Lawrence – Page 3 – Digital-Lifestyles

Mac Mini Overheating Issues?

Mac Mini Very Susceptible To Weather Induced Heat Issues What with the summer in full swing, and the weather in the good old UK being as warm as it has been, I have observed some serious heat issues while using my Mac Mini.

On particularly warm nights, the fan never seems to switch itself off, and seeing as it’s in my bedroom, I have to switch the computer off so I can sleep.

It’s also my Web server (I’m on a budget, get over it!), and so this means my Website is unavailable on warm nights. This fan issue is also accompanied with terrible performance, and occasional freezes and crashes, which is something that never otherwise really happens on a Mac.

Mac Mini Very Susceptible To Weather Induced Heat Issues At first, I had put it down to my Mac simply not running as well as it used to for whatever reason, but today it’s been considerably cooler because it’s rained, and all of a sudden my Mac Mini is running perfectly again.

Whether this issue is widespread or not isn’t clear at this point, but I for one, can vouch for the inability of this computer to run properly in hot weather. Is it Apple’s way of getting people to go outside on a hot day, or is it simply Apple cutting costs and making sub-standard products? Who knows, but I sure find it irritating not to be able to check my emails reliably on a hot day!

So, word of warning: Either pack your air conditioning unit along with your Mac for those warm days, or forget using your Mini when the sun’s shining.

Makes me want an iFridge ;-)

Is this a one off or have you had problems with this too? Get in touch and let us know.

Vodafone 7100v: Upgrading Its Software And Syncing With PocketMac Blackberry

Following on from my recent detailed review of the Vodafone 7100v Blackberry, I thought it would be worth passing on a few tips I’d learnt over the process. One attempting to reassure readers through the scary process of upgrading the operating system on the 7100 Blackberry; the other, a solution for syncing your information with an Apple Mac – not something that is natively supported by RIM or Vodafone.

Upgrading the software on a Vodafone 7100v Blackberry
Before properly using the Blackberry, I paid a visit to the Blackberry Web site and downloaded the latest software update for my handheld. This is one of the things with advanced devices such as this: they get to be so much like computers that they have new software upgrades available on a regular basis.

Upgrading the software on the handset was quite a daunting experience, because my 7100v refused to connect correctly. I would get repeated error messages, saying it wasn’t connected properly, and the only way to get it connected was to unplug and then reconnect the cable from the handset.

Updating the software on the Blackberry essentially wipes everything off the device before putting new software on, there were a few occasions when I thought, “oh dash, I’ve broken it” because nothing seemed to be responding. These worries proved to be unfounded, as after a few minutes I was greeted by the Vodafone logo appearing on-screen signaling success of the upgrade process.

Syncing (with a Mac)
After updating the software, which by the way you need a Windows computer for, I set about syncing the Blackberry with my Mac. My existing phone, the Sony Ericsson P910i, works correctly out of the box with Mac OS X’s iSync application, syncing wirelessly over Bluetooth within a few seconds.

The 7100v, although it has Bluetooth, doesn’t have a Bluetooth synchronization profile, which in my mind is something the Blackberry developers should have thought about, as it would have been a relatively easy software fix. As a result of this, the Blackberry wouldn’t sync with iSync and the cable wouldn’t work either, as iSync had no drivers for it.

A little research on the Internet revealed a company by the name of PocketMac who make Mac/Blackberry sync software. Upon request, they kindly sent me a free license key for their software, which then allowed me to seamlessly sync my address book and calendar from my Mac to my Blackberry.

PocketMac Blackberry in operation
I did have one or two issues with it initially, but these were to do with using Apple’s new released operating system update, Tiger, which has a new version of iCal, a calendar application, which initially refused to work with PocketMac.

Some lateral thinking was needed – by getting iCal to sync to Entourage, the Mac equivalent of Outlook on Windows, and then telling PocketMac to sync calendars from Entourage, I got it working.

Despite the Tiger problem, that they tell me will be fixed soon, I was impressed with PocketMac Blackberry. It fills a large gap left by RIM’s lack of Mac support.

