New” and enter all the 3G MMS info there. When done, press “Set as Default” and viola, you are all set to sent and receive MMS.
This is vaguely written within the PPC phone manual and all the settings have to be obtained from each individual phone service provider.
Before the year 2005, I have never ridden the same taxi cab twice. This morning, the strangest thing happened to me. I was on the same taxi cab that I had ridden twice before within 2 years! ie. This is the third time in the same taxi cab with the same female driver. Once to work, once from work, and again this morning to work.
It might have been a little easier if all three times were going the same direction; but both ways? On top of that, a female driver in a male dominant occupation?!
When I first tried 3G data to login to the Internet and then tried switching back to Wi-Fi, the Wi-Fi no longer worked without pressing the reset button. Google found this article. About 1/3rd down the page, it listed the setting needed where I now have “My ISP” in the “Program that automatically connect to the Internet should connect using:” selection, and with the PCCW 3G GPRS proxy settings under “Program the automatically connect to a private network should connect using:” selection. Whereas under the “Network Adapters” I have selected “The Internet”. This allows me to use Wi-Fi whenever it is available and fall back down to 3G data whenever Wi-Fi is not available. However, one must be careful when Wi-Fi drops out of range and 3G data is available that it would start running up the tap.
Second note. Don’t install Trend Micro’s antivirus for PPC on your WM5 device. It is very slow, takes up a lot of space, and it did not uninstall properly. I have to completely reset my device to factory default. Luckily I have Spb Backup and a copy of a full backup from 8 days ago on the Storage Card instead of being on the device. Now I need to revert some of my changes done after the backup.
Keep those 64/128MB microSD, they are great for separate storage for multiple generation backups.
After the reset, Picture and Video no longer showed thumbnails. I have no idea how I had it fixed after failing to find a solution for this problem via Google; but what I did at the end was that I tried to send one of the photos listed in Picture and Video through MMS. Upon having the device showing the MMS template on screen, I realized the phone was not turned on so I went ahead to turn the phone on. As soon as I went back to the photos listed in Picture and Video, all the photos started having their thumbnails regenerated! There is no regen thumbnail function in the device at all. Go figure!
do you even know which way is up?
I am skipping the MyBlue wired iPod remote Bluetooth wireless stereo headset review to the amazing Jawbone for its rarity and excellent performance.
After just a few day’s use with just a handful number of calls with the Jawbone, I am happy to report that its noise canceling function truly works. It is, however, not without its own type of minuses. Unlike many other reports, I don’t find the only 2 embedded tactile toggle buttons being any more difficult to use than having more visible buttons since they basically have only 2 modes each, namely either a single press or press-and-hold for 3 or more seconds. The white LED operating indicator has a very low flashing interval making it less eye catching than any other earpiece Bluetooth headsets I have ever seen; although its own biggish physical size counters that somewhat.
While I love the Ferrari red version, I chose the charcoal gray (advertised as silver) one which is even less eye catching than I had expected from a silver colored unit against the black and the red versions. Being 15 grams in weight with its size and nice paint which might look like metal finishing at a glance, even though it is on the heavy group of other earpiece Bluetooth headsets, with it’s nicely designed earhook, wearing the Jawbone does not feel there is any extra weight on the ear whatsoever. Unfortunately, its earplug leaves a lot to be desired. It came with 4 different earplugs of different shapes to fit different ears. The one with the long straightish “tongue” is the one that fits me best. They are however not real “plugs” unless you have completely flat ears. They don’t plug into my ear hole at all which might be intentional by design, I suspect, as they are all flat ended rather than bowl shaped like those regular earplug music earphones.
