Residue capacity of charging pack

After four years of usage, it drops from 10000mmAh (assuming the factory figure is correct) to over 6000mmAh which better than expected!

While the one of the left has over 7000mmAh from 10000mmAh (again assuming the factory rated capacity is real), after two years of usage, not bad too.

尿袋的充電效能

近來發現尿袋充電有啲慢，起先係懷疑條充電線，但後來發現原來係個尿袋。我一直喜歡用 18650 尿袋，因為可以換電，去露營最方便，第二朝唔夠電可以換，甚至可以用原本俾營燈／頭燈用既 18650 嚟換，可以省去唔少重量。

今日慢既原因，應該係裡面既 18650 開始老化，慢到得返 0.4A 左右！

換電之後，即刻快返！

變成 0.76A，快近差不多一倍！既然係咁，我就順手測埋家裡其它尿袋：

呢個台電 (teclast) 新買返嚟時好堅，容量大，充電快，但原來佢已經拆舊了不少，得返 0.56A... 再跌就可以退役了！

另一個經常攞出去露營既尿袋，裡面既 18650 亦開始老化，得返 0.57A，還可以用多一段時間吧！

以下係我以前用嚟去露營既尿袋，有四粒 18650，應該更加老化，但佢輸出似乎都仲係相當唔錯喎：

有 0.69A，我諗係因為佢有四粒電夾埋！再睇一個可以放七粒電既尿袋，我只係放咗六粒超舊而且低質既 18650，結果真係唔錯喎：

竟然有 1.18A，最廢既電池，但卻係全場總冠軍！簡直係環保之星！以下係直駁 Orico 充電器既輸出：

呢個尿袋化廢物為神奇，仲充得快過插電制！最後係一隻黑馬，放響屋企無咩人願用，皆因佢樣貌普通，但原來卻係幾堅：

有 0.87A，日後我肯定會多啲用佢！

綜上以上既觀察，啲廢電池已經有歸宿，就係七電尿袋！出街雖然太重，但若果去得唔遠，其實都有賺又環保！

Zopo 958 maintenance

After eight month of very active usage, the on/off switch failed.

I should remind you all that even I've installed an app to turn off the screen without using the on/off switch, but still, the switch failed eventually.

I kept on using it a few days after the failure of the on/off switch, since I can always turn it on with the home key and I could turn the screen off by using that app.  However, one day when the battery drained, I couldn't switch it on again without pressing the on/off switch!  Of course, if I could keep charging it before the battery went flat, it's not a problem.  Anyway... I could no longer switch it on since then.

I've tried to use the backdoor like to press the volume down button and insert the USB charging cable, and yes, it could be turned on, but it only kicks me to the factory menu and so it was still no useable.

On the next working day, I took it to the local repair center.  The service is not bad, the queue is short, and it's rather close to MTR station.  Better than Samsung I would say.   They had sent my phone back to the factory for repairing and they asked me to expect two weeks.

In less than two weeks' time, I've received a call that my mobile is ready.  Good services I would say.

In order to avoid using the on/off switch, I will use the scheduled power on/off feature of the mobile.  In case the switch were dead again, it will turn itself on according to the schedule.

Universal mobile battery charger

This is an universal mobile battery charger from dealextreme.  It supports nearly all sorts of mobile battery given it's adjustable charging pin.  The charger is smart enough to detect the poles of the battery, and a small clip was used to fix the battery in place, so you can put battery of any size there virtually.

This charger is special that it also support charging of 18650 (or any other smaller Lithium ion battery).  A switch is available to select whether you're charging a mobile battery or a 18650.  There is also one more position to allow you to charge your mobile battery via the 18650 installed along side!  Therefore, this could be serving as a portable charger as well.

Given it's versatility, a USB charger port is also available on the side, to allow charging of any devices via USB port. 

Zopo 958

My Samsung i8150 suffered a rather premature death after around 1 year of usage.  Within that year, I bought four batteries for it.  It is not exactly dead but it keeps on rebooting itself randomly, in the worse case, you just even cannot use it.  Battery drains very quickly while self-rebooting.

