mein frühstück

bye bye iphone

Just some lasting goodbye pics!

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Back to Nokia

Perhaps it's my utter distaste with the iPad- or maybe I'm just bored- but Apple is really starting to annoy the heck out of me. My iPhone is an amazing messaging device- I can easily hold 8 (that's my record) simultaneous SMS conversations without flinching- but it also has many drawbacks for me as a non-data subscriber. It has no true GPS (yeah, I know 2G iPhones aren't equipped with it, but even the 3G and 3GS models don't have what I'd consider "real" GPS.

So I decided to give my E71 another go. And you know what? I've missed it, weirdly enough- so much that I listed my iPhone and shall be selling it tomorrow for 3-times the price I bought it for. (I got it for a steal!) Next on the chopping block is my W810i, assuming anybody even wants a device that old.

Anyways, that's all I have time to write for today. Looks like I'll be back to blogging more often now that I can do it anywhere, thanks to the E71 and it's (stock-enabled) MMS capabilities.

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led throwies!!!

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I think the pictures speak for themselves. More LED Throwie fun coming soon!!!

Zenni Optical

A quick search for cheap eyeglasses via Google usually brings about a re-occuring, high-ranked hit: Zenni Optical. They offer a wide selection of glasses for bargain prices- the only catch being a long wait time as everything is shipped from Hong Kong to a warehouse in California, then on to their final destination. The site claims that glasses should arrive within two weeks, but more complicated orders might take longer.

I basically mangled my current pair (some D&Gs that I got literally a mere couple of months ago). Since my contacts are a bit dated in terms of their strength, not to mention a dwindling supply, I realized that I was going to need a new pair. Having come across this website in the past and saving it for a future order of a spare-pair, I decided to bite the bullet and order a simple pair for just under $20 shipped. Most of the reviews out there seem a bit sketch or unhelpful on their own, and only when all compiled together do they seem to offer any factors for decisions. It's because of the far-and-wide spread of reviews that I've decided to write this: a general review of Zenni Optical. Coming from me, an average guy, with an easily traceable history.

Today I ordered my glasses. Now I'll keep you posted as far as their progress.

the modern art of repair

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(Note: Above picture has nothing to do with this post- it's merely proof of my Kindle's existence.)

For the low sum of $20 not all that long ago, I managed to acquire an iPod Nano (3rd Gen) 4GB, an Xbox (1st Gen), Canon ZR500, a Sony Ericsson W810i, an Apple IR Remote, a Polaroid DVD Player/Burner, and a DirectTV receiver. All of these things had flaws except the Remote... and I gave this to a friend for his help in picking all of these things up. The iPod had a broken backlight, the Xbox wasn't reading disks, the Canon wouldn't even show a flicker of life, and the DVD Player appeared to have a dead power supply. 

The DirectTV was (supposedly) working, but was as good as useless to me- I opened it up to have a little poke around, then threw it out. Next to fall under the chopping block was the DVD player- I gutted the nice DVD drive and 160GB HD and then threw out the rest. The Sony Ericsson I took apart just as a mere solution for boredom, then when putting it back together found out it was actually entirely functional. I ordered a new housing for it (it came in a rather beat-up black Cingular-branded housing originally), installed it (with a few modifications since the housing was rather cheap), and threw out the old plastic pieces. I ordered a new LCD panel for the iPod "locally" (aka eBay but from a US-based seller), installed it, but in the process managed to rip a ribbon cable responsible for button control. The Xbox appeared to be needing a new DVD drive or, hopefully, just a new laser assembly. After opening it up, wiping everything down with a damp cloth, and using a disposable lens-cleaner-towelette on the lens, the damn thing worked when I powered it all back up! The ZR500, however, wasn't quite as nice when I attempted to fix it. I seem to have figured out the problem, but will need some solder and a soldering iron to fix it.

So there I go... $20 gets me a rather capable backup phone (yet another in my collection), an Xbox, and an iPod which is still broken but has it's original problem solved. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I ripped out the VFD from the DVD player, and mounted it on a paperclip, making for quite an interesting little desk-ornament. Some pictures:

an iphone, a kindle, and a new year

Luck found me and I managed to get a (near) perfect condition iPhone (first-gen) for a mere $50. Talk about lucky!!! It even came with a rather nice hard-plastic case, USB cable and an Apple-official AC-USB charge adapter thingy. So I actually am typing this post from the iPhone, and happily so too.

