How are normal users able to know which are the possibilities and impossibilities of the devices and applications they use on a daily basis. Not to mention want to buy.

For me it started in the 90′s… U.S. Robotics had a modem on the market which gave the users the option to run a firmware upgrade so features could be added. Short after the first features even new speeds were possible via upgrading. Now this is more common than you can imagine. Almost all devices have some kind of upgrade system.

The reason for this is that manufacturers can release their products faster on the market. They can correct minor mistakes, often called bugs, or even add new features. Nowadays updates are also more published in the news because many times a new version implies a solution for a security issue.

Here are some examples of devices :

1. Television (Sony v1.730EA)
2. Mobile phone (My Sony Ericsson X1 runs Christian’s ROM version 5.721 with SPB Home Shell version 3.5.5)
3. Tablet (Apple iPad version 3.2.1)
4. Multimedia player (Playon!HD Mini, beta v7.00.21r4312)
5. Playstation 3 (version 3.31, since a while 3D support)

The TV can now since the upgrade support CI+ modules which my cable provider Ziggo uses without the need to purchase a new TV. My mobile phone is more than 1.5 years old but thanks to the new ROM upgrade it has the newest applications and features like the modern phones have. My tablet is able to connect to newer WiFi networks since the upgrade and applications are running faster. The multimedia player supports new video formats. My PS3 can now play 3D games, twitter and Facebook without the need to buy a new console.

Ofcourse there is a limit on the new features. On a certain moment the device will hits its limit. It can not process the data fast enough, then it’s time to replace the device. Upgrading does lengthen the life span of your device, not doubt about that.

If you compare versions in applications you can see it’s a real mess. Maybe you are surfing via Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 or FireFox 3.0, this website is currently running on 3.0.1 of WordPress and I can continue for hours and hours. Techies can keep track of this, but normal users can’t. A worse administrator doesn’t do it. Companies with this kind of administrators are often victim of hackers, hackers use a lot of time the known security holes of old versions of software, they call them exploits.

1. Adsense Check for iPhone, iPod and iPad (checking your adsense accounts)
2. iAnnotate PDF for iPad (reading, mark PDFs)
3. Air Video voor iPad (view any video on your PC/Mac anywhere (also via internet) on our iPad)
4. Formula 1 Timing ’10 CP for iPad (view realtime stats on iPad during F1 game)
5. Star Walk (look into the sky with your iPad and explore the universe)
6. LogMeIn Ignition (connect to any LogMeIn client via your iPad)
7. WiFi Analyzer (analyze WiFi routers, signal strength but also channel ranking)
8. Facebook (use facebook)
9. Shazam for iPad (let Shazam listen to a song and it will recognize it)
10. Twitterific (Twitter app for ipad)

Some apps need an active internet connection while using the app.

The modelnumber HP assigned the device is XB830PA. You can read here the information on the HP site. That the product is almost final is because I also found the accessoiries page which is : https://h10057.www1.hp.com/ecomcat/hpcatalog/specs/provisioner/05/XB830PA_link.htm

It won’t take a long time before everything comes official. We need to have a little bit patience….

The first technical preview and beta had already stole my heart. How fast Office 2010 was working. Still I wanted to inform you briefly about some problems I experienced, which all early adopters have.

You can install fffice 2010 as 64-bit version. Nice idea, I thought. Works really fast. It didn’t take long for me to discover that a lot of applications weren’t working with the 64-bit version of Office 2010 because… they still are 32 bit. It should be supported via WOW64 but it sometimes doesn’t work at all. Microsoft also states this when you are installing the 64-bit version, you can also read this in 32 or 64 bits version office 2010 .

Windows Mobile Device Center for example, the new version of ActiveSync, is behaving strange. Several people already reported that their Windows Mobile phone lost all their contacts while syncing with Office 2010 64 bit. Microsoft Phone is the utility to have for having a backup. Always nice… to have a backup nearby.

I installed the 32 bit version when I read also the Sharepoint lists are not available in 64 bit.

The final conclusion is that 2010 is a really good version. Like I started, the betas impressed me, they work really good.

Here you see some examples of Kinect, new games and the new XBOX360:

Read here the official announcement from Microsoft on the E3 and the video in full quality.

Right after the publication I started to doubt. 10 hours battery is amazing. I have to admit I didn’t believe the marketing video Gizmodo. The difference would be too big in relation of the iPad. I was realizing the fact that the iPad was available on the market on the Courier not ‘yet’. Also I didn’t wanted to wait for eternity. It was a  good decision I didn’t wait. When the iPad arrived I received the message that the HP Slate but also the Microsoft Courier are cancelled and not would come on the market like they published.

People who know me well know I don’t judge on brands and flavours. I’m not a Linux hater or Windows lover. Systems and brands can be a better solution than others. I’m happy the market has this differance. Like also Apple. Nice marketing and slick design. Some tasks really well make, some other tasks I would prefer Windows or Linux solutions over Apple.

