Our latest podcast is now available to download, in episode 34 we have a special interview with Loke Uei from the Windows Mobile development team and we talk about Windows Mobile 6.5, the Marketplace and the future of Windows Mobile. We also discuss some of the latest iPhone and Palm Pre news.You can subscribe via iTunes, RSS or download the mp3 file here. Full show notes after the break.
A few weeks ago I wrote a quick review of the SanDisk Extreme IV compact flash card. At the time I mentioned that the although the card seemed to pretty fast I thought it was being held back by the speed of the USB card reader.
So I asked SanDisk if I could have a look at their Extreme Firewire Reader to see if this could make the most of the fast UDMA technology of the Extreme IV compact flash card. So this is my quick review of the Firewire Reader.
What’s in the box?
Not a great deal in the box as you might expect.
General
The SanDisk Extreme Firewire Reader is a simple and attractive looking unit. It’s silver and black and doesn’t look vastly different to any other memory card reader.
Where the Extreme Firewire Reader is different though is that it has ONLY a Compact Flash memory card slot and is not a multi-card reader.
The other difference is on the rear of the unit. Here you’ll find a Firewire socket rather than the ‘usual’ mini-USB style connector.
Review
An attractive looking silver unit the SanDisk Extreme Firewire Reader is small enough to fix in even the smallest of kit-bags. It also comes with a decent length Firewire cable, about 1 metre or so.
But I’m guessing that, if you are anything like me, you wont be terribly interested in what the thing looks like, you just want to know how fast it is!
So to test the speed this is what I did.
I used a SanDisk Extreme IV compact flash card in a USB 2.0 card reader. I then ran a drive benchmarking tool several times in a row and took the average results from the tests. Then, using the same memory card I put that in to the SanDisk Firewire reader and re run the tests again taking the average of the test results.
Here’s the results of the tests:
|
USB2.0 card reader |
SanDisk Firewire Reader |
|
|
Uncached Write (4k blocks) |
15.65 MB/sec | 25.29 MB/sec |
|
Uncached Write (256k blocks) |
15.51 MB/sec | 24.32 MB/sec |
|
Uncached Read (4k blocks) |
3.9 MB/sec | 7.65 MB/sec |
|
Uncached Read (256k blocks) |
17.17 MB/sec | 36.9 MB/sec |
As you can see from the results above, clearly the Firewire reader is faster than the USB2.0 model more than twice as fast at reading in fact and getting close to hitting the claimed 40 MB/sec that SanDisk say that they Extreme Reader is capable of.
So what does this mean in real terms? Well using the Firewire Reader to copy 890MB of photos from the Compact Flash card to the desktop took just 28 seconds compared to 53 seconds for the USB2.0 reader which is, again, close to twice as fast. So with the amount of photos that I take during the week transferring the images to the desktop will be significantly faster.
Conclusion
The results above speak for themselves, the SanDisk Extreme IV Compact Flash Card and SanDisk Extreme Firewire Reader make a fast combination, almost twice the speed of the USB2.0 reader.
Whether or not it’s worth splashing out on the £80 SanDisk Extreme Firewire reader depends upon how often you use your camera/memory card and how many photos you take.
If you are a pro or just plain impatient then I’m sure you’ll want to consider this card reader for everyone else you’ll just have to sit and watch the progress bar for a few extra minutes!
Posted by: Matt
Spb Software today announces the amendment of Spb TV channels catalogue with over 40 new mobile TV channels. The majority of the newly added channels were suggested by Spb TV users. Today, approximately one hundred of international mobile TV channels are available via Spb TV.
Spb TV is a subscription-free mobile IPTV viewer, designed for tuning in to publicly available digital TV channels from all over the world. A downloadable software client, Spb TV makes a wide range of international live TV channels available for viewing directly on Windows Mobile phones.
FileMaker Inc. is owned by Apple. It makes 2 database programs: FileMaker and Bento. And now Bento has been released for iPhone! Isn’t it amazing? No more your iPhone can be ridiculed as fart machine. Now it is a business tool! If you like database software, you will be chuffed about this superb app.
SlingPlayer for iPhone still is not approved, so release of Bento for iPhone might as well be the biggest, most important, new app release in May 2009!
Here is how this app looks like:
About Mobile Broadband
If you ever want to get online when you’re out and about without hunting around for a WiFi hotspot; want to check your mail or your bank balance on the move on your laptop; if you’ve ever wound up frustrated trying to tether your handset to your laptop to try to get a connection then mobile broadband could be just the thing for you.
Using a USB modem, usually known as dongle, plugged in to your laptop, mobile broadband connects you to the internet via the mobile phone networks, just the same as the 3G connection on your mobile phone: except you’ve got all that lovely laptop functionality to work with, rather than squinting at a tiny handset screen.
Okay, but is it any good?
Well, that’s the critical question. There are big leaps forward coming very soon for mobile broadband, but at present it is not considered a complete alternative to your fixed-line broadband; mainly because of speed and coverage.
