The Syncing Apple

I got one of these handles for my PSP. It makes it much easier to hold- it was killing my thumb to have it wedged in my hand like it does for hours. Why hours? Cause the cooled game I’ve played in years has been keeping me playing the thing: Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition. [PSP 411 review] Despite its bizarre name (I never played the earlier versions) this is by far and away the coolest driving game (and game period) for the PSP by far. Despite it’s nefarious, painfully long load times the game is just amazing. It’s one of the only games that I haven’t lost interest in after a few hours. Oh, and Coded Arms is the worst. I played it for all of about 5 minuets before I gave up. The controls are insane. Dead to Rights is ok, but a bit boring after a while.

The PSP firmware update did nothing for me. So it has a browser- which is abysmally slow. Why do I need it? I don’t. I never use the PSP ‘cept for games. Maybe it will decrease loading time for Midnight Club… Still waiting for GTA, but who isn’t?

This great review of the new TomTom 5 for the Treo 650 at EverythingTreo reminded me how nice version 5 is. Despite the fact that I can’t load any voices on the Treo (support from the Belgians is not so hot), the interface in 5 is mostly the same as 4, is a bit cleaned up. It supports the Treo 650 now (even with BT GPS receivers) and there is a Macintosh Installer! That saved me lots of time. They have a compass rose now on the display, which was sorely missing from version 4. Their route interface is much more sophisticated and more functional- they really pack a lot of options and power into this software. The review goes over all the goodies, this is one of the coolest things to have on your Treo 650 if you drive. I haven’t had to use Google directions since I’ve had this.

So while TomTom is cool for driving around and getting where I want to go, what about a real GPS? To really play with things like Google maps (by getting your own lat/long), for hiking and boating using TomTom on a Treo does little– if anything at all. So I got a Garmin Etrex Vista, which seemed like a nice balance of size, battery life (it’s not color) and function. So far I’ve been very happy with it. I used it to plot the boundaries of the local neighborhood, then plot the addresses of all the current members using the new Google Maps API. I’ve also used it on my jetski, and it’s been invaluable with the addition of the Garmin Blue Charts- the navigational charts that you can buy (rip off alert– plan to spend over $100 per chart– and you get less than you think- each chart is just an _area_ of the US for $100) and download onto the GPS. It is nice to have them however, when you are zipping along the water on a jetski or better yet something that can actually get stuck, like say a sailboat.

I decided to try out a VOIP service at house, to take some of the load off my cell phone. I’ve been using my cell phone as my primary phone (business and pleasure, but I still maintain a land land for the wife) for a few years, and it’s expensive (and not getting any cheaper) and the coverage in the house just never cuts it. So VOIP seemed compelling. First I tried out a PhoneGnome, which uses your existing land line as well as providing limited SIP based calling. Wanting more I signed up with Broadvoice and got the Starcom F1000 [Specs] Voip Wifi phone. Small and cute (bonuses) but the sound was a little problematic. The mic seems a tad to sensitive and will pick up sounds from the earpiece and re-send, giving the dreaded echo (or boy in a box) sound to conversations. I’ve also played around with the Sipura S3000 with Broadvoice. BV is nice, has a cool web interface and is reasonable responsive to calls and email requests for support. I had some initial issues with the Starcom and they were able to re-provision it OTA (over the air) to the latest firmware for me. So far I’m enjoying it and the plan - $24 a month for unlimited USA and Canada calling.

The F1000 does a cool job of finding 802.11b wifi spots and registering back onto the net. I’ve used it at a few places around the city and have been almost always able to find an open hotspot. Funny how they are all named linksys. I wonder how long till I can justify replacing my cell phone with one of these.