What caused that I eventually bought an Apple product? I read on an American blogsite that synchronizing with Microsoft Exchange was possible from the box. On that moment I thought that Apple for this first time also marketed on business users. I went to read more reviews to see the possibillities. I wanted to have a solution for my manuals, instructions and lesson material which I have in PDF and ePub format. I saw on YouTube.com a review of iBooks with the possibility of making bookmarks. For me, this feature alone, it was the reason to buy the iPad. You also have to imagine what it costs when you every time have to print a 500 page counting eBook, often I need to do this in color. After the printing I mark the special paragraphs and pages. A task which cost a lot of time and money for the material. Then I experienced for the first time Apple’s AppStore. Now I get what they mean about it. It’s really good. I found iAnnotate PDF. This programm, or shall I say App, does exactly what I wanted. It has even more features than iBook. You can read PDFs but you can also mark words, sentences like you do with a marker.You can bookmark and add texts and drawings. Exactly what I was looking for. And for US$ 9.95… that’s what I call a bargain!

Let’s do some complaining… I have the first iPad model which came out, the 16GB WiFi. 16 GB is not really available for the user. It’s 14.02 GB… I expected this but I wanted to mention it anyways. Then the label Apple uses a lot… HD. Nothing on the iPad is HD. The resolution is 1024×768 while specifications of the HD format states that widescreen has a resolution of 1280×720. The screen is beautiful, no doubt about this, but technical it’s not HD.

Back to the features.

Because the iPad is not yet available in The Netherlands I experienced some little issues when registering my iPad. When I entered my information the websites responded the iPad was not for sale in my region. Funny thing was that I was registering with my iPad. I found a link on google which explains how to solve this. The next issue came. My credit card was not an American which it didn’t accept, also here is google your friend. People in the Netherlands who will buy the iPad in July (hehehe) will not have this problem. But to be honest this all didn’t stall me more than 5 minutes. After that I could look around in the AppStore.

I want to come back to the standard apps.

Like mentioned before your data can be easily synchronised with an Exchange server. In my case it’s a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. It works well, all my calendar, e-mail and contacts are nicely synced.

Calendar:

The colors you can assign to your appointments can not be syncronised, all items have the blue color. The overview looks great.

Contacts:

If you have photos with your contacts in Outlook will be synchronised. Also notes which you have entered under your contacts in outlook are synchronised.

I will not discuss the other standard programs because other sites done that already lots of time.

Look here my Top 10 iPad apps.

LogMeIn Ignition:

Some people do know LogMeIn for the PC. You can remote control your PC. Provide help or assistance via internet. With LogMeIn Ignition for the iPad you can controle all your LogMeIn computers. Really handy and the app cost US$ 29.95.

The music part is well organised. I used my Bose InEar headphone and the sound was good.

I’m happy with the features of the iPad. Apple has done a good job. The AppStore did even more than I expected. Really good implemented. These little software developers listen really well to their customers.

UPDATE…

I experienced some problems when synchronising via iTunes. A PC in a Windows 2008 domain is not really iTunes friend.

I found that the roving profiles, different folder permissions, SMB2 and several other little things I had to fine tune some settings before it worked stable. Now it’s fine… EQ32NM5KA4YB

1. Formula 1 ’10 Timing App

• When I saw this app on Youtube, I was sure…I had made the correct choice.  This App shows that the iPad is more than just a color eBook reader. It’s worth the price of 30 US$.  I follow Formula One strictly. While watching I have always my statistics with me, realtime. This is a good addition.

2. RDP Lite

• Remote Desktop Connection Client which allows your iPad to make RDP sessions. I tested it with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and Windows 2008 Server 64 bit. Works great and is free!

3. iAnnotate PDF

• Turn your iPad into a PDF reader with a lot of features

4. QuickVoice Recorder

• This little and free app is really handy. You can record your notes via the builtin mic and send it via e-mail

5. Sociable

• Twitter and Facebook

6. Adobe Ideas

• Draw your own ideas and send them by e-mail. The receiver will see a PDF file with your drawing. Easy, simple but effective

7. Siphon (orginally an iPhone app)

• SIP on your iPad. I tested it with several SIP VoIP accounts and it works well!

8. Photoboard HD

• A funny way to share your photo’s in a natural viewing way…

9. ComicZeal

• Read all your digital comics in color without converting them

10. Reuters News Pro

• Nice app of Reuters with news.

