Tracy and Matt

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

Everyone wants to know when they will be able to get their hands on the Orange M3100. Orange UK are being pretty tight lipped about it. Even those of us with friends within Orange are struggling to get the low-down. However, I have just heard from a reliable source that Orange NL will begin shipping the SPV M3100 (HTC Hermes) from Friday (4th August).

Keep an eye one the Orange NL website SPV section for updates.

If the release date is correct then hopefully we won't have to wait very much longer for them here in the UK!

There are a few websites (Direct Mobile Phones, Scancom) offering pre-order on the M3100. Interestingly though, none of the sites I have seen have got images of the actual device but are showing other HTC Hermes variants!

EDIT: See the follow up HERE

Matt

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

Microsoft has decided to push Internet Explorer 7 out to your PC as 'high priority' via Windows Update.

Although IE 7 will be pushed out over Automatic Updates, people will be able to choose whether they want to install it or not, Schare said. Automatic Updates will first notify people when IE 7 is ready to install and then show a welcome screen that presents key features and the choices to install, not install or postpone installation.

Personally I will be saying 'No thanks' to the update. I've had a look at IE7 Beta and really didn't like it. To me it was a really dumbed down version of IE. The only thing I did like about it was the 'Tabbed Browser' approach. However, a better alternative for tabbed browsing is Avant Browser

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): IE7, Windows, Microsoft, Internet Explorer, technology, Automatic Updates]

Space Shuttle Atlantis has now been mounted on to her Solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank and it set to move to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Monday.

Atlantis will make the 4 mile journey from the vehicle assembly building to the pad on top of crawler transporter and it will take approximately 6 hours. The shuttle's planned move is scheduled to begin at 12.01am EDT (04.01 GMT) on Monday 31st July.

Final preparation will then be carried out in preparation for launch of mission STS-115 due on 28th August. The mission will continue the construction of the International Space Station.

Tracy

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

Review Part 2 - Software toys.

Go To Part 1 of the review.

The Acer TravelMate 3012 comes with a variety of software tools and applications. Many of these are accessed from the 'e' button below the screen. Pressing this button brings up the Acer 'Empowering Technology' panel.

The panel covers:

Other software that ships with the 3012 includes Cyberlink PowerDVD, NTI CD & DVD Maker, Adobe Reader 7.0 and Norton Antivirus.

The nice thing about the other shipped apps. is that they don't install by default but rather you can choose to install them later if you wish. I like this idea much better as, for example, my Dell laptop shipped with McAfee security suite on a 90 day trial. I didn't want McAfee as I use Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition at work. McAfee was a real pain to remove from the Dell, requiring about 5 reboots. No problems here if you don't want any of the software you simply choose not to install it.

One final cool piece of software is the Acer GraviSense application. This is an innovative utility designed to protect your data by automatically "parking" the heads of the hard drive in the event that sudden motion is detected. The Acer GraviSense can also be set to activate an alarm in case your notebook is moved by an unauthorized person. In anti-theft mode, if the laptop is moved a password must be entered before it can be used again.

In practice I found most of the software to be pretty useful. The Gravisense thing is pretty cool to play with to see just how much you have to move the laptop for the software to notice!

One problem I am having at the moment is with the ePower Management. This application overrides the standard Windows power management interface in favour of a more complex array of controls. These cover the basics such as backlight brightness and standby/hibernation times but it also includes the ability to turn on and off bluetooth, WiFi, Firewire and the cardbus interface as well as throttle the CPU. The problem I'm seeing with this is that often it does not recognise when you switch from running on mains power to running on battery. As a result the CPU isn't throttled down and I find myself running out of battery power pretty quickly. I just have to remember to check the status manually each time I plug in or unplug the power.

Anyway, enough for now on software. We'll cover something else next time!

Go To Part 1 of the review.

Matt

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

I've had my TravelMate 3012 for a full week now and I have used it a LOT. I commute to and from London every day so it gets a fair amount of use on the train as well as being used while I'm in the office and at home.

I've decided to break my review down into manageable chunks and post each part over a period of time.

What you get in the box

Firstly, what do you get in the box with a 3012WTMi? My basic model shipped with the following:

Everything was well packed within the box, quite exciting to unpack it all! Other reviews mention a bluetooth VoIP headset with this model but I didn't get one in the box.

The first time you boot the 3012 it runs through a series of setup and install screens. A series of Acer applications and utilities are loaded. The initial setup takes quite a long time and you have to reboot several times along the way. One thing that surprised me was that after all the setup the screen wasn't set to the native res of the TFT instead being left at 1024 x 768 rather than 1280 x 800. Easy to change I know but would have thought that this should be part of the initial install.

The setup installs a number of applications but I shall cover them and what they do in part 2 which will soon follow.

Go to Part 2 of the review

Matt

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

Smartphone and Windows Mobile device manufacturer HTC have launched their own Wiki.

For those of you that don't know, a wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit and change most available content, sometimes without the need for registration. Thus enabling anyone to contribute to the knowledge base.

In their own words: "We've started the wiki by seeding some basic information about the current devices available in the American market, but we're leaving it up to you, the user community, to take it to the next level by filling out the content."

It's about time that HTC did something like this!

Check out the HTC Wiki.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Windows Mobile, Tracy & Matt, Orange, wiki, HTC]

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

Just a quick bit of information for you this morning. Sources at Orange have suggested that the Orange SPV M3100 is currently being shipped to Orange stores ready for it's release.

Based on previous product launches and if this is true it should mean that the M3100 will be launched within the next few weeks!

Watch this space!!!

Matt

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

I've had my iMate K-Jam (HTC Wizard) based mobile device for about 6 months. Despite having newer handsets it is the device I use most. It's the combination of small form factor and the integrated keyboard that appeals to me.

Recently however the handset has been subject to a rather annoying problem. About 2-3 times a day I have to re-align the touch screen as it seems to suffer with some kind of drift problem. It's getting to the point of being unbearable!

If any of you have a similar problem I would love to hear from you!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, K-Jam, HTC Wizard]