Here is a review of how things are progressing with my phone, with the Froyo update.

First and foremost:

Call quality

It is pretty good, except when I am trying to hold my phone in a shoulder hold.

I do have issues with some phone calls dropping, but I think it that is T-Mobile’s fault

Battery Life

I have to charge it everyday. I doubt there are other smart phones that can sustain being under heavy use and last for more than a day.

Under excessive use, like using the phone browser for 4-5 hours, while listening to music (you get the idea), the battery life is even shorter. For this reason, I now have a USB cable on my desk at work, and a car dock that charges it in the car (See more below).

Cyanogenmod Update: Battery life is so much better with this update.

Browser

Being able to look up information at a quick glance is one of the reasons I got this phone. The stock browser just absolutely kicks ass. Given the fact I have the Adobe Flash plugin (works ok, not for extensive use!) on this phone, I can pretty much access more information available on the internet.

I would like to see the stock browser supporting tabs (or switching windows using some kind of gesture). I know dolphin and xscope browsers support this, but I would like the stock app to get this feature someday.

Cyanogenmod Update: Has incognito mode. Yay!

Navigation

Google maps with turn by turn navigation is pretty sweet. I have now taken it on two trips (i did carry my gps in my bag incase my phone failed me), and it was pretty easy to use.

Email

I did not like the default mail client that came with android. I replaced it with k-9 mail for my work email. I use the gmail client for my gmail.

Calendar

I do not like the default calendar. The blackberry calendar is much more solid. I do like the sync between google calendar and it showing up on my phone automatically. I have tried Gemini calendar for a while, and have now settled on Jorte. Jorte provides what I need to know at a glance, with the weekly view.

Contact Management

Edit contacts within Gmail, and it gets added to your phone. Or the other way around. Two way sync is very nice

Market

Market works like google search with suggestions. Very easy to find what you need. Get appbrain if you find this inadequate.

Music

The stock music player is pretty basic. Sorted by Album/Artist/Song/Playlist.

I like folders, and use mortplayer.

Cyanogenmod Update: Musicmod is very nice, but I still prefer mortplayer

Podcasts

Listen is ok with the google reader implementation. Searching for podcasts in listen is confusing. I prefer to search and add subscriptions within Google Reader. Also, if your podcast is not downloaded completely, it has issues playing the podcast. I always finish download of the entire podcast before I start playing.

Camera

The camera is pretty good. The flash works well (and doubles as a flash light!).

The pictures are good enough, and at night – even better than my Canon S3IS!

Cyanogenmod: Adds 720p video shooting.

Recently, I tripped on the cable and broke the left ear wire (or made it loose at any rate). This led to intermittent song playing in the left ear, which is extremely irritating!

Here is what you need to know to fix this.

Then see this link on instructables on how to solder wires.

Only catch being that the HD202 wires have lacquer on them. You will need to burn off the lacquer with a lighter or a match. To double check, after burning the lacquer check continuity with an ohm meter!

Also, since these wires are exposed, it is a good idea to heat shrink them.

Based on this slashdot article, I went ahead and ordered the same item. (see my report on it here)

The first conversation was over the phone, which did not get me anywhere.

I had better luck over email. They offered me a refund of 10% on the price of the netbook, along with keeping Windows on it.

I however, asked again pointing to the slashdot article and after that they refunded me the price of Windows XP according to the article: $65.45

Thank you amazon for being so awesome!

I promptly downloaded Ubuntu Netbook Remix edition to put on it. Installation was straight forward from the USB stick image. Almost all of the hardware worked except the wireless card and the wired ethernet. However, workarounds for this are documented at the Ubuntu Netbook Hardware Support page. However, all keys did not work as expected.

So, I went with eeebuntu which offers customized installation for the eeepc netbooks. Most of the function keys except the “toggle touchpad” work. I had the same issue with this distribution with regards to the wired and wireless internet. Installing a kernel that is backported from karmic fixed the issue with the wireless.

The wireless does not resume if the netbook is suspended with the wireless turned on. However, if the wireless radio is turned off before suspend, the wireless radio can be turned on when the netbook recovers out of suspend.

Update (08/10/2009): The toggle touchpad button now works
I am using the statux.org testing repository.
I also enabled shmconfig using hal in ‘/etc/hal/fdi/policy/synaptics.fdi‘

My apologies again. I will refrain from posting to my blog/remove my feed url from Planet Ubuntu till I can resolve this issue.

For other wordpress users:
See PlanetUbuntu Wiki Page
Forum Discussion

I have seen this tag on so many blogs and why not, it’s a wonderful tag! The name is ’150 Things To Do Before You Turn Thirty’. The rules are,
1. The things you have already done – make them bold.
2. Italics is for things that you are dying to do!

Here I go!!

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive (will do next time I am in vegas!)
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope (and a pretty big one too!)
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight (i won’t be doing this again, i hate wasting food)
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster (I was laughing. maybe i was delirious!)
35. Hit a home run (do sixers count?)
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking (i always dance like this)
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer (I have 4 or 5!)
40. Visited all 50 states (My count is up to 15)
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe (want to!)
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing (will do in about 6 months!)
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs (i am going to also say that I am obsessive about my mp3′s)
57. Pretended to be a superhero (and broke a tooth at it)
58. Sung karaoke (i am a karaoke whore!)
59. Lounged around in bed all day (favorite thing to do)
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theatre (go bring popcorn!)
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business (but i want to!)
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced (see #72)
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest (i was a small kid!)
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror (but I have been part of the audience)
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favourite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart (probably)
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Hack #1: Iron Elimination
If you take your clothes out as soon as it finishes drying, and hang them in your closet, there is no need to iron clothes. Clothes may not look starched, but they will be wrinkle free!

Hack #2: Iron Elimination, Part 2
Sometime I forget to take clothes out of the dryer after it is finished. Or I run of time. At any rate, the clothes stay in there too long, and they get wrinkled.

I found out today that if you let your dryer run for 15 minutes (with your clothes in them!), and then hang your clothes back in your closet, they are less wrinkled (less perfect than method 1), but still acceptably clean. This works best in winter since you are probably going to wear a sweater over the damn thing anyway

I use Reliance Global Call for my calling card needs. They have released a new application called express dial for certain smart phones (supported list) that make it so much easier to call back. When you dial an international number, this application intercepts that call, and calls the reliance toll free number instead. And it handles all the underlying work for you.

So the next time you need to call back home, you just dial your home number. Ah, life is good!

The mythbuntu lirc generator does not have support for kaffeine. There are two ways to go about this (also see: Lirc Wiki Page)

1) Install kdelirc package and start the irkick program and configure it.
2) Keep all the remote stuff together using lirc and irexec.

I have added the same information to the lirc wiki page (also see ~/.lircrc and ~/.lirc/kaffeine). If you do not use the mceusb remote, you will have to change the names of the remote and buttons to get it to work.)

I also have irexec autostart by creating a script file irexec.sh (don’t forget to make the script executable) in ~/.kde/Autostart.

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/irexec -d


To assign other buttons to kaffeine, enter dcop kaffeine KaffeineIface and dcop kaffeine KaffeinePartIface to get all available DCOP functions.

With this configuration, I can now use my remote with kaffeine.

Now, off to actually watch something…

I was listening to PRI’s – The World on WLRH while driving the other day. It then struck me that the 2 second preview they play is to help the listener to differentiate between different people who might be speaking. If multiple people are voicing their comments, and there is only one translator, the only way to differentiate between them is by the preview audio sample that is played before the translation takes over.