GPS Navigation Systems are the bomb diggity. Period. No doubt about it. I love them.

When I leased my current vehicle, a 2006 VW Jetta Diesel TDI, I chose the nav system as an option. It added quite a bit to the price, but I figured it was well worth it. XM Satellite and in-dash GPS nav system with large Points of Interest (POI) database. Overall I am pleased, however:

• In dash systems generally can't be synchronized or accessed on-line
• In dash systems generally use DVD-ROM to store their data and need new DVD-ROMs, which are published rarely, to update their maps
• In dash systems stay with the car that they are in
• In dash systems give you no ability to correct errors in them without waiting for a new DVD-ROM

I expected that at least for the life of my lease I'd be getting free updates to my map data, apparently not. I tried in vein, on-line and in person, to get an updated DVD. Finally I got an email from VW telling me that my map data was probably old and for $200 they'd send me a new DVD ROM. $200?!?!? So I went looking.

Garmin, Magellan, TomTom all make portable GPS devices, each has a different line up with many options. All are priced between $125 and $900 or so. Yes, they have full GPS devices with new maps and new software for less than the "refresh" DVD ROM. This means that purchasing that DVD ROM is close to downright stupid, since I'm not keeping the car long term anywho. So which one to get?

Recently I visited my kin out in the promised land we call California, my sister has a cute little GPS device called the TomTom One XL that they call Lewis (after Lewis & Clark), I borrowed it for a trip and liked it. Checked out some details on line and found out that:

• Seemingly free map updates forever. Although not promised anywhere the map updates from TomTom as well as from the TomTom community (since you can do some corrections right on your device) are free!
• OK, they didn't promise it so perhaps they'll change their mind and I'll have to buy new maps. US & Canada only $99!
• You can download and/or create your own POI collections!
• You can set up an itinerary consisting of multiple stops and plan out a whole trip (VW system only will do 2 stops)
• You can search for stops along your route!
• 3D or 2D view (VW system only 2D)
• Some offer text-to-speech so you don't have to take your eyes off the road and read the next turn!
• Easy alternate routing! (VW system was difficult to use)
• Custom voices include Mr. T!
• Yes, Mr. T!

So what model do I choose, there are just so many. TomTom's product adviser told me that I wanted one of a few, and their product comparison lead me to choose the TomTom One XL·S which runs $300-$400 or so around town, I picked up one from Dell on special $279 only $79 more than the DVD update would cost me and it can read street names!

So, after a couple of weeks, is it all I hoped?

Here's what I found out:

• The VW DVD-ROM has a LARGE database of stores and places in it, most everything I'd want to find is already in there. TomTom? Not so much.
• TomTom, however, supports the ability to upload my own Points of Interest (POI) collections. With a utility called GPS Babel I can convert collections for any GPS product or even Google Earth to a TomTom POI collection. With a bit of help from TomTom I can even include extra details. And with the work of a community site like POI Factory I can use other people's hard work and share mine. A bit more work, but I have so much more control.
• Mr. T can't read out street names via text-to-speech. There are, however, a male and female American and male and female Brit to choose from (once you figure out how to download new content using TomTom Home)
• TomTom is smart. I have used the "find an alternate route" to find 4-5 different routes to the same destination. It shows me the map and gives me an approximate time so that with my knowledge of traffic and traffic lights I can choose a route that looks longer to the TomTom but is actually a bit quicker.
• TomTom is portable and does walking directions. When you park, save a favorite of your location, TomTom will help you find your car!
• Google Maps does TomTom (kind of). Go to maps.google.com and search for "business near location", there will be a list of A-X businesses. Choose "Send" and "GPS" and then pick type "TomTom" and select the result you want from the drop-down. Press the button and TomTom Home should launch and let you navigate to the business or add it as a favorite. Where does this fall short? Only does businesses for now, not your friends house or what have you. Also doesn't handle ampersands correctly. Still neat.
• Custom boot-up and shut-down screens. Mine are from Mario Kart, 'cause I'm a geek.
• TomTom's Traffic data is supported 2 ways. One with an antennae that receives a free broadcast with traffic data. Doesn't seem to have much support in the US outside of major urban areas, most recommend the other way. The other is TomTom's traffic feed, fed via Bluetooth from your phone, provided your phone isn't a T-Mobile Dash. Not sure what phones they do support, but mine isn't one of them.
• Oh, this puppy does up to 12 satellites! So many more than my old system, it's usually tracking at least 7 of them, and it find your location quick. And it's rarely off. And route calculations are much quicker than my old system.
• SD Card. It has a slot, but I've read that you use either the internal memory OR the SD card so to switch to an SD card I have to copy the entire system over to an SD card and that can take quite a while. I haven't done it yet, but plan to at some point.
• Suction cup mount. Since it's not in-board there has to be a mount. I stuck mine on the windshield and it hasn't fallen off once (contrary to some reviews I read on-line).
• Power. You can recharge via USB on your PC or give it power in the car with a car adapter that comes with it. And you'll need it, the battery will last no more than an hour or so.

Basically, when it comes down to it, since the price is so low I'm recommending that everyone get some kind of TomTom if they don't have a GPS Nav device already. Garmin or Magellan would be fine as well, they appear to be very similar in design and features, though I can only vouch for TomTom. Oh, and they have POI collections with gas prices and traffic cameras, if those float your boat...

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market.

[ Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses ]

This leaves BluRay as the only High Def on a Disc format left in the game. I'm a bit surprised how quickly that went. I'm rather sure that there are still some Super Beta people out there who refuse to give up the ghost. What is the actually market condition that hammered the nail in HD DVD's grave?

• Apple rumors?
• XBox rumors?
• Universal and Paramount rumors?
• WB facts?
• Wal*Mart cruelty?
• Netflix joining Blockbuster in support of BluRay?

Who really knows. What I do know is this means that Universal, Dreamworks, and Paramount will all be changing their tune to BluRay soon. And that means Back to the Future, Heroes, Shrek, Breakfast Club, and many other goodies coming to BluRay.

Props to KooshMoose for sending me the Kotaku link.

