12 posts tagged “tecra m9”

If you've got a newish S60 phone and access to some mysterious black and white codes, you too can have a bit of fun with augmented reality!

Just go to gofindit.net where you can download the application and the codes.  The codes will work just as well on an LCD screen as well as printed out.  Actually, I think they work better on a back-lit screen rather than 'old school' paper.

The clever technology behind all this is from HIT Lab NZ (the NZ stands for New Zealand, funnily enough) and they have a bunch of interesting projects on their site, including ones you can download and have a play with.  In this instance they licensed the technology to agency Wunderman for a Ford Ka campaign promoted by wearesocial.

Sorry, I'm out of puns that are remotely funny or relevant.  Anyway, below you'll find some hastily edited videos from the guys that were behind the new INQ1 handset that's now out to buy in the shops right now (or at least it should be).

Why so hastily edited and why so long after the launch event?  The footage was on the Toshiba Tecra M9 that the kind folk of talkToshiba loaned me (for a very generous amount of time, I might add... cheers guys!)  And er, that was going back today.  As for why I hadn't already edited and upped the videos... I'm terrible at getting things done when they should be done!

All videos captured on a Canon DV camcorder (the model I forget) and edited with Windows Movie Maker on a Toshiba Tecra M9.  Nice and simple, if I can do it anyone can!  Oh, and I was able to transfer files and use Firefox without a hiccup during the video authoring/conversion process.  Excellent stuff!

So, T-Mobile UK have those ads for finding more minutes in the most unlikeliest of places.  They're not entirely accurate (but then they're ads, are they not?) and so 3 UK made a spoof ad.

Well I'm out of minutes, opps.  Can't find any cows as I'm a townie... 'what's a cow?'  Tried getting me more minutes by ringing 333 but that just turned out to be a comically frustrating call.  Good job I did find a friend to take pity on me, he'll be bunging me his spare phone tomorrow.  It's contract, he doesn't use it but contract has yet to run out.  Spare minutes aplenty!

Now to find the numbers for premium rate services in Outer Mongolia (only kidding!)

Him and his good wife have currently got my Eee PC as the muppet my mate spilt wine on theirs.  Kinda feels like Swop Shop!  Anyhoo, I hope talkToshiba don't want this Tecra M9 back anytime soon, I've grown very attached to it...

talkToshiba were very kind to loan me a Tecra M9.  I've rarely been apart from it other than to go to the loo (there are some places where tech doesn't belong!)  The laptop would (un)appear to be invisibly tethered to me.  So why haven't I been blogging about it?  Good question!

Other than the usual hiccups you get with Windows Vista (who am I kidding, with computers in general!) the thing just works!  Thinking about it, most things are software related and not hardware issues at all.  I think Microsoft can take the blame for the majority, not Toshiba.  As I'm no expert (as some know only too well!) I leave that aspect aside.  Want a review that digs deep, makes comparisons and benchmarks?  You are so in the wrong place!

What can I say then?  Well I've come to the conclusion that if I were to only have one laptop, I'd want one like the Tecra (ideally smaller, and perhaps a tad lighter) rather than a subnotebook/mini laptop/netbook.  Comparing chalk and cheese?  Perhaps, but many of us can only afford to buy one.  My Eee PC 900 that cost nearly $600 (£315 at the time) just doesn't compare.  I can fit both in my bag, both are portable, both can stand a full day (and my back and shoulder) can stand either.  But only one lasts around 3 hours on a single charge, handles HD video and can capture, edit and encode DV.

The Eee PC lasts only an hour (sometimes less).  It has trouble running Firefox with just a few tabs open.  It is absolutely useless, a piece of junk.  It is the Fisher Price of laptops (and I'm being unfair to Fisher Price).  I'm now struggling to find any redeeming factors.

Anyway, back to the Tecra... My latest videos were all done on the Tecra M9.  I've just used the basic Windows Movie Maker and to be honest it meets my needs.  More on that later as well as the things that bug me (including the fingerprint scanner).

I've been playing around with Windows Movie Maker since getting my hands on a trial Toshiba Tecra M9.  It's beefy enough to handle video editing with ease and nice and portable (okay, it's not UMPC/netbook portable, but it's small and light enough to accompany me most places).

