I stumbled upon a new web browser (as if there aren’t enough of them already). It’s called Flock browser and is based on the Mozilla browser. It quite unique in that it pulls all of your favorite people, places and content together into a convenient view and delivers a more personal experience of the web.

I will give it a go for a couple of days and see how I get on with it. I am not really into all the social websites (Facebook, Flickr, Youtube etc), but it has a Mozilla feel to it, so worth a try out!

Flock Features

Damn, I can’t believe I can put a 16GB micro SDHC memory card in my original Nokia N95. There seems no reason now for me to upgrade my phone. It just shows you how smart this little phone is even if it came out over eighteen months ago.

The price of memory especially in the SDHC department has come down so much over the past year. I think I paid £80 for my 6GB twelve months ago, and now the 16GB sells for £50. (Insane)…

Here is a mobile phone compatibility chart from mymemory.co.uk just in case you buy the memory card and discover it does not work in your phone.

It’s been a while since I wrote anything worthy on here, and looking at my desk got me thinking about the few new bits of hardware that I have been using a lot recently that was money well spent.

Synology Cube Station CS407 4-Bay Sata Gigabit Network

I have had the Synology Cube Station now for about 3 months. I have had a few problems with dodgy hard disks, which to be fair have not been caused by the CS407. This NAS is incredible, quick and has a plethora of extras thrown in for good measures, namely IP Camera Video Recording (I.P. Surveillance if you are into that sort of thing), Photo Station, File Station, Website hosting, iTunes Server, BT (Bit Torrent) download etc, AD support, MAC compatible, SSH, Telnet, FTP etc). It has an awesome interface and it’s very easy to use. Best of all it supports 4 Sata/SataII disks, and large capacity. I currently have 2TB’s in the way of 4×500GB at my disposal. Did I mention it’s silent as well? It’s also future proof as there are regular firmware updates from Synology’s online site. For an excellent review on this beast of a NAS, look at Benchmark Reviews, who review it in all it’s glory.

Magic Bridge II

Through the years I have collected hard drives of all sizes & types (IDE, SATA/SATA2) from the various PC’s I’ve owned, rather than throw them away. You never know what people can find on a hard drive, even when you think you have formatted it. You see it on TV all the time, these crooks use software to get back sensitive information.

So I have mine all in a box, just gathering dust, until last weekend that is, when I discovered this neat little gadget calledMagic Bridge II. It allows one to connect an IDE or SATA/II or eSATA drive or both together (SATA on one end and IDE on the other end) to a USB interface. It is brilliant and fast, since it’s USB2.0 connection (or 1.1 if you have the older type). To start, just slide a disk(s) onto the connector and hit the power button. There is also a backup button, which you can press and it backs up the contents of the disk to your HD. The Magic Bridge comes with all the power connectors, cables etc that one would need. It’s small and light as well. Backing up software to old or spare drives couldn’t be easier. It’s even better than an enclosure, since this supports everything. I paid £33 for it at Maplin.
Note: The only problem I have come across is that it doesn’t recognise drives with multiple partitions. In Computer Management it shows the disk as unknown and “format the partition” is the only option. Formatting the disk into one partition does the trick, but if this was an old disk with stuff on it, then Magic Bridge II is not the solution to reading the disk.

Belkin High Speed USB 2.0 7 Port Hub

Having an iMac has some serious disadvantages, especially if one has lots of USB devices. I have loads (Camera, Phone, Universal Remote, Magic Bridge, Key, speakers, webcam, keyboard, external drive etc), and the iMac is sadly lacking in the USB 2.0 department with only 3 USB ports. So to compliment the lack of USB I bought a Belkin 7 port USB 2.0 hub. It’s got two vertical ports which is great for quick inserts or pullouts, and 5 ports at the back for those devices that are always in use. For £17 from PC World it was money well spent. The hub is weighted as well, and has a cable management clip. Very useful.

There is this great new application called Mobbler, that allows you to login to LastFM account on your mobile and to stream music. The set up is pretty basic and it worked very well provided there was signal.

I tried it out on the train this morning, and it was not as reliable as I had hoped. Once it loses connection, you have to manually reconnect. (Lets hope this gets changed in newer versions as it is a right pain if your phone is buried in your pocket).

Overall I like where they are going with this application and would highly recommend using it!

Note: you need to have an account on LastFM before trying to use this application. You can sign up here.

If you log into LastFM on the web, you’ll notice they have updated your library, which is very cool.

I found the most awesome review site. It is called Test Freaks and it reviews just about everything you can think of in the digital world. (Computers, Video and Television,  HiFi, Cameras, Camcorders, Outdoor equipment, Car equipment, etc).

It lists popular products, top products and even lists recommended prices and best prices and has reviews from experts as well as user reviews.

Now here’s a game that I could play for hours. I’ve waited for months in order to make a saving, while everyone has raved about this game. On the weekend I was in Zavvi (the old Virgin mega stores - apparently Richard Branson sold his shares so the company rebranded). Anyway, I saw the wireless plastic guitar and game all in one box, and thought I must have that game, and I have absolutely no regret, in buying it. We (my lovely wife) and I have been playing it non stop. It’s that good. Image from EuroGamer. Click the link for an excellent review. There is no point me telling you something that is already covered in their review. They give it a 9 out of 10, and I would pretty much agree. It’s excellent and highly addictive. Just a pity I had to go to bed.

As crazy as that might read, it’s actually very simple to do and will cost you very little money, (unless of course your waterproof bag breaks and leaks, and @#%$’s up your expensive phone), in which case, "you try anything I have said at your own risk". Just make sure you buy the right bag. I bought mine on the flight over to Mexico. It was in the duty free catalog, and was selling for £15. In the box were three vacuum sealed bags, each with three seals on each bag. One bag was for a clam phone, another for a mini camera, and the third bag was for an iPod. It even came with waterproof headphones. A jolly good idea. Please note: Even though the camera bag is meant for a mini camera, a camera with a lense would easily break, because there is not much scope for the extending lense, but for the Nokia N95 it was perfect, because the lense does not extend. You do get bigger bags, but I can’t imagine it being very practical. It would be better to stick with a proper camera housing then with seals. For a test subject, I placed a tissue in the bag and sealed it. I then held it underwater in the bath. A few bubbles released, which I read were correct, and after a few minutes was pleasantly surprised. No leaks what so ever. It is actually very clever the way the bag seals and then folds over each other. There is a black plastic sheath that goes over the seals and it has some plastic yellow clips to secure it in place. The bag also has a strap which can be tightened or loosened as need be. The bag also floats, which is an extra bonus. So as mentioned above I tested the bag with my Nokia N95 inside, at a place called Xel-ha in Mexico. Xel-ha has the most spectacular natural aquarium of the world. It’s a large natural salt water inlet, and you are encouraged to snorkel and use a tube to paddle around the bay. There are tons of fish where ever you swim, and being in the Caribbean, the water is warm. It’s impossible to get cold. I took loads of photos with my phone in the bag, while in the water and it was incredible knowing i had a good camera around my neck, rather than one of those ‘cheap and nasty box, use-once and then throw away’ cameras that the shops sell for a killing. I didn’t just use it above water, underwater it worked just as well. Bear in mind this is a photo through the transparent plastic. No bad at all. Nothing wrong with those colours. (These photos have been resized for the web site). I didn’t just take photos. No way oze! The Nokia N95 has an excellent video camera on board, and because the bag was transparent and flexible, it was very easy to use the phone in the water, so I just flicked over to the video mode and shot loads of video as well (with sound). I had an 8GB SDHC card in the phone, which meant I could take over 2 hours worth of video. The web site or email video mode is sufficient as you will see, and about 2 or 3 minutes worth of video takes up about 4MB. High quality mode, which is viewable on a TV takes up about 21MB for every 3 or 4 minutes give or take, so you can take a lot of video if you have the right card. I had over 4GB’s of music on the phone as well, so it wasn’t a problem for me. Below are some videos that I took with the Nokia N95. They are also on Youtube.com if you’re interested. (Just search for Lookatbowen or ‘Nokia N95 Underwater’. Everyone out there on the bridge or in the water was extremely jealous that I had this camera bag, and some were even more surprised to see me with a Nokia phone in the water. The dumb founded stares were quite funny. So many people asked me where they could buy the bag from. If only I had a salesman brain, I would have bought the entire stock on the plane (Next time!!!). Finally I would definitely recommend this product. There are various sites selling these bags online. You can do the searches yourself. I am not giving them a free advert. Although be careful, as I have seen a few US sites selling them separately for ridiculous prices. I got everything (camera bag, ipod bag with waterproof earphones & clam phone bag) for £15 or $30. Mike