The Jawbone powers on with noise cancelation on by default. Pressing and holding the button hidden beneath the black finishing part deactivates the feature. When it is deactivated, your voice to the other end would sound very natural while there is still more noise cancelation than many other such products! Having the noise cancelation on, most artificial noises are cut down even further to almost completely gone with your voice being slightly less natural to the most discerning Hi-Fi critics. Loud speeches by others around you could still be heard a little by the other end while you are talking but even less so when you have your mouth closed and with your face being completely still. All these are achieved with a small white rubber “joystick” like movement sensory probe touching your face. The earhook and the earplug along with the back of the body double as a locking mechanism which the user must find a good fix for the white rubber probe to be touching the skin (or underneath the sideburn) of the face. Some might find the secured position somewhat uncomfortable at the beginning but should be able to get used to it after just several minutes of wearing it; although I have read one report that the writer knows of one person who could not find a secured position at all.
I was able to speak so softly in a moving train or a bus that I could barely hear my own voice but maybe not quite my own words, while the person at the other end could still hear me very clearly without noticing the loud vehicle moving sound around me. This is particularly useful since the person sitting next to me could not hear what I was saying. I don’t have to cover my mouth at all but if I did, the person at the other end could hear my voice and only my voice louder.
I highly recommend the Jawbone to anyone on the move who is having problem phoning in noisy surrounding areas or wanted some more privacies during a phone conversation. I suggest buying at least one more pack of replacement earpieces/earhooks. They come a pack of 4 earpieces and earhooks in different size together in one single package, which is (a note to the company) not as nice as the not available custom packaging with only the selected right size.
One of the reasons why I chose the Softbank is for its good looks (IMO, it is much much better looking than the HTC version as well as the iPhone) and that it also has a 3.5G cellphone which allows me to access the Internet on the move when there is no Wi-Fi hotspot available.
I have installed a demo copy of Photo Contacts Pro which let me setup phone profiles as well as call filtering even more so than what a Nokia phone could do built-in. However, without a top down tactile numeric keypad, it is just a PITA to use. The speaker, ringer, and microphone are all capable of producing very loud and clear sound which is excellent for the busy streets of Hong Kong. In fact, in a quiet room, the built-in earphone is too loud in the lowest setting so be careful of who’s around you and who you are talking to. Battery is excellent, one full day’s use is not a problem.
A trial video call with PCCW service to a Fujitsu LOOX T830 with Vodaphone service was quite smooth and clear. I would prefer a Nokia flip phone for everyday use over any PPC phone without a tactile numeric keypad though.
Speaking of Nokia phones and profile call filtering, IVCM for S60 ver3 phones is the call filtering/firewall utility to have. I might even consider buying a Nokia 6290 to replace my 6131 as a daily phone despite the finishing of the 6290 being so “plasticy”.
There is one other problem with WM5 for a phone. The alarm. With a Nokia phone, once you have set the alarm with a certain alert sound, it would sound off in any mode including the Silent mode and even if the phone were powered off. With WM5, once the system sound is turned off, the alarm would not sound off which is down right stupid! What’s the point of setting the alarm then?! It’s the WM”5″ FGS, and MS still hasn’t got it right.
The Softbank is good as a multi-function PPC with quite a fast processing speed that can go though the menus and access different programs quite smoothly, but get a real phone for heavy daily use.
Since I posted my last blog message, several friends had called me to ask about the combo vs dedicated GPS units as they have great interests in purchasing some sort of GPS gadget for traveling. So, I thought I should post my findings so far ASAP.
Over 5 years ago, I have bought my first GPS unit, the Magellan GPS310. I was the first one among my family and friends to have bought and used a GPS unit. Although it has an option to purchase a serial cable to hook up to a computer, there wasn’t really many useful functions in doing so at the time. Since then, Google Earth has come along. Nowadays, everyone with a PC or a Mac or Linux computer could download and use Google Earth for free. Without having a GPS, Google Earth is already one of the most useful piece of computer applications one could get at any price. With GPS acquired data, one could record the entire trip with waypoints, tracks, notes, and photos, have them marked down on Google Earth, email the recordings to friends and family, and viola, you have shared your entire trip experience with them.
