Gadgets
Getting isync back on lion
January 10, 2012 | 
Author For some reason apple has removed isync from lion. For those of us without an iphone this is rather annoying. I have used isync for years. It sort of generally works ok. I tried syncmate but that was useless as it only works with s40 nokia phones and my N8 is an S60. I tried it but it just hung when trying to sync. I uninstalled it and then later it popped up to remind me I hadn’t sync’ed! Not impressed with an application that leaves bits of itself lurking.
I had a quick google and I found this article on nokia support forums which had a solution.
I downloaded the sync from there. It is the last version that was made. I then went onto nokia’s site and got their add in for the N8.
After pairing my phone via bluetooth I loaded up isync and copied it into the applications folder. I then loaded the nokia package. After that I added the N8 as a device back into isync. It worked perfectly! All the calendar items I had have popped into the new calendar. Contacts have appeared in address book (never use it). I have no idea why apple have dropped it.
Toppy vs Icecrypt
My dear old Toppy is getting a bit old and worn. It is nearly 5 and has been a pretty good PVR for most of the time that I have had it. It’s psu capacitors are getting to the end of their life as the hard drive is running hotter and hotter. Before it is toasted completely I decided it would be sensible to find a suitable replacement.
This was more difficult than I realised. A player which advertised record two and watch a third channel with a dual tuner system seemed to be more rare than I thought. A few reviews later and some bargain hunting I decided upon the Icecrypt 2400T. This is an HD model with dual tuner and 1TB disk. It has both analogue audio out and digital. Some model specifications I had read seemed to not mention RCA phonos. The Tivo I had for a short while didn’t have any at all (it went straight back).
I was tempted by the Humax 9300 but it was £150 and SD only. The HD version with the same sized disk as the Icecrypt was much more expensive. I had also read about people complaining about the Humax missing recordings which put me right off it. I’m not bothered about media playing or iplayer or any other guff. If it can’t record reliably and consistently it isn’t any good to me!
Record two, watch third, HD, large disk and Freeview+ support were on my requirements list. The biggest annoyance with the toppy is having to pad recordings manually to deal with the useless broadcasters that are unable to keep to time. I regularly have to add several minutes onto lots of recordings as the BBC just runs so late in the evening. With the Topfield you can add freeview+ support but this hasn’t been done well and actually leads to more missed recordings. There are also TAPS you can add which improve functionality and offer nicer interfaces. I didn’t bother with any as apart from being slightly clunky the toppy generally worked.
The Icecrypt didn’t make a fantastic first impression. It is very similar to the Toppy but some of the interface keys are different so you think you need one button for one thing but it does something else entirely. Also some of the quirks with the Icecrypt are mistakes that were ironed out on the Toppy many years ago eg not remembering where you were in a watched program, not being able to use the program guide while watching a recorded program and a few other EPG quirks. It was deja vu.
I set up some series records and noticed one irritating factor. With series records you will have every different series of a program if it is currently on another channel. You have to go and delete it out of the list later. This bugged me as at the time I was watching something. Chose to record a series that had an instance that was starting right now so the Icecrypt changed channel from what I was watching to something I didn’t actually want to record anyway! I also notice that when you are in the guide and a recording starts you are binned out of the guide. Most irritating when you are spending time setting up recordings.
Watching a recording is more convoluted as all the recorded programs are organised by folders rather than just being in a chronological list. You have to go into library, then into that program folder then you can play a program. I started watching something and pressed the jump button thinking that skipped adverts. Nope. Skipped back to the beginning of the program. FF is also a bit jerky when you stop it. RW isn’t which is quite strange. Again that is something that I remember being an issue with the early Toppy firmware. I opened the program guide because I remembered another program I wanted to record. I was binned out of what I was watching. Very poor. Had to go back into the program and FF yet again to where I was. By this point I was wondering whether I had made a serious mistake with buying it as it was now about the third attempt to watch something.
The EPG display is a bit pants. The long column list is ok and you can use the next day button to roll round another 24 hours. There are some quirks with displaying some times for some reason. Setting a recording is fairly easy. Go into the guide and press the record button while highlighting the program you want and there is an overlay to choose single, series or reminder. Series record sometimes brings up an annoying recommendation function sometime where it prompts you whether you want to record something else as well. For some reason the recommendation was something I had already set to record. There doesn’t seem to be an option to switch it off. Recording is different with freeview+ so you don’t do manual padding or anything else. You just have to trust the broadcasters to signal the start of the programs properly. I have no idea what happens when something over runs and you have another two recordings starting. With a manual timer you’d just miss the end of one but see the beginning of the other. Theoretically you can record all channels on a single MUX even with just one tuner so you could cope with such an overlap by recording 3 at once if programmes were only spread across two MUXES. Whether this is done is another matter.
