I could wait in line and be lucky to catch one, but the war is over here in The Neterlands for more than 60 years now and I really don’t like soup kitchen lines. Not for food and for sure not for something else than food.

Next to that I refuse to sign a 2-year contract with a gsm operator. In The Netherlands this is T-Mobile, here known for its poor in-house reception, due to the used frequency. The iPhones you get are also simlocked, something I also don’t like for something that is mine.

I made my hands dirty and drove to our friendly southern neighbours in Belgium. Brussels to be more precise. Two hours to go and two hours back.

In Belgium a simlock is illegal and so gsm operator Mobistar has to sell the phone to anyone, with or without a 2-year contract. It wasn’t easy to get one and I will not get into details (unless you really ask me), but I got my iPhone 3G. It has a big and when I say big, I mean BIG WOW factor.

Am I a fanboy? Yes and No.

I was getting sick and tired to walk around with and a Nokia E61i (connections) and Palm Centro (calender (Datebk6!) and contacts infomation). I have everything in a bigger, but ONE device. Finally…

But do I like Apple and the operators to grap me by the b*lls/n*ts? I don’t think so!

I became so sick and tired of using Windows computers that I wanted to switch as fast as possible.

I am happy with my switch?! Oh yeah!!  This is my best decision since years. I makes that I am more mobile (battery life), but the best news is that I am finding new ways to do the things I am doing, faster, better and in better quality…

Need I say more?!

The 15+ inch is big enough and not too heavy for traveling. It will be the middle one. Choice made! 

Nog steeds vind ik die bijna sektarische Apple-verheerlijking abject en infaam (ken uw klassiekers ;-) ), maar ik ben Windows, met al die dll-shit, nu zo ongelooflijk zat, dat ik besloten heb op zo kort mogelijke (lees: financieel mogelijke) termijn een MacBook Pro te kopen. Liever vandaag dan morgen.

Ik wil gewoon creatief bezig zijn, zonder bang te zijn dat mijn pc of de programma’s erop door zijn hoeven zak(t((en). Windows Sucks! Big Time!

Wordt vervolgd!

De camera is ook direct voorzien van een erg flinke geheugenkaart waar een flinke lading foto’s op kan (gewoon JPEG en geen nabewerkingsbehoeftig RAW), zoals je al eerder kon lezen. Maar soms heb je als fotograaf toch de angst dat je zonder digitale film komt te zitten, hoewel dat zo goed als onmogelijk is.

Het leek me dus goed voor alle zekerheid een plug te hebben voor de iPod om de foto’s even op te kunnen parkeren, als een soort van image tank dus. Dan kom je uit op de (originele) Apple iPod Camera Connector.

Daarvoor doe je eerst een rondje Internet, zoals het een informatiespecialist betaamd. Kort gegaan is er op geen enkele site van Apple te vinden of deze connector werkt met mijn iPod Classic. Op een aantal fotografie sites en fora las ik enige twijfel over de werkzaamheid.

Op mijn vraag aan twee heren van de winkelketen met de dubbele M of de connector het zou doen, kreeg ik het antwoord dat het zeker was dat dat de conncetor zou werken. Voor de zekerheid keken we samen nog een keer op de website van Apple.

Geschikt voor de iPod met kleurenvenster (vet door mijzelf).

Die heb ik dus.

Maar thuis kreeg ik op mijn iPod echter de melding “Unsupported. Accessory is not supported“.

Ergo: De iPod Camera Connector gaat gegarandeerd NIET werken met de iPod Classic. / There is NO way that the iPod Camera Connector will work with the iPod Classic!

Complimenten voor het rookgordijn van Apple! / Thanx for the smoke screen, Apple!

De startprijs is € 2,10 per half uur, maar dan gaat het snel beter, blijkt nu ik hier ben. Heel goed!

Ik ben al een paar dagen bezig met het voorbereiden van mijn reis naar de Frankfurter Buchmesse, de grootste en belangrijkste (algemene) boekenbeurs ter wereld. Ik zal 3 dagen onderweg zijn en ben apparatuur (notebook, camera’s, telefoon, draadloos oortje), aan het opladen, lijsten aan het maken van de stands die ik in ieder geval wil bezoeken, wassen aan het draaien. Je wilt tenslotte ook op een megabeurs wel met een schone onderbroek lopen, net als anders. ;-D

De meeste moeite heb ik nu met het vinden van een mogelijkheid om draadloos Internet op te kunnen. Vanwege de enorme drukte op de beurs is de verblijfplaats van de groep waar ik mee ga, in Worms (D), de stad van jawel Maarten Luther, maar ook van een Rasji, een groot(s) joods geleerde.

Het hotel vraagt € 2,10 per half uur, licht pittig naar mijn mening. Gelukkig ben ik een Fonero, maar dan moet er wel een andere Fonero een beetje in de buurt zitten. ;-)

Op de beurs sleep ik geen notebook mee, die parkeren we bij een garderobe dat spreekt!

The WLAN signal will be available on the 5st floor only. It is a slow start, but it IS a start!

Now I can start using my notebook and Nokia E61i… ;-)

I did take it out of my car yesterday, but I forgot to get the CD (Chaka Khan’s Epiphany) out…

So I had to kill it!

By that I did save Chaka!!

Since a few years already I am into geocaching (for Dutchies: go HERE), a game that sounds like old skool, as in treasure hunting. But it isn’t. It is a game for adults and kids to play all over the globe (I did it in: France, Israel, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Greece and Spain). But there is one thing you need and that is a decent handheld (!) GPS. There have always been two camps: Garmin users and Magellan users. I am a Magellan user, because of its superieur quality. But that aside.

