Kitchen timer / stopwatch review - numeric buttons!

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A timer with numeric buttons! I love this Maplin timer (only £4.49) because I haven't the patience to press and hold one button for ages waiting for the setting to count up to the number of minutes or seconds I need.

Simples. Just press 2 0 0 for 2 minutes, & the Start/Stop button to start, the same button to stop, again to restart, and Clear to, errr, clear. (And you'd press 1 5 0 0 for 15 minutes & so on.) Instructions are on the inside of the cardboard packaging anyway.

Also works as a stopwatch. Press the Clear button so the timer is set to all 0s, then press Start.

At the back there's a handy attachment with a hole so you can tie string to the timer and hang it from a hook or something else, a kickstand to stand it up on a worktop, and a magnet if you prefer to stick it to your fridge or other suitable metal surface.

Takes a single AAA battery, not some esoteric hard to replace type of button battery.

Low tech yes, but a good kitchen timer is gold if you cook a lot like I do.

Only downside: the magnet isn't very strong, so be a bit careful when pressing the buttons, to make sure that you don't knock it off the fridge!

At the moment you can't get it online, you have to see if your nearest Maplin store has one. If it does, you can order online for collection and payment at the shop, but you have to pick it up within 7 days after you reserve it.

I really hope Maplin doesn't discontinue this, because my previous timer with numeric buttons died a few years back and it's taken me this long to find a replacement. Pity Maplin's website description doesn't trumpet the existence of the individual number buttons for search engines to find and index, it should! I only found it from idly browsing round the site, not from searching for a timer with number buttons.

Hard drive brands - most / least reliable?

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Which hard drive to buy? A helpful report by cloud backup provider Backblaze, which uses consumer hard drives, summarised its experiences with over 27,000 drives: of the following 3 brands, Hitachi did best in terms of both annual failure rate and cumulative survival rate (see the report for detailed info on specific models etc). The survival rates over 3 years were:

1. Hitachi 96.9%
2. Western Digital 94.8%
3. Seagate 73.5%.

Interestingly, the latter two reflect my own experience.

I use 4 external hard drives as standard. Two are Seagate and two are Western Digital (WD). One is for my documents (I moved 'My Documents' and similar folders from C drive to an external drive, to protect myself against Windows problems or C drive failing - I wish Microsoft would store user data in a different partition from Windows!). The others are for backup.

One WD recently died, but I've had it for years, and the other one (equally old) is still going strong. One 2TB Seagate also died just after that - but it's less than a year old! And to add insult to injury, one of my WD drives was bought to replace a drive that died a few years ago - a Seagate, again. So, to add my own review, the failure rate I've personally experienced is 2 Seagates (including quite a new one) to 1 WD.

That's nowhere near as statistically significant as Backblaze's results, of course. Still, I'll have to buy at least one more hard drive soon given the 2 dead ones - and guess which brand I'm considering now? Hitachi!

I'm thinking of getting this one:

Or this 2TB one (though two of the 1TB seems better value, and one customer says the 1TB is USB 2.0-compatible, which I need as my KVM switch is USB 2.0 and I don't want to buy another one till the price of USB 3.0 KVM switches with DVI comes down a lot more!):

 

Backblaze noted that WD acquired Hitachi's disk drive business a year and a half ago, but given that WD ranked only just behind Hitachi, I'm not too worried about buying those Hitachi drives. Also, entirely subjectively, a relative who's a hardware whiz (always builds all his own PCs etc), has always sworn by WD drives. So I might go for this instead:

That's because I have so little desk space that I need drives that stand up vertically with a small footprint, so I may have to buy the WD given that it's not clear whether I can use the Hitachi Touro drives vertically on their side - does anyone know?

One thing's for sure, after two Seagate drives going dead parrot on me, the second one being my newest hard drive, I ain't gonna buy Seagates no more, no sirree!

Nexus 7 review #2 - support - Google Goodness (on balance)

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My brand new Google / Asus Nexus 7 was faulty (or rather, the charging unit or cable was).

Google's Nexus 7 support phone number for UK customers, for ease of reference is:
0800 328 6081

Also see:

• the Nexus 7 manual / user guide (guidebook),
• Nexus 7 guidebook on Play (as an ebook) and
• Nexus 7 help pages.
  