PocketMac Blackberry
Vodafone 7100v Blackberry

Vodafone 7100v Blackberry Review – email; Calendar; Phone

This is the third and final part of this in-depth review focuses on the mainstay of the Blackberry – email, calendar, or even using it to speak to people. The first part of this review, looking at
Usability: 3/5
Syncing: 4/5
Screen: 5/5
Web Browser: 4/5
Email/Messaging: 5/5
Calendar/PIM: 3/5
Software/Features: 2/5
Central Telephone Functions: 4/5

Overall Score: 3.5/5

Vodafone 7100v Blackberry Review – In Everyday use

Part syncing a 7100 with a Mac.

I’m writing this review over a few days, using the 7100v instead of my usual phone. Today, I switched the 7100v on in the morning, received and replied to a few emails and set off for the day.

On the bus, I read the PDA edition of the BBC Web site using the built-in Web browser (more fully covered later). After lunch, I pulled it out of my pocket to check over the mail that had arrived. Imagine my horror when I spotted two huge, yellow lines covering the screen. On scrolling, these lines became more pronounced and seemed to spawn more of themselves, until they covered the whole screen. My first thought was that pixels in the screen were damaged, possibly as a result of me sitting on it, as it had been in my back pocket shortly during my lunch break. I tried switching the handset off and back on again, but the lines didn’t disappear. I was already thinking “Oh no, I’ve broken it” when I had the presence of mind to take the battery out. Miraculously, this solved the problem with the screen, suggesting this problem was possibly a software related one, as opposed to a hardware one. I never did track down what caused it but having bugs like this in released software is not a way to reassure customers that a product is beyond the early-adopter stage and while not a major problem. Occurrences like this one do make you slightly wary of purchasing such a device with your own hard-earned money.

Battery life
My initial experience of the battery life was very poor, with the battery dropping from full to empty within about 8 hours. After a few charging cycles, however, this improved dramatically, and the battery now lasts a good two days under relatively heavy use. This discovery came as a very pleasant surprise to me, as with my usage pattern the only other handset that I had managed to keep alive on a single charge for over a day was an ancient Nokia 6210. The one thing that is bad about the battery on this handset, however, is the time it takes to charge up: It takes around 6 hours (!), an unheard of amount of time in my experience of other handsets. This makes my customary “plug it in for an hour before I go out” habit worthless, as the battery doesn’t even come close to full in that time.

Screen
The screen on the 7100 is very impressive in its clarity and brightness – the contrast isn’t bad either. Images viewed on it look very solid, almost as if they are actually colour-printed backlit acetate as opposed to being displayed on an LCD.

The main downfall of the screen is when it is placed in sun-light: The screen is about 5mm below the plastic covering over the screen, and this covering isn’t of particularly high-grade plastic, leading to a badly obscured screen in bright conditions. The cover is also quite reflective, so often you can’t see anything on the screen at all. Indoors however, the screen looks great and everyone I’ve asked about it has been very impressed by it.

Web browsing/access
I have grown accustomed to doing a lot of my Web surfing on the move, or at least not while sitting in front of my computer, as I find it more comfortable that way. To me, it means that the Internet can truly take over from books and newspapers, because you can browse the Net on the sofa, while eating dinner, or anywhere else for that matter and aren’t tied to sitting in a rigid office chair staring at a screen.

As a result of this, the Web browser on the Blackberry was of particular interest to me. RIM seem to have paid particular attention to complying with standards in the design of the Blackberry’s software and this shows in the browser: It supports style sheets and javascript, both features very uncommon for a mobile device. Style sheet support means that, in theory, a Web designer can write one page that will look different when viewed with a small-screen device than when viewed with a full-size computer. This means that it is possible to, for instance, make a small-screen device employ a larger font when rendering a Web page than a computer, to take account of the small screen size. Sadly, sometimes sticking to standards isn’t enough, and this is the case with the Blackberry.

When Web pages are rendered, there are a lot of unnecessary images which would be represented instead by text. This text is usually shown in the ALT tags of the HTML from which the pages are rendered. On a lot of sites, there are a lot of navigation images, which are not good for render time on a low-powered device like the Blackberry: every time a page is opened containing images, these images are downloaded (this takes a long time with the Internet connection on a 7100v being at dial-up speeds). When downloaded these images are resized individually so as to fit on its screen.

