barely fatal

Recently, I had a chat with one of my dearest colleagues in her office when we hit one of my favourite topics, blogging and technology. Of course, I tried to be funny and fired away my matching favourite mocking, the one about women and technology. She reacted in a fashion I should have seen coming at this time of night – I got The Stare. I continued down the road to perdition by telling her she was pretty easy to provoke, only to get the inevitable Now Get Outta Here Already. She informed me that, in fact, she could not be provoked easily at all. Only after 50 stupid comments like mine a day, being the number 51 means getting the ass kicked. Well, that’s not what she said, but you get my point.

I wonder who mocked her the other 50 times before, must be a sorry dude. Anyways I gotta remember, either don’t try to be funny in the first place or start the day early, being the first one to tease her. Hm.

So, it took me nearly two weeks to patch my xda Orbit the way I want it. While you would usually leave your normal mobile phone the way it was designed to be, maybe change the colors a bit or the background image, you can seriously alter the appearance of a Windows Mobile device. Furthermore, since it’s a small computer you can install programs and tweak the registry almost any way you want. The perfect geek tool.

I would love to show you what my little digital friend looks like but I don’t have a camera on my hands I’ll post some photos later. Anyway, facts first. The xda Orbit comes with a 200 Mhz ARM processor, Windows Mobile 5, a 2 mega-pixel camera, Bluetooth, wi-fi, headset and GPS (Tomtom 6 Navigation software). I don’t really need the Tomtom, but I don’t mind it anyways. The Orbit doesn’t have a keyboard, so you have to use the 320×240 touchscreen, the scroll wheel, trackball and soft buttons. Well, the trackball is was too small and sensitive to be useful, but the touchscreen works like a charm. It’s a little slow out-of-the-box, but as said, you can tweak the registry and I can run multiple programs simultaneously with no problems. Size-wise, it’s hardly bigger than other modern phones with bigger screens, I was positively surprised. It weights about the same as my old Nokia. Can’t say anything about the battery lifetime yet.

It comes with a 512MB microSD card. I replaced that one with a 2GB card, the Tomtom maps (Germany and Benelux) take up about 400 MB already. Windows Mobile 5 lacks a few features that improve usability, like a task manager or an application launcher. With this kind of device you can really combine a few others in one – with the right software installed. There are some suites you can buy, but since WM5 has been around for quite a while now, you can find a lot of freeware sites, too.

 

Here’s a list of apps that I find very useful. They are all free, I won’t link since the websites change often anyways. Just google, you’ll find plenty.

• cLaunch – great tabbed app launcher for the today screen
• UI Tweaker – lets you adjust system colors etc. on the fly
• ThemeGenCE - theme generator for WM5, can also create landscape backgrounds
• vBar – very small, very light task manager for the task bar
• Task Manager – Mobile version of the Windows standard task manager
• XnView pocket – mobile version of the popular image viewer with many features
• Virtual Earth Mobile – satellite imaging, maps (requires internet connection)
• TCPMP – versatile media player
• Skype – well, the name says it all
• Minimo – mobile version of the Mozilla browser, with tabs
• KeePassPPC – password safe
• Friday Shopping – lets you manage your shopping lists
• Hitchhiker - automatically scans, configures and joins open wireless LANs
• WiFiFoFum - another WLAN scanner
• AlarmClock - well, an alarm clock
• deltaTimer - countdown clock
• Total Commander – THE file manager
• Pocket UFO – the classic UFO game for your mobile, with all features
• Crimson Fields – Battle Isle clone
• Doppler Mobile / Hubdog – subscribe and download RSS feeds and podcasts directly

The last point should be noted. I can download podcasts directly from the internet using any wi-fi connection. No need for iTunes!

In short, the device can play and sync music, browse the web, download and sync my mails, contacts, tasks and calender, run games and … it’s also a phone. Ten more years and these devices can replace laptops.

Everything has come to a halt. I’m at work, and the server that runs our bug tracking tool is down; probably a hardware issue. While the IT guys move everything to a new server and install the backups, we have to wait. It’s always a strange feeling when one single piece of technology failing renders so many people practically helpless, even if only for this short while.

For today, we expect a big storm in Germany. I hope it won’t bring down too many trees, electricity or my garden chairs on the balcony! Just one little storm, so much trouble.

Have you read “The Swarm” by Frank Schätzing?

Update.
Storm still going on and on. I had to take the slow tram to get home, all trains have been canceled, nation-wide. Some of my colleagues have to stay with friends for the night, an applicant in a hotel. Six people dead so far, high tides, I only got wet feet. Nice little storm, Kyrill, nice little storm.

Actually I wanted to write about my brand-new XDA Orbit, but I’m not in the mood. So be it, just the quote of the week this time:

“Just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you.”
– Robert Anton Wilson

Tee hee.