Archive for June, 2007

Apple iPhone mobs

Jun 29th, 07 / Comments Off

Jon tells me that he is in the AT&T Wireless store and they are already sold out of 8GB iPhones. They are only letting 2 people in at a time. The “Apple Store”:http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=556F9FCD&node=home/iphone/iphone now has it, but it is on a 2-4 week delivery. They are $500 for a 4GB and $600 for the 8GB. They have a two year commitment required from AT&T (darn those guys!). If you are an exiting AT&T customer, then it costs just $20/month to add data service and 200 text messages, so that’s actually quite reasonable. The old 3G LU320 phone I had cost $60 for unlimited data and email.

The main thing is that they are activating via the itunes store which is so much better than dealing with the clunky AT&T wireless site. It will be interesting to see how they do the integration with the family plan that I have.

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iPhone

Finally a decent Chinese translator

Jun 29th, 07 / Comments Off

I’ve been looking for something works pretty interactively. Right now I use “xuezhongwen.net”:http://xuezhongwen.net for printed translations and also for doing things on mobile. Chinup seems to be the best extension for firefox. Uses tooltips to show the pinyin and the english and chinese. Most of the tools don’t show pinyin.

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Chinese

Blackberry Curve

Jun 27th, 07 / Comments Off

Just got one. It is much smaller than the 8700 and very light. It even has decent MP3 playing although no where as nice as the iPod. Main thing is that it is small and the sound quality is good. What it lacks is really decent navigation of songs, but it does play correctly in the background which the old ones didn’t.

To get the latest firmware, “BlackberryFAQ.com”:http://www.blackberryfaq.com/index.php/BlackBerry_Operating_System_Downloads has a list of where all the downloads are and also the “latest”:http://www.blackberryforums.com/rim-software/58404-latest-operating-system-available-each-blackberry-device.html versions are at Blackberryforums.com

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Blackberry

Authentic Military Watches

Jun 23rd, 07 / Comments Off

For a long time, I had an authentic military issue watch, but then lost it somehow. Getting a Eco-drive reminded me how much I liked that old wathc. “Military-Watches.net”:http://www.military-watches.net/ is a great source for authentic military timepieces. “Marathon”:http://marathonwatch.com makes the el cheapo watches that the US Army gives out. It is high impact plastic and in my eyes, look beautiful because it is so functional.

The last watches are from a 2006 contract and is called the Navigator. It has tritium gas and a nylon strap. They are a little hard to find, but a query to ebay for “Marathon watch -timex” will get you there.

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Watches

New York City with kids to sail, go to the amusement park, bike

Jun 22nd, 07 / Comments Off

!>http://www.centralparknyc.org/media/image/ConservatoryWater.jpg! So what if you want to take an afternoon and have some outdoor, not touring a museum fun. Here are some alternatives. I tried to pick somethings that are a little off the beaten track and not trekking through the streets:

h3. Sailing

This is something that Mike suggested to me, get out there on either a new or an old boat

“Sail the Hudson”:http://sailthehudson.com. They have a 2PM sail on weekends. Its a bigger boat. Have six passengers. $149 for two or $89 for a single for two hours.

“Sail NYC”:http://www.sail-nyc.com. This is an old schooner at Chelsea pier. 1-3PM and 3:30_5:30PM. $40. 2 hours. It is at Chelsea Pier which is overall great fun. “Chelsea Piers”:http://chelseapiers.com. It is $40 for adults, $17 for kids

Actually, they have lots of “charters”:http://www.chelseapiers.com/marina.htm at the Chelsea Piers marina including the screamer.

