Palm-Mac

Now that's what I call a record collection

I sold some of my prized record collection on ebay and the guy who bought them lived in Aberdeen which coincidentally is where I was born and lived for 20 years. It's also the place where I bought the records so in a sense they are going home.

After the sale he emailed he to see if I had any more of the band's records, which I did, so he offered to buy virtually everything for a decent price. Rather than post them which would have been expensive and as I was going up to Aberdeen to see my parents anyway I agreed to hand them over at his house. When I was there he showed me his vinyl collection. I swear I have never seen so many records under the one roof before. He had some incredibly rare stuff, some early Smiths test pressings that were worth over £500 each for example. He told me the collection was insured for £125 000. Yikes...

Palm-Mac?

I haven't been posting much about he palm side of things recently, mostly because there is now to post about...nothing terribly exciting application wise and absolutely zip all in relation to any news about forthcoming devices or the new o/s. What a drag. You'd think Palm would have put ou a few selective screenshos from the new interface or something just to keep the momentum going. Actually that's wrong as there is no momentum going for Palm which is part of the problem. No doubt they are feeling pretty smug about things what with the Centro selling so many units but in many ways the Centro is an old, ageing product that has limited shelf life left. In a way it is amazing that Palm have mugged talked so many people into buying it...myself included.

I wonder what percentage of people  who are new to the platform have bought 3rd party software for it. I suspect not many judging by the oft quoted apparantly perilous state of the palm 3rd party software market. Perhaps Palm think that selling 2 million units is a sure sign that their new devices will prove successful and that folk will be fighting over themselves to get their hands on them when finally launched. If they are $99 then perhaps so, if they are $399 on a contract then forget it.

You only have to look at various forums to see how many people have moved to the iPhone or windows mobile or Symbian and also wonder how many will come back once Palm Nova finally appears. I might but then again I wouldn't just do it out of sentiment, there would have to be good practical reasons for splashing out around £300 or so to rejoin the fold. Especially as by that time I will have no doubt spent well over a £100 on iPhone software and those you have moved to windows mobile will also have amassed a collection of 3rd party software.

EverNote now available for all to try

...so I have and so far it is great. How to describe this application? It is both a desktop and a web based note taker/info storer where you can sync your stored stuff such as notes, todo's, web pages, links, pics between the various components. It has an excellent search facility built in so if you have loads of info stored finding the right item is a cinch. It also supports 'tags" or categories so each note can have different tags.

There is even a mobile iPhone version of sorts and a mobile phone version. Various web luminaries have raved about this application for some time but until recently it was an invitation only thing. Not any more. It reminds me of Yojimbo for the mac, which I use, except the across platform and web based syncing takes it too a higher level. It is one of these apps that you keep finding out more uses for as you use it more.

On the web. On your desktop. On your phone.

Everything you put into Evernote is always synchronized across all of your devices. That way, all your memories are available to you wherever you are.

Friday thoughts...Sony..jkOnTheRun...

It's Friday, it's summer in the UK and here in Edinburgh the sun as ever is shining bright...well it would be if there wasn't 9 895 468 foot of dense cloud in front of it, I'm sure the sun is in there somewhere.

So Sony announce another new phone. The thing about Sony phones is that they are so goddam awful they have to disguise that awfulness by sticking a super high mega pixel camera in it and then let their marketing people go to work by distracting attention away from the appalling user interface. Sony believe in the more is more philosophy, more mega pixels on cameras is good but it's not quite so good when it takes you 6 more steps than any other smartphone to get to your email app and send and receive. If you are getting tired of your current smartphone and are itching for a new one then I recommend trying out a Sony w850 phone. I guarantee one day with that awful bit of crud will have you thinking your current smartphone is a mix of the holy grail of the best of the iPhone, TyTn11, Curve and Centro all together. Still, they look good which is always something.

The stats for this site have been on a steady decline now for the last 3 months or so which means that either some of my regular readers have died or some of those who have left have done so because my windows mobile coverage has reduced. Or perhaps this site is just crap...nah, no way.

