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Well, today enough was enough. I took my iPhone 3G in to my local Optus store and got them to send it away for repairs (or replaced, hopefully). It was mostly work normally as one would expect, except for one major feature, the speakers would stop working, and when on a call, would have to use speaker phone.

Turns out that it would think that a set of headphones where connected, but there weren’t. I have no idea why, but it was rather annoying when I was in the middle of a call, and it would do this.

There were a few other little issues, but nothing as major as this. There was a crack on the back, but it was only cosmetic, but seeing that it was near the accessory port, could explain some of the problems.

So, now for the wait until I get my iPhone back. Hopefully it’s a quick turn around, but I have a feeling that it’s going to be a while. So for the time being I’m having to resort to my really old Nokia N70 (it’s just not the same!!).

Apple’s long awaited iPad was finally announced today. While it looks like a huge iPhone/iPod Touch, it can do so much more.

From what I’ve seen so far, the features that I like the most are the new redesigned apps like calendar, email, contacts, iTunes, well, pretty much all of them. They have been redesigned to take advantage of the 9.7″ display and make use of the multi-touch screen.

I can think of many uses where this would be a great device for myself, but with a starting price of US$499 for the 16GB wifi model, I’m still undecided. There has not yet been any international pricing announced as yet, but given Apple’s track recorded with pricing here in Australia, I got a feeling this could be a pricey device.

Visit Apple’s website for more information on the iPad.

What are your thoughts on the iPad?

For the past 9 years I have been using my good old trusty Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical and have found it to be a great mouse. Unfortunatly the scroll wheel has started to not work, and it’s currently unable to scroll up, and has difficulties scrolling down.

I spent a few days shopping around, try a few different ones out, and reading reviews online. I was originally going to go with the Logitech MX Revoluion, but discovered that it has been replaced with the Performance Mouse M950, though it is a bit out of my price range with an RRP of AU$199 and not yet available everywhere.

Eventually I came across the MX1100 which is a slight revision of the MX Revolution, but not as crazy of a mouse. I must say that at AU$89 this has been a great buy. It is by far the most comfortable mouse I’ve ever used. The precision, comfort, and everyday use is amazing.

The other nifty feature is that being a wireless mouse, I can unplug it from my desktop and use it with my notebook. Finally a way to ditch that crappy trakpad.

It’s been an odd day for technology in my household. Firstly my wife’s iPhone decided that it wanted to be connected to iTunes which resulted in having to perform a restore, which I did and somehow got into a loop and wanted to keep being restored. In the end I decided to call Optus iPhone Support, and they advised to go into my local Optus Shop and get them to check it out. Turned out that it just needed to be activated, but they guy at the shop couldn’t explain why it wouldn’t activate for me at home.

Finally, my HP notebook decided to call it quits last night. The strange thing about it was that I used it about 30 minutes earlier, then wanted to use it again, and it would not wake up. I powered it down, and rebooted, but nothing would happen. All the lights came on, but no boot sequence.

I got on to a HP technician and he walked me through some steps, and concluded that it needs to be sent in for repair. Well, I figured that much. Luckily we purchased an extended warranty, so the claim has been submitted, and now I just have to arrange to have it picked up from my home. Now that is good service, don’t have to pay for a thing. Now, hopefully they don’t take forever to send it back.

Last week I made the jump and got my self a 23″ LCD for my PC finally leaving behind the huge 19″ CRT that I had been using. Since then I have had the urge to connect up my Xbox 360 to it and as it is a better display then the 32″ LCD in my lounge room which on has 1000:1 contrast ratio and can only display 1366×768 resolution while my new Samsung 2333SW can do 20000:1 and full HD 1920×1280. The only downside is that the 2333SW doesn’t have HDMI or component connections, so I’m limited to DVI-D and VGA.

Microsoft supply a VGA cable for the Xbox 360, but it retails for AU$49.95 which I think is pretty pricey, and there are cheaper versions available online through ebay, but then a friend shown me what he has, and it’s cheaper then the cable from Microsoft. The Powerwave Console Cooler & Control Centre. As you can see, there is a VGA plug on there, and that is what I needed. I found one on ebay and got it for just under AU$25.00. As I have all needed cables laying around, that is all I needed to spend.

Once the item arrived, I connected it to my LCD’s VGA port with the VGA cable that came with the LCD, and a RCA to 3.5mm cable plugged the 3.5mm plugged into the line in jack on my PC’s sound card. After enabling the jack in the sound control panel, there was sound and away we went.