In terms of coverage, mobile broadband experiences the same problems you will already be familiar with from using your mobile phone; some areas have better coverage than others, and it will depend on which network you’re on, and where you are (how far from a mast) as to how good your signal is.
And as far as speed goes, the best speed offered in the UK at the moment is up to 7.2Mb, but it’s that ‘up to’ that’s the crunch. Just like with your fixed-line broadband, the advertised speeds and the actual speeds don’t usually match up. Again this depends on which network you’re with and where you are geographically, but it’s safe to say that at present it’s likely that your mobile broadband connection will be noticeably slower than your fixed-line one.
However, the important thing to remember is that mobile broadband isn’t the same as fixed-line broadband, so comparisons of speed and coverage aren’t necessarily helpful. The key thing about mobile broadband is that it is mobile, and if you want to get connected on the move, be that regularly or just occasionally, then mobile broadband is the ideal solution.
Choosing mobile broadband
There is a wealth of choice of mobile broadband packages available at the moment: it’s a competitive market with all the suppliers keen for your custom, so it pays to know what you’re looking for and to shop around. In order to get an overview of what’s on offer, it’s a good idea to use an independent comparison website such as Mobile Broadband Genie, which has up to date information on all the latest deals for easy comparison.
When you’re choosing a mobile broadband deal there are a few key things to look for, namely the contract type and length, the speed offered, the download limit, and of course the price.
Download limit is a key difference between fixed-line and mobile broadband. Most fixed-line deals include unlimited or virtually unlimited downloads, but because it is more expensive to deliver data via a mobile connection, this kind of flat rate unlimited deal is not possible with mobile broadband. Mobile broadband contracts are limited to anything between 1GB and 15GB per month, with higher limits usually costing more. Vodafone recently launched an ‘unlimited’ download offer, although this is still subject to a fair usage policy, so with all contracts it’s a good idea to read the small print and know what you’re entitled to, and what it’ll cost you if you go over.
Contracts are usually available as pay-as-you-go, which offers more flexibility but often at a greater price, or 12, 18 or 24 month fixed contracts. If you’re more a pay-as-you-go sort of person it’s worth noting that you’ll pay for your dongle, and that most providers’ top-ups expire after a certain amount of time, so you can’t just top up and then not use it for months. The exception to this is Vodafone: its top-ups don’t expire. If you opt for the fixed type contract, you’ll usually get the dongle for free, and you may get a better deal all round for signing up for longer, although of course that stops you shopping around again for a while.
Moving on to speed; as mentioned before, mobile broadband is sold as ‘up to’ the headline speed, which tells you almost nothing about what you’ll actually experience. The key here is to get on to the provider and quiz them about speeds in your area: they should provide you with the relevant information.
Finally the key factor for many people: cost. This depends on what you choose in terms of all of the above. Additionally, what you get for your money changes from month to month, and there are usually some special offers to be had. Special offers may include anything from low introductory rates up to subsidised extras such as a laptop.
There are some really good mobile broadband deals around, and armed with the right information it’s easy to choose the right one for you. Then all you have to do is plug in your dongle and go: it’s as easy as that.
Written by: Chris Marling of www.broadbandgenie.co.uk, the independent comparison website for broadband and mobile broadband
Posted by: John
As a regular user of Log Me In for my home PC’s this announcement caught my eye. Get fast, simple access to your remote Internet-connected LogMeIn computers whenever you want, wherever you are and soon with your Blackberry Storm. If you haven’t used this before you install a small application on your client PC and then you can access it and take full control from a remote source through the Log Me In web interface, it works really well and has saved me lots of times before. You can register now for information on the Blackberry Storm version right here.
I just came across this cool video that reminded me of the cool creations that you used to see on that TV show Art Attack!
Posted by: Matt
Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Curve moved past Apple’s iPhone in the first quarter to become the best-selling consumer smartphone in the U.S., research group NPD said on Monday. RIM, which already dominates the corporate smartphone market in the United States, also had three of the top five best-selling consumer smartphones in the period, with the Storm at No. 3 and the Pearl at No. 4, NPD said. T-Mobile’s G1 ranked No. 5.
The iPhone was the top-selling consumer smartphone in the U.S. in both the third and fourth quarters of 2008. The Curve was second and the Palm Inc’s Centro was third.
Some countries are more prude than others. Obviously USA is more prude than UK, but UK is more prude than Germany, where topless ladies can be found on front page of newspapers (compared to page number 3 in UK).
Apple corporation is located in USA, that is very prude, so no wonder that they are forbidding adult content in apps. Apple has rejected an app, because an Apple employee has noticed the following pictures (screenshots from the rejection letter – noticed and made by Apple!):
Think of it as "Twitpic for sounds instead of pictures". Brilliant idea! … but we are not certain about execution.
Here is how this app looks like:
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