Some folks just aren't happy with the Kindle case, and I think I'm among them. A few folks have pointed out that the Kindle stays in the case due to a tab that grabs on to a divot in the back of the Kindle. Due to this design the Kindle may stay in place, or pop out if the angle is just wrong, or the battery cover may stay in place and the rest of the Kindle fall out (happened to me once). Some folks seem to like holding the cover like a book, and it seems to do that OK, but after a week or so I've found that I like to read without the cover, so it served as only a case for me. And not a good one, IMHO.

No company has stepped forward with a replacement case yet, and I guess I'm just itchy, so I went to see what I could find. Cases seem to come in just a few varieties (based on a sampling of on-line shops, Microcenter, Circuit City, Staples...):

• Small Gadget Size: cell phone, iPod, PDA, etc.
• Camera size: a wide range here from point-and-click to pro-sumer SLR sized
• Laptop size: 13"-17"
• Portable DVD player: bigger than a small gadget, smaller than a laptop, thicker than a camera

And that's about it. The small gadget sizes are well ranged, as there are tons of these devices these days. The Kindle, however, isn't one of them. The Kindle could fit into some camera bags, but they are designed to hold a lot more than a small slate, and are therefore very impractical. Laptop bags are a good design for the Kindle, especially sleeves, but no one makes a 7" laptop bag. Portable DVD players are about the right size except way too thick, they seem to be a good alternative for UMPC devices, but not the kindle. Finally I checked container store and found the Baggallini Pocket Bagg. It holds the Kindle with little room to spare, which is exactly the size I needed. However as you can see from the product page there are all sorts of internal bits, which I am concerned could scratch my Kindle's screen. Not wanting to immediately hack up a $35 bag, I decided to augment it without altering the bag or my Kindle, and I did that by asking my wife to make a snap-in screen protector. The bag came with a snap-out key fob, so I bought a sew on snap of the same size and a polyester felt remnant and my lovely wife stitched it together to make this:

Which snaps in to the Baggallini's inside:

I place the kindle inside the bag, upside down, with the screen facing the screen protector and then I can even charge the Kindle right inside the bag. Of course this means I remove it from the bag to read it, but that's the way I like it.

Here are a couple more photos of the bag with the Kindle and my NPS Parks Pass as reference:

 

Perhaps this will help you with your Kindle Case Conundrum, or just add fuel to the fire. (OK, not fire, but certainly a polite discussion...)

Julie was lucky enough to get an order for the Kindle in on launch day — it’s been sold out more or less continuously since then — and I’ve been putting it through its paces for a couple of weeks. A few months ago I reviewed the Sony PRS-500, so the Kindle has made an interesting comparison.

[ The Gadgeteer - Amazon Kindle ]

They really went into great depth here, so much so that I won't try to duplicate their effort (which was on my list of things to do). If you are curious about the Kindle and looking for a good overview, this is the review to read.

The Kindle Web Browser has 2 modes: Default and Advanced. Being the "power user" I am I promptly put it in "Advanced" mode figuring the controls would just get more complex. Actually, at a minimum, it would appear that "Advanced" means use CSS and Javascript to the best of your little ability, and thus the screen shot I took of Wikipedia isn't the experience that Amazon.com was going for. Here's an example (at Deathbringer's request):

 

Certainly the first one seems to attempt to be a niftier experience, but since this is more of a pure informational device, the second one is clearly a better Kindle experience. I'm guessing that Wikipedia does the same. I know it will make this site look much better (since that's how I rolled it).

So, the Kindle Browser Issue, once again, is a "Didn't take time to fully read the instructions" issue on my part. My apologies Kindle team.

In the last post I basically covered my first thoughts and how it handled various types of media. But there is more to the device. There is the odd case, wireless connectivity, the promised Wikipedia access, experimental web browser, and the curiosity about what this thing really is.

Odd case

The case that comes with the device has certainly had it's fair share of detractors. At first I didn't like it. The way the Kindle sits in it isn't very exacting. It would seem like it would fall out easily, and apparently some people have had malfunctions or a loose fitting where it just doesn't work at all. On mine it just doesn't sit square, but is about 2° askew. I forced myself to use it a bit more, and it does let me hold the Kindle more like a book, and protects it a bit when carrying it around. However with the cover it's much harder to type on the keyboard. Hopefully Crumpler, Case Logic, and/or Body Glove will fill the need with a neoprene sleeve that I'll end up loving. As free gadget cases that come with gadgets go, it's on par with what you'd expect, so I don't know why people are complaining.

Wireless Connectivity

The Kindle uses "Whispernet" which is some kind of resale of Sprint data without a long term contract or monthly fee. Amazon pays for the bandwidth by including that as part of the price of books, magazines, and blogs. The access is about what I'd expect. Sprint is supposed to have a good network, and it certainly seems to have better coverage than my T-Mobile phone. The wireless has a hard switch in the back so you can conserve battery and use it on planes. Certainly no complaints here, this is where the Kindle shines above all other e-readers.

Wikipedia

I guess it is there, the search quickly allows you to pull up your search phrase on Wikipedia, an I can read the resulting pages, but I wouldn't herald the experience. For example, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Click the link and see for yourself what it looks like where you are, and then witness what it looks like on the Kindle:

Clearly this wasn't considered as a priority feature by the Amazon.com team, or they are having issues with the Wikipedia people, or don't want to spend time reflowing/reformatting Wikipedia content. Perhaps it will get straightened out, perhaps not. The information is still there, and I still didn't pay a dime for the wireless connectivity.

Web Browser

Yes it has a web browser. Yes it works even though I'm not paying for access. However, no color, rudimentary javascript at best, small screen size, no resizing options, some pages just don't work (like Google Reader). What I'd love to be able to do is use this as my blog reader, but since the aforementioned Google Reader doesn't work, and the mobile Google Reader is horrible, my only hope would be to switch back to bloglines, and I'm not entertaining that idea. Google did do a Wii Opera Browser version of the Google Reader, which likely has 1 user, so perhaps they'll roll out a Kindle version. And where is this access coming from? IP Chicken knows:

What is this thing anyway?

