Anthony's FRESH PLASTIC

The World's best £30 handset? I'd imagine so!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:16:47 +0100

As you can see above, the 3 Skypephone is now just a penny under £40. But wait, didn't my title say £30? Why yes, yes it did - according to ''ioscorpio' on the MSE forums (where I found out about this) the price instore includes a £10 top-up! And, according to 'd.o.o.g' this same deal is at Sainsburys too. This is cheaper than direct from 3!

Just a recap of what this phone is capable of:

Top-up by £10 and you get free Skype-to-Skype calls and messages
A rather good digital camera (check out my photo collection to see examples)
Easy-to-use music player with stereo bluetooth support
Video player. Watch TV and films if you know how to convert them
£5 p/m gets you "unlimited" internet - the built-in browser is quick but basic, use Opera Mini and you have full webpages
Many mobile Java apps work, so plenty of games and applications out there

I've got more bullet points than you can shake a stick at here but note that I'd only had the handsets a short while and that was a half finished post! (Most of 'em are to be honest!)

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Sister's in Hong Kong... Why didn't I Ioan her a Skypephone!?!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:01:15 +0100

My sister is currently in Hong Kong. She's been there a couple of days now on business. A little earlier it dawned on me that I could've loaned her a 3 Skypephone (or should that be a 3Skypephone? After all this time I still don't know!)

With one of those she would've avoided paying for calls to us in England altogether and we could've done the same. She'd still have had to pay to call her friends and colleagues but those would've cost the same as when in the UK using '3 Like Home'.

To be honest I'm not sure she'd have gone for it anyway. Why? Well, amongst other things, she's got an iPhone, a Blackberry, a DS Lite, a camera (had... it was stolen!) and a laptop!. She really wouldn't have wanted to add another item to the mix no matter how small!

Instead, she's settled for the good old 'three-rings-and-hang-up' trick instead when phoning home. This involves her ringing our parents house and, you guessed it... let it ring three times from the hotel phone and then hang up! Then whoever is home rings her back. Cheap landline international calling plan makes this possible. It's crude but it works. I still prefer the Skype method myself.

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3mobilebuzz branching out with a look at 3's mobile broadband offering...

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:39:23 +0100

Looks like a lot of activity today over at the ALL NEW 3mobilebuzz. It's not just the 3Skypephone any more. So, what are they now focusing on? Read the title!! Geez...

Yes, they're taking a look at 3's mobile broadband offering and handing out USB "3.5G" dongles left, right and center*! Where's my one chaps? Oh wait, I no longer have a laptop! D'oh! Having said that my nephew is going into hospital on Monday and he not only has a laptop, he's going to a hospital that has a very sensible policy regarding wireless devices (they allow them to be used!) So, what do you say guys? Want to cure a ten-year-old (and his uncle) of boredom? He's a blogger too!

Failing that we'll be using a Skypephone for tethered access at slightly less than 3.5G

*sorry, couldn't resist, there's more North Americans reading this blog than Brits at the moment!

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Free GPS activity app for Skypephone

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:20:59 +0100

Not the catchiest of titles, I know! But anyway...

There's now a free rival to Nokia's also free, Sports Tracker. It's Wayfinder's er, Wayfinder Active! It works on more phones than Sports Tracker which is the underlying reason for this here post. Yes, that's right, it work's on the 3 Skypephone!

As I'm posting this on an N800, I'm gonna keep it short and sweet. I'll post an indepth look (well slightly indepth!) when I get a chance on my PC. There's a couple of pics in the gallery, if you want to peruse them in the meantime.

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Coming up: On an Eee...

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:51:27 +0000

Plenty more screengrabs of my fav apps in action and with a brief description/overview including:

Another look at the drum machine program Hydrogen
Miro - a great way to get quality video on the go
Mixxx - beatmixing mp3s on a pair of virtual turntables
What PDFs look like using Rough Guide's PDF version of New York City Directions
GIMP image editor
Super Nintendo on an Eee using ZSNES. Super Mario All Stars on the go!
Super Monkey Ball a-like Neverball
Zattoo - a strange bunch of streaming TV channels

Oh, and I'm gonna try making a (very) short stop motion animation on my Eee using a Skypephone, Lego and the aptly named Stopmotion app. I've just got to find something that'll work as a tripod!

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Techie Xmas: Pleased present recipients!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 16:21:44 +0000

Lots of tech gifts were bought/chosen by me this year for friends and family and most were hits rather than misses. I myself am typing this on my favourite present, the Eee PC. It's been difficult to drag me away from it! I got mine a few weeks before the big day as originally it was a present for myself... ;o)

Biggest hits: Eee PC, Guitar Hero 3 (Wii), Skypephones, Homersapien and Roboquad.

