Motorola Endeavor HX1 Review.

A Google search for "HX1" will normally only get you a "Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1" review, which barely helps.

Recently, we have acquired a Motorola HX1 bluetooth headset. We don't do unboxing, as there should be a plentiful of them on Youtube. We did, however, take a couple of photos of our very headset.

Price
We got this piece of small headset in Hong Kong at HK$1280 (€110), it was easily the most expensive bluetooth device we've bought - we could have gotten the Jawbone Prime thing below this. We picked the Motorla "清" Endeavor HX1. It's the second product with a Chinese model name - the previous one was the A1200 "明" Linux based phone.^

Setting up
I couldn't wait to unpack the phone in office, I dismounted the packaging on metro. Setting up a connection is amazingly easy and user-friendly - as I wore the headset and turn it on, it has internal voice instruction in English to help me pair up the machine with my HTC Diamond. It took me no time to finish the whole pairing thing. Note that I didn't even need to read the manual.

Voice Quality
I tried to make a call when I was in an East Rail Train, the railway notorious to every Hong Kong citizen as each compartment of the train is equipped with five televisions which keep spamming ads very loudly, damaging the ears of the passengers. My friend took my call and found that my background voice is acceptable and my voice was able to be heard quite clearly. Then I tried to activate the stealth mode with a single press on a button which I suspected to be the stealth button, and poof! I heard "Stealth Mode On", while my background noice was vanished, as reported by my friend.

My friend was astonished and could not believe that I was on the loudest train on the world. He commented my voice was a little bit "stacked" though. (After reading manual, it does say the voice will be a bit distorted when the stealth mode is on)

Further tests involving talking in front of a loudspeaker was equally impressive for the recepient (although you might be unable to hear them because of your own noisy environment)

Comfortability
Despite that the package was bundled with two sets of clips and earplugs of various sizes, we found it quite a challenge to obtain the best result. Both the two earplugs will make the ear painful after using for an hour or two. Besides, it would need experience to calibrate the HX1 for the other side of phone to hear clearly. A misplacement inside the ear canal could result in hearing hasard on the other side of phone.

Overall comment
Despite being dissatisfied by the awfully designed phones, Motorola impressed us this time with the preipheral. If you need to work or stay in a noisy place for long time, this HX1 will be your choice (providing your budget allows - the price seems to be vary greatly among different countries, as we heard the retail price in mainland China for HX1 is double that than in Hong Kong). Normal users can buy a headset paying a less prohibitive price.

Caution when buying
Interested users have to notice that the headset's voice instruction has different languages but should be not changeable. So if you buy in mainland China, you get Mandarin voice instruction, if you buy in Hong Kong, you get English.

^ Side note: 明 means bright, 清 means clear, but 清明 is the Ching Ming festival, the grave-sweeping festival (wiki here))

Lenovo to honor 87% discount mis-pricing of desktop computer

Late last month, precisely 2PM HKT 27 October 2009, the Hong Kong section of the Lenovo website had a minor error, the prices were incredibly low. The license alone of the newly launched Windows 7 Premium 32 is believed to be more expensive than the whole machine. It was believed that Lenovo had some minor problem distinguishing between Hong Kong dollars and US dollars. (Pic: click to enlarge)

The news spread fast among forums. Users from some local forums like HKGolden and HKEPC attempted to order multiple machines. It was believed that more than 100 machines were ordered within the short period of time.

Initially, those smart customers were not hoping to get a successful order, since not long ago, Dell Hong Kong made similar mistakes and was shamelessly voided affected orders with no compensation whatsoever (whereas Taiwanese users get a 20%-off coupon in a case where discount and price interchanged).

Affected customers were contacted by Lenovo from 30 October, confirming that their order are honored provided that a supplementary Non-Reselling Contract was to be signed. As of today, the order are being processed (and some buyers are blantantly reselling the machines in smaller local forum)(links deliberately not given)(good luck to them).

Props and Slops for HTC Tattoo vs other HTC Android phones

Props:

• Compact size - smaller than G1, Magic, Hero and of course Dragon.
• Internal FM Radio - in a cheaper model, not in the flagship models!  Quite a surprise
• Speed - the speed is comparable with HTC Hero
• Changable case - unlike most models, the case can be replaced easily, so you can buy another case when you sell the phone and claim it's like new :P
• More friendly price - while most phones are at least €300, this one is cheaper.
• 3.5mm audio jack - yes, of course.
  
• Android 1.6 Donut!!
  

• New Market - the old Market is crippled and worked like crap before Android 1.5 Cupcake, you usually won't be able to find the software you really want, while install a pile of other crappy programs.  With Android 1.6 Donut, at least you get to view the screenshots of the apps.  (I have no doubt to say Apple's AppStore is waaaaaaaaay more user friendly)
• "Quick Search Box" - now we can search most items in one integrated interface, including Apps (by name), Footprints, SMS, Peep (Twitter), Web, Contact etc.  Slower than iPhone, but the feature is still very useful.
  

Slops:

• Smaller display - smaller size, smaller display, common sense.  This machine has a QVGA resolution.
• No trackball - the trackball is addictively good, HTC should continue making them (if you switch from the ones without trackball, chances are you won't mind at all)
• Weaker hardware specifications - it's a beginner Android phone anyway
  

HTC Tattoo Buy Links:

Computer Universe <- Best site to buy a phone for residence outside America ships worldwide.  Voucher code for €5 off : (See this entry of our blog)

Alternatively, there are fascinating Android phones coming out in November, you can also wait for a Motorola Droid or a SonyEricsson Xperia X3 (3 November).

Like WM phones, it's usually pointless to "upgrade" to a second Android phone

The practical reason for changing an Android phone to another Android phone.

True, hardware specification might be quite different from handset to handset, but the core of the phone are usually the same.

As the moment, you can't expect 

• a safe Bluetooth file transfer feature
• a real radio function (i.e. not via Internet)
• alarm when power-off

While the buddies on xda-developer.com keep trying to break the Bluetooth restriction, the radio one is a hardware constraint that it is not possible to change.

