After 2 years of using my Treo 650 as a work phone, I decided that it was time to get something different. There really wasn’t *that* much wrong with the Treo, though I was getting tired of the crashing during mail reading and other routine cell phone functions (like phone calls). Also, with me having an iPhone which really has a much better mail reading interface, having another phone to use to read mail with didn’t really make as much sense. Having a small phone to use as a *phone* really seemed to be the requirement. So I set off to research the latest phones. Again, the requirement was a smaller phone, good battery life, and something that would still sync nicely to my Mac using iSync. Having a 2100MHz WCDMA phone also was a “wish” - it would be nice if the phone worked in Japan in case I have to go there.

I discounted SonyEricsson phones immediately. Because after 3 years, I’m still mad at them over the Z520 buggy firmware which caused my phone to crash every day or so. I don’t like the Motorola interfaces, so that kind of left me with Nokia. T-Mobile doesn’t really have a good selection of Nokia business phones, plus, I really didn’t want to buy a carrier-crippled phone, so off to searching Amazon.com for phones.

I was originally looking at a Nokia N82, but the N-series phones are expensive, and I really didn’t need a 5MP camera on the phone. Too bad because I actually really like the Series60 Symbian OS on the Nokia phones. I finally happened upon the E51 - and on sale to boot. Small, relatively light weight, and Series60 OS with iSync capabilities direct from Nokia. I ordered one up in the black metal color.



Compared to my iPhone (left), it’s about the same thickness, but about 2/3 the width. It has an unconventional key layout even for a Series60 phone. No Edit button, but shortcuts for Home, Calendar, Contacts, and Email instead. Smallish keypad, but I have small fingers so it’s not a big deal. Absolutely brilliant display. Nice sturdy feel.

After having this phone for about 2 weeks, here is some feedback on the phone.

Pros: The battery life and size of this phone are great. Sound quality is excellent, and the reception seems to be at least as good as my Treo (which had a stubby external antenna which kept jabbing me in the side). Bluetooth works great (paired right up to my Nokia BH-900 headset). Syncing is about as good as you get from anyone that isn’t named Apple, and this has got to be the *fastest* charging phone I have ever had. Nice familiar (to me) Series60 interface and the “Active Standby” has been greatly improved so it now shows me a summary of my day’s events from the calendar, waiting voicemails or text messages, and customizable short cuts to favorite things on the phone. Nokia even thoughtfully put speed keys for Bluetooth on/off and Silent/Normal mode on the * and # keys. When using my Bluetooth headset, the mute button is the button on the right in between the volume keys. Handy! This phone also does 2100MHz WCDMA/UMTS so it should also work overseas. Also has 802.11b/g wireless so it links right up to the home wireless networks. Calendar, ringtones, and music player all work nicely. Oh, and my current Nokia chargers are compatible with the new phone.

Cons: This is not a US 3G phone. It has 850MHz WCDMA support, but AT&T only supports that in some markets, and I’m not using this phone on AT&T anyways (I’m using it on T-Mobile). The side buttons are a little hard to push. The camera is really for emergency use only. And the SIM card fits in so tight, I don’t think I’m ever getting it out of this phone.... I also had a very bad time setting up email on this phone. I interrupted it while it was downloading the initial email headers and after that, every trip to the email program caused the phone to slow down and hang. I finally had to do a *#7370# to reset the phone back to factory ROM image before that problem would clear up. How extreme! Even now, the mail program isn’t the world’s fastest. It’s good for an emergency, but not much else. That’s fine though - it fits my usage criteria. No games though - not even the standard Snake game. I guess it’s because it’s a “Business” phone...

Overall, I consider this phone to be a major winner. It’s certainly a lot smaller and lighter than the Treo and the sound quality and stability of the phone are just great. It’s nice being able to have a conversation on the phone and not having to worry about the phone mysteriously crashing in the middle of the call....

Tags: Technology

It wasn’t all smooth, but yesterday, I updated the map in my Garmin Nüvi 650 and realized that my Garmin now knows my home address! Living in a new house in a new subdivision, the various online map services have only just in the last 12-18 months begun to accept our home address as a valid location.

Of course, getting this map is never as easy as saying, “Update my map”, especially when you are trying to take advantage of a free offer. First I had to upgrade the system firmware. Then I had to get my Mac to talk to the GPS. Then I had to download the (2.16GB) map. But about an hour later I was done. So I thought.

I took the GPS out for a spin and realized it was no longer speaking the names of streets. After getting home and spending some time with Google, I found out that I needed a TTS (Text to Speech) voice for that feature. Except there wasn’t one listed.

