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Archive for July, 2006

By Matt July 23, 2006 Read More →

Orange M3100 Release Date

A number of people have been emailing me about the release date of the Orange SPV M3100 (HTC Hermes). I don’t have a specific launch date to tell you but I have been told that it should be in Orange shops by the end of August at the latest.

I would imagine that it will be restricted to business customers only to begin with as this it what Orange have done with the previous devices such as the M2000, M1000 and the M500. It may well be the case that they will give preference to new connections too.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes]

Posted in: Phones

By Matt July 22, 2006 Read More →

Orange SPV M3100 Specification

You can find my Orange SPV M3100 review here.

As so many people are arriving at this site having Googled for ‘Orange M3100 Specification’ or ‘SPV M3100 Specification’ and ‘HTC Hermes Specification’ I thought I would dig out the information for you and post it up here!

Orange SPV M3100

Connectivity: Quad Band, UMTS, Edge, GPRS, HSDPA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi b/g

Processor: 400MHz Samsung stacked CPU

Camera: 2.0 Megapixels with Flash

Display: 240×320 pixel 2.8″ 65,000 Colour TFT

Keyboard: Slide out QWERTY keyboard, similar to HTC Universal, one Video Cam (front)

Form Factor: Similar size as HTC Wizard, also side Slide QWERTY

Memory: 64mb RAM + 128mb flash ROM

Power + Battery: Removable and rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer, Typical capacity: 1350 mAh, Standby time: Up to 200 hours for GSM; 180 ~ 250 hours for UMTS, Talk time (Screen off): 4 ~ 5 hours for GSM; 2 ~ 4 hours for UMTS

Memory Card: External MicroSD Slot

Interestingly the M3100 we saw at the MoDaCo summer event, like the SPV C100 (HTC Oxygen) and a few others, had a proprietary USB connector. If it comes to market with this connector, which I’m sure it will, it’s going to be really annoying!

You can now pre-order the M3100 from Expansys although the picture and specification they have listed is all wrong!

Some of you may be familiar with my review of the Orange SPV M2000 about 2 years ago. Well we are hoping that Orange will be kind enough to allow us to review an M3100 prior to it’s official release so that we can let everyone know whether or not it is worth ordering or waiting for. Orange, if you are listening, PLEASE!?!?

I’ll keep you posted!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes]

Posted in: Phones

By Matt July 22, 2006 Read More →

New Acer Laptop

This post is a bit of a double recommendation really.

Firstly I just bought myself a new Acer TravelMate 3012WTMi laptop. Although I’m only just unpacking it now I’m already over the moon with it! It’s small and light enough so as to be portable but not so small as to be unusable.

Acer TravelMate 3012

When I decided to get a new laptop I knew what I had in mind. It had to be small and light as I do a lot of commuting and would be using it on trains. I also needed decent battery life and it had to have a PCMCIA slot for my 3G Datacard. I was amazed at just how many of the smaller laptops now come without the PCMCIA slot, most of them now shipping with just a CF slot.

Up until now I have been a big fan of Dell laptops, the previous 3 laptops I have had were Dell. I really liked the Dell X1 but this only has the CF card slot. No good to me!

I briefly looked at getting one of the new UMPC‘s and toyed with the idea of the Samsung Q1 but the reviews of the UMPC platform in general have been pretty poor.

So a friend suggested looking at the Acer. Acer wasn’t really a brand I had considered for laptops before. I’ve had some Acer monitors which have been pretty good so I decided to check it out.

The specification of the 3012 was exactly what I was looking and more to boot. It’s powered by Intel’s new Core Duo processor and supported by 1Gb of RAM. The hards drive is a spacious 80Gb, more than enough for me. The screen is 12.1″ Widescreen with a res of 1280×800, again this is ideal for me. It also includes a 1.3 mega pixel webcam which is a nice addition. Finally it had the PCMCIA card slot that I desperatly needed.

So I shopped around for a while, getting prices, looking at the excellent reviews and decided that the Acer was the one for me.