The power-off alarm function, however, is an Operating-System level constraint.  I remember that my very first mobile phone 10 years ago could wake me up even if it was switch off.  While most phone running proprietary system will easily have alarm when you switch off the phone, those "smarter" phone systems, including Android and also Windows Mobile, cannot have this feature.  This is kind of lame, but we might have to realise the rationale behind this.

When an Android or a Windows phone is switch off, the entire operating system won't run, except the clock, which will consume a tiny flow of battery.  While it is relatively easy to trigger the alarm time based on the clock, the problem is to get the phone ringing, it would not be able to sound without fully launching the phone.

If you pay enough attention to new Android phones spouted by so many brands – HTC G1/Magic/Hero/Dragon etc, Samsung Galaxy, that Motorola "Droid" monstrosity, Sony Ericsson Xperia x3 – they only have slight differences.  With or without keyboard, CPU choice, ROM size, camera resolution, screen size.  The operating system is, however, the same.  A very basic G1 should be enough for newbies to familiarize with the system.

I have tried both HTC Dream (G1) and HTC Hero (G2), in some cases Dream served me better than Hero, especially if I were texting heavily.

Brief thought on Samsung "Mirror" series Digital Camera (ST500/ST550/TL225/TL250)

The dual-screen digital camera by Samsung, known as "ST500" and "ST550" "Mirror" series, (also known as TL225 and TL250) in USA.

The front and rear LCD screens are the feature of this 12MP DC.

Basic stats are not quite detailed in this article because we are not interested in it (sorry guys).

(Amazon Link) 

12.2 megapixels, 3.5-inch rear touchscreen LCD, MicroSD card slot, 4.6x optical zoom, 1280px720p HD recording, and the biggest "feature" is... the front 1.5" LCD screen - for your self-portrait.

Take a look at their press release:

• When you tap the front LCD, it turns on and automatically goes into Self-Portrait mode, ensuring that the user will always be framed exactly the way they want. You can also turn on the front LCD with a simple selection through the intuitive interface. As soon as you smile, the camera automatically takes the picture. But the Dual LCDs do more.
• In Children mode, the front LCD plays a fun animation to capture a child’s attention while taking their photo.
• Shutter mode ensures you take a photo of your subject while they’re smiling, the front LCD will display a “smiley face” when the shutter is pushed halfway thus signalling to the subject they should smile.
• Function Info helps you to know the features of every function, with the front LCD providing a visual readout of key camera settings, including whether or not the flash is engaged or if macro focus is in use.
• With Self-Timer, when taking a group photo using the self-timer, the front LCD will show a preview of the shot as well as a visual countdown timer so that everyone knows exactly when the photo will be snapped.

Our Thought
We would actually stick a mirror onto any given digital camera instead. This should save you a hundred bucks.

Our favorite feature of Opera 10

Why do we pick Opera?

- Speed, of course
Despite there are tests that Opera drains the battery quicker than IE/Firefox/Chrome (it does beat Safari), Opera has a bliztering speed of loading webpages. Good stuff.

- Recovery of closed tabs
Sometimes, we accidentally close a tab. True, there is a function and a hotkey for Firefox, but Opera's list is way more comprehensive.

- Opera Turbo
Opera Turbo is good theroetically, however, when you are really in need of it, chances are you are in your company or school, behind layers of proxy servers and firewalls. Using Turbo might hinder your browsing experience in this case.

- Mouse Gesture
U+D = Reload, we've been spoiled by Opera so much that even when we were using Firefox, we still need to install a gesture extension. Gesture is essential.

- Page Source Tweaking
Now, our favorite feature desired for some time.  Modifying a page doesn't necessarily need Grease Monkey for Firefox any more!  (Note: we are not hacking, we are modifying local data stored in the cached memory of our local machine without infringing intellectual properties) Edit and Save is useful not only to trick your friends, you can even bypass the unnecessary wait for downloading the file on file hosting site.

When we attempt to download certain resource from the file hosts, like this, Rapidshare, we usually need land on a pay-or-wait page, like this:

Now when we want to load faster, we modify the source code a bit.  To do this, open the file source (Ctrl+U), and you should be seeing lots of codes.  Don't panic.  For example, in Rapidshare, it uses a countdown script to slow down the download of free users.  In this page, we can search for the word "remaining" because it is mentioned in the waiting message.  Once we located the line, we find "c=c-1" on the next line.  This means a value "c" is decreasing gradually, in a unit-by-unit rate.

Changing c=c-1 to c=c-10 will make the countdown process ten times faster!  Remember to click "Save" on the top.  Just by we save the modification, the clock goes uber fast:

No, sorry to disillusion you, it's not porn, it's just a Radio upgrade for the HTC Hero.

We can use this for surprising friends too!  Changing Google.com to gOOgle.com does not make things special, but everyone has his/her own mischievous thoughts :)

 

Opera 10 can be downloaded directly on Opera's official site. (click here for the Opera Download page)

For More portability, Opera@USB enables you to stuff all files necessary for Opera in a USB stick. 

Order status from ComputerUniverse

Remember we have ordered two HTC Heroes (White and Silver) from the German online store ComputerUniverse.net last month? (Click here for the article) Once we received the items, we have been playing with it, and unaware about the promised feedback on the order. Thanks to our reader, Rykel, for his kind reminder.

We heard about this company from a user from Hong Kong, and heard that the company ships quite fast. So when Expansys had its absurd price increase after we placed the order, we quickly turned to Computer Universe.

Price: At the time of purchase, it’s 20% cheaper than the market price in Hong Kong. At the time of arrival, it’s around 5% cheaper. Can’t ask for more when the official launch here in Hong Kong is 1.5 months later, on 19 September.

Delivery time: Upon payment, we quickly get a track code on 6 August. With the track code we were able to trace the item with impatience on DHL Germany site. On ComputerUniverse’s side, they do ship quickly, as reflected on the track time on DHL post. It took seven calendar days for the parcel to arrive Hong Kong (13 August), plus one day for the Hong Kong Post to deliver (14 August). Eight days is a pretty standard time for normal air mail.

Package protection: The package we received is well wrapped carton box. The box is a bit large to store the two HTC Hero machines, but there were enough paper ribbons for adequate shock protection. So, when we receive the package, the two boxes are undamaged.

