well… its official…  i sold my TC1100 tablet pc today on eBay.  my work did decide to go the route of the Dell Latitude XT tablets (heck yea!) and in turn i’ll be getting one from work so i figured i’d sell my ole sturdy, fun baby; my tc1100.  she’s been a great companion but lately has been sitting on my desk just gathering dust since i have a vaio in the living room and an XT at my desk at work (along w/3 other laptops or parts of them and 2 desktops; gotta love hardware rollouts and testing!)

i still wish other tablet makers would try the TC1100s combination slate/convertible design.  ahh, the  memories i’ve had with my TC1100.. installing of vista and ubuntu; rekindling my love of ubuntu, the failed attempts of OSX, perfection of usb booting and ghosting.. 

(pours some beer on the floor) for my tablet.. 

so, now what do i get w/that money from selling my tablet?  i was thinking of getting my camera since that would be coming out here in the next couple weeks (Sony Cybershot DSC-T300) but realized that i will be doing a TON of traveling for work in the next couple of months and also will be going to the WES 2008 conference too.  so i decided that i needed a good mobile, surfing and basic word processing/writing/blogging computer. 

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fanboy, blogging, geek, life, ubuntu, eee, tablet pc, handheld, mobile, hardware, mac, linux, windows, opinion, vista, general gadgets | 3 Comments »

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you use your PSP?  do you game on it mainly or use it for movies or music? or is it your portable emulator?

 I use my PSP for almost everything besides gaming (PSP games that is).  Honestly, I have yet to really be blown away by any game yet.  I really liked Hot Shots and was addicted to it and thought GTA was pretty cool but wouldn’t cause me to buy a PSP for it.   So, what do i use my PSP for? how do i use mine?

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handheld, console, geek, culture, life, fanboy, mobile, opinion, web, hardware, gaming, psp, music, general gadgets | No Comments »

well, sadly after nearly 2 years, my Sony Cybeshot DSC-T9 finally died.  of course, it had to be the first day on my vacation in Mexico and caused by me jumping into the ocean and landing on my camera and the sport/waterproof housing… (note to self, not seamonkey-ass proof though..)  

salt-water and electronics do not go very well, but even though my camera’s lcd did not light up and only turned on by opening the front cover and then powering on; it still took some decent shots and video. 

however i decided that after i got back from my trip, i would put it out its misery and ‘try’ to fix it by a nice disassemble of my Cybershot DSC-T9.. btw, i didn’t fix it… but am now waiting for the Sony Cybershot DSC-T300 (has the BIONZ sensor which is in the SLR versions) to be released in Mar and hopefully go down a bit i apr.  in the meantime, i’m trying to get me a used DSC-L1 to tie me over till apr (just a 4mp but its so nice and tiny and took great pics, i had one a while back).

anywho back to the disassemble, pics and notes below.  enjoy!

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culture, life, cybershot, geek, handheld, hardware, modding, general gadgets | 1 Comment »

Hello everyone. As previously promised, today’s post will be another newer, hardware review. This time we will be taking a look at Sprint’s HTC Touch. The Touch has been out for a few months and at times has been called the ‘corporate iphone’ due to it being a purely touchscreen pda (no hardware keyboard) and running WM6 (in turn, allows outlook/goodlink to be installed).

Here are some basic/quick specs:

• 400mhz qualcomm cpu
• 2.8″ 65K TFT LCD
  • 240×320 resolution
  • landscape and portrait modes.
• 128 RAM, 256MB Flash ROM
  • (avail to user: 73/256mb respectively)
• Cellular: CDMA dual band, EVDO Rev. 0 and 1XRTT data
• Bluetooth 2.0 spec
• 2.0 MP camera / video recorder
• microSD slot (SDHC supported)
• tethering via BT or USB cable to laptop/pc (supports PAN bluetooth profile and bt dialup also)
• Windows Mobile 6 Prof Ed.
  • includes Mobile Office, IE, Outlook, HTC’s Today Screen and launcher software and more)
• See Sprint.com for more/full details

I got about a full day to play and use the HTC Touch. Unfortunately I did my video quick look before really getting my hands on it. So lets take a look at the Touch and my quick look video. Read more and view the vid. (and yes, i do get a bit excited w/new toys.. hehehe).

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life, culture, review, wm6, htc, sprint, geek, handheld, web, hardware, windows, opinion, mobile, general gadgets | 5 Comments »

i remember as a kid loving watches.   the telememo watches by Casio back in the day was the ‘coolest’ gadget this geek could ever play with as a 10 yr old.  as a kid, i had prob about 12 different watches; including the Nintendo Super Maio 3 and Tetris game watches (still have and they work), several Casio telememo watches, a few traditional windup pocket watches, and of course the usual cheap $5 digital watch.

in the late 80s and early 90s, watches were a pretty common accessory that almost every single person had.  however as cellphones started to become mainstream and used by almost everyone, the wrist watch really started its downward spiral into obscurity and in turn being mainly just a ‘fashion’ accessory versus being a functional accessory.

so i ask this, where the hell are the cool watches?? no, i don’t mean the ones that require me to learn a whole new language or time system or ones that have a mp3 player built in or gps ( http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/ ).

nope, all i want is this:

a stylish watch that can:

1. display the time

2.be able to glow when i have an incoming call on my phone

3. show me if there are any wifi networks and the signal strength

4. and have the time display be customizable (diff colors or backgrounds)

Thats all i ask for!!  these are all reasonable and doable tasks since we have pens that show when you have a call, wifi network detectors built into clothing now. 

oh yea, at the watch should not cost more than $100 since well… it is only a watch when it comes down to it.

