LoneSniper: Technology Archives

January 09, 2006

Data dilemma

I dream of unlimited gprs plans and joining the ultimate connected world by being able to access email and the web from my smartphone. Unfortunately my current phone plan does not give me that. I had a form of mobile connection last year when I used an Orange Pay As You Go SIM in a Sony Ericsson 68i with its expensive gprs tariff and a bluetooth connection to my iPaq 2215. Problem was I hated Orange so moved to O2. Soon after switching carrier my 68i started to play up so I splurged out on an unlocked Orange branded SPV C500 which I always loved even with my hatred of Orange. Problem was I had not checked gprs connectivity on the O2 PAYG SIM before I bought the C500 because now I know that O2 only give you limited WAP access on PAYG and not full internet access like Orange allowed. So now my choices are to get an Orange SIM just for data access and keep my O2 for voice or upgrade to an O2 contract to get full internet. Upgrading is not really an option as I can’t afford it and if I was going to upgrade I would probably want to get the new O2 XDA Mini. I understand this is all just trivial stuff compared to life’s other problems, but mobile data access is something I have always wanted. Even if I don’t really need it.

So what would you do?

Posted by lonesniper at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2005

Last Day of Geek Freedom

Tonight the person who does her best to surpress my geekness returns from spending Christmas with her family. I was unable to join her as I did the last part of my CCNA (Semester 4 - WAN) course just before Christmas and the flights were then too expensive. So yesterday and today have been spent 'totally geek' and I have done some very cool things. Check out my tech site www.binarysignal.org for my experience installing OXS on my Intel P4 PC, and look out for an update later on playing with Fedora Core 4, just as long as I can get the screencasting application to work.

Posted by lonesniper at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2005

Just missed out.

Since yesterday I had been watching the sale of some lovely SUN 72inch server racks on eBay. They were extremly cheap so I thought I would make a bid on one and then wonder were to put it later. Problem is I left placing my bid to the last minute and my darn internet connection timed out and the auction ended. Luckily the seller has more that end in 6 days. This time I won't be leaving it to the last minute to place my bid.

Posted by lonesniper at 05:58 PM | Comments (2)

September 25, 2005

New Connected Device

A few weeks ago I finally gave in to my desire and bought a new phone, a smartphone. Since last year I have been looking at the Orange SPV C500 which is a Microsoft smartphone with bluetooth and camera. It was no longer available on PAYG so I looked to eBay to find a unit.

This was not the best time to become a smartphone user as upgraded handsets with Windows Mobile 5 were just around the corner but my SE T68i was playing up and if I had to get a new phone it had to be one I wanted and that was the C500.

I have the worst luck and timing when buying new technology which I will explain later but 3 or 4 days after I bought a new C500 off of eBay, Orange made the C500 available again on PAYG for 20 more then I paid from eBay.

The C500 is a connnected smartphone with browser, email client and Messenger and as I was on O2 and not Orange I had to manually enter the settings so I did some googling to find them out. None of the settings I got from various websites worked, so I called the expensive customer support number and was emailed so settings that were supposed to work even though they do not officially support the phone. Annoyingly these setting do not work either, so I have not been able to get on line which at least has saved me from a large GPRS bill.

Now for the finally and really annoying part. Before I bought the C500 I asked O2 if they planned to do their own version of the C500 and they said no they only do the larger PocketPC phone units, so imagine my annoyance at the announcement that from October O2 will be doing a Microsoft smartphone. If I had known this I would have probably waited and upgraded to a contract from PAYG to get the new phone. My only hope is once they do a smartphone I can get the correct settings and get mobile email.

The O2 XDA SP due out soon.

Posted by lonesniper at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2005

Captivated by Cinema Display

Today I visited the Apple Store that recently opened in a large shopping mall near me. The store was full of 'trendy' young people looking at the all computers to go with the iPods they probably already have. But I was captivated by the huge 30-inch cinema display, which was so amazingly clear I just stared at it in disbelief of the sharp colours I was seeing. It has a cinema display sized price tag to go with it, so will forever be out of my reach. But it is a master piece and should be seen by all.