ali gadgeti

Android and Persian

2010-11-07T15:35:00.001Z

I have recently become obsessed with a thought. It is question really. Why is it after three years Android does not show Persian or Arabic script. If you are on an Android phone go to Iranian.com and look at the boxes in articles reading from right to left.

groups.google.com/group/persian-computing/browse_thread/thread/631e2deac82329b9/e4e2f8ccc9277628

And I commented here

www.iranian.com/main/blog/alimostofi/android-and-persian-fonts#comment-348113

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Dell Venue Pro with Android

2010-10-26T19:44:00.002+01:00

You have to love this phone. It is basically designed to meet the practical (portait slider) and all the Android market. Now can they just not spoil it with their own software on top. Leave it to the user to find the Home theme they want, and customize their phone they want. Write a software that asks them where they want to put their stuff. And then for goodness sake put a decent battery and a camera in it (8 megapixels please). Finally see if you can make it work with Blackberry messenger as well as all the others. Now that would really be great.
in reference to: Dell Venue Pro - Dell Venue Pro to arrive on T-Mobile, to sport Android option too (view on Google Sidewiki)

Blogging from HTC Wildfire with a sandwich

2010-09-18T11:45:00.001+01:00

I just downloaded free copy of Blogger Android from the Android Market and I am taping this message with my left thumb on the HTC Wildfire. So yeah your other hand is free.

There are such amazing software for this little phone. I went I got a cool metal case from pdair as well.

What this package does, that no other phone does, is that without jail breaking I can put an ADW theme in it, and it and will allow me to put an app customized to the size I want.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Glasses-Free 3D TV Display Using Integral Imaging

2010-09-09T11:42:00.001+01:00

How long before one of these ends up in on Amazon or the Argos catalogue? If the recession continues, then it might not be long.

Toshiba has demonstrated a naked-eye 3D display that uses integral imaging, allowing 3D images to be seen from 9 distinct viewing angles without the need for 3D glasses. Integral imaging produces several rays of light projected at different angles, allowing users to see the 3D images without the need for 3D glasses and will apparently cause very little eye fatigue.

Amazing performance from a car

2010-08-16T00:14:00.002+01:00

As I said in the previous post this is the form of transport that will move us humans forward big time.

in reference to:

"But this is no golf buggy. The smart fortwo electric drive has an electronically limited top speed of 62 mph and can cover up to 70 miles between charges, which typically take around 8 hours for a full charge. At average city speeds of around 30 mph, its range extends to 138 miles. And it can accelerate from 0-38 mph in just 6.5 seconds."
- smart - smart world - More info (view on Google Sidewiki)

SMART is seriously smart

2010-08-16T00:11:00.001+01:00

I have a normal mhd version, and it is great for basic commuting. It feels great when you are alone on the road with others who are in their big fat ugly smokey cars.

in reference to:

"Due to go into full series production from 2012, the smart fortwo electric drive runs exclusively on electricity, can achieve the equivalent of 300 mpg and produces zero emissions."
- smart - smart world - smart electric drive (view on Google Sidewiki)

The best site for finding a Camera

2010-08-15T23:47:00.001+01:00

There are so many things to consider before you buy a camera. So you need to go to this site. It is absolutely superb and simple.

in reference to:

"Knowing which camera to buy is complicated. Snapsort's goal is to make it easier and faster for you to figure out which camera is right for you."
- About - Snapsort (view on Google Sidewiki)

King Android

2010-08-15T23:42:00.001+01:00

The new kid on the block, is now King. And for me HTC Wildfire is the best one so far. It is so customizable and free.

in reference to:

""A non-exclusive strategy that produces products selling across many communication service providers (CSPs), and the backing of so many device manufacturers, which are bringing more attractive devices to market at several different price points, were among the factors that yielded its growth this quarter," said Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner research VP, in a statement."
- Analyst: Android OS Is Now Number One in the U.S. (view on Google Sidewiki)

Sony NEX-5

2010-06-24T19:14:00.002+01:00

Incrdible ISO of 12800 really makes this a camera to take anywhere.

in reference to:

"Mirrorless hybrid cameras promise the best of both worlds. They offer the kind of image quality you can only get from large sensors, but without the mechanical bulk and complexity of digital SLRs."
- Sony NEX-5 Review | PhotoRadar (view on Google Sidewiki)

Motorola's XT720 Andriod phone with 8MP camera beats iPhone 4

2010-06-19T15:31:00.005+01:00

I like the 8MP camera. Look at this comparison table. It runs Andriod with a good flash, faster HSDPA and lot more.

in reference to:

"8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, Xenon flash"
- Motorola MILESTONE XT720 vs. Apple iPhone 4 - GSMArena.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Dell beats iPhone with Hulu in Thunder

2010-06-12T17:49:00.002+01:00

What do you need to get above Apple, and HTC?

Well Dell have joined up with Hulu. Look at this amazing device with a great 8MP camera.

in reference to: DailyTech - Dell Brings Thunder and Lightning with Android 2.1, Windows Phone 7 Smartphones (view on Google Sidewiki)

iPhone 4G = Skype Video Mobile

2010-06-08T17:40:00.004+01:00

Touchscreen and Google Chrome

2010-05-27T19:02:00.002+01:00

I have always been a great fan of Google Chrome. I have unfortunately a bad hand, and touch screen has come to my rescue. Now it is really weird, but you can't flick, pinch do all that stuff you do on an iphone on Chrome in my new touch screen pc. I the latest Dell SX2210T running on Windows 7 Pro with an i5 processor that scores seven on the windows experience index.

So come on Google sort it out. Make touch screen modules for searching so that we can search more easily etc. I am sure they are onto all this, with their new tablet etc platform. But why don't they release something for the PC touch screen users.
in reference to:

"You spend much of your time online inside a browser: When you search, chat, email, shop, bank, read the news and watch videos online, you often do all this using a browser."
- Google Chrome - Why use Google Chrome? (view on Google Sidewiki)

Beware of promos and make money on gadgets

2010-05-27T13:17:00.001+01:00

I just came across this ad, and there many more. We all know about PR, and the "subtle ways" corporates like to make a review look genuine. So here you are. Review one and get paid for it.

in reference to:

"We need someone to write 1 or 2 posts per week reviewing various Google Apps add-ons from the Google Apps Marketplace. $25/review, or $60/review if you include a screencast (minimum 2 minutes) of the app to post along with it."
- Jobs for Bloggers - ProBlogger Job Board - Google Apps Add-On Review Blogger (view on Google Sidewiki)

New Android 2.2 Froyo OS You Tube Test

2010-05-21T19:08:00.001+01:00

Pretty cool clip here on this page with interesting test results show the way Android is going. Cool.

in reference to: Android 2.2 Froyo is finally unveiled, 2-5x faster than Eclair - GSMArena.com news (view on Google Sidewiki)

Small handy Andriod touch screen qwerty mobile by Sony

2010-05-14T18:52:00.002+01:00

There are not too many touch screen mobiles with Android and with the label of a Sony that are small, but here is one of them. Very cute, and capable, and obviously not the best, but very handy indeed. I like handy.
in reference to: Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 mini pro - Full phone specifications (view on Google Sidewiki)

Update on Sony Ericsson Satio

2010-03-09T21:13:00.000Z

I have now had the Sony Ericsson Satio now for a few months. I must admit, to me it is more of a camera and a video camera than a phone. I have bought a leather cover for it, and I feel I have everything I need in one pocket. I cannot remember the last time I used my other cameras. All you need is a good internet connection like Vodafone, and with Picassa and YouTube you can take and put it away neatly.

The fact that I can have four different browsers in it is nice. The best one is Skyfire, then Opera 10, then Bolt. The one Sony has only works when the phone starts. Once the cache is filled, it stops.

The software that Sony provide can be confusing, but the free copy of photoshop lite is nice. I usually send the photos via email but synching is good too. Contacts can be synched with Funambol or Roadsync (which asks for money after a while). Google sync does not have this version for Symbian still. Sony do provide OTA synching but it does not put the inbox above the other folders.

The only thing that Sony should have put in would be a tracker ball to be able to scroll around the pages without using ones fingers. Otherwise the menus are great. I love the fact that the centre button will tell you which programs are running. By far the best app is Snaptu.

Oh boy, everyone will have to upgrade their PCs

2010-03-09T20:56:00.002Z

This piece of Cisco news tells you a lot. TV is out. Internet TV will rule. We will all be TV producers, as everyone will upload great stuff for all to see. Gone are newspapers, and normal TVs. Yippeee! Better save up for all the new gadgets to deal with this new system.

in reference to:

"Well in Cisco terms, the router will be able to provide download speeds of 1 Gigabit per second for everyone in San Francisco, download the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress in 1 second and stream every movie ever created in less than 4 minutes."
- Cisco unveils ultra-fast Internet technology - Mar. 9, 2010 (view on Google Sidewiki)

Initial look at Sony Satio

2009-12-11T23:34:00.006Z

ok folks I just got the new Sony Ericsson Satio, and I am using the touch screen qwerty key pad in landscape mode. You also have a mini keypad to use to see the page as well.

This is an amazing piece of kit. The photographic side of things I will explore later.

Blogging with S60 browser on Nokia E72 - using copy paste

2009-12-10T13:24:00.005Z

Go here to be able to copy paste pages from your mobile

http://cousinisaac.com/mobitol/

We all know the nightmares of copy paste, especially into a blogger post. With the new Nokia E72 you can only do it this way. You need to be able to capture the post by sending it as an email. Then you want to open another browser called Bolt that will shade any area of text and copy it to its clipboard. Yes its clipboard. Yes a pain in the ..... Anyway you then need to open a blogger post page in bolt and a blogger post page in the normal S60 browser and use the ctrl of the key pad and shade the page in bolt over to the S60.

So you ask yourself what a waste of time eh.

Wouldn't it be nice if some geek out there told me or made a tool that allowed us to shade any webpage and give us the option to drop it in any social networking or blogging or forum or whatever post from there was?

The Symbian people are falling behind in this area. The Windows people have a piece of kit called JZ Smartmort which does a grand job of copy paste. And then you got the pinchies as I call them who pinch a sentence or two with their fingers and paste it some where on their itoy. Blackberry does it better than all but you can't get skyfire on bb. And that would be the ultimate solution.

So it looks like this E72 is going back, if nothing else for its built quality. I have had it for four days and it sqweeks and cracks all over the place with that rubbish battery flap on it. It is a shame that both the new Bold 9700 and this new E72 are so poorly made. If I didn't know better i would be thinking that the same factory made them both.

So I will miss the layout of the qwerty but it is nice to have the full stop put there for you on the keybooard without the shift which is the case with the blackberry. But the Nokia will put a cap letter at the beginning of the sentence of a paragraph, but not the sentence after a full stop.like here you see it did not make the l into an L. and here again the a is not A.

But look it put the B in after I put a spare line in to start a paragraph. Also the Nokia is dumb to not see an i and convert it to an I in a middle of a sentence.

So that's it for now.

Nokia E72

2009-12-09T12:28:00.004Z

Just got the E72 and with Bolt, Funambol and Skyfire it rocks.

Why? Because it is not complete.

You need Funambol to sync.
You need Bolt to copy paste and write.
You need Skyfire to browse rich sites.
You need Fring or Nimbuzz for social networking.

Physically it has the best keyboard, with the most important functions directly accessible. There are a lot of solid buttons to customize. The camera to flickr journey is easy. The battery is amazing.

