Category: Toys

Articles about technical (or other :-)) toys.

Categories
Computers Mac Toys Work

Ok, so I got a Mac… :)

I received a new work-horse for my job some days ago, a MacBook Pro. It’s very nicely equipped, featuring the following items:

  • 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
  • 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM – 2x2GB RAM
  • 200GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
  • extra power supply
  • AppleCare Protection Plan

The whole package cost almost EUR 2.900. 🙂

What I found strange is that the MacBook came preinstalled with 2 RAM sticks of 1G each, which I had to remove and replace with 2 sticks of 2G each, “Kingston” brand. I don’t know whether this is Apple’s official policy, or whether it was our local dealer who wanted to earn some extra bucks. 😉 Anyway, I now have two spare 1G sticks which I will put into the old Dell D810.

The MacBook already has the new multi-touch trackpad, but it hasn’t got the fastest CPU available today, which is the 2.6 GHz model. I don’t think it makes that big of a difference, tho. 🙂

I’ve already installed a lot of applications I need, and so far I like the Mac very much, altho I must admit that it’s quite different than a Windoze PC which I have been using for the last 20 years. 🙂

Categories
Toys

Look, Ma, I’ve got an iPhone… ;-)

Not! 🙂

Seriously, now. A colleague today brought his iPhone with him, and I had the chance to briefly (read “one minute”) play with it. Here’s me holding it in my hand:

I was astonished how large and heavy it is, compared to my SonyEricsson W880i. It felt very “solid,” tho (or probably just because of this ;-)). My colleague usually wears it in his trouser’s back pocket. The display was excellent — very brilliant and “crispy.”

We had a presentation about the Greenphone some colleagues are developing software for, and in a short break I had a minute to look at the iPhone. No more, or else I would be able to write more about it.

Categories
Toys WTF

Sudden death to my camcorder… :-(

When we last visited my girlfriend Mona’s parents we wanted to show them the video I made from our car safety training at the ADAC in Grevenbroich. To my great horror (and I mean “horror”) the camcorder refused to load the tape — as soon as I closed the tape loader, I heard the whirring noise of a motor, but the camcorder didn’t load the cartridge (i. e. the cartridge loader didn’t slide down.) Instead an error message “remove tape” was displayed. The same happened to another cartridge I had brought with me, which made me pretty sure the camcorder was broken. 🙁

Continue reading “Sudden death to my camcorder… :-(“
Categories
Toys WTF

Another annoyance… :-(

I’m trying to establish an encrypted connection to my self-operated e-mail server. For this, I need to get the root certificate of the CA (CAcert) which certified my server’s public key installed on my mobile phone (a SonyEricsson V630i, remember?).

However, regardless what I try, the mobile doesn’t accept the certificate.

Continue reading “Another annoyance… :-(“
Categories
Toys

SonyEricsson V630i

So I got myself a new toy — it has been a while since the last one… 🙂

It’s a SonyEricsson V630i, a device (as the letter “V” in the model name also suggests) which has been specifically designed for Vodafone. Apart from the case and a modified firmware, the mobile is identical to SonyEricsson’s K610i, tho.

Continue reading “SonyEricsson V630i”
Categories
Toys

Vodafone Mobile Connect Card

Some days ago, I got myself another toy — our Vodafone Mobile Connect Card. That’s a UMTS/GPRS CardBus (PCMCIA) card for laptops.

I use it on my way between my home and the office, while I sit in the train. I can surf the Internet, read mail, or chat with my friends. I also have a VPN client installed, that, together with an RSA SecurID token, I can use to connect to the office network, to access files or my company e-mail.

The great thing is that our UMTS network is already pretty well developped, so that I have a bandwidth available that is almost comparable to that of a DSL line. And even in places where we don’t have UMTS coverage, I can use our 2.5G network (GPRS over GSM) to surf with a somewhat limited speed.

Based on the experience I’ve made during the last few days, I can absolutely recommend our MCC card to any mobile “road-warriors.”

Categories
Toys

Samsung Z500 UMTS

I’ve got myself a brand-new toy — a Samsung Z500 UMTS mobile phone. I ordered it because I liked its compact size and light weight, as well as its stylish outlook.

Samsung Z500 UMTS

So far I haven’t found anything I dislike. The phone seems to be very robust, and the GUI is very intuitive. I can’t yet comment on the qualities of the phone when it comes to video calls, because here at my residence our UMTS network is very weak, so that the phone constantly books into the GSM network.

What I like specially much is that the phone has a TransFlash slot, which my Motorola E1000 also has. I will buy myself a 512 MB TransFlash card which should allow me to carry >100 songs with me — the phone has an MP3 player built into it.

Stay tuned for more infos to be available shortly.