Google Goodness: it's an 0800 number, free to call from a landline (though NOT from a mobile, still a major issue in the UK, and a big wishlist item for me). Thank you, Google - that beats premium rate 0870 or non-geographic (and still chargeable from a mobile) 0845 numbers!

Google Gaffe: Google may not have planned ahead enough for the volume of calls. I've had to call a couple of times now, and each time I had to wait in a queue for 45 minutes to an hour before I could talk to someone. Just as well it was a freefone number!

Google Gaffe 2: the support staff don't seem to have full knowledge or training about the Nexus 7, or remits across the spectrum of support issue - so you might get "It's another team that deals with that aspect", or "I didn't know the Nexus 7 Gmail app displayed emails against a grey background". I also got different (and conflicting) information on different occasions from different people. Less good. At least they're friendly and try to be helpful, without being over-familiar, long-winded or annoying (ahem Three!).

The good probably outweighs the gaffes here. Given that most support helplines charge you a fortune for the privilege of trying to sort out a problem with their product or service, Google's provision of an 0800 support number was enough to make me forgive the other issues.

So - it's +1 to Google for Nexus 7 support, overall. So far. I reserve final judgement until my replacement unit and return are fully sorted out!

Google Gaffes: Nexus 7 NoNo #1 - the packaging review!

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I was excited to receive my shiny new Google / Asus Nexus 7, which most people will know by now is a high spec and great value 7" tablet using the open source Android operating system.

But I will admit, I had to get a strong 5' 7" tall friend to help push the inner box out of the sleeve. It was such a tight fit, I just couldn't do it by myself! I'm only 5' 2", and not the strongest of females. I didn't get wrap rage, but only because I managed to get help with the unpackaging.

The earlier stages of the unboxing weren't easy either. Luckily, I keep a trusty Stanley knife within easy reach of both kitchen and living room. I never unbox without it! But it couldn't help with the part where I had to somehow slide the inner box out of the sleeve. Thank goodness for strong friends!

I felt a little bit better when I saw that I wasn't the only customer who struggled - eg this Atlantic Wire article linked to from Slashdot. (And montage of unboxing troubles, embedded below!)

Convert files free, online - PDF to Word DOC, etc - review of tool

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ConvertFiles.com, which I've just discovered, is a very useful online tool, especially to convert Adobe Acrobat PDFs to editable word processing documents eg Microsoft Word DOC format.

You just give the website the URL of a file (starting with http, https, ftp), or you can upload a local file, and it will automatically recognise the file type and offer you a choice of suitable formats into which it can be converted.

Tip: sometimes it won't recognise PDF files where the URL doesn't end in .pdf - so in that situation just download the file and upload it from your computer.

There's a decent range of formats available (see lists below).

Speed - you can download the converted file quite quickly, even for big files.

Maximum file size limits - it will accept files of up to a very generous 200 MB.

OCR - it will even do OCR (optical character recognition) of image files, ie convert scans of images etc to editable text - and, though they don't mention this (they should!), that includes PDF scans, I tried some.

It converted a massive PDF scan beautifully into an editable Word document, with very few errors.

What's more, it's all free, although in gratitude I've checked out some of their advertisers!

Supported formats and conversions

From their FAQs, here's their full list of supported conversions:

ARCHIVE

7Z to RAR, TAR, ZIP, TGZ, TAR.GZ
RAR to TAR, ZIP, TGZ, TAR.GZ
TAR to RAR, ZIP, TGZ, TAR.GZ
TGZ to TAR, RAR, ZIP
TAR.GZ to TAR, RAR, ZIP
ZIP to TAR, RAR, TGZ, TAR.GZ

DOCUMENT

DOCX to DOC, ODT, RTF, SWX, TXT, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
DOC to ODT, RTF, SWX, TXT, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
ODT to DOC, RTF, SWX, TXT, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
RTF to ODT, DOC, SWX, TXT, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
SXW to ODT, RTF, DOC, TXT, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
TXT to ODT, RTF, SWX, DOC, HTML, XHTML, PDF, PDB, ZIP
ODS to XLS, CSV, RTF, PDF, HTML, ZIP
XLS to ODS, CSV, PDF, HTML, ZIP
XLSX to XLS, ODS, CSV, PDF, HTML, ZIP
PDF to DOC, PNG, JPG
XPS to PDF
CHM to PDF, EPUB, FB2, MOBI, LIT, TXT
PAGES to PDF

