Hands on review: Vibram Five Fingers Shoe

I first noticed the five fingers from Vibram about 6 months go when i was walking pass some restaurant in Hong Kong. I thought I was seeing things – strange looking shoes. My cousin brought it up when he started talking about runners and shoes, and how the body has a way to correct bad postures – in particular the knee, and foot joints. I was intrigued. Unfortunately, the five fingers is not sold here in Hong Kong. I had to wait for my opportunity to visit the US. In the mean time, my cousin suggested I tried the Nike Free 5.0 which supposingly has gotten very good reviews from the runners world. Sadly, the Nike Free series is history and no longer available in most shops in Hong Kong.

I finally got myself a pair of KSO, the walking / running model for $75 USD. I strongly suggest you measure the exact length of your foot (instead of just relying on the standard size). You have to have a pretty tight fit, any wobbling will make the shoes uncomfortable to wear, especially when you try to run with it.

SAMSUNG HM3100 Review

Samsung bluetooth HM3100

This headset came free as part of my purchase of the Samsung Galaxy S II mobile phone. The box came with three rubber tips, two plastic ear hinges, a HM3100 charger dongle and a micro usb charger.

Setting up the HM3100 with the Samsung Galaxy was a breeze. Simply enable bluetooth on the Galaxy, find the HM3100, pair it and that is it. On the headset itself, just press and hold the power button for 8 seconds.

Sound from the headset was kind of soft.  The other party was able to hear me very clearly, background sound was also clearly picked up.

Skype on Nokia E72 (Part 2)

Finally, Skype announced its compatibility on the Nokia E72 (Symbian v3 fp2). I downloaded it overnight and tried, worked first time. You can download it here by opening the phone’s internet browser. Bravo! One thing though, I am not sure if it actually utilise your 3G data plan and its preference with WIFI when both are available. I turned to offline mode when I made Skype calls. I also used the 3G data connection separately, the voice quality is acceptable, definitely not as well as WIFI.

Update: While I am not sure which WIFI/3G it uses when both are available, i am glad to let you know Skype over 3G gives very clear call quality. And judging from my 3G data count, it uses minimal data. now if and when it provides video call, my E72 will be complete.

Review: MagicPrefs

Got this tip from a friend (who actually dont have an Apple Magic Mouse). MagicPrefs is a free MacOS utility that allows additional pinchs/swipes/actions on the Apple Magic Mouse. It is a must have for all Apple Magic Mouse owners as it adds so much more flexibility to control the Magic Mouse. I have downloaded and been using it for about a few hours now. A mouse icon will appear on the menu bar to allow you quick access to the setting once installed.

The only minor complain I have (and this could be purely me) is, now that I have configured the middle portion of the Mouse to be the middle button, my finger needs to be a little more precise in position on the mouse for the left and right click.

See the screen capture below on what you can configure.

To download, simply visit here

A great and highly recommended utility!

Nikon D3s High ISO capability

Wow! I am blown away with the Nikon D3s High ISO comparison. Over the Christmas holidays I have taken a few Christmas party photos, here is a sample at ISO 5000:

You can take a look at the full images here.

I am glad I traded the D700 – though I have to pay a lot more for this beast….more to come as I explore into the functions and features.

Unboxing Nikon D3s

Merry Christmas 2009, guess I have been a good boy this year, Santa dropped a wonderful present I have long waited. The D3s is very similar in size and weight compare to my D2Hs. The feel of the construction is a bit ‘different’. It seems Nikon is using a different kind of plastic to wrap the body, the same material used in the 24-70mm zoom. Time will tell if it is as durable. I was told this is the 2nd shipment (the first being a couple of weeks ago) with very limited quantity, we will have to wait for a couple of months for the next shipment…. see the unboxing photos

Nokia E72 & Skype

Skype has just released a native client to the Symbian 60 FP1 and FP2 platform. You can access it here. Unfortunately it does not yet support E72. I tried, the native client installed successfully. I was able to call another Skype user via wifi and 3G, he can hear me, but unfortunately I was not able to hear him. Guess I have to wait a little longer….

