So the time came to switch to HD TV, yes I know I am very much behind the times. I reviewed a few TV's, but was blown away by the picture quality on the Sony Bravia TV's. For a while they remained a dream for me as I could get a very good TV for a lot less than a similar spec Sony. Then Sony introduced the EX range onto the South African market, and very competitive prices.
I read up a bit on room size vs screen size as well as a 4:3 vs 16:9 screen size, and concluded the smallest LCD I would get would be a 40" (102cm). One naturally wants to go for the biggest TV you can get/afford, but I find that the 40" is just wide enough, it fills the whole viewing area of your eyes, without having to move your head from side to side. My seating area is about 3.5m away from the TV.
Inputs and Outputs
I use a Patriot Box Office for media playback, which is plugged in via one of the 4 HDMI ports. There are 2 HDMI ports at the rear, and 2 on the side. I like the idea of an HDMI on the side to plug in an HD camcorder, but I would prefer the other one to be placed on the rear rather. It's not a problem plugging in something permanently to the side, but you would see the wire poking out. I have seen 90 degree HDMI plugs lately, which will help to hide the cable.
The KDL-40EX400 has a convenient optical audio out, which I feed to the optical in of my home theater system. This output feeds whatever audio you pass into the TV, including the audio from the broadcast. This is convenient, in that you leave your home theater set to one input, and the audio switches to whatever you are watching on the TV, (Good WAF).
I tested the audio feed via HDMI through the TV from the PBO, as well as directly from the PBO, and could not pick up a difference, I am confident it's passing the digital signal directly through.
This Sony also has 2 Component inputs, (rear), 3 Composite inputs, (2 rear - 1 side), 1 15pin PC input (rear) and 1 Headphone jack (side). The PC input is nice if you want to connect your Notebook, for a quick slide show, but you would need a DVI to HDMI converter to get HD from your PC. There is a mini phono jack audio input for the PC or HDMI input, which means a simple male to male mini phono jack cable will connect your PC's audio to the TV. This would provide 2 channel audio only. So if you want surround sound from your PC, you would need to feed digital audio (SPDIF) directly to your home theater, or get a video card that supports full HDMI. The inputs can also be viewed in "Picture in Picture" mode, you cannot view 2 TV channels this way, but a combo of any 2 inputs will work.
USB 2.0
The last thing to mention on the inputs is the USB 2.0 port on the side. It will take a normal USB pen drive, and play the media off there. It supports Photo (JPEG, RAW), Music (MP3) and Video (AVC, AVCHD, MPEG4, DivX). I did not do a comprehensive test of all the data types, but a new DivX video I had played very well. AVCHD will give you HD playback, but this format is used mainly by HD camcoders. You can obviously plug your still camera in and view photos and video, but what's neat is plugging your cellphone in. Most new phones support "Mass Storage" mode via USB. I tested this with a Blackberry Curve, and Apple iPhone 4. The Blackberry shares the whole data card by default, so I could display photos, video and play music, which feeds via the optical out to the home theater as well. The iPhone 4 unfortunately only shares photos via USB. The devices also charged when connected, real handy if all you want to do is charge your phone while watching TV. The navigation to get to the media is simple to use, a basic tree structure of your USB devices folders, with thumbnails for images. MP3 playback does not seem to display ID3 tags, just file name.
As far as the TV tuner is concerned, there is an Analogue and Digital (DVB-T) tuner. SABC is transmitting 1,2,3 and eTV over this service in a test phase at the moment, and I am able to pickup the signal perfectly. Compared to the analogue signal, it is noticeably clearer. Although DVB-T is capable of high definition, SABC is still transmitting a 576i signal, so we will have to wait and see if this improves. This signal is also still transmitted in 4:3 format, which can be stretched to fit the 16:9 ratio of the TV. I settled on a 14:9 setting on the TV, that "zooms" the picture in a bit, so part of the top and bottom of the picture are cut off, and the "black bars" on the side are half the normal width. This setting can be changed individually per input, so you don't have to keep changing it when you switch between inputs. The DVB-T signal also transmits the guide information, so you can see what it is that you are watching, as well as upcoming shows on all the channels. You can also set a reminder to switch to a show when it starts.
Talking about the inputs, these can be renamed with any 8 character word you like, and you can change the icon next to the name. This helps a lot when switching between inputs.
Bravia Sync
Connecting Sony products together initiates Bravia Sync, which is effectively a control protocol on the HDMI link between the devices. This worked like a charm with my Sony HD camcoder. When connected to the TV, you use the remote as if you are clicking on the screen of the camera. The exact menu is represented on the screen. So you get the visual index as per the cameras menu, which is much better than trying to browse the files on the device directly. You can even power off the camera from the TV.
Another nice touch is that the user manual is embedded in the menu as an electronic reference. So if you forget how to change a setting, there is no searching for the paper user manual, you "filed" somewhere.
Conclusion
As far as what the TV is meant for, image quality is in my opinion superb. Colours and contrast are spot on. HD in 720p from the media player is awesome, but SD content is not let down either, especially SD versions of files that were converted from an HD version. All in all, the Sony Bravia KDL-40EX400 is a good all rounder, and wonderful at the price. (Makro - R7500.00 - Oct 2010).
An outlet for me about stuff I try out, could be electronic, mechanical or even organic.
Monday, November 08, 2010
Sony Bravia KDL-40EX400 LCD TV
Labels:
Bravia Sync,
LCD,
Media Player,
SmartPhone,
Sony,
TV
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Monday, November 08, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Patriot Box Office HD Media Player
Anyone with kids will attest to the fact that letting the young ones handle DVDs is a recipe for disaster. The DVDs don't last long from sticky fingers, drops and scratches. And what about the players, they don't hold up well to being man handled. I think one day I should encourage my grand kids to mess with my kids media equipment, just to get them back. Anyway back to the present.
To overcome these issues, ripping your DVDs to a file, and storing the file on a hard drive, then using some form of player to play them is the way to go. This is relatively easy if you have a PC, and you can use the PC to play back the files. That's all great, if you like sitting at your desk in the study and watching a movie. But the lounge or TV room is a lot more comfortable. You can of course carry your PC through to the TV, and connect it up. Many new PCs have plugs to connect to the newer TVs. That's got it's pros and cons, but many people do have a great deal for success using a PC connected to their TV, for media playback.