One area the Icecrypt is very good is the picture quality. Even on SD it looks better than the Toppy. Also when you set an item to record when you’re on an SD channel if there is an HD version of it will prompt you to see if you want the HD version instead. This is neatly done.
It wakes up happily from standby to record things and returns to standby. This is good too. The keyword search is also useful to find things you think might be on but can’t find. With the poor EPG layout then this is a great help. Series record also works ok with radio too so you can record radio programs just as easily as TV ones. It is also clever about duplicate channels. Those from another region are fainter grey and at the end of the list so you don’t end up with multiples in your main list getting in the way. You also only need the one aerial lead rather than two. The toppy had two aerial ins. You could use a loop cable but this generally lead to having a second tuner with a weak signal.
Shame the Icecrypt doesn’t have PIP. But generally I only really used it to make sure I wasn’t going to miss the end of something so I’m hoping I won’t need it any more.
In car digital music without the wires
Having just bought a car that actually has a radio and cd player I was wondering how best to actually listen to my music. Carting round cds didn’t appeal as judging by the state of the one that was in the player it doesn’t do them any good. My next thought was changing the fitted radio for a new one that will play mp3s, aacs etc and that will let you either plug in ipod dock or a usb flash drive. The trouble with this is that you have to take your ipod with you and you’d have to keep plugging and unplugging it from the car. Ditto a usb flash drive. Also I thought the usb flash drive would be a nuisance as it would stick out of the front and potentially get in the way during gear changes.
The old style cassette deck and jack system worked ok with cassette deck enabled cars but with only a cd slot and a desire for having no trailing wires that wasn’t going to be a solution.
Then I had a brainwave! My phone has an FM transmitter in it so that any music on the phone can be tuned by the built in FM radio. It works over a short distance, within 2 metres, so shouldn’t interfere with other radios too much. Handily there is a cubby just where it is a good place to stash the phone not too far from the rear of the car for good reception. Radio also seems to have RDS so it shows up as ‘Nokia’ so you know you have it tuned easily.
Works quite well and has just saved me £200 for a new radio and another few quid for another flash drive to put music on. No need for trailing wires around the car. No need to plugin and unplug things into the radio. No need to carry ipod everywhere either.
Shiny new weather station
After some deliberation, hesitation and a tempting reduced price offer I have finally found another reasonable weather station to replace the defunct Maplin one.
I chose the Oregon BAR-808HG. It is rather similar to the oregon one I had before but so far it seems to be much better. Clock setting actually works within 10 minutes and it keeps track of the remote sensor. Annoyingly this sensor again isn’t fully weather proof so it is hidden under some plastic in the hope that it will be reasonably accurate without getting a soaking. I have now fitted a lithium battery into the external sensor so it should be able to cope properly with the cold weather. There is still the annoyance of having to reset both the sensor and the base unit when you change a battery in the sensor unit. Otherwise the base station refuses to talk to the sensor and loses it altogether. Makes no sense to me as it remains on the same channel.
Extra features on this weather station include a wind warning (!) and a heat warning. It also seems to change the weather outlook more often during changeable weather and seems to be more aware of changes. The other weather station tended to be stuck on the same for days even though the weather would be up and down. I still haven’t found the barometric pressure display which the other one had. That was very useful as you would have a 24 hour history. I suspect I might have to read the manual…
British Gas colour monitor comes up trumps
After a rather lacklustre black and white displayed effort, with a massive brick you need to hide in your meter cupboard, that didn’t work I now have a fully working energy monitor free courtesy of British Gas.
The new one arrived today in a tiny box. The power supply plug clips on to save space. The clip for the meter is much, much smaller than the previous one. Best of all it actually works and stays working! Setup was much easier. Plug in the main unit. Add the battery into the reader unit. It finds the reader without any difficulty. Then pop it onto your meter wire. The clip is slightly awkward to get on but once it is on then there’s nothing else you need to do.
The only downside is you spend far too much time looking at the display. Switching something on or off and then checking the display again!
British Gas Energy Monitor has a sense of irony
I complained about British Gas being a bit useless in the customer service department. A nice person from Centrica sent me a free energy monitor and some bye bye standby goodies. Unfortunately it is not only British Gas’s customer service that does not work – their products don’t either!