While we have cases about electric shock with iphone, we have explosion with Samsung devices, and thus I took the plunge to buy a Chinese brand mobile phone.  After some initial feedback from real users, I have decided to give Zopo a chance.

I love to play Ukulele and so the ability to see music scores would be a huge plus to me, so I aim myself at those big models at 5.7" IPS screen, and so 950, 950H and 958 were my targets.  950 was a bit old, 950H and 958 differs by only one or two hundreds, so I get the one with highest specifications.  I won't repeat all the specifications here since they could be fetched from the web very easily, here I give some general impression after one week of very active usage.

Two original batteries were included in the package.  The manufacturer rated capacity is not very meaningful, and I was a pretty active user, and the battery can last for a whole day given I turned off 3G data when I sleep.  For the rest of time, either Wifi or 3G were used actively.  Charging the battery is like 4-5 hours from my impression, either the charger and the battery is not hot during the process.  Given its huge screen, it's very good indeed. 

The screen is very good, but it could be a bit finer.  It serves the purpose of showing music scores very well.  However, the scrolling action is a bit too sensitive, sometimes when I wanted to scroll, it would yield a "select" action instead.  But with some more training and adaptation, this could be reduced to a good level.

In order to use it with Windows 8, you have to search in the web for PdaNetA4126, you will then have the necessary driver installed.

Changjei is missing from this machine but you have to install "Go" for that, but Chinese punctuation is not well supported, the character sequence is not very nice as well.  Some frequent wordings were not placed in the first few locations.

One hand operation is possible in most cases given by small hand despite the 5.7" screen.

If this phone could survive one year of active usage, I would think it justifies.

Pulling commodity from applications

It's interesting to see that for the last five to ten years, people have been pulling computer applications from computer to make standalone products like VCD player, DVD player, mp3 player, etc.  All these were very successful.

However, the trend seems to be reversed these days when smart-phones and tablets were getting popular.  You will probably not use a standalone mp3 player, and you will probably not use a standalone DVD player, instead, you watch movies and you listen to music via your tablets there days.

While it could be nice if a single machine could do everything for you, however, it could even be better if things just get smaller.  For example, even your tablet is powerful enough to play music but then you will still need a headphone/earphone!  What if your headphone/earphone could play the music by itself?  If it can, your tablet will not be necessary any more.

Content-wise, putting stuff in the cloud for centralized storage and manipulation should be the best.

Too many solid state memory?

I counted today, and I have the following:

1. 1 piece of 1G and 1 piece of 4G MiniSD inside my mobile phone

2. 2 pieces of 2G SD for my DC

3. 1 piece of 8G SD for my DSLR

4. 1 piece of 512M SD for my DSLR, but now only used for photo-development outside, another piece of 512M SD died

5. 2G thumbdrive

And inside my new PC, I have 4G memory but then only 3G is useable by Windows XP, and fortunately, I'm also a Linux user :-)

Over 20G!

Asus P535 Ring tone tricks

If you put MP3 ring tone in the Mini SD card of a Asus P535, you will know there will be some issues.

When you connect your mobile phone to the PC, it then becomes a card reader. And the Mini SD becomes accessible only through the USB port, but not to the mobile phone itself. That means you cannot see the Mini SD card, you cannot access the file through any installed applications, etc.

Another important implication is that, the MP3 ring tone which is stored in your Mini SD will not be accessible, that means when there is incoming call, the ring tone cannot be used and you will fall back to the default ring tone. That could be confusing enough. You might not even recognized that it is your phone which is ringing! Since the P535 recharges via USB, you will even lost the ring tone during charging! That is troublesome enough if you use your MP3 files for alarm!

To solve the problem, one of the easiest way is to put your MP3 ring tone in your phone instead of to your Mini SD. Of course, it is not a very smart idea since MP3 ring tone could be quite large which wastes valuable memory spaces.

A better way is to set the USB to ActiveSync mode, and your Mini SD will remain accessible by the mobile phone, and thus the ring tone will still be accessible.

Mobile phone without a numeric keypad

This is the first time that I chose a mobile phone without a numeric keypad, and I would say it really brings some inconvenience.

