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T|E part II

I’ve had the palmOne Tungsten E for almost a week now and I thought I’d post some additional thoughts.

I insisted on checking the T|E’s 5-way navigator button at the store when I bought it because of the reports of T|E units with poorly assembled navigator buttons. Mine seems to be fine and here’s hoping it stays that way because I use it frequently to scroll down when reading ebooks.

The beautiful and surprisingly bright colour transflective TFT display screen is a mere 5.5cm by 5.5cm but I had no problems whatsoever reading text. (You can enlarge the screen text if you’re having trouble.) The screen is thankfully free of the buzzing sound some T|E users have reported.

The battery life doesn’t seem to be great. Unless you use the T|E strictly for its PIM abilities, you will end up topping up the battery almost on a daily basis because the TFT screen and MP3 playback, in particular, will suck up juice quickly.

Speaking of music, I downloaded Aeroplayer, a Palm OS music player, in order to try out the T|E’s music playback. (The T|E software bundle includes RealOne Mobile Player but I was leery of Real products because of the company’s history.) Aeroplayer is free but only if you stick to music in the Ogg Vorbis format. Aeroplayer does play MP3s but you’ll have to pony up to get that functionality once the 14-day trial period is over. I didn’t feel like paying so I ended up using Quintessential Player and its Ogg Vorbis plug-in to convert a couple MP3s to the Ogg Vorbis format. Converting one lossy format to another will result in a hit to audio quality but if you’re using a PDA to listen to music I think it’s fair to assume you’re not especially concerned about audio quality.

And if you happen to be particularly unfussy about audio quality you might very well be satisfied by the audio produced by the T|E’s built-in speaker. Folks who care little for tinny sound, on the other hand, would be better off shopping for a good pair of headphones.

The T|E’s software bundle also includes Handmark’s MobileDB database software. MobileDB seems to be a tad basic but its users have been producing (and freely sharing) some cool databases. If you’re looking for a list of EPL 2004/2005 fixtures, a list of WWI German aces or a Futurama episode guide, head to the MobileDB archive and download away.

As far as I can tell, the T|E doesn’t seem to have native support for HTML files. I had to first convert HTML files with Plucker Desktop on my PC before I could read them on the T|E with the Plucker reader. Both programs are free but this seems more work than should be necessary for something so simple as reading a HTML document.

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By Gobi – Tuesday, August 24, 2004

RPG PK

Ah, role-playing games.

You spend hours upon hours creating your avatar, taking care to imagine all the major life events that shaped her and her outlook, thinking up a name that’s just right and figuring out a mode of speech she would use. You expend an extraordinary amount of effort to create a character … and then you run into B0N3D00D and pLaTeDeWd.

This strip, in particular, perfectly illustrates the tension between those who prefer the game aspect of RPGs and those who prefer the role-playing aspect.

(Link obtained from the Quarter to Three forum.)

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By Gobi – Monday, August 23, 2004

Smith-en

United started the day at the bottom of the table but things returned to some semblance of normalcy when the Red Devils beat Norwich 2-1 (BBC, Soccernet, ManUtd.com) at Old Trafford to earn their first win of the 2004/2005 Premiership campaign.

Keane played in the centre of defence once again. His lack of pace resulted in him being caught out on a number of occasions but United need his commanding presence and unflappability to marshall the defence. That said, Ferdinand cannot return soon enough.

United new boy Liam Miller started in the centre of midfield alongside Djemba-Djemba with Giggs and Bellion on the flanks. The midfield unit did well — Giggs, in particular, was in fine form today — but United couldn’t conjure up that many shots on goal despite dominating the play in the first half.

United finally broke the deadlock a minute after Norwich had nearly done so. Bentley (on loan from Arsenal) thumped a shot which rebounded off the crossbar with a resounding thwack and the United counterattack which ensued resulted in a Bellion goal after Smith had flicked on a Giggs cross.

Smith got United’s second five minutes after the restart when he chested a Giggs header and let fly with a left-footed volley which went in the net courtesy of the upright. John Dykes and company can stop looking for their goal of the week.

The win wasn’t as comfortable as it should have been because Norwich caused some anxious moments after pulling one back in the 73rd minute. For a moment it appeared the momentum had swung in the visitors’ favour but Ferguson played his trump card in the 85th minute when he replaced Miller with a tanned Ronaldo. The kid from Madeira came on to resounding cheers and it was business as usual as he showed off his repertoire of tricks and drew a number of fouls in the few minutes he was on. It was good to see him back and full of his usual swagger and confidence.

In other news, Forlan has been sold to Villareal. This seems an odd decision (even considering what a misfire Forlan has been) because United don’t have that many fit strikers at the moment. Saha is due to return for the trip to Blackburn but this still seems an unnecessary gamble. Is Ferguson going to buy a striker before the transfer deadline and if so, who? I doubt the board is going to approve the 20 or so million pounds it will take to pry Rooney from Everton right now.

Posted in Football.

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By Gobi – Sunday, August 22, 2004

Thunderstruck

Apparently, God doesn’t want me to watch Manchester United lose in the Premiership.

At least, that’s my impression after learning why my satellite decoder was non-functional on the day of the Chelsea-United match. Would you believe our satellite dish had been struck by lightning? What were the odds of this happening, I wonder?

I suppose I should count myself lucky the damage was restricted to the receiver on the dish. If the decoder set had been damaged as well, the repair bill would have been double what it was. (RM180, fact fans.)

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By Gobi – Friday, August 20, 2004

T|E

Tgnhl.isaap.anattea.mpl.ttotpry

That was my first attempt at trying my just-purchased palmOne Tungsten E‘s handwriting recognition capabilities. (It was supposed to be “This is an attempt to try”, in case you were wondering.)

I got the PDA from MyGadgets in Low Yat Plaza for RM788. As usual, my woeful attempts at bargaining amounted to naught. The salesman did throw in a RM69.90 USB cable slash charger—he claimed the USB cable bundled with the PDA couldn’t trickle charge the PDA but that’s not what the T|E manual says—and he did throw in a screen protector and a CD-ROM filled with bootleg Palm OS software. The Palm OS freeware scene has everything I need so I have no intention of chancing bad karma by installing the bootlegged software but I appreciated the screen protector.

I installed the Palm Desktop and associated programs on my PC and my first HotSync—this would be the fancy term palmOne uses for “connecting the PDA to the PC”—went without a hitch. I then installed the updates from palmOne’s support page and things seem to be A-OK.

I’m well aware of the problems some users have had with the T|E but I’m reasonably optimistic things will be fine. Besides, MyGadgets is offering a no-hassle replacement within the first 30 days and palmOne is offering a 12 month guarantee so I think I’m covered.

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By Gobi – Wednesday, August 18, 2004