24 Jan 09 Is the Logitech Harmony 890 better than the Harmony 880 ? Yes – but… a review shortly
So I have spent a year with my Logitech Harmony 880 Universal Remote Control… and of course, now Logitech has unleashed the Harmony® 890 Advanced Universal Remote.
Is the Harmony 890 worth the $349.99 (US dollars) price? Of course not.
(more…)
Tags: Hardware, Harmony 890, Logitech Harmony 880 Review, multimedia, Universal remote control, Wireless
26 Nov 08 Twitter suspends SMS notification for Canadians due to SMS cost increases by Canadian carriers
Well, it was a matter of time with the few Canadian cell phone carriers having jacked up their rates for SMS text messages. Bell was the first one to do it, when they revealed that outbound text SMS messages would be $0.15 as of August 1st… and despite a huge consumer backlash and government involvement: nothing happened.
Now Twitter has officially announced they will no longer deliver SMS updates to Canadians (who use cell phone carriers in Canada such as Bell, Rogers, Fido and Telus) due to rocketing costs. They will still accept inbound Twitter status updates to their Canadian shortcode (21212)… but it sort of kills the functionality of Twitter for Canadians who were just getting used to the fast updates from their Twitter contacts.
I use Twitter Mobile in Canada on my HTC Touch with a mobile web browser to do status updates thanks to my Bell Mobility $7 unlimited data plan so if you have that you can set up a mechanism using a Twitter RSS to email feed system where you could get Twitter updates by email to your mobile device (presuming you have an unlimited – or generous – on-device data plan)…
Tags: Canada, HTC Touch, mobile, SMS, Telcos, Twitter, Twitter Mobile, Web 2.0, Wireless
18 Sep 08 Mashup tool to publish photos from a camera directly to Twitter (and Google Maps)
Bon, petit article rapide pendant que les crevettes sont dans le four :
Un ami avait mentionné l’idée d’avoir un mécanisme pour automatiser l’intégration entre une caméra numérique et la promotion des photos via le service de microbloguage Twitter et possiblement un service de cartographie comme Google Maps.
Bien qu’il y a plusieurs services et outils qui existent pour faire des mashups de ce style, un de mes préférés est TwitPic – TwitPic est un service assez éprouvé (avec un API, etc.) qui permet à l’utilisateur de publier des photos directement d’une camera cellulaire, via leur API ou directement par le site.
Évidemment, la transmission de photos par cellulaires nécessite au moins des connexions 3G ou 3.5G afin d’avoir suffisamment de bande passante pour transmettre des photos d’une résolution acceptable à un bon rythme. (et un plan de données assez généreux.)
C’est développé par Noah Everett de Unison.com … ca vaut la peine de l’essayer!
OK, a quick article while the shrimps are in the oven:
A friend mentioned an idea for a tool to automate the integration between a digital camera and promoting the photos via the Twitter microblogging service and perhaps a mapping service such as Google Maps.
While there are many tools and services that exist to aggregate and create these kind of mashups, one of my favourites is TwitPic – TwitPic is a fairly mature service (with an API, etc.) that allows the user to publish photos directly from a cellphone camera, via their API or directly through their site.
Obviously, the transmission of photos by cellulars requires at least a 3G / 3.5G connection in order to get enough bandwidth to transmit photos of a reasonable resolution and at a decent pace… not to mention a generous data plan.
It’s developed by Noah Everett of Unison.com… well worth trying out!
Tags: français, Marketing, Software, TwitPic, Web 2.0, Wireless
31 Jul 08 Trainblogging : live from a ViaRail train between Ottawa & Montreal – roaming Satellite Internet connectivity on a train – sorta…
Trainblogging.
Well, this is my second experiment with using wireless Internet access aboard the ViaRail train from Ottawa to Montreal. The last time I tried it was on the train from Montreal to Ottawa and I didn’t post my review because I felt it would be perhaps a bit harsh and unfair based on one single trip. That being said, the first time around, the bandwidth was just fine. The problem was the 500-700ms latency … when each hit to a site/server takes ½ to ¾ of a second just to initiate the connection, it makes things pretty unusable…
Tags: trainblogging, ViaRail Wi-Fi, Web 2.0, Wireless
25 Jan 08 Bell Mobility recalls HTC Touch because it lacks French UI : Quebec Office de la langue française spotted the lack of French menus.
Well, I’ve been looking to renew my Bell Mobility account with a newer device and take advantage of a retention plan offer – Bell wanting to keep me with them – and was surprised that my current best bang for the buck device and plan; the HTC Touch combined with Bell’s $7/month unlimited data plan for that phone….
was out of stock “temporarily” on the Bell site.
Well I learned from a source that the device isn’t actually out of stock – in reality, Bell Mobility had to pull the HTC Touch smartphone because BellMo didn’t have bilingual (i.e. French) user interfaces on the HTC Touch phone.
This is kind of incredible… to think that a company as large as Bell Mobility would miss an obvious requirement of bringing a device to market with interfaces, manuals and the like in both languages.
In the meantime, my Audiovox 8910 CDMA camera phone is still MIA. 
Tags: Deals, français, Hardware, HTC Touch, touchphones, Wireless