Product: Standard package in Germany, just like the unboxing videos on YouTube, with handset, battery, back cover, adaptor, 2G Micro-SD card with backgrounds and MP3 and driver, 3.5mm hands-free, USB-ext cable, USB adaptor, printed matters. So it is incompatible with the UK plug using in Hong Kong. Fortunately an USB charger is easy to come by, just beware that the lower Ampere ones cannot fully charge the Hero.

Overall: All in all, a hassle-free experience. As simple as shop-checkout-shipping. Reasonable priced and good delivery. Definitely would recommend buying from them.

Product search

Note: computeruniverse.net = computeruniverse.de

Note 2: quote the coupon code (voucher code) for €5 off your purchase: FW8TY5K

Monopoly City Streets

Monopoly City Streets is obviously launched by Hasbro, the current owner of the Monopoly brand. The aim of the game is to beat every other player when the global game ends on 31 January 2010.  The player with the most wealth in cash and properties wins the game.  The basic concept is login, collect rent, buy streets, build properties, and of course, rinse and repeat.

When the game first launched, massive lag was experienced on their remote servers. Many interested players with a weaker connection in a very bad initial position – when they were finally able to connect to the game, the desired street was already developed.  

Unfortunately, we, among many other players worldwide, were affected.  Once we successfully connected to the game, all streets in Hong Kong were literally unavailable.  We couldn’t complain as Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world (Read the last paragraph below if interested.

Started slowly, we were able to start quickly to our business in an M1,000,000 road somewhere in the US.  Back in the days, all expensive streets were M1,000,000 each, and they have 100% daily return for Green House, the cheapest housing.  Users will have to log in every day to collect the returns.

And according to the official blog, to combat the cheaters (they referred as “compromised data”), fix the bugs and to smash their sloooow servers, they have reset the game.  That meant all investments and moneys were confiscated.  Once we log in back, our streets in Europe were fully occupied.  This is certainly not encouraging.  We quitted after the reset.

 Here’s our tips on strategy:

• Buy the expensive streets, an M1,000,000 street has 100% return on Green House, an M800,000 one has 80% only.

• Build the building with highest return rate for maximizing income.  Don’t build those expensive ones, they have really poor return.  Recommended buildings are M50,000 and M75,000 (100% standard return), and M300,000 and M500,000 (95% standard return)

• Build more than one bonus building in each of your expensive streets.  Protected streets cannot be demolished, but the protective buildings can be demolished.  Players will take more cards to deal with these streets, thus making them hesitate to harass you.

• If you need more chance cards (thus more bonus buildings), build those cheap and small Green Houses.  Chance cards may pop out randomly when you are building.  Quantity of buildings, instead of money, mattered here.

• If you can’t build the big houses on a street any more, squeeze in Green Houses.  Green House can fit in between some big buildings with ease.

• If you don’t have the time, don’t play – as money doubles each day (plus the daily login bonus of M1,000,000, the build time and play time doubles each day.  After playing for a week you should have around 0.1 to 0.2 billion M in the bank.  This might mean more than 2 hours to play time each day.  Remember, it might sound fascinating to own a street, even in the virtual world, but after all, you're wasting your time.

---

End of content about the game, now a little fact on the population problem:

Guinness World Records has the Mong Kok district in Hong Kong as most densely populated in the world (Wiki reference) – more than 130,000 people are living in one square kilometer.  Oh, did we mention that the figure is already “reduced” due to reclamation of lands?

And sorry, we cannot imagine how much the rich people are paying for a square feet (30 x 30cm) in a prison-like 80-storey apartment in this overcrowded city.  $10,000, in US dollars, not Hong Kong dollars.

 

SDHC class classification myth

Out of curiosity, we just checked with the write speed some of our Micro SD cards:

1) Transcend Micro SDHC, 8G, Class 6: 9.1MB
2) Sandisk Micro SDHC, 8G, Class 4: 14.9MB

The Sandisk card came with a tiny red reader (Like this), bought in Hong Kong

The speed test was carried out using the Sandisk reader in conjuction with the card benchmark software called "ATTO". The test was carried out in the same computer. Same test is done twice with different sequences to ensure data consistency.

(Results photos are coming soon) As the results showed, the "Class 4" Sandisk card performed far better than the Transcend's "Class 6" counterpart.

By definition, a Class 4 card should constantly have a write speed of 4MB/sec, and Class 6 card, 6MB/sec. Sandisk did a very well job on this.

To our surprise, the read/write speed of this tiny reader is, amazingly, faster than most of the internal card readers in our machines.

Several Tecnhiques for Android Phone (Google G1/HTC Magic/HTC Hero/Samsung Galaxy)

During the daily use of Android phone we have encountered problems and we actively sought solutions, and here we now give you several tips on your Android phone according to our experience:

Custom ringtones/alarms/notification sounds
- You can enable custom ringtones, alarm sounds, notification sounds by simply making folders in your SD card:
Telephone ringtones: /ringtones
SMS/MMS/other notifications: /notifications
Alarms: /alarms

Ringtone file format
- Android supports mp3 format for ringtones, but you can't use any mp3 music as notification or alarm sounds, you

will have to use ogg or wav files.

How to not scan voice files/navigations/recordings in music player
- To avoid all media files from getting scanned by a player, make a file called .nomedia and put it onto the folder. But if you put that file into your ringtones folder, you can't set your custom ringtone as well.

- Having problem making a .nomedia file in Windows because it forces you to make a

file name? Try this:
Program File -> Accessories -> Notepad : Now you are in the Windows Notepad
File ->Save As : Now you get prompted on file name/type, enter these:
File Type "All types" -> Enter ".nomedia" on File Name -> Click Save
You will see the .nomedia in the background

How to share internet connection
- You can share the connection of the phone to your laptop/desktop computer by USB cable. Such sharing is also known as "tethering". To do this you will have to
1) install the driver into the computer (should be bundled with the phone in a CD or in the micro-SD card).
2) go to your Android phone: Settings -> Wireless controls -> Tick the box in Mobile Network
3) connect your Android phone to the computer with a USB cable.
You can also achieve tethering by wi-fi, yet we do not recommend wi-fi tethering - you will have to root your phone first (rooting is not for new users and can brick phones ), plus this will consume battery really fast and make your phone hot.

