Posts by MrTivo
14 posts • joined Friday 30th January 2009 17:57 GMT
Re: Mach 1.2?
SR-71 ?
Re: Prior art...
Or how about the Sinclair Radio watch? It was a beautifully made, 3 part, articulated, watch. The aerial was concealed in the wrist band, with a big battery for the radio in the clasp and a smaller one inside the case for the watch.
Not sure they ever went on general sale, or if they did, it was for a very short period of time. I did meet someone who had 40 of these (boxed and never used). He was given them by a friend who was asked to 'skip' the contents of a store room, for a company that had recently taken over/moved into the premises of another firm. He kept 40 and ditched the rest. Well that's the story, anyway.
He now has 39.....
Posted in The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME
Re: you forgot!
I have a P-500. Supposedly a prototype, but there are quite a few collectors who have them. Not that sexy really. Now the Psion 3x and 5 series.........
Posted in The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME
Re: I seem to recall..
Surely the Apricot (not at all) Portable was their best looking machine. Infra red link from the keyboard to the base station/screen, or light pipe if you had too much paper in the way.
Always wanted to own one of these.
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=492
Not sure the Siri-like microphone ever worked that well though.
Still have an original Apricot though.
Posted in Ten smartphones with tablet ambitions...
Star N9770
I have a variant of the Kogan Agora, the Star N9770. Slight differences are JB 4.1.1, not ICS, 3200 mAh battery rather than 2000 mAh (two batteries supplied in the box) and allegedly an 8MP camera (although there is some confusion on this point). As with the Agora, it is SIM free and dual SIM slot (1 slot is 3G, the other GSM only)
I find it runs perfectly well, and can do a whole day with all the bells and whistles turned on, and about 3 days if you shut everything down (data / wifi / BT / screen illumination all off)
Build quality is no worse than some other more expensive phones I've owned (SGS & Pre I'm looking at you), and the bonus of an extra battery and a integrated battery cover & microfibre front screen cover as well as a separate battery cover, means that I don't even have to buy a case for it.
Shipping was 9 days from order to door delivery, no import duty or extra delivery charges. Same price as the Kogan.
GPS is prone to dropping or taking a while to acquire a lock, but then my SGS was no better and it cost 3 times as much. I use the GSM slot with a network SIM and have Samba data only SIM running in the other slot. Therefore I have a free source of unlimited 3G data and a cheap voice contract in the other slot.
What's not to like?
Searching the web, it appears BBM7 installation is not going smoothly for some users. Once installed, it spins it's wheels trying to register and then fails. Going back to BBM6 appears to do the same. Reviews on BB App World are less than glowing. This seems to affect almost the full spectrum of devices, 8520, 9300, 9730. 9900
Free calls over WiFi is a nice addition to have, but I can see carriers not being happy, as those who mainly use a BB for email / web, paying £20 for 6 months (T-Mobile ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H EE) aren't going to be topping up to make calls.
Let's see how this one plays out.
Posted in The best tablets for Christmas
Re: Blackberry
I had a PB (32 MB), really to see what BB10 was going to be like before plunking down money for a BB10 phone. With ver 2.0 OS, I had the hope of more apps via the Android emulation.
Then one day my PB froze. It turned into a brick. It would barely take a charge (if the PB battery goes completely flat it causes other issues) and had to be returned for a repair. The repair was a replacement, with 90 days cover or the balance of the 12 months original cover, whichever was the longer.
Given if it happened again, and I was outside the cover period, I was looking at a total loss, so I sold it. It was a lovely tablet, but the chance that it would turn into a brick again, with minimal use, never mind any kind of hacking involved, was enough for me to ditch it.
Posted in RIM BlackBerry Bold 9900
£529, you've got to be joking
I admit it, I am a phone junkie. I like the BB form factor, owing a Pre, E61i, Treo 750, BB9700 and HTC Chacha. Seriously, is OS7 really such an advance on OS6? Should it really be 6.1? I love my BB9700, except the web browser and email size limitations, but it only cost me £200 (2nd hand). 2 or 3 days battery life with 4 push email accounts, twitter, Facebook all running is something the HTC can only dream of.