What of my iPod Touch? Well, it kinda made no sense for me to keep both it and the iPhone. Afterall, that's why I traded off my original iPhone anyways, I wanted to get rid of the redundancy. So I went on craigslist and sent out some offers for trades, and something very interesting came in...

I got myself a Kindle 2. The new one. So it has the international 3G capabilities and 2GB of storage. To be honest I really wanted a Kindle DX but I'm not gonna ge all fussy about it, the device is still amazingly useful. It's free web browser, while basic, has more than redeemed itself in my eye. As a book it's also quite nice, and has motivated me to start reading again. I've read The Lost Symbol (by Dan Brown) on it, and that was quite a nice experience. I've also started Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and have a few more books loaded onto the device and ready to read whenever I get a free moment.

Well that's it for now. Bye then!

goodbye n96

Well, that certainly was quick. I bought my N96 for a significant amount of cash (from my current financial position) but at a bargain for what the phone was. And then listed it... and sold it for a forty-dollar profit. Not bad, eh? While I have to say that my opinion on the device was significantly improved from the first take around, I still have a few nagging dilemmas.

First, the device lacks the zoom keys that the N85 and N86 are equipped with. Since N-Gage is on the way out, it's only a matter of time before the gaming keys are no longer even used, which will essentially turn the N96 into an N95 8GB plus extra memory. Pointless? You bet.

Second, the micro-USB and standard nokia charging port... do I need to say more? At the time of it's release the micro-USB port should have at least SUPPORTED charging, if not been the only port found on the bottom.

Third, the keys start to get annoying very quickly. I miss the N82's keys a lot, actually. Sad.

There were a couple other little foibles but most of which I feel relate only to the condition of the unit I had. Things I liked... OTA software updates. I want that on EVERY Nokia device. The camera was leagues ahead of my E71, yet still behind the E75, N95, N85, and N82 (in order of quality from lowest to highest in my opinion). The large screen was nice to have as well. And surprisingly I liked the music playback keys this time around... a few firmware updates from the unit I originally tested seems to have made enough tweaks here and there to make me like this device!

So now what? I'm sticking with my E71 for much longer, obviously. I'm thinking of branching into Android while Nokia rethinks it's whole strategy here, and perhaps acquiring an older iPhone again just for fun. Who knows. However, if someone told me which Nokia phone I'd recommend someone to get now... E72, N86, and N900 would be the three I'd recommend.

nokia n96 gallery

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new horse in the stable: nokia n96

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What you're seeing here is the result of $160 and a lot of bargaining work, plus a road-trip to meet the guy in Washington. And, if you couldn't tell, the result is a rather good condition Nokia N96- much better than my friend's would have been should I have taken it. This puppy has basically all the bells and whistles I was hoping to get in an N96, minus the superior camera, OLED display, and FM-transmitter. In replace of the built-in 8GB of storage the N86 has, the N96 is equipped with a whopping 16GB. Not that it makes any difference- S60 software can't really handle that amount of data usefully if every feature of the phone is to be utilized, which is something I have a bad habit of testing all the time.

I've loaded on Nokia Maps (the newest version, featuring 3D landmarks!), Fring, and the N86 Solace theme (something I loved on my E71 and love almost more on the N96). I did initially install the N-Gage launcher but due to a rather finicky Nokia (plus the fact that they've officially announced it's demise) I've since not bothered to reinstall it on my latest hard-reset. (I'm rather picky about having a clean phone both inside and out, which is why I figure out what I want, then hard-reset and load only the bare minimums.) I've setup VOX and OVI upload services, as well as OVI device sync. And, while I had a whole lot of information ready to share about how well this guy performs as a camera, I accidentally deleted everything yesterday in my hard-reset. Let's just say... it won't be replacing my D40 anytime soon, but it's still quite competent.

zune HD review completed

Dear readers,

I have just completed my review of the Zune HD. Since it is now a couple of posts old, I figured a quick notice would be suitable to make such an announcement. Thank you for your patience.

Goodnight!