So, as with most new gadgets, the question in the Linux community is: "How do we get Linux to install on this thing?". Why people want to install Linux on every device known to man, I don't know, but in this case it's already there:

I fuzzed out a few of the numbers, just in case they were identifying in some way that would be bad to me. But hey, how did I get all of these screen shots and the extra info? Hacker Igorsk knows how. He also has a guide on how to get non-Amazon.com Mobipocket DRMed e-books on to your device. Not sure if Amazon.com has issues with that, but apparently they are somewhat cool with hacking the device. Want even more details on what this thing is? Igorsk has part 1 and part 2 of his reversing the device, plus Mahalo has a page set up.

Yes, Jerry, I've purchased yet another gadget. This one is the new e-reader from Amazon.com, dubbed the Kindle. The kindle arrives packed in a box that looks like a book, which I find a bit ironic. I unpacked mine and proceeded to charge it as directed by the sticker on the front screen. It comes with a USB cable and a charge cord that is a standard 2 plug transformer with an itty-bitty round plug that plugs into the bottom of the Kindle. Then I looked for where to plug in my SD card, and determined that it was under the battery cover, so I waited.

Two agonizing hours later the battery was fully charged. I popped open the back and slipped in my SD card which I had preloaded with tons of test materials that I had created with the Mobipocket Creator. After all I want to put this device to the test, right? Mobipocket Creator can convert HTML, Word, Text, and PDF documents into a "Mobipocket" file that the Kindle (and other Mobipocket readers) can display. In the process of creating a few files, some for testing and some for eventual reading, I also installed the reader on my Laptop and on my PDA and neither proved to be a reading experience I would entertain on a regular basis. The PDA was nice that it's my phone and always with me so it's not something extra to carry, but it's not a very enjoyable read. So how did my conversions fair?

Religious Text

One of the most exciting things to me about my Kindle is the ability to get religious texts, for free, in a very portable, easily searchable interface. While the basic Qur'an comes in many sizes, and isn't much of a portability issue, it is not the only text that guides Muslims. There are a series of compendiums of stories about the Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him) called hadith that are deemed authentic through a scientific approach and documentation of the chain of transmission. The most famous of these collections was compiled by Imam Bukhari in the year 870 or so and contains 7275 hadith and a collection compiled by Muslim Ibn al-Hajjaj in the year 875 or so and contains 9000+ hadith. Just those two alone can fill volumes, or part of an SD card in your Kindle... Do I need the ability to carry these around where I choose? Probably not, but I like the idea. I found a PDF of the Qur'an online, downloaded it and converted it. And then found the basic hadith collections in HTML that someone had spidered off of the USC MSA website.

Public Domain Book

Since I had just recently watched the SciFi mini-series Tin Man I decided a read of the original Oz might be in good order, so I went looking for the texts in online libraries. The major online repositories of free reading stuff seems to be the Gutenberg Project, iBilio, and perhaps Open Library. Gutenberg had the Oz series so I downloaded it in HTML. The books were easy to find, and although Mobipocket wasn't an available option, the conversion went pretty quick and rather painless. The resulting text is easy to read and hopefully I'll get around to it soon (as now that I have a portable library, there are many publications vying for my attention).

Graphic Novel

I love NBC's Heroes. The story is very compelling and I'd love to get more of it, NBC has kindly published some extra graphic novels online with story details above and beyond what we see on TV. To read them means to sit in front of the laptop for a few hours, which I do enough of already, so I figured get them over to the Kindle for a more comfortable read. Each is a PDF, which Mobipocket Creator claims to convert. Here's where we start to see some issues, not unexpected, but unfortunate. While text easily flows from one size to another, images do not. The images lacking color on the Kindle didn't pose as much of a problem as the tiny text in the images that you need to read (since that is the story...) Guess I'll be reading those on my laptop.

White Paper

As a technical resource the Kindle should be a great help. If I can get my tech library on it, it's available to me even if I'm working in the middle of the woods. I was troubleshooting some IP issues with Vista and grabbed a white paper from Microsoft about the Configuring and Deploying IPv6 on Windows Vista. Wow, this one was tricky. I guess I could have just left it the mess that Mobipocket Creator made, but I can't blame them. What the program does is have Word save out an HTML version of the document and then it does an import of an HTML document. Anyone who works on the web knows that Word does a crap-happy job of saving out to HTML, and Office 2007 is no exception. It rolls it's own unique version of HTML, that most other programs can't quite make heads or tails of. So I fired up my trusty vim and hacked it up until I was happy. The result is quite legible, but the effort means that I won't be doing a lot of Word docs.

Readily Available Document

Some documents aren't in the public domain, but are readily available for free in a format that could be pulled into the Kindle. One such example is Hacknot which Joe Grossberg made a comment about a while back, so I pulled it in and plopped it on my SD card. They've made it available on PDF in two sizes, can't remember which I picked since I wasn't going to print it anyway, just blend it up with Mobipocket. It was a totally painless process which I'm looking forward to reading the results.

Tech Specs

Being that I am a programmer/developer/coder/hack by trade I sometimes have to write tech specs. Even though I have two screens, during coding the real estate on my screens is limited so having an external copy is nice. And since I'd like to leave the world in a better state than when I got here, I don't like killing trees for that luxury (though I do resort to arboricide if need be). Wouldn't it be great if I could just pop the specs on the Kindle? Well in this case no. My tech specs were more like a series of screen caps and and ERD with little supporting text, none of which wanted to be exported out of Word to HTML, and once I coaxed them out, they were not legible enough to do me any good.

Text File

Well it says that it can do text files, who am I to argue. I'm on my third time through Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, so it's time to crack out a playing guide to help decode the skill points, since I'm not a pre-teen with years of free time on my hands. I am impressed here, it parses out the text as it imports to help with removing line ending hyphens and to figure out if there are headings or section numbers or what have you.