Then I remembered during the system firmware update the note about “optional voices will be erased with the update, but you can download them again later.” I had ignored it because, hey, I had never added any optional voices. Apparently the TTS voice is optional, but happened to be loaded with my GPS.

As a further pain, I could not find anywhere on Garmin’s website how to update voices to the Mac. I found the PC installer, but no Mac information.

Frustrated, I loaded up the Garmin WebUpdater software to see if I could maybe revert back to the older version of firmware to get my TTS back. The second the WebUpdater software detected my GPS, it immediately offered to add optional voices, like my TTS back. Hey! Why didn’t they just say that in the first place!

So now, I’m happy. My GPS is back as it was with new maps. Now why couldn’t they have made that voice installation instruction a little more obvious? Hmmmph!

But everyone with a Garmin - if you want to come over and not have to punch in the address to the pool house to get here, get a map update!

Tags: Technology, Rants

I just looked at my electronic EZPass statement from last month. For those of you not from the East Coast, EZPass is the transponder thing you stick in your window to allow electronic toll collection (aka FastTrak for you Californians).

I was amused at this entry:

08/20/08 NJTP 1 08/20 08:28 9 08/20 09:38
(some personal info fields deleted).

I had a trip I was doing for work last month, and decided since the day was so nice, to take the trip from home to New Jersey in the Mini Cooper (with the top down of course).

What does this entry mean? It means I entered the NJTP (New Jersey Turnpike) at exit 1 at 8:28am and exited at exit 9 at 9:38am. That’s 83 miles in 70 minutes. And I made a 5 minute pit stop at one of the rest areas to purge coffee.

I think that works out to an average speed of 76.6mph (factoring in the pit stop).

Even more impressive, I made the same trip 1 minute faster (but in reality, 4 minutes slower due to lack of pit stop) in the middle of afternoon traffic.

Fun! Glad the NJ State Troopers don’t look so carefully at this info...

I’m working on a paper for work (actually, “executive editing” is probably a more accurate description). I’ve done a number of papers for the Sun BluePrints folks -- the technical editor for that program at Sun is an old work acquaintance of mine. It’s also given me a good chance to expound on technical wrongs and try to make them right.

I wrote a teaser for an upcoming paper I’ve been working on forever. See it here.

http://blogs.sun.com/blueprints/entry/new_dogs_new_tricks_thinking

Even if you are not totally into nerdy stuff, you still might find it an interesting read. Might.

Tags: Blog Tag

Painting the family room has been “next” on our painting list for quite a while. A few weeks ago, I started tackling this project. I’ve been doing one wall per week (it takes a while to tape and move furniture and stuff).

Of course, the first wall I picked (actually one wall and a part of a second) was the corner that Declan has tended to call home for his activities. It was first not only because it had the lightest furniture to move, but also because Declan had drawn all over the walls with crayon. With the original builder paint on the wall, scrubbing the crayon off was out of the question...

The “after” pictures (I didn’t think to take “before” pictures - click on the pictures for full sized versions):





That chalkboard is actually a usable chalkboard - I picked up some Benjamin Moore chalkboard paint. I figured I would try it - at least it looks really nice.

Tags: Declan, Home Improvement

After upgrading my iPhone to the new 2.1 version of firmware, the first picture the camera took was, well, bizarre. You can click on the picture for the full size version....



It’s not just bizarre because of the bumper sticker I was taking a picture of (that was just funny), but it has to do with the way this picture is broken up. Also realize that that soccer ball on top was part of the bumper and this bumper sticker was on the tailgate. So the camera took a picture, put the bottom half of the picture on the top half, vice versa, and then offset the last 1/3 of the picture by a bunch of pixels...

The camera appears to have been fine since.

Hmmph!

Tags: Humor

(I struggled for a bit to decide whether or not to tag this as “humor” or not....we’ll give it a shot)

So one of the things we did when in Boston was visit the Coop at Kendall Square so Zandra could load up on a few items from her alma mater. The Coop at MIT is more interesting than most typical college bookstores, simply because of the intellectual culture that exists there.

Here are a few items we did not buy, but that I found pretty interesting.

First - the childrens’ books:



Next - an explanation of light (could I have gotten away with this in physics?):



Finally, something that came close to making the list home:

Tags: Humor

Last week, we took a family trip to Boston. Zandra had a conference, so we all took the train up to Boston with her.

One thing I learned is that it’s very difficult to get a clear picture of someone on a moving train. Here are some attempts:





Finally got something close:



Because you can’t tell, this is Declan “chillin’” on the train with blanket in lap, juice cup in mouth, headphones on head, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse playing on the iPod.

Tags: Declan