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Monday, February 28, 2005

Audiovox PPC-6601 Sprint phone ROM update

I decided to wait a few days to make sure and I can confirm that the new ROM update does fix the "Beep of Death" issue that was on this unit originally.;

One other thing that is better... Bluetooth support is working like it should. I no longer have problems with pairing my headset, nor is there any problem with the phone waking up the headset when they have been apart for a while.

All in all, this is awesome and I would recommend that all users of a PPC-6601 upgrade to this new ROM revision.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Sprint deadbeats dial wrong number, get harshed on

HA!  This was so funny I just had to share it... :)

sprint pcs logo

You know what happens when you have a phone number that’s only one digit off from the number for Sprint’s collections department? You get a lot of deadbeats calling up some random dude in Massachusetts begging him to not disconnect their service. Stewart Woodworth says he’s logged something like 8,000 misdialed calls from Sprint customers over the past 2 1/2 years, and after Sprint refused to change their number he recorded an outgoing message on his voicemail that says: “Pay your Sprint bill or your service will be shut off. It’s that simple. If you don’t pay your Sprint bill, you might as well take your Sprint phone and throw it in the trash. Even a person with your limited intelligence should be able to figure that out. Go ahead – write a check. Hang up the phone, write a check, jerk.” Which resulted in pretty much everyone calling Sprint’s main line to complain about how rude the collections department’s outgoing message is.

[Engadget]

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Sprint: PRL 10026 Released

This was easy.  I called the "no hold time" number on SprintPCS info and they transferred me.  I said exactly what was listed and he said, "Please hold" and then to press *2 Talk and 1 for English.  Worked like a champ!

The Abe BT 80C Bluetooth Stereo Cassette

OK, this kicks butt!  One less wire to hang out on my dashboard.

Abe BT 80C Bluetooth Stereo Cassette

OH. MY. GOD. Three words for you: Bluetooth Stereo Cassette. What we’re talking about it is the Abe BT 80C, an audio cassette adapter that you can pop into your car’s tape deck and stream music to from your Bluetooth-enabled MP3 player, handheld, or PC. Obviously not as simple as that, since not every Bluetooth gadget supports the A2DP, or Advanced Audio Distribution Profile, that this thing uses to stream in stereo, but we so like where this is all going.

[Thanks, chuckkay]


[Engadget]

Optic Nerve Cameras for the Blind

Wicked cool!  One step closer to having a T-1 jack in the side of the head.  Which, if you have been a long-time reader, I am going to get two of when they come out...  One on each side of the neck/head. :)

headplug.jpgIt's very possible we live in the era where blindness, in many forms, will be cured by the same people who gave us the world's best beers. Brussels-based Belgian boffins have moved forward with a technology that uses a glasses-mounted camera hooked up to an implant that directly stimulates the optic nerve. The project by the cyberpunky brewsters is just one of many around the world pursuing a similar solution, but this particular rig-up is said to have "the best results."

This picture is actually from an older, New York-based project that is now sadly defunct.

Camera-Mounted Spectacles May Restore Sight - EU [Reuters via MedGadget]

[Gizmodo]

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Xbox Mods

Ok, get ready because this one is a doozie.

Last week I bought a mod chip for my Xbox.  Some folks that may, or may not, work with me were talking about it and I decided that it sounded good enough to try.  I bought the Xecuter3 chip from  http://www.system-mods.com/index2.php and it ROCKS!  They produced an excellent walk-through to get it installed here.  Don't be afraid of the soldering as it was quite easy to get done.  The one spot (D0) that I was worried about ended up being quite easy.  I did have trouble getting the solder out of the holes to install the mounting pins, but that was just due to me not having the right hardware.

 

To quote one of the guys:
" The trick – and I mean trick – to the soldering is to get a TINY soldering iron and a tiny roll of solder"

I ripped out the 8 Gig drive that came in the Xbox and put in the only drive I had around..  40Gig.  Some of the others are installing 250Gig drives as this helps later on.

Once I got the unit fired up the first thing I did was flash the BIOS as the team keeps making updates.
Next I FTPed the Xbox Media Center application and added a skin that makes the Xbox look like MCE Windows.  Even my DVD remote works with this thing.

I pointed the music and videos folders to my big drive in the living room that runs BeyondTV.

Now I am going to take all of my Xbox games and rip them to the hard drive of the Xbox so I can lock the discs up for safe keeping.  We have gone through 2 copies of Halo and ruined many games because of the kids stepping on them

Here are some links that I have found useful:

http://xbox-scene.com/
http://www.system-mods.com/index2.php
http://teamxecuter.com/
http://www.x-b-o-x.net/modules/news/

Enjoy!

Sprint: PPC-6600 Released

And at the same price as the no-camera version!  Woohoo!

Monday, February 14, 2005

Nokia licenses Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync

This sounds cool.  I just recently (today) installed the PPC version of GoodLink.  (Version 3.7)  And after lunch, I removed it!  Ugh!  I missed 3 calls because Good was using the data connection and unlike the version for the Treo, you can not set it to offline mode without turning off the whole dang phone.  The other downside was that it uses a different database to store contacts in.  That meant that when inbound calls came in, Microsoft Voice did not announce the name.... And when I said "Call Technodaddy" it just asked if I wanted to call Customer Care, which happened to be the ONLY contact in the PocketOutlook contact database.

 

Anyway, I am back to using the Exchange 2003 OTA ActiveSync for my PPC-6601 and loving it. :)  Thank God for backup files!

