Solved: Note to Reader, In Android

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By chippy | Filed in smartphones | No comments yet.

Many of us use Google Reader to read RSS feeds. It’s a tidy way to scan and archive a lot of news and it can be well organized into groups of different content. My go-to feed of the day is my ‘mobile-computing’ category (public here) and as I go through the items I tend to share ones I think I need to follow up on or that other people would be interested in. Each shared item ends up on my shared page and on an RSS feed that gets fed into the front page of UMPCPortal. I even use tags to generate specific RSS feeds for other places. I might use the tag ‘carrypad’ if I want the item to be linked with the Carrypad website for example. When you step outside Reader and get links thrown at you from email, twitter and just general browsing, you need to find another way to mark them. Either for reading later, sharing or creating an RSS feed. There’s Instapaper, Read it Later and Delicious but instead of using a separate service Google have their own called ‘note in reader’ which is a little applet that you can add to your desktop browser toolbar and it allows you to highlight any web page you want, regardless of whether it is in your feed or not. Conveniently it allows you to add a note and a tag which is just perfect for me. As I find an interesting page, I’ll note it to Google Reader and add a tag. I can’t think of a better way in which to share, annotate and route information to various sites, editors and followers (the tag-based RSS feeds can be fed into Twitter but I tend to import them into the great Lifestream plugin for WordPress.)

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XT720 I’ve been away for the last two weeks. I took two smartphones and a netbook with me which is a slightly different setup to my usual phone/umpc/netbook combo. Fortunately I wasn’t caught-out on my outings where all I took were my smartphones but I was conscious of having to do any sort of site support with just a touchscreen phone! I took my X10i and my N82 as phone companions and the N82 was about the only device I used as a camera although I did find myself doing a few shots with the X10 just because it was easier to tweet / send to Facebook and that’s one of the features I really love using on Android. The sharing ‘bus’ that allows any application to link into the ‘share’ menu and get a message from an application is just killer.

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N82 Picture – Orchid

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By chippy | Filed in smartphones | One comment

I’ve just passed the 2.5 year mark with the N82 and I’m still looking for something that can replace it. As reported many times here, on Carrypad and on the XperiaX10 blog, my Xperia X10 isn’t up to the same standards. I’ve been looking at the Motorola  Droid XT720 and Nokia N8 as replacements but we’ll have to see about that soon. In the meantime, the N82 is doing a good job…

Orchid by N82

Click for full version. ISO 100, F2.8, 1/333s

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Mobile Middle-Ground

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By chippy | Filed in Uncategorized | No comments yet.



Mobile Mix-Up

Originally uploaded by umpcportal.com


Ive been away a lot over the last three weeks to the point where I have hardly been near my desk. The image shows the devices I’ve been using.

The problem is, each one has its uses and shortfalls and it highlights what a messy middle-ground we’re in with mobile technology right now. Either the operating system isn’t complete, the platform not good enough or there’s a unique feature that can’t be found on any other device. I’m getting frustrated!

I’m writing a more detailed article about this for UMPCPortal.com. It should be up on Monday.

Like the books says, cross the chasm to a small island and build out from there. Or something like that anyway. [Ref: Crossing the Chasm]

I don’t know if many people out there are considering starting a new blog these days but there’s one thing for sure, the only way to do it organically is to focus on a tiny niche and build out from there. Some of you might have noticed my experiments with product blogs recently. I did the MyOmniaPro blog and now I’m doing the XperiaX10 blog. I definitely learnt a lot from the two experiences and see an advantage now in running multiple smaller blogs rather than one big one. The reasons?

  • Focused community. All the readers are there for one reason. It build quickly.
  • Easier SEO. Naming the blog myomniapro.com brought it to the top of a Google search for Omnia Pro within about three months. I’m currently testing with a sub-domain xperiaX10.carrypad.com in the hope that I get good keyword SEO from the domain name but also add to the value of Carrypad.com which I also own. If that works, I might do further sub-blogs.
  • Choose something you love, buy it, blog it. It’s so much fun to learn, to share and to get feedback on something you own.
  • Focused advertising. Through Amazon you can place highly targeted ads meaning better chance of clickthrough and conversion. Google is also able to determine the subject of your blog very easily.
  • Product-focused forums work well. Much better than forums that focus on a sector.
  • When the product dies, move on. If you don’t like the product, be honest, sell it and put the blog on ice. Move on to a new topic.
  • You’re not tied to a sector.
  • It’s easier to become an expert on a device than on a sector.

One disadvantage is management and time-splicing between multiple blogs.

WordPress MU helps to set sub-blogs up super quickly though so that shouldn’t be a problem. As far as time-splicing goes, focus on what you love but pay attention to stats. If you’re in it for the money, you need to attend to the things that are popular.

Hope those thoughts help you with your blogging plans. I’m off now to post my first impressions of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 – A device I’m really enjoying.

Oh, and by the way, I’m still running two big blogs because they’ve already got traction. I have no plans to spit them up as that would be too much of a risk.

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Just how good is the X10 Camera, Arne?

