This is an iPhone lovers response to the HTC ad that got a Best Buy employee fired. Sums up a lot of what I feel when I hear some decidedly non-techies prattle on about development platforms and how it makes their phone so much better.
Interesting story in the NY Times today about a priest trying to make inroads in the gang community in Mexico City. It’s a rough task, preaching to those who have faced life and death and the harsh reality of the barrio on a daily basis. It’s probably not an easier as many of these kids are addicted to sniffing glue, literally walking into the church with glue in their hands and sniffing away.
No, you don’t get to see the actual fall–thank god. And I hope they don’t actually show it because it isn’t something I’d want to see.
But the reactions of the players and fans to this tragedy that happened in Texas is pretty frightening.
FWIW, he got the ball. Another fan caught it and gave it to an usher. The usher passed it along to the team and they signed it before presenting it and other goodies in the hospital to the recovering fan.
I was on dialup a fifteen ago. How things change.
This is my new “my-fi”
It’s about the height of say 8 credit cards stacked atop one another and not much bigger than an iPhone.
You may have heard of them as many first adopter geeks are starting to use them. This is wifi internet access from anywhere on the Earth, basically.
The mifi devices connects to the 3G telephone networks just like a telephone. It has a SIM card inside it and you have to sign up either for a monthly data connection plan or some ‘pay as you’ go system (I have the latter). The device then takes the 3G internet signal and converts it to a ‘wifi’ network, allowing you to connect your laptop, iPad, iPhone, Playstation, or other wireless internet device to the net.
The thing is pretty amazing. It has a battery life of only about 4 hours though, but it’s enough to browse from a remote location should you find yourself stuck without high speed internet.
Basically I’m using it as a solution to my non-3G iPad. I can go remote with my iPad anywhere in the city without having to pay a monthly service charge. It’s also a backup for our home, when the Internet goes down I can still get online. I will also have high-speed Internet at hotels without having to pay ridiculous hotel Internet prices. It also utilized the GPS from the 3G signal so you can check-in via your wifi iPad wherever you are.
Here in Hong Kong you have a few different options for mifi devices. PCCW will sell you a monthly plan, Smartphone / Vodafone will also. 3HK offered me the options I really wanted. No monthly contract, and pay as you go as you need, basically. My plan tops out at $28 HK a day ($2hk per MB upto $28). It maxes at $298 a month. If you want a non-contract monthly plan, you can pay $200 for unlimited data. Or you can just sign up with a full formal plan and get a mifi device for basically nothing (they will use a different model, the Huawei 5830). I bought my DLINK unlocked (i.e. no SIM lock) from the Wanchai Computer Center in Hong Kong and then walked into a nearby 3HK store for my SIM card.
The only negative I got was a business decision by DLINK when I was commenting in another forum about mifi devices.
I liked the DLINK and was going to buy this. But if you look closely at the serial number of the device (also on the sticker on the box), I think you will see that it ends in “3GA”. This means that it is locked to the 2100mhz frequency. This is fine for Hong Kong, but not some other countries.
DLINK also make other variations of the same model, such as the “3GC”, which is tri band 850/900/2100 (for most European countries), and the “3GF” which is tri band 900/1900/2100.
I got in touch with the DLINK HK distributor but they told me only the single band 3GA is available in HK.
This is why I went with the Novatel 2352 because it is tri band HSDPA and quad band GPRS/Edge. It is a truly international model.
Right now the Novatel is sold out everywhere except maybe Smartphone, Netbook, Laptop and Accessory Store – eXpansys Hong Kong. I am also in touch with the distributor for this device and they have completely sold out in HK and waiting for another shipment. I want to buy 3 or 4 more of these for my company.
Most of Europe is supporting 2100 for 3G service, so I’m ok there. If my World Bank work takes me to Africa though I’m probably out of luck as most of those systems, while GSM, are based on 900mhz signals.
Pretty cool to think a device as big as a calculator from 1995 is now able to connect to the high speed Internet remotely. And 10 years ago we were all on dial-up modems.
Safari has added a new feature in the Version 5.0 release called “Extensions”. If you have Safari running version 5 (relatively smoothly, as there have been more than a few problems) you might want to take a look at some of the new extensions you can add:
http://mac.appstorm.net/
By far one of the most exciting is the Youtube downloader extension that lets you save a local copy of the content you are watching on Youtube. Quite a bit of fun. It’s on that list at the bottom of the page.
note: many people have reported problems with Safari 5 so you may want to wait until version 5.1 is available and sorts out some of the issues.
The Launch:
All I Need:
One more posting simply because I’m afraid I’ll lose the video somewhere.
Old school music for my rainy Friday.
Yes, it gets even weirder than the one I posted yesterday.
I’m laughing, yes, but it’s more a laughter of recognition. I’ve worn scarfs and jerseys and sat alone watching a game as if I was in the stadium. I have even painted my face before the big game.
I’ve been this guy.
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Normally, it doesn’t take much to get me to watch pretty much anything on the net involving Swedish women.
So things were a bit stretched last night when I found out this was a Swedish woman who was now off the market as she was getting married, but pretty much everything else on TV was worthless so we dove in headfirst to coverage of the Princess of Sweden’s wedding on SVT.se, the Swedish broadcaster.
SVT was pumping a very high quality stream out LIVE of the Royal Wedding, and though we had some buffering issues thanks to our subpar ISP, we managed to get through most of the wedding without too much hassle.
But for those who missed the wedding ceremony, you can go to the archives on SVT.se and find coverage of the arrival, first kiss, dance, cake, horses and Royal Yachts and all that.
Of course it is in Swedish so listening to it makes about as much sense as reading the product inventory of an Ikea, but you’ll get the general idea here and there.
HBO Documentary Films has made available a moving documentary about Neda Agha-Soltan, the young women taken by a sniper’s bullet in the protests last year. You can watch the film (broken into 10 minute segments) for free.
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I guess if you had a Smart car you’d have to do everything in your power to stop others from messing with you.
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