The only settings that needed to be changed on the xbox was to select the right screen resolution, 1920×1280, and it looks great!!

All up, I think this is a better solution as it was cheaper, has the 2 fans to help get heat out, and has all the extra ports on the back.

Well, as most people would know by now, Apple have released the latest update for the iPhone, iPhone OS 3.0. If you didn’t then it’s time to come our from under that rock. I’ll must admit thought that I did stay up till 3am Sydney time for this, though I didn’t plan on doing so.

iPhone OS 3.0 brings with it many new features, of which I’m not going to list, but I will make not of some of the ones that I have grown fond of already. The install went without a hitch though it was slow downloading as every man and his dog was also downloading it.

I have already noticed that my phone is much quicker and snappier at launching apps, though I haven’t test them all out, and the addition of Spotlight to search most places is great.

So, features that I’m loving so far are:

• Spotlight: it’s so much faster and easier to find a song, contact or email;
• Landscape Keyboard: For those who like landscape mode, and it does make it easier to type;
• Push Notifications: I haven’t had a chance to use this yet, but I’m looking forward to have an IM app that supports it;
• Tethering: Will come in handy, though Optus are charging AU$9.95 to do so, there are ways around;
• MMS: Finally able to send picture messages like every other phone out there.

I spose one of the biggest downfalls so far though is with my carrier Optus. Their MMS system is not working to well. Currently all MMS’s recieved have a number in the format of 614xxxxxxxx which is missing the + at the start, so when you recieve a MMS rather then having it listed under existing conversations, it starts a new one and doesn’t list the persons name. Optus are aware of this and are working on a solution.

The other downer is that Optus is going to charge users AU$9.95 to be able to tether your iPhone to your PC for mobile internet. The problem with this is that tethering will use the data allowance from your plan, so they are double dipping here. Not very Australilan in my books!! So, to fix this little problem, so wonderfull users over at the forums on Whirlpool have worked out a way to bypass this, though no one is sure when it will cause excess charges. Stay tuned for more on this.

Overall, iPhone OS 3.0 is a great update and should keep the iPhone 3G going for a little while longer, till next year at least.

What are you favourite new features of OS 3.0? What are your gripes? Leave comments below.

Play with your iPhone!!

For the last few days I’ve been pretty sick with some form of a virus. It didn’t seem to be that bad, now a day later, I’m worse. I have no idea what I’ve got.

Today I have spent the majority of the day stuck in bed, and it only been in the last few hours that I’ve managed to stumble out and face the world. Though I’ll thinking if hearing back soon.

One thing that i’ve come to discover having an iPhone I’d just how awesome they are. I’ve been able to do just about all of my daily tasks, and discovered how some sites have been optimized for the iPhone. Site like Google Reader is one that i’m impressed with. Though it’s not as easy as using a desktop PC.

Another app that I’m loving is the WordPress app. It’s awesome and I’m using it now to type this post though some features like adding in links and things are impossible unless u know basic HTML.

I had my iPhone 3G for about 5 days now and thought that I would post a screenshot of my current Home Screen. There are currently 5 pages of which I need to organise a little better and go through and see what I want to keep as I have a few apps that do the same thing.

My iPhone 3G Home Screen

Read more…

I got myself a 16GB iPhone 3G yesterday. I know, I caved in, but the one feature that I love the most is that I now have my email with me when I’m out. Also to, I have full web out and about.

I decided to check out my blog using Safari on the iPhone, but then I remembered that there is a WordPress plugin that will render a iPhone friendly version.

I’ve just finished installing the plugin (availabe @ iwphone.contentrobot.com), and I must say that it looks great!!

I’ve been having some issues with my DrayTek Vigor2600G lately. Mainly with the wireless part, and I haven’t really been using it for the last month or so. I’ve had my notebook connected via ethernet, but that darn blue cable can get rather annoying. So today I went out and brought the Netgear WNDR3300. It’s a RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Router which is pretty sweet, and so far it’s been great. The coverage is awesome, though my Nokia N95 8GB is having some issues finding the wireless network, but for now, I’m not to worried about that.

Later on down the track I’m looking at getting a Netgear WNHDE111 to hook up to my Xbox360 resulting in getting rid of the 15m ethernet cable and my wife Lisa will be a happy woman.