How to add multipe Google accounts / how to change the Google account linked to your Android Phone
- Sadly, a Google phone doesn't support multiple Google accounts. You will have to sign out in order to sign in for another account.
Settings->Applications->Manage applications->Google Apps->Clear Data

Android app recommendation 2 - Locale

Phone modes isn't quite covered by an Android handset - sure you can set to flight mode to disable all connections, but apart from that, other modes are not easy to come by, so a third-party app is necessary to make Conference Mode, Work Mode and Outside mode etc...

With Locale, a free Android app found on the Market, we can set up different situations with appropriate settings, take our example below, we set the ringtone into silent during sleep hours, disable wi-fi when battery is low, and change ringtone from pop-songs to generic rings.

We can set different criteria on each situation according to one or a combination of the five settings:

Battery - triggers at below or above certain % of battery, or depends on if the handset is charging

Calendar - triggers when you have certain event in your Google Calendar

Contact - triggers when specific person of your contact list called, mute them,

Location - detects your location, draw pins on map, triggers if you are in the range

Time - triggers in a specific time of day and/or day(s) of week

When the criteria is met, we can change the certain settings:

Display - Changes the brightness and time-out of idle screen

Network - Switches Bluetooth and wi-fi on or off

Notification - Notifies you that the mode has changed

Ringtone - Changes the default ring-tone

Volume - Changes the volume of ringtone and notifications

Wallpaper - Changes your wallpaper

Android Market Keyword - Locale

Official Site: http://www.twofortyfouram.com/

Android app recommendation (1) - NetCounter

We have received the HTC Hero from Germany (computeruniverse.net) and have been loving the machine. In addition to the very people-centric interface of HTC Hero, of course we install more apps from Android Market for maximize fun. From today on, we will introduce to you some free apps we use and worth recommending to users of any Android phone, Google G1, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, Samsung Galaxy etc.

We take the Network Traffic Counter as our first post in the series. This freeware is capable of keeping track of the actual data usage of the phone, which makes NetCounter a must if you have limited data usage.

Apps Market Keyword: NetCounter

Picture 1: Breakdown of usage of today, 7 days, and monthly. Tapping any stats will show the Received and Sent data.

Picture 2: Menu -> Export to csv will make a detailed .csv delimited usage file in your SD card. (csv files can be opened with text editors like Notepad or spreadsheet program like Excel, you can even view csv file in your browser.)

Comparison Table: (Hero) Dream vs Magic vs Hero vs (Samsung) Galaxy

Computeruniverse coupon code

New customers to computeruniverse.net, one of the largest online shop for computer / technology products can enjoy €5 off for their first purchase (valid only for orders above €50). Note: If you are outside EU region, you can save the 17.5% VAT.

Just quote this voucher code: FW8TY5K at checkout.







Still awaiting for the shipping of our order of two HTC Heros. Hopefully they will arrive by Thursday or Friday :)

Never buy from Expansys! Bad shopping experience for HTC Hero

Europe has the release of HTC Hero first, Orange and T-mobile were the first operators offering the phone. We decided to get a phone for extensive testing.

We quickly placed a pre-order from Expansys UK, and the order was quickly expired with their rep' asking us to buy in Expansys Hong Kong instead. We followed their advice and pre-ordered in Hong Kong for HK$4,812 excluding shipping.

After the launch delay, when the product was finally available (more than one week after Orange's Hero Graphite was available, one week after T-mobile's white version was available, Expansys Hong Kong had been raising the price from $4,812 (no VAT in Hong Kong) to $4,868 to $4,951 to $5,231 to 5,332 as of 5 August 2009.

Expansys contacted us thru email and said they cannot offer the product for $4,812, which was clearly a lie, since Expansys UK has been selling at 347.82 pounds (ex VAT) with 30 pounds voucher rebate. One of their rep' called Agnes Chan had said ". . . we can lower the price to HKD4,812 . . .", implying the offer is a boon to us and we should be very appreciated for their "kind" offer. And this Agnes Chan subsequently ate her words and said minimum price must be $5,000. We have immediately replied her email with her own email clearly indicating that they agreed to sell at $4,812.

Another rep called Chilli Kum (weird nice name by the way) insisted that the price was a very low price (which is not), and urged us to confirm the order with that offer. Meh. We urged them back to make sure they expire our order, instead of holding our credit card charges in the "pending confirmation" status. We are preparing the documents to follow up the case in Consumers' Council, and of course, WE RECOMMEND READERS NOT TO ORDER FROM EXPANSYS.

Then we turn to computeruniverse.de, a German site selling electrical gadgets. We had heard about this company from users who bought some Sagem phones which were otherwise unavailable to Hong Kong (As a side note, the distributor in Hong Kong for Sagem mobiles was closed down.), and the user had very good comments on this company in terms of shipping time and product choice, we decided to give it a try.

We have just ordered an HTC Hero weiss (White) and an HTC Hero silbergrau (Silver) (Quote coupon code: FW8TY5K for €5 off), and no VAT to countries outside EU means we save 75 euros on the price, offsetting the extra shipping charges incurred. We will update this blog to recommend ComputerUniverse if we receive the product in satisfactory condition.

Extended Battery for HTC Diamond (Update)

Battery life for HTC Touch Diamond P3700 and Extended Battery

(Originally posted on 12 January 2009, update on 24 July 2009)

Original content:
HTC Touch Diamond ("P3700") is a great phone with multimedia functions, but we've heard that most users are complaining the very short battery life of the handset. Even if you switch off GPS, Wi-fi and Bluetooth, it's hard to sustain the battery for one day.

The original battery is 900mAh, which usually lasts for less than your daily usage. If you decide not to charge your Diamond in office, it seems inevitable to acquire an additional battery for your normal usage. You can find in the market some types of replacement batteries to beef up Diamond's battery life.


1. The original extended battery, model "BP E270", features a larger size 1350mAh battery. This still comes with a thick back, but it's more elegant though. Warning: High price.