The energy monitor has vague instructions. I set it up as it wished – paired the device to the transmitter. The transmitter sits near the meter with a clamp that goes round the appropriate cable. The receiver unit with the display needs to sit somewhere near a power source. My first thought was how much power does the monitor use?! Unfortunately the wireless part of this doesn’t work. It pairs briefly then loses the connection. It is completely unreliable. It is worrying that smart energy monitors are supposedly going to be rolled out to every home but what use are they if they don’t work?! I even tried it with the transmitter and receiver only 6 feet apart. It still lost the connection. Hopeless.
At least the item comes with a freepost address so I can send it back and see if another one is any better. Having lost the weather station to gremlins and another old clock I’m beginning to wonder whether I’m electrically cursed!
SMS Alert – a great idea
SMSAlert is a dinky piece of software that allows you to change your sms message alerts to be different depending on who is texting you. There are a few annoyances with the implementation as you cannot choose all the sounds you have available on your phone – those on the mass memory are not available. Only those in the phone memory itself can be chosen.
Once you install the software you will find in your phone’s profile personalisation view that the sound alert has been changed to SMSAlert.wav from whatever it has been set to before. To disable SMSAlert for a profile go into the profiles section within SMSAlert itself and choose disable from the options menu.
When I tried out the software I noticed it doesn’t quite behave quite how you’d want it to. If you have a silent profile then texts from those in your list still make a noise but you may or may not want this or only want this some times. There should be an option to choose. Luckily the simplest way is to disable SMSAlert from the silent profile so you can at least have a completely silent profile.
Unfortunately when I tested it fully it didn’t actually work at all how it was supposed to. Two alerts were played – the default one for that profile plus the default one for the SMSlert profile. The one for the contact was not played. Most disappointing. This of course could be due to the fact that I am trying it with a Nokia N86 which is the most bug ridden heap of scrap ever to come out of Nokia. After resetting the phone alerts were silent – no default profile sound or default SMSAlert sound. Not very consistent.
As the software comes with a free 10 day trial you can at least test it out first and make sure it works how you want it to.
I un-installed it and completely re-installed it but it still behaved the same way. Most disappointing. The software is only on version 1.0 so hopefully after a few more versions it will actually work as it is supposed to. What I would like to see is a version that integrates with the profile or contacts properly so that you don’t have to mess around in a separate application to set your alert options.
Posted in Computing & Technology, Gadgets | 
Tags: customisation, messaging, nokia n86, SMSAlert | 
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Nokia N86 – how more infuriating can this phone become??
For most of this evening I have been trying the very simple task of uploading a photo straight from my phone and sharing it on twitter simultaneously. So far after several hours and the air turning blue I still haven’t actually managed it. Partly this is due to several services that should do what I want simply but don’t and the continued dismal performance of this Nokia phone.
Firstly I tried twitpic. I can send a pic. It appears on twitpic but it does not automatically tweet it onto twitter. Why not? Why would I upload to a photo sharing service designed to tweet onto twitter and not want it to do just that?!
Then I tried Flick to Twitt or some such named effort which suggested you could upload to flickr and tweet that photo out on twitter at the same time. Hurrah, I thought. But it is via a web interface only! I want to send it via my phone in one go. Not send it to flickr then begger about with some other service. Humph.
Then I noticed that Flikr has a share on a blog kind of setting which is rather an obtuse way of twitter sharing as that is one of the options. After wrestling with the email on the phone and a bounce due to my own spelling mistake I thought it would work without another hitch. I was wrong. This was where all the trouble started. My F$*&((&@(£(££*£* phone decided this was the time it was going to crash, hang, freeze and generally behave worse than spyware infested windows machine. I set up email using the wizard. You can’t do it any other way and it didn’t work with correct settings. I didn’t know they were incorrect until I tried to send the photo – the outgoing icon remains on screen forever! I switched the phone off and on. The icon was still there. Then it decided it wouldn’t switch off so it was battery off time. Back on – icon still there. It doesn’t appear in the messaging outbox so you can’t cancel it. There is literally no way of cancelling a stuck email it seems….
Soooo. I deleted the mailbox it was using. The icon went away. Hurrah. Then the phone had another eppy fit so I had to reset it again. I tried to add the mailbox again and it was mental by this time. So I did a hard reset, which I hate doing as it takes ages to go through all the settings and change them all back to how I like them.
So I tried to add the mailbox again. Wizardy thing just sits there with the ‘contacting server’ for ages. Great. Go back, try again. Nope. I must have tried this wretched thing half a dozen times. I give up. I then get a random error about a website wanting to offer a certificate…. the stupid little bleeder has switched on ‘security’ in the connection settings when I specifically set it to OFF. It has also lost the username and password settings for incoming and outgoing mail so NO BLOODY WONDER IT DOESN’T BLOODY WORK! This is a freshly reset phone on factory settings and it doesn’t even do something basic like setup an email mailbox with the settings you give it. No, it picks some others because it feels like it.