People are funny. I linked to this post earlier this week from jkontherun as I thought it was an interesting read. Anybody who reads the site on a regular basis will know that the guys are gadget geeks/lovers and typically embrace on an ongoing basis both mac and windows mobile stuff whether it be laptops, note books or smartphones...doesn't matter what it runs, if they fancy a shot they will try it out. Yet, reading the comments you'd think they were just rampant apple fanboys with some hidden agenda judging by some of the silly comments from those of a windows disposition. All a bit unfair I thought.

I was delighted, in a very childish fashion, to read that the Sony XPERIA is in fact not the greatest ever smartphone in the world over at TBG....., let down by an iffy keyboard....some of the ludicrous claims made since it first appeared a few months ago would have you believing otherwise so hopefully now people will be a bit more sensible about it and tone down their expectations. People were giving the impression (despite never having seen it in the flesh let alone actually used it) that it wasn't just going to be one of the best phones on the market...no, this was going to be the best phone now and for the next 50 years too and everybody else might as well just give up. It's good no doubt, but not that good.

So, it pains us to report, that at least with our particular unit, the keyboard wasn’t great. It didn’t take time to get used to it, it just didnt perform like the way we had hoped. The reason is because the keys almost are completely flush with the case and don’t give good tactile feedback when pressed.

Gadget trouble...

After a flurry of sales on ebay over the past 2 weeks or so I have really reduced the veritable gadget mountain that has been accumulating at Palm-Mac towers and at the same time amassed a pile of dosh just waiting to be spent....on something, don't know what yet though. I am going through a real disinterested phase in smartphones just now so I don't think I will go down that route.

I have been very very pleased with the PowerBook 12inch model although I could do with a bit more speediness. The last of the line models came equipped with 1.5ghz processors which is quite a hike from my 867 model and thus one of those is quite tempting. The smaller form factor and better keyboard are also factors that appeal. I did have a minor problem with it last week however as it would not power on or would power on and then just stop. A search on the apple forums revealed that if the Airport card is not properly inserted then that can cause those symptoms and sure enough when I checked, the card had somehow come out and needed to be pushed back in firmly.

I tried that and it seemed to work for a few days however, if I stick in the T-Mobile mobile modem into one of the usb ports with the intention of doing some mobile browsing then it just switches itself off again. Hmmmm. Either that or the screen goes a bit wonky and I have to pull out the battery to get things moving again. Doesn't sound too good and I am unwilling to plough any more cash into it, I'd be better off spending any new cash on a newer model with more life left in it methinks.

So, that is problemo uno. Number two is the treo 680. The latch thing that you press down to remove the battery cover just fell out/off. Now I can't seem to get it to stick back in and every time I try and remove the battery cover now it pops out and pings away. Some time soon it will ping away somewhere where I can't find it again. I'm really not sure how I could get that repaired so it was most fortunate that I found a spare which was returned after palm sent it back after repair. When you send it away for fixing they tell you to keep the back battery cover and then send you a new one when you get it back together with another stylus for some reason. Mind you, why this was a concern I'm not sure as I haven't used it on a daily basis for weeks.

Ilium software 11th anniversary sale....55% off

Ilium make some fab software for palm and windows mobile. I have been using ListPro, eWallet and NewsBreak consistently as they are great apps which I always load on any new device very quickly. I can't manage without them. They will be celebrating their 11th anniversary shortly and this link will soon lead to a page where you can get 55% off their software for a 5 day period...I can thoroughly recommend these three apps. There will also be some special anniversary competitions up soon too.

Their customer service is also first rate.

Friday odds and sodds...HTC expensive....data storing

Poor Shaun can't make his mind up about the treo 850 but he is not alone in that view as he struggles to comprehend the appeal of a device that is probably less than cutting edge now and even less so when it finally appears. Thing is, if it comes out in 2 months time and costs £400 then I'll be joining in but if the price is say nearer £250 then that would represent good value in my book, certainly compared to some recent stuff from HTC which seems to be getting more and more expensive, trading on their superior image of late and the swooning that goes on at various win mob sites over each new product announcement.