What out weighs things for me on the PC vs Media Player debate, is cost. You just cannot build a dedicated HD capable PC for the cost of a media player.
If you decide to purchase a media player, you are currently spoiled for choice. A short list of those I looked at were: Popcorn Hour, WD Live, MVix, Mede8er, Playon!HD and Patriot Box Office.
At the time, the best cost to perfomance model was the Patriot Box Office (PBO), which I purchased from Kalahari.net (my buying experience was hassle free).
Most of these players use the Realtek Media chipset, and perform very much the same way. An odd one out at the moment is the Popcorn Hour C200. It uses a different chipset and I do feel it is probably the best media player you can get, the "Mac Daddy" as some have called it. It is however also the most expensive, by a long way. One of the major benefits is it's ability to run Yet Another Movie Jukebox. YAMJ is all about the user interface, it looks good and runs well on the Popcorn Hour. This alone could justify the cost, if you have money to burn. But for the rest of us, we will need to choose from the others.
In a resent "beta" release, the Playon!HD now also supports YAMJ, but not to the extent that the Popcorn Hour does, but they are working on it. The Playon!HD is now available in South Africa through a local distributor, which makes it top of the list to consider.
I decided on the PBO, because it was the cheapest at the time, and I had read that quite a few people were having great success running the Playon firmware (AC Ryan Firmware) on the PBO. All these players run the same chipset, so theoretically you should be able to interchange the firmware, but the problem comes in with how each manufacturer has configured their hardware. Hence the reason that someone needs to hack the firmware to work on a particular player. The hacked AC Ryan firmware for the PBO is based on the beta release, with support for YAMJ.
Flashing the firmware is real simple, and getting back to the original PBO firmware is just as easy. You do run some risks with this type of thing, but there are methods available on the net to un-brick your PBO if you mess things up.
The big differences that this will bring your PBO are:
Because the PBO is so compact, it is quite easy to transport, and with a 500GB internal hard drive (2.5"), I can put all the kids stuff on there and take it with us when we visit family, instead of packing a bunch of DVDs in the car, that are invariably going to get tomato sauce on them.
At the price, you could even hook up one of these on each TV in the house, and create a HD media network.
So I have only had the PBO for a few weeks now. I will post more about it, should I discover something of real interest, otherwise it's movie night every night. Where's the popcorn!
To overcome these issues, ripping your DVDs to a file, and storing the file on a hard drive, then using some form of player to play them is the way to go. This is relatively easy if you have a PC, and you can use the PC to play back the files. That's all great, if you like sitting at your desk in the study and watching a movie. But the lounge or TV room is a lot more comfortable. You can of course carry your PC through to the TV, and connect it up. Many new PCs have plugs to connect to the newer TVs. That's got it's pros and cons, but many people do have a great deal for success using a PC connected to their TV, for media playback.
What out weighs things for me on the PC vs Media Player debate, is cost. You just cannot build a dedicated HD capable PC for the cost of a media player.
If you decide to purchase a media player, you are currently spoiled for choice. A short list of those I looked at were: Popcorn Hour, WD Live, MVix, Mede8er, Playon!HD and Patriot Box Office.
At the time, the best cost to perfomance model was the Patriot Box Office (PBO), which I purchased from Kalahari.net (my buying experience was hassle free).
Most of these players use the Realtek Media chipset, and perform very much the same way. An odd one out at the moment is the Popcorn Hour C200. It uses a different chipset and I do feel it is probably the best media player you can get, the "Mac Daddy" as some have called it. It is however also the most expensive, by a long way. One of the major benefits is it's ability to run Yet Another Movie Jukebox. YAMJ is all about the user interface, it looks good and runs well on the Popcorn Hour. This alone could justify the cost, if you have money to burn. But for the rest of us, we will need to choose from the others.
In a resent "beta" release, the Playon!HD now also supports YAMJ, but not to the extent that the Popcorn Hour does, but they are working on it. The Playon!HD is now available in South Africa through a local distributor, which makes it top of the list to consider.
I decided on the PBO, because it was the cheapest at the time, and I had read that quite a few people were having great success running the Playon firmware (AC Ryan Firmware) on the PBO. All these players run the same chipset, so theoretically you should be able to interchange the firmware, but the problem comes in with how each manufacturer has configured their hardware. Hence the reason that someone needs to hack the firmware to work on a particular player. The hacked AC Ryan firmware for the PBO is based on the beta release, with support for YAMJ.
Flashing the firmware is real simple, and getting back to the original PBO firmware is just as easy. You do run some risks with this type of thing, but there are methods available on the net to un-brick your PBO if you mess things up.
The big differences that this will bring your PBO are:
- YAMJ. It works great, however it is a bit slow and takes numerous clicks to start.
- Media Library. Another way to browse your media on the local drive only.
- Internet Services
- Flickr
- Picasa
- Weather
- RSS News
- Streaming Radio
- NFS shares support
- DVD support (still need to test this, would be great if it supported an external BluRay drive)
Because the PBO is so compact, it is quite easy to transport, and with a 500GB internal hard drive (2.5"), I can put all the kids stuff on there and take it with us when we visit family, instead of packing a bunch of DVDs in the car, that are invariably going to get tomato sauce on them.
At the price, you could even hook up one of these on each TV in the house, and create a HD media network.
So I have only had the PBO for a few weeks now. I will post more about it, should I discover something of real interest, otherwise it's movie night every night. Where's the popcorn!
Labels:
AC Ryan,
DVD,
Media Player,
MythTV,
Patriot Box Office,
TV,
TVersity
Posted by
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Thursday, June 17, 2010
Saturday, May 08, 2010
CFI Mini-ITX Case - Unboxing Video
A quick look at the CFI-A6719 MiniITX case.