The Magellan GPS310 has no map functions. ie, it does not superimpose the track on any map at all. All it does is show you the moving track, coordinates and direction, and let you mark down and record tracks and Point of Interests (POIs or waypoints). It is more useful for marine and air traveling than anything. Newer GPS units have at least a world map built-in. So one could actually locate oneself on the world map. The more sophisticated units allow downloading more detailed local maps and storing info on a flash memory card for easy data transfer. While more recent GPS units have navigation functions allowing users to program a starting point and a destination point and let the GPS generate a route based on the detail road map and also let it guide you to the destination.
In the last couple of years, when PDA and PPC became more popular, manufacturers have started building GPS receiving modules in the size of a matchbox. These are meant to be used with a computer or a pda/ppc unit via a USB or a Bluetooth connection where the computer/pda/ppc does the computations and display with the GPS data it receives from the GPS module.
After using and researching the pda/ppc/gps combo setup for a couple of weeks, I find that while the combo provides multiple GPS related functions as well as PIM functions, it is still not as good a GPS when compared to dedicated GPS units.
The main problem with pda/ppc/gps combo, first of all, is the hardware limitations. During a trip to the Mainland last Sunday, I noticed when I have my GPA tracking on, the ppc kept the screen backlight on constantly. I have no idea how long the battery will last this way, so I switched the “keep on” function off. A few minutes later, the ppc went on to sleep mode and it stopped all tracking function. So I went and have the “keep on” function switched back on. Then I noticed another problem when I left my ppc in my pant pocket. The touch screen was kept on without any way to switch off the touch sensor and I had accidentally pressed the screen and made it switched away to some other program and that stopped the tracking as well. The second problem I have found so far is that all maps available for such application on a pda/ppc are either no world map at all or just the optionally purchased downloadable local maps only. There is no world map. Period. So the minute you have traveled off the local map, that’s the end of it. Unless you are using the tracking type application were it uses no map, your navigation type application cannot show further map info pass its boundaries. The dedicated GPS units have at least a base world map with much less detail for you to fall back to.
Having said that, I am not sure how cellphone manufacturers tackle this mapping limitation problem in the different markets around the world with their recent GPS built-in phones such as the Nokia N95. Maybe it came with a world map, I don’t know. The problem with a pda/ppc with built-in GPS as opposed to a pda/ppc connected to a GPS receiver is the lack of battery capacity as well as GPS signal receiving sensitivity. For navigating through a busy metro area in a car, I strongly suggest a separated combo set or a dedicated GPS unit rather than a single GPS built-in pda/ppc unit.
As for GPS software for ppc, I use MapKing for Hong Kong road navigation. It is rather well written and useful for what it is with its own limited supply of optionally purchased maps which are mainly just a few cities in the Mainland China, South East Asia, Japan and the US. For other areas of the world, a different navigation software which supports other types of available maps in a different format would be needed.
For geotracking, BeeLineGPS seems to be the best there is. It does pretty well everything my Magellan GPS310 does. While the Magellan GPS310 take about 60 seconds in wide open areas and much much longer in not so crowded building surrounded areas the get in initial position fix from cold start, the Holux M-1000 GPS module only takes about 40 seconds to fix the position from cold start in wide open areas, and still less than a minute in building surrounded areas! Which is amazingly fast in GPS terms. The Holux M-1000 GPS module is so sensitive even in the medium sensitivity setting I could just leave it inside my car just in front of the gear shifter with the dash covering the front windshield window and it kept tracking without noticeable deviation from the road indicated on the map. For comparison, I had to put the Magellan directly underneath the middle of the front windshield window to keep the signal going. Even then, it would only work in open roads and would fail in mid-rise building surrounded areas.
The bottom line is, for GPS functions, if you just want trip navigation and guiding, the pda/ppc/gps combo is great. If you want geotracking and map surveying, get a dedicated GPS unit. For just the odd location fixing, a pda/ppc/phone with built-in GPS function and a printed map would do.
WhaUSay?!