And then, all the world of S60 goodies from Getjar at your disposal.

Is there a bad side. Yes, you need to tweek it as I said. You need to get used to the squeezy back metal flap. In fact I had to send one back because the chrome trim was a bit unstuck like the Bold 9700. So it can feel a little flimsy, even though it is a little heavy for its thinness. But these are minor points.

When it comes to the software and connectivity features, the modest looking Nokia E72 beats toys like the iphone hands down if you load it with the stuff I have mentioned.

Google Chrome OS

2009-11-22T19:47:00.003Z

It is easy to see how one day we will all have portables like the Nokia N900, and will be connected to our own portal without the need to have any software in our devices.

in reference to:

"Google has announced details of its new operating system, Google Chrome OS on Wednesday outlining what the new OS will offer."
- Google Chrome OS detailed - Pocket-lint (view on Google Sidewiki)

Nokia N900

2009-11-22T01:07:00.003Z

I have decided that this new device from Nokia really represents a new approach to mobiles, laptops and everything imbetween.

For so long we have all struggled with Blackberrys and Windows based phones to get info on the web without being stuck behind a desk. I have bad eye-sight, and it is so much easier to bring keyboards closer to your face. Coupled with the fact that I have a bad right hand, typing is tiresome.

So thumb typing devices are great. And it looks like Nokia N900 with all its glorious specs on the browser and so much more could just be the ticket. I am waiting for its release sometime in the first week of Dec if Expansys is to be believed.

in reference to: Nokia N900 - Full phone specifications (view on Google Sidewiki)

Blackberry Bold 9700 Onyx wins

2009-11-12T20:52:00.003Z

The Bold 2 is so much smaller in every way, but still tough.

It is a mere coincidence, that my annual upgrade for my mobile contract on Vodafone Business (an impeccable service), happens when there are usually quite a bunch of phones, positioning themselves ahead of the Christmas celebrations.

This time I intended to find the best phone that could take over my Blackberry Bold. I was really bored with it. I have three browsers running on it and a plethora of other business and comminication apps. I do a lot with this device. It does post to the web all the news on my so many twitter, blogger, and all those forums, not to mention the comments on the various news sites.

Something I posted a lot about last year, namely cut and paste, has finally been attempted with the touch phones such as iphone and storm, but it really does not compare in tactile accuracy of the likes of Bold. Their new versions still lack all the editing functions a word processor plus traditional keyboard system have. Can you remember the days when there was no touch no mouse and we used to scroll the cursor to find a position to start the copy and then put your finger on the shift key and shade exactly the sentence you wanted. Then we had the ctrl function put in and the whole sentence was selected. You know from a mobile phone's perspective that would be so cool. So I think that the touch phones are all barking up the wrong trees.

So I was really disappointed with the new storm 2 and I even tried the Tattoo which failed from not handling multiple email editing and the LG GM 750 with its optical pointer. Their petty integration with Twitter and Facebook do not really give you the editing functions required for writing.

Here I am writing with the smaller lighter brighter faster bold 2. Well done to the Canadians. This phone is the King of communications. It is not a toy. Want a toy buy an iphone. As a person who sells all these gadgets every day I know the pain with PCs to laptops to netbook, you name it I have used.

Ask me to type something and I will whip out my new Blackberry Bold 9700 Onyx, and I can write anything with my poor eye sight and useless finger coordination. I am watching TV, and I can pull it out and it is done. It wins hands down again.

And finally before I forget, there are two musts. One the browser which is better, but I still prefer using Bolt, secondly use Google Sync on it to update your contacts and calendar. There is this very cool search by voice that works with your GPS. So the apps are growing.

Nokia N97 - a useless blogging tool, Blackberry Bold 9000 still wins.

2009-07-08T12:42:00.004+01:00

Above is a link to Nokia's forum where there is a thread, with many screaming about the useless cut and paste functionality in web pages. As a Blogger, you challenge. It makes life a lot easier if a machine like N97, went just a little bit extra by allowing the touch screen to select blocks of text or words, so that we can drop them into our blogs. That way we can clearly point out when an article is wrong. Unlike my Blackberry Bold 9000, the N97 cannot drop texts into text of sites like Blogger, to write a Blog. To produce this article I had to send the link via email in the N97. So it allows you to capture the url and puts it in a text message or email, but that's it. Its clipboard then is limited to email and text messaging. What a shame, in what is otherwise a really beautiful piece of kit. Below is my unique experience as a Blogger. If you are not a mobile "on the go" Blogger, then ignore it.

The media interface is nice, even though there is no accelerometer. You have to open the keyboard for the landscape layout to work. There is no option for column layout of web pages. All this means is that you have to tap around on the screen a lot. Imagine me with a sandwich. Half the sandwich would end up on the phone. As it is, I have to use my Blackberry Bold with the left hand, and eat the sandwich with the right hand, and there is little mess. The N97 has a normal phone alphanumeric screen in portrait mode that allows cut and paste. But it is a serious waste of space. You have to use the normal phone key pad, and then once you get the print showing in the box above, you can run your fingers over it, and they will highlight for cut and paste. You can't do it any other way, by using a cursor as there isn't one. So it's jam and marmalade all over the screen. So then you open the keyboard where it is easier to type, but you are so limited in what you can do. All that space, and that is wasted too. Why, because some clever dingdong decided to not have that touch screen shading you had in portrait mode, in landscape mode. Nightmare! Why can't they make that into an iphone inputting system, which then becomes a virtual screen in any language you want, that uses an accelerometer in landscape. Now that would sway me. That way you have a bold and iphone in it as well, and it would then replace a laptop.