Dimensions
(L) 225 x (W) 315 x (H) 75mm
Front Panel
2x USB Ports
Headset Audio out
Mic in
Drive Bays
1x Slim 5.25” optical (exposed)
1x 3.5” Hard drive (hidden)
Power
60W Fanless external power supply
Cooling
2x Internal 40mm fans (rear)
Dimensions
(L) 225 x (W) 315 x (H) 75mm
Front Panel
2x USB Ports
Headset Audio out
Mic in
Drive Bays
1x Slim 5.25” optical (exposed)
1x 3.5” Hard drive (hidden)
Power
60W Fanless external power supply
Cooling
2x Internal 40mm fans (rear)
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Blackberry Curve 8520 Setup
So it came time for my wife to renew her cellphone contract, and I was roped into giving some ideas for a new phone. Being a geek, it's actually fun, except the pressure of possibly giving the wrong advise. So I needed to do some research based on "I just want something that works".
What I have noticed between men and woman with regards to their gadgets, is not that the devices themselves differ, but what they are used for is different. I guy will select a fancy cellphone, not so much for what it does for him functionally, but more for mmm... lets call it "bragging rights". A girl on the other hand wants something that works, and makes her life easier, and it helps if it comes in pink.
My wife is finding it difficult to keep track of meetings, and being away from her PC, so it would really help to have access to her email and calendar. She would be moving from a Nokia E51, which is a smartphone, but although I had it all configured, she never really used email and internet, because the screen is really small, and typing emails with predictive text is a little time consuming.
So the new phone needed to have a bigger screen, a better way if inputting data, not too big or heavy, and needed to be in the "free with a contract" price band.
Given my "dislike" of Windows Mobile devices, those were out of contention. The iPhone, although a very capable device, was just too expensive. So we decided to look at Blackberry. There are plenty of models in the "high" price bracket, but the 8520 Curve, was available for "free" on the Vodacom Talk 130 contract. At a glance, the 8520 has most of what the more expensive devices have, except GPS, 3G and a high res camera.
At 2MP the camera is the same as that on the E51, so at least it's not a step down. No GPS is not a problem as she has GPS in her car. But you can connect a bluetooth GPS receiver as the 8520 does have Blackberry maps. So no 3G seemed like the possible deal breaker. With a Blackberry device, you must use the "Blackberry Internet Service" (BIS) as that is free on this contract, and apparently currently only runs at EDGE speeds, so the lack of 3G only becomes an issue if you are planing to use your phone as a PC modem, which is not free as it does not work through BIS. So no 3G was not an issue either.
Given this outcome the Blackberry 8520 became the first choice, and the deal was done. I was handed a box and a new phone, and asked very nicely to give it back "all setup". With a feeling of excitement and anguish, I set about doing just that.
At this point I must just tell you about WAF. In case you don't know, WAF stands for Wife Acceptance Factor, and you need to keep WAF at a high level. One sure fire way to lower WAF, is for electronic things to not do what is expected of them, so always try keep WAF high.
In the box
With your 8520 phone, you get a charged battery (that's a nice touch), a wall socket charger, stereo earphones, USB PC cable, manual and CD. What I did notice right away is that the 8520 does make use of the "Open Mobile Terminal Platform" standard for the charger and USB interface.
The phone
What strikes you right away when you pick up the phone is how light it is (106g) given the size, you really do expect it to be heavier, this is a good thing for girls, who will be adding this to the existing weight of a handbag. The feel of the device is solid and the keys feel good. I find that I cannot really type with my finger tips, and switch to using the end of my finger nails, but can still get pretty good speed. The screen is clear and bright, and a good size, the font is well matched to the screen and doesn't feel crowded. A big step up from using the Nokia E51.
Setting up
Put the SIM card in saw then that the additional storage card was already installed (2GB), installed the battery, and we are ready to roll. The phone boots up in a good time, and you are presented with the home screen after keying in your SIM pin. The new track pad is nice to use, you slide your finger over the middle button below the screen and it moves the position of the function being highlighted. Near the top of the screen you can change which profile you want, and at the bottom there is a row of six icons for functions that you can select. When selecting you just click the track pad. To dial a number you just start dialing using the keyboard, and then click the dial button, there is also a dedicated cancel/put down button. The other two main buttons are a "back" button which takes you back to the screen before, and a "Blackberry" button that brings up the main menu or a pop up menu, in context to where you are. A quick test showed that making and receiving a call worked, with CLI functional, and SMS worked too.
BIS (Blackberry Internet Service)
Next up, setting up email. But first I wanted to make sure BIS was working, better to be using the free service from the get go. A quick look in the manual didn't reveal much, so I headed to the trusty internet and my friend Google. A couple of searches only lead me into more darkness, no real answers on how to get this to work, and plenty of overseas users saying they had to contact their "service providers". I thought I might as well give Vodacom's website a try, and see where their help section leads me. I must say to my surprise they did have all the info I needed, but not really user friendly. It was only through trial and error that I found out that you need to setup "Host Routing table registration". Now I am quite familiar with internet jargon, and I know what host routing tables are, but how would one know that this is needed to be done on the phone to get BIS to work. Anyway you follow these instructions, and voila it's up and running in a few minutes. So how do you know it's working? Have a look at the top right corner of the screen, it shows gprs when it is connected, and if it's in uppercase (GPRS) then you are connected via BIS.
WiFi
While setting up BIS, I also got the phone connected to the home WiFi. Real easy actually, the phone will detect any available WiFi networks, and you just input your passwords and you are good to go. The phone runs at 802.11b/g speeds, so if you have good broadband, you can overcome the lack of 3G speed when in WiFi range. The phone also switches seamlessly between the networks. I was never a fan of this behavior, due to the fact that when switching automatically from WiFi to cellphone network normally shoots your data cost through the roof, I prefer the phone to "ask" before switching. But with BIS being free it is actually not an issue on this phone.
Email and Calendar setup
My wife uses Gmail, so all you need to do is configure Gmail for IMAP connectivity (Google Help will show you how to do that), then select "Email Settings" under the Setup menu (by the way this option only appears once you have BIS setup), Gmail is an option in the menu. You provide your username and password, and you are connected. A quick test, and all is working as expected, I was surprised how quick the messages come through. The messages icon on the main screen shows an asterisk if you have new messages, and an image of a small envelope with a number next to it on the top of the screen showing number of messages unread. I also installed Google Calendar sync, which is available as a download from the Google site. This will sync your calendar with your Gmail one, and in turn send those updates to your PC calendar. You can also install calendar sync for your PC. What I did find is with all the syncing back and forth, some duplicate entities were made, Google does have a bug logged for this, but no time frame on getting it fixed. In my testing no meetings were lost, only duplicates created. But I was changing stuff a lot and syncing back and forth, which is not what would happen in a normal day.