PRESENTATION

ODP to PPT, PDF, SWF
PPT to ODP, PDF, SWF
PPTX to PPT, ODP, SWF, PDF

E-BOOK

EPUB to FB2, MOBI, LIT, PDF, TXT
FB2 to MOBI, LIT, EPUB, PDF, TXT
MOBI to EPUB, FB2, LIT, PDF, TXT
LIT to EPUB, FB2, MOBI, PDF, TXT
PRC to EPUB, FB2, MOBI, PDF, TXT, LIT

DRAWING

ODG to PDF, JPG, PNG, SWF
DXF to PDF, JPG, PNG, SWF
DWG to PDF, JPG, PNG

IMAGES, PICS, PHOTOS

BMP to GIF, JPG, PNG, TIF, ZIP, PDF
GIF to BMP, JPG, PNG, TIF, PDF
JPG to GIF, BMP, PNG, TIF, PDF
PNG to GIF, JPG, BMP, TIF, PDF
TIF to GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP, ZIP, PDF

OCR

BMP to DOC, TXT, RTF
GIF to DOC, TXT, RTF
JPG to DOC, TXT, RTF
PNG to DOC, TXT, RTF
TIF to DOC, TXT, RTF

AUDIO

AAC to WAV, MP3, OGG, M4A, FLAC, AU, WMA, AMR
AMR to WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, AAC, FLAC, AU, M4A
AU to WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, AAC, FLAC, AMR, M4A
FLAC to WAV, MP3, OGG, M4A, AAC, AU, WMA, AMR
M4A to WAV, MP3, OGG, WMA, AAC, FLAC, AU, AMR
MP3 to WAV, OGG, AAC, M4A, FLAC, AU, WMA, AMR
OGG to WAV, MP3, AAC, M4A, FLAC, AU, WMA, AMR
WAV to MP3, OGG, AAC, M4A, FLAC, AU, WMA, AMR
WMA to WAV, MP3, OGG, M4A, AAC, FLAC, AU, AMR
MKA to WAV, MP3, OGG, M4A, AAC, FLAC, AU, AMR, WMA

VIDEO

3GP to AVI, MOV, WMV, M4V, MP3, JPG
AMV to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, WMV, MP3, JPG
ASF to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, WMV, MOV, AVI, M4V, MP3, JPG
AVI to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
FLV to 3GP, AVI, MP4, MPEG, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
MKV to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, WMV, MOV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
MOV to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, WMV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
M4V to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, MOV, MKV, ASF, WMV, MP3, JPG
MP4 to FLV, 3GP, AVI, MPEG, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
MPEG to AVI, 3GP, MP4, FLV, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
MPG to AVI, 3GP, MP4, FLV, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
RM to AVI, 3GP, MP4, FLV, MPEG, VOB, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
VOB to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, WMV, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
WMV to 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
M2T to WMV, 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
M2TS to WMV, 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG
MTS to WMV, 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPEG, AVI, VOB, MOV, MKV, ASF, M4V, MP3, JPG

OTHER

EPS to GIF, JPG, PNG
PSD to GIF, JPG, PNG

The downside?

Don't expect any support (I emailed them with a query which they never responded to). But hey, it's free.

Western Digital WD TV Live Hub Media Center 1TB - review and practical tips

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This is a review of the WDTV LiveHub media centre / media server, which the folks at WD and Chilifish PR kindly lent me.

Overview

As with most media servers you can:

• hook it up to your TV
• store media files on it (1 TB means a lot of files!)
• play those files on your TV, or a networked computer or smartphone - including music and photos as well as video - all at the same time

If you connect it to your router, you can even play or show, on you TV, stuff over the internet from YouTube, Facebook, Flickr and some other sites. Indeed, one feature they emphasise is the integration with Facebook.

The full specs are on the WD site. Also general info.