The N97 has the potential of being a thumber scroller blogger phone like the Bold, but it fails badly at the moment. It seems to be targeted at passive browsers only, that are not web editors. I actually wrote this with great difficulty, with two hands, using that silly space key and a dumb shift key, as I am used to the more intelligent Blackberry Bold keys. Ok the multimedia side of things are brilliant and we can't blame Nokia for not having enough widgets yet, which will eventually surpass the iphone, as the operating system is open. But I seriously wonder what type of brains are at work at Nokia, if they slip up so easily.

So I hope that some clever Blogger will create a cut and paste system for blocks of text. I hope that the new Skyfire will allow it, and all will be fine. So yeah, for £500, it leaves a little to be desired outside the world of entertainment. It is then not a replacement for the good old Blackberry Bold 9000 fitted with a Mini Opera. Maybe Opera will come up with the cut and paste solution for N97? In the mean time give that guy in charge of this machine a serious chatting. He obviously does not know a thing about Blogging. All we need is a function that captures the block of text and then asks if we want to Blog it. A bit like the BlogThis! function. Is it really that hard to do?

Human Eye vs Telecine, Judder and Anti-judder, Motion Flow

2009-05-19T13:18:00.001+01:00

The human eyes persistence of vision takes care of smoothing this anomaly apart from some situations like slow panning or spinning objects.

This is exactly the situation we TV salesmen have to explain to customers. I usually line up the customers in front of a 50, 100, 200 Hz machines, and ask them to weigh their differences. The price differences are immense. We have a pretty bad feed going through them, to see how good they are in making it better, in what is known as "upscaling".

What I find difficult to appreciate, is how some companies really try to validate their technology, when the primary difficulty, as the article clearly states, is source related. This problem is called Telecine, and all the manufacturers pretend they have sorted the problem out, when it is really being done by the eye itself. That causes more stress on the eyes in the long run. But what really annoys me is how Sony's PR pays sites to make it look as if the problem is solved, when it is not. Some sites at least have told the world that a lot of this is not to be taken too seriously.

Sony TV - big WOW ! - NOT

2009-05-03T14:57:00.003+01:00

A 50Hz and 100Hz Television had noticeable frame buffering problems during panning and flying sequences in the demo footage, while the 200Hz model was sharper and had richer colours.

You read comments like that, and you think "wow" that must be so important, and that I will notice it. I work with these TVs (I sell them at Currys), and I see them all day, with lousy feeds and excellent feeds. Customers come and go, and most struggle to tell the difference between 50 and 100 Hz, let alone 200 hz. Gimmicks, well not, because, gamers will see it. If you are looking at the same type of text constantly moving along, you will eventually see it. So if you are a news junkie, or a stock market trader, looking at the ticker tape, ok you will see the little shuddery moves. Sony are a little late in the game, with Samsung 6 and 7 series out in the shops already, with these faster screens. But to top it off, you have LG producing some excellent 200hz ones already for very good prices. But I suppose this is just the sort of PR game Sony have been playing for so long, that have gotten them where they are. I had this couple who came in recently, and it was "Sony, Sony Sony" all the way. They were looking at a outdated technology, but "oh, it's a Sony". lol.

Wireless 1080p HDTV everywhere.

2009-04-29T18:44:00.002+01:00

What's so great about WHDI? You'll be able to connect a TV wirelessly to a home theater receiver, TV can be extra-slim TV because they don't need all of those internal electronics. Or, think of being able to watch and control a Blu-ray disk wirelessly from your home theater on any TV in the house, even 100 feet away. Imagine being able to play and control your Xbox 360 located in the bedroom, wirelessly while you sit in your home theater. That's what's coming with WHDI 2.0.

Now what would be nifty, is if you can decide what channel should be sent to which source. So as mentioned in the earlier article, the race is on between USB 3.0 and WHDI.

Samsung leads the way.

2009-04-28T18:46:00.003+01:00

So you want to know what is going on with LED TV. All the cynical questions are there. There is also a chat about all the internet widgets, so you can chat on Yahoo as you are watching TV. There is a lot here, and it is an excellent view of the future, and Samsung are way way ahead of others.

This is Slim (LED TV)

2009-04-28T17:39:00.003+01:00

Check out this video, it shows how slim these TVs are

USB 3.0 and HDMI clash

2009-04-28T16:43:00.001+01:00

USB is already used in a wide range of products including peripheral equipment like personal computers (PC) and monitors, camcorders, digital cameras, portable media players (PMP) and mobile phones. It continues to survive in the wildly fluctuating PC and mobile industries, and has become firmly established. ... HDMI, on the other hand, has spread primarily in televisions, optical disc drives and other home-use AV equipment. It grew abruptly with new concepts like High-Vision TV and full-high definition (full-HD) imagery, taking the throne in the AV equipment industry. In the first half of 2009 the next-generation specification will be solidified, targeting new fields like mobile and automotive equipment, and marking its full-fledged entry into the mobile sector."

This article has everything you wanted to know about USB and HDMI technology, that you were afraid to ask about. Learn all about USB 3.0 and the new mini HDMI.

Lamborghini Insecta

2009-03-10T18:47:00.004Z

Occupying the same footprint on the road as a Gallardo – the Insecta is designed to make use of the baby Lambo’s V10 powertrain, too. So despite remaining a purely computer-based concept at the moment – if any of Lamborghini’s designers are watching, it could point the way for future models.

Some amazing lines. You can see the German influence via VW.

VW Polo Bluemotion Concept

2009-03-08T19:29:00.002Z

With CO2 emissions of only 87g/co2 Volkswagen is promising its Polo Bluemotion model will be the cleanest supermini money can buy when it goes on sale in the UK next year.

I must admit, I was never really a fan of the Polos. I had the old tiny Lupo, and one accident in that, and I changed into my present Clio with its 5 Star safety. We also have a Fiat 500, and we all thought that the Fox looked far too drab. But the rear lights on the new Polo, even though they look like a Toyota, still look better than the circular ones. And that emission figure is great. Something good is coming out of the oil price rise we have had.