2. "Big" batteries. With capacity ranging from 1530mAh to 2000mAh, so physically big that the original back cannot be covered, and the dealer will include a rather bulky back along with the battery. This new back does not look as good as the original one, of course. The extended battery will affect reception of GPS due to its size. Don't believe words like "works like original".


Besides these two, you can always buy the 900mAh batteries. This is not recommended as you will soonly find yourself changing batteries several times a day.

UPDATE: We recently got a BP E270 for extensive testing on the duration of battery. The battery has significantly prolonged by around 40%. It still cannot support prolonged use of MSN Messenger so you either have to turn in off in long train trips or you really should bring along the original 900mAh battery.

With the software "WMWifiRouter" on, we enabled wi-fi sharing, and the machine is not as hot as using the original battery as there are space inside the thick back. We wish the final launch of WM6.5 include wi-fi sharing (like what ASUS P835 offers) though.
Click here for an extended reading on wi-fi sharing / ASUS P835 on our site

One more thing, the thick back makes the machine looks flat as is not as reflective as the original one. Basically the Diamond becomes lower profile, and and fingerprints are no longer attracted.

Broken Push notification in iPhone 3.0 is due to jailbreaking

Some users have been receiving unrelated messages totally unrelated to them, and thought it was the problem on Apple's side. Appleinsider says otherwise.

The explanation is that to Jailbreaking ("JB") the iPhone, the unique private and public key of iPhone will change to that of the jailbreak. This opens a very dangerous loophole for hackers to distribute malicious contents. Receiving unrelated push will not be the most serious case . . .

Appleinsider did no specifically say if third-party unlocking will have this problem, but for safety's sake, it's better not to do than to do.

iPhone IM Apps: eBuddy vs fring vs Palringo

Today we are going to compare the three popular iPhone Instant Messenging (IM) apps - eBuddy, fring and Palringo. As of today (16 July 2009), the three software are free to download and use. Each of these programs support MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook and AIM.

To start with, Palringo, due to unknown problems, had never worked on the two iPod Touch in our lab. It quits when we press on the software button. Their official site says they support iPod Touch, and we don't know why.

fring has an advantage of in-software Skype SkypeOut calls (and of course you have to pay to use the SkypeOut function). Its fatal problem is that even if you delete/block someone in your contact list in MSN (or other IM), it still shows up in fring no matter how you set the options. This is extremely annoying if you accidentally added some unwelcomed "friends".
- Voice support and direct SkypeOut calls possible
- Skype support
- no flexibility in contact list
- Fring spam is on by default - your buddys will see annoying ads. Make sure you turn it off first.
- Advertisement pops out in an user unfriendly way
- Does not allow users to add friends with a period in the first half of email address

eBuddy is famous for being one of the earliest provider of browsed-based IM software.
- Unlike fring, you can do pretty much with your contact list, including deleting and renaming.
- With the iPhone OS 3.0 update, It also offers continous PUSH support for a customizable period of time (0, 5, 10 or 30 minutes) after user logs out and quit the program.
- It does not support Skype - and it does not support voice chat at all.
- AutoCorrect is disabled by default (but can turn on)
- No advertisement so far

In short, if we need Skype with MSN/Facebook/GTalk on at the same time, go fring. If we don't need Skype, eBuddy for sure. And we are using eBuddy.

Essential Widgets for Android Market (1) - Battery Status

Knowing the remaining battery is imporant when you use your Android machine for Internet access and GPS positioning, which both drains battery quickly.  Battery Status is an apps displaying the status of your battery accurate to the nearest percent.  If you see battery goes out quickly, might as well consider buying a second battery?

Android Market Keyword: Battery Status
Price: Free

Pictures from Slashphone.com

Toshiba's flagship phone of the year TG01 already launched

Japan had a notorious history of saving all high-quality phones inside their own country, but TG01 might be an exception. Named in Japan as T-01A under DoCoMo, Toshiba had already launched the WM6.1 powered TG01 in June. The response was positive (barring there were reports about problems on dialing 011 prefix numbers).

As our earlier report (here), TG01 is the feature phone for the year 2009, with a 4.1" large WVGA screen (i.e. Wide VGA 800 x 480) fitted in a slim 9.9mm body, this is one of the phone which gives users maximum viewing pleasure. Its Qualcomm 1.0GHz CPU, it runs most programs more smoothly than most Windows Mobile handsets available up-to-date.

We are aware of most tests and reviews online are only concentrated in the fancy functions and completely neglected about the very basic quality of a handset - the telephone function. In history, Toshiba's phone had appalled users with its horrible reception. Before our team has a chance to try and examine the phone (if possible), we hold completely skpetical on recommending any one from buying one.

For information as of today, the contract price from Orange is 99€, but contract price is never a good price indicator.

A 27-minute comprehensive video for the Japanese version T-01A, view it only if you have plenty of time:

More information, pictures and videos can be found in Toshiba's European official site "Mobile Revolution" in five languages: http://www.toshiba-europe.com/mobilerevolation/default.aspx

"Geeksphone" - android phone by the Spanish

http://geeksphone.com
Hey, look, this site's slogan says "the phone revolution begins", but we have difficulties reading Spanish. Would some readers figure out how this Samsung i900 Omnia with an Android O/S can cause a revolution? Without careful thoughts one might easily mistook this "GeeksPhone" as a poorly made mimic from unnamed hidden factories in mainland China. . .

http://blog.geeksphone.com/

Get your iPod Touch upgraded to 3.0 without paying the $9.95

Feel like being discriminated for iPhone users can upgrade for free while you have to spend an extra $10? We have two Touches in our workshop, and we have heard about the following method, which seemed legitimate (as we manage to get the file in apple.com), and we decided to try it.

We have tried the following methods on two iPod Touch 2nd Generation machines and found them working. We cannot guarantee that this trick works in every single machine though. We have not heard any failed attempts thus far.

Here is how this was supposed to work:
(Make sure your iPod isnt modified in some strange way.)
1) Get the "iPod1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw" (for iPod Touch first generation) or "iPod2,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw" (for iPod Touch second generation) from the Internet. This file is basically available everywhere, including the Apple site.
2) Go to iTunes and click your device, and wait until it finishes synchonizing.
3) Hold down "Shift" key (on your keyboard) while clicking the "Recover" button.
4) Select the ipsw file you've just downloaded and saved.
5) The restore should work, all information in your iPod should vanish. Don't panic,
6) as iTunes will prompt you to restore the backup you just sync'ed.