Amazon.com Kindle Books - Preloaded

Excited as I was, I ordered a half dozen items for my Kindle before it was even shipped, and by the time I was playing around with it, post charge, they were all there, delivered to me via Whispernet:

• Storm Front (sample) - by Jim Butcher, the first Dresden Files book
• Not Long Before the End - short story by Larry Niven
• What Good Is a Glass Dagger? - another short story by Larry Niven, same series
• The Murderer - short story by Lawrence Watt-Evans
• A Thousand Splendid Suns (sample) - by that "Kite Runner" guy, for Yaty
• Neuromancer (sample) - by William Gibson

So far I've read the Murderer and that's it. Since I've already read the two Larry Niven stories in the past, as well as Neuromancer, I'm likely saving them for a long wait in an airport or doctors office when I'm bouncing off the ADD walls. So far, so good.

Amazon.com Kindle Books and Magazines

Once it arrived I found a few more items that sparked my interest, though interestingly most I found via Amazon.com and not from the storefront on the Kindle device itself:

• The Nation - so far I'm not impressed, don't think I'll subscribe
• The Atlantic Monthly - couldn't put it down, I like this one
• The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson (sample) - if I like it I may see if I can find it for free, though the price isn't too much from Amazon.com

All painless whichever method I chose to get it to my device, all look good (though The Nation is a bit dry). All-in-all a very pleasant experience.

Music

Yes music. Apparently the Kindle includes a speaker for audio book playback, and has a not-so-hidden experimental feature to play back that music via the speaker or headphones. I picked up a digital copy of Led Zeppelin's Mothership and loaded it up on the Kindle (I also burned a copy for the car). Audiophiles will not be impressed, but it was good enough for the likes of me. Playback interface and play options are vastly lacking, but this isn't meant to be an iPod.

Conclusion

Since receiving the Kindle a scant 36 hours ago I have read more literature of one type or another than in the 36 weeks previous. The Kindle makes it convenient for me to read when I get the chance, and provides me a better reading experience than bulky books, magazine, newspapers, and even a computer screen. I think my Kindle and I will get on nicely.

The TVersity Media Server lets you manage your Internet and home media and create your personalized lineup of channels, or as we call it your Personal Entertainment Guide (PEG). It then serves this media to a multitude of networked devices in the home or on the go, overcoming their inherent limitations by doing all the necessary conversions on the fly, and thus making your media available anywhere, anytime and on any device.

[ TVersity Frequently Asked Questions ]

Looks like my new PS3 can find this puppy automagically, and then via the magic of Remote Play from the PSP I have partial Sling Box functionality for no additional cost. Sweet. I think I could even figure out how to use TiVo ToGo to port my TiVo programs into the Media Server...

Well, I now can't get rid of my Windows Vista Sidebar. I had some Outlook gadgets on there like my schedule, and the weather, and a gadget that tells me when to pray, but now I have the one gadget to rule them all:

Listen to XM Radio on your sidebar! Modified from the GNU code developed by ShadoHawkShadoWorks and falconguynaz, we've added a few new modifications and improvements to the mix.

[ Windows Live Gallery ]

XM provides a web-based player which (of course) sucks because it's a web-based player. Does anyone use a web page player for their music? With a bit of research you find that XM can be played through Napster (which is just a skinned, hacked-up Microsoft player), but even though I had it installed I never used it.

This sidebar widget is about as perfect as you can get. It's there all of the time. Doesn't seem to take up many resources when not being used (and hasn't skipped yet even under heavy CPU usage). It can keep track of favorites, help you purchase the music you're listening to on Amazon.com, has a separate volume control, basically it rocks.

Since I am under the impression that I have tons of free time, I'm starting a second blog:

Welcome to my blog about being Muslim and having a mobile life (or at least craving your resources wherever you go). Ever since accepting Islam some 13 or so years ago I have tried to figure out how to get my resources to go with me. I want to know the prayer times, hear the Athan, read my Qur'an, and so on. Finally today I decided if no one else was going to publish a guide, I might as well step up and do it.

[ Muslim To Go ]

Crazy, eh? Perhaps crazy to think I have the time, but I don't know too many people who are as obsessed with mobile devices as I am, and even fewer who are Muslim. And since I've had multiple people ask me how I got my phone to do the call to prayer, and now I'm obsessing over the Amazon.com Kindle device (and how great it would be to have a portable library including religious texts) I might as well blog about it and share the wealth. So if you know a Muslim who is always staring at his/her gadgets and asking "why can't this do more for me", send them my way...

Three years ago, we set out to design and build an entirely new class of device—a convenient, portable reading device with the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers. The result is Amazon Kindle.

We designed Kindle to provide an exceptional reading experience. Thanks to electronic paper, a revolutionary new display technology, reading Kindle’s screen is as sharp and natural as reading ink on paper—and nothing like the strain and glare of a computer screen.

[ Amazon.com: Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device: Kindle Store ]

This device seems to be getting panned in the comments on its page on Amazon.com, but I think the way millions of people have fallen in love with their iPods, this is the device for me. I have some concerns:

1. What is Sprint coverage like? At my house?
2. How long will the Sprint coverage be free?
3. What if the books I want never find their way onto the device?
4. Do I have to email files to be converted? Will I be able to USB transfer them?
5. How much does an SD card hold?

But I keep coming back to these two things:

1. Free wireless access to Wikipedia!
2. Includes a Dictionary!

Just for those 2 items I'd carry this thing around everywhere and irritate everyone with my constant research on all sorts of minutia.

Update: It has arrived. Review to follow shortly.

Coolpix S50

How to build a Mosquito trap.

Materials Needed:

2000ml (2 liter) bottle
50 gram (brown?) sugar
1 gram yeast
Thermometer
Measure cup
Knife
Black paper

[ DIY:happy Quick and Dirty Mosquito Trap ]

That looks pretty darn easy. And would last much much longer than the crappy repellents I've tried so far. Plus, unlike a repellent, this gets rid of the buggers.

Stardock is pleased to officially announce that the beta of WindowBlinds 6 is now available for users of Object Desktop. WindowBlinds 6 represents a whole new generation of Windows skinning with advanced new features such as animation overlays, blur glass effects on both Windows Vista and Windows XP, user created sub-styles, full font control, explorer backgrounds, complete Windows Vista skinning, faster performance, and much more!

