Tags:
Hardware
A
few years ago I opened up a new bank account because I was annoyed at some
of my long-time bank's policies (but that's a whole 'nother story.) I
just happened to walk into the bank when they were giving away free 4GB
iPod Mini's (2nd generation.) My lucky day. At first I didn't
even know what to do with the thing, but eventually I ended up putting
all my MP3's and CDs on it and letting it live in my vehicle. It
worked great. For my current vehicle I bought a device that lets
me connect both the iPod and my Sirius satellite radio and even control
the iPod via my steering wheel controls. Bliss.
But eventually the iPod started having
trouble. It would be OK for a while, then suddenly it would reset
itself. Instead of picking up where it left off randomly playing
my songs it would start over at the beginning, playing them in artist order.
Unfortunately that meant I heard Lesson 1 of Pimsleur
Portuguese over and over. Yeah,
that got annoying. One fix seemed to be setting an alarm on the iPod
so it would wake up every day at 7 AM and not go into the "deep sleep"
that caused the reset. That worked for a while, then it started happening
again. I figured that it could be the battery finally giving out
and thought I'd need to get a new iPod.
Not so fast, though. While it
seemed that there was not a user-serviceable battery at first it turned
out that you actually CAN take the iPod apart and install an after-market
battery, which I was able to find online for only about $6. Nice!
It was a little tricky to take the iPod apart but with a little patience
and some very small screwdrivers I got it eventually, popped in the new
battery, and away we go. Or not...
Somewhere along the way I seem to have
broken the click wheel. Or the cable connecting the click wheel to
the motherboard. Not good - I couldn't control the iPod. And
even hooking up to the vehicle control wasn't enough. I could start
and stop, but I couldn't get the iPod to play all the songs randomly, which
is what I want. Occasionally I want to play a specific song, too,
and I couldn't do that. Rats.
Back to the Internet and I found people
selling click wheels and ribbon cables. It seems like a common part
to break when replacing the battery. Prices ranged from about $8
to $25, both new and used. I opted for the $8 new wheel.
And voila - after carefully taking everything
apart again (this being about the 5th or 6th time now!) I was able to install
the new click wheel, along with the new battery. And it worked! Now
I'll just have to see if I get Portuguese lessons on the way to a client
tomorrow morning...
Tags:
Hardware
I
have been a pretty good Dell fan for years. Decent prices, easy ordering,
great warranty, good machines. Except their prices really aren't
that great any more. And Corporate
Crackdown points out some
major flaws with Dell's next business day warranty. I have actually
had some good customer support from Dell, but all of the things I liked
about them have been going downhill. That's why I have been custom-building
machines lately. Using better components than Dell does I can still
come in cheaper than Dell. And using off the shelf components means
I can get machines back running pretty quickly when necessary. Sorry
Dell, it was nice while it lasted, but I'm pretty much done.
Tags:
Hardware
As
I mentioned
last
week, I like my stuff shiny and
scratch-free, so I've been using BestSkinsEver
on my phones since last year.
Since I just upgraded to an iPhone and got my wife a Samsung Eternity
it was time to re-skin. The skins arrived within a couple of days
of me placing the order - much faster than I expected. I tackled
my wife's Eternity first. The instructions suggest spraying the soap/water
solution on the skin but I have had better luck just dipping in a shallow
dish of the solution and then drying much of it with a paper towel. The
skins really aren't difficult to put on, but you need good light and a
bit of patience, both of which were missing by the time I got to working
on my iPhone late at night (hence one little bubbles I didn't notice until
the next morning when I woke up - doh!) As the instructions said,
I put the screen protector on the iPhone first, then worked on the back.
The backs for the iPhones come in 3 different versions - I ordered
the most complicated for the best coverage. I think when I put it
on and was working on the corners I might have messed up the screen protector
without noticing. Like I mentioned - don't do this late at night
with poor lighting! You'd think by the fourth phone (2 last year,
2 this year) I would have figured that out by now.
End results, though, came out great.
