Microsoft releases "Deepfish" browser for Windows Mobile

Dunno if this is the same as the iPhone web browsing experience, with pan and zoom features, which you also get on the Windows Mobile 6 powered HTC Touch. Tried browsing on the Touch and it works pretty well. Making web browsing on a mobile device an almost bearable experience. We've some way to go yet before you can say fulfilling, but then Apple will no doubt tell us otherwise. Ouch, my MacBook just burnt me.

Source

3 Wraps up deal with Skype

The UK's 3G network 3 have finally sewn up a deal with Skype, by providing cheap budget handsets with built in Skype. Skype has been available on Windows powered smartphones for some time now for the geeks, but this new deal brings free internet calls to the masses. So no more need for miss calling, "call me back" texts, or "are you on T-Mobile" from your cheap skate dry bread friends.

Blogger.com on Opera. Arrgghh!

Forgive me for the misleading image. This isn't a comparison piece on the pro's and cons of the respective blogging platform, but precisely the pain I suffered using Google's Blogger on my favourtie browser Opera.

Without risking the need for another comparison piece here (maybe for another day), I've been flirting with Opera since 2001, after a Norwegian colleague introduced me to it's ferocious speed. I must admit I was blown away back then, but for some reason never switched over completely. Even so, it was usually on my handheld device or as a second or third browser lurking somewhere in the background. Well I finally switched over from IE to FireFox completely last year after playing with it off and on for years. However, even on the gorgeous Mac OS X Tiger, Open Source heaven FireFox is not. So many crashes, freezes, go slows and hang ups, hair pulling and cursing my poor ISP for something which is totally not their fault. Thus despite it's Open Source heritage, FireFox has become more bloated than even it's Microsoft rival. More like SloFox or FatFox. So after yet another umpteenth crash, I returned to my Norwegian friends and the cool embrace of Opera. Ahhh, solace at last. Well so I thought.

Opera runs like a dream. The only issue I've encountered thus far, is when logging into Blogger.com via my Google accounts. First few tries I kept getting a strange refresh after seeing a white rectangle in the top right hand corner of Blogger's front page. After a few clicks I was forced to sign in again to Blogger after already signing into Google Accounts. things got worse when I changed my Opera cookie settings to "only accept from sites I visit". Then no matter what I did, Blogger.com would just not accept my login attempts. I then came across this post after a Google search and changed my cookie settings back to "accept all sites" - which I don't like, but going back to that little white rectangle, I could see some almost invisible white text teling me to "continue here". I clicked and I was in. Well shame. Hope it gets fixed sometime soon, together with the odd Ebay on Opera interface issue. Small price to pay for bullet train browsing, or major security headache? Whatever, I'm gonna persevere as it's much less headache than FatFox.

Geek out! We gotcha! Or thinking out loud. I'm sure you're not interested...

My mate Dave has been loyal to the Sony Ericsson camera phone line, ever since I introduced him to the old T610 way back when in 2002. and stuck with almost every one right through to the K series. Now he's on the hunt for a new one and was looking for the ultimate. So much so, he almost got swayed by the Nokia N95. Despite me telling him to forget it and just buy a camera, as he never answers his phone anyway, he finally came to his senses and decided he wanted as he put it, "a camera that can be a phone if I switch it on. The 850i is a match made in heaven." So he and Sony Ericsson are back together again and he's happy as Larry.

My mission for the ultimate or most suitable mobile companion has been always more complicated and painful. Finding the perfect balance between form, function and productivity has never been easy. Gadget for gadget's sake, has never been my cup of tea either. So here's my reply to David when he told me the good news.

Well David my old mate. Didn't tell you I've been gadget hunting myself. I've got my W880i and whilst I love it for the slimness and okay MP3 playback my sausages can't hack the tiny keys. Apart from that it's a great multimedia phone with some good PDA functionality, but due to the data entry issue doesn't quite get the balance right. So my main gripe is data entry. I decided that a phone screen is not ideal for lengthy data input even with a portable bluetooth keyboard, so it's best to use the phone just as a note/ideas jotter. Not for full blown productivity. So in that case all you need is a powerful multimedia phone with a good keypad rather than a full PDA phone, as you can never get full productivity with such small screens.

