Anthony's FRESH PLASTIC

Quick snippets... OLPC coming to UK, Dell Minis exclusive to Voda

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:52:49 +0100

Amazon will soon be selling the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) in the EMEA territories - this should include the UK. The OLPC, from what I've seen of it (I'm probably one of the lucky few in the UK that have seen one in the flesh!) is a fantastic machine. The design and the thought that went behind it are ground-breaking and inspirational. Fortunately it's been designed for things such drops on the ground and should withstand a lot before breaking!

The deal, as with the one in the US, requires the customer to pay for two of the laptops and they receive one. Basically customers donate one to a child in a developing nation and get one for themselves. I'm often sceptical as to where charity money goes. However, this, in my opinion, is a great idea that if I had the money I'd be more than happy to dig deep!

If only the world had more people like Nicholas Negroponte and less like Andrew Bud. One can dream... Negroponte wants to help disadvantaged children, whereas Bud helps companies dis-advantage children.

Now to the Dell Mini (here as well) and Vodafone's exclusive deal with Dell for the UK. It looks nice, specs don't seem too bad (I've only had a quick skim though) and it has HSDPA built-in! 'Bout time we started seeing that. Hopefully having it built in won't become a problem down the line (diallers, premium SMS scams etc). Amongst other things, I wish my Eee had HSDPA in it. I think I'd like getting my super 3G/3.5G on without a huge dongle sticking out.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

BBC reports of 'dongle surge' aka Dongle Fever

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:44:17 +0100

The above title sounds a little like the headers on those spam emails purporting to be from CNN or MSNBC. But this time, this one's for real.

Latest from BBC News - Dongle Surge!

Dongles: where do you use yours?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Five's Gadget Show, a 3 dongle and an N95

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:40:34 +0100

Five

Numbers galore!

Last night's Gadget Show on Five featured 3's Mobile Broadband and an N95 amongst other gadgets in a Citizen Journalism Vs Old School Journalism (y'know, with professional kit) head-to-head.

The highlight for me was when one of the presenters decided to do a video traffic report on top of a motorway (freeway) bridge. Why? The presenter thought it would be a good idea to stream live footage over 3G. Fair enough, you might say. Well, he decided to use his laptop's built-in camera - he waved the bloody thing above his head! Drivers below would've seen what appeared to be someone getting ready to chuck a bloody great big thing towards them! Sadly, in the UK, plenty of idiotic teenagers - as well as some brain-dead adults - do just that... throw bloody great big things down on to traffic - for fun!

Mobile Broadband USB modem

Back to the tech - the consensus was that the 3's Mobile Broadband was good when reception was good but reception could be patchy and that wasn't so good. Great insight guys! Oh, and an N95 isn't as good as a prosumer HD camcorder and laptop for recording and editing videos.

Next week: Are bigger TVs easier to see further away? Are personal trainers, fitness coaches and a fully equipped gym ultimately better than Wii Fit? In the middle of the Atlantic is a satellite phone better than a cell phone?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

3, define your dongles!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:51:25 +0100

Got one of these...?

Keepin' it real: Old skool Eee PC

Running with this little (or not so little) guy...?

Tux the penguin

And want one of these to work...?

Mobile Broadband USB modem

Make sure you do your homework as not all dongles (as the mobile modems are often known as) are created equal. The one above won't work with my Eee PC unless I follow some steps found on a blog that are beyond my technical competence. Eee PC's and other similar cheap(ish) super small notebooks are increasingly coming with a choice of Linux rather than, or as well as, Windows. Unfortunately most peripherals are designed mainly, or sometimes solely, for Windows.

Eee's and 3G mobile broadband should be a match made in heaven. In theory, one perfectly compliments the other. The only sticking point is out-of-the-box compatibility. Some of these dongles do work with ease - you plug them in, go through a short wizard and wham, bam, thank you ma'am, you're in business. But other dongles don't play nice.

The trouble is not knowing which ones work and which ones don't when purchasing one. 3 UK's website doesn't differentiate between the different modems they provide. And, though I've yet to try, I doubt the staff in the High St mobile or PC stores would know either (actually I'd put money on no one knowing in my local PC World yet pretending they do!)

It makes you wonder how many of these get returned to the shops because the user with an Eee (remember those e's stand for easy this, that and the other) couldn't get them to work and has given up with frustration. I can also imagine some poor soul ringing up 333's tech support guys in Mumbai and being told to take the battery out! ;o)

I've given up trying to get my trial one working with my Eee PC 900. I'm taking the SIM out and using it in my phone instead, that can then be connected to the laptop. I'll be putting my phone's SIM in one of my trial Skypephones and see how well I fare using one of those as my main phone for the next few days.

