Editorial

Apple iPad’s get a bit warm!

With the weather here in the UK turning warmer over the past few days I thought I would just post a quick word of caution to my fellow iPad users.

Matt and I decided to relax in the garden yesterday (rare) and I sat in the sun surfing the web on the iPad – the iPad is far better than a laptop for this!

After just about 10 minutes though the iPad came up with a warning message “iPad needs to cool down before you can use it”. Now whilst it’s true I was sitting in direct sunlight it was only just over 70 degrees here in the UK yesterday, hardly what I would call hot so I was surprised to get the warning message so quickly. I understand that this message is being seen rather more frequently in warmer climes.

My advice then it to avoid sitting with the iPad in direct sunlight, the black front of the iPad soaks up the heat rather well. Also you might want to avoid keeping it in a case while using it, especially the official black wrap-around cases that, being of a matt-black finish, are about as heat absorbing as you can get.

Once I moved the iPad to the shade for a while and extricated it from the case it cooled down pretty quickly and was soon functioning again.

Is there a thermometer app for that?

Posted by: Tracy

Emma’s doing the Race For Life for Cancer Research!

Hi everyone! I’m just going to take a small detour away from reviews for a moment to ask you all for you help!

I took part in Cancer Research’s Race For Life through in Edinburgh last year after finding out that my Auntie was diagnosed with lung cancer. The brilliant news is that she pretty much has been given the all clear! But by taking part in this event made me realise how important it is to continue supporting Cancer Research

The Race for Life was great fun to take part in and an absolutely inspiring event that I was proud to be a part of. So my friends (who took part in this with me last year) and I are going to do it again this year in Glasgow on the 6th June.

So, please dig deep and help us raise as much as we can by clicking on the link below and sponsoring what you can!

Thanks everyone

Emma x

Smartphone Survey

A slightly different post, but I am hoping all you smartphone and technology fans could assist a friend of mine in a study.

Currently completing a dissertation at Bournemouth University, he is investigating the relationship between innovation and competitive advantage, in relation to manufacturers of smartphones, with particular focus on HTC.

Whilst he has undertaken a study into secondary data, he does need primary data to be able to draw conclusions and recommendations (this is where you come in!)

I kindly ask that you help him out by completing a very simple and pain free questionnaire which can be accessed HERE.

The study is quite interesting and in a couple of months time, when the study is complete he should be able to send a full copy of the report, that you can read, should you wish. He passes his thanks on in advance.

Posted by: Matt

Should Netbooks have vibrate?

Ok this is probably one of those random posts where the title probably requires a little more of an explanation.

Regulars will know that I’m a train commuter, I travel by train in to London every day and get the first train in to London every day. As it’s such an early train more than half of the people are asleep and the remainder work feverishly on their laptops, presumably finishing off the work they should have done at home the night before. The regulars know to turn their phones and laptops to silent while the casual travellers get shot scornful looks from the rest of us when their phone rings and plays the Nokia tune at 105 decibels.

I sit there with my netbook on my lap posting news to the site or going through email got me to thinking; Wouldn’t it be good if netbooks had a vibrate function when you set them to silent. Seemed like a good ideal to me, thinking it would be useful for netbooks more than notebooks as netbooks tend to be more handheld or lap-topped.

So would this be useful? For me it probably would be but how about others? Thoughts anyone – feel free to point out that I’m being daft via the forum!

Posted by: Matt

The iPad as a Remote Desktop Client?

As we all know by now, the Apple iPad was announced last week and already it’s met with a mixed response. I for one have been backwards and forwards thinking it’ll be great then wondering if some of the design decisions really make sense. I know an awful lot of people were hoping that the iPad would run either OSX are at least some new OS that offered a similar experience to a netbook. There’s been some disappointment even among hardcore Apple fans that the iPad simply runs the same operating system as the iPhone and iPod touch. In my mind that does certainly have some limitations.

However, something occurred to me as I logged in to my desktop PC via my laptop over a Citrix Thin Client connection – I wonder if there’s Citrix Client for the iPhone already, wouldn’t that work well on the iPad!?

Sure enough there is a Citrix Client that I am about to go and try out. There’s also a Remote Desktop Client (RDP/RDC) for the iPhone that’ll allow you to connect to an enabled Windows PC/Server and then there’s also the tried and trusted VNC clients out there.