EDIT: thinkgeek.com did have a wifi watch; http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/9313/

but add a style like this concept and add bluetooth/mobile phones - http://gizmodo.com/344455/watch-concept-gives-hearing+impaired-people-a-fire-alert and keep the price under $100 and i’m sold!

culture, life, geek, handheld, hardware, opinion, general gadgets | 2 Comments »

happy 2008 everyone! (yes, i’m a bit behind already, and the year just started!)

this year i’ve decided to try to give back more to the community and the public as a whole; last week i started it off by donating blood and at quitting smoking cigarettes. this week, i’ve decided to unshackle the chains on my wifi network/internet access and in turn open it up to the public or those in my area. the main reason behind this was because of my gratitude to whoever’s unsecured wifi network i had to use for 2 days when my own internet was down. i realized that without that connection, i would have been pretty lost since i rely perhaps a bit too much on my internet connectivity (yes, i could have tethered my phone to my desktop via bt or usb but doing it w/my PS3 would have been a bit more complex and prob very laggy).

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geek, culture, life, laptop, handheld, console, general gadgets, hardware, web, opinion, pc | 4 Comments »

Happy New Year to everyone!  This last year was a pretty crazy year in regards to technology, gaming and being a geek.  Today’s post will be a personal recap 2007, and what i thought was the biggest trend from it.

2007: The year that gaming really went mainstream?

2006 yielded an estimated 12 billion dollars in revenue for the video game industry however 2007 could end up being an even better year.  This year we saw the X360 sales thrive (not counting japan of course) w/the release of much the anticipated Halo3 (which itself set a record for most copies sold on release for any media; movie, music, game).  We also saw gaming go mainstream with the help of the casual gaming system, Nintendo’s Wii (ie money printing machine, hehe).   Sony’s PS3 also started to pick up steam in sales with the price drops and release of two new models; however the PS3 was/is still trailing the pack in sales but has seemingly helped the next-gen format war for blu-ray vs. hd-dvd (x360 did not include the hd dvd, optional drive vs sony making blu-ray a requirement in the ps3).

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fanboy, blogging, Zune, launch, ds lite, life, x360, iphone, osx86, ps3, wii, opinion, gaming, linux, hardware, applications, console, culture, geek, handheld, apple | 2 Comments »

yes, the title of this post is correct.  being as big of a geek as i am, most of my pals are pretty shocked to hear that i hadn’t owned an mp3 player since the first generation of mp3 playesr.  back in 1998, i bought my first ever and up to this point 2nd ever mp3 player.  it was a Rio PMP300 that had a whopping 32mbs of memory and 10 hour battery life.  video? photo? click wheel/touchpad? none.  this was before Apple made mp3 players.

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launch, Zune, fanboy, review, culture, geek, hardware, windows, music, handheld, pc | 13 Comments »

just in the last month, ASUS has released its eagerly awaited Eee pc. the Eee pc is basically a super compact laptop made mainly for websurfing/chatting. it has a 7″ lcd and weighs in at around 2lbs. it has either a 2gb, 4gb or 8gb ssd harddrive and various memory flavors (4 different models total) and the best part being that the pricing on it is very reasonable; starting around $245 for the basic model to the top end model at $425. all models include wifi, usb ports, and the ssd. also, it comes with a preinstalled linux variant os; xp can be installed but you’d really want to do this if you have the 8gb version.

to me, i get to finally say ITS ABOUT TIME the small, mobile computing niche saw a device w/a realistic pricepoint. i really want to love the UMPC format but who really is looking to spend over $1,000 on an ultraportable laptop that only has 7″ screen and will probably only used for web surfing?

however, to me i see this device as being a fun, ongoing project. i’d really like to see if one can get OS X Tiger to run on it; since it does run an Intel processor vs a VIA or non-OSX86 compatible processor. i have not purchased the Eee pc yet but now have decided to wait for the black version and hopefully will be getting the 8GB version in the next month or so.

i’m very curious to see how XP runs on it, 1gb memory and an 8GB ssd should be pretty speedy. the Dell D430 i have runs XP pretty nicely, boot up time is around 19 seconds from start to desktop (it also has a 30gb SSD).

plus, streaming is where its at for music even though a nice ole USB flash drive or HDD would work just fine too. yes, harddrive space is not a limiter here, rather memory limited to 1gb may prove to be a downfall found out topend model does allow upgrade to 2gb but voids warranty in process, worth it imo.  also, top end 8GB model will not be available in USA; so it looks like i’ll have to ebay it or import it, boo!!  whats up with that ASUS?

but then again, it is only a $425 ultra portable.. anyone have one yet? let me know if its what you expected or not.

handheld, geek, osx86, laptop, mobile, opinion, hardware, linux, windows, general gadgets | 4 Comments »

Well, i’ve been working off and on with my W810i (make that 2, long story w/the whole one not working an then buying a 2nd used one on ebay and then frankensteining the best parts from each into a ‘new’ W810i, mwaa) and trying to hack it.

the best site to for CID49 hacking is one of my hangout sites, http://se-nse.com . a few members over there were the first to get into the CID49 filesystem using free apps and a service cable. mad props to the original hackers! so, the last few weeks i’ve been doing a ton of reading and playing. i’m using my w810i w/the weird battery problem as my test machine and i purchased a totalmultiserver credit just in case (use it to flash the firmware if i mess it up bad).

the first few tries of mine were unsuccessful. i didn’t have a service cable or the right firmwares or tools. also, trying to understand the whole process was very confusing w/the conflicting guides and all. so last week i received my 2in1 service cable (self-powered, usb) and finally figured out how to get it all working and fix my phone if i screw up.

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fanboy, sony ericsson, geek, handheld, mobile, modding, hardware | 6 Comments »