Currently it costs around £150-£160 on Amazon:

Connectivity

Ethernet port: to connect it to your home network, typically via a spare port on your router. When connected, you can access the internet as well as files on your networked computers, and also play on a networked computer or smartphone any media stored on the Hub.

Audiovisual connectivity: HDMI, component (hi definition) or composite. (For the non-technical - see my guide to connecting AV equipment to your TV generally, and tutorial on how to connect your PC to your TV to play videos etc.)

No cables are provided however.

Operating systems

The Hub is said to be compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP, and Mac Leopard and Snow Leopard. I tried it with Vista.

In the box

The Hub, power supply, remote control with 2 batteries, quick start sheet. No hard copy or CD manual and no software, you have to download that yourself.

No cables, except the power lead. The power plug was continental (2 round pins) in my review unit, and no adapter was included - hopefully the units they sell in the UK market will have the right plugs, or else you'll need to buy a separate power plug adapter yourself.

What types of media files does it play or show?

See the manual p.152 for the list of supported formats. My own experience was however mixed.

From my tests, it played or showed these formats: flv (only some files, not others), gif, jpg, m2t, mp3, mp4, mpg, png, wav, wma (very jerkily!), wmv (some files, not others).

But, it just wouldn't play any files I tried in these formats: avi, mov, swf. (To be fair, they don't claim to support SWF Shockwave Flash files. I just tried them out.)

The files I tested all played fine on my computer however, and also were OK if I played them on a computer over the network via the Hub media server. They just wouldn't play on the TV using just the Hub itself. Go figure… maybe my files were in older unsupported versions of those formats.

One folder of music which I copied over wholesale got split into 2 folders in the Music view on the Hub, with 7 tracks in 1 folder, 3 in another. Again, I'm not sure why. It's rather frustrating as I wanted it to cycle round playing all tracks in that folder repeatedly, but couldn't get it to. The playlist feature seems too basic - just adding stuff individually to the queue, and if earlier items are to be repeated in folder, it never gets to later added items!

They say you can access non-WD content via the Hub that's on another networked drive, as long as it supports DLNA media server or samba server. I didn't test that.

Setup tips - the missing steps

The Quick Installation Guide isn't complete and misses out important steps after step 3 (ie after connecting the Ethernet cable between Hub and router).

So here's my version of the quickstart, including some essential info not in their guide:

1. buy the extra cables that you'll need for steps 3 and 4!
2. connect the Hub to the mains with the power supply & mains lead
3. connect Hub to your TV (see my introductory guide to connecting PC to TV which has info and links about connectors)
4. connect Hub to a spare networking port on your home router
5. turn on the Hub
6. via the onscreen menu or the Setup button on the remote control, go to Setup then Network Setup, and select Automatic (works in most cases they say, certainly worked in mine; if it didn't work, see the full manual).
7. in Network Setup note down what it now says against IP Address, eg in my case it was 192.168.1.67
8. in Setup > Audio/Video Output, choose the output that suits your own TV connections eg HDMI (the default), Composite or Component
9. in Setup > Appearance > Screen Size Calibration, change it so that the screen fits on your TV - on my system the top or bottom of the Hub's screen output was cut off, until I adjusted this to 90%. I tried a zillion things till this worked!
10. in Setup > System > Timezone, you may want to set it to your own timezone. It's preset to Pacific.
11. in the AccuWeather service (Services > AccuWeather) you can set your home town. NB London in the UK is listed after the longer towns that start with "London.."!

How to transfer files from PC to Hub

The Quick Installation guide said in step 4 to download the WD Discovery Tool. I didn't need it, and in fact it didn't work for me at all, even though I had set my firewall to let it through:

Step 4 really should have explained how to access the Hub from your computer using Windows Explorer or a web browser. So here's the missing explanation.

There are 2 ways:

1. in the Windows Explorer or My Computer address bar, type \\wdtvlivehub (case insensitive but include the backslashes) - then OK or Enter. You'll be able to navigate to and view the contents of the Hub and its folders (doubleclick WDTVLiveHub icon in there, you'll see a Sample Media folder inside that).

You can create subfolders, copy/paste or drag and drop multiple media files there, etc, in the normal way.

