Joi to the world

If you follow my Twitter feed you may have heard me mention a little application that I downloaded for my Nokia E63 called Joikuspot. It's a very clever little program that uses the phone's 3G connection and wi-fi to create a little personal hotspot for you to use to get internet access.

I'm pleased to report that it works incredibly well, particularly bearing in mind that it's free. There is a "premium" version but I'm quite happy to look at a landing page in my browser when first logging on in exchange for not having to pay!

As you might expect with plain old 3G, you're not going to set the internet alight with amazing download speeds (I'm getting about 256kbps) but when you're without a web connection, then it's a very neat option. It's essentially doing what the Three Mi-Fi does, but at very little cost. My phone network (Virgin) gives you 24 hours of unlimited browsing for just 30p, so for the few times I need to jump on the web away from home its perfect.

In fact, my Eee PC is connected via Joikuspot as I sit here and type this in a local (wifi-less) coffee shop. There's not many times that my budget Nokia phone option gets one over on my iPhone using friends, but this is one such occasion.

Decision made

After much faffing (i.e endless hours of internet research and many visits to shops) I've finally decided on my new mobile phone. And the winner is?

This one! (I'm going to make you click this link in a vain effort to create some suspense, rather than just telling you outright).

I've gone with the tried-and-tested Nokia/Symbian S60 platform, combined with the convenience of a QWERTY keyboard, which for an old man like me makes texting, emailing and web browsing considerably easier. Wifi too, which is nice.

I've previously gone on at some length about why I haven't got an iPhone, so don't start asking me about it okay? I know your phone is better than mine.

No half measures

As you may be aware, I've done a lot of tinkering with various distributions of Linux on my Eee 901 netbook over the past few months (mainly due to the evangelism of my mate Rich). I've tried Mandriva, Eeebuntu, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint and Fedora - all with varying degrees of success.

I've either been running these distros as live versions from a USB stick, or (if they work reasonably well) installing them to the Eee's SD card. This has had the benefit of leaving the default Windows XP installation untouched, allowing me to choose which OS to boot on startup. The downside has been that trying to run an OS from an SD card hasn't exactly provided the smoothest or quickest experience.

So, to that end, I decided the other day to go the whole hog and remove XP and install Ubuntu (my preferred flavour) onto the main solid-state drive of the Eee. I'm pleased to report that this was a very simple process - I just went with all the default options, rather than having to mess about with partitions and boot loaders and the like.

As I've previously reported, Ubuntu 9.04 works with all the Eee hardware - wifi, audio, bluetooth, webcam etc - out of the box so there were no issues with any of that.

Pleasingly, running Ubuntu as the main OS from the SSD has provided an exceptionally quick user interface. Power on to login screen takes just 19 seconds, and from logging in to fully running desktop with active wifi connection takes just another 15 seconds after that. Compared to the minute and a half that XP was taking to perform the same actions, that's quite an achievement. Of course, the real benefit of Linux ownership comes from the refreshingly bloat-free nature of the OS - no extraneous rubbish running in the background to slow everything down, no need for virus checkers, no "helper" applications annoying you in the system tray.

And of course, like Ubuntu itself, all the  installed software is free and open source - OpenOffice, Firefox, GIMP - and with a quick trip to the Skype homepage that's been painlessly installed too.

All in all, a very successful and simple transition.

I'm not even remotely tempted to go back to XP after seeing how nicely Ubuntu works on the Eee - it's an ideal OS for a netbook. I may start tinkering again when Moblin gets properly established though!

Fixing my Denon DCD-825 CD player

Although it's 14 years old, I've grown very attached to my Denon CD player and when it stopped playing discs I was most upset. The most probable cause was a defective laser/lens assembly, so I found out that it's actually a generic Sony unit - the KSS-240A - which is still widely available. A quick visit to eBay and £20 later, and I soon had a new unit waiting to be fitted. I wasn't really sure how to do it, or even if it would work, but I figured the best way to learn was to try it!

See my Flickr set here.

Need for speed

I'd just like to say thank you to Virgin Media for my free upgrade... it's not often you get a whole lot more of something for no extra money. This time yesterday I was running at just under 2Mb/s, so this is quite an improvement!

Essential upgrade - maybe

Word on the street (i.e. internet) says that there will be a new version of the iPod Touch arriving as early as September this year. And, if rumours are to be believed, it could come complete with everything from a built-in camera to a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

The things I would most like to see, and the things that are most likely to be included in the update, are a camera (hopefully the autofocus/macro model from the iPhone 3GS) and the GPS capabilities (also from the iPhone). These two things would make the Touch even more indespensable than it already is. The number of apps that would benefit from a camera are immense, and equally GPS for being properly "location aware" would be brilliant. Less likely, but also high on my personal wishlist, would be a built-in microphone. I'm guessing a processor speed bump and more RAM are a given, as is the version 3.0 OS.

However, if these things really were included the the third-gen Touch, wouldn't it be straying just a bit *too* far into iPhone territory? Already it's 75% iPhone, and these additions would push it to about 90%. The only thing missing would be the telephony features. I'm thinking that Apple would be wary of eating into its iPhone sales (and associated revenue from the stupidly long and stupidly expensive tarriffs).

Needless to say though, if they did manage to put a camera and GPS in the next model, mine would be straight on eBay and I'd preorder the day it was announced - providing it can come in at a sensible price. Let's hope that the money men at Apple see the sales opportunities for a better Touch and don't fret too much about their iPhone contracts...

And... thanks for nothing.

So the WWDC keynote has been and gone, and it was all a bit... well... meh.

The iPhone 3.0 OS looks like a good upgrade, but it wasn't exactly a surprise as it was announced months ago - and if I want it on my iPod Touch it'll cost me, whereas iPhone users get it for free. What's that all about?! But it's definitely worth the outlay as it will give me the ability to CUT, COPY, PASTE AND UNDO!!

As for Snow Leopard, again it looks like a worthwhile step forward. And the best bit? Only $29! That's a serious bargain. Oh, wait... what's this?! Intel only? Ah. Not for me, this brave new world. There will be no snow on my ageing G5 Leopard.

And so on to the much anticipated new iPhone hardware - the iPhone 3GS! Marvel at the camera that is THREE WHOLE MEGAPIXELS WHICH CAN RECORD FRICKIN' VIDEO! Gasp in wonder at the introduction of HSDPA! WHOA! What is this, 2007?!

Way to go Apple. Sometimes you disappoint me greatly. But I still love you. I think.