Listen to the voice. Not the voice(s) in your head, but the commanding, navigating voice.

I didn’t listen to the voice at first, “Turn left in 200 yards and then bear right“. I knew the way home from work, and wanted to drive my normal route. Eventually the voice was giving the directions I was driving.

It was a totally different matter when we went away for a long weekend to Cape Cod. Then I had no choice but to listen the computerized voice of the GPS, especially after getting lost following a map and some printed directions.

No GPS device is perfect, and it takes a bit of time to get used to the workings and limitations of a device, even one as highly rated as the HP iPaq rx5915 Travel Companion. The HP iPaq rx5915 does not have a text to speech option, which means it does not announce street names. As long as you are paying attention to the screen, you can see the name of the street anyway.

There were a few times when I could have done with a “Where am I?” option to tell me where I was, and not just where I was going.
The Tomtom GO 720 GPS actually has this feature, along with voice-guided turn-by-turn directions and a map-sharing function for the most up-to-date maps.
It doesn’t function as a handheld computer or have Wi-Fi though…

The capacities of Flash Thumb Drives is increasing. Back in April 2006 Kanguru Solutions announced a 64GB Flash Drive. At $2,800 it was a bit pricey, as you could get a good notebook computer for that price. The Kanguru Solutions 32GB FlashBlu USB 2.0 Flash Drive is available on Pricegrabber.com, and has dropped considerably from it’s initial price of $1499 to a more reasonable one. Considering that a 160GB portable external hard drive costs less than this, unless you really need a 32GB Flash drive right now, it is worth waiting as the price will most likely drop a lot more.

How much space do you really need in a flash drive though? Right now 4GB and 8GB drives seem to be the best buys for capacity versus price. It all depends on the number and specifically the size of the files you are storing. If they are just a few documents then a 1 or 2 GB USB drive may be enough. Any type of graphics, audio or video files may need far more. Personally I’m trying to limit myself to a relatively fast 4GB USB drive for data files and a number of programs I like to carry around with me.

There are other factors to consider, like security. USB flash drives are relatively small and easy to lose. Again it boils down to the type of data you are storing. If it is some sort of confidential data, then using a drive with built-in security like the Lexar 4GB JumpDrive Secure II Plus USB 2.0 Flash Drive may be advisable.

Currently my USB Thumb Drive of choice is the SanDisk 4GB Cruzer U3 Micro USB Flash Drive. It has a decent capacity, relatively small physical size and the retractable USB connector saves having to worry about losing the cap.

So what is U3? I was hoping you would ask. Without going into technical details the flash drive is formatted in such a way that it can run applications which have been modified for the U3 “platform”. There are a number of applications, including virus scanners, security programs (password managers and encryption) and even the Firefox browser, which have been modified to run from a U3 USB drive.

I noticed quite a number of complaints in the user reviews about the U3 functionality. Fortunately it can be removed – SanDisk has a “U3 Launchpad Removal Tool”.

Here I must confess that I have removed U3 from my SanDisk Flash drive, and replaced it with the free PortableApps suite, which includes a selection of free applications. PortableApps applications are written in such a way that they run from the USB drive and do not write anything to the host PC.

There are also several applications which offer “portable USB stick” versions, and can be installed to a USB thumb drive without U3 or Portable Apps having to be present.

My previous blog about Memory Cards got me thinking, so here is more about Memory Cards:

Physically the largest memory card available is the CompactFlash Card. This format has been around since 1994, and is still popular in high end digital cameras. The largest capacity currently available is 32GB, with Samsung having announced a prototype of a 64GB CompactFlash card in 2006.

On the other end of the scale, the tiny, fingernail-sized microSD Card is physically the smallest. I always get a bit nervous when handling a microSD card as I’m concerned I may drop it and never find it again. Fortunately microSD cards are almost always packaged with SD Card adapters, so they can be read in SD Card readers. MicroSD cards are mainly used in cellphones, portable media players and handheld GPS devices. The largest capacity microSD (actually microSDHC – High Capacity) card currently available is 8GB.

Somewhere in between the microSD and the SD card format is the miniSD card format. It was originally intended for use in cell phones, digital cameras and MP3 players. It seems to be slowly being supplanted by the microSD card.