2. in a browser, enter the IP address you noted earlier. Then you'll see this (the pic below is from my iPhone):

The password is "admin" (without the quotes), tick to accept the Agreement (and to keep signed in if you wish), and click Login. Once you're in, you see this (screenshot from my Vista PC):

(Don't bother with using the Network icon in Windows Explorer: it just brought up 2 icons for the hub, one of which when doubleclicked only opened Windows Media Player, while the other opened the Web interface to the hub.

And don't bother trying to enter \\wdtvlivehub in a browser; it doesn't work in Firefox, while in Internet Explorer it just opens a Computer/Windows Explorer window, ie same as using the \\WDTVLiveHub method in Computer.)

How to play files from the Hub

To play or show media on the connected TV, just turn on the Hub and use the remote control to select Music, Video etc.

There's a "Now Playing" button as a reminder of what's currently playing! Audio files will continue to play in the background as you do other stuff like check Setup; video files won't, as you'd expect.

To play media from the Hub on other networked devices, the best way is to go to the Hub's IP address (as noted in step 6 above) in a browser. Login, click Media

Launch Twonky Media (the server), and navigate to the files you want to play or view, which the Hub categorises by type (Music, Video etc).

You can also upload files to the Hub using Twonky but I wouldn't recommend it as it only seems to cope with one file at a time.

Online services

One of the features touted is the integration of the Hub with certain online services.

However, it started off being too US-centric, showing services you could only get in the US. Progressive firmware upgrades have got rid of the US-only services and added some new ones, but BBC iPlayer and SeeSaw are still missing. If they'd included those (or just a plain web browser!) from the start, they could have done very well with this product.

See their list of current services (NB that includes US services you can't get in Europe.) Basically, apart from Accuweather, it's Facebook, YouTube, photo sharing site Flickr, various internet radio stations and internet TV channel compilations - as I write that's Flingo, Deezer (mainly French so yay for Europeanisation there), Live365, Tunein Radio (lots of UK radio stations) and MediaFly.

The closest integration is with Facebook - you can upload pics etc from the Hub to Facebook. (You could update your status too, but that's painful unless you have a USB keyboard hooked up to the Hub, or use a wireless keyboard).

Oddly enough, you can't upload to Flickr or YouTube.

My biggest comment here is that it's too closed. Maybe they did deals with the services available via the Hub, I don't know. But if they'd made it more open, it would have been much, much more attractive to users - eg if they'd included a web browser so you could play BBC iPlayer TV shows, LoveFilm movies etc over the internet via the Hub, or failing that an API allowing developers or site owners to add extra services, increasing the range available to Hub users.

At the London Girl Geek Dinner in late 2010 where they demo'd this device, they said BBC iPlayer integration would come - but ideally it should have been available from the start, when targeting UK customers. And it's still not available.

In my view it's very important for WD to broaden as much as possible the range of online services which users which can access to play video on the Hub over the internet, whether by streaming or download. This is because, strictly, it's illegal in many countries, including the UK, to rip CDs and DVDs, eg to store on a Hub - so, in terms of video, if you want to be legal you're pretty much limited to online services. (Personally, I only tested the Hub with videos or audio that I'd shot or recorded myself or to which I had rights, and which I then exported to a few different formats.)

The other issue is that the integration with what services the Hub does offer just isn't slick or user-friendly enough. For starters the search capability falls short. Flingo includes Blip.tv, for example, but the search didn't bring up some videos I know are on Blip.

Other tips

Remember Setup > System > Device Restart (you may have to scroll down) - if switching it on and off doesn't work, even at the mains, the Restart function seems to do the trick, at least for me. That's Restart, not Device Reset! (which is really really only as an absolute last resort as it'll wipe stuff). At one point during my tests the Hub inexplicably stopped outputting audio that was anywhere near audible, possibly because of the crash mentioned below, and fiddling with power on/off, plug fittings etc did nothing - but the Device Restart fixed it for me.

When it shows a big green tick, that's not a confirmation message to indicate that it's already done something and everything's OK. You actually have to hit the OK button again to actually whatever it was that you selected - the tick is kind of like an "Are you sure?" rather than "Yes it's done".