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By chippy | Filed in smartphones | No comments yet.

Some people say that twitter friends are important influencers. This morning, Arne Hess threw a big one my way with a simple "I must admit that I’m deeply impressed by the SE Xperia X10 8 megapixel camera!" [source]

Wonderful. Just as I get over my desire for the Satio (plastic, not fantastic) and the Vivaz (Steve Litchfield wasn’t that impressed so I’m not impressed) out of my system, I now have to reconsider the Sony Ericsson X10 that I had previously discounted due to expensive price (around 500 Euro making it 150 Euro more than the Motorola Milestone) and a 1.6 version of Android (see how impressed JKK was when he upgraded to 2.1 on the Milestone/Droid)

You might have already read that I’ve got an N82 which was, after I’ve repaired the control key, going to continue to be my #1. The problem is that 1) The Xenon flash is starting to fail. We’re up to about 20% pre-flash / flash fail rate now (I must have run 5000 photos or more through it so I’m not surprised) and the two batteries I have aren’t giving me more than 4-6hr battery life even on GSM with no services running. With the delay to the Dell Mini 5 (which was to be my uber-phone in working situations) it now means I have at least 3 months ahead of me without a reliable smartphone and that’s not acceptable.

I’m still looking at the Milestone and at 360 Euro, it’s an absolute bargain now but if the X10 is going to get 2.1 and has top-class photography (based on all my criteria) then I’m willing to give it a shot at 20 Euro per month. But then, there’s the Nokia N8 and LG GW990 to think of. If they feed in at the end of the year I don’t want to be stuck with the X10 and 20 Euro per month.

Maybe I should just get a Nokia 6710 Navigator , LG Electronics GW620 (loving the look of the 5-row keyboard on that) or Android 2.1-based Samsung Galaxy Spica to keep me going over the summer. At 250 Euro, these are all bargains.

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..and down again. Satio story ends.

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By chippy | Filed in smartphones | One comment

As promised, I took a trip into my local O2 store and as usual, they wouldn’t get a Satio out for me to try. Last time I was a potential customer. This time i’m a customer. I don’t know what’s worse.

Anyway, after trotting over to the T-Mobile store and connecting to my Mifi to the display Satio, I had a good play. The camera is, as I have already discovered, very very impressive. The ‘best pic’ function is good too. Web browsing seemed average and I was a bit disapointed with the speaker but overall, the feature set is very very impressive.

I didn’t buy one though.

The big problem is that it feels like it fell out of a Christmas cracker. The plastic is cheap and it looks like the ‘silver’ will rub off within weeks. I literally couldn’t handle it any more and walked out of the shop knowing that the Satio is NOT for me.

Sometimes I feel I’m a little bit too careful when choosing a phone but when it’s the most used peice of electronics i’m likely to buy for the next year or two, I don’t mind being a bit picky.

It looks like I’ve exhausted all phones from my ‘toplist’ now so there’s only one thing to do…wait.

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Satio Firmware Upgrade puts it Back On Top.

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By chippy | Filed in smartphones | 4 comments

I’ve written about the SE Satio and how it could be the perfect upgrade from the N82 for me. I’ve also written about why it’s not the perfect upgrade for me.
Today, the SE Satio goes back onto the top of the list after news about a firmware upgrade broke at the end of last week. The new features look great. Especially that boost to video recording and direct upload to YouTube.

  • Support for WVGA video recording – The already great video recording will be enhanced to fit the wide screen format and hence resolution is also slightly increased to 864 * 480 pixles. (the preset size will still be VGA, user has to change to get WVGA)
  • Upload of pictures to Facebook – It will be possible to upload pictures directly from the picture menu you have on the home screen or from the Media UI.
  • Youtube video uploading – It will be possible to upload videos to Youtube directly from the Media UI.
  • Conversational messaging – “Conversations” will be nicely integrated in the messaging menu in order to easily find and inspire to more conversations with your friends.
  • DLNA support – The new software will support DLNA media server for easy transfer of audio and still pictures. (Note that video is not supported)
  • UI improvements – On top of above, several minor UI improvements have been done in order to optimize the user experience.
  • The Facebook application that is now available on PlayNow for free download will be included in the sw.

Owners are reporting that the device is now faster and smoother too.

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UMID BZ Video Demo Test

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By chippy | Filed in Uncategorized | No comments yet.



UMID BZ Video Demo Test

Originally uploaded by umpcportal.com


This is a test. Video to come soon.

UMID BZ UMPC test at MWC

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By chippy | Filed in Uncategorized | No comments yet.

UMID BZ UMPC

Originally uploaded by umpcportal.com


The UMID is going to form an important part of my kit at MWC next week. It will be the hub for my photos in so far as I will be transfering images from my N82 via Bluetooth to the device and then uploading them to Flickr. From there I will be using the ‘blog this’ feature to push it out to my website. The blog process includes adding the article and links. E.G. this one

Videos will require an different process but its also possible to process and push basic videos from Movie Maker on the UMID.

This test, done as explained, took about 5 mins.

Possible issues:
Battery life on UMID and Mifi.