My wife can now throw her Eternity into her purse without worrying
about it getting all scratched up (let's face it - she was going to do
that anyway!) And I don't have to treat my iPhone like the screen
was made out of tissue paper any more. The touch screen, even with
the bubbles from my sloppy application, still works and looks great. It
may not be quite as slippery as unprotected screens are but you get used
to it quickly and can't even tell the skin is on there.
<Update> I just realized, a couple
days later, that the bubbles completely disappeared! You would never
know there was a sloppy application. I don't know how that happened,
but the screen now looks completely perfect.
Tags:
Hardware
So
now that I have my shiny new iPhone I want to keep it that way. Last
year when I got the Dare (and my wife's LG Chocolate) I wanted the same
thing. There are a huge number of options out there but you can't
go wrong with the extremely reasonably priced BestSkinsEver.
The skins don't look like much at first but boy are they tough. I
know my phone is going to get thrown into pockets, briefcases, my wife's
purse, etc, and have run-ins with keys, coins, and probably the street
at some point. With a BestSkinsEver skin wrapped around the phone
nothing makes a dent (ok, well, don't drop the phone from 3 feet.) The
touchscreen still works fine and the skins are designed for each device
to wrap around corners, buttons and holes. They seem to make them
for just about every electronic device out there from phones to cameras
to music players and even lap tops. At less than $8 it's no-brainer
insurance to keep your phone looking pristine so I'm about to order two
more - one for my new iPhone and one for my wife's new Samsung Eternity.
It really is the Best. Skin. Ever.
Tags:
Hardware
I
haven't updated my blog on my cell phone escapades lately because I've
been too busy playing with my new iPhone, which I've had for a couple of
weeks now. Holy smokes, this thing is great! It really does
everything. Yeah, there's an app for that. Seriously, it's
just about everything I need and much much more. It felt a little
funny jumping ship from Verizon Wireless after 11 years but they just didn't
have the technology to meet my needs. I was thinking that I should
have done this years ago, but the iPhone 3GS just came out recently with
some very favorable upgrades.
More on the iPhone later, but if you're
on the fence or thinking about getting an iPhone I can definitely recommend
it (like you needed me to tell you that.)
Tags:
Hardware
Well
that was a weekend of frustration. Within an hour of getting my new
BlackBerry Tour, the brand new leading BlackBerry, home I was stunned to
realize that the basic BlackBerry e-mail client does NOT have IMAP folder
support. Seriously?? I live in my e-mail folders and e-mail
that can't access folders is utterly useless. I've set these up for
clients before but never realized that the Inbox is the only folder they
could see. To get full e-mail functionality you need a BlackBerry
Enterprise Server and need to pay yet another $15/month in fees (bring
the Blackberry data plan up to a whopping $45/month.) That's crazy.
I talked to a rep on Friday who said he would have the $35 restocking
fee waived, which I just reconfirmed with the rep I talked to a few minutes
ago who helped me convert my service back to my Dare. Whew.
I learned a few other things during
my brief BlackBerry experience. First, the operating system really
is somewhat old and clunky. I guess this new Tour is a bit updated
but basically all that means is the icons are different (in my opinion,
harder to figure out what they actually are.) But really, it's 2009
- the interface should be quite a bit jazzier, shouldn't it? At first
I thought the little trackball was pretty good and navigating around the
phone worked pretty well but I got tired of that pretty quickly and it
became difficult and painful. Scrolling left and right didn't work
as well as scrolling up and down and the ball felt kind of flimsy. Some
menu options (such as "delete" in e-mail) seemed to move around
sometimes - I never really knew where it was going to show up. The
web browser looked great at first but really wasn't as useful as I thought
and I needed to either borrow reading glasses to use it or zoom in and
scroll back and forth to read anything. It did not feel like progress.
So I guess you can say I'll never become
a "CrackBerry" addict. This thing will be back in the store
tomorrow morning. Then I'll start discussing their early termination
fee. Did I mention previously that I just got back from the Apple
Store where I played with an iPhone...? More to come...
Tags:
Hardware
Well,
just a few days after I posted about my cell phone dilemma I think I've
decided to take the plunge into the Blackberry world. Top choices
on Verizon Wireless are the old standby Blackberry Curve (yeah, really
- 2 years old is "old") and the newly released Blackberry Tour.