If you're going to use the online services a lot, get something like Netmeter to monitor your bandwidth usage so your broadband costs don't go through the roof (see my post on how to connect PC to TV).

Pros

(Note that many of the pros aren't unique to this product, other gear (eg NAS servers) will share the same advantages.)

1 TB, a very very very decent capacity. Enough for tons and tons of media.

Tiny, so it's great if you have a space-challenged AV setup.

Nice and quiet in operation.

You can access and play the files on it from a smartphone eg it worked on my iPhone, as well as networked computers - and several devices can play different files from it at the same time. This is limited by what your device can play, eg the iPhone will of course play .mov files happily:

- but not .avi:

It's said to offer full-HD 1080p playback - I don't have a HD TV yet, believe it or not (unless someone wishes to offer me one to trial!) so I couldn't test the HD.

It has onscreen buttons for Videos, Music, Photos and Files. And it automatically categorises everything neatly; no matter in what scattered folders I (deliberately!) stored different types of media, all the videos got displayed under Videos, all music files under Music, etc. If the right tags were added to your audio files, it will let you filter by Genre etc.

After you start playing one item in a folder it also automatically plays everything after it in the same folder.

For video, it remembers where you played to and offers to start again from there ("Resume").

2 USB slots, one front, one back. You can plug in eg a wi-fi adapter, USB keyboard, external hard drive, camcorder, digital camera etc.

Automatically prompts you to update the firmware when a new version is available.

Can sync with external USB drive that you plug in, and also sync with a folder shared on your network.

There are some thoughtful but somewhat hard to find features - eg you can change some (not all) of the remote control buttons' commands via the Setup > Operation > Remote Settings menu, to program the button to do something else. And you can control the Hub via your computer or smartphone's web browser (iPhone or Android), by calling up a "virtual remote control" that you can click on within your web browser:

While you can enter letters with the remote control (onscreen keyboard, or tap certain keys a certain number of times), the Hub also works (mostly) with a wireless keyboard whose dongle is plugged into the USB - at least, it mostly worked with the model I tried (review to follow). That keyboard's arrow keys also worked. However, there's an inconsistency in the services integration: that keyboard would not work at all with the Flingo search (hence my use of "mostly").

Facebook integration, for avid Facebook users.

Cons

Doesn't play some video file formats; plays some in one format but not others in the same format, no idea why.

No cables supplied, so you can't use it straightaway - you'll need first to buy your own HDMI or other AV cable to connect it to your TV, and also your own Ethernet networking cable if you want to connect it to your broadband router to access internet content. It's understandable that no AV cable was included as everyone's setup varies, but it would have been nice if they'd included an Ethernet cable.

You can add items to a queue, but don't be fooled by the name - that's not a playlist function. In fact it seems little different from a version of a Favorites function (quick access from the Dashboard). I couldn't see any way to create a playlist, a glaring omission!

It's a computer - so it can crash or freeze. It did once when I was trying a search on Flingo.

Services - too closed, see comments above.

No wifi. In my home, I can't connect the Hub both to my TV and to my router without having to run a cable across the middle of my living room, which I'd trip over. (For review purposes I simply tried not to fall over the cable, and to remember to disconnect it when done using the Hub!)

If only it came with wifi, so it could talk to my wireless router without wires… but, wi-fi isn't built-in. There's a USB port to plug in a wireless USB adapter, but you'd have to buy that separately. I can't be the only person whose living room set-up is such that using this box is simply impracticable, unless I fork out for a USB adapter or a very very very long Ethernet cable to try to go round along the walls.

Niggle - no CD supplied, you have to download the manual (which you'll definitely need) and, if you want it, the WDTVLiveHub software from the WD site, although I got by without the software (which didn't work, for me).

Wishlist - improvements I'd like to see

I ran through some of these with a non-technical friend, who agrees with my assessment - she says she wouldn't have been able to set up and use the WDTV LiveHub herself, even at a basic level, without the missing instructions which I've flagged.

As well as addressing the Cons mentioned above, a small practical point - on the remote control, the Options button should be swapped with Back, given that most people are right-handed.

The Hub was said to be aimed at consumers who aren't technical, so it's a shame the Product Overview info wasn't in the box, or indeed on the outside of the box to tempt prospective buyers! And also that they didn't do more to tailor it for a European and indeed UK market before releasing it here, although subsequent firmware updates have improved that a bit.

Conclusions

There are a couple of issues with the Hub, in my view.

First, it doesn't seem to hit the target market squarely enough, if WD have decided what target market they want to aim for with this product. The tech-savvy have probably set up their own NAS and media servers already, while the average non-techie consumer might well find the setup too difficult.

There isn't enough info in the quickstart to help non-technical users (I've outlined above the main missing info), there are some other usability difficulties with it, and it's not made clear enough that people will also have to go and buy their own cables - so some consumers may find it frustrating. Also, the branding could be confusing. Some consumers might be puzzled by what "Twonkymedia" is and why it's there, for instance, and similarly with "Mochi". (Twonky is the server software on the hub that lets you view and play its media files from another computer on your network - why not just say, "Access your media"?)

Geeks will already know how to set up their own servers, so instead of buying this they may just go for cheaper hardware and install free server software (it's possible to get 1 TB external hard drives or NAS servers more cheaply, including some with server software and even Ethernet cable included).

Second, networking. To me, there's no point having a media server that isn't permanently connected to my home network. But, as mentioned above, my setup doesn't make that easy. If they had built into the Hub the technology from their WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit (4 Ports, Twin Pack), which enables networking through power points (though I've not tested one), or even included wi-fi as standard, they'd have solved this problem for potential buyers. I'm sure that others besides me may have the same problem. Buying a wireless USB adapter or trying to run ultra long networking cables round the walls is an extra expense and hassle, which may put some people off.

So, overall, I think this is a nice bit of kit, but it works better as a media server for networked computers (or other networked devices) than as a stand-alone player, given the issues I've noted with playing certain files. And, particularly given its price, it's let down by some usability issues for non-technical consumers, the lack of built-in wi-fi or livewire technology, some shortcomings in the integration with the featured web services and indeed the lack of online services: you just don't get the broad range and freedom of choice as you do when you simply hook up your PC to your TV and play stuff from the internet on your TV that way, even though the Hub's sound quality is much better (in the case of my home setup at least).

If Western Digital had built in wi-fi or livewire capability as standard, included cables or at least one cable, made the services more open by adding a simple browser or at least provided more services particularly for BBC iPlayer, 4od, Demand 5 etc and TV/movie rental outfits in the UK like Lovefilm, made the interface more user-friendly and included just a few more instructions in the box, and (ideally) lowered the price a little, that would have made the Hub much more desirable, at least for more technical consumers. As for an API, we can only hope!

Domestic reviews - Gilberts' gourmet chopping boards

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I cook a lot. And I absolutely love Gilberts' cutting boards (which I think are the "Epicurean" range).

When I was looking for new chopping boards, I wanted ones that were dishwasher-safe and light, and so I avoided considering wooden ones, which in my experience are usually huge and high-maintenance.

But then, fortunately for me, I came across the Gilberts Epicurean boards, and they're just fantastic. The description says they're used by many professional chefs, and I'm not at all surprised.

These superb boards are made from "environmentally-friendly natural wood fibre composite laminate", according to the blurb, but they really are dishwasher safe and they don't need any oiling etc, so they're very low maintenance indeed.

More to the point, they provide a great cutting surface, with a good, pretty non-slip grip for the knife, and I can cut up stuff on these boards without etching deep grooves into the surface too. Cutting and chopping using these boards just feels more comfortable, easy, efficient and secure to me, than with other chopping boards that I've used.

The board is thin and light (even the bigger version), with a nice large hole to hang it up with. The large board is even lighter than smaller plastic chopping boards I've used. So it's easy to store, and easy (even for a weakling like me) to pick up the board and take it to the cooker to scrape cut-up meat or veg into the wok or pan straight from the board.

These boards aren't cheap at £20 or more (at the date of writing this), but they're not prohibitively expensive either, as they're still under £30, and to me they're well worth the money as they are so good, and seem very durable. I've not had mine that long so I can't testify they'll last for years, but they feel like they would. An excellent investment, in my book.

They're available via Amazon in natural or black, in two sizes - 15" x 11" or 12" x 9".