Some card manufacturers have a neat product which can be used as a microSD, miniSD or SD Card – like the SanDisk 2GB microSD Card with miniSD and SD Adapters.

The first time I came across a memory card was with my first Palm-OS based PDA, the Sony Clie PEG-S300. This was Sony’s first Palm handheld, and it shipped with an 8MB Memory Stick, which was about the size of a stick of gum. This Sony 32MB Memory Stick looks almost identical to that first 8MB Memory Stick. Only a few years later I used a 128 MB Memory Stick with a Sony Clie NX60. A flash update allowed the use of the new Memory Stick PRO format which started at 256MB. From there the Memory Stick spun off into multiple variations (see the “Memory Stick” article in Wikipedia). Nowadays the Sony PSP uses the Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Pro Duo format.
Although the Sony memory Stick is produced by other manufacturers like Sandisk and Lexar, they are almost exclusively used in Sony branded digital cameras, PDAs, cellphones. The Sony VAIO line of personal computers includes Memory Stick slots.

When Sony pulled out of making Palm PDAs, I switched to Palm branded handhelds. These, and most Windows Mobile handhelds use the Secure Digital Card format. The postage-stamp sized Secure Digital Card format supports capacities from 8 MB to 2 GB. The SDHC card supports sizes from 4GB to 32GB (see the blog entry “SD, SDHC Cards, Say what?“).

There is just no space to go into the myriad of card formats here: CompactFlash, SmartMedia, miniSD, microSD and many other variants. Wikipedia’s “Comparison of memory cards” has an extensive table and comparison of memory card formats.

Are you a binary horse — somebody who can look at binary and convert it in your head rather than going to some website that will calculate it for you? If you are, then you need a binary clock, which will keep the connections in your brain snapping whenever you need to know the time.

Each column on the clock represents a different part of the time, with blue LEDs turned on or off to represent a given number. In the picture I’ve provided here, the left-most column represents 1. The next column represents 0. The third column is 4. The fourth column is 8. The fifth column is 3. And the right-most column is 6. Put those numbers together, and you get 10:48:36.

How long did it take you to figure that out? Took me about 10 minutes — using an online binary converter. I’ll never be able to use a clock like this, because it’ll guarantee my late arrival to any appointment in my calendar.

According to the description, you can run it in 12-hour (and look out the window to know which half of the day you’re in) or 24-hour mode.

In idle moments between jobs, I grab a magazine and read an article. Perhaps this little product would be a nice change of pace. Hmm. Or perhaps I could take up Spider Solitaire.

Does it make a difference whether an electronic device has a user-replaceable battery or not? By “electronic device” I’m including everything from a Bluetooth headset to a Laptop.

When buying a Bluetooth headset, the fact that its battery will eventually go flat and cannot be replaced is no big deal. By the time that happens better ones will probably be available anyway.

How about the MacBook Air Notebook? Apple’s ultra-thin notebook is really impressive. However, it does not have a user-replaceable battery (See Engadget’s article “MacBook Air doesn’t have a user-replaceable battery“) After paying well over $1500 for a notebook, when the battery eventually goes in 2 to 3 years time you won’t be able to replace it yourself. Instead, according to Engadget’s article”MacBook Air battery replacements: $129, free install!“, you would have to send the MacBook Air into Apple, and for the price of $129 for a new battery, they will replace it for free.

So as not to only bash Apple, most Portable Media Players, including all iPods, do not have user-replaceable batteries. Even for manufacturers who used to make Portable Media Players with user-replaceable batteries, the trend also seems to be towards batteries which are not user-replaceable – SanDisk is one example.

Handheld computers seem to be split at the Palm/Windows Mobile line. Apart from their smartphones, none of Palm’s handhelds have user replaceable batteries. Windows Mobile devices generally do. Cellphones have user-replaceable batteries of course, except for the first Treos, and the iPhone.

The cost of replacing a new battery is not much when the device was designed to have the user replace it. Although you can buy a new battery for the Palm Tungsten C, it is tricky to replace it yourself. and you could damage it if you are not careful. I have an old Dell Axim X30, and I’ve replaced the battery once, simply by buying a replacement battery like the Lenmar Replacement battery For Dell Axim X30. Apart from proper disposal, it is not much of a problem when the Axim X30’s battery no longer charges.