Blackberry Bold saved me

2009-03-06T12:32:00.000Z

Last night the telephone line went dead. The internet was still working. I had to call BT to get it fixed. I happened to have another landline, but at the wait was awful with all those buttons to press. I was told to use the internet to get it done fast. Duh! What do you do? I used this Blackberry Bold that I am using to type right now, to browse over to bt.com/faults and actually managed to fill out the forms using the Opera Mini browser. All along the phone was waiting in the queuing system for a human to answer. Well I had a text back from BT they were on the case, and still no one had picked up. Finally a lady answered and said that it was requested already. So I get up to answer the front the bell and it is the BT man and it was all sorted. So the moral of the story is, get a mobile phone with a good browser and if you can't type a Blackberry. Thanks be to all who keep all this stuff going. The world is getting better all the time and we don't need one person all the time, but when one of us goes down (as did BT) the other systems are there to help. Rock on.

Sony Ericsson Idou: 12 Megapixel Phone

2009-02-26T12:03:00.000Z

Sony Ericsson Idou from GSM Arena on Vimeo.

But can you type with just your left thumb if you are eating your burger with your right hand, as you can with BB Bold?

Skyfire

2009-02-12T19:05:00.003Z

If you really want to have a great browser, then get Skyfire. Shame they don't make one for Blackberrys. But they have just made one for Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

Touch screen Nokias

2009-02-12T18:48:00.003Z

Well it is better late than never Nokia. Why did it take them so long to get on the bandwagon?

But look at the clip closely, and you can see that his fingers slip. And that is the whole problem. It is not as easy as he makes it look.

I think that they should have a grid on top of the screen on which you can tap first, then the machine knows that that is the area you want to touch. You can then make it smaller or bigger and move it around to select in more detail. Just an idea that popped into my head.

I returned both the Storm and HTC, and Xperia devices, because even for someone small like me, it was hard to scroll without a ball like there is on G-1.

Revo Pico RadioStation: The Definitive Multi-Format Portable Radio

2009-01-01T22:50:00.002Z

I used to be a short wave buff. I used to sit with my dad and listened to the BBC World Service, when all those horrible things were going on in Iran. And then I love good quality sound. So I bought a standard DAB radio. But if you find that you are stuck behind your computer, because it has tuned into stations like 1.FM Dance forever, then you need this baby below. Maybe they will put Short Wave in it as well one day.

PICO RadioStation is the ultimate incarnation of our multi award-winning PICO portable digital radio, and is capable of providing reception of a variety of radio formats including DAB and DAB+, internet radio and conventional FM.

Samsung NV100HD - 14.5 mega pixels and instant HDTV pictures

2008-12-18T20:39:00.005Z

I am a Samsung fan. I love the company. They give you so much more for your money than the Jap equivalents. And it is not as if they make the same but cheaper, but they do make some major advances. Look at the NV11 camera with its innovative buttons. So much to do, and can do, and you do not have wheels to turn etc.

But as usual I spend my time reading other reviewers who take a cynical view of innovation. Most of the reviews of the new NV100HD are bad. I don't think one of their bad comments are valid. It is not heavy. It is light and very small. It is very bright, and the pictures are amazing.

Now many people who buy DSLRs have to defend the fact that they have coughed up at least £500 or three times the price of this 14.5 megapixel baby. The reviewers will tell you that you don't need it. But you do if you have a Samsung Full HD TV. This is how easy it is to impress people. Imagine a camera the size of your fingers. You shut off the flash, and you take pictures of your friends and family quietly. Then you drop it into the cradle and sit there with the remote control on a 50 inch massive high definition tv. How does that strike you?

Well folks that is what this little wonder can do. And nothing else can do it right now. Not at Full HD. I am not going into the other stuff it can do, I am just being really practical. Well maybe one other geeky thing. This camera has multifocus and the high pixel count means that you can really edit things afterwards. So buy a Samsung TV and this camera and you have an instant set up with no software or computers in the way, and later on when you are editing photos you can really zoom in because it is whopping 14.5 mega pixels but it is small and quite thin.

Superb.

From Blackberry Storm to Blackberry Bold again

2008-12-08T20:31:00.004Z

Crazy isn't it. I have now done a full circle. A while back, I was really wound up on the new Bold. When it came, it looked enormous compared to my 8310. But now a bunch of new phones later, I can see where the designers are going.

The bold is bigger, but it is easier on the fingers, and the screen is not a compromise compared to the Storm. What the Storm lacks is cursor control. Actually I saw a colleague at work, who had just got a Google Phone or the G-1, and that have a roller ball. That is what the Storm should have done. Fiddling around on the screen with your fingers is useless. With a scroll, it can land on the smallest button or link, and make it work. Try hitting a small link with your finger. Now with the phones that have styluses like the Palm Treo Pro it is ok, but there you have other problems with the browsers and the email.

So the Bold wins big time. It does not have touch screen, but you need it, as much as you need touch screen on your computer. The email, and the browser, and in particular two particular add-ons are really neat. Read on.

Google Sync is a cool tool if you want to truly release the mobile phone from the computer. Actually come to think of it, I have not connected my new Bold to the PC and etc. Why? Because I just downloaded Google Synch and all my Gmail contacts and appointments were synchronized over the air. And speaking of Over The Air or OTA, this is where Blackberry is really winning. The OTA software make the Blackberry mobiles truly independent.

And the very best OTA software has to be the Opera Mini. Download that into the Blackberry Bold 9000 and you have a superb mix. WOW! Now you don't have that error I spotted and posted all over the net. The one where the text does not indent automatically when posting on bulletin boards or forums. Opera opens another window, you edit it and it just posts it in the forum box. Superb. Especially if you are addicted to Newsnow.co.uk.