To see how popular 3G internet is with Eee users one only needs to go to the EeeUser forums. There´s 90 threads with mention of 3 alone, hundreds about HSDPA and probably quite a few about Voda as well.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Spreading the 3G love via WiFi

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:11:12 +0100

UK mobile operator 3 are looking at spreading the HSDPA (3.5G) love all around your home with a special wireless router. I like this idea, I like this idea a lot. Right now I'm on 3's mobile broadband in an abode that doesn't have ADSL or cable. Only the laptop I'm typing this on can use the connection and that is a bit of a pain. I've tried setting up an ad-hoc network using the Windows' Vista networking wizard and despite connecting, there's no connection (ie the other devices see this laptop but can't use its connection).

A company called DOVADO advertise a mobile broadband router here and it even supports the E169G that 3mobilebuzz supplied me with. That's kinda handy as the E169G can't be used on my Eee PC without a lot of hoops to be jumped through (more than this blogger thinks he can manage!)

Google Earth, Eee PC, speed tweak and 3G connection... wow!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:51:35 +0000

I've speeded up my Eee PC (a fairly easy task thanks to the expert wisdom found on the EeeUser forum) and have since been hooked on Google Earth. My little laptop struggled with 3D buildings before - but now it copes pretty well. It struggles a bit with Manhattan but that's to be expected.

Last night I even managed to do a bit of flying over Spain using Google's "easter egg" and my Nokia's 3G connection. The amazing thing wasn't that it worked, but that it worked well - which is more than could be said for my flying skills.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

French carrier SFR gets it! Eee PC and 3G, match made in heaven!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:03:18 +0000

This is something that seemed a pretty obvious pairing - an ultraportable laptop and an attractive 3G data plan (and HSDPA modem) bundled together. SFR appears to be the first operator off the blocks to offer such a deal.

Click on one of these for more detail: EeeUser.com and Reg Hardware

Of course in the UK the likes of Carphone Warehouse are throwing in "free" laptops with some mobile broadband packages but these are full size laptops, bulky and awkward to carry. What's really needed is for the likes of Three to get onboard and offer Eee's for free or in special bundles. The first network could land an exclusive deal and could make themselves really stand out from the other four (yeah, I don't count Virgin Mobile as a network!)

If the posts on the biggest forum devoted to the Eee are anything to go by it would appear that there's huge demand for 3G connection and the network that crops up most often is... Three.

BTW, I'd love to try out that little HSDPA 'pebble' and really check out mobile internet at proper broadband speeds (my Nokia N73 really doesn't cut it!)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Tiny laptops tethered to phones: Some blogs missing the point?

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:50:22 +0000

There's been a fair bit of coverage about Celio's REDFLY device/concept in the last 24 hours, almost all of it negative.

I like the idea and I like the look of the device (if it is in fact more than just a concept). I carry around my smartphone everywhere and what it's capable of is amazing. But now it has a big brother, in the shape of the ASUS Eee PC and now it also gets carried around (whenever practical) as well. The two devices compliment each other and the Eee wouldn't even be half as practical if I didn't have my mobile to hook it up to the internet.

Sometimes all I need or want is my phone, but sometimes (like when I've got a lot to type, a lot to read or want to see the internet just as I can on a desktop) what I need is a laptop, a tiny laptop.

I don't seem to be alone judging by the amount of Eee users around the web who have theirs hooked up to their 3G phones (FWIW there are loads in the UK and most seem to be on Three)

What do others think? Comments please.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

WiFi vs 3G: On the road at 70mph

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 14:06:18 +0000

Practically all laptops these days have wireless LAN (aka WiFi) built-in as standard. It makes sense as an ever increasingly amount of households have WiFi at home and hotspots are popping as quickly as new Starbucks (which is, incidentally, where you'll see a lot of laptops using WiFi...)

WiFi is good when you're stationary but isn't so great when you're not. When out and about it can be a pain trying to find a hotspot you can use and then of course, there's often the rigmarole of connecting to a hotspot if you're fortunate enough to find one. That's where 3G comes to the rescue...

On the M1 motorway yesterday I was able to stay connected to the internet at 384kbps (in reality, actually a bit more like 350kbps) for over an hour without losing connection. I was able to use my laptop as if I were at home or in a hotspot. You just can't do this with WiFi.

I was using an Nokia N73 tethered to an Eee PC and using 3's 3G network. Faster speeds are probably possible with an HSDPA handset/modem - although I'm not sure of the coverage on that part of that motorway. With data plans getting cheaper and coverage increasing all the time, 3G/3.5G seems to make more sense than WiFi when out of the house.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend