- Re: Which Opera?

- Rechargeable batteries

- Re: Message Storer, Nokia 9300

- Revo battery

- Re: 9300

Date: 19 Mar 2005 01:11:40 +0100
From: Thomas F. van der Zijden <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Which Opera?

To: Melvin Woody who
>>>> noticed that the Psion disk that came with my Mbook includes a trial version of Opera 5.14. whereas the version on thh Mbook is 3.62 Release 104. I recall reading something about the difference in this list at some point quite some time ago - and am wondering if there are good reasons not to install 5.14 in place of 3.62.  Can anyone who has used both instruct me about this?<<<<

RE
Hi Melwin,
I use both, installed on my nB.
3.62 renders picture much better than 5.14
A nice freeware to switch between 3.62 / 5.14 is DualOpera from :Definitive site on these 2 OperaS for ER5 is:
http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30137&highlight=opera
Take care
Jack

Date: 19 Mar 2005 09:16:39 +0100
From: Eric Lindsay <address truncated>
Subject: Rechargeable batteries

>   The Digest    Tue, 15 Mar 2005    Volume 01  :  Number 710

> From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
> Subject: Connecting, battery, Multitasking,
> Answer to: Eric Lindsay
>
> Re.: battery - Does this mean that you don't use a mobile phone as > they don't have AA or AAA batteries ?

I actually have two SH888 phones (one a second hand spare), and started out with two normal size batteries and one larger extended battery. 
One of the normal batteries has died, and the second is much reduced in capacity. They did honestly last a lot better than I expected.  But
then I mostly leave the batteries out of the phones, and only make a few calls a month on average.  I only have the phones for emergency calls, and picking up email while travelling.

I'm not sure I can get replacements batteries, but my need for replacement batteries is somewhat determined by how well my various Psions last.  If my Psions all die, I don't need a Psion compatible phone.  Not that I expect to be able to find a phone that uses AA batteries.  I imagine I'd then buy whatever dumb mobile phone is cheapest (or free), and throw it out in a year or so when the battery dies, thus adding to the increasing pile of electronic pollution in the world.

However not being in business these days, my use of a mobile phone is exceedingly limited.  At home I don't need it, since I have landline phones that are much cheaper to use.  When overseas (mostly USA) the SH888 doesn't work anyway.  When travelling within outback Australia
the phone mostly doesn't work, because the range of GSM phones is very limited relative to CDMA.  I have never found a CDMA phone with IrDA
and a built in data adaptor (the phone stores here seem to have problems with this concept, if they understand what I am asking about).
  My most usual mobile phone use is last minute collection of email on my Psion at airports prior to a flight.  At motels in Australia I use the faster and cheaper landline phones.

> I use my mBook with pleasure and it has got a rechargeable battery,
> although not a NiCd one.I have now got 3 batteries (bought a spare one > and still have the S7) and use them alternating and have got no idea
> which one is newer or older, they all function the same.

I also have and use an mBook and three batteries, and like you my Psion 7 is set aside for when the mBook screen dies (it is already far
fainter than the Psion 7 display).  Plus with the mBook and Psion 7, I know exactly which standard type Lithium Ion cells are used in the
Psion batteries.  I can certainly buy replacement cells from various
USA sources, and a rate myself as having a fair chance of managing to exchange cells in the mBook batteries (if it is the cells that die
rather than the electronics in the batteries).

> Personally I think you have to judge each product on it's total good
> and bad points and can't exclude products just because of the battery > type.

I did mention the merits of rechargeable AA batteries in digital
cameras (due to their discharge characteristics), so to some extent I agree with you.  I guess we simply have to conclude that my tolerance
for non-replaceable rechargeable batteries is way lower than yours.  I have and will refuse to buy equipment where I disagree with the design philosophies of the power arrangements.  I imagine I will continue to refuse to buy gadgets I think are badly designed (like Revos and
iPods), regardless of their popularity.

>The Digest    Thu, 17 Mar 2005    Volume 01  :  Number 711

> From: g y reyes <address truncated>
> Subject: AA and AAA Rechargeables

> As I am sure you know, there have been great strides forward in
> rechargeable battery technology.

Actually I disagree.  Progress in battery technology has been very
slow, with only the fragile Lithium Ion showing many strides.

> It is now hard to imagine a world without these rechargeables.  Of
> course, AA or AAA makes it convenient but could end up with products
> that are too large unless the battery adjusts to the footprint of the > product - which to me makes more sense than having to stick to AA or
> AAA rechargeables - on condition that the device manufacturer uses
> good quality rechargeables and builds a proper charging circuit.

Given the abundant evidence (in the form of complaints) that even reputable manufacturers (like Psion and Apple) are often unable to
manage either of these conditions, I'd much prefer that their engineers worked on wrapping their designs around standard battery sizes.

> I'd certainly hate to see my mobile phone and my PDA go up in size
> just to accommodate AAA cells.

Given the Psion 5 needs to be a certain size to have a keyboard capable of fast typing, I don't  see that using AA hurt that.  I don't see that
a PDA so small that there is no space for a keyboard provides me with any advantage.  The keyboard (and software) was why I used a Psion.

Having a phone too short for the microphone to be near my mouth also doesn't seem a design advantage to me.  Besides, I always wanted a
long, thin, pen style phone, like the ones on The Man from UNCLE.

> Now the Revo is another matter altogether.  That is one product they
> should've designed for replaceable AA's.  Then I would not have had to > stow mine away in my drawer for all eternity because of the lousy
> battery/charging circuit.

Exactly my point, and why I won't buy cameras and PDAs with weird hard to extract batteries.

Date: 19 Mar 2005 10:12:17 +0100
From: Russell Hutson <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Message Storer, Nokia 9300

Hi all,

Re: Message Storer, well *I* think GPRS is cheap for email, if you are paying say £3 per megabyte, and each send and recieve uses only 5k for instance, every email 'session' was only costing me around 2p which I feel is excellent value compared to mobile dial up.

Re: Nokia 9300 I agree with 'The Register' reviewer. It is absolutely madenning that after all this time a device can be so 'nearly there' but lack
the basic phone functionality of a vibrate alert, and to a lesser extent a camera.

However there does indeed look to be a revival coming in keyboarded clamshell
devices, driven by the lure of instant mobile email combined with high speed wireless links.

I believe the next 12~24 months have some exciting developments to look forward to.

Regards,
Mike Dyer.

Date: 19 Mar 2005 15:10:22 +0100
From: Timothy H.D. Williams <address truncated>
Subject: Revo battery

The Revo is in its cradle, reading a 100 % charge but with both green and red light on.

I then start transferring a file from the Revo to the Mac. Before long, the red light goes off, telling me that the charge is now at trickle. Yet the battery status drops from 100 down to the 39 %.

What's happening? Why am I on trickle if the battery is discharging? 
Discharge current is given at zero, charge current at 9 mA - 26 mA.

Once the transfer is over, the gauge jumps back to 100 % but no sound from Chadis.



T

Date: 19 Mar 2005 19:59:00 +0100
From: Steve Litchfield <address truncated>
Subject: Re: 9300

For Chris: (based on my 9500)

> The Opera-based web browser renders pages slowly & VERY badly. :(((

Seems fine to me. At least, for sensible pages. There are some MSIE-designed monsters out there now.

> MP3 player does not (always?) recognise ID3 tags.  Surely not?!?

Works fine here, all artists and names OK.

> VERY slow in adding new contacts.  (Also reported by Russian review)

The contacts system isn't lightning fast, agreed, but it's plenty fast enough for me, with 500 contacts. No wait of more than a second or two.

____________________________________________________________________ Steve Litchfield, 3-Lib, http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/
Software and features for Psion/Symbian handhelds and smartphones
Also PocketInfo, useful files - http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/pocketinfo Journalism: sub-editor and/or senior contributor to:
Palmtop User - http://www.palmtop.co.uk/
PDA Essentials - http://www.paragon.co.uk/mags/pdaessentials.html
PC Basics - http://www.paragon.co.uk/mags/pcbasics.html
Reviews editor, AllAboutSymbian - http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/