The Storm, the first touch-screen Blackberry, isn't that old but
it is almost universally panned as an epic failure so that's not an option.
I did some reading, listened to some advice, and decided that for
my first Blackberry the Curve is good enough. But then I did some
more reading and played around in the store again and damn, that Tour is
nice. It's no iPhone, but damn...
I convinced myself (I'm a pushover)
that it's worth the extra money for the Tour over the Curve - why should
I buy ancient technology? That's after I convinced myself that I
really should have a Blackberry at this point. I mean, I'm supporting
more and more clients with Blackberries and the best way to support them
is to have one myself.
So I called Verizon Wireless customer
service and ask if they'll bump up my annual renewal discount a week or
so so I can get the new phone today. Since I'm a long-time customer
(11 years) it was no problem. The very nice woman said to wait an
hour or so and I should be all set. I went down to the store to pick
up my new phone. After debating and playing with both I confirmed
that yeah, only the best for me. Then... uh oh. The guy at
the store said I wasn't eligible to upgrade until April of 2010. Huh?
A phone call to customer support later and it turns out that my request
is still "being worked on." April is my "new every
two" date, but August 2 is my annual upgrade date. I'm pretty
sure last year I upgraded a bit early too.
Well, a few phone calls later and my
date still hasn't been changed. Bummer - no new phone for me. In
fact, one or two of the reps I talked to tonight said it wasn't even possible
for me to have my date changed anyway. Seriously, every time you
call you get a different answer. This is by no means limited to just
Verizon, but it's darned annoying.
So there's still time to change my mind.
Curve... Tour... iPhone...??
Tags:
Hardware
Last
year I finally got a new cell phone, an LG
Dare. It had everything
I wanted, including a touchscreen for coolness factor and a QWERTY keyboard
that popped up when you rotate the phone. I've been a Verizon Wireless
customer for a long time now and this seemed to be becoming their premier
phone, so it was a no-brainer. The LG Dare is not a smart phone,
but I didn't need one. I occasionally need to check and respond to
e-mail when I'm away from computers and with Verizon Wireless Mobile Email
and the decent keyboard I am able to do so. The Dare also has a web
browser that is supposed to be one of the better ones. The screen
is just big enough to be somewhat useful to look something up but you're
not going to want to spend that much time browsing the web.
Fast forward 9 months and, well, I'm
kind of tired of the Dare. There are lots of arguments over which
is the better phone with diehard radicals on each side. I'm not that
crazy about things, but I do want some basic functionality to just work.
First, the Dare is also a phone, right? But it's clumsy to
get around sometimes and get the right screen up to hit the right button
at the right time. The e-mail solution worked for a while, but lately
it has not been synchronizing properly with my Lotus Domino/Notes e-mail,
and tech support has been no help. They've been less than no help
- they've just wasted a bunch of my time and haven't resolved anything.
I now have a client with the same setup with the same problem so
I know it's not just me. The web browser is pretty clumsy too, although
I don't really know if any other devices do it any better. The e-mail
and web browser applications are completely separate so if someone e-mails
me a link I can't click on it. That's something I know other phones
can do. I'm starting to think I might need a real smart phone that
can synchronize my e-mail, contacts, and calendar. I knew I was going
to get there eventually. Finally, the Dare apps available are just
pathetic. It's not critical, but those iPhone apps do look like a
lot more fun, and it seems like every time I turn around there's another
website optimized for the iPhone and a dozen new apps available.
I'm still on a Verzion Wireless contract
for another 14 months or so, but I'm getting itchy. And there are
rumors about that a version of the iPhone might be coming to Verizon. We'll
see if I can wait that long...
Tags:
Hardware software
Over
this past week I adjusted 3 or 4 fairly new wide-screen monitors to their
proper resolution. I don't know how people don't see this, but all
of the screen resolutions were set incorrectly, so everything was fat and
short (much like how many people end up watching their fancy new wide-screen
TVs because they don't know how to set them up properly.) It's very
important to get the aspect ratio right. Further, LCD screens have
a native resolution where they're most happy. With these huge newer
screens, that resolution is often 1680x1050. If you can't seem to
set the correct resolution you may need to upgrade your graphics card driver.