Unless the sites that you wish to visit using your Blackberry are graphically very light with little images on them, you may despair of the slow speeds. Other handhelds get around the image problem by simply not displaying all images, only the ones that they think are vital to the site. While this can lead to problems like the right images not being loaded, these problems are uncommon, and the associated speed increase more than makes up for this.

There is a hotkey in between the answer and hang up buttons on the keypad of the Blackberry which opens the Web browser. This may suit some people more than others. Personally, I found it a bit annoying, and it would have been far better to use it as a selection softkey or at least make it configurable.

Part one of this review, looking at how to enter and retrieve information, was published yesterday. Part three will follow.

Vodafone 7100v Blackberry Review

Being a self-professed gadget lover, I tend to get new toys as they come out. One particular gadget, however, escaped my grasp: I’d heard about it – all about how it was the oh-so-great new fashion for business users, and about how it was transforming people’s lives (and phone bills too as it happens). You might already have guessed what it is that I’m talking about: The Blackberry.

Introduction
Blackberry is an invention of a company called Research In Motion (RIM), and its primary function is to provide email while you are on the go – as soon as someone sends you an email, it is received into your hand, and you can reply too.

It enables SMS-style communications, albeit with someone using e-mail. The cost advantages are obvious to this form of communication: In the UK, an SMS can cost up to 12p, whereas the bandwidth for sending a similar-length email costs around 1p, depending on the service provider used.

Having e-mail on the move is also the first step to a mobile office, freeing you from the confines of a desk, and allowing you to receive and reply to emails when and where you want. Of course, the Blackberry also integrates seamlessly with office extension numbers and text messaging to provide the full mobile office experience.

Previously, Blackberrys tended to be reserved for executives of large companies, as an expensive Blackberry Enterprise Server was required. This made Blackberrys something that the general public couldn’t afford to implement. To fill this gap, RIM started to offer a Web-based service, that collected emails from a number of ‘normal’ (POP3) email accounts.

Blackberry and Nokia 6630 side-by-side (Blackberry on the right)

While standard Blackberrys have been singularly focused on business user, the 7100 range has been designed for owners of small businesses and individuals to use the Web-based service.

The 7100 sold to a number of mobile phone companies around the world. In the UK it’s called the 7100v, the v signifying it’s been licensed by Vodafone UK. It’s has a different case and final letter in Germany – the 7100t,for Deutsche Telecom.

When I was first contacted about possibly reviewing the Blackberry 7100v, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect: I had never even played with one before. When, a few days later, a package arrived in the post, I unwrapped it in some haste to find a surprisingly small phone lying in front of me.

I’d assumed that Blackberrys were very large, chunky machines, and thus I was surprised to have a phone that was marginally smaller and lighter than the phone that I currently use (Sony Ericsson P910i)!

Keyboard
If anything had caused concern to me, it was the keyboard. Whereas the ‘nornal’ Blackberry has a full QWERTY keyboard, the 7100 has half the number of keys.

Arranged in 5 rows of buttons, it has two letters of the alphabet on each button in a layout similar to QWERTY.

It was unclear if there was going to be any way to adjust to it. Clearly QWERTY is second nature, as is type messages on a mobile phone using T9, but getting used to a new keyboard?

Initially, typing on the 7100’s keyboard actually hurt my head, as your brain is screaming T9 key position to you, but you have to treat it as a QWERTY with half the number of keys.

It is however soon mastered after a few hours of practice, making it is possible to get about half of your normal typing rate on a standard QWERTY keyboard, something which I find impossible with a T9 keypad.

The upper characters on each key (numbers 0-9 and the ? and ! key etc.) are used by tapping them in conjunction with the ALT key, located at the bottom left hand corner of the keypad.

The only disadvantage to having this style of keypad as opposed to a standard T9 one was that it was almost impossible to use one-handed, something which T9 was very good at. This means that it is impossible to fire off a quick text (“Will be late”) while in the car or, in my case, riding a bike. I found this quite annoying, as it meant stopping just to write a quick message, something which isn’t always a viable option. This coupled with the Blackberry’s lack of voice-dialing features shows that it isn’t really intended to be used whilst doing other activities, and thus one must devote full attention to the device when using it for anything more than a simple voice call.