[ Stardock News: WindowBlinds 6 Beta Released ]

I haven't used WindowBlinds since I upgraded to Vista, WB5.5 just didn't work well enough for me and I actually was a bit down on the WindowBlinds due to it's poor handling of Vista. Well Stardock, please forgive me, 'cause you guys are back!

WindowBlinds 6 beta works tremendously better than WB5.5 did on my Vista Laptop, and I'm back to messing with the general look and feel of my OS on a regular basis. I'm hoping that soon it will be clear which skins have made sure that they work well on Vista, with all the pretty trimmings I've been used to on Aero, but for now I'm just happy to be able to "paint the walls" whenever I want.

Update: I should mention that it wouldn't install happy-happy at first, and I had to follow the guidelines here and then reboot twice before it would work. But that's what "beta" means, right?

I &heart; Windows Live Mobile Search. The new version looks even better than the first (surprise surprise) including GPS, Movie info, Traffic info, and more!

The Mobile Search team has released V2 of the rich client application for Windows Mobile, as well as a major update to the browser based interface. Whether you have a J2ME (Java) phone, Windows Mobile phone, or any other device with a mobile browser, Live Search has you covered with maps, directions and business search

[ Virtual Earth / Live Maps ]

Do your phone/pda a favor and download this puppy now! iPhone and Sidekick users need not apply, those platforms are locked down too tight.

And that's all I wanted, however what I found is quite amazing:

AutoHotkey unleashes the full potential of your keyboard, joystick, and mouse. For example, in addition to the typical Control, Alt, and Shift modifiers, you can use the Windows key and the Capslock key as modifiers. In fact, you can make any key or mouse button act as a modifier.

[ AutoHotkey - Free Mouse and Keyboard Macro Program with Hotkeys and AutoText ]

This thing is seriously freakin' powerful. I'm rather certain it can handle most anything you've ever wanted to map to a key.

It's incredible. And I know many of you have the same question I did; when am I going to have one of these in my house?

[ First Look: Microsoft Surfacing Computing! | Larry Larsen | Channel 10 ]

I've been forecasting this type of computing for a while, I expect it will drive the office of the future, so your desk is your computer.

...e-mail and messaging services automatically update your Outlook data. Precise navigation by means of GPS guidance. It enables you also to make Voice over IP (VoIP) phone calls...

[ Pocket LOOX T Series - Handhelds - Fujitsu Siemens Computers ]

And, 6 months after release, still not available in the US. I have simple needs:

1. Windows Mobile
2. Keyboard
3. GPS
4. Decent battery

Is that too much to ask, T-Mobile? I love the Dash, but no GPS, and it's on "SmartPhone" and not actual Windows Mobile...

But now I don't care, I gots me Live Search on my PDA-Phone.

Not sure if or how it works on Windows Smart Phone, I'll try to get Yaty to install it and see if it's as cool on her phone as it is on mine.

I'm a big geek:

It was time to upgrade, and Dell and the folks at SkinIt suckered me in. I'm not 100% sure how Samus got past their "copyright censors", 'cause I was fully expecting this to be denied, but it arrived, and looks just as great as I expected.

I saw this before, and I guess I figured that it involved some degree of rough handling:

So to summarize, if your DS Lite has the hinge crack that we've all seen, then Nintendo will likely repair it free of charge. It also sounds like Nintendo may have figured out that the crack was caused by overtightening.

[ Nintendo Capitulates, Offers Free Repairs for Cracked DS Lites - Kotaku ]

Now I don't think so. I've treated my DS with the utmost care and respect, and I still got a broken hinge. In addition when I close the lid instead of auto-pausing it now seems to toggle auto pause on and off and on and off. However the warrantee is still good, and people are claiming that Ninty will fix this one, so the question remains will it be fixed in time to play the new Zelda DS game?

The page that you are now reading describes how you can import a PKCS#12 certificate file to Windows Mobile 5.0. Such a PKCS#12 file typically contains a personal certificate and its corresponding private key, a root certificate and optionally a number of intermediate CA certificates. The reason I made the PFXimprt program was that I wanted to connect with Windows Mobile to a Linux VPN Server. It turns out that PFXimprt can be used for other purposes too.

[ Personal Certificate Import Utility for Windows Mobile 5.0 ]

Like encrypting, decrypting, and signing emails using the free S/MIME certificate you got from InstantSSL. Once the certificate was installed on my phone, all encrypted emails are now readable.

Victor® Electronic Mouse Trap

Quickly and safely eliminate mice from your home with the Electronic Mouse Trap. Delivers an electrical shock to kill mouse in seconds. Safe to use around children and pets. Built in safety feature.

[ Shop at Victorpest.com ]

And it works. Bought one yesterday and today there is one less mouse in the world. I'm not sure how many mice are plagueing my house, but 4 AA batteries can handle up to 50 mice, so I'll keep putting it out until the evidence of mice is gone.

And, for the record, almond butter seems to work just as well as the peanut butter that the directions say to use.

Like the mythical half-horse, half-man of Greek lore, Concept Centaur combines the best of several technologies to create an innovative whole. The result of exploration by Segway Inc.'s product development team, Concept Centaur will challenge the way you think about four-wheeled transportation.

[ Segway | Concept Centaur ]

It just looks like a great time. Sure I guess you could use it to get across town too, or herd animals, or deliver goods, or I don't know what, but it's clearly designed for just having a great time. Nice maneuverability in tight spaces too. I hope that the redesigned city of the future left room for something like this.

Still looks cool, though.

Headed out of town this weekend, and I wanted to make sure I had connectivity no matter where I go. I know that theoretically my phone could be used to provide access for a PC, but I had never looked into it. This article has all I needed to know, for the most part:

It is not the ambition of this article to answer all your questions regarding the use of a Pocket PC as a modem but rather to show how to configure HTC Wizard and other devices that you need to connect to the internet[sic] over it. If you possess the same devices and follow the instructions, you should soon succeed. Considered strong similarities between all Pocket PC devices from HTC, it is likely that the same procedure would apply to in other cases, too.

[ PDAgold.com :: Article :: HTC Wizard as a modem (USB, Bluetooth) ]

I discovered this article by googling and finding this thread on "HowardForums". Later in that thread "Berniemac23" points out that on T-Mobile the APN is "wap.voicestream.com" and not Internet. I successfully connected via Bluetooth and USB cable, I'm sure both will prove useful at some point.