After piddling about further and adding settings it still sits there for ages. I add the server name as an ip address and this time it just about manages to sort itself out. I get to see my inbox and I think hurrah, this has worked. So I merrily set about making another email with the corrected settings completed and….. the ruddy thing is stuck in an outbox! The icon is still there, sending this stupid email. So I’m going to have to delete the bleeding mailbox again to stop it in its tracks.
All I want to do is to send a pic to twitter from my phone. How hard should this be????! I have sent pics to Facebook without any bother. They upload straight away. But somehow this phone has decided it doesn’t do email to any other destination!
Even with using Yahoo mail which you’d think would be Nokia numpty programmer proof it still doesn’t manage to create sensible settings that enable to log in with the correct email password. Hopeless! (But I have later found out that you have to have yahoo plus to access yahoo email from anything other than the web interface so it’s not the Nokia numpty programmers for certain that stop yahoo mail from working) I can only think the last firmware update screwed up email so badly that once you change or try and add a mailbox it will never work again. New update has been available since April but still no sign that O2 are going to pull their fingers out and make it available OTA.
The question still remains as to what phone I’d replace it with…
Posted in Computing & Technology, Gadgets | Tags: email settings, N86, Nokia, rubbish phones, twitter | 1 Comment »
Why is the Nokia N86 so appalling?
I spent ages looking for a new phone. I had a faithful nokia e70 which did the job of being a phone and email device quite well. Battery life was decent and it would surf t’internet too. But it was a brick and a the camera was rubbish. So I decided I would change it for a new one.
I was torn between the N86 and the iphone. The iphone also had a rubbish camera so there would be little to gain. I also tried an LG phone with a touchscreen and found it such an annoying experience I wished to hurl it at the wall. Therefore I chose the N86…
First day of use didn’t go that well as the migration tool only works if you migrate from similar nokias so it seemed you couldn’t migrate data from an E series to an N series even though they both run symbian. Great. Luckily I just synced the old phone with isync then synced the new one with it too so all calendar and contacts were imported without problem. I spent a happy afternoon playing with all the settings on the phone. It was ok for the first few days then it crashed randomly requiring the battery to be removed to reset the phone. I’ve updated firmware,restored to factory , restarted it regularly and still this phone is the most unreliable phone I have ever used!
The bugs found so far: random freezing, new message indicator light stops working then you need to reset the phone entirely, randomly picture messages don’t send and hang about in the outbox and usually hang the phone, photos aren’t saved into the gallery but are there when you check the filesytem. You can’t use card memory as it makes the phone throw a wobbly. You can’t plug it in to a laptop to charge it as it switches new messages to phone memory from mass memory. Battery life is mad. One minute it has nearly full bars the next it is half power. Switching on and off loses several bars even though the battery usage must be minimal. Email program is abysmal. It hangs and locks and generally is barely fit to use.
Worst problem of all is the atrocious build quality. The charger connector is wobbly and the slider makes noises now and is loose. The slide out keypad also has the number keys slightly too high
It beats me how a company as large as Nokia can release a phone with beta quality software. I found all the problems within a few days of normal use. Why don’t their in house testers manage this??? I’m sure many nokia users would be happy to be lent a phone for a few weeks to iron out these issues if Nokia are unable or unwilling to pay people to actually test the phone. It must surely be more cost effective than releasing the product and receiving such negative publicity.
Networks are not innocent in this either. They will insist in beggaring about with the software and changing options. This practice should be stopped. The only difference between a sim free and networked phone should be the start up logo and connectivity settings. Leave the rest alone!
Yet another firmware release is imminent. Will it be third time lucky?
Can you get something for next to nothing?
Apparently, yes! According to @Gadgets4nowt on twitter you can have free stuff sent to you just for referring a few people to join Freebiejeebies like me. All I had to do was to complete one offer and then start finding other people that want something for nothing! Sounds simple doesn’t it?
Being a natural sceptic I obviously assume that it won’t work so I am going to conduct an experiment to see if it does indeed work just as it says. I need a new puter as mine is rather long in the tooth so I thought a shiny 27″ imac would be just the ticket and rather usefully such a thing is listed in the available free gifts. All I need to do is to persuade enough people to sign up to gadgets for nowt and complete one of the offers, many of which are also free! The beauty of this scheme is once you have signed up and completed an offer you help someone on their way to their free stuff and can start getting your own. Win win all round.
So if you want to be part of my live experiment and help then click here and sign up!