So there you have it. If you want to Blog and post on the web and don't want to use a computer, you can do it in a Blackberry Bold 9000. And the best network, with the most helpful people are the folks at Vodafone. They have put up with all my switching. Hats off to all of you.

From Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 to Blackberry Storm 9500

2008-11-21T21:39:00.008Z

So in the video, Kevin visited four sites, NYTimes.com, WSJ.com, CrackBerry.com and ArsTechnica, he made certain that both phones had Javascript enabled. The results were as follows: NYTimes.com - iPhone 3G wins, WSJ.com - BlackBerry Storm wins, CrackBerry.com - BlackBerry Storm wins ArsTechnica - BlackBerry Storm wins.

My saga continues. Oh lord, when will I finally settle down, and be content. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 turned out to be really good for music. Those panes are a joke, as you cannot customize them. You can get a couple more at the Windows site. But the whole point was to put your own links, and I could not do that. The Vodafone Business Email sucked bad. I called Vodafone and they said they do not support it for the X1. And finally the internet browsing was slow, and jammed all the time, such that I had to soft boot it all the time. Oh also, that metalic keyboard reflects unwanted light that makes it really hard to type in day light. So that was that, and it had to go back.

Now I asked them about the new Storm, and whether that Business Email was supported, and they said that that is supported by BB themselves. So they arranged an exchange within the 14 day trial. So folks I have now the new Storm.

My first impressions are not completely great. There is a marketing con going on with the BlackBerry Storm right now. The ad clearly states that you press on the button, it turns red, and you feel a response. Now wait a minute. It makes you think that you feel the button or the button that glows red. The fact is that you do not feel the button. You feel the whole glass move down. So the way to use the device is to move your finger over the button you want, and unlike the iPhone you do not type a letter that you did not want. But what you get is a moment to see if the red glow is going to go on another button, just in case your finger is too fat, and then you press the glass down. So the BB ad department is out of line.

So what does the typing experience feel like with avid Bloggers like me. Well the large screen is great. I can see a lot, and zoom into the pages nicely in page or column format. The trouble begins when you try to tap on a link that is on a list of other links. The software is so clever that it zooms in until the button is as big as the whole screen, and then it can be selected. Now if you use the cursor on the Blackberry Curve, it will just select the link and then you press the pearl. It is so much faster, and you do not have your own finger in the way of the area you are looking at. I think the next version of Storm should have a pearl on it, so that you can do both if you want to.

The sound is fantastic, and the cut and paste is really neat. I am still struggling trying to get all the applications to run. Also the battery needs a couple or so full discharges to get good. It really needs a beefier battery, but then the weight comes in. I like it being a bit big. It is not flimsy and feels as if it will last a long time. The leather pouch has stitches that are not done too well, such that pieces of leather get caught on the buttons as you are sliding it in, lifting the buttons and tearing them off. So I squeezed the sides to make it loose, and I think I messed up the contact, and so it does not open the email as soon as I pull the body out of the pouch. Then one other thing. Let's say you want to delete a whole bunch of emails which you have already read on the web, then what. You need to go through each one. On the curve or WM 6.1 device you just run your fingers over the lines and click mark opened. That is not there.

All of this in just two days. I hope someone can benefit from this report so far.

Chinese pirates crack Blu-ray DRM, sell pirated HD discs

2008-11-18T19:11:00.002Z

Forget boring old standard-def DVDs—movie pirates have moved on to selling high-definition discs in an effort to make money on the HD craze. The HD discs are not genuine Blu-ray discs and don't boast as high resolution as Blu-ray does, but they're apparently good enough to fool many consumers, and the movie industry is worried.

It was just a matter of time, wasn't it.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

2008-11-09T23:19:00.003Z

I just sent my Palm Treo Pro back after the third one from Vodafone did not glow when there was voice message.

It took a couple of weeks to get the new Sony Ericsson Xepria X1. One can very easily think that this is an HTC Touch Pro clone. It is not. Most of these phones vary according to the way the external shells are made. Some have more buttons, some have almost none. HTC is much smaller and has very little buttons. Sony have put a lovely touch sensitive kit in there that allows great versatility and customization in your screen experience. It looks as if we will have loads of different apps, not too different from the loads of apps on let's say the igoogle framework when you want to start in your browser. WM 6.1 only allows you to program two buttons but with the panes in X1 you can do a lot more, and more over you can do things inside the panes.

The phone is narrow and not too thick. I like it a bit thick, such that you can put it between your ear and shoulder. But joking aside the keyboard is wonderfull with ample space. But the funniest tool of all is this rectangular optical scratch pad. It is really easy to get addicted to. To browse or scroll a page you literally move your finder 5mm. Now imagine that you are tying away with the keyboard open, and you want to move the cursor over to the left just to correct a typo. Well in Xperia's keyboard they there isn't a cursor moving button to the left or right. So you are left with the fiddly pad, which can move the cursor over to the left and right if you press the edges of the pads. Of course if you got nails or have the stylus out it is really easy. I think that the pad on the Xperia is easier than the pearl ball in the Blackberry. Further more you aren't likely to get stuff stuck in the pad as you do with the pearl ball.

There are all the usual Sony media toys and sat nav and radio etc etc, but they have not put two decent mini speakers. Instead you have the speakers on the lower left hand side on the back so that if you are holding the phone with your left hand, then the sound will get muffled. It is great if you want to turn the sound off quickly, but annoying in other respects. Again not much thought went in that direction. Come on Sony, sort it out. That is just pathetic for such an expensive phone. Stick two decent speakers or four and allow people to choose which ones. But I must say the phone, like some of these souped up cars with lights under the chassis, lights up for all kinds of things; be it charging to when you get messages. Now that was good thinking and it is fun. And of course the fact that the keyboard slides up is neat, as you can have it act like an alarm clock radio, which are a rare entity these days. You can have a nice analogue clock with a diary and all your short cut buttons to websites on these ready for you to press.