But trust me, you'll be much happier when you have it set properly.
Tags:
Hardware
The
first workshop on building your own computer went so well a few weeks ago
that I figured we should do it again.
Are you in the market for a new computer
but don't want to spend the big bucks that a really nice Dell or HP will
cost you (or want better quality for less money)? Do you need a less
expensive second computer for the kids? Normally my support work
is limited mostly to name brand computers, which is what I usually recommend
to my clients. But after building a new computer for myself recently I've
had more requests to help friends put together computers for a fraction
of the cost of a new name brand computer. So I'm putting together
another free hands-on workshop on how to build your own computer. This
is a beginner level workshop that will walk you through all the steps,
from picking out components to walking away with your new computer (or
you can cheat and just order the parts I suggest.)
The obvious questions: How is this going to work and what is the cost?
The cost is up to you depending on what components you pick out - the first
workshop computers all cost between around $300-$450. I'll work with
you via e-mail a couple weeks before the build day to figure out what components
suit you best. You will order the parts directly from the supplier.
Then we'll all meet and spend a few hours putting everything together,
installing an OS, installing some free software, and making sure everything
works. You'll go home with your new computer, simple as that.
If you're interested, please email me directly. Space is limited,
and once everyone is signed up we'll schedule build day and get everything
ordered. This is going to be hands-on, so limited to the local Metrowest/Greater
Boston area (you're going to have to get yourself to Framingham to put
it together.)
Tags:
Hardware
I
finally got my new case, the Antec Sonata III I mentioned at the end of
my last post. The quiet PC enthusiasts don't LOVE it, but I do. I
thought something was wrong when I first turned it on - it's that quiet.
Perfect for my office, and thanks to the great Newegg RMA process
the first case I tried will be heading back tomorrow. That thing
was LOUD. And bright. Ridiculous.
Tags:
Hardware
OK,
I can finally admit it - I've been using a computer that I would never
let a client use. The Dell 4600 is practically older than dirt. I
bought it in 2002 and have steadily upgraded it but it just wasn't cutting
it any more, especially after I upgraded it to Vista (I know, I know, but
I have to support Vista, so it's best for me to have a machine running
it as well. And it's really not that bad, but that's a topic for a different
post.)
Anyway, I was going to replace my trusty
old Dell with a trusty new Dell when my buddy Shane
convinced me that I'd be better off building a PC from components I bought
at Newegg.
I resisted, but then spent some time with Shane researching and pricing
stuff out and whaddya know, I could save $600. OK, I'm in - I geeked
out and went for it.
After researching a ton, I settled on
an ASUS
M3A78-EM motherboard, an AMD
Phenom 9600 Agena quad-core processor,
4 GB of OCZ
Reaper RAM, and an Apevia
X-Gear case. Everything
showed up in 3 separate orders over a couple of days this week. After
I finally had everything in my office it didn't take too long to hook it
all together, although I had a few setbacks and questions during the process.
If I had to do it all over again (and I do - more on that later)
it will probably take about 1/3 of the time. Oh, you might have noticed
some components missing, and this is partly how I kept my costs down. I
already had a SATA hard drive, a DVD burner, floppy, keyboard, and mouse.
So I finally got it all together and
loaded up Vista Ultimate. Took a while (I think the DVD drive is
kind of slow) but eventually I had a working computer. For the most
part. I tried running the Vista evaluator to see how my system makes
out but it doesn't seem to recognize my onboard graphics card. Eh
- no biggie, I know it's fast. Certainly faster than my old Pentium
4.
But it's not without problems, one of
which is going to require swapping some hardware. Basically, I hate
the case. It's awful. It has these bright blue lights all over
it - they're blinding. More importantly, it's LOUD. What, I
can't hear you? It's L O U D. OK, maybe for a gamer they need
all these lights and fans, but I just want a quiet machine. I can't
stand the drone of the fans, primarily the power supply fan. Back
to the drawing board. It turns out there's a big group of silent
PC enthusiasts. Who knew? Shane doesn't care about the noise
and has lots of computers droning away in his office so he didn't even
think about that. I'm still in the process of researching but I might
have settled on an Antec
Sonata III which is supposed to
be pretty quiet without breaking the bank. I'll follow up on that
when I order a new case.