Other apps
Being a smartphone I could not help myself and needed to add some apps (be warned if this goes wrong it can drastically lower your WAF). My wife uses Facebook, so when I saw there was an app for that I figured lets give it a go. You need to head over to Blackberry App World on the web, select the app you want, give your cell number and they SMS you a link to download the app on your phone. Clickedy click and Facebook was installed. Although you can run the app from the downloads menu, it does actually integrate well with the functions of the phone. Any Facebook messages arrive into the messages folder, the same place as your emails. You can link your cellphone contacts with your Facebook friends, this then pulls in any info on them that you may be missing, and uses their profile picture as your contacts image. This image then comes up when they call you, and it updates if they update their profile, pretty cool. You also have an additional option in your camera menu when sending a photo, to send it to Facebook.
I also loaded Google Talk, which runs in the background, new instant messages show up in the messages folder, and you can add a link to your contacts. Google Talk for Blackberry does have an annoying bug that stops the app from running when you loose connectivity, and it won't reconnect when your connectivity is restored. You have to manually reconnect.
Two Google Blackberry apps with bugs, not too good!
I did see Flickr for Blackberry in App World, which would work as a good add on to your camera, but have not tried it.
I installed the Blackberry software off the CD, which gives access to change which standard functions are available on the phone, as well as update the phone software if a new release comes out. The phone had the latest version on, so I could not try this. You can also use the software to sync your contacts, calendar and email, with your PC. And you can use the software to transfer data to your phone, with the facility for media sync, which will synchronize your images, videos and music. I thought this was a nice touch given that this is not known for being a media device.
Tips
I got a good tip from my brother in law for setting up the menu. When you click the Blackberry key from the home screen you get a full screen of icons to choose from. The home screen has only six icons across the bottom of the screen. What was getting me, was how to set which of these six icons you want on the home screen. It's quite simple actually, you move the icons you want to the top row of the main menu, and when you return to the home screen those are the ones shown. It's almost like the main menu "slides" up and down, and shows the top row only, when on the home screen. You can also create your own custom "folder" or sub menu, and put items in there, and then put that icon on the top row, giving a quick way to get to a sub menu of your choice.
To silence the phone when you have an incoming call but not cancel the call, click the "space" key or the trackpad button.
It is pretty impressive what you can do with the profiles, you can basically set the sounds for every function on the phone, calls, SMS, MMS, Email etc, individually. The thing that I found strange was the setting for IN/OUT of "Holster". Sounds like a setting for a cowboy. This refers to whether you have the phone in or out of a belt pouch, or holster. You need to use a Blackberry specific one, but the phone picks up the magnet on the pouch cover, and sets the phone to the "IN holster" setting. This is so that you can enable vibrate, or maybe make the ringer loader. I think the girls would like this in a handbag, might work if you sew a small magnet in there somewhere near the phone.
Conclusion
I must say I am very impressed with the Blackberry Curve 8520, and would recommend it to anyone who needs an effective portable messaging device. With email now working for my wife just like SMS, I am finding that I now email her when I would have normally sent an SMS, and am saving myself the cost of an SMS each time. Blackberry are known for having messaging centric devices, and this one does fit the bill, and at a good price point too.
As far as the girls point of view, my wife says... "This phone is actually quite nice" = WAF -> Good
What I have noticed between men and woman with regards to their gadgets, is not that the devices themselves differ, but what they are used for is different. I guy will select a fancy cellphone, not so much for what it does for him functionally, but more for mmm... lets call it "bragging rights". A girl on the other hand wants something that works, and makes her life easier, and it helps if it comes in pink.
My wife is finding it difficult to keep track of meetings, and being away from her PC, so it would really help to have access to her email and calendar. She would be moving from a Nokia E51, which is a smartphone, but although I had it all configured, she never really used email and internet, because the screen is really small, and typing emails with predictive text is a little time consuming.
So the new phone needed to have a bigger screen, a better way if inputting data, not too big or heavy, and needed to be in the "free with a contract" price band.
Given my "dislike" of Windows Mobile devices, those were out of contention. The iPhone, although a very capable device, was just too expensive. So we decided to look at Blackberry. There are plenty of models in the "high" price bracket, but the 8520 Curve, was available for "free" on the Vodacom Talk 130 contract. At a glance, the 8520 has most of what the more expensive devices have, except GPS, 3G and a high res camera.
At 2MP the camera is the same as that on the E51, so at least it's not a step down. No GPS is not a problem as she has GPS in her car. But you can connect a bluetooth GPS receiver as the 8520 does have Blackberry maps. So no 3G seemed like the possible deal breaker. With a Blackberry device, you must use the "Blackberry Internet Service" (BIS) as that is free on this contract, and apparently currently only runs at EDGE speeds, so the lack of 3G only becomes an issue if you are planing to use your phone as a PC modem, which is not free as it does not work through BIS. So no 3G was not an issue either.
Given this outcome the Blackberry 8520 became the first choice, and the deal was done. I was handed a box and a new phone, and asked very nicely to give it back "all setup". With a feeling of excitement and anguish, I set about doing just that.
At this point I must just tell you about WAF. In case you don't know, WAF stands for Wife Acceptance Factor, and you need to keep WAF at a high level. One sure fire way to lower WAF, is for electronic things to not do what is expected of them, so always try keep WAF high.
In the box
With your 8520 phone, you get a charged battery (that's a nice touch), a wall socket charger, stereo earphones, USB PC cable, manual and CD. What I did notice right away is that the 8520 does make use of the "Open Mobile Terminal Platform" standard for the charger and USB interface.
The phone
What strikes you right away when you pick up the phone is how light it is (106g) given the size, you really do expect it to be heavier, this is a good thing for girls, who will be adding this to the existing weight of a handbag. The feel of the device is solid and the keys feel good. I find that I cannot really type with my finger tips, and switch to using the end of my finger nails, but can still get pretty good speed. The screen is clear and bright, and a good size, the font is well matched to the screen and doesn't feel crowded. A big step up from using the Nokia E51.
Setting up
Put the SIM card in saw then that the additional storage card was already installed (2GB), installed the battery, and we are ready to roll. The phone boots up in a good time, and you are presented with the home screen after keying in your SIM pin. The new track pad is nice to use, you slide your finger over the middle button below the screen and it moves the position of the function being highlighted. Near the top of the screen you can change which profile you want, and at the bottom there is a row of six icons for functions that you can select. When selecting you just click the track pad. To dial a number you just start dialing using the keyboard, and then click the dial button, there is also a dedicated cancel/put down button. The other two main buttons are a "back" button which takes you back to the screen before, and a "Blackberry" button that brings up the main menu or a pop up menu, in context to where you are. A quick test showed that making and receiving a call worked, with CLI functional, and SMS worked too.
BIS (Blackberry Internet Service)
Next up, setting up email. But first I wanted to make sure BIS was working, better to be using the free service from the get go. A quick look in the manual didn't reveal much, so I headed to the trusty internet and my friend Google. A couple of searches only lead me into more darkness, no real answers on how to get this to work, and plenty of overseas users saying they had to contact their "service providers". I thought I might as well give Vodacom's website a try, and see where their help section leads me. I must say to my surprise they did have all the info I needed, but not really user friendly. It was only through trial and error that I found out that you need to setup "Host Routing table registration". Now I am quite familiar with internet jargon, and I know what host routing tables are, but how would one know that this is needed to be done on the phone to get BIS to work. Anyway you follow these instructions, and voila it's up and running in a few minutes. So how do you know it's working? Have a look at the top right corner of the screen, it shows gprs when it is connected, and if it's in uppercase (GPRS) then you are connected via BIS.
WiFi
While setting up BIS, I also got the phone connected to the home WiFi. Real easy actually, the phone will detect any available WiFi networks, and you just input your passwords and you are good to go. The phone runs at 802.11b/g speeds, so if you have good broadband, you can overcome the lack of 3G speed when in WiFi range. The phone also switches seamlessly between the networks. I was never a fan of this behavior, due to the fact that when switching automatically from WiFi to cellphone network normally shoots your data cost through the roof, I prefer the phone to "ask" before switching. But with BIS being free it is actually not an issue on this phone.
Email and Calendar setup
My wife uses Gmail, so all you need to do is configure Gmail for IMAP connectivity (Google Help will show you how to do that), then select "Email Settings" under the Setup menu (by the way this option only appears once you have BIS setup), Gmail is an option in the menu. You provide your username and password, and you are connected. A quick test, and all is working as expected, I was surprised how quick the messages come through. The messages icon on the main screen shows an asterisk if you have new messages, and an image of a small envelope with a number next to it on the top of the screen showing number of messages unread. I also installed Google Calendar sync, which is available as a download from the Google site. This will sync your calendar with your Gmail one, and in turn send those updates to your PC calendar. You can also install calendar sync for your PC. What I did find is with all the syncing back and forth, some duplicate entities were made, Google does have a bug logged for this, but no time frame on getting it fixed. In my testing no meetings were lost, only duplicates created. But I was changing stuff a lot and syncing back and forth, which is not what would happen in a normal day.
Other apps
Being a smartphone I could not help myself and needed to add some apps (be warned if this goes wrong it can drastically lower your WAF). My wife uses Facebook, so when I saw there was an app for that I figured lets give it a go. You need to head over to Blackberry App World on the web, select the app you want, give your cell number and they SMS you a link to download the app on your phone. Clickedy click and Facebook was installed. Although you can run the app from the downloads menu, it does actually integrate well with the functions of the phone. Any Facebook messages arrive into the messages folder, the same place as your emails. You can link your cellphone contacts with your Facebook friends, this then pulls in any info on them that you may be missing, and uses their profile picture as your contacts image. This image then comes up when they call you, and it updates if they update their profile, pretty cool. You also have an additional option in your camera menu when sending a photo, to send it to Facebook.
I also loaded Google Talk, which runs in the background, new instant messages show up in the messages folder, and you can add a link to your contacts. Google Talk for Blackberry does have an annoying bug that stops the app from running when you loose connectivity, and it won't reconnect when your connectivity is restored. You have to manually reconnect.
Two Google Blackberry apps with bugs, not too good!
I did see Flickr for Blackberry in App World, which would work as a good add on to your camera, but have not tried it.
I installed the Blackberry software off the CD, which gives access to change which standard functions are available on the phone, as well as update the phone software if a new release comes out. The phone had the latest version on, so I could not try this. You can also use the software to sync your contacts, calendar and email, with your PC. And you can use the software to transfer data to your phone, with the facility for media sync, which will synchronize your images, videos and music. I thought this was a nice touch given that this is not known for being a media device.
Tips
I got a good tip from my brother in law for setting up the menu. When you click the Blackberry key from the home screen you get a full screen of icons to choose from. The home screen has only six icons across the bottom of the screen. What was getting me, was how to set which of these six icons you want on the home screen. It's quite simple actually, you move the icons you want to the top row of the main menu, and when you return to the home screen those are the ones shown. It's almost like the main menu "slides" up and down, and shows the top row only, when on the home screen. You can also create your own custom "folder" or sub menu, and put items in there, and then put that icon on the top row, giving a quick way to get to a sub menu of your choice.
To silence the phone when you have an incoming call but not cancel the call, click the "space" key or the trackpad button.
It is pretty impressive what you can do with the profiles, you can basically set the sounds for every function on the phone, calls, SMS, MMS, Email etc, individually. The thing that I found strange was the setting for IN/OUT of "Holster". Sounds like a setting for a cowboy. This refers to whether you have the phone in or out of a belt pouch, or holster. You need to use a Blackberry specific one, but the phone picks up the magnet on the pouch cover, and sets the phone to the "IN holster" setting. This is so that you can enable vibrate, or maybe make the ringer loader. I think the girls would like this in a handbag, might work if you sew a small magnet in there somewhere near the phone.
Conclusion
I must say I am very impressed with the Blackberry Curve 8520, and would recommend it to anyone who needs an effective portable messaging device. With email now working for my wife just like SMS, I am finding that I now email her when I would have normally sent an SMS, and am saving myself the cost of an SMS each time. Blackberry are known for having messaging centric devices, and this one does fit the bill, and at a good price point too.
As far as the girls point of view, my wife says... "This phone is actually quite nice" = WAF -> Good
Labels:
Facebook,
Gmail,
GPS,
SmartPhone
Posted by
Unknown
at
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Honda CRV Car DVD Install Part 1
This a quick walk through of the Waywell Car DVD install for a 2009 Honda CRV.
The model being fitted here the WD6009, but the site has been updated to reflect changes to this model. Waywell Website, so you cannot buy this specific one anymore
This is what the car looks like with the standard radio.
Radio with single CD, no MP3 capability, but it does have an aux in for a media device
This was replaced with the following
Picture of the installed unit, showing the main menu.
Wiring
The unit comes with a wiring harness to suit the existing one in the car, so the plugs going to the original radio, plug straight into the new radios harness. This only really covers the wiring for the speakers, and the steering wheel controls, as you still have to supply wires for main power, key power and dash lights.
The harness going to the car
The main harness going into the radio
The steering wheel remote control wire
Steering Wheel Remote Control Issue
Plugging in the wires and getting the radio working was pretty easy, I did have a problem getting the steering remote controls working, at first none of the buttons would work, then after a bit of searching I found that the pink and brown wires you can see in the picture above, were the wrong way round. After fixing that I could get only volume up and channel down to work. I contacted Waywell and they sent me the follow pages from their manual.
Click on the image to enlarge
This worked first time, so all the buttons work as expected. In the CRV the steering has remote buttons for Volume, Channel and Mode. Because you can map any button to any function, I found mapping mode to mute on the radio was more handy.
This is what the setup screen looks like, as explained in the supplied fix.
TV
A TV antenna and reversing camera were added to the radio when ordered as optional extras. The TV works the same as a portable TV with "bunny" ears. But you can't move the antenna around as it is fixed in the roof lining near the windscreen, so you have to move the car around. TV reception moves from good to terrible, with the slightest change in direction. I did manage to pick up all the South African TV stations though.
Just a note, the TV and DVD only work if the handbrake is up, the rear DVD player will work while the car is moving, so the kids are happy, and you can use the radio in the front for something else.
Reversing Camera
Fitting this was the hardest part, the camera was mounted above the number plate in the rear hatch. This ended up to be a great place, with a good view behind. The unit automatically switches to the camera when you engage reverse, and works like a charm. Sometimes the light can be an issue, as you would expect.
The camera shows up 3 blue lines on the image, and with some practice, you can navigate very well using these lines as a reference for how close you are to objects.
iPod
I connected an iPod Touch to test the iPod connection and it works fine, audio is good, I have not managed to get video to work. There is a menu item for it, so I assume it would work, possibly only with the normal iPod.
I do find the menu rather small, and clicking on items with your finger is difficult, especially when driving. Once you are in the place you want to be, you can skip back/forward with the steering controls.
Bluetooth
The bluetooth cellphone interface is pretty basic, just gives you hands-free functionality, with incoming caller number only, no address book import. This is a bit of a downer, for a device like this, but as I see on the Waywell website, they are now adding this to new models.
Radio
This functions well, and there are 18 presets available, reception is ok, I have had better radios, but with a strong signal it's fine. There is no RDS, so no channel names, as well as no auto-skip to a stronger signal.
Check back for part 2 on how I got the SatNav working.
The model being fitted here the WD6009, but the site has been updated to reflect changes to this model. Waywell Website, so you cannot buy this specific one anymore
This is what the car looks like with the standard radio.
Radio with single CD, no MP3 capability, but it does have an aux in for a media device
This was replaced with the following
- CD/DVD Player
- MP4 Video Player
- MP3 Player (Supported on CD and DVD)
- Radio
- USB Reader
- SD Card Reader
- Bluetooth (for cellphone)
- AUX in (Audio and Video)
- AUX out (Audio and Video, for rear screens)
- iPod support
- Reversing Camera
- TV
- GPS Navigation
Picture of the installed unit, showing the main menu.
Wiring
The unit comes with a wiring harness to suit the existing one in the car, so the plugs going to the original radio, plug straight into the new radios harness. This only really covers the wiring for the speakers, and the steering wheel controls, as you still have to supply wires for main power, key power and dash lights.
The harness going to the car
The main harness going into the radio
The steering wheel remote control wire
Steering Wheel Remote Control Issue
Plugging in the wires and getting the radio working was pretty easy, I did have a problem getting the steering remote controls working, at first none of the buttons would work, then after a bit of searching I found that the pink and brown wires you can see in the picture above, were the wrong way round. After fixing that I could get only volume up and channel down to work. I contacted Waywell and they sent me the follow pages from their manual.
Click on the image to enlarge
This worked first time, so all the buttons work as expected. In the CRV the steering has remote buttons for Volume, Channel and Mode. Because you can map any button to any function, I found mapping mode to mute on the radio was more handy.
This is what the setup screen looks like, as explained in the supplied fix.
TV
A TV antenna and reversing camera were added to the radio when ordered as optional extras. The TV works the same as a portable TV with "bunny" ears. But you can't move the antenna around as it is fixed in the roof lining near the windscreen, so you have to move the car around. TV reception moves from good to terrible, with the slightest change in direction. I did manage to pick up all the South African TV stations though.
Just a note, the TV and DVD only work if the handbrake is up, the rear DVD player will work while the car is moving, so the kids are happy, and you can use the radio in the front for something else.
Reversing Camera
Fitting this was the hardest part, the camera was mounted above the number plate in the rear hatch. This ended up to be a great place, with a good view behind. The unit automatically switches to the camera when you engage reverse, and works like a charm. Sometimes the light can be an issue, as you would expect.
The camera shows up 3 blue lines on the image, and with some practice, you can navigate very well using these lines as a reference for how close you are to objects.
iPod
I connected an iPod Touch to test the iPod connection and it works fine, audio is good, I have not managed to get video to work. There is a menu item for it, so I assume it would work, possibly only with the normal iPod.