Next up is trying to power the laptop, and therefore the phone too, from my Jetta, thus allowing me to work anywhere I get GPRS/EDGE coverage.

Apparently, I do now.

There are plenty of Task Managers available for Pocket PC. However if you are still searching for the right one, try this software.

[ Magic Button - Pocket PC Task Manager ]

I had been using WisBar Advance, because it skins, and I'm a sucker for that, but even after suspecting that WisBar had less than stellar performance issues, and could have possibly been interfering with normal phone functions, I continued to use it do to the task management capabilities. I rather dislike the WM apps minimizing all of the time, and not closing like I want. So I went looking, and what I found was Magic Button. It works great. My phone is now much quicker and more stable, and thus I am happier.

Nate did point out today that lack of WisBar means lack of cascading start menu, so I went looking again, and I'm now trying out ProgramMenu. So far, so good, but we'll see.

TiVo announced a while back that I'd be able to take my TiVoed programs "to go". What does that mean? Not much, apparently. I only have 1 TiVo, so I can't transfer between them. I don't have a laptop, so I guess I can use the desktop software to watch TiVo on my PC, but that's not going very far. I don't wish to burn things on DVD enough to purchase their partner's DVD burn kit. I really just want to download the video to my PSP or Yaty's iPod.

Enter DirectShow Dump:

DirectShow Dump is a debugging App that allows you to extract (into a file) what the output of a DirectShow filter is. It is easy to use, employs asynchronous I/O for optimal performance and can batch-process files.

[ DirectShow Dump ]

Since the TiVo series 2 can copy video to my PC and store it as a modified MPEG-2 file, with some sort of DRM encryption, but allow for playback through WindowsMedia 10 and "DirectShow", it wasn't too difficult to pipe that to an unencrypted file (not too difficult for me at least... ;)). Then I sync that file via my PSP Media Manager, which I purchased before realizing that PSP Video 9 existed, and voilà! I truly have TiVo To Go!

OS 2.7 is out, Network Update should upgrade you.

Sony says the latest iteration of the handheld's frequently hacked operating system adds a number of browser enhancements, including Flash compatibility and the ability to save audio content from RSS channels to a memory stick. The upgrade also fixes the problems that cropped up with earlier versions of the OS when using memory sticks larger than 2GB.

[ PlayStation.com - News ]

However Flash on the PSP sucks. It is sooooooooooo slow, and therefore Homestar Runner is not feasibly enjoyable on the PSP, and is there any other reason to use flash?

The new RSS streaming and save-ability is nice, no longer do you need the PSP Connect software to pod-catch, but I doubt they're giving me a refund...

If you're sitting in an airport lounge halfway across the world and you're itching to listen to one of your favorite tracks at home, you can. As Orb puts it, it's "home entertainment without the home."

[ Mobile Media Without Limits ]

Audio, video, photos, what about my Tivo? If this could pull from my Tivo and stream to my phone, we'd really be talking.

UMPC nee Origami isn't anything new, but Microsoft and Intel want to weigh in. One thing that is new is some interfaces including this swell new touch-screen thumb-pad that Microsoft has licensed for the UMPC:

This, of course, means that I've spent too much, too soon on my PSP and my new phone, but that's the price to pay when you're a gadget freak like me, ne?

The Ultra-Mobile PC is portable, lightweight, and configured to connect on the go. It’s the device that you’ll always want with you.

[ Ultra-Mobile PC - Go Everywhere. Do Everything. ]

Though, perhaps I'm not getting it. It sounds like a tablet PC. Is it better? Cheaper? Or is this a super-big WinCE device that finally has some power, a real OS, full connectivity? Perhaps it's just the time to hit a striking point between the 2. A sort of "life drive" killer...

The big question, of course, is how much money will I be spending to buy one...

Total Commander is a File Manager, FTP, Registry Editor, LAN browser, all-in-one app for your Windows Mobile device. The price is right (free) and it appears to be happy to run off of a expansion card.

As always, use caution when hacking that registry!

Simply place .mp3, .wma (including DRM WMA!), or .midi files in the root folder of your "Storage Card" and they will be available as a ringtone for your phone!

Check all of the "ringtones sites" you want, I think this is the only way to get a Dengue Fever ringtone!

Everyone is on the "bluetooth handsfree wagon", it seems. Motorola, Logitech, Jabra, Fischer Price... But which one to get. So far this looks the best to me, but how can I be certain?

• No additional phone dongle needed to enjoy 10 meters (30 feet) of range. It also works with your Bluetooth-compatible PC. And Bluetooth v1.2 gives you adaptive frequency hopping, quick connect time, and improved audio quality.
• WindStop technology enables clear conversations in adverse conditions by reducing the disruptive effects of wind noise, including automobile air conditioners.
• Rotating clip conveniently fits either ear, and lightweight soft foam ear pad stays comfortable even after long talk sessions.
• Enjoy up to 7 hours of talk time or up to 250 hours of standby time between charges.
• Call/answer button on the headset lets you conduct calls without having to pick up the phone. The Logitech Mobile Freedom Headset also supports several features built into many handsets, such as voice dialing, three-way calling, and m 

[ Amazon.com: Logitech Mobile Freedom Bluetooth Headset: Cell Phones ]

Anyone have any opinions on the subject?

It's no secret that the Windows Mobile today screen is a bit weak. I've tried 1/2 a dozen things before, but never this one. It looks pretty cool:

Your Today screen just became Tomorrow’s screen! You’ve never been able to manage your life from the Today screen before

[ SBSH Mobile Software - Making smaller bigger ]

The better memory/application handling built into this makes it a no-brainer at $9.99:

WisBar Advance 2 expands upon the successful task management features found in the original WisBar Advance. Now more tightly integrated with the PocketPC operating system, WisBar Advance provides greater responsiveness and a richer user experience.

[ Lakeridge Software ]

And it has a light skinning engine to boot! So my Microsoft device can look like an Apple... (or Red Hat if I can find that skin...)

