From The Front End - ZDNet Edition
My ZDNet version of my blog. Will feature news my mad opinions and relevant posts or partial quotes from my blog - http://www.fromthefrontend.co.uk
Topics: Wed Standards, Tools and Services for Designers, Photography and graphics, Accessibility and other Front-End Webdesign related info.
Monday 21 May 2007, 4:05 PM
Holiday Gadgets
Every year I seem to have more or newer and cooler gadgets to take with me on holiday. This weekend was no exception. Although only going away for the 2-3 days managed to put a number of cool tools through their paces.
On the outbound journey it was a mad dash to the catch the flight so I can't comment on the comfort/wifi of Heathrow terminal 1 as it went past in a blur.
In flight:
I was travelling with LOT who fortunately allow you to use electronic gadgets during the flight. I pulled out my laptop and watched a movie with my wife. This is where the Dell m1210's dual headphone sockets really come in handy. Each of us could have our own headphones and not disturb (or be disturbed by) other passengers.
While in Poland I picked up Creative's noise limiting headphones (EP – 630). They work by completely sealing the ear creating a vacuum. As soon as you put them in surrounding noise seems muffled – I can only compare it to being underwater. Then when you play music you hear nothing but the song. This has many benefits – You can drown out outside noise without cranking up the volume and deafening yourself. Playing at a reduced volume also means you also can save battery life and everyone else doesn't have to listen-in to you blaring out the latest Arctic Monkey's album. They also have superb bass. It is rare to find headphones or even speakers that can handle the bass on Ashanti's 'Only You' without distorting. I cranked up that song as loud as I could bear and the bass remained smooth and deep.
This is also testament to the sound quality of the Sony Network Walkman. Despite it's many flaws sound quality is fantastic – as is battery life – I used it most of the holiday and battery is still full.
For the inevitable shopping trips it was impractical to lug around the laptop – although pitched as an ultra compact it does weigh over 2kg and when you include the bag and extras it's quite a millstone to have around your neck. This is where the PSP came in handy. Not only extremely portable but designed to be stop/start friendly. One minute I can be running along a wall over a pit of spikes and net second I can be giving my opinion on a pair of shoes the wife is modelling (not that my opinion will sway the decision in anyway).
While on this trip we were checking out wedding dresses on behalf of my sister for her fast approaching wedding day. Before I knew it my wife is wearing it! As I didn't have the laptop with me I couldn't make use of the built-in swivel cam. However, I did have my old faithful XDA Exec phone/PDA with me. I took a few 2MP photos and a short video clip to send to my sister. In hindsight I should have video called her as she now has the Nokia N95 which supports 3G features like my XDA. In this case I stored the images and video on the 2GB SD memory card on the XDA and later plugged this in to the built-in memory slot on my laptop.
This brings me on to wifi. A great feature of the m1210 is the wifi catcher. Even while the laptop is off you can pull on the wifi catcher slider and it search for a wifi signal and indicate if there is any in range. This was really handy when trying to find a spot to get online as I didn't have to pull it out, start it up and then put it back to sleep/shutdown just to check coverage.
These are the services I found in Warsaw.
Era blue connect. Era is one of the main mobile phone networks in Poland and they offer wifi hotspots in most of the major hotels and restaurants. They have teamed up with T-Mobile so if you have a hotspot account with them you can use Era hotspots. They also allow signup over their free to access wifi page. Paying by credit card works out to roughly £2/hour. A bit steep for my liking but if you just need to logon for a short time it's not too bad. For more extended periods there are better value subscription packages.
Orange. Orange hotspots can of course be used by Orange hotspot subscribers from other countries. They also offer a prepay service which you charge up by SMS/text message. Unfortunately, the SMS service does not work with roaming phones – you have to have a polish mobile. They offered no way to pay by credit card so this was not an option for me. I only noticed these hotspots at the airport so I don't know how practical they would be to subscribe to for use within the city.
Plus. Plus is another major mobile network in Poland. This is the wifi service I actually signed up for. It worked out to 15PLN (less than £3) for 900mins. I connected at the Warsaw airport (Chopin terminal). The signal was fairly strong and the coverage great. In fact where I sat I was in between 2 Plus hotspots so could pick up either signals. You can pay by credit/debit card, SMS top-up or a subscription. They didn't seem to have partnered with any UK/international networks. Connection speed with 3 bars signal was equivalent to about a 2mb connection ( I got download speeds of about 80-90kb/s).
On the flight back I took advantage of the m1210's 256mb Nvidia 7400 Go graphics card and played some games. There is something strangely liberating about playing Halo with an xbox360 controller at 10,000ft. I must be turning into a Microsoft fan-boy as I really loved having Microsoft's Vista, xbox360 controller, and now the notebook presenter mouse 8000. Yes it finally arrived when I got back - full review to follow.