Scroll wheel
Considering that my review model arrived without a manual, you can likely understand my initial total confusion as to how to operate the phone. After about 5 minutes of stabbing buttons and eventually finding the right one to turn it on, I found the small scroll wheel on the side of the phone (see picture above).

This scroll wheel is how you navigate around almost the entire phone. The scroll wheel can be scrolled upwards, downwards and pushed in to select items. To go back a menu level, the escape key, just below it, is used (again, image above).

For those who are not used to a scroll wheel, it may initially feel a bit strange, but within a short while you’ll be wondering how you ever managed without one. Indeed using a handset without one feels clumsy.

It’s also worth mentioning that with the wheel in on the right side of the phone, you may not thing this phone if for the left-handed. I can confirm that left-handers should find no difficulty using this handset, with the only time it may be noticeable is when you need to scroll down long lists, where the dexterity of the thumb would come in useful.

The two further sections of this review; In Everyday use; and focus on its email; Calendar; & Phone are also available, as is a seperate piece focusing on syncing a 7100 with a Mac.

A Teenage Take On Digital-Lifestyles

We all sit around postulating about what changes the digitisation of media will bring and how that will affect us. We thought it would be a good idea to ask the generation that have grown up with digital media (CD’s) what their view of the news was.

15 year old Lawrence Dudley has a strong knowledge of technology and digital media, so he’s well placed to reflect on the weeks news.

Games:
So, it’s come to that time again: The whole “my console’s better than yours” and subsequent scramble for market share between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Although I personally really dislike Microsoft, I have to admit that their console is looking the most tempting so far: It’s the only one that has properly been launched and its feature set is looking more than promising.

This leaves Sony and Nintendo: Personally, I tend to dismiss most of Nintendo’s offerings out of hand, as I don’t believe that their gear really appeals to me. It’s all so… gimmicky and childish. I mean, who would you rather have? That hot-looking chick from Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball, or The Mario Bros.? Answers itself really…

I don’t currently own an Xbox, but I have been quite a fan of Sony’s Playstation for a while: I had two of the original Playstations, PS1 and PS2 for various reasons. You might’ve thought that I would’ve been looking forward to the The Worst Foods To Eat Over A Keyboard
This article brought a big smile to my face: There’s nothing better than watching various Linux zealots argue over which food they ate over their keyboards. Nothing too serious, but you know … gotta have something to do while you’re, erm, doing your homework or something like that =) So which do you think it would be? Pizza? Coke?

That’s it from me, enjoy!

How-To: Spotlight, Power Search With Tiger, Mac OS 10.4

It’s that time again, a new version of OS X has been released! For those that aren’t aware of OS X, it’s Apple’s operating system. As usual, OS 10.4 is named after a cat: 10.2 was named Jaguar, 10.3 Panther, and the new 10.4 has been titled Tiger.
OS X has been touted by some as uncrashable, and that is how I’ve found it too: After setting it up, I haven’t once restarted my computer despite having installed over 30 applications since. This stability is what makes Apple have such a following of fans, and would be unheard of on a Windows box.
There’s lots of new goodies in Tiger, but in this article I’ll focus on the addition of a search technology called Spotlight, which makes searching through files instantaneous. It also allows the creation of so-called search folders, with links to every file which matches that folder’s search criteria, which I detail lower down.
The clever bit, is that these search folders are self-updating, meaning that as soon as you start writing a document containing the word “banana”, the search folder that is told to look for this word, will find it and create a shortcut to it along with all the other files that contain the word.
This is the spotlight icon in the menubar

Click it.

And type what it is that you are looking for. In my case, I typed ‘Summer’.