So if you are looking for a full desktop experience from the iPad then perhaps this will be the answer? Connect to your home or work PC over WiFi or 3G from the iPad and run all the apps you already have installed but with a touch screen! I can imagine that working really well for me!

So bring on the iPad and lets get this tested out! 🙂

Posted by: Matt

Nokia N900 replacing N97?

We reviewed the Nokia N900 recently and were quite impressed with the new Maemo OS, personally I like it better than Symbian. We also reported that the Nokia N97 and N97 mini seem to have been withdrawn from sale, at about the same time that the Nokia N900 hits the market.

Working in London I’ve started seeing posters and adverts for the Nokia N900 popping up all over the place and there are some huge adverts on the tube too so I’m guessing that Nokia are aiming the N900 at the consumer market now. So is the N900 ousting the N97 so that Nokia can sell the more expensive handset or is the N900 filling the void left by the N97 and N97 mini?

My personal opinion is that the N900 is probably filling the void. There have been lots of problems reported with the N97 that Nokia did not, apparently, address when they launched the N97 mini and according to one of our friends at the Carphone Warehouse, the N97’s were probably the third most returned handset just behind the Satio and Aino.

We did also hear a rumour recently that Nokia stated that 90% of the N97 handsets returned had no faults and that the reason for the high return rate was that customers were not able to get used to the user interface!? If that’s true then I think that the average consumer is definitely going to struggle with the N900 as I would have said that was more of an enthusiast phone than the N97’s were!

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Do have a look at our Nokia N900 unboxing (complete with fox) and subsequent N900 demo and N900 review.

Posted by: Matt

Google’s Mystery Clock

Not sure if anyone has seen it yet but when you go to http://www.google.com and leave the search field blank then click I’m feeling lucky you get hit with a countdown clock.

With basic mathematics it looks like this is the countdown to New Year in seconds however there are some weirder theories out there like the countdown to Nexus One or even the Countdown to the End of the World.

I’m sure you will have your own theory on it and we would like to hear them.

Posted by: John McKenzie

HTC repair service

Unfortunately I had a couple of keys stop working on my HTC Touch Pro2 recently and had to send it away for repair. I just thought I would share with you what I found to be a fantastic service provided by HTC.

HTC

Friday: Called HTC and explained my problem. They said UPS would collect my device on Monday.

Monday: UPS collected as promised.

Tuesday: Email from HTC to say they had received my device.

Thursday: Email from HTC to say they had fixed my device and it would be sent back to me.

Friday: Email from HTC providing me with the UPS tracking number and an expected delivery day of Monday.

Monday: UPS delivered my phone!

Overall I could not have expected a better service and was over the moon at the information they provided me. They did fix my device by replacing the keyboard. They even updated my ROM too which I was not expecting.

Top marks HTC!

Posted by: James

Optimization World competition

A while ago I wrote a brief piece about HDMI cables from a US company called Optimization World. This company supplies a variety of quality video and data cables at sensible prices. I bought a couple of HDMI cables from them a few months ago and I was pleased with the products I bought and the service I received that I decided to write about them.

Well that was back in May of this year but David from Optimization World just sent me an email to say how delighted he was that we’d given his company a mention and that he would like to invite our readers to enter his Messy Cable Contest where you could win $100 to spend in his store!

Would your readers would be interested our “Messy Cable Contest” that we are holding through the month of October, you can find the details here http://www.optimization-world.com/contest.html it is just a fun contest for a chance to win $100 store credit.

“Tracyandmatt should be a daily read for anyone interested in Tech. I visit it every day to be caught up on the newest gadgets and technology information. I know first hand that their reviews are thorough, unbiased and truthful. Any companies wanting to get their name out there and see an increase in traffic should not hesitate to have them review a product.” – David French, Optimization World

Thanks for the testimonial David!

Posted by: Matt

YouTube partner video length problem

I’m sure that you cant fail to have noticed that I use YouTube a LOT to host the huge selection of unboxing and launch event videos that I’ve recorded over the years.

I have a YouTube partner account that allows me to upload longer videos and have Adsense advertising to earn a little revenue.

However, I went to YouTube this morning to upload my latest unboxing video, uploaded it in the normal way and a short while later I get an error message telling me that the Video has ben rejected as it’s too long! The video I am trying to upload is 11 minutes long but as a partner I should be allowed to upload videos that are over 10 minutes, I have been doing so for years!

So are there any other YouTube partners out there that have the same problem today? I’d love to hear from you!

Posted by: Matt