HP said goodbye to the HP Slate. For the people who don’t know what a HP Slate is… Microsoft in person of Steven Ballmer announced the HP Slate running Windows 7 on the CES. That’s friend number 1

Friend number 2 is Microsoft… I was, sorry I have to write ‘am’, charmed of the features presented of the Microsoft Courier, finally a way to say goodbye to my paper journal… but Microsoft has announced that the Courier will not come on the market. That’s disappointment 2…

It did took longer than most people who know me expected. The first product of Apple that has my support is the Apple iPad. I never been against Apple. I only think most users of Apple products believe the marketing a little bit to enthousiastic. But the truth is Apple always has the marketing done well. I think the iPad will be the start of a trend we will see in the market of eReaders. Their product exist and works. HP and Microsoft left this tablet market premature. Dutch announcement of the iPad has not been confirmed yet but rumours indicate availablity in the Netherlands around september 2010. Dutch newspaper Telegraaf and Autoweek announced their vision on iPad. Great!

Since a while I use a Sony Ericsson X1 Xperia smartphone. This mobile runs Windows Mobile. There are custommade ROMs available and one of the best, made by a Dutchman, is the Christian Rom.

What can you do with a phone with this ROM? I want to summarize what I use, it’s a long list but not everything what is possible.

Above you see the list of programs. From left to right:

• Adobe Reader LE - Windows Mobile version to be able to view PDF
• Afbeeldingen en video’s – dutch for Pictures and videos
• Audio-booster – this program will give a deeper sound if a headphone is connected
• FBTV – I don’t use it, it’s a TV guide
• Midomi – a program you can sing a song which the program tries to recognize and if so it will give you the name of the song and singer/group (internet necessary)
• NOS Mobiel – mobile app for dutch NOS (internet necessary)
• Nos Teletekst – mobile app so you can see the dutch teletext services of NOS (internet necessary)
• SPB Screenshot – can be used to make screenshots, I made all these you see with this program
• Streaming Media -for Windows Media streaming
• Uitzending gemist – mobile app to see missed programs from public broadcasting (internet necessary)
• Windows Media - mediaplayer ofMicrosoft
• Youtube – nice Youtube application
• You see the folders Internet, Multimedia, Office Mobile 2010, spelletjes, tools en utilities which contain a lot of programs and some games
• ActiveSync is used for synchronize your data with an Exchange server or computer
• Alarmen is Dutch for Alarms
• Bing makes it possible you can search via the Bing searchengine
• Comm manager you can enable or disable connections
• Contacten, dutch for Contacts
• E-mail
• Extern bureaublad is the Remote Desktop client for Windows Mobile, dutch version
• Facebook is, you’ll never guess it, to see and change facebook activities (extra installed)
• Google maps, now included Street view!

• Hyves, Dutch social network (extra installed)

• Internet explorer
• Marathon (extra installed)
• Marketplace
• Messenger
• Microsoft MyPhone – synchronize all your data with je gegevens with Microsoft server, very usefull when upgrading a lot

• Microsoft Tag reader
• MSN geldzaken, dutch for MSN Money
• MSN Weer, MSN Weather in Dutch
• MusicID, like Midomi but you can’t sing yourself, detection of songs works really good (from radio, TV, etc…)

• Opera Mobile 10 – nice browser for Windows Mobile
• Panels - Xperia panels, I don’t use it
• PockeTwit – Twitter client for Windows Mobile. Really good Twitter application

• PockeTwit QuickPost – You can post quickly a tweet on Twitter
• QuickGPS, data download for calibratie GPS
• Rekenmachine, calc in Dutch
• Skype
• SMS bericht, Text messagging
• SPB Home, shell I often use, extra installed the newest version

• SPB TV, program which you can use for looking TV streams(internet necessary)
• SPB Weather, weather program, extra installed

• Telefoon, Dutch for phone
• Total Commander
• Verkenner, Dutch for Explorer
• Vodafone
• Windows Live

And last but not least : TomTom Navigator with Complete Western European Map

You can find Christian’s ROM here : http://www.christian-web.nl/index.php

(UPDATE: I see now a version is availabe : 5.120)

I have an Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 mobile phone with Windows Mobile 6.5. I like it a lot.

But since a while I got the errormessage ’The system cannot find the path specified.’ when I tried to play a playlist in Windows Media player. I have a lot of special playlists created for different styles of music, what is my mood and  for playing Audiobook CD’s of  Jim Rohn or Tony Robbins…

I was annoyed with the errormessage and wanted to find quickly a solution via Google. I was puzzeld I found only 1 relevant link (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=362841) but it wasn’t the solution for my problem.

What was the case?

First I had an English firmware ROM on my phone but since a while I have used a Dutch ROM. I discovered that playlists have a logical referrer of the location which is not translated bu the OS. I saw that all files on the external memorycard in the .asx file were stored in their path as \Storage card\. I saw when I created a new playlist that the system didn’t use \Storage card\ in the path but it used \Opslagkaart\ (note, this is dutch for storage card). Little odd as you ask for my opinion, but ok, it’s like that. I changed the path in my ASX files from \Storage card\ to  \Opslagkaart\ and… it WORKS! It’s that easy… I expect this solution is for all foreign languages of Windows Mobile and not only affects the Dutch ROM.