Author: Mark

I recently had a chance to play with a Sony Mylo. Actually I hadn’t even heard of it before, but I was pretty impressed. It is a small handheld device about the size of a mobile phone that can be used for email, instant messaging, and Skype VoIP. It also lets you play music and video.

The bottom half of the Mylo slides down to give you access to a small but adequate keyboard. It is bigger than the keyboard on a Blackberry or Treo, b

ut it uses embedded keys which don’t feel quite as natural as the Blackberry.

Continue reading Sony Mylo

There have been quite a few ebook readers on the market, but none of them have really taken off. The Sony PRS-500 is the first one I’ve seen that really looks like it has potential.

The biggest difference between this eBook reader and others that have been on the market is the “electronic paper”. Sony has created a device that doesn’t use power to display text on the screen. It only uses power when it changes the text. The screen “remembers” what was written on it. Continue reading Sony PRS-500 Portable Reader System

I’ve been using my Blackberry in Mexico for a few months now and I’ve learned a few things about getting mobile email outside the United States.  I wanted to write a bit about things I’ve learned in hopes that others will find it useful.

If you are looking at an international email plan, you will probably want to go with a Blackberry instead of some of the other types of smartphones.  Other smartphones will allow you to work internationally, but I haven’t seen a plan that gives you unlimited usage.  Instead they charge you by the KB which works out to about $15 to $20 per MB downloaded.  If you are busy with email, it doesn’t take long to get 20 or even 50 MB of data transfered.  At $20 per MB you’ll pay over $1000 for 50 MB.  That is a pretty steep charge for a month of usage.

Continue reading Using a Blackberry Internationally

I am writing this article from the center of Mexico.  As I write, my wife is talking on the phone with a friend in Nebraska.  This week, I’ve received several calls reminding me to vote and the Kansas State Unemployment office called me to tell me that one of my businesses was overpaying on unemployment tax.

All of this wouldn’t be possible without the internet. Where I’m at in Durango Mexico I was able to get a low speed cable modem connection for about $31USD per month.  The connection is only 512k, but it works great for all of our communication.  We use Vonage for our phone.  They provided us with a small device that plugs into our router and our standard cordless phone plugs into the phone jack on it.  Our number is the same as what we had in the US, so many people who call us don’t even know we are in Mexico.

Continue reading Voice over IP in Mexico

iPods are very popular devices, but many people have problems getting them to play in their vehicles. This article looks at the six different ways you can play an iPod in your car.

Continue reading Six ways to Play an iPod in Your Car

If you use iTunes on multiple computers, you’ve probably run into the problem of having several copies of the same song in different places and no good way to get one consolidated library of all your songs. The method described here doesn’t merge the iTunes xml file, but it will merge all of your song files to make sure you have one copy of each song. Once you have this consolidated directory, you’ll have to re-import all of your music into iTunes.
Continue reading Merge iTunes Libraries

Previously I reviews the Blackberry 7100t. While I was generally happy with the device, I found that I was avoiding typing because of the strange keyboard (multiple letters on each key).  I started looking for a better solution and started looking at the Blackberry 8700 series.  While these looked like great phones, they were very expensive–generally about $300 even when signing up for a 2 year plan.After a brief search on ebay I found a 7230 for under $80.  It doesn’t have some of the additional features of the 8700, but I figured it would give me a good chance to try out the keyboard and see how I like the form factor.  If I decide I don’t like it, I’m not out much money and I can always turn around and sell it again on eBay.

Another reason I went with the cheaper phone is because neither the 8700 nor the 7200 phones work with OS X as a modem.  However, the newest Blackberry Pearl 8100 does work with OS X. I don’t want a Pearl because it has a similiar key layout to the 7100t, but I’m hoping that the next phone released with a full keyboard will have the OS X compatibility.

Continue reading Blackberry 7230 First Impressions

I don’t usually spend much time playing video games.  I guess I just don’t have the attention span for it.  I do enjoy a good game of StarCraft once or twice a year, but thats about it.  However, a few months ago a ran across a game called Darwinia.  It is mostly a strategy game, but the 3d game play and unique graphics make it very engaging.

Continue reading Darwinia Game

I’ve seen a few articles this week suggesting that a larger monitor may be a better upgrade than a faster computer. I recently bought a 24 inch flat panel monitor from Dell to use with my G4 Powerbook and I’ve been impressed with how much easier it makes things.

You don’t really realize how many windows you have open at a time until you have the extra space to display them. I’m finding that having the large monitor lets me spread things out and it is much easier to jump back and forth between a web browser and terminal window because I can just change where my eyes are looking instead of selecting a different window.

Continue reading Tips for choosing a Large Monitor