And of course for a Stuart Little day, go to the “Conservatory Water”:http://www.vacationidea.com/new_york_city/conservatory_water_central_park.html where they sale radio-powered model boats. You can rent them as well. It is in Central Park on the East Side from 72nd to 75th Street. There is a club that does races. They start at 10AM on Saturdays if you want to see how the pro’s do it. They have rentals usually starting at noon.

h3. Amusement Parks

“NYC.gov”:http://nyc.gov has a couple of pointer that lead to “Nickelodean Jr”:http://www.nickjr.com/travel/city_insider/ny_insider/index.jhtml and then to “Gocitykids.com”:http://www.gocitykids.com/finder/results.jsp?area=197&dayType=Outdoor%2C2%2C3%2C8%2C9%2C10%2C11%2C12%2C17%2C18%2C19%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C32%2C34%2C35%2C66%2C68%2C113%2C128%2C130%2C168%2C1113%2C1128%2C1365%2C1373%2C2136%2C2297&funKind=&ages=12-18&x=15&y=16 which have some good things:

“Coney Island”:http://www.gocitykids.com/browse/attraction.jsp?id=8932. Its been in so many movies yet I’ve never actually been. To get there, use the subway for the authentic experience. Take N or D line to Stillwell station. Exit the station then go to the ocean. Left on Surf Avenue, Right on 10th Street. As luck would have it the 24 year old “Mermaid Day Parade”:http://www.gocitykids.com/calendar/?area=197&month=6&day=23#195699 is on the 23rd. It does take an hour to get there by subway, so it is a full day activity.

“Victorian Gardens in Central Park”:http://www.gocitykids.com/browse/attraction.jsp?id=63380. This is right in Central Park. More for kiddies than the huge roller coasters at Coney Island.

h3. Bicycling

“Battery Park to Riverside Park”:http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.asp?trailid=XFA046-002 This is from Battery Park, then up the West Side along the hudson. At Chelsea Piers, you can sail or Kayak and then when you get to Riverside which is between 72nd and 125th, you get great views. This is officially called the Hudson River Greenway and you can use “Bike and Roll”:http://bikeandroll.com which is conveniently at Pier 84 to access it. It is literally 10 miles of green trail from Battery Park all the way up to the George Washington Bridge.

“Central Park”:http://www.nycvisit.com/content/index.cfm?pagePkey=501 is probably the most famous with its circular drive. “Central Pike Bike Tours”:http://www.centralparkbiketour.com/ has actual tours which are $40 per person or $20 for kids with an escort. a10am, 1pm and 4PM as wellas a 9am and an 11am on summer weekends. They even have a special tour where you can see the sites where various movies were made.

If you are more adventurous, then you can take “Tours by Bike”:http://www.toursbybike.com/ which takes you all over the place from Brooklyn to Chinatown on a bike. A cool one is going over the East River to Roosevelt Island in a tram. The Sunday tour is through the East Side and is much like the Central Park one, but also covers more ground and is five our long.

h3. General Sports

“Chelsea Piers”:http://chelseapiers.com is an aamazing place just for general athletic fun. They have bowling, sailing, kayaking, golf and skating rink. For teenagers:”http://www.chelseapiers.com/age3.htm” that includes baseball, basketball, bowling, golf, ice skating and soccer.

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New York

Mac playback of WMV and ASF

Jun 21st, 07 / Comments Off

These are Microsoft formats. There are actually free playback from Quicktime on Mac OS X with “Windows Media Components for QuickTime”:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx

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Mac OS X

Blackberry for Mac

Jun 21st, 07 / Comments Off

If you have a Blackberry, you know about the dreaded Desktop Manager, so what can you do for the Mac. turns out there is a freeware utility called “PocketMac”:http://www.pocketmac.net that lets you sync the Mac to Entourage, the Mac Address book, the Mac mail program and also lets you sync to iCal. The most important thing is that it is smart enough to turn up the USB power so that you can get your Blackberry charged easily from a Mac.

Blackberry actually licensed the applications so you can get it directly from “Blackberry”:http://www.discoverblackberryc.om/discover/mac_solutions.jsp

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Blackberry

Blackberry Curve MicroSD and Bluetooth Headset

Jun 21st, 07 / Comments Off

Ok, the biggest problem with these new phones is that they don’t come with the accessories you really need (something I’m sure the iPhone will do right). So what do you need with the curve, check the “8300 forum”:http://www.blackberryforums.com/general-8300-series-discussion/ for great information:

* 4GB MicroSD card. The manual says they can only handle 2GB, but “blackberryforums.com”:http://www.blackberryforums.com/general-8700-series-discussion/81414-4g-sd-card-bb-curve.html. It is a little sad that Blackberry won’t include $25 SanDisk 2GB card (“pricegrabber”:http://computers.pricegrabber.com/flash-memory/m/27995152/sort_type=bottomline or get it with an “SD Adapter”:http://www.pricegrabber.com/user_sales_getprod.php?masterid=29159619&lot_id=6454421

Things are a little more confusing with bluetooth headsets. The Curve now supports stereo bluetooth and “bberry.com”:http://bberry.com seems like a pretty good dedicated shop for blackberry accessories like “Stereo”:http://www.bberry.com/content/accessories/9-115.htm

“Legitreviews.com”:http://www.legitreviews.com/article/323/1/ looks at the really rather bulky Motorola HT820

Most folks seem to like the Motorola S9 for stereo bluetooth or get the “Jawbone”:http://jawbone.com if you want noise cancelling that really works but is mono only but actually looks really cool too and has a handstrap so you won’t lose it like I have three Plantronic 645s. I still have my small but very ugly Jabra JX10. It uses a cool technology where there is a sensor that detects when you are speaking according to the “founder”:http://www.blackberryforums.com/bluetooth-connection/58911-checkout-jawbone-bt-its-awesome.html. Best hint is to go to Radio Shack and buy $8 Jabra eargels and stick them on the end for a better fit and also louder sound.

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Blackberry

iPhone good and bad

Jun 20th, 07 / Comments Off

I think these things are going to fly off the shelves. Both AT&T and Apple stores are bracing themselves, but “appleinsider”:http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/06/18/iphone_battery_life_virtual_keyboard_concern_early_testers.html does give a list of the issues. The two main ones are short battery life. More like 5 hours of talk time. Not clear if that is in addition to video battery life (that is can you watch the Matrix and still make a call). Also the big one IMHO is what it will really be like without a keyboard for Blackberry like typing.

Personally, I’m going to get both. Just got a Blackberry Curve. They are $350 without subsidy from AT&T or $200 with a 2 year contract. For me, the $350 is quite reasonable price to not get locked in. Of course they have to actually honor the rebate of $100, so we’ll see :-)

Now I need a good stereo bluetooth headset and a 1GB miniSD card.

On a related note, some analysts think that Apple’s home market share is up to 7.6%. Remarkable if true. Certainly, my three recent visits to the Apple stores show them just flying off the shelves. Particularly now that everyone has a Core Duo 2 processor set.

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iPhone

Camera Cleaning

Jun 20th, 07 / 2 Comments

Well, my camera is dirty on the _inside_. The internal sensor is dirty. “Bob”:http://bobsplanet.com says that you need some special tools from

I’d recommend getting the wipes, the fluid, and the wand for serious cleaning from “Micro-Tools.com”:http://micro-tools.com that will cost you about $25 overall:

* “SensorWand 14mm for Cleaning 1.5x & 1.6x Sensors”://https://www.micro-tools.com/store/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=SW1. This is a magic thingy that you wrap pad around and then soak with Eclipse to clean the sensor
* “Eclipse Cleaning System”:https://www.micro-tools.com/store/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=PSI-3-F. This is the actual cleaning fluid
* “Pec-Pad Lint Free Wipes”:https://www.micro-tools.com/store/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=PSI-1. This is the wipe that you put around the SensorWand stick

And for light cleaning:

“D-SLR Brush – Sensor Cleaning Brush for 1.5x & 1.6x Sensors”:https://www.micro-tools.com/store/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=D-SLR-16. This is a fine sensor cleaning brush. You blow air through the brush and it becomes statically charged. You lightly whisk across the sensor and the charge on the brush attracts dust. $25
* “Blowers”:https://www.micro-tools.com/store/SearchByCategory.aspx?CategoryCode=BLO. They have a set of air blowers. The cheapest is the Envi-Ro-Tech at $9 for compressed air. If you are going to do more, the CO2 Power Clean I is $20 with a 38 gram CO2 cartridge.

(Make sure you have a clean air supply… some canned air has residue in it).

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Equipment