So would I recommend this for anyone
else? Eh, probably not. It's OK for me because I can put it
together myself and maintain it and I had a bunch of extra components laying
around. If you fall into that category, sure, you'll end up with
a better machine for less money than if you buy a Dell. But most
of my clients are still better off buying a name brand machine with a warranty.
Tags:
TiVo Hardware
Well
that was WAY easier than the last time I hacked a TiVo. Using WinMFS
made the upgrade about as brainless
as possible. It runs under Windows and it's not even possible to
reverse the drives by mistake and overwrite your old TiVo drive. Pop
the drive out of your TiVo, stick it in a computer with a SATA cable along
with your new drive (I chose a Western Digital WD
WD10EVCS.) Less than an
hour later I put the new drive back into the TiVo, turned everything back
on and voila, now I have 144 hours of high definition available (or 1367
hours of standard definition.) Just about the easiest upgrade I've
ever done.
Tags:
Hardware
What
do you do with old broken equipment? I mean, besides stash it in
the attic and try to forget it's up there? Better to recycle it with
someone like CRT
Recycling. I admit, the
first time I had them come to haul away a collection of old stuff I didn't
realize exactly what they meant by "recycle" so I carefully brought
a bunch of monitors out to the sidewalk. Then they showed up with
a big truck and literally threw the monitors into the back. CRASH!
OK, so by "recycle" they mean disassemble and melt down
for metals, etc., not "reuse" or donate. I have to tell
you though, it was really fun chucking my old laptop into the back of their
truck. SMASH!
If you're concerned about sensitive
personal data on your hard drive they also offer complete
hard drive destruction. Check
out that shredder - nothing is going to survive that.
I'll be arranging a pickup in the next
couple of weeks, so if you have any old equipment you need to get rid of
(and you live near me) let me know.
Tags:
Hardware TiVo
I
got, and upgraded, my first TiVo near the end of the last century. Back
then it really was a hack to upgrade for Internet connectivity (you had
to use a hacksaw to cut the case for the cable.) It also was a little
dicey, but possible to add a second hard drive to expand recording time
available. Last year I upgraded to a newer TiVoHD but I've been primarily
using it to record standard definition TV, so it had plenty of room. Well,
now that I have a new Panasonic plasma TV we're recording in HD which takes
up a LOT more space, so it's time to upgrade the drive. There are
2 options - TiVo now supports an external drive, but there's only 1 available
and it's only 500 GB. If you're adventurous, and of course I am,
you can crack your TiVo open, hook the drive up to another computer, and
copy it up to a 1TB (that's 1000 GB) drive. There are several advantages
to doing this. One, you don't have an extra box with extra cables
in your living room (that's big when it comes to WAF - wife acceptance
factor) and two, you still have just one drive. And one drive is
1/2 as likely to fail as two drives are. So there you have it - that's
the way I'm going to go. The copy procedure can take a LONG time
depending on how many shows you have saved, but it's pretty easy to do
(no more messing around with arcane linux command lines, hoping you get
the drive letters right and overwrite the correct drive!)
Tags:
Hardware
Yesterday
I dealt with another Dell hardware problem, but at least this one was a
bad drive in a 4 year old computer still under warranty. Eh - it
happens. I settled in with a cup of coffee and a snack at my client
figuring it would be a long phone call with tech support answering a bunch
of stupid questions before I finally got them to agree with me that the
hard drive had bellied up. Instead, it was a decent wait on hold
(maybe 8 minutes), then about 2 seconds for the rep to start getting my
address to send a new hard drive which should be here today. Whew...
Tags:
Hardware
SoIjustordered
a laptop forsomeone and the darn space key doesn't work right! Well,
it does work RIGHT, but not LEFT. Notconsistentlyanyway. Jeez,
it's hard to hit the space bar with my right thumb when I've been hitting
it with the left for so many years.
Thankfully, while Dell's QA might need
some help, their customer service is spot on. I called yesterday.
Actually, no, I instant messaged yesterday while doing something
else. The part was overnighted to a local tech who showed up this
morning to install it. Much better now!
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