Within about one and a half seconds, the above menu appears. Clicking the top icon (Show All), shows a traditional window of all the results for the search. The second icon, labelled Top Hit, is the file that Mac OS X thinks is the most relevant to the search criteria.
The next section of search results lists folders with the word ‘Summer’ in their names. Pretty self-explanatory really.
Then email messages with the word ‘Summer’ in them are listed. The ability to index pretty much anything and then make it searchable is what’s so special about Spotlight.
The following one has items that Spotlight drew up from the calendar application I use.
Images, self-explanatory too.
PDF Documents are listed in the next section. Not many other search applications can index PDF files, but thanks to the tight integration of PDF with Mac OS X it is easily possible.
The last section contains music with the word ‘Summer’ in. Although not apparent here, Spotlight even searches the tags of MP3 and AAC files for words, meaning that if a song file was called, say, Winter but the artist in the tag of the file said ‘Summer’, it would still show up in the list of results.
Searchable folders, or “Smart” folders as Apple likes to call them, work similarly, but they are more use for things you often need to access and don’t want to keep typing into spotlight to find.
Click on the “file” option in the finder and then click on New Smart Folder.

A window appears.

I typed “Summer” in the top right box as before. This instantly showed all the related files:

Next you just have to click on the red circle, the equivalent of the close window button in Windows. Finder asks you where you want to save the smart folder just created. I told it to just save it to the desktop as “Summer”:

Hit Save and the newly created smart folder appears on the desktop:

Summary

Apple are carrying out a pincher movement. Bit by bit, Apple are both removing reasons for Windows users not to switch to Mac, while adding tempting reasons to convert. This latest offering of OS X, in conjunction with less viruses on a Mac, and access to a powerful collection of digital media software (iPhoto, iTunes, GarageBand, iMovie, iDVD) should encourage Windows users to want an Apple computer. Let’s not forget that the next significant version of Windows, Longhorn, and its promised security and anti-virus features, are still likely to be more than a year away,
Overall, there are many more new features in Tiger, over 200 according to Apple. Having made the change from Windows myself, my suggestion is to spend some time with a Mac and experience it for yourself. You too might make the change.
For those wanting to buy a brand new Apple Mac, they can be purchased from Amazon (US|UK), and if you are a student or are otherwise involved in education, you can get a juicy education discount from Apple, so there’s really no excuse anymore!

Apple Spotlight

Jabra BT 250 And Logitech Mobile Freedom: Review and Comparison

Introduction
I’m no stranger to Bluetooth headsets, and the way this review is written reflects that: I’m not going to go through the whole look-no-wires thing over and over again as they do in adverts and will instead go into a little more detail about the headsets in question.

This review serves to compare and contrast the Jabra Freespeak 250 and Logitech’s Mobile Freedom.

My initial impression of the two headsets was quite different: The Logitech comes with less extra bits and pieces, and as everyone knows, it’s the details that make the difference. The content of the box include the headset itself; a charger that plugs directly into the headset; the manual; and some extra foam ear-covers.

The Jabra however adds a mains desktop charging dock and some exchangeable ear pieces of different sizes to suit various sizes of ears.

The Jabra desktop charger really comes in handy as it means less messy cables that you always have to lurch for and dig out of the back of the desk. Just slotting the headset into the charger makes life a lot easier.

The two headsets themselves are of fairly different styles. The Jabra goes behind the ear, has an earpiece that actually goes into the ear, and has a small microphone that sticks out from the bottom of the ear, while the Logitech has a small clip that goes round the back of the ear and has the rest of the headset (the chip, electronics etc. in a small microphone boom.

Headsets Compared Front. Jabra BT 250 on right. Matchbox for scale.

Comfort
So, now to try each one on: The Logitech is a bit fiddly to get seated correctly, but once it’s fitted, it is very comfortable and even after extended use isn’t irritating. Sadly, the Jabra is quite another story: It goes on quite easily, but it feels quite heavy and the earpiece doesn’t actually insert into the ear properly as it was designed to. At least that was the case with my ear. So on comfort, the Logitech wins and rightly so; it’s almost undetectable if you fit it properly.

Score for Comfort:
Logitech:
Jabra:

Operation
Pairing the headsets to a phone is quite similar in each case: All you have to do is hold the power button down for 10 seconds, search for the headset from the phone and then select it, enter the code 0000 as the passkey and then you’re done!

The phone that I performed these tests with was a Sony Ericsson P910i, but the experience should be similar whichever handset is used.

What is meant by pairing?
Pairing refers to the process of connecting two bluetooth devices to each other. Because there are no wires, you can’t simply plug a bluetooth device in: Instead, you have to enter an identical PIN number into each device. If this security wasn’t there, then anyone could theoretically listen into your conversation while you talk over a bluetooth headset. This security feature also prevents Paris Hilton-style hacking, although it doesn’t eliminate it 100%.

