This has been out for a bit now but it is funny and deserves a look.
Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash
Monthly Archives: August 2007
Doh – Did I act too soon!
You may have read my review of the Blackberry Curve that I wrote just a while ago https://sysguy.com/wordpress/?p=165. Well the day after writing the review I started having problems with battery life. The phone was going through it’s charge in a day and a half even after it was turned off at night. Neither was there heavy email or even voice usuage on the phone. At first I thought it might be because of a low signal where I had the phone, after moving the phone there was no difference. Well I set the backlight to 30% (which is not noticeable to most people) but then I noticed something. I was getting a number of messages from Twitter via the google talk client. Turns out my Google talk client was running the whole time. This is what was draining the batterries of the unit. I signed off Google talk and the last charge lasted 5 days again!
But now going to the subject line of my post. While looking for solutions to my battery life problem, I stumbled upon some blogs with product leaks for Blackberries, in particular a new Curve 2, Pearl 2 and 8800 V2 phone. It would appear that CDMA versions of these phones are coming out (Telus and Bell customers will be able to get them) but the biggest feature on the new GSM versions is the addition of WiFi (802.11bg)! Apparently these phones will seemlessly switch from Edge to 802 seamlessly for mail downloads and we browsing. his is the one feature that I wish my current Curve had because it lowers data costs for mail and web surfing and it is much faster than the edge network. Although I have also seen that Rogers is testing their new HSPDA in some of the major centres (Calgary, Vancouver) I have seen no indication that these phones will be able to connect on that network.
Rumours have the phones coming out in the US sometime between September and December so they should not be far behind here. Well I am happy as I am eligible for an upgrade frome Rogers December 1 of this year so I will keep watching.
New Vista Performance Patches Released Yesterday
On Tuesday August 7th, Microsoft released a couple of patches for Windows Vista. One deals with Vista performance and the other deals with Reliability and compatibility. These patches are available for download as standalone patches and I am not sure if they will show up next week under the scheduled patch Tuesday downloads in Microsoft Update. I have applied both patches to two of my Windows Vista systems so far. I noticed very little difference on my Vista Ultimate Asus laptop with 2 GB of Ram after applying the patch. I did notice however a huge difference on my Intel Core 2 Duo desktop machine that has 4 GB of ram. As I had posted earlier the upgrade from 2 to 4 GB of RAM on that machine was not as smooth as I would have liked. After the upgrade the machine seemed like it would pause from time to time, It never displayed this with only 2 GB of RAM and would only occur for a few seconds. Various combinations of RAM sticks would make it worse or better. In the end, I found that 4 double sided RAM sticks ran better but the machine would still occasionally pause for up to a minute.
Since the performance patch directly indicated that it addressed memory management I applied that as soon as I got it last night. I have been using the machine (albeit via remote desktop) all day and there definitely seems to be an improvement in it’s performance and have not seen it hang all day. I have not tried it enough after the compatibility and reliability patch all that much to see whether there has been a difference.
Here are links to the Microsoft KB articles regarding the contents of the patches, and these articles contain links to the download site. Please note that you have to validate your copy of Vista as genuine.
Performance Patch KB Link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938979/en-us
Reliability and Compatibility KB link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938194/en-us
I would suggest that anyone running Vista may benefit by installing these two patches
Stephen
Spend a little save big on long distance!
Actually we have a really good long distance deal from our home telephone provider. For over two years now our home provider has been our cable company, Shaw Communications. For 55.00 CAN a month we get unlimited calling anywhere in North America any time of day, and 1000 minutes of International calling to select countries although we have never used it. In addition we get a bundle of phone services like voicemail , call display, three way calling and more included. All in all, I know that this bundle has saved us at least 25.00 a month (and probably a lot more) over Telus who was our previous phone provider and in addition we no longer worry what time it is before we make a long distance call.
For a business line, I use Vonage Canada that provides 500 minutes of outgoing voice calling anywhere in North America, and 250 minutes of outgoing fax calls on a separate fax line for 32.00 per month. This is also a good deal as voice quality has been good with Vonage and the reliability has been fine. One of my favorite Vonage features is the ability to have voicemail messages sent via email. Currently I have these attachments sent to my main email address and my Blackberry’s address, In addition you can listen to and manage your voicemail messages via the Vonage web site.
For some people though Vonage may not be an option. In order to use their service you require a high speed internet connection and if you are Telus DSL customer you will still need a telephone line as Telus does not offer a service called Naked DSL (a DSL connection that is not tied to a phone line). This eliminates the ability for some people to use the Vonage service or at least it makes no real sense to use the service.
Enter a third option, Skype. Skype started out as a PC to PC VOIP Service, but for some time now have also been offering PC to Phone calls. In fact from the summer of 2006 till January 1 2007 Skype was offering this service free. Now they no longer offer the free service but the service costs very little. In fact if you have a high speed internet connection and are willing to make phone calls with your PC you can save a bundle on long distance.
Skype offers a service called SKYPE unlimited where for 35.00 CAN (29.95 USD), you can call from within North America to any phone line with no limits on the time you talk or the time of day! I have recently signed up for this service and the first test call I made worked very well. My laptop was connected to my home wireless network and I used the connection to call my wife that was in Winnipeg. Using a good headset (Plantronics DSP 400), on my end, the call sounded crystal clear. On her end she indicated that the call sounded a little fuzzy but was not bad. There was no problem with delays.
So why, if I have a great long distance plan like I have, would I want a service like this? Well there are a couple of reasons. If I travel, I can take my connection with me. This means if I am staying in a Hotel that offers Internet Access I can use my laptop to make phone calls as opposed to using my cell or the hotel line (providing they don’t block the ports as some do). Or if I am a client site I can use this to call anywhere. If I am visiting friends I do not need their phone line to make calls I can just borrow their Internet connection and make calls that way. The main reason why I purchased this though is for my upcoming podcasts. With the equipment that I have I can easily record SKYPE calls so I can conduct telephone interviews and record them for use in podcasts later.
Skype also offers free PC to PC phone calls all across the globe as well.
So what do you need? All you need is the Skype Software (free download), a Skype Account, Speakers and a Microphone (although a chat headset works best). So for less than 60.00 CAN, you can have free phone calls to anywhere in North America for a year. If you have a web cam, you can make video calls to other Skype users across the net. In addition several manufactures sell cordless Skype phones that connect to your router and operate like a regular phone in your house for making calls. More information is available at http://www.skype.com.
Skype has been around for a while and there are owned by EBay, so you know they are financially sound. You can save yourself a lot on your long distance if use Skype unlimited for your outgoing calls. For more information visit Skype at:
http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/
A caution though, Skype is not a home phone replacement! You cannot make emergency calls from Skype and if you just purchase the Skype unlimited service you do not get an incoming phone number. Incoming numbers (Skype In service) is available for a monthly cost.
If you decide to look into Skype and try it, make sure you contact us. Our Skype ID is sysguy!