My niece received an Eee PC and loves hers as much as I love mine. Hers has barely been out of her sight since Tuesday.

My eldest nephew can't get enough of Guitar Hero on the Wii. He has three siblings and they have one Wii between them so even UN peacekeepers would have their work cut out for them!

My two youngest nephews were rather pleased with their robots. My favourite is the Homersapien as unlike Roboquad, you can pick up stuff and throw it. Silly fun and a fraction of the retail price (don't you just love it when retailers have unadvertised clear outs that people spot and post about online!)

Then there's the Skypephones. We bought a pair for a young couple who are, for all intents and purposes, family. Wasn't sure what they'd make of them but it was clear they liked them the moment they unwrapped them! And they've actually been using them. Unfortunately the Skype service was a bit flaky Christmas Day. Couldn't set up a Skype account for one of them, but they managed it later that evening.

Word of advice, don't ever buy any big Lego or K'nex set if there's any chance that you'll be the muppet putting the thing together. Words can't describe the feelings I went through building the K'nex rollercoaster/ferris wheel. I did most of it with few problems but then came the rollercoaster bit - that's the bit that truly made me loopy (if you excuse the pun). Suffice to say the 'coaster is still sitting there unfinished days after I nearly completed it.

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Some people DON'T want to save money!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:55:46 +0000

No one I've spoken to about the Skypephone seems all that interested. This is true of people on a tight budget as well as those who currently use Skype. For instance, I spoke to friends of my parents the other night, a retired couple who've moved back to Ireland from the UK. They have family and friends in the UK and must be spending a small fortune on PAYG (prepaid). I explained about the 3 Skypephone and 3's 3-Like-Home service/policy (what's the word I'm looking for?) as well as Skype and in the end they said they were gonna change network but not to 3. They gave no reason for avoiding 3 and I wasn't going to press them. I don't think it had anything to do with the bad rep 3 has had in the past, I figure it was because for one reason or another they hadn't even heard of 3!

In the UK, 3 see seem to offer the best value for money on most things and for those that regularly travel between '3' countries it seems like a no-brainer to go with them. Throw Skype into the mix and you've got a network ideal for students, families and those who regularly call any country abroad. But people aren't switching to 3 in their droves, so why?

(Hopefully this is better aligned now - What a difference a browser can make!)

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Eee and the Skypephone. Phone doesn't like Linux?

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:51:12 +0000

Hooked up one of this year's most wanted computing devices (the Eee PC) to one of this year's most talked about phones (okay, after the iPhone and the N95!) - the Skypephone. Match made in heaven? Not quite...

I'm completely new to Linux and have the computing skills of a 90 year old. The laptop is meant to be easy to use. So, that should be a match made in heaven too. Again, not quite...

I wasn't expecting miracles as there is no Linux software supplied with the Skypephone, but after successfully connecting my Nokia in 'mass storage mode' to the Eee PC I wasn't expecting failure. Failure is what I got and with it a message about not having permission to access the device. The laptop I'm typing this on isn't concerned about permission and neither is the HDMI DVD player that allowed me to watch pictures taken with the phone on a HDTV.

It looks like I've got plenty to learn about the Eee PC in the weeks ahead!

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Covergence to the EXTREME!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:35:56 +0000

Hmm, going into Bill & Ted mode. Excellent!

Below is a short video clip I took with my N73. It shows the TV show 'Californication' as it was broadcast last night on Five (aka Channel 5). What's so great about that? Glad you asked! The laptop is connected via the 'net to a set-top-box about a mile away and it's connected to the 'net thanks to my Skypephone.

I can only imagine what the quality would be like with HSDPA (aka 3.5G) and the possibilites! Anyone fancy cable or satellite TV in the back of their car on a 17" screen? MTV, pimp my ride!

29112007063

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Wow! Really accurate location finding WITHOUT GPS...

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:23:17 +0000

I've just downloaded the latest Google Maps Mobile to both my Skypephone and my Nokia N73. What's new with the latest version? Well there's a great new service called My Location (beta). What's so great about it? If my first attempt is anything to go by, it's really accurate. It's so accurate that I'm not going to post a screen grab as it's pinpointed my location to just a few houses away from my parents' house (where I am right now).

I'm in a bit of a built-up area but nothing like the centre of a city - so I'm very surprised by the accuracy. For those that don't know, the program uses cell towers to figure out where you are, not GPS satellites. Heavily built-up areas have more cell towers and, as such, they can determine where you're likely to be with more accuracy.

I've done a really bad job of explaining it - so I recommend checking out the links above as Google have a video that does a far better job than I!

Although I've got the latest version working on the Skypephone, it declares that the phone isn't supported for the My Location service, which is a shame. Oh, and I've yet to test how well it works with bluetooth GPS on the N73.

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