A few points on Nokia N97

- Be extra super careful when inserting the micro-SD card. It will get stuck easily if inserted without enoguh attention.
- Master reset password is "12345"
- Not sure if other places are the same, but the white version in Hong Kong has a second charger and a bluetooth headset
(Some reports that the white one is with 8G micro-SD while the black one is with 16G, Nokia-branded card)
- System might halt when switching to data mode from USB storage mode
- Some freeware programs from OVI actually require payment (watch out)

First Solar Energy Phone Samsung Guru E1107

As the world's very first solar-powered mobile phone, Samsung E 1107 is already launched in India as a budget phone.

This budget phone is currently selling at MSRP of 2799 Indian rupees or US$59. E1107 offers basic functions like MP3 and Radio with a relatively small screen of 1.5" 128x128 pixels.

Although this phone claims to be solar-powered, it, sadly, cannot be regarded as the primary electrcity supply - according to various sites, exposure in direct sunlight for one hour can only support up to 10 minutes of talk time.

Looks like it will take another 10 years to have major breakthrough in solar energy utilization.

E1107 will be available in Europe and Asia by the end of June 2009.

Bandwidth-eater portal sites (and alternatives)

If you just bought a phone with GPRS or a netbook with built-in 3G/3.5G service, having data connection might sounds fun, but don't let bandwidth-eater sites ruins your day.  Some tariff plans only covers like 5MB or so per month, if you read a couple of the sites each day, you're destined to be doomed.

Note to US/Canada/UK users: The content ends here.  Thanks.  Please remember not all operators in the world have unlimited data usage plans.

Eater 1: Facebook
The front page is simple and elegant, yes.  Just don't login.  Ever.  An average user Home page after login would be around 0.5MB.  To save your precious data usage, try the mobile version at http://m.facebook.com

Eater 2: Yahoo! Front Page
The US version is around 200KB, but the Hong Kong one is like 500KB.  Will be a lot more if a bad Flash advertisement popup rotates to your visit.  Our advice is, for searching, use Google.  For news, use Google.  For email, use Gmail (Google Mail), they also help migrating your old mails from Y! Mail to Gmail.

Eater 3: Engadget
600KB.  Just watch the site at home or office.  There won't be any NSFW content any way.  Or simply switch off image browsing of your browser.

Eater 4: Google Maps
Data flow varies.  It sounds fun when the satellite map of your GPS-enabled handheld machines synchonized with how your car/bus/train moving.  And all the fun are gone when you see the bill.  If this stripped all fun from your life, adjust the detail of map will definitely help.

Eater X: Youtube
Some operator are kind enough to cover Youtube usage.  Some are not.  Mobile version is at http://m.youtube.com

Why buy a normal edition Sims 3

We seldom talk about games, but local stores are loaded with the Sims 3 from EA.

Unless you *really* like the Sims series, consider refrain from buying the "Collector's Edition" of the Sims 3: -
1) The "Sims Plumbob" 2GB USB flash will break into three when it's dropped on ground.  They were merely assembled with glue.
2) There is no the USB "this side up" logo on the flash.
3) Worse, there are reports that many computers fail to even load the flash.  If your computer can, good, you're in luck.
4) The package is not luxurious, and it doesn't seems to be environmental friendly either.

The price difference between the Collector's Edition and the normal one is around $10 here.  But the peasant edition comes with a coffee mug, which is more practical than a unusable USB flash, in our opinion.  Of course, you make the call.

Most important reason to buy a HTC Magic (HTC G2) in Hong Kong instead of UK.

If you somehow visit Hong Kong in the next few weeks, you might be interested in getting the Taiwanese phone HTC Magic, aka the HTC Dream without keyboard.

According to various sources, HTC is upgrading the ROM of the Hong Kong version HTC Magic to 288MB RAM. In contrast, the European version only has 192MB. This is a whopping 50% difference. Such difference in hardware configuration might contribute to a more feasible program capacity and stability. All version should have 288MB RAM, and this is official.

The MSRP of HTC Magic in Hong Kong is HK$4,680, without contract. Same price for English and Chinese version. Local service provider Smartone-Vodafone is already accepting pre-orders and they will ship on early June (link in English).

Read more on the RAM size:
The spec in Hong Kong, by Smartone Vodafone: http://www.smartone-vodafone.com/jsp/phone/english/detail_v3.jsp?id=1061
The spec in UK, by Vodafone: http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-phone/htc-magic it has still been showing "192MB" RAM as of today (22 May 2009), apparently Vodafone misleads us

iPod Touch's crappy keyboard.

If you use iPod Touch, you might be very furious that you can NEVER type certain words normally.
After you type "lom" you can never type an "o"; after you type "eun" you can never type an "i".
This is absurdly stupid, but it seems it's a shameless plot to make users fed up of an iPod Touch so that Apple can sell more iPhones.
Of the machines we have tested, only iPod Touch has the problem, but iPhone seems not to replicate this retarded (sorry, but this word is necessary) AutoCorrect.

Official Facebook for WM6

Accessible by WM6 handsets directly at: http://mobile.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/downloads/facebook.mspx
Or simply type http://bit.ly/135790 in your pocket Opera

LG KM900 Arena Tips

Tip 1: If you cover the sensor, the screen will turn black. The sensor is located on the left of the LG logo.



Tip 2: Test mode shortcut: 3845#*900#should be 1809#*900#

Tip 3: Experience the mobile here (from LG Official site)
(will add and update when necessary)

Facebook for Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile 6.5 preloaded, and the experts there have extracted it for individual download purpose... In case you can't wait until there claimed release date on May, here is their link for the pre-release application of Facebook extracted by Da_G.

Samsung S8300 "UltraTOUCH" launches early May 2009

In Samsung's press conference in Hong Kong, it is revealed that the latest 8 megapixel camera feature phone S8300 (coded in Hong Kong as "S8300H") will be available early May, with unknown MSRP.

Unlike previous TouchWiz series, S8300 UltraTOUCH comes with a dialpad, which is essential for sending SMS during meetings/lectures.

In addition, for this generation of TouchWiz, new widgets can be downloaded from the Internet, feeding your machine with financial and weather information. Depsite supporting 7.2Mbps HSDPA, S8300 UltraTOUCH lacks wi-fi, meaning that you must pay data connection fees to download widgets if your tariff plan doesn't include.

With Google Map pre-installed in the phone, it can update user's approximate location with info by the operator's station. RingHK reports that the GPS chip cannot be used on Google Map - this may be their problem, and we do not have a hold of the machine so we are not sure about this particular point yet.

The 240 x 400 resolution 2.8 inches AMOLED screen is the same level as M8800, which is about right for a touchphone. As merely using the 880mAh battery will never satisfy a 4.1" screen like Toshiba's TG01.

There is also an accelerometer for S8300, when you tilt the phone, the screen will become landscape mode. Handy for taking pictures.

For camera performance, it successfully inherit the merits of M8800, clear and sharp photos are not difficult to take with its upgraded 8 megapixel camera. You can see the sample from RingHK and from ePrice (warning: links are bandwidth unfriendly).

It has the features of an entertainment camera phone - face detection, smile detection and eye-blink warning are included. The camera is also of impressive speed, comparable to a low-end digital camera. (You will know what we're talking about if you've been using any camera phones, sloooooooow)

We speculate that the price should be around HK$3,880 - HK$4,380 (US$497-US$562). Anything more than this just doesn't worth, unless a 8MP camera is critical to you.

Via ringhk and ePrice (contents in Chinese)

Multi-touch for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Yes, 5800xm is capable for multi-touch:


but it won't have official software since Apple holds the patent. Major pwnage.

Software to share your 3G connection over wi-fi

For long time, the easiest solution to share your 3G connecion to laptop over wi-fi is the software "WMWifiRouter". We have tried version 0.89 and it has been working quite sactisfactory.
Unfortunately, due to the popularity and success, they no longer decided to make the software free. The current version, version 1.30 is now US$29.99. Does it worth the money? You make the call.

There is actually one simple and elegant solution.

Buy ASUS P835. It has built-in Wi-fi hotspot function. The picture says it all. It even has battery display and time of usage. Pictures courtesy of Ringhk.com (link)
As of early April 2009, ASUS P835 is around HK$3800 in Hong Kong (around US$490).

Picture 1 - the warning that wi-fi sharing will devour your battery really quickly.
Picture 2 - the wi-fi hotspot setting page
Picture 3 - setup success!

How to avoid unwanted GPRS charge for PocketPC / Windows Mobile 6.0

A few years ago, older PocketPC or WM 5.0 phones like HP or dopod phone, there are not much functions that relys on the Internet. GPRS charges back that were controllable.

When HTC Touch and similar models launched some innovative (aks pesky) functions like weather, users have been noticing the increasing amount of data usage. If you are unwary about this (probably you were a Nokia user etc), you might have an agonizing memory of being charged for high data charge. This is especially true in some countries where tariff plans are/were just legal pillage.

Recently we have heard a couple of cases of charging more than 1000 euros for unintentional usage. If you want to prevent tregady from happening, you may want to:
- Disable the data function entirely. You can call your phone operator to block the GPRS/3G function. This will ensure you can only use Internet in wi-fi coverage.
- If phone operator refuses to block the function, you can manually set wrong parameter at Start->Settings->Connection->Connection->Internet Settings. Obfuscate the settings (like access point) to prevent it from using the network to online. This option is quite advanced and should only be used by those who understand this entire paragraph. Wrong settings might cause error in wi-fi connection.
- Disable the Assisted-GPS (AGPS) function. This will significantly slow down GPS geographic location though. Use at your own choice.
- set synchonizing of e-mail and RSS feeds to manual mode, do it only when you are connecting via wi-fi
- set weather, update to manual or disable it if unnecessary


and if your tariff has limited usage:

- Never use youtube. (Youtube for mobile)
- Logout services that requires connection. This is common sense, but some users will always forget no matter what. Logout your Windows Mobile Messenger, Google Latitude, Skype for WM and the like after usage. This saves battery too.
- Beware of the connection mode! Ensure the wi-fi does not suddenly switch to HSDPA/EDGE/GPRS/whatever. This is a major trap.
- Monitor suspectible usage with dedicated software, for example, the Spb Wireless Monitor (warning: not freeware).

These methods are generally true for most popular models, HTC Touch Diamond, Cruise, HD, Pro, Samsung Omnia, SonyEricsson Xperia, LG KS20, Motorola Motosurf A3100, ASUS P835, HP iPAQ Data Messenger, and the like.

World's smallest NAS Thecus N0204 miniNAS

While the NAS (Network Attached Storage) in our office still stuck at the previous generation technology (it's Synology DS106j in case you wonder. Yes, we suck we still use IDE harddisk), we are still able to run USB printer, IP Cam, HTTPS server, FTP on a stick. The Taiwanese manufacturer Thecus wants to proof themselves they are among the top of the NAS industry.

As 2.5 inch harddisks are gaining popularity, the volumn of NAS can easily be cut more than a half. Thecus's new world's smallest NAS, "N0204 miniNAS" has caught our eyesight. Its has a size (thickner though) of a palm - 132 x 88 x 63 mm. See the photo from the press release in Hong Kong.

According to Thecus's official website, it
- "comes with RAID 0, 1, and JBOD support";
- "consumes only 25-30% of the power compared to a regular two-bay NAS device";
- allows hot-plug and hot-swap "without even powering off the unit"; and
- supports "USB printers, external hard disks, USB web cam, and even works with USB WLAN adaptors".

Size does matter, but USB webcam and WLAN adaptors are also awesome. So that means with this piece of toy we can use a powerful webcam instead of buying a decent IP cam, effectively saving 150 euros (for us to upgrade from the Synology). The WLAN adaptor is the superstar if you plan to carry the NAS with you. None of us had never imagined the possibility of carrying an NAS.

No official price yet.

(Via Team Anti-X (Chinese))

SonyEricsson T707 Sharapova phone

The most obvious reason that we tend to not report SonyEricsson handset is that you can't actually tell which model the phone is by merely looking at it. Their models are so indistinguishable and their product line feature are blur. This new model, Sony Ericsson T707, is a rare exception.

For T707, Ericsson has partnered with Maria Sharapova, the famous tennis star. Unlike the ordinary uninteresting outlook of Sony Ericsson phone, T707 is a flip phone which is believed to be a 3G successor of Z610, a 2006 model with sharp colors and reflections.

Commentable features:
- Memory Stick Micro (boo..., they should make it dual compatible like k850)
- 3.2MP camera, geotagging (mediocre camera, with geotagging some users might be interested in it)
- 95g (quite compact for flip phone)
- 2.2", TFT, 240x320, 262k color display
- UMTS/HSDPA 2100 (no practical use besides Youtube)
- Youtube (With the small size of screen, you won't probably want to Youtube)
- Gesture keys to mute incoming calls or snooze the alarm (without actually flipping the phone) (finally a nice function.)

Rumor says it will be available by June 2009. We expect the price will be $2,488 in Hong Kong, a city with no sales tax. (nobody's willing to pay more on this very mediocre phone)


(Via engadget)

Facelift of KC910 - LG Renoir KC910i

Four months after the launch of LG KC910, a facelift of the handset is available. Although official name is still Renoir KC910, in MWC, LG called it KC910i.

The differences for the original Renoir and facelift one are:

- The notorious photo cropping function was a miserable experience for some users, and the new version of viewfinder solves the problem of.

- The lens cover is now automatic.

- The ROM also features the Microsoft Exchange sync, where you can sync your email, contact list and appointments between your PC and the phone, like a Windows Mobile handset.

- Now more black in color instead of silvery.

Of course, the goodies - wi-fi, 7.2M HSDPA, 640x480 30fps video, 8mp camera are still there. For information, price here was 440€ on KC910's launch (November 2008), and 350€ on KC910i now (March 2009).

IE 8.0 download and our site browser statistics

According to Google Analytics, the browser experience of users for this site is not like the general ratio. Contrary to the general 70:30 IE:others ratio, our site's breakdown is like:

        Internet Explorer           42.74%
       Firefox                     42.41%
       Opera                        5.06%
       Chrome                       4.41%
       Safari                       4.08%

This is a healthy distribution (and if we only take the data of the previous 30 days, Firefox had already taken over IE to the top). Sadly, for our other sites, IE users are still a majority (70%+).

We have mixed feeling on Internet Explorer. Although we do not recommend users to use IE, (you can update the Internet Explorer to 8.0 at Microsoft's "Worldwide" official site), it won't block Google's AdSense applets like other browsers do.

For fairness purposes, here are a couple of words for other browsers.
- for speed-wise, Chrome
- for elegant layout, Safari is the way to go.
- for convenience, choose Firefox (with Foxmarks and FireGestures add-ons)
- for best tabbed browsing experience, Opera (don't forget to turn on the additive Mouse Gesture function!)
- for travel usage, pick Opera@USB

Picture: A blatant copy of Firefox's phishing warning by IE8.

LG KM900 Arena will launch ... on March 2009

Yes, it's official. LG KM900 Arena is out this month. Being one of the most powerful flagships in the MWC this year, Arena takes the earliest invasion to the market.

LG's marketing strategy is to focus on the multiedia features. True, aside being regarded as too "iPhone" in the menu, its media functions are overwhelming. In addition to the Dolby Mobile sound system, a 5mp camera on a 3 inch WVGA screen, it features the all-new "3D S-Class" interface.

Better still, it finally features a 3.5mm audio jack, which is a big stepforward - you can finally use the handsfree when charging.

Beware of their "40GB" memory though. It merely means it has 8GB internal storage and can support a 32GB MircoSD card.


Hey, look, it lags.

400x240 sized Wallpapers and screen backgrounds

As KU990 Viewty is 400 x 240 in pixel (WQVGA), other handsets with the same resolution can display these wallpapers too. Known handsets with the same resolution include:
LG Cookie KP500, Renoir KC910, Prada KE850
Samsung Omnia i900^*, Pixon M8800
SonyEricsson Xperia X1
K-Touch E60

*Note: 400 x 240 pixel pictures interacts poorly for Omnia i900's accelerometer, you will need larger pictures to eliminate the black edges

How big is 400x240 is in your screen? We have attached a photo of Ribeauville, Alsace, France for your reference. (If you like it, feel free to use it as your phone background.)

When we search the net, we found a massive load of screen background (swf) and wallpapers (jpg) for Viewty which you might want to see. High quality good stuff. http://www.reptilis.org/Viewty/index

Drastic price increase of Apple Store

With the launch of iPod Shuffle 3g(3rd Gen), a series of price revisions were taken place in Apple Stores all over the world.

Due to currency fluctuation, some products in Apple Store of various countries skyrocketed. Taiwanese users are already complaining about the price increase of iPod Nano. However, there are more extreme cases in South Korea, which our old post just covered a few days ago.

One week ago, iPod Touch 8G was 280,000 KRW (Korean Won) in South Korea. Now it is 36% more expensive: 379,000 won in official store.

Yes, this sounds a lot, but today's 379,000 KRW is more or less the 280,000 KRW one year ago.

iPod shuffle new generation launched

The Apple store is now loaded with iPod shuffle of the new generation. The most essential stuff you might want to know:

• $79
  
• 4GB
  
• 45.2 x 17.5 x 7.8mm
  
• 10.7 grams
  
• 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
  
• 10 hours music playback
  
• earphones, with remote, without microphone
• able to read mp3 file details (song title ametc) in various languages
  

With an MP3 small like this, it will be easily forgotten/lost if you are careless. Plus, when viewing from the front, lacking the distinctive style of buttons, you cannot really tell it's an Apple product.

(p.s. No, this time don't buy in Seoul, it's 129,000 won which is $83, and doesn't worth the work to tax refund. Just only hoard the iPod Touch there. In Hong Kong, iPod shuffle new gen is just 600 HK dollars = $77)