Nokia to provide easy wireless access to Exchange Server 2003 data, including wireless email, calendar and contacts in future mobile devices.


[Geekzone: IT, mobility, wireless and handheld news]

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Snapstream's ten tuner Hydra PVR

Ooooooh Yeeeeah!  That's the ticket!  Then you just have modded x-boxes through the house to watch the shows from anywhere!

HydraboxA few months ago, Snapstream released their software and posted a story on their six tuner demo box. TV card maker Hauppauge recently released a dual tuner TV card for the PC and Snapstream upped the ante by using five of them to build a ten tuner PVR. Obviously, just a proof of concept but it does sound like their basic system operated fine while recording on multiple tuners and playing back at the same time. I suspect most enthusiasts would be fine with just one dual tuner card, maybe two, tops, but it's good to know most off the shelf PCs can do much more with the software and hardware available.

[PVRblog]

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Arizona State opens flexible-display center

Hey, this looks exactly like the device they use as a communicator on that Scifi show Earth: The Final Conflict.

thin flexible display asu army

Using $43.7 million in previously announced grants from the Army Research Lab, Arizona State University has opened a 250,000 square-foot flexible display research center. Their first prototype, a 4-inch, semi-flexible display, is expected to be out later this year. The center hopes to produce full-color flexible displays suitable for battlefield use as well as commercial applications, including displays that can be rolled up or folded. Of course, the Army/ASU project isn’t the only flexible-display initiative. Major manufacturers from Asia and Europe and North America are also working on the technology, and palmOne was just awarded a patent for a flexible dual-sided display for use in PDAs. However, the Holy Grail of flexible displays — a low-power, high-res, wireless “newspaper” that you can roll up or fold and throw in your pocket — still remains a long way off.

[Thanks, Ben]

[Engadget]

USB Wmodem driver for PPC-6601

After talking with Noggin this morning about his attempts to get his new PPC-6601 to connect his laptop to the internet via USB connection I did some digging.

Thanks to the folks at Geekzone I found the following article.


After downloading everything and making some modifications I have the following modified for US Sprint (and possibly others) users.


Dialer for Windows Mobile CDMA 1x or CDMA EV-DO

The zip has two files, I only had to use the .inf file though. You can use either a USB cable or the cradle.

Installation:
# Unzip the contents of the download from this page into a folder on your computer
# Turn on PPC-6601 Pocket PC
# Start PPC-6601 and run 'WModem', select USB, press 'start'
# Plug in cable to PPC-6601 and USB end to laptop (or sit the PPC-6601 in its cradle and plug the USB end to laptop)
# When Windows asks for a driver, point it at the directory where CDMA1X_USBMDM.INF is located

Running:
# Turn on Pocket PC (or your Pocket PC Phone Edition CDMA)
# Run 'WModem', select USB, press 'start'
# Plug in cable to PPC-6601 and USB end to laptop (or sit the Harrier in its cradle and plug the USB end to laptop)
# On laptop click on start/Connect-to/show all connections (or controll panel/networking
# Click on Add new connection and you should see this:

Click on Next and you should see this:



Choose Internet (first one) and click Next. You should see this:


Choose the manual setup option and hit next. You should see this:


Choose dial-up and hit next. You should see this:


Choose the modem installed above and hit next. You should see this:


Type #777 for the phone number and hit next. You should see this:


Leave all of this blank. REMOVE THE CHECKMARK FOR MAKING THIS YOUR DEFAULT INTERNET CONNECTION
you will be sorry if you don't. Hit next. You should see this:


Check the box (or not) and click finish. It should show you a screen like this:


Click on Properties:


Click on Options:


Make sure to remove the prompt items (username and phone number) and check security:


Make sure it has "Allow unsecure passwords" (we don't use one) Click the networking tab:


Make sure the type of server has PPP (not SLIP). Click the advanced tab:


Click OK and you should be connected.

ActiveSync will work normally when WModem is not started.

Click HERE to download the .inf file you need to do all of this.

Monday, February 7, 2005

TiVo: Sexy Super Bowl Ads Stole Show

That is probably because it was quite funny.  Too bad they didn't let them air the second spot later on in the evening.

 

You can still watch it though (and even see the whole unedited version) at godaddy.com's site...

 

Check it out over here.

The more a commercial "walked the finest line of taste" as TiVo's Matt Wisk put it, the more popular it was, at least according to TiVo's yearly analysis of Super Bowl highlights. An advertisement that aired during the first quarter by Internet domain registrar GoDaddy.com had the highest replay activity of any commercial.
[BetaNews.Com]

Thursday, February 3, 2005

Is this HP's hw6500 iPAQ Mobile Messenger?

Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo-stick!

HP hw6500 iPAQ Mobile Messenger

Is this that new iPAQ Mobile Messenger we were talking about yesterday? They’re unconfirmed, but Brighthand scored some images of what is supposedly the hw6500, a new GSM/GPRS/EDGE Pocket PC Phone with a built-in QWERTY keyboard and a GPS receiver that HP is going to show off at the 3GSM World Congress in a couple of weeks. It’s hard to tell how small (or big) this thing is (though if that’s an SD card slot on the side, it can’t be that huge), but they are so gunning for the Treo. Click to see a couple more pics.

HP hw6500 iPAQ Mobile Messenger



[Engadget]

Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Guess I better post something

Now that it is February I guess I better post something :)

I have been building servers like mad with Altiris RDP! Released 30 servers to the end users in just under a week.

16 were Citrix Metaframe XP boxes and I even installed that unattended