So, in the last few weeks I've shot some video on DV camcorders, done some rudimentary editing, added some titles and uploaded them to YouTube.  They're pretty crappy to be honest, but that's more to do with my skills (or lack thereof) than the tools at hand.  There's plenty of room for improvement but improve they will!

I am now back in the world of broadband (as much as I like my mobile broadband it ain't the real thing!).  My Sky Broadband was activated at 5am.  How do I know this?  I was up at 5am watching the election.  Go-bama!

For the brief time I used it today it was working fine.  I was streaming MSNBC without a hitch (my 3 HSDPA dongle could barely play a few seconds at a time) and connected without any issues over WLAN to both my Eee PC and this here Tecra M9.  That surprised me as I was plagued by problems using the same laptops at my parents house (they recently got Sky Broadband too and have the same router).

So, there I was earlier all happy that I now had a much bigger pipe to connect to the series of tubes that is the interweb and I figured I should take out of retirement my Slingbox.  Plugged it all in, downloaded the software and hooked it up to the Sky router.  Only the Slingbox's power light came on.  No sign of ethernet life.  Okay I thought, maybe instead of this laptop I'll try connecting via my PC, after all that was how I used to set it Sling Player.

My PC has been off for a month as I've been using laptops instead.  So, first thing's first - I had to turn it on.  Guess what?  My PC wouldn't turn on!  Was the cable or plug out slightly?  No.  Was the switch off at the back?  No.  Has the fuse gone?  That one I've yet to check, I've got my fingers crossed that it has!

Back to the Slingbox and my attempt to getting it working with the laptop.  After reading the network instructions and troubleshooting section on Sling Media's support site I figured I needed to press the reset button on the back of the Slingbox.  Bit of a set back though... it doesn't push in, it appears to be stuck in the 'in' position.  Now what?!?

Drat and double drat!

I shot a lot of video of yours truly playing Wii via the InFocus IN1 projector.  I was just about to edit it with Windows Movie Maker and upload it to YouTube.  Then I thought, hang on, why not see if my ten year old nephew can/wants to do it tomorrow.  Nothing to do with me not being bothered, honest!

I do like Movie Maker, it's by far the easiest video editing software I've ever used.  It's also pretty nippy on the Tecra M9 (although to be fair I've only got one other laptop to compare that to and I've yet to use the software on that!).  Shame it outputs to WMV though.

I've been scanning a few things today and I printed out a bunch of brochures on Tuesday.  All as easy as pie.  Where should the credit go - Brother, Toshiba or Microsoft?  I don't know, all I know is that these things used to be way more complicated!

I'm currently using the Tecra M9 that talkToshiba kindly loaned me and it has become my main computer.  My desktop hasn't been used in a fortnight and, quite frankly, I'm not missing it!  I hadn't wanted to print or scan anything until this week, but when I did I was reluctant to boot up my PC just for a few minutes use.  It turned out I did need to...

I simply plugged the USB cable from my Brother DCP-115C into the Tecra M9 and both played nicely, did what I wanted and required no silly drivers, no need for updates, no stupid error messages and no fuss.  No manual required, no help file needed, no googling for advice, no anything!

We often hear about 'plug and play' but in reality it's often 'plug and pain'.  For me, it's a refreshing change for things to work so effortlessly.  Thumbs up to whoever made it happen.  Is it a Vista thing?  Might have to try my Linux-flavoured Eee and the Brother next.

A belated update regarding my Bluetooth on the Tecra M9 woes.  I got it working and didn't even need to finish reading the manual.  Not just that, I didn't need to send it back or phone tech support either!

How did I figure out how to turn it on and use it?  I didn't, I just stumbled and got lucky!  I was looking for Windows Movie Maker (although I didn't know that was the name of that application, but that's another story) and just came across the Bluetooth section on the start menu just under 'Toshiba'.

Why hadn't I found it earlier?  I have no idea.  Am I just useless or are things badly designed?  Again, I have no idea!

I'm stumped.  Can't figure out how to turn the Bluetooth on on this Tecra M9.  If it weren't for me looking underneath the laptop I'd have been in the dark as to this laptop even having Bluetooth built-in!

I guess I can't really whinge until I actually bother to read the bloody manual...