I do find the menu rather small, and clicking on items with your finger is difficult, especially when driving. Once you are in the place you want to be, you can skip back/forward with the steering controls.
Bluetooth
The bluetooth cellphone interface is pretty basic, just gives you hands-free functionality, with incoming caller number only, no address book import. This is a bit of a downer, for a device like this, but as I see on the Waywell website, they are now adding this to new models.
Radio
This functions well, and there are 18 presets available, reception is ok, I have had better radios, but with a strong signal it's fine. There is no RDS, so no channel names, as well as no auto-skip to a stronger signal.
Check back for part 2 on how I got the SatNav working.
Posted by
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at
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Woolworths Savoury Rub Deboned Chicken
If you're a chicken lover and like it from the braai (BBQ), I can definitely recommend the Woolworths Savoury Rub Deboned Chicken.
It is real easy to cook, takes a lot less time than chicken on the bone, and when it comes to carving, it is just slice and serve.
Goes great with baked potatoes, and avocado salad.
Posted by
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at
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Four Bean and Tuna Salad
For anyone who would like a healthy lunch takeaway idea. I recommend the Four Bean Salad from Woolworths with the John West tuna pack added on top.
If you have a bowl available, I find that the tuna mixes in better if you put that in first and pour the salad over it.
Most beans contain only 2-3% fat, contain no cholesterol, and they can help lower your cholesterol level because they are one of the richest sources of fiber!
Tuna, an excellent source of lean protein, vitamins and minerals, can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids, found in abundance in fatty fish like tuna, can help lower the risk of heart disease.
If you are on the run, just grab both these items at Woolies (some stores place them both in the fridge section), mix and enjoy, also remember you can get a spoon or fork at the till on the way out.
Enjoy
If you have a bowl available, I find that the tuna mixes in better if you put that in first and pour the salad over it.
Most beans contain only 2-3% fat, contain no cholesterol, and they can help lower your cholesterol level because they are one of the richest sources of fiber!
Tuna, an excellent source of lean protein, vitamins and minerals, can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids, found in abundance in fatty fish like tuna, can help lower the risk of heart disease.
If you are on the run, just grab both these items at Woolies (some stores place them both in the fridge section), mix and enjoy, also remember you can get a spoon or fork at the till on the way out.
Enjoy
Posted by
Unknown
at
Monday, April 12, 2010
Friday, April 02, 2010
A year with a Samsung Omnia i900
In 2008 I signed up with MTN on their new Anytime Contract which included a Samsung Omnia i900 at R319.00 per month for 24 months.
I have used Nokia cellphones for the past 6 years. 3 of them have been Symbian S60 platform smartphones. Nokia S60 phones have not been good luck for me, all 3 of these phones, have either developed issues that make them unusable or they just failed to switch on one day. All failures outside of warranty, so I could not have them repaired, without handing over more cash. So I dumped them in a cupboard and borrowed a phone to use until I could renew my contract and get a new phone.
I decided to skip Nokia this time around, and went for a Windows Mobile phone. I am not a Microsoft fan, I believe their software is expensive and unstable. But I thought I should try out their Mobile software at least before I make any judgment on that, and see what all the fuss is about.
I looked around at all the phones available. I was restricted by what I could get on a contract for minimal pay in. I looked at the HTC Diamond, but decided on the Samsung Omnia i900 based on some reviews I read and the fact that I liked the look of the phone.
In the box
Besides the normal stuff, phone, charger, USB cable and manual, this box comes with a car holder (stick on window type), a car charger and an additional 8GB memory card, with Garmin software already on it. With this card installed this phone has 16GB of memory in total.
I switch the phone on, it asks for some owner information and it's up and running. Made a few calls and was impressed with the sound quality.
What struck me as strange right up front was the way that the stylus is stored on a string hanging off the side of the phone. People would ask me why I have an eyeliner pencil attached to my phone. I think Samsung were hoping for an iPhone type user experience, and felt storing the stylus in the phone was not necessary. I must say this did bug me. One can obviously detach the stylus and forgo using it, but I found that trying to use the phone with only your finger isn't easy all the time.
Making a call and sending an SMS
Using the touch screen to make a call, is easy, you can call up a contact or dial a number using your finger tip. Sending an SMS is a bit more of a two handed process, there is a big keyboard to click with your finger, but it takes up a lot of the available screen area, the keyboard is easier to use if you flip the screen on it's side, a process that works well with the motion sensor. You can deactivate the sensor if you wish. I found that finding a contact and then sending the SMS is easier than starting a new SMS and clicking on the To field to add a recipient.
Syncing
In typical Microsoft fashion, you can only sync this phone with MS Outlook, which works fine, but this forces you into buying the software which is around R1200 for Outlook or R4500 for the Office Suite. I would have liked to see MS provide the Outlook software in the box.
WiFi
One of the primary requirements for me is WiFi on my cellphone, I use this to access servers in my home wireless network. It was pretty easy to get the phone connected, and I can browse the internet through my broadband connection. One thing that does bug me, is if you set-up the phone to use a 3G data connection, it will reconnect on this if the WiFi connection is lost, great if that's what you want, but a problem in ZA where cellular bandwidth is expensive. This is a "Windows thinking for me" thing that ticks me off. At least have some way to confirm that you want to reconnect. The WiFi hardware is not very good, I have other WiFi devices that connect fine to my network in places where the Omnia will not. You basically need line of site to your access point, and should be within 10 to 15 meters. Also the WiFi does chomp the battery.
GPS
The supplied Garmin software is similar to that used in the Nuvi range of devices and works in exactly the same way, so it's good and works well. But it sucks your battery dry, so if you plan to use this regularly in your car, have a charger with you. If you think you have a GPS in your pocket for use whenever, be sure you have enough power. Another strange thing is how hot the phone gets when using GPS, putting it into your pocket after use is uncomfortable. The down side with having an all in one device is that making a call when using the GPS is a mission. The screen is a little small, some popup alerts cannot be read while driving.
Camera
With a 5MP camera, this phone does take good pics, it has a flash, but daytime pictures are much better quality. One feature that did work well was the panorama function, of stitching several pics together as you move sideways.