Finally the browsing experience. And that is what I tend to specialize in. As you know I have chucked phones because they are useless browsers. Remember how the 3D Touch Flo on the HTC edit bookmark just got blocked by the virtual keyboard. Well we don't have that here. The Opera browser that is available has not 3D-touch flo, but the rest is there. With the Opera you can thumb around on the screen and move it around, whilst with the IE would have to tab or move your fingers around the pad or push down the sides on the pad. I like a very powerful browser called Skyfire, but it does not run on high resolution screens such as the HTC Touch Pro or the Sony Ericsoon Xperia X1. I went over to the Skyfire forum and sure enough there were a couple of people already complaing about the fact that it would not install. Once they do bring the next version such that it would install on Xperia, then whole package would be the best.

Opera Browsers and Blogging

2008-10-14T12:21:00.005+01:00

One thing that a lot of reviewers are not doing, is to look at the most practical aspect of mobiles, and that is Blogging.

Right now I am using my new Palm Treo Pro to write this post. I am actually not using it, but the browser in it. The browser is actually not the boring old Internet Explorer, but the new Opera beta.

So yeah go to Opera mobile and download it. It's free and has a lot of that Touch Flo 3D stuff without overwhelming the mobile like it does on the HTC Touch Pro.

Push Email: from T-Mobile to Vodafone

2008-10-13T17:53:00.005+01:00

One of the most fascinating aspects of these new phones of course, is that it takes you away from that horrible sitting position behind the keyboard. If you are anything like me, you get ideas in the most unsuspecting places. To that end, the mobile network you are with is the most important element in communication. That is why I chose Vodafone. They were the first and they have masts all over the place. It is the only network that works well in the kitchen, and downstairs bathroom - two of the most inspirational areas of the house! So you can see how important it is to get ones fingers and thumbs to work right away, and respond to whatever; be it a piece of news you browsed by with your left hand, when you were in the kitchen munching away on a kebab or fish fingers. I won't go into the other inspirational areas just mentioned, but you can get my drift.

The one thing that the networks all go on about is Push Email. You get the feeling that it could be and is really quick. Hmm, well it depends. I switched recently from T-Mobile because the reception was so bad. I still have the Blackberry 8310 on the T-Mobile, and it was an absolute nightmare trying to make it "instant email". Bascially you have to forward your email, be it gmail or your own domain to the T-Mobile instant email account, and then they relay it back to you. That is pretty quick. At best it is 15 seconds, and 15 minutes at worst.

As you know WM 6.1 comes with "pull mail" or the usual old way of getting the mobile's outlook to access Gmail or other email server. That system cannot be set to poll faster than every 5 minutes. So you would think that the Push Email is better. Well with Vodafone, they give you a simple software to install, and then they don't ask you the detailed POP IMAP or SMTP questions. The software tries to guess it, and inevitably gets it wrong. Not all servers are pop.xxxxx.com. I had to call customer service, who are not really that trained in this sort of rubbish, and then you have to wait to speak to their level 1 technical, who after a little persuation got around to look at the settings that were automatically set wrong.

You would think that Vodafone would send you a test email to see and time it to see whether it worked, and it was fast enough. Luckily for me, I was put in touch with Tony Dawson who like me was "driven like a Terrier" and a Palm user, to get this thing sorted. First it was the fact that the server had not taken my password, and then there was some authentication detail that was wrong. Beyond me, but the lads at Vodafone Business section had taken the trouble to actually simulate my settings and see what the f... was going on. It had driven so many and so many phones mad.

So a well done to all. I think then if we can just tweek the servers a little more, to make the push email at Vodafone a little faster, then we are very cool. At the moment it takes between 5 to 10 minutes to get the email. Just Ok. It would be nice to get it under a minute. Anyway if you know anything about Astrology, (as I do) then you would know that Mercury retrograde really finds all these communication problems, and we will get to the bottom of this by Thursday.

From HTC Touch Pro to Palm Treo Pro

2008-10-07T20:10:00.005+01:00

My dilemma on phones continues. I discovered that the bookmarking in the opera in HTC Touch Pro puts a the virtual keyboard on the edit bookmarks. So it has to go back. I am getting the Palm Treo Pro back. You need those buttons for mail internet in front. The Touch Pro 3D is a gimmick.

From Palm Treo Pro to HTC Touch Pro

2008-10-04T19:00:00.003+01:00

As I wrote earlier, I was all the rave with my Palm Treo Pro. Wonderfully thin, with touchscreen. What a relief from Blackberry's ball. That ball can really get on your nerves. What if something greasy gets stuck in it, and it stops turning. I quite like my old BB 8310 and it is nice to have such a small gadget with all those functions. But touch screen is a must.

So when I looked at the Blackberry Bold, when I eventually got it, I was really laughing. Life knows best. No wonder it took so long to get to me. It is huge. The Bold is the size of the 8310 with the leather cover on. Once you put the cover on the Bold, it is massive. Then the text rendering on forum sites was awful. With no touch screen, back it went, and I stayed with the Palm. But then one day I was trying to synchronize my email with the Vodafone business mail server, and it just did not guess my server's details. This so called push-mail actually is useless, if it takes 15 minutes to get to you. I prefer to set it up as normal windows pull mail. Finally the software in the Palm is not recognised too many places. Go to Opera and they don't know whether it is a smartphone or a pocket pc. You end up with softwares that do not use the Windows Mobile 6.1's features. Ah it's a mess. Vodafone said they will send me another one as it could have the wrong updates from the server at their end.

