Monday, December 31, 2007

Garmin Nuvi 680


For a little while, I have been looking for a GPS unit for my car.  I didn't want to buy a new stereo, so I was mainly interested in a portable unit.  I also was interested in one that had traffic information available, as our current one in our van doesn't, and it doesn't help when the route takes you through a traffic jam.



I settled on the Garmin Nuvi 680 because it has some key features:



  • Handsfree bluetooth profile (including displaying phone address book

  • traffic information. (The Nuvi 680 using MSN Direct for this information.  This allows the expected time delay to be displayed on the unit.)

  • MP3 player




GSPlayer


The Windows Media Player built-in to Windows Mobile can't play the mp3 streams from SlimServer.  I wanted to be able to listen to all my music where ever I am, without having to have a copy with me.



I found this page that mentioned GSPlayer.  This is a simple Windows Mobile audio player that plays mp3, ogg vorbis and wav files. In addition to local files, it can play various streaming formats.  It works perfectly for playing the streams from SlimServer.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Cancelled Blockbuster

We have just cancelled our BlockBuster.com account.  We weren't watching the movies fast enough to make the membership worth it.  Now when we want to watch a movie, we can either download HD movies on Xbox live or with On Demand on cable.

links for 2007-12-27

Travelling Blogger


I have been looking for a blog editor for my phone for a while.  This would allow me to post to my blogs without using the web interface or through a SMTP gateway.  Travelling Blogger looks to be a potential solution.



 This is a Windows Mobile application that lets you create and edit posts on a blog that supports the MetaWeblog xmrpc API.  Once I configured the information for my blog, it pulled down the list of my existing blog posts.  Then I was able to create a new blog entry.



 This was starting to look promising, but then I realized that it wasn't a WYSIWYG editor.  This means that I would have to enter all of the html tags manually.  Travelling Blogger doesn't support copy and paste from Windows Mobile 6, so it is not easy to transfer text from the built-in browser.



 I was willing to overlook this, and plan on using Travelling Blogger just to post simple text entries, but then it wasn't able to actually post anything to my blog.



 I guess I will just use the web interface, or just wait until I get back to my computer.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

FlexMail


Since IMAP is not working with Google Mail and my Windows Mobile phone, I started looking into what other clients I could run on my phone.  FlexMail looked like the best option.



FlexMail integrates SMS, MMS, ActiveSync and POP/IMAP accounts.  You can see all of accounts in an integrated folder list.  Fordisplaying email messages, FlexMail handles HTML messages.  There are tons of options, so you can configure how much mail is downloaded, which way an IMAP folder should be synchronized.



Once I finished configuring it, I noticed that my phone was really starting to drag and actually crashed. Once I disabled it, my phone returned to normal.



I think that what I am going to do is configure the built-in Windows Mobile email client to check my email with POP3.  I will just have to deal with the views of my mail being out of sync on different email clients.  



 [via  Short Nerd Chief]

Samsung SCH-i760


Samsung SCH-i760
Last week, I got a Samsung SCH-i760.  I have been looking for a new phone for a while.  I had been using the limited browser on the E815 for checking email and reading rss feeds.  But the interface is really bad, especially when filling out an html form.



In addition to the SCH-i760, I was also interested in the Verizon Wireless XV6800.  Both of these phone are Windows Mobile phones that have have integrated WiFi, that are available on Verizon Wireless.  I was also interested in these as I could install other programs.  The reason that I picked the SCH-i760, is because there are hard phone key pad.  This makes it easy to dial without having to use the touch screen.



Setting up the phone was pretty painless. I installed The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile on our mac.  The using that, I installed GooSync to get my contacts and calendars that are hosted in Google Calendar on the phone.  Then I installed MilkSync for my task list.  I also configured the mail client to access my GMail account via IMAP.  Lastly, I configured ActiveSync to get my work email/calendar from my work's Exchange server.




Sunday, December 9, 2007

Thursday, December 6, 2007

More MP3tunes clients


In September, MP3tunes announed a contest for developers to create clients to play content hosted in MP3tunes lockers.  Today some of the resulting applications were announced. Now you can listen to the music in your locker on a Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3, Windows Mobile devices, Chumbys, and in Eclipse.



 I am looking forward to try this on my new phone.

Unlocking Seamless Integration: Navigating Unexpected Hubitat Device Queries and VLAN Challenges for a Smoother Home Automation Experience

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