I'm rather certain I've blogged about this gem before:

Athan and recitation before the Athan even when the device is off. Also, This software contains Prayer table, Prayer schedule , Hijri Calendar and Hijri to Georgian conversion, Qibla according to your location and position of the sun. Furthermore, it contains lunar calendar, moon age and Islamic Holidays Added to your calendar. Finally, it support Today Screen plugging display to display the prayer time and date in Hijri and to control the Azan voice.

[ Pocket Islam Smartphone ]

For any gadget geek Muslim with a Windows Mobile device, this one is a must.

It will be interesting to see how much of CRM this client supports.

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Mobile is a mobile client for Microsoft CRM v1.2. Microsoft CRM Mobile provides salespeople with up-to-date information about their accounts and contacts, and helps them manage sales opportunities and track sales-related activities.

[ Download details: Microsoft CRM Mobile 1.2 ]

I'm most interested in "cases", which I've heard much about, and we may be using to support a trouble ticket like system.

How is this an add on?

With Microsoft Global Contact Access, you can use Pocket Outlook on your Windows Mobile powered Smartphone or Pocket PC Phone Edition to look up contacts in the Global Address List (GAL) on your corporate Exchange server.

[ Microsoft Global Contact Access for Windows Mobile powered Devices ]

Optional I can see, but it's called Pocket Outlook, not Pocket Mail. I guess I should be happy that it exists at all.

Update: This seems to be a big piece of poo. Perhaps I have to punch more holes in the firewall...

Bye bye Sidekick, hello Windows:

The new T-Mobile MDA is a messaging powerhouse, with a full keyboard that slides away plus GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and the extra speed you need to take advantage of the T-Mobile Total Internet network

[ T-Mobile MDA ]

I've been loving my PSP browser (included in OS 2.x) but a DS browser? That means a stylus? Hot.

In Opera's agreement with Nintendo, Nintendo DS users will now be able to surf the full Internet from their systems using the Opera browser. The Opera browser for Nintendo DS will be sold as a DS card. Users simply insert the card into the Wi- Fi enabled Nintendo DS, connect to a network, and begin browsing on two screens.

[ Giving gamers two windows to the Web: The Opera Browser for Nintendo DS™ ]

The question is, does Yaty need a 2nd DS to browse websites for Animal Crossing friend codes?

Apparently I like VW. I've now entered into my third relationship with Volkswagen and their 2006 Jetta TDI, which looks remarkably like the photo here:

I already miss my rear window wiper, but otherwise it's got tons of new bells and whistles to distract me. Navigational computer, XM Radio, Seat Position Memory, four doors, back seat cup holders, super large trunk, and I don't know what else.

With all of that it may be surprising that the first thing on my list is to get a better understanding of how a diesel engine works. It is bugging me, a bit, that I can't conceptualize what is going on under my hood. In high-school I took a semester of auto shop, and I came away understanding the standard gas engine, and the wankel engine too, but we didn't cover diesel, and it's nagging my brain in a big way.

After that I will most likely find every setting that can be tweaked, and enter some of my favorite addresses in the Navigational system, or just sit and inhale the new car smell...

For the price I can ignore the fact that it has VCAST:

Now nine months later, despite the F9100's lukewarm acceptance, LG has designed another 9000-series QWERTY keypad device; this time named the VX9800. Improving on many of the F9100's shortcomings, the VX9800 promises to be not just a text messaging device, but a complete multimedia package, with an excellent imaging, audio, and connectivity features, making it more widely appealing than just to a small demographic.

[ LG VX9800 Review - Mobiledia ]

N8 has been eyeing this one for a while, but is concerned about the lack of a web browser. It appears that you can load one on the device, but the screen looks tiny to me, and I don't expect the browsing experience to be all that. For texting and IMing, however, this is a hot little phone, and at a good price.

[PSP OS 2.6] supports WMA (though it doesn’t support PlaysForSure, WMA9 Professional, and WMA9 Lossless, d’oh!), RSS (we hear that includes enclosures, i.e. podcast time on your PSP!), and some other incremental developments.

[ Engadget Gaming ]

And if you have an old laptop gathering dust in your closet, you might be able to get a real good deal on that PSP.

I didn't even know one was coming. I'm still expecting to migrate off of mine onto a Windows Mobile device soon, but since when that happens Yaty will get my Sidekick, it's good to know that they are continuing to improve. Best feature added?

Support for JavaScript on Web pages

[ T-Mobile Sidekick Help ]

Yes, you read that right. Up until now the Sidekick didn't do JavaScript. They've added tons of little short cuts too, and finally support for transferring contacts back and forth from your SIM. Still missing? Ability to use WAV files attached to emails as ringers...

Still don't have the phone, but I have a list of goodies to install, including this:

As the name suggests is does conversions - it supports four types of conversions, each with up to 10 categories. Currency Measures - 1 inch = 2.5 Centimetres etc Temperature - Celsius <-> Fahrenheit

[ "Convert It" for your Smartphone ]

So you're all set up to podcatch with ipodder, but you want to automatically sync with your portable device. The problem? You don't own an actual iPod, but you do have a Windows Mobile device that has mp3 playback and a nice sized SD card. The solution? MobSync.

MobSync is a software allowing any file folder synchronization from the Pocket PC onto the desktop--synchronization which cannot be done with ActiveSync. So, with this software you can synchronize any file folder on your Pocket PC (not necessarily \My Documents) with any file folder on your desktop (not necessarily \Pocket_PC My Documents either). It works well and now that it is translated in english it is a must have. Pay attention to very big files, it may stop in the middle of the process and fail to copy (just like ActiveSync).

[ PocketPCFreewares - MobSync ]

This should work fine on your Dell Axim, your Samsung i730 phone, or what-have-you. Now you only need to find podcasts worth subscribing too...

Or, if you have $9 and want an all-in-one PodCatching/RSS aggregating solution that requires no PC, FeedReader looks pretty hot.

Crazy but (possibly) true:

Ever since Palm separated from PalmSource Inc., the company that develops the Palm OS, analysts and enthusiasts have been speculating that Palm would eventually turn to a different operating system vendor for its smart phones and personal digital assistants. That speculation reached fever pitch earlier this week, when Engadget posted photos of the unannounced Treo 700w running the Windows Mobile operating system.