After the headsets were paired, I initiated a voice call from the handset to see if the headsets worked. While both took over the microphone and speaker from the phone just fine, the quality varied widely. Both had a slight hiss, the Jabra was an order of magnitude worse than the Logitech. The Jabra also had other quality issues, the worst of which was that the sound both in the speaker and that going through the microphone to the other party was choppy, not dissimilar to the way a normal mobile phone call gets when reception is poor. This problem varied in it’s intensity, but often got so bad I had to get the phone out of my pocket and use that instead. I did experiment with the distance that the phone and the headset were from each other, and the problem with the Jabra did increase with the distance it had to transmit. When the phone was <5cm from the phone the problem became almost unnoticeable, but if you have to hold your phone next to your head to use the headset then you might as well not bother with the headset. This is a fundamental flaw: What good is a headset, if its main purpose doesn't work satisfactorily?When you receive a call, the phone rings and at the same time an alert is sounded through the headset. Answering calls with the headsets is simple enough, or at least it should be because you just have to press one button. In the case of the Jabra, this button was located at the back of the ear, near the top. Not only did answering calls mess up my hair, it also looked stupid because I had to go looking behind my ear for the button. This is quite similar to the fact that the earpiece doesn't fit in the ear properly: It's a good idea, but it's designed terribly and clearly hasn't been properly thought out.After some time, it is possible to become accustomed to the buttons, but nevertheless, technology should be intuitive, not require training. On the Logitech, this button is on the outside of the unit, and is easily accessible. Of course, pressing a button isn’t the only way to answer a call: It is also possible to simply say “answer”, if your phone supports this function, and this is one place where the Jabra is better than the Logitech: With the Logitech, the word answer has to be said quite loud, whereas with the Jabra, it can be muttered and the headset still recognises it. This is a big advantage as you, like me, will probably not want to stand there yelling “ANSWER!” at the top of your voice. It would just make you look stupid!

Both headsets have voice-dialing features, meaning that you press the afore-mentioned button, and then say the name of whomever it is you want to call. This feature works well on both headsets, but with the Jabra you have to find the button first, which as I mentioned earlier, is badly placed.

During a call, you can adjust the volume of the earpiece using buttons on the headset itself. The ones on the Jabra are, again, in an awkward place, although in this case it isn’t as bad as the answer button. The Logitech provides aural feedback to button-presses, which is a good thing, as sometimes it isn’t clear if you pressed a button or not and then you press it again in error. It also tells you when you have selected the maximum volume, meaning that you aren’t stuck hopelessly pressing a button to no avail. This feedback isn’t so loud that it is annoying though.

In terms of operation, the Logitech is a far better headset because of it not having any interference and because of the superior location of it’s buttons.

Score for Operation:
Logitech:
Jabra:

Battery Life
The battery lives below are according to the manufacturer. It is realistic to expect around half of the values below in a real-life situation.

Jabra 250: Standby: 240 Hours, Talk time: 8 Hours.
Logitech Mobile Freedom: Standby: 250 Hours, Talk time: 7 Hours.

This is one of the only areas where the Jabra beats the Logitech. In practice, you tend to be able to charge your headset at least once every 10 days or so unless you’re lost in a jungle or something though, so it’s not too much of an advantage. The extra hour of talk-time that the Jabra offers could definitely come in useful though.

Score for Battery Life:
Logitech:
Jabra:

Price
Both headsets can be had for about £35 (US$65/€50), which appear as pretty good value for something that only a year ago would have set you back around £100 (US$189/€145).

Score for Price:
Logitech:
Jabra:

Summary
Between the two, I far preferred the Logitech over the Jabra.

While the Jabra did look appealing, the sound quality and Bluetooth range were extremely poor, I found it difficult use and uncomfortable to wear.

The Logitech did have one problem and that was the need to yell voice-dial commands, but this flaw is small in comparison to the negative aspects of the Jabra Freespeak. The Logitech was very comfortable to wear, and the buttons were easy to access.

Score Total (Out of a possible maximum of 20):
Logitech: (14)
Jabra: (11)