5 posts tagged “curve”

As hinted at in Episode 673 and last week, Dick and Leo finally talk about T-Mobile's G1.  Made by HTC, the G1 is the first phone featuring Google's open-source smartphone operating system Android.

It has bluetooth, wifi, GPS (though not turn-by-turn), 512 MB built-in memory, although it has an microSD card slot and comes with a 1GB card; a back-lit qwerty keyboard (which is revealed by sliding out the screen) and a replaceable battery; a 3.2MP camera, but like the iPhone, it does not shoot video, and like the iPhone it does not support Flash on the internet.  Unlike the iPhone, it supports voice dialling and "cut and paste".

Physically, it weighs just under 6 ounces.  At the bottom is a panel of buttons: a big Menu button, underneath which at the centre is a trackball (for navigation and as a select button).  To the left of the trackball are the "Call/Send" button and the "Home" button; to the right of the trackball are the "Back" and "Hangup/Power" buttons.

On the left hand side of the phone is a Volume toggle, and on the right hand side the camera button.  For the earphones, unfortunately it's a microUSB connection and you'll need an adapter for your 3.5mm jack earphones.

The display is 3.2 inches at 480 x 320 resolution, with a capacitive touch-screen.  It does not support multi-touch, but does support long presses (through which you get a context menu including "cut and paste").  It has an accelerometer and is supposed to adjust itself to Portrait/Landscape mode, at least when the qwerty keyboard is open.

Since Android is open-source, many applications are expected to come out supporting the platform, and will not be filtered as in the case of the iPhone.  You can access the apps from the Android "Market", and Google will tell you in relation to each app what types of access the app may have on the phone - such as communications, your location and your personal information.

The phone comes with the standard Google apps, such as Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, and like the iPhone, offers a mobile version of YouTube.  If you don't use Gmail, there is another mail application.  Unfortunately, this other mail app cannot open attachments (which Gmail can by HTML conversion), nor save them.  The IM app supports major instant messengers such as AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo and of course Google Talk.  Like Google's desktop browser the Chrome, the Android browser is WebKit-based.  Another app that comes with the phone is AmazonMP3, with access to Amazon's DRM-free mp3 downloads - which only works with Wifi, and not 3G or Edge.  The phone also has its own music player software.

At the moment, the phone is available in T-Mobile stores only in cities which has T-Mobile's 3G coverage.

Favourite Episodes
In Episode 679, Dick and Leo were asked if they had a list of their 20 favourite/funniest episodes.  Ludwik Trammer of gizwizsearch can answer for them.  Search queries on his site show which episodes are most frequently accessed - 182 Titanium Spork, 465 Electron Echo Piano, 462 MP4 Watch, and of course 282 Toothpick Bird.

Ludwik also tells us that the accumulative length of all the DGW shows now exceeds 7 days.

One More Thing
Ludwik is going to introduce a new feature on his site.  In fact it is already operational.  Just go to his site and see if you can spot the difference.  Otherwise, just wait for an announcement through Dick and Leo in tomorrow's recording session, or in next week's episodes.

Video Podcasts To Wait
The last time Leo talked about video podcasts (with hopes of getting DGW on video) was Episode 671.  Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, Leo has decided to be a little more prudent, and maybe putting that on hold, although he may still put out a weekly "best of" video podcast.

Second Longest Episode
At 31:03, today's show is the second longest episode, just 12 seconds short of Episode 634, the Lexmark X9575 Professional.


Listen to Episode 686
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page

Polaroid has been trying to find its place in the new world of digital photography.  Their latest attempt is the PoGo (Polaroid to Go), a portable bluetooth printer that connects to your mobile phones via bluetooth and makes 2" x 3" borderless prints.  The cellphone needs to support Bluetooth OBEX (Object Exchange) profile.  A list of compatible phones can be found on the Polaroid website.



You can also print directly from any PictBridge-enabled digital camera, by connecting the devices using a USB cable.

The print is made using Zink Imaging's Zink technology - Zero Ink - on Zink paper.  Each 2" x 3" photo paper contains 100 billion yellow, magenta and cyan dye crystals which are activated by heat pulses to generate the colours.  Since no ink is used, the prints come out as dry-to-touch prints.  They have peel-off sticky backs which can be used as stickers.  A modern version of Polaroid prints.

The dimensions of the PoGo 4.7" x 2.8" x 0.9", with a replaceable and rechargeable Li-ion battery.  Each charge can print up to 15 prints.  the advertised print speed is 60 seconds from send to share, though in practice it's likely to take longer.  You can get the PoGo photo paper in packs of 10 or 30, costing about $5 and $13 respectively.

One From the Gadget Warehouse
While rummaging through his treasure trove that is the Gadget Warehouse, Dick stumbled upon a Polaroid Instant Slide device, probably one of the 35mm Autoprocessors from Polaroid.



Mr Hulot's Holiday - It's Playtime !
Jacques Tati was a French comedian who made a few classic films including Mr Hulot's Holiday (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot) and Playtime.

Here's the original French trailer for the film Playtime, where you can see a reflection of the Eiffel Tower on the door (or click this link):


For the scene in which what the lift (elevator) operator has to go through before he can get the lift to start, watch this clip (or click this link):

And for a rather interesting window cleaning scene, watch this clip (or click this link):


TWiT Nutwork on the PSP
Alex Rearick from Ohio learned about the "TWiT Nutwork" when the PSP gained RSS capability.  He listened to the back episodes, and enjoyed thoroughly the classic episode of the Key Buoy (Episode 149).  He's even got himself a GizWizBiz Cap.  New ones, with 30 hours of burn time, are available from Dick's website.

Lighter than all other Curves with a full QWERTY keyboard, the Blackberry Curve 8320 has all the core Blackberry functions: email and text messaging, instant messaging and web browsing.  It has a 2MP camera, media player, expandable memory (micro SD) and voice dialling.  You can also record and email voice messages.  New to the Curve is Wifi capability, in addition to GPRS and EDGE.

T-Mobile's version supports AOL, MSN, Yahoo and ICQ.  The phone can connect voice calls using Wifi UMA (unlicensed mobile access) by taking advantage of wifi connections at T-Mobile's Hotspots and Hotspot@Home.

Worse than the Toothpick Bird?
Kelly Price thinks that while the Toothpick Bird (Episode 282) from Archie McPhee is at least amusing and useful, Squawkers McCaw (Episode 413) is just annoying, almost as bad as the talking, singing mounted bass.  This could be the same letter which Dick and Leo referred to in Episode 419.  Dick stands by his bird.

RPN
Alexandro ticks Leo off for failing to give the complete picture of the reason for using RPN for the HP35 (Episode 415).  It's more efficient for both the CPU of the calculator and for the user.

Listen to Episode 422
Go to TWiT
Read Dick's Write-Up

Ultimate Buds
Daryl writes in about Ultimate Buds and their special adapter for the iPhone and Etymotic ER6i combination.


"I'll Be Here" ?
A listener has a complaint about Dick's tag line "I'll be here".  Dick and Leo take immediate action.

Listen to Episode 396
Read Dick's Write-Up
Go to TWiT