For a few years now I have wanted a proper media center that is not connected to a PC, but more like a standalone system that can access your network or shared devices. Well that time as finally arrived, with the arrival of the Popcornhour network media streamer. Unless you frequent Audio/Visual Forums or websites, the chances are pretty great that you have never heard of it. However if you are interested in knowing more, click on the following link: (Streamers and Network Players).

As these devices go, they are cutting edge and not available in the high street. They are also somewhat buggy and unless you are willing to settle with a device where you’ll have your fair share of hiccups it’s recommend you not buy one. Of course the advantages of owning one is that you get to test theses new devices, advice the makers of bugs, and hopefully they fix them and release new firmware  and you have a player that plays every possible format (codec) under the sun.

The popcornhour is no bigger than DVD enclosure, and fits perfectly underneath your LCD or amongst your other media devices and is an incredible piece of equipment considering it can play all of the following formats:

Video [extension(s)] :
• ASF/WMV [.asf, .wmv] | MOV/MP4 [.mov, .mp4] | MPEG2PS [.ps] | MPEG2TS [.ts] | AVI [.avi, divx] | MPG [.mpg, .mpe, .mpeg, .m2v, .vob, .vro]

Video :
• 4 standard definition streams (PAL and NTSC formats) in any of the following
format: VC-1, H.264, MPEG-4 and MPEG-2
• One high definition stream 1920 x 1080i(60), 1920 x 1080p (30), 1280 x720p
(60) and one standard definition stream simultaneously
• H.264 BP@L3, MP/HP@L4.0, HP@L4.1
• WMV9 MP@HL
• VC-1 MP@HL, AP@L3
• MPEG-4 ASP @L5 1
• MPEG-2 MP@HL and MP@ML

Subtitle [extension(s)] :
• MicroDVD [.sub]
• SubRip [.srt]
• Sub Station Alpha [.ssa]
• Sami [.smi]

Audio [extension(s)] :
• WAV [.wav, .pcm] | ADIF, ADTS [.aac] | M4A [.m4a] | O.G.G. [.ogg] | ASF/WMA [.asf, .wma] | FLAC [.flac]

Audio :
• MPEG 1/2 Audio Layers I, II, and III (MP3)
• Dolby Digital® (AC-3)
• DTS
• PCM
• MPEG-2/4 AAC LC and HE
• Microsoft WMA and WMA Pro
• Supports the audio sampling rates at 8, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, and 96KHz
• Audio samples at 16, 20, 24, and 32 bits per channel
• FLAC (software decode)

and supports the following networks and Protocols:

Networking :
• Ethernet interface, 10-baseT/100-baseT
• miniPCI card slot for IEEE 802.11n
- Wi-Fi SSID : Maximum 64 characters
- Wi-Fi Security : WEP 64-bit, WEP 128-bit, WPA, WPA2

Protocols :
• UPnP AV NMPR v2.1
• UPnP 1.0 (connect to myiHome Lite)
• Bonjour
• Streaming via HTTP protocol over local network or the Internet
• WMS over HTTP support via the Internet
• RTSP over HTTP support via the Internet
• Multicast/IGMP support (optional)

But that is not all. You can also go online and watch online videos from sites such as YouTube, Google Video, MetaCafe, VideoCast, DL.TV, Cranky Geeks.
You can also listen online to the following: iPodcast, Radiobox, ABC News, Jamendo
Share or post Photos at Flickr, Picasa
Keep track of RSS feeds from Yahoo! Check the Weather, Traffic alerts, Stock, Cinecast, Traffic Conditions.
You can watch Peer-to-peer TV from SayaTV and listen to Internet Radio from Shoutcast.