As handheld GPS devices are very very very expensive in Europe, I have been looking around the globe. And I did find a seller of a new Magellan eXplorist 600 in the USA. The price was very nice, which means a difference of about 200 euro (read: about US dollar 272, including shipping)!!! Yes, that is right!

I wanted the seller to ship to a friend in the US, who’s mother is going to take it to The Netherlands end of this months, just to save shipping costs and import duty, ofcourse . I did buy it and payed within a few minutes.
After 9 days of hearing nothing I did ask the seller about the status of the shipping. My friends didn’t see anything coming. Then I got a swift reply that my US address was not confirmed and that he was not going to send it. A few minutes later I had my money back on PayPal. But only AFTER my claim where the shipping was.
The discussion that followed after that was short but clear. I couldn’t trust the guy anymore… I might have made a mistake by not reading all the rules, but only after asking what was wrong I got a very short answer and my money back. Without any other way to get a solution what I asked.

I did not expect to get into an eBay dispute anyhow. But the old proverb is true: evil doers are evil dreaders. You would rather not buy at LJ Electronics on eBay.

I now did buy it at DragonFlyDirect. Thank you for you confidence!

While you are here: check out my new GPS Blog: GPS Passion

We use our phone entirely different and so our needs concerning programs and available data are far from simular. But we both think the Nokia E61 is far superiour to the Treo 680 concerning connections.
We both thought we could live without WLAN and superiour Bluetooth support (like hearing the ringing tone in your ear through the BT headset) and that’s why we got both our 680’s flown in from the US by his BIL. (cheers Mate!)

But we simply can’t! A smartphone without WiFi is OLD SKOOL!!

I really want to have my data so I am still shopping for good replacements for Palm software on the Symbian platform.
I will miss: Datebk6 (respect!!), SmartListtoGo, CacheMate, Currency, HandyShopper (respect!!), and a lot of other programs.

I have both phones now. Use my E61 for communication and my Treo 680 for data storage now…

Last x-mas I made my last in-Palm switch, I am afraid. I had quite some trouble to (not even) get a copper Palm Treo 680 to Europe. I had to live with that and I did….

Then we had the new about the battery of the 680. Then we couldn’t use our cradle with the same (okay, almost same) pinout of the 650. We heard that this was one of the problems.
I could have lived without WLAN (Wi-Fi) support, but now I am so fed up with my Palm Treo 680, that it will be replaced soon…

More about this soon! (But believe me that I am NOT Happy!)

Comparing specs, prices and shops is almost a full time job for the last few days.

I brought back my selection to two digitak mini camera’s: the Canon Ixus 65 (Canon PowerShot SD630 in US) and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX3

I had the last one at home, but did bring it back today for two reasons. The first one is that it didn’t feel good already yesterday, when I bought it. 4 mm to thick compared to the Canon.
Secondly I did find out that I could have the same camera from another shop for 70 (read: SEVENTY!!) euro less. Enough reason to bring it back.

I can’t decide yet, but tomorrow the difference in price will make the change, I think. Specs are about the same.

I got help (for specs and prices that is): DP Review rulez BIG TIME! For years now…

I lost count…

“That is our policy” – is is a frequently used sentence in the USA, I am sure. It think they see it as a magic word: policy. To my opinion it is an ANTI-magic word.

This is part-I don’t know in the Palm Treo 680 from the USA saga. For earlier parts look below!

After having trouble to become Europe’s first COPPER Palm Treo 680 owners, my best friend Servaas and I were prepared to bug his bil (brother in law) to help us out.

We did ask him to order two COPPER Palm Treo 680 at the Palm Treo store with an American creditcard.

We are still empty handed. The TWO orders we had were dumped by Treo Store and we still don’ know why.
We did order two times because we both wanted to get the Palm Music Pack (for BOTH phones) for free with our order.
After a call we got the answer that there were no copper ones anymore and thats why our order was just skipped.
After that still lots and lots of copper treo’s have been shipped… Huh?!?!

Still empty hands, okay, a grey phone on its way from the States.

[27-01-2007]
End of the story is that we both have an American, but graphite Palm Treo 680. Taken from the States by my buddies bil.
We were still waiting for copper Treo’s to buy if available in Europe. No one could tell us when the first ones would be there.
But last week we did hear that Palm is stopping the production of the copper 680…

I could buy one at ebay, but I am really so sick of it!!!

[and I don't even talk about the (severe!) battery and other problems]

Before:
Part 1 – Palm discrimination
Part 2 – No European Palm Treo 680 order in US
Part 3 – Palm Treo 680 plans

The Swiss are said to be neutral in the Second World War… I mean they didn’t care were the money did come from… I am sure this is true…

I am afraid I started just a bit off topic…
The Swiss are banning all navigation devices with so called POI’s, Points of Interest on it. Yes, serious!
Not all POI’s, but only the ones that contain information on speed controls, speed limits and everything related it seems.
This is fine with me, because I think it is a-social behaviour to drive (too) fast and then hit the brakes to get to the right speed. It is the way they do this….

But the police and maybe others can search actively to PND, Personal Navigation Devices to see whether someone has one in possession.
I can see the border patrol with their German Shepherd Dogs (no Berner Sennenhund or Saint Bernard! – the first are helt on farms and the second are used for rescue in the mountains….), and search cars for illegal PNDs!

The official information on this (in German / Italian / French) from ASTRA, “the bureau of roads”, with an (German only explanation here.

Happy driving in Switzerland!!!

[I forgot to say that pda's (like my Palm Treo 680) with navigation software can be confiscated and destoyed too!!]