[ Windows-based Treo May Arrive Today - CIO News Alerts - Blog - CIO ]

Which, of course, could mean a Windows OS powered Life Drive. Perhaps my lack of buying a portable digital media device (PDMD) has finally paid off.

Update: Reuters says it's true.

It always seems that way to me.

An employee of Samsung Electronics shows the world's highest density 16-gigabit NAND flash memory device using 50-nanometer technology during a news conference in Seoul, Monday, Sept. 12, 2005

[ Yahoo! News Photo ]

If Korea doesn't shoot right past Japan any day now, I'll be surprised. Though they do have that addiction to MMORPGs thing to get over...

Props to Big G

Google Talk has pushed me back over the edge. Too many programs, and they all do the same thing. I'll try Trillian again.

Trillian is a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. It provides capabilities not possible with original network clients, while supporting standard features such as audio chat, file transfers, group chats, chat rooms, buddy icons, multiple simultaneous connections to the same network, server-side contact importing, typing notification, direct connection (AIM), proxy support, encrypted messaging (AIM/ICQ), SMS support, and privacy settings.

[ Cerulean Studios -> Learn about Trillian ]

In 2 weeks it will expire. We'll see then if I pony up the $25 for Trillian Pro (the only way to get Google Talk) or go back to my wicked ways.

Granted, I'm the last person to do so. TiVo claims:

Only TiVo is so smart, it's simple to use.

[ TiVo.com | What is TiVo ]

What they don't tell you is that it will take hours to set up, and you must have a phone to do so. Sure you can use a USB Wireless Access Point to do everything, but only once you've connected by phone at least twice during the setup. Luckily this connection will go over my Vonage VoIP phone line, or I'm not sure what I could do.

Another sticking point is that Comcast's lineup isn't quite right. TiVo thinks that channel 81 is G4TV, as does the Comcast website. However my TiVo device is clearly picking up G4TV on channel 99, and always has in non-digital mode.

The driving force behind my need for TiVo? I can't find my TV's remote. I had returned my Comcast digital box with DVR, since the DVR never really recorded things that I asked it to, and the digital lineup is so seldom watched in my house. My cable bill drops $30 by doing so, and makes the purchase of a TiVo and the addition of another movie in my Netflix queue almost no-brainers. However I hadn't realized what a God-send the remote control is, and how lazy humans can really be. After a few days without one I determined that I would have to purchase a TV remote or change my habits all together. Since a universal remote costs at least $15, what's another $85 for a TiVo? (and $5 for a wireless access point after rebate)...

Update: If this, somehow, inspires you to get a TiVo, you can tell them I referred you by giving them my email address "tivo [at] davidkearns [dot] com".

Forget the iPod, Apple's new mouse is hot. Period.

At $49, Mighty Mouse features the revolutionary Scroll Ball that lets you move anywhere inside a document, without lifting a finger. And with touch-sensitive technology concealed under the seamless top shell, you get the programability of a four-button mouse in a single-button design.

[ Apple - Mighty Mouse ]

Priced right, packed with features, I wonder what the wireless version will cost...

Props to Sajous

My beloved Sidekick II's keyboard is starting to come off. This usually means that I've had my "mobile communication solution" for long enough to start seeing what else is on the horizon. If this is indicative of what's coming, I'm psyched:

...from the five minutes we spent with the Q we can tell you that yes, it is incredibly thin, that it has a nice, crisp screen, and that the keyboard was fairly easy to use...

[ Hands-on with the Motorola Q - Engadget - www.engadget.com ]

The Sidekick II is nice but is still a bit weak. It's a bit bigger than other devices, still no infrared, no bluetooth, poor Outlook sync, and little ability to expand it's functionality. The promise of custom code running on the device has fallen very short, as their developer program has far too much red tape involved, and isn't tailored for home grown efforts (it's clearly designed to allow providers to have tight controls on what can and cannot be run on the device).

Update: Dari brings the Reuter's story about this device to our attention.

The battery to be specific. I can't find anyone who carries them any more, so I can't get a replacement. Or at least not easily. So why not take it up a notch:

Ryobi HP472K

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Voltage: 7.2 volts 
• RPM: 330/520 (no-load speeds) 
• Chuck: 3/8” keyless 
• Clutch: 24 position 
• Weight: 2.96 lbs.

FEATURES:

• Keyless chuck – enables quick and easy bit changes 
• 24 clutch positions – virtually eliminates screw stripping by adjusting for various materials and driving depths 
• Compact center handle design with power grip overmold – maximizes user comfort 
• Variable speed switch – controls drilling/driving tasks from a slow start to a fast finish 
• Built-in bubble level – improves drilling/driving accuracy by identifying the proper 90 angle 
• Forward/Reverse selector – conveniently located for inserting and removal tasks 
• On-board magnetic storage – for quick access to your driving bit

[ Ryobi ]

Didn't cost much more than the B&D tool I bought before, but has quite a bit more power. Plus it has 30 levels of torque to avoid stripping screws but still allow for the power necessary to get the job done. Didn't have a hex driver bit, but my B&D bits fit in the adapter just fine. And a tool like this is required for any Ikea project...

Call them straps, charms, fobs, or thing that helps you fish your phone out of your pocket or purse; they are very popular with me and other 14 year old Asian Girls:

We work hard for you keeping in mind this words. This does not mean just to sell well phone straps all over the world. We think that one Phone Strap is a tiny toy or pettit [sic] accessory for a person but it has an infinite loveliness maybe he longs for. This is What we are all about. "From Japan to you, we bring Straps to you with Love"

[ Phone Strap & Accessory, StrapYa! Stuff Introduction ]

They have everything from Zippo lighters, to Hello Kitty, to food items, and even miniature cell phones to hang off your your cell phone. I've been surfing for hours in amazement, and looking for a replacement for the "Hula Girl" that Yaty isn't so keen on. I found another site that has some coffee related charms, but alas I don't speak Japanese, nor live in Japan.