My short list was the HTC Touch, Motorola Q9H, Sony Ericsson W960i, and the Nokia E90 and N95 (after you mentioned it) for all of 5 minutes. I'm a Nokia traitor now, so there's bad blood there straight away and although I have sentimental attachment to the E90 due to it's Psion EPOC heritage, the issue of restricted productivity looms it's ugly head again. Essentially, why buy a phone/notebook for the price of a brand new top of the range laptop, when you can buy a cut down notebook for a third of the price. The Nokia E90 retails from £500 to £600 plus. So go figure. You can get cut down Linux machines or second hand laptops for much less these days. In any case, I may be geek under my skin, but I don't want to walk around and shout to the world about it.

Crossed off the Q9H, as it's two Blackberry-ish. There'll be too much temptation for heavy typing and I've already got a RSI problem. Tried and just finished testing the HTC Touch, and being Microsoft it's buggy as hell. Hangs every minute for the smallest of tasks and can't take the slightest of abuse let alone heavy usage (forgot to mention that to the next guy I sold it too, oh well). Shame as Skype and Google Maps on Wi-Fi was fun for all of 5 minutes.

All my experiences keep compounding the fact that a phone is not ideal for full productivity. Try editing a Excel spreadsheet or Powerpoint presentation on a phone, or simply sourcing and referencing items when writing. So occasional quick emails, texts, notes/ideas jotting I think is the ideal scenario for me, together with some good multimedia capabilities such as MP3 playback and a so so snapshot camera. Don't need anything grand like your beloved K850i, I've got my Casio for that. Yes they make much more than just calculators and watches. So that leaves me with the W960i, with it's 8GB built in memory for MP3's and 3.2 megapixel camera and decent keypad. However, it's not available till December and I can't wait that long too test a phone only to feel it's not for me. So my search brings me full circle to Motorola!

I left them after a whirlwind affair way back in those heady days of the mid 90s. StarTac was her name and she did everything I wanted back then, but had no staying power. After that was the many years of Nokia's corporate gloom, until Samsung and Sony Ericsson got their act together and brightened things up. Now Motorola are tempting me back with this killer - the RIZR Z8 or Jason Bourne banana phone! Yes I eyed her a while back during the recent movie hype, but thought her to be another one of Motorola's quirky glitzy all fur coat and no knickers kind of girls, so stayed well out of it, as any decent gentleman would. Well wadduya know, I saw her in a symbian top phones line up whilst searching for the P1i. She looked good and for some reason something told me to check her out later. Well it kept niggling at me and I finally did after your email. After viewing the demo video I fell in love. We're not together yet but soon my friend, soon. Then we can all go out together in a foursome.

Motorola's new line up. Worth a look. Finally, a very good RIZR Z8 review. Beware serious geek alert!

How to sync Google Calendar, W880i and MacBook

I've promised myself I'd post my first 'How To' one of these days, but it's late right now and I can't be arsed. Sorry. But I'll come back to it one of these days. Meantime I'll just post some useful links where you can find the relevant info, rather than wasting your precious free time trawling through the web like I did. Imagine what you can do with all that time saved. Here goes, and this should work for other Java enabled phones as well.

1. Subscribe to Google Calendar
First we want to get our Google Calendar events and the kids at Google let you do this via RSS. Read these links here & here and you should have Google Calendar (gCal) in your MacBook's iCal (gCal in me iCal?) by the end of it.

2. Get the Mac iSync Plugin for the Sony Ericsson W880i
You'll need a little plugin. That's a little piece of software that plugs right in. Sorry it's late and I get like this when tired. So, oh yes, you'll need the plugin to allow iSync to talk to your sexy and svelte W880i. For the show offs and brave among us they can try all the pain and hacking here. For those like me who believe in working smarter not harder (in other words can't be arsed) then try here.

3. Sync W880i with iSync
Finally you simply pair the W880i or Java enabled phone with iSync, specify your settings (Contacts etc) and sync away. For those of you porting from Windows then you can check here. Or if you're porting without MS Outlook, you can use that little ancient piece of software in the Windows Accessories folder called Address Book to import your old phone contacts as vCards. Then you can import these into the Mac's Address Book application. Nifty eh? ;-) There are so many old pieces of tiny software that can make things a little less painful, but we don't use them as they're always tucked away and forgotten just like old toys from yesteryear. Better stop, getting poetic.

You can also use the above link to sync your iTunes playlists with your W880i using iTuneMyWalkman. So bin that iPod and brick of a phone and welcome to SE W880i nirvana. Device convergence eat your heart out.

* If you want to use your phone as a bluetooth modem for your Mac then check here.
* For those porting from Yahoo PIM check here and here.

That's enough to be getting on with for now folks. Man you are a demanding bunch. Next time I'll show you how to make an omelette using a bluetooth phone. Did I say I was tired?