Installing Apps
A few people have said to me that the reason I have bad luck with smart phones, is that I mess around with the software. This is probably true to some extent, but isn't that what they were made for? Now I am not a hacker type of user, I don't dig into the core workings of the software. But I do like to load software and try things out, mostly the run of the mill stuff that is freely available. I must say the stuff available out there is a bit disorganized, There is really no one place, like an "app store" that you can go to for everything, and a lot of stuff just didn't work on the Omnia.
General Use
With not much to install, I ended up using the phone to make calls and send SMS's. But you can do that with a much cheaper phone.
I found that using any of the features that require you to slide your finger over the screen, rather difficult. You need to apply the same level of pressure constantly as you sweep your finger.
R.I.P.
Well that lasted only 12 months into the 24 month contract. I started seeing more and more crashes on the phone, I would need to reboot more often. Then one day I stopped getting incoming calls. With the phone on and showing as "working", the person calling said they got a ringing sound on their side, but the soon to be paper weight was completely silent on my side.
That day ended with the phone taking a bit of flight out of my hand and hitting the floor, as it decided to hang AGAIN.
So like oysters, I tried it, and didn't like it. No more Samsung Windows Mobile phones for me, and probably no Windows Mobile, period.
I have used Nokia cellphones for the past 6 years. 3 of them have been Symbian S60 platform smartphones. Nokia S60 phones have not been good luck for me, all 3 of these phones, have either developed issues that make them unusable or they just failed to switch on one day. All failures outside of warranty, so I could not have them repaired, without handing over more cash. So I dumped them in a cupboard and borrowed a phone to use until I could renew my contract and get a new phone.
I decided to skip Nokia this time around, and went for a Windows Mobile phone. I am not a Microsoft fan, I believe their software is expensive and unstable. But I thought I should try out their Mobile software at least before I make any judgment on that, and see what all the fuss is about.
I looked around at all the phones available. I was restricted by what I could get on a contract for minimal pay in. I looked at the HTC Diamond, but decided on the Samsung Omnia i900 based on some reviews I read and the fact that I liked the look of the phone.
In the box
Besides the normal stuff, phone, charger, USB cable and manual, this box comes with a car holder (stick on window type), a car charger and an additional 8GB memory card, with Garmin software already on it. With this card installed this phone has 16GB of memory in total.
I switch the phone on, it asks for some owner information and it's up and running. Made a few calls and was impressed with the sound quality.
What struck me as strange right up front was the way that the stylus is stored on a string hanging off the side of the phone. People would ask me why I have an eyeliner pencil attached to my phone. I think Samsung were hoping for an iPhone type user experience, and felt storing the stylus in the phone was not necessary. I must say this did bug me. One can obviously detach the stylus and forgo using it, but I found that trying to use the phone with only your finger isn't easy all the time.
Making a call and sending an SMS
Using the touch screen to make a call, is easy, you can call up a contact or dial a number using your finger tip. Sending an SMS is a bit more of a two handed process, there is a big keyboard to click with your finger, but it takes up a lot of the available screen area, the keyboard is easier to use if you flip the screen on it's side, a process that works well with the motion sensor. You can deactivate the sensor if you wish. I found that finding a contact and then sending the SMS is easier than starting a new SMS and clicking on the To field to add a recipient.
Syncing
In typical Microsoft fashion, you can only sync this phone with MS Outlook, which works fine, but this forces you into buying the software which is around R1200 for Outlook or R4500 for the Office Suite. I would have liked to see MS provide the Outlook software in the box.
WiFi
One of the primary requirements for me is WiFi on my cellphone, I use this to access servers in my home wireless network. It was pretty easy to get the phone connected, and I can browse the internet through my broadband connection. One thing that does bug me, is if you set-up the phone to use a 3G data connection, it will reconnect on this if the WiFi connection is lost, great if that's what you want, but a problem in ZA where cellular bandwidth is expensive. This is a "Windows thinking for me" thing that ticks me off. At least have some way to confirm that you want to reconnect. The WiFi hardware is not very good, I have other WiFi devices that connect fine to my network in places where the Omnia will not. You basically need line of site to your access point, and should be within 10 to 15 meters. Also the WiFi does chomp the battery.
GPS
The supplied Garmin software is similar to that used in the Nuvi range of devices and works in exactly the same way, so it's good and works well. But it sucks your battery dry, so if you plan to use this regularly in your car, have a charger with you. If you think you have a GPS in your pocket for use whenever, be sure you have enough power. Another strange thing is how hot the phone gets when using GPS, putting it into your pocket after use is uncomfortable. The down side with having an all in one device is that making a call when using the GPS is a mission. The screen is a little small, some popup alerts cannot be read while driving.
Camera
With a 5MP camera, this phone does take good pics, it has a flash, but daytime pictures are much better quality. One feature that did work well was the panorama function, of stitching several pics together as you move sideways.
Installing Apps
A few people have said to me that the reason I have bad luck with smart phones, is that I mess around with the software. This is probably true to some extent, but isn't that what they were made for? Now I am not a hacker type of user, I don't dig into the core workings of the software. But I do like to load software and try things out, mostly the run of the mill stuff that is freely available. I must say the stuff available out there is a bit disorganized, There is really no one place, like an "app store" that you can go to for everything, and a lot of stuff just didn't work on the Omnia.
General Use
With not much to install, I ended up using the phone to make calls and send SMS's. But you can do that with a much cheaper phone.
I found that using any of the features that require you to slide your finger over the screen, rather difficult. You need to apply the same level of pressure constantly as you sweep your finger.
R.I.P.
Well that lasted only 12 months into the 24 month contract. I started seeing more and more crashes on the phone, I would need to reboot more often. Then one day I stopped getting incoming calls. With the phone on and showing as "working", the person calling said they got a ringing sound on their side, but the soon to be paper weight was completely silent on my side.
That day ended with the phone taking a bit of flight out of my hand and hitting the floor, as it decided to hang AGAIN.
So like oysters, I tried it, and didn't like it. No more Samsung Windows Mobile phones for me, and probably no Windows Mobile, period.
Labels:
Garmin,
GPS,
Samsung,
SmartPhone,
Windows Mobile
Posted by
Unknown
at
Friday, April 02, 2010
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