It is an incredible device, and what makes it really special is that the firmware updates can be accessed online from the box and the team behind the Popcornhour (NMT - Network Media Tank) are constantly improving this device, which is a welcoming thought.

A month or so ago I decided to buy an Apple Macintosh just because it’s something different and NOT Windows related. Over the years, I have gotten tired of Windows and all the problems associated with this operating system. It just doesn’t float my boat anymore. Windows XP for me was the best, and Vista is just a mix of XP and everything else Microsoft stole from other OS’s and it has some annoying pop-ups that prompt one for silly things. Boring!!!

I did my usual investigation into every possible Apple option and in the end decided to go for an iMac 20" because it’s basically a LCD screen with everything build into it (3xUSB ports, Bluetooth, Wireless, Network, DVD and a lovely 20" glass screen). Added extras are the wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, which makes the iMac experience even better because there is literally only 1 cable going into the back of the screen (and that is the power cable).

It is truely a clutter free experience.

My original concerns were that it only has 3 USB ports and that on my old PC I had at least 8 devices plugged into USB ports (USB DVDRW, camera, webcam, mouse, keyboard, printer USB Disk, phone etc), but in reality how often did i use all those devices simultaneously. Not very often to be honest. With the keyboard and mouse taken care of I still have three spare USB ports available. If push came to shove, I still have my windows laptop with ample USB ports so this worry soon disappeared.

As for future proofing it, I figured I would get a large Hard Disk (500GB), and I would get the maximum memory available (4GB), but shock turned into horror when I realised that Apple sell 4GB of RAM for a staggering £450 (extra)…. They must catch a lot of sucker!!!!
www.overclockers.co.uk sell the very same 4GB of RAM that the iMac uses for £76 (Yes, Apple.com - that is Seventy six pounds not £450).

Eight days later and all I can say is that the Mac is AWESOME! It just works brilliantly, it’s refreshingly different, flat out (even on 1GB of RAM it flies, although I have since upgraded to 4GB) and it’s lightening fast. It is fairly easy to use and is similar to Windows in many ways. It is user friendly. One would have to be really stupid if you couldn’t figure it. I haven’t had any pop-ups, or prompts etc. I am still trying to get my head around all the mounting of software, but it’s definitely better than installing software that gets installed in a hundred and one locations.

The 20" screen is more than big enough for what I plan to use it for (email, internet surfing, downloading, programming, watching videos, etc). It even came with a remote for the media experience. A very nice touch!

At first the most annoying thing was the keyboard because it doesn’t have some basic keys (e.g. DEL, INS, Page Up, Page Down, #, HOME, END)… but after learning the keyboard shortcuts (and there are many of them), it’s a pleasure to use. The keyboard is tiny, but the keys are really firm, well spaced out, and typing fast is is easy.

I hate the mighty mouse, it’s just crap, and I would not recommend it at all. I’ve a Logitech mouse with proper buttons on it, and if one is use to that type of mouse, then the mac mouse will never match it. (there goes 1 USB port - 2 remaining).

As for software, well there is no shortage of software, and if you think that Windows can do everything, then fear not, because I have matched all my software with Apple software and it works 100 times better and faster with less hassle. I have no intention of installing Windows on my Mac (pointless if I’m trying to get away from Windows), but it’s nice to know the option is there.

I would definitely recommend an Apple Macintosh (iMac 20"). Yes, they are slightly more expensive that a Windows PC, but then I guess you get what you pay for.

Paypal are really jacked up these days. I recently received an email from them telling me my account had been suspended or given limited access for whatever reason.

I figured this was one of those prank emails, and just ignored it. Tonight I logged into Paypal, only to discover they had indeed suspended my account, but had picked up the fact that my card had expired. They do various checks and then give you a call to the telephone number / card holders address. This is actually a damn good idea, that way they can verify the card holders address and details. And it all happens instantly.

Kudos to Paypal. it’s good to know there is someone looking after my online financial affairs.