Sony Reader PRS 600 Touch Edition – new software

On Dec 11, 2009, Sony announced a major revamp to its eReader store. Along with a revision to its Windows/Mac software to enable Sony Reader to purchase books online.

I am glad Sony is continuing to keep the pace up and it is definitely on the right track. I previously reported that the Sony software (v3.0) did not work on my iMac despite many attempts. I am happy to report the new version 3.1 works perfectly, on the first attempt. I downloaded the software from the download page, install as instructed. The Sony software will restart your computer so please save any files you may have opened.

When the iMac rebooted, it automatically detected my PRS 600 and launched the eReader software. I was able to access to both the SD and MSDUO memory cards as well as the internal memory. Everything is working. Now all I have to do is find the books I want.

Nokia E72 Bug report

I thought I will share some of the inconsistencies from my Nokia E72, I hope Nokia comes out with a new firmware soon. Here it goes:

Generic

- Long press Contacts does not bring out the new contact screen
- Long press Message does not bring out the new message screen but instead it goes to new primary email.
- Switching between applications sometimes freezes (one can get back to the home screen by holding on to the Home key)
- When plugged into the traditional charger, it says “unplug to save energy”
- Takes a long time to retrieve email body (if you did not set the email to download header plus)
- Contact search only searches the last name field (from the home screen, one can simply type to look up names from Contact)

Application specific

- Nimbuzz crashes randomly. This may have to do with the setting ‘use wifi if available’.
- Opera Mobile 10, Beta 1-2, there is no way to enter the ‘u’ letter (use Opera Mini Beta instead)
- Can’t get QuickOffice free upgrade (had to engage QuickOffice support to get the latest QF6.x upgrade file)
- A4 Chinese input method not available for S60 FP2
- Traveler seems to remain in memory after exit – using up battery

Nokia E72 Hands on review

Now that I have the Nokia E72 for a little over a week, I am going to provide some user experience.

Physical appearance

When I first got the handset, I definitely feel that it is not as slim and thin as the Nokia E71. It looks a little chubby like a Blackberry bold. With the plastic side, it also feels not as solid and not as high class compare to the E71. Nevertheless, the black color model gives a distinct feel, with good keyboard layout. However, the Hong Kong model’s keyboard is also printed with the canji chinese input method (along with roman numerals and the alphabets), making the layout confusing and hard to read. Personally, i think the spacebar now is a tad too short.

Battery

One of the selling points for the new E72 is a more powerful CPU and thus a longer battery life. Having used the E72 for a bit over a week, I am definitely not seeing any battery improvement. In fact, I need to recharge the battery more often. Discounting the first couple of days when I experiment different applications, and settings, I have now gone back to having just email as a constant on application. The phone usually last 2.x days, with the battery guarge lasts more than 1.x before dropping from the 100%, once the battery starts to go down, it will need to be recharged within a day. I have also switched from dual mode to just GSM mode to obtain battery usage.

Stability and performance

About 90% of the time, I would say the E72 is a lot more responsive than the E71. However, the E72 sometimes just freeze. It is definitely (for the applications I use) less stable than the E71. Nimbuzz for example, will crash randomly (I have reinstalled and rebooted a few times) at start up. This applies to the built in apps such as the Calendar, Contact and Messaging. A long press to bring up a new Calendar entry usually takes a couple of seconds (instantaneous on the E71). For Contact, the long press does not bring up a new contact entry screen (a bug)? For Messaging, the long press does not allow me to configure to a new sms message (it goes to one of the emails by default).

List of applications I have on the E72

Nimbuzz
Google map
Google search
Skyfire
Calcium
Nokia Photo Browser

The verdict

I definitely miss my E71, I hope Nokia release a new firmware soon. Despite of the short comings, a few items worth noting:
- fast CPU
- 3.5mm headphone
- built in accelerometer (works in Nokia Photo Browser)
- Arguably, better music
- Arguably, better photo
- I miss the A4 Input (chinese input application by Nokia)
- the Optical Navi key works, the D pad is quicker