Inside View from Ireland

MH-100 Earbuds

I CHARGED UP a set of SonyEricsson MH-100 earbuds, pushed the power switch until little blue bars pulsated, and let my Xperia X10 connect with them. Two taps later and I had Monday's For Immediate Release streaming through the earbuds. To test their range, I walked outside in the rain, turned around 10m away, and came back into the house. I heard Shel and Neville talking the whole time. Then I went upstairs and they kept chatting away, one storey below where I was sitting. I need a cable-free listening experience because I'm doing a lot of outdoor work. The MH-100 also works with an old iPod connected with an aftermarket Bluetooth dongle.

MB-100

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Buy them for EUR 40 from Amazon. Or get them from friendly counter staff at Carphone Warehouse if they have accessories that fall out of a SE Aino box. But don't poach on my Clonmel Carphone Patch.

12-second audio: http://www.insideview.ie/files/mb100.mp3

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The Android OLPC

I SAW MY FIRST OLPC a few years ago during Reboot and have to say I like the form factor and cost in the vision of the newest version. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project was scorned for being underpowered and costing double of its initial pricing goals. And the teachers who tried to use it in the field had other issues. Notably, it didn't have a method for non-Latin characters to be input. It was also made of plastic and had moving parts that would often break in rugged environments. All sorts of character sets are available on the prototyped new device because its keyboard will be virtual and be able to adapt to different languages. This is just like my small Android phone behaves. The new OLPC XO-3 is also specified to have a few features that appeal to me, starting with the camera. It appears the XO-3 has at least one, and maybe two, video cameras. The device comes with Wi-Fi antennas, multi-touch screens and enough power to play HD video. And unlike the iPad, the XO-3 can accept bog-standard plug-and-play (PNP) peripherals such as mice and keyboards. Sure, you can get the iPhone's Touch OS to accept the Apple-vetted keyboard docks and Bluetooth Keyboards, but not at the same price points as the after-market PNP commodity devices. However, all these features are just pre-spec. Lots can go wrong from the vision to the final product.

OLPC Boo

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Seth Weintrab -- "One Laptop Per Child is now a $75 Android tablet" in Fortune, 27 May 2010.

Marie Boran -- "OLPC Unveils XO3 Concept Tablet PC" in Silicon Republic, 23 December 2009.

Direct link to audio: http://www.insideview.ie/files/olpc_boo.mp3

Bonus Link: Other things I saw during Reboot 9.

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Brilliant Noise-Cancelling Operations

I OPERATED A CONCRETE SAW while talking on my SonyEricsson Xperia X10 phone and recorded some impressive audio results below. I got this phone from the manufacturer with the understanding that I would probably break it. I don't think they thought I'd run it with a concrete saw. Although the saw's 114 decibel roar dominates the audio recording (click the player below to hear), it's possible to discern what I was shouting as I used the saw to cut three inches off a piece of Tipperary limestone while helping complete stone facing on a wall. SonyEricsson builds noise-cancellation into their handsets and the result is well-engineered. I hadn't thought that the technology would work so well when using earbuds but why not? The noise-cancelling circuit tried to reduce the exceptionally loud ambient sound of cutting rock by using an active noise control (ANC) circuit. This involved using a microphone on the phone handset to generate an "antinoise" signal. When the antinoise signal is produced by the speaker driver in the headphone, destructive interference cancels out the ambient noise as heard within the enclosed volume of the headphone. I didn't help the process by keeping the phone in my back pocket while using the earbud within two feet of the concrete saw's motor. While listening to Adam Curry on the handset, noise cancellation gave me a decent audio level without having to raise the volume of Curry's Daily Source Code. After more than 12 hours of cutting, grinding and working with bog-standard SonyEricsson earbuds, I'm ready to move back to my Bluetooth earbuds since they block more environmental noise by fitting deeper into my ear.

Consaw through Earbuds

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Listen on Audioboo:

Direct link to audio: http://www.insideview.ie/files/consaw.mp3

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Dell M2400 After Hard Initiation

I'VE AT LEAST 30 full work days at the keyboard of the most-capable laptop I've ever used: a Dell Precision M2400 workhorse. It's lighter and yet more powerful than anything I've carried on my shoulder--a big help to getting more things done. However, there are a few niggling bits about the M2400 and more specifically with Windows 7 Professional. Although the operating system is a big improvement on Vista, it has caused me some headaches when managing various log-on identities. I have three different log-ons with the M2400 and Windows 7 has granted me run privileges on some programs based on which log-on I use. Other programs aren't accessible from the program file and I had to set up desktop shortcuts to them. The biggest hassle is managing my iTunes library because I can sync my iPod only to my personal log-on. When I synced MP3 files to my office log-on, I had to wipe my iPod of its libraries. As I explain in the audio clip, several important programs still remain on my DVD archive, awaiting some clear space in my schedule when I'll be able to know that everything on the M2400 runs as good as my faithful Dell D620 worked for the previous two years.

M2400

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Hot Tip: Cash in a Dell Vouchers and cut your cost of upgrading.

