nexus quadport pro 4-port multi-socket USB car charger
In my car, i am amassing a large collection of USB-powered things – satnav, DAB radio, mobile phone. Normally, the cigarette socket is used up with the DAB radio (a pure highway), which makes long journeys that require the satnav quite difficult. the obvious option is a cigarette lighter socket splitter, which can be picked up from loads of places – even your local pound shop if you’re lucky, but i needed something a bit more elegant. Step forward the Nexus Quadportpro 4-port USB adapter with cigarette lighter passthrough from mobilefun.co.uk
now, you have 1 dongle, powering up to five devices, running standard USB cables to your satnav/radio/phone/etc. jobs a good un!
specs:
input 12v/24v
output 12v
output (usb) 5V/2000mA (10 watt)
size 99.5mm x 47.5mm x 47.5mm
weight 55g
£12.47 from mobilefun. not as cheap as some adapters, but infinitely tidier!
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/quadport-pro-usb-cigarette-lighter-adapter-p22181.htm
FiiO E5 portable headphone amplifier
FiiO E5 headphone Amplifier
info from the official FiiO website
Arriving on my desk this morning was yet another dealextreme special. After buying the FiiO S3 portable speakers (with SD card reading mp3 player built in) and being extremely impressed with the quality vs portability of the unit, i decided to give their headphone amp a try. The unit is about the same size as the original ipod shuffle, uses a built-in 200mAh battery which uses a standard mini USB connector to charge it and should give in the region of 20 hours of amplification at normal levels in between charges.
Tested it out by plugging it into my nokia N97, and immediately, the difference was noticeable. It took the music up to a nice LOUD level, as opposed to the normal full volume level of the N97. sometime you just want that extra oomph, and the average mp3 player just won’t go loud enough. this allows you to take it up to 11 without any noticeable drop in quality.
a week in the life of the N97 v20 firmware
Its been a little while since I debranded my phone and installed the nokia N97 V2 firmware. How have the results been?
pretty good so far!
the phone has only “crashed” once (compared to upto a couple of times a day with the previous v11 t-mobile branded f/w) – and the only reason I noticed it was because it beeped at me halfway through a reboot.
the v20 doesnt fix everything, but it has made the phone infinitely more stable and useable. kinetic scrolling now works on *most* apps, there is over 50mb of C drivespace free, things seem a tiny bit faster as well, probably due to the extra space on C.
Issues found so far… widgets. for some reason, i can’t get the new nokia email/messaging app to display on the homescreen as a widget. it only wants to display email in the old messaging app. yet the new email app sits happily in the background checking my mail and pinging at me when they arrive.
other than that, there doesnt seem to be too much to really complain about. hopefully v21 will take care of the kinetic scrolling issue with the rest of the apps, as well as a bunch of bugfixes/performance gains.
so, what issues are you having with it so far?
N97 Firmware v20 out now! how to debrand and flash your phone.
it’s finally here!
if, like me, you are using a branded handset, and still stuck on v11, even though v12 has been out for what seems like an eternity, you will be sick of waiting for your carrier to push out an updated branded firmware. here’s howto debrand your n97 so that you can get the latest firmware on your phone…
BEWARE. THIS WILL INVALIDATE ANY OPERATOR WARRANTY/SUPPORT ON YOUR PHONE! ONLY DO THIS IF YOU AREN’T WORRIED ABOUT THIS. (probably) no tech support will be given here, so this is completely at your own risk. mmmmkay? oh, and take a backup of your phone before doing anything. only an idiot doesnt back things up…
Download these two bits of sw:
- Nemesis Service Suite (NSS) – Download NSS
- Nokia Software Updater (even if you have it on your pc, chances are you will need to update. the software will automatically check for updates and install accordingly)
3. Install NSS, during setup choose the virtual USB option.
4. Install Nokia Software Updater (NSU).
5. Plug in your phone. connect in PC suite mode. Open the NSS application on your PC. Click the “Scan for new Device” icon in the top right of the screen. The NSS “Device info” screen will fill up with a bunch of stuff, don’t worry about it – as long as it isnt throwing out any errors or anything.
6. click the “phone info” button then click the ‘Read’ button in the “production data edit” section.on the NSS program. This will now show you your phones current product code. MAKE A NOTE OF THIS FOR FUTURE REFERENCE (ie if you need to flash it back) – You now need to replace that with a generic N97 code. I used 0576350 (RM-505_EMEA_EURO_QW1 White). Google for a list of all product codes if needed. Tick the box to enable writing and replace the current product code with the new generic code and click the ‘write’ button. reboot your phone.
7. With your phone still connected to your PC, open Nokia Software Updater. flash the firmware by following the instructions.
8. job done!
useful FREE apps for symbian #1 – mobbler
Mobbler is a Last.fm radio player and scrobbler for Symbian smartphones. It allows you to listen to your Last.fm radio stations and to scrobble tracks played using the standard music player.
http://code.google.com/p/mobbler
Nokia N97 firmware v2
The new N97 firmware v2 (v20.0.005) looks like it will be out in a few weeks time, and features kinetic scrolling, more stock widgets, alternate keyboard characters via long press, and they’ve managed to do all of this while still leaving more phone memory available.
I just hope T-mobile get off their arses and release it faster than they are doing with v12 (which still isnt out, despite it being released a month ago).. at the rate they are going, i shall be debranding real soon now (HOWTO to follow)
video demoing the new features after the break…
Nokia N97 – first impressions from a longtime N95 user…
the Nokia N97 arrived today, and impressions are VERY GOOD so far.
I’ll be reviewing this phone as a longtime symbian user, who has owned an N95 for the past 3 years. i have used an iphone, but the limitations, restrictions, poor specs in comparison to the Nokia N95, as well as the general hassle, meant the iphone just wasnt for me…
The N97 is on the way….
yeah, i know its been out for nearly 2 months now, but i’ve finally managed to get one on a decent contract and a decent price. It should arrive on tuesday. Thats mostly why this site was set up, as a place to find out new and interesting applications and information about the N97, but it will cover my love of all things shiny. i love playing with toys, and i figured it was about time that i had a crack at writing about them, things you can do to make your life easier by using tech, things that have no purpose, but are just so gorgeous and shiny, you can’t help but want one, and even guides on how to do new things with old tech.
so, expect more content reet soon now. for now i’ll just be playing about with the site layout and adding stuff in.
toodles,
W>
Symabook facebook app for S60 preview
This is early technology preview video of their upcoming Symabook application. Symabook is Facebook Platform application for S60 5th Edition and later for S60 3rd Edition mobile phones. Symabook features user interface that is not seen before in S60 devices. Available soon from http://www.symarctic.com/beta Read the story »
welcome
mmm…. shiny!
coming very soon.