First of all, if you want to find a phone book entry from the address book, you will miss the numeric keypad. For example, when you want to search for a friend with a name that begins with "S" you have no short cut. Of course, for most of the time, you will only call a small subset of people, you can easily locate them from the recent dial list. And for other less called numbers, you can also use the stylus to write.

And here comes another problem. Actually, when I was using Palm OS, I always wonder why there's a special area for writing, especially when full screen writing is supported. Now I understand why! Suppose I wanted to write by the stylus, I have first change the input mode! And this mode changing action requires several clicks on the screen, and that's troublesome enough when you just want to enter a single letter, in order to speed up the searching! That really defeat the purpose, it's just not speed up.

Another usage on the numeric keypad is quick dial. With my more traditional phones, I can always define several numbers which I always call, and then I can make a call by simply press and hold a single button!

Frankly, I guess all these could be solved, for example, by defining different way of this quick dial by using the stylus. Or even simpler, to make the button on the touch screen bigger!

Hiking and GPS

We simply cannot rely on GPS when hiking, there is no alternative for a good experienced leader plus a good map/compass.

As you can see, the initial part of the GPS log is quite messy. This is where you have so many tall trees around you and therefore, the signal strength are relatively weak and so the accuracy is highly compromised.

When we are in the open areas, the track is very accurate, however, in those places, you can actually see where is the way ahead.

MiniSD for my Asus P535

Just got a 4G MiniSD for my mobile phone Asus P535 from ebay.

Before I go for ebay, I checked for the price of MiniSD from a nearby shopping center, and I found that only one or two shops are selling these cards. Vendor either go for SD or MicroSD, and MiniSD is becoming far less popular. 2G MiniSD are selling at $138 HKD.

And then I checked the price from some local vendors via their website, and I found that 4G MiniSD are selling at $188 HKD.

ebay has MiniSD selling at quite nice start bidding price, while the "buy it now" price is already cheaper than the local shops, I aimed for one which would be ended within 24 hours. After several bids, I got it at $9.55 USD which means $75 HKD only and since the seller is from mainland China and I'm from Hong Kong, he even sent the card to me via express service, and I got it on the next day after payment.



For $75 HKD shipped, it includes a SD adapter as well as a USB 2.0 card reader. It comes in a Kingston packing with life time warranty! Frankly, it's more than what I have expected.

Remarks: Later I checked that I might be cheated by a fake product, yes, I can copy 4G worth of data to that card, but it's not covered by warranty nor I have any guarantee on the quality, so the data is at risk when I copy my data there:

Check here:

http://reviews.ebay.com/Beware-of-FAKE-1GB-2GB-4GB-8GB-USB-Flash-Drives-on-eBay_W0QQugidZ10000000000706427

Mine is not a USB flash drive, but the description is just so similar. I have discussed with the seller and he agreed to refund most of the price paid, so I was just like buying a USB card reader. To be fair, I still have a 4G card to use at a very low price and the seller never said it's a real Kingston. Of course, this kind of "wrongly labeled" products should not be sold in any case. Just exercise caution when you buy from ebay.

Notebook computer vs. Mobile phone

With the fast growing popularity of Netbook, we really have to re-think the whole thing from a "user case" point of view.

I have been using a very small notebook PC (Sony Vaio U3) since 4-5 years ago. Why I was buying that smal notebook? It's because I understand that mobility is the first most important thing when buying a notebook computer! For anything which is either too big or too heavy, you won't be using it very soon.

As a mobile computer, you will want to use it for:

• Presentation: so it can run OpenOffice.org or any other presentation software, and it comes with a VGA socket to connect to a projector
• Email: you will want to stay connected when you are away from home and office, so it should be able to let you connected to the Internet, etc
• Web browsing: you will want to check your web based email like gmail, etc.

The best computer is the one which you can use most, it's available everywhere. So, portability is the king here. If you have a very powerful notebook which can virtually replace your desktop, but it's too big and too heavy, I believe that it will end up as your desktop PC.

However, the above situation seems to change a little bit with the advancement on mobile phone. Now my mobile phone is Wi Fi enabled, it comes with a web browser, and you can check email with that. You can even open your presentation file there, so it seems like it virtually replace my notebook?

Yes, nearly, I would say... the last bit is the VGA socket, I would say!

