the mobile nerd blog

mmm fast wireless

2007-09-25T18:39:00.000+10:00

Managed to hang onto a couple of the cards that were launched today. Have just been doing some speed-testing, and they're not too bad:

Considering the card is 7.2mbps / 1.9mbps, and we're quoting a theoretical peak on the network of 6.0mbps / 550kbps - 1.0mbps , that's not too bad. As for the 7.2mbps - that's the maximum the hardware can do.

For fun, I logged into an FTP server that sits on our network that is great for testing absolute throughput (without any internet hindrances), but useless for realworld speedtesting. I managed to peak at 6.1 mbps down (with avg of about 5.5 mbps) and hit a peak of 1.4 mbps upload (with an avg of just over 1 mbps). Sweet.

bricked blackberry

2007-09-03T11:29:00.000+10:00

After using Windows Mobile 6, and hacking and overclocking my Samsung Blackjack... I still always end up coming back to the Blackberry Pearl. The device is just immaculate. The only flaw I find in it is that it doesn't work on the Next G network... which is a minimal flaw when all I really use it for is emails and some browsing.

The Pearl is so much smaller, quicker, easier to use. In my mind, Research In Motion have set the standard for smartphones with the Pearl.

So having been away from the Pearl for more than a month, it was inevitable that some new handheld software would be out somewhere. T-Mobile happened to have released their latest version only a week ago - so that needed to be installed.

Now I've done many of these software updates on my various Blackberry devices before. And they are firmware upgrades, so there's always a risk. But I've never once run into a problem. That was, until this morning. I still don't know what went wrong, but about halfway through, it asked for the device password, wouldn't let me enter it in... and that was it - the update software one the computer froze up. And from there, the device just flashes its little red light and never powers up.

Hello Blackberry-Pearl-shaped paperweight.

That was rather disappointing. But now I feel like a real nerd... cos I've bricked a device. Yeah.

The Blackjack Hack

2007-08-29T16:14:00.001+10:00

I've had enormous fun this afternoon learning about the ins and outs of Samsung's Blackjack phone... and more importantly, what I can change inside its software to do cool things.

The best bit (and most complex) by far has been overclocking. That's right, overclocking a PDA :) The device runs at 180mHz, but it runs quite happily, from all accounts I've read, at 240mHz. I had to run a little utility to completely unlock the device (it seems it was locked down from running applications like this)... but once that was done, it was simply a matter of running this little overclocking app, picking my clock speed, registering it, then doing a soft-reset. People have said that it makes a massive difference - so much so, they couldn't go back to the original speed. My experience was nothing instantaneous... but I guess menus and such are a bit quicker. It might be clearer over the next couple of days.

Then there's a bunch of little things - like shrinking the IE font to fit more on the screen, doing a memory defrag in realtime (!!), increasing come cache sizes... all these things are just registry changes in the phone. Pretty simple when you think about it. Sorta dangerous... but still awesome.

The next challenge will be to see how far I can overclock this. I've read about a couple getting close to the 300mHz mark. I guess I'll know to stop when it starts smoking...

update: lesson #1 when overclocking a PDA... Don't leave said overclocked PDA in your pocket. If it wasn't going to overheat by just overclocking it alone, it sure as hell will overheat when you don't let it breath :)

Microsoft Communicator

2007-08-14T13:07:00.000+10:00

Microsoft created their Communicator product to look and feel very much like the successful MSN Messenger. Communicator though, is designed to be an in-company IM program that hooks in beautifully with your Exchange Server, and with a VoIP phone too!

But here's where it gets sweet.

Microsoft made a Communicator client for Windows Mobile devices. The guy in my company who's in charge of Corporate Messaging applications has been tinkering with the Communicator 2007 server, and so has made available the 2007 client for Windows Mobile devices.

In essence, I can now have/continue instant messaging conversations with anyone in my company when I leave the office. The mobile client works very well and simply, although it does lag a fraction. The server is quite happy to have both clients online at once (both your PC and mobile device), and when a new conversation is started by someone else to you, it sends out a notification to both devices, and whichever device accepts the notification, future messages from that conversation go there. What's cool is that if another buddy starts a conversation, and you accept it on the other device, that coversation will be continued there - so it is happy to handle two seperate conversations on two seperate devices from the one account.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

feeling right at home

2007-08-06T10:53:00.001+10:00

A blog especially for all my ramblings and excitedness about the world of mobile data... Ahhh I feel right at home.

Enjoy.

Windows Mobile 6

2007-08-04T13:50:00.000+10:00

There's been a fair bit of talk about Windows Mobile 6. Possibly, however, just because it's something "new" and it is one number up on Windows Mobile 5 (which has been around for a few years now).

This afternoon I was quite excited when I managed to get my hands on the ROM update (firmware) for Windows Mobile 6 for the Palm Treo 750 - one of Telstra's Next G PDAs. I've used several different Windows Mobile 5 devices, and so was looking forward to seeing the differences that WM6 brought to the Treo. The ROM was only a pre-release (as it's not due in Australia for several months yet) and so I was told there'll likely be some differences to the final copy.

The upgrade was semi complex - I was hoping for a self install program that I just ran on the PC with the device connected. But no such luck. Instead, I had to place the 85MB ROM onto a miniSD card, put that in the device, hold down a combination of buttons to reset it to boot from the SD card. Kinda cool actually. It updated itself without fail (thank goodness... I wouldn't have looked forward to walking into work with a $1200 brick on Monday morning).

I anticipated some sweet changes as it started up, now running WM6......... but was bitterly disappointed. From my point of view and having spent about 10-15 mins playing around with it, it just seems to be the same as WM5, but with a bit of a colour change, a minor face lift... and that's about it. I'm guessing there's a whole lot of background changes, because the general usage feels slightly quicker. But it's definitely something that could've passed as a service pack or something... not a brand new version of software.

So all in all, quite an anti-climax!

update #1: Just read Wiki and noted that WM6 supports HTML email. That is actually awesome. Keen to see that in action next week once I get back to work.

update #2: Unfortunately, the over-cautious IT people at Telstra have blocked the ability to receive HTML email. That sucks.

Next G Nokia

2007-07-27T13:07:00.000+10:00

This has quite possibly been the most anticipated phone - Nokia have finally arrived on the scene with a Next G handset :D And even better, one arrived on my desk this morning.

It's a S60 phone... so it has that "active desktop" type feel to the main screen (with shortcuts across the top). I guess that's a tried and tested OS, and it's one that I don't mind. the S60 platform opened up the Nokia quite a bit, and there's plenty of third-party apps out there for S60 phones.

It's look and feel is quite awesome. It's very narrow, and has a huge screen. The feel of it in your hand is great, and it's not too heavy.

It's one of the first Nokia's I've seen to come with a data cable in the box (Nokia a notorious for never including data cables in the box - despite every other handset manufacturer including them for the past several years at least). It is enabled for 3.6 Mbps HSDPA data as well. So that combined with the data cable in the box means it will work rather sweetly as a tethered modem - something I will be testing out this arvo :)

An exciting Friday!

edit: thanks to some Googling and know-how, I have managed to set my work email up on this little beauty via Dataviz. :D