The Chacha was purchased from CEX, as a carrier locked model for £135, and was brand spanking new. Even better it turned out to be a SIM unlocked/free model. Now I'm not going to claim the Chacha is a rival to the BB9900, but at £400 less, it does somethings way better for a lot less cash.
If RIM did a cost reduced version, and managed to improve the browser experience, then I'd probably trade up. But at that price, it's a no deal for me. The verdict seems spot on, unlikely to attract new people to RIM, and a trade up for BB9000/9700/STORM (shudder) owners.
The BB9700 was the last decent, VFM, handset they did, IMO. Upgradable to OS6, well built, speedy. I did try a BB9800 and was unimpressed. Likewise the BB9780 had virtually no extra features except more memory, uprated camera and UMA over the BB9700. Who supports UMA in the UK? None of the carriers I was on.
I don't see a happy ending for RIM, they've been tweaking models for far too long and the new form factors are unimpressive. TORCH/STORM I'm looking at you! Let's hope it's not HP/PALM all over again.
Posted in Virgin Media TV Powered by TiVo
Old dog, new tricks
From memory TiVo and Virgin have an exclusive deal in the UK. The S1 isn't dead just yet. There is still life in the old dog. Contrary to popular belief, old dogs can learn new tricks.
Posted in The Osborne 1: 30 years old this month
Kaypro were even heavier, with sharp edges.
At least the Osborne 1/Executive cases were round cornered, molded plastic. I have a couple of Kaypro luggables too, and when they catch the back of your leg, they take chunks out of it! The IBM 5155 gets my prize as the biggest hulk of a portable machine.
Mines the one with the hernia pants in the pocket.
Hope the 3DS is better than the VirtualBoy
I have a VB, and I can tell you that after a very short period of time, it gets very difficult to keep your concentration due to watering eyes and cramp in the neck/shoulders.
I suppose with the 3DS you can move around more than the VB, but I gave to say the VB games were pretty underwhelming in the 3D dept. Still Nintendo don't often drop the ball, but the VB was one of those times. I didn't pay much for mine as I got one during the fire sale clear out of the system and games. Certainly they are pushing the system very hard before release.
Now the Sega Nomad was a nice system to have at the time. MegaDrive / Genesis on the move. That bombed too.
Posted in Reg reader bombarded by 3 sales calls
Some tips for a fast exit....
If you want a quick exit when talking to the call centre in India, then do not engage them in any conversation while they 'process' your request. Keep it limited to, 'can i have my PAC/cancel the account'. You may wish to add that you are recording the call, regardless of whether you are or not. The other option is to say you're leaving the country and will be getting a local contract.
If you are unlucky and don't get someone who helps, hang up and try again. As you are leaving the network they generally have the shortest queue wait time.
I requested my PAC and played the waiting game and was offered a £22 off a £30 pcm tariff and a new phone, a week before I was due to end the contract period. ebay the phone to make it cheaper still. They can't be making money on these deals.
Posted in Nokia E63 Qwerty keyboard smartphone
surely more of a cost reduced E61i
The E63 looks more like a funky version of an E61i, with a couple of ideas borrowed from the newer Nokia line ups, i.e. the dual home / work screen, rather than a single homescreen.
Given the price that the E61i was closed out at, just over 200UKP, it doesn't look that much of a bargin.
Shame 'cos I really wanted to replace mine with something better.
Posted in Fring snuggles with Last.fm
It has to be.......
the best IM app on the S60 v3 platform. It's reliable enough to have on 24x7 and supports all the accounts I have and more. The S60 v2 version wasn't as polished and used to crash my 6630 when used for extended periods of time.
I tried the last.fm plug in and I was impressed. Twitter is a bit flakey, but useful. As for the ads, I could live with them providing they don't geg too annoying. I guess how intrusive they are depends in what model of phone you have to some extent.
Mine's the one with the E61i in the pocket.