The mail arrives, and I get a HTC Touch Pro instead. Wow, that is weird. The names are two similar. So I thought, "well maybe there is a message in all this?". I will give it a go. Now I am person who was the first person to try the first Pocket PC called the MDA Vario on T-Mobile yonks ago, with good old version 3, then 5. So I knew this son on TytnII's pedigree very well. I never considered it, because I thought it was going to be too big. Well let me tell you this. This thing is lovely. First of all it is really shinny and narrow and not too long. It needs to be thick to have the sliding keyboard. The Keyboard is so much like a normal keyboard.

So it really comes down to keyboard. When you want to type on a Blackberry, you need to press so many function keys to get a stupid comma or full stop or an apostrophe, that you forget what you wanted to say. Now you might say, "why don't you just sit down behind a normal desktop or a laptop". My answer is that I usually get inspired at the toilet or some stupid place, and I do not have access to my laptop or desktop. So it has to be a handheld device.

Then you have the one handed moments in your life. And this new HTC Touch Pro accomodates that situation really well. Because they have kept the length and width down and thickened it, as if you feel you are holding a Mars bar. So if you are on a bus with one hand on the hand-rail, the other thumb can do everything with the virtual keyboard like the iphone. Yeah it has that same effect of making the letter pop out, as soon as you push on the screen. If you want to put numbers you hold the key for a split second more. Really easy. So this phone has all the features of iphone, smartphone, as well as the sliding keyboard that a laptop has. Ingeninous.

But nothing goes without a few errors. The folks at HTC need to put a few more buttons on the phone. The way it is, it is lovely. The phone switches off the screen quickly and you can wipe that shinny glass very nicely forever and it will look just like new all the time. Everything is flat and smooth. But they should have allowed more virtual buttons for customization, and let the user decide what to do with the physical buttons. You only get one button you can customize. On the Palm you have a side button as well as the front ones to customize. Long pressing is what people do to, to get a dual function. So I have to push the Start Menu on the long press phone button (the default is voice dial). The other way is to use voice commands for everything instead of buttons. But then you are stuffed if you have a cold. So two recordings are needed.

So there you are. Life moves on. I have my eyes on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. They make all this fuss about the nine panes, which is what I meant by customizable buttons. The keyboard though looks like it has much better metal buttons. You know what would be nice. One should be able to draw the buttons, and then have the software make a connection to it. Special needs people could really use it. Hopefully one day with the new Haplo technology it will even give you the bumpy feel you want.

Sony Ericsson Rika Gets Leaked : Specs, reviews and prices.

2008-09-22T23:53:00.001+01:00

There's not much info on the Sony Ericsson Rika yet. People say it's a Walkman model of the Sony Ericsson G705. Besides the supposed music capabilities, the Rika seems to have a front camera which must mean it has 3G support.

Sony Ericsson hasn't announced it yet, so that's all we have so far: a picture and a bunch of maybes.

More on Android and Gphone

2008-09-22T23:46:00.003+01:00

Because much of Android is open-source software, it can be used for free, and that means those selling phones can spend their money on better hardware rather than on software license fees, Bruggeman said. In addition, other individual programmers or interested companies can help improve that open-source software, so at least theoretically Android could become an exercise in collective engineering the way Linux has been.

Windows Mobile 7

2008-09-22T23:41:00.000+01:00

This is how WM7 will look like.

New Google Phone G1

2008-09-22T23:35:00.001+01:00

The new Google phone with Android engine.

Palm Treo Pro

2008-09-21T13:09:00.000+01:00

I am a member of an Iranian Forum called iranunited, Ordangi said that this is good phone. At that time I was really keen on the Nokia E71, Blackberry Bold. I got the E71 really quick from Vodafone in UK, and put it back in the box, as it did not copy paste or play You Tube.

I already have a Blackberry 8310, and it really sucked bad on T-Mobile. Good cheap contract, but where I live, the reception varies from the all important toilet to the kitchen, and the TV room. It is really crazy, as it changes from one sofa to the next.

So I said I would go on the Vodafone network, and wow what a difference. Now, back to the phones, I called Vodafone, and they said they have a pile of requests for the Blackberry Bold, and it will take ages. So I asked them about the Pro, and they thought I was talking about HTC Pro, and I said no, its the Palm Treo Pro.

Palm used to be the most advanced machine in your palm once, and it just went down hill for a while. So the fact that Vodafone geeks had no knowledge was good news. It is cheap, and very very good value, and better than all the others.

I have spent all this week-end mucking about with it, trying to find something desperately wrong with it. There isn't any. I can actually run two browsers on it simultaneously and make it act like a desktop. Why? Well Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional has touch screen, and so can copy paste, but does not run You Tube. You can do that thumb scroll for that reason. But Opera Mobile can thumb scroll but cannot copy paste, but will do You Tube. Opera has tab browsing. So get a 4 Gig micro sd premier from play.com for £16 and you are powered to blog.

For really easy free video viewing you can get vtap. If you go to MSN you will see that they recomment a great piece of kit called Vtap that will download easily and run Videos from You Tube and elsewhere. So that leaves the only bad part of the Palm Treo. It is so new that there are no fancy crystal cases, or leather pouches yet. Also the camera is not huge mega pixel, but the quality is good for 2 mega pixel, and that is why the phone is so thin. Palm have put some really neat short cuts in. For example if you want to look up something, then you can just type it in the Google search from the main screen. Then you have the unbelievable Sat Nav. Having a touch screen whist you are driving is brilliant. You can use that little Blackberry ball. And when you are stitting down, having a stylus is very important to pick the text or move around the screen.

So yeah, thanks Oradangi, spot on. Shame iranunited is down at the moment.

So yeah, well done Palm, and get some nice covers and really show the world the quality of the workmanship. It is to me the Apple of Pocket PCs.

Welcome to ali gadgeti

2008-09-21T13:05:00.000+01:00

I used to really mess around when I was a kid. As an Astrologer, I find good moments to start things. Today we have Moon square Uranus, but in a Grand Trine to Mercury, Venus, Mars and Neptune. So it calls for a blog like this.