I look at these HTC devices and think....very expensive, possibly even over-priced in many respects. There is the TyTn11 now back up to very nearly £500 at expansys for a device that is not far short of one year old and with a low res screen that can't play video properly. Hmmmm. The Cruise is £400 for what looks to me like not very much, no keyboard etc and their basic 3g and wifi less P3470 is very nearly £300. So, if the 850 comes out and it is around the same price then that would represent, in my opinion, good value and THAT, dear friends would be the point of the 850 considering it will have 3g, wifi, GPS.and more than likely be eminently more enjoyable to use. Statto makes a good point on his blog...the treo design is good so why change it radically?
I think Shaun is like the vast majority of ex palm users, we are all looking for the next palm killer device and invariably end up disappointed by most of the devices we try out. Deep down, I know I would move to a new palm o/s and treo style device with wifi and 3g in a shot.

Looking at my device useage again, I have realised that I am much more of a data storer than data user. For example, I load excel and word docs onto the Centro via Docstogo and then never do anything with them...I never edit them and barely even open them. Instead, knowing they are there, that the info is available if needed (which it is probably not) is enough for me. The same applies to other apps like ListPro. I have lots of info stored on the Centro and invariably it is just for reference yet I still almost anally pile it on at each hotsync. I never seem to do anything particularly constructive with on device stuff.

I was listening the other day to a new podcast from iPhone Alley which is a good site for all things iPhone. It was reasonably interesting, boy these guys are dedicated/obsessed by the iPhone and they dissect in great detail all rumours/news/info from around the web. I'm interested in the iPhone myself of course but their level of interest is way above mine. Crikey.

Batter and better the Battery

They always say that you need to calibrate your laptop battery and that it only needs doing once. This just seems to involve running it right down and then charging it up again. Those in the know about these things say it helps prolong the battery life so by jingo, if it's good enough for them then it's certainly good enough for me.

Even as I type this, I am running it down to less than 15%.

You have to fully charge and then discharge your battery only once to calibrate it. After that, you can connect and disconnect the power adapter when the battery is at any charge level.

Defender McNamara exits Aberdeen

Link: BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Aberdeen | Defender McNamara exits Aberdeen.

Not exactly surprising news or indeed disappointing news either. Thing is, after some truly poor performances this season in which McNamara has displayed some form of degenerative footballing disease whereby all past semblance of ability has been rapidly evaporating, he was left out of the squad for the match on Saturday against Celtic.

Manager Calderwood vehemently denied rumours that he had left the club when all evidence was to the contrary and then lo and behold, 2 days later the formal announcement comes. Why do they bother to deny it, why not just be honest about the whole thing?

Quelle surprise.

Aberdeen FC comings and goings

I've only now just about come to terms with last Saturday's disasterous Cup Semi Final defeat to the mighty Queen of the South, a humiliation that on reflection, I should not have been surprised by. Nonetheless, I was devastated for days afterwards. The chance to get to our first Cup Final since 2000 and back into Europe next season are now sadly gone as, so it seems, will be some of our best players. Defensive shortcomings were once again cruelly exposed. Had we pummelled them for 90 minutes and lost 1-0 I could have accepted it as just being one of those days but to lose 4 goals to a middle of the table club from  a lower division was frankly unacceptable. When you add on the fact they could have scored more then it becomes really frightening.

Yep, our two best players this season, Barry Nicholson and Lee Miller will no doubt be departing for pastures new and the lure of the bigger English Championship wage packet and who can blame them? Just another savage blow for us long suffering Aberdeen supporters and I now fear for us next season unless we can bring in some decent new players, which on our budget is unlikely.

I don't really blame the manager for the performance as he is entitled to think that the defence, who have coped defensively with better teams this season, could handle a 1st Division attack but I do wonder about some of the pap he has brought to the club this season. Two players, Lee Mair and Stuart Duff, were brought at no cost from Dundee Utd having been told by them that they had no future with Utd... a club that has finished in the bottom 10 for the last few seasons yet they were deemed good enough for us. Not sure I can see the logic there.