Not long into the game the in-flight food arrived. After a few glasses of South American wine I was more chilled out and ready to do some work. I wanted to see if I could actually do some webdesign work while on the go. I was concerned about buying the laptop I chose as it has just a 12.1inch screen. However, with a resolution of 1280x800 I found that I could readily work without too much difficulty. I tried to estimate how much time it would take me normally to put a page together to compare my progress and although it took me a but longer than usual on the laptop this was mainly due to the lack of a mouse rather than system performance or smaller screen. In fact the 2.13ghz Core2Duo processor and 2GB DDR Ram in this system make it more powerful than the system I use at work. Now I have a shiny new Bluetooth mouse I expect times to be very similar. With a 5hour battery life for coding or 3-4hrs if editing photos or video it makes the prospect of working on the move or even in the park a reality. The only thing I miss is dual monitors. While in the office my desktop or laptop both support dual monitors which reduces the amount of alt-tabing I have to do.
Monday 21 May 2007, 11:26 AM
To Dongle, or not To Dongle? Wireless mice for laptops
I recently got a laptop and have fallen completely in love with it. The power of my PC on the move. That said most laptop users will agree however ingeniously the manufacturer has incorporated the mousepad/nub on the laptop it is never as confortable or accurate as a proper mouse.
That being the case the 2nd most popular accessory for laptop owners to buy (after the laptop case) is a mouse.The whole joy of a portable device is being free to move around so wifi is now a must and this extends to the mice - cables are out. There are hundreds of wireless mice to choose from but how to decide. For reliability and performance the top brands have to be Logitech, Apple and Microsoft (probably in that order). This cuts down the list of offerings somewhat but even with just 3 brands to consider there are still many variations to consider.
To Dongle or not to dongleIf your laptop doesn't have bluetooth than this is a no brainer - your are going to need a rf/bluetooth dongle to link up with your mouse. In my case my Dell XPS m1210 has built-in bluetooth and so I have a choice. I can go for a bluetooth mouse and connect to the built-in bluetooth feature on my laptop (even if it comes with a dongle) or go for a mouse with a rf/proprietary transmitter dongle.
Pros of no dongle
a) Battery life - the built-in bluetooth adapter is designed to work with your laptop and is optimised for efficient use of power. A usb dongle will require the laptop to power the usb port and will always be less efficient than a built-in option
b) Dongles sticks out. This means you probably can't keep it plugged in when in the case and increases chances of it getting knocked potentially damaging it or your usb port.
c) Can't lose the dongle. It is easier than you think to lose the thumb size dongles. They can fall out of the bag or get knocked out by passers by
d) Range. RF signals generally give you a range of 2 meters. Adaquate for most purposes but when you use your laptop with a big screen like I do at home having a 10-30m range really helps as I can sit on my sofa watch the big screen and my laptop quietly hums on my desk.
e) Price. You can save money by buying bluetooth mice without a dongle. Logitech and Microsoft both make these. However, this is not a real bonus as bluetooth mice are generally more expensive than RF versions anyway.
Cons
a) Bluetooth was designed to be versatile, a "jack of all trades" - from file transfer, wireless headphones, wireless mice etc. Most will agree it is a "master of none". Using my Logitech mx5000 bluetooth keyboard and mouse at home I am repeatedly frustrated as it lags behind keystrokes, loses connection or just gets sluggish. It doesn't happen all the time - in fact mostly it runs beautifully, but when it does happen in the middle of a game or while drawing a lasso shape in photoshop it can be aggravating. Logitech's solution is to use bluetooth technology to keep the benefits or added range but to not comply to the Bluetooth 1.1 or 2.0 standard. This means the signal is optimised for the mouse and you get better performance, however, it will not work with my built-in bluetooth so I still need a dongle.
b) with a dongle you can hook your fancy mouse up to any computer not just your bluetooth enabled laptop. This is handy if you are going to an area with no wifi and you are forced to use an internet cafe with horrible mouseball mice that just make you want to scream. Or if you want to use it for both desktop and laptop. As most bluetooth mice ship with a dongle too you can probably do this anyway
If you decide to go the dongle route the ultimate laptop mouse would be the Logitech vx Revolution. It's fast, reliable, has great range, lots of handy extra buttons and scrolling for quick navigation. If you want to avoid the dongle or want more features the Microsoft Wireless Bluetooth Notebook Presenter Laser Mouse 8000 is fantastic. It combines mouse and presenter features and it conforms to bluetooth standards so does not require a dongle (although it comes with one).
I opted for the Microsoft mouse in the end and got it for only £39 (from ebuyer - includes £10 discount for using google checkout). It still hasn't arrived so I can't tell you what performance is like but the features are truly impressive. As a mouse it has the usual buttons left, right button, a 4way scroll wheel which also acts as the middle button. It has two additional buttons on the sides (likely for back and forward navigation) an additional 2 buttons on the top which I guess one triggers flip 3D in windows vista. Nothing too special so far but then you pick it up and it becomes a remote control - it can be used to flip through presentations, control music/movies etc. As it is done by bluetooth direct line of sight is not needed and with 2.4Ghz technology it has a range of over 30ft. It doesn't stop there, there is a laser pointer built-in so if you are hooked up to a projector in a meeting you can point with your mouse. The laser pointer is a great touch as I hate getting up in meetings and trying to point at something on the wall and then casting a shadow so it's hard to see what I'm pointing at anyway.
I'll try and add a list of links to the top 10 wireless mice here once I get to the airport (flying to Poland in a few hours). I'll try and use atlarge.com to find me some wifi.