This is where we come to my second recommendation. A friend told me about a new company called expedIT that he had used recently. So I gave them a call and asked them for a price for the Acer model I wanted. The guy that I spoke to there said that Acer wasn’t a brand that they stocked but that he would see if he could get a price for me.

About 15 minutes later the guy called me back and gave me a quote. It was the same as the best price that I had seen on the web but what made me buy it from them, other than that they had been recommended to me, was that they actually took the time to find out about the product that I had enquired about and had come back to me so quickly with the price. What’s more they were able to promise the delivery within two days. Sold!

As promised the laptop arrived yesterday and I’m just getting to play with it now. I’ll probably follow up later.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): Acer, laptop, TavelMate, Computing, technology]

Posted in: Laptops

By Tracy Davis July 20, 2006 Read More →

Discovery takes 93 Hits

[color=#6200aa] After Discovery’s safe landing on Monday from mission STS-121, the Orbiter was towed to the Obiter Processing facility where it will be prepared for it’s next mission STS-116.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]Preliminary inspection of the heat shield has identified 93 hits with 11 being over one inch in size. During the post mission press conference it was said that Discovery’s heat shield was ‘One of the cleanest [in terms of tile damage] that they had ever seen’. 93 hits sounds like a lot to me. Does anyone have data for previous missions? [/color]

[color=#6200aa]Meanwhile Atlantis is still being prepared for its next mission STS-115 due for launch on 28 August 2006.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]Tracy[/color]

[Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Discovery, Discovery, Space, Science, STS-121, STS-115, STS-116, Space Shuttle Atlantis]

Posted in: Science & Technology

By Matt July 19, 2006 Read More →

Orange SPV M3100

If you are looking for the M3100 review it’s HERE

During the MoDaCo Summer Event held at Orange offices last weekend I got a chance to get my hands on a nice new Orange M3100.

The M3100 is the latest in Orange’s SPV range of ‘signature’ devices. A number of other carriers will be providing the device (Codenamed Hermes by manufacturer HTC) but none have been as sexy as the Orange version.

SPV M3100

Orange M3100

I’ve used devices from the Smartphone and Pocket PC Mobile range since they first appeared back in 2001. This is the one device that I’m really excited about! It seems to have all the good bits of each of it’s predecessors. The design is similar to the K-Jam (HTC Wizard) devices with a keyboard design similar to that of the M5000 (HTC Universal).

Matt

Thanks to Sporkyguy for allowing the use of the excellent photos!

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes]

Posted in: Science & Technology

By Tracy Davis July 17, 2006 Read More →

Upcoming shuttle flights

[color=#6200AA]According to the post-flight press conferences for STS-121 they have the following shuttle flights planned:[/color]
[color=#6200AA]Atlantis – STS-115 due for launch on 28th August at the earliest[/color]
[color=#6200AA]Discovery – provisional launch date of 14th December.[/color]

[color=#6200AA]Atlantis is due for Rollover to the vehicle assembly building on Tuesday 25 July (maybe monday 24th) followed by rollout to the launch pad a week later.[/color]

[color=#6200AA]The next shuttle flights are concentrating on construction of the International Space Station. ISS is due to be completed by September 2010.[/color]

[color=#6200aa]NASA are also looking into the possibility of doing a service on the Hubble telescope during one mission as well. The decision regarding whether this will be possible will be taken this Autumn.[/color]

[color=#6200AA]Tracy[/color]

[Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Discovery, Discovery, Space, Science, STS-121]

Posted in: Science & Technology

By Tracy Davis July 17, 2006 Read More →

STS-121 Crew have left Discovery

[Color=#6200AA]The STS-121 crew have disembarked the space shuttle Discovery after it touched down safely at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 9.14 EDT. The crew are taking a walk around the shuttle before returning to their crew quarters.[/color]

[Color=#6200AA]Discovery’s mission covered more than 5 million miles and the Shuttle came to a stop at 9:15:49EDT with a mission elapsed time of 12 Days 18 hours 37 minutes and 54 seconds.[/color]

[Color=#6200AA]Tracy[/color]

[Technorati tag(s): shuttle, nasa, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Discovery, Discovery, Space, Science, STS-121]