Frankly, it's about to replace some of the functions of my desktop PC. For example, if I just want to check email or so, I would now simply use my phone, since it has virtually zero boot up time. That alone makes it the prime choice for checking email. However, if you need to make a long reply, a notebook/netbook or a desktop PC will still be the better choice.

Internet banking authentications

I guess that I am just like most of you, we have more than one internet banking account for we are usually dealing with more than one banks. Internet banking is really convenient and far more powerful as well, however, security is a great concern. Just like what people said, the more powerful you are, the more responsibilities which you will need to hold.

Some banks offer very simple authentications. A user name plus a password is all that is! I have experience of using one of these accounts, and later I found that my account was disabled suddenly, you know why? It is just someone or I myself, I don't know and I guess that I will never know, had attempted to login with wrong passwords for three times! Hey, what if some people just blindly guess the password, and then s/he can disable my account forever? I called the customer support and they insisted that I will have to go to the bank, to fill in the form personally, in order to re-activate that account! As you would know, I have never done that and I prefer to leave it disabled forever!

Another bank is just a little bit more interesting, other than user name and password, they will ask for my birthday... I guess that it's not that more secure, but then they also limited the range of services that I can do. If I need to do something more dangerous, they will need me to apply for a security device which generates a one time password whenever needed, and then I will need to bring along that (small) device and to use it every time I wanted to login. Secure, but still not very convenient, right?



A third bank uses a similar security device, but instead of using it only for dangerous operations, they request their users to use it every time even for operations as simple as checking the bank balance. Secure enough, but of course, it's troublesome to keep the device around with me always.

Finally, this is what I appreciate most. This bank uses simple user name and password for login, and you can do safer operations without anything else. However, when you are about to do some dangerous operations, they will send you an SMS which contains a one time password! Hey, that effectively replaced that small device, and I will always have my mobile phone with me. Not more extra burden. Quick and simple, and yet secure enough.

Integrating GPS and Google Earth

The application which I used is called VisualGPSce, and it runs without problem on my Asus P535, and it generates NMEA file. Free download is available here:

http://www.visualgps.net/VisualGPSce/default.htm

This application is very simple and easy to use, and it shows various useful information as well, like your speed (very accurate as from my test), your altitude, and of course, your location plus a number of other readings. Try it our yourself!

Before you can use these data inside Google Earth, you will need to convert it to kml format, there is a free online tool for the conversion:

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input?form=googleearth

And it's just that simple, the path can then be shown like below:



Pretty simple and interesting!

Asus P535 - Wi Fi

This is not exactly a new model, actually, it's over 1.5 years old. But on comparing to the recent model like P320, this one is nothing bad indeed. Its faster CPU alone worth the apparently older age, and Asus upgraded the operating system to WM6, so you don't have to do it by yourself.

I got this one from i-cable at $2080 (HKD), and they even offered me one more battery as well as a 1G mini-SD card for free. What attracts me most for this mobile phone is not just the price, but the built-in GPS, as well as Wi Fi.

My home has a Wi Fi network, and I've a small notebook computer (Sony VAIO U3). However, I found that I'm not using it as much as I expect, due to the boot-up time. You know when I wanted to check your email box, I would rather boot up the desktop PC. So now you know in that case, a Wi Fi capable phone is the best! No more boot up wait, and with the web browser of the mobile phone, you can check email, and browse your favorite forums any time!

Wi Fi is so nice that it's basically free if you have an access point at home and in the office.

Other than web browsing, and checking email, there are other interesting things to do as well. For example, my Asus P535 comes with Skype. Last time when I change my indoor wireless phone, I was tempted to get a Skype capable model, but I didn't do that finally. Now, it comes as a free bonus! Other than Skype, you can use Google Maps which is very nice to use. Of course, you will want some off line software map if you really want to use it outside, but Google Maps is great enough for planning how to get to your destination. So for entertainment, you can see watch online streaming television! My Asus P535 delivers extremely smooth playback here.

I always think the mobile phone to be the only really necessary electronic gadget that one would always bring. So, it's always nice to put as much as functionalities to it provided that it's still portable enough, and at a suitable price point.