First, what exactly is a smartphone? Well, just trying to define a smartphone is a bit of a challenge, as I found out while searching the web. Wikipedia’s definition of a smartphone is:
“…a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, often with PC-like functionality.”
They also add “There is no industry standard definition of a smartphone. For some, a smartphone is a phone that runs complete operating system software providing a standardized interface and platform for application developers. For others, a smartphone is simply a phone with advanced features.”

For my purposes I’ll choose the definition of a smartphone being a mobile phone with advanced capabilities and an Operating System.

The Motorola A1200 MING Cell Phone runs Linux and has PDA capabilities, so it definitely can be termed a smartphone. For input it has a touch screen phone and a stylus, along with a virtual keyboard. It also has an 312MHz Intel XScale processor, 64MB ROM and 64MB RAM, FM Radio, 2 Megapixel camera and Bluetooth. A microSD slot supports cards up to 2GB.

This is not bad for a phone released over two years ago. Unfortunately it wasn’t picked up by any U.S. carriers, as it may have done well. It is one of the coolest looking phones I’ve seen.

As I have reported before (see “How to Organize Those Cluttered Cords“), there’s a rat’s nest under my worktable made up of rubberized and plasticized spaghetti, otherwise known as cables and cords.

I just learned about a cable management system that for less than $20 may make visitors think I actually have it together. And if you think about it, that’s a whole lot cheaper than actually getting it together through therapy.

The system is called the Monster Cable•it Cable Management Kit. (Yes, that’s a bullet between “Cable” and “it”. Don’t you love those product names that make it impossible to find what you really want in search engines?) I’m showing it in a photo as it comes out of the package. The way it works is this:

1. You gather up your cables. (This could take me half a day, because it would require unsnarling them first, but let’s assume you’re tidier than I am…)

2. You open the “Monster Zipper” and insert your cables then close it again. The zipper is that lump on the end of the hose.

3. You slide the sleeve (the hose) into the zipper and pull the zipper backwards. When you’ve run out of hose, you remove the zipper.

Don’t get the idea that these photos show my desk. It’s much too neat to be my desk. (It must belong to my evil alter-ego Dan who always wears an apron when he’s in the kitchen.)

If the hose is too long, you figure out how long it should be and cut it with scissors. Since the company sells these in lengths from eight feet to 50 feet, length is a consideration. They also sell various hole sizes — small (for three to five cables), medium (for five to eight cables) and large (for eight to 12 cables).

The version sold through the sources on PriceGrabber are eight feet long and medium, which would be just about right for my cable maelstrom.

Also, if there’s one cable you need zigging where the rest need zagging, the hose part lets you yank out as much of that cable as necessary, kind of like some freaky magic trick where you can’t figure out how it works.

Could it really be this easy to look so good?

I was reading the latest catalog from Dell, which showed an image of the company’s color cover laptops. You’ll have to excuse my shock and awe, because I didn’t know Dell notebooks came in any colors other than silver and black.

So I meandered over to the Dell site to track down these machines — which the photo shows as being available in shades of lemon, lime, cherry and a kind of strawberry daiquiri. I plugged every tracking number from that page in the catalog into the address line of my browser and couldn’t come up with anything.

Eventually, persistence and the keywords, “color cover,” got me what I needed, links to “QuickSnap Color Kits.” No sign of those warmer colors I’d prefer, but the “Mediterranean Blue” isn’t unattractive.

And there’s a cool sounding “Charcoal Leather QuickSnap,” which, according to one Dell customer “feels and looks like leather.”

But the choices are still rather business-like (read: staid) compared to what’s possible for decorating your machine. If you plug “laptop skins” into your search engine of choice, you’ll be led to companies such as laptopskins, Schtickers and Skinit. These operations sell skins of your favorite sports teams, psychodelic designs, works of art and even pictures of the family dog.

The skins from these companies stick on like giant decals (except without the water). You clean your device first, and then carefully position the decal. You don’t want to do it wrong, because they don’t tend to stick as well the second time around. And if you’re headed back to work with that notebook after a wild weekend with the Black Hats in Vegas, your temporary skin will peel off with nary a crumb. Just like that, it’s back to black (or gray or silver).