Direct link to MP3: http://www.insideview.ie/files/m2400-1.mp3

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Sony NWZ-A845 Portable Video

THIS HAS TO BE the most brilliant Walkman ever offered by Sony. It's the NWZ-A845 and its high-quality build and 2.8 inch WQVGA OLED screen makes the iPod look cheap. This is also the thinnest Walkman ever created (7.2mm). And it also has TV-out function which means it gives a new life to old television sets and it means we can rip. drag and drop and then share movies with friend in 720×480 (SD) quality. Video clips autoconvert when put on the device. I like the extra touch Sony gives to customers (premium MDR-EX300SL earphones) because I'm always tearing up my earbuds. Other premium features include DSEE, Clear Stereo, Clear bass, and lyric display.

An X10 Flagship Experience

FIVE DAYS OF USING the SonyEricsson X10 have transmogrified my index finger into a stylus. As much as this disrupted my old school relationship with small computers, the X10 has given me ideas about touching and swiping my way through a more productive work day. After I checked with Xperia X10 reviews, I discovered I could change my keyboard to "Android" and get fatter keys with no predictive text, I was happy using both hands to type slowly. Although I really miss the tactile feel and speedy function of a real keyboard, the X10 can run applications simultaneously and those apps provide me slices of information streams that I really should monitor. It pushes updates from my email, twitter stream, Facebook newsfeeds, and Picasa. When combined with direct SMS messages, phone calls and occasional short multimedia clips via MMS, the X10 can be can be a source of information overload. So I established another Twitter identity pruned the number of my Facebook friends. After five work days, I now have a mobile device that effectively leverages SonyEricsson's on-board Timescape in a visually appealing and time-efficient manner. Timescape alone makes the X10 worthy of consideration as a work phone. But then there's the Android marketplace with free applications that worked their way onto my X10 after the first day.

Sixty Minutes with X10

FIRST IMPRESSIONS FADE AWAY easily so I wanted to scratch out a few comments about the SonyEricsson X10 after using the phone for a little more than an hour. I inserted my O2 SIM and followed the instructions on the screen, typing a few user names and passwords into the phone's Android operating system through a touchscreen. Within 10 minutes, the phone knew me, the fat-fingered far-sighted bloke. The X10 was displaying updates from Facebook and Twitter on its home screen (see left) and by tapping the rectangles associated with the updates, I could get more information or leave comments. I had fully functioning Picasa and Gmail services within 15 minutes of powering up the phone. I loaded Qik, shot a few videos and then spent the rest of the hour loading up free applications. I'm using AudioBoo, Google Goggles, TripIt, Evernote, Foursquare, Google Reader for mobile and Google Latitude. I spent more time tapping around the applications than using the home-grown SonyEricsson home screen applications but I'm very impressed with the video playback quality and the 8MP image quality. I accidentally bought two pop tracks from the O2 store before I realised the things were billed to my monthly contract. I've decades of high bitrate MP3s that I plan to load onto the phone, either by drag and drop or through the SonyEricsson Media management software. But that's for another hour. One passing comment from Barry, the astute iPhone owner: "Nice phone." I'll have an educated opinion after a week's use.

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My First X10 Qik

YOU CAN TELL I'M a novice with the SonyEricsson X10 because my finger features in the first Qik clip I made. I installed the Android application for Qik onto the phone then put the application onto the phone's home page because I like to have streaming video quickly available. When compared to the Symbian application, the Qik Android application appears to be non-streaming. It looks like the entire clip has to upload before it appears on the Qik timeline. A long Qik clip caught in a an upload dead zone will congest all other Qik clips. Older clips have to upload before newer ones appear online. I can't control the data connection either--I'm stuck with my mobile operator. Nonetheless, it was a snappy operation. I'm playing around with a non-SIM operation during the next few days and also using the X10's eight megapixel camera to see if I can get details down in the dirt.

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More of my X10 Qik clips. I am Topgold on Qik.

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Sighting: PadPhelan

I DISCOVERED PAT PHELAN gushing about reading newspapers (see right) in my Google Reader today:

I think the difficult issue here is going to be where to place the device, for me this is a coffee table book, it will stay in your home, its a companion for browsing, its multimedia, its a TV remote control, hell in six weeks I am positive it will draw your curtains. Don’t leave home with it.

If version 2 of the iPad has free 3G access, I might be a customer. In the meantime, I'm keeping my eyes peeled for ICD's Tegra-2 powered Gemini tablet. It's far more customisable but costs about the same as an iPad. And it does more: it's capable of 1080p video, has a replaceable 40Wh battery, an SD card reader, FM radio, GPS, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MicroUSB connectivity to PCs and USB peripherals, stereo speakers, and dual webcams (a 2 megapixel front-facing unit and a 5 megapixel auto focusing snapper on the back). It's multi-touch, runs 3G connections, offers 1,366 x 768 resolution and is Flash compatible.

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Pat Phelan -- "48 hours with the iPad", 9 April 2010.

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If I Had a Fiver

IF I HAD A FIVER, it would probably be a BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo because that's the car I'd use to cross the States from coast-to-coast without breaking stride. I reckon the household budget is a decade away from being able to afford the payments and maintenance of a Gran Turismo but that doesn't stop me from wondering what the local BMW dealer is offering people who stop by to look at his lot. So I shot a little Qik clip.

If I had a Fiver

Disclosure: Nobody pays me to write these things but it helps to have good service behind a dependable marquee.