I have to say that these are brilliant, simply the best chopping boards I've ever used, and I cook at least two or three times a week. First rave review in ages, and it's not even for electronic kit!

WD TV Live Hub to be reviewed

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The folks at Western Digital and ChillifishPR have kindly lent me a WD TV Live Hub for review.

If anyone has any questions about the kit, just email me or add a comment.

I'll be posting my review in a couple of weeks or so.

Sit less, live longer - try online timer?

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No matter how much you exercise, the more time you spend sitting, the higher your risk of dying prematurely. Sitting for long periods is seriously bad for your health.

It seems that if you want to live longer, not only should you do physical exercise, but you also need to cut down on how much time you spend sitting down. Even just getting out of your chair for a short stretch or brief walk, or just standing up for a change, can make a difference. Indeed sitting for 3 or 4 hours continuously can trigger negative physiological changes in your body. See e.g. articles in New York Times ("a study of people who sit for many hours found that those who took frequent small breaks — standing up to stretch or walk down the corridor — had smaller waists and better profiles for sugar and fat metabolism than those who did their sitting in long, uninterrupted chunks"), USA Today, Daily Mail, and ThomasNet (with more links).

I'm blogging this because further research in the US has just confirmed the same thing recently - "If you sit all day, you are in real trouble even if you exercise regularly". "Researchers say time spent sitting was independently associated with total mortality, regardless of physical activity level. They conclude that public health messages should promote both being physically active and reducing time spent sitting."

That means you, office workers, coders, gamers and inveterate surfers and film / video or TV addicts alike! And that means me too, of course.

So what to do?

Suggestion - use online timer

To help make us get up from our chairs from time to time, here's a tip: try using an online timer alarm. It'll be better for the back as well as health generally.

I've surveyed a few free online countdown timers, and my personal choice is Timeme.com (go straight to Timeme review and howto):

1. Set your browser to autostart (how to add it to Startup folder) so it launches automatically when you turn your computer on, and
2. Set Timeme (or other online timer of your choice) to be your browser's home page. (How to set home page: navigate to the site you want, then click "Use current" in your settings - in Internet Explorer it's Tools > Internet Options > Home Page; Firefox Tools > Options > General > Home Page; Opera Tools > Preferences > General > Home Page; if you do this with a blank page already open in a separate tab, your browser will open automatically on both a timer page and a blank page you can surf in.)
3. Then, just remember to restart the countdown when you get back to your desk, if you've left the room while it was still counting down. And remember to pause it or stop it if you're leaving your desk at work or it may annoy your coworkers if it goes off when you're not there to shut it up!

You can install a timer application on your computer instead, if you prefer - but lots of us spend more time sitting at a computer at work, and most workplaces I know of won't let you install any software on their computers, so a browser-based solution seems to be the best (assuming the computer is connected to the internet, of course). I do briefly mention some downloadable software later, just for completeness.

Online timers - review

So, here is a round up and short reviews of the online timers I've found which seem most suitable for regularly prompting us to get out of our chairs.

For all of these, you just have to:

1. have your web browser open on the right page (even better, set it as your browser's start page see below), and
2. where appropriate (this is with all of them except TimeMe), click the Start or similar button on the webpage to get it going for the day.

To hear the timer alarm go off, with the services I've picked you don't need to be viewing the browser tab displaying that page. You could be browsing in another tab.

You don't even need to be in the same application - e.g. you could be doing some word processing or reading your email, or even surfing using a different browser; the timer alarm will still go off, just as long as you've left the timer tab open in your browser in the background.

Of course you won't hear it if you're not in the room, so I repeat, if you leave the room (which means you've gone and got up out of your chair, pat on the back), when you come and sit back down you need to remember to re-start or reset the timer again.

None of the online services I found is perfect for what I have in mind, but I'll give the pros and cons of each.

Here are my criteria. To remind me not to stay seated for too long, what I really really want is an online Web timer which:

1. webpage, with autoload - comprises a webpage you can set as your browser home page, so that it loads automatically when you first open your browser, and which you can save as a bookmark or favourite too
2. alarm - plays a sound every say 30 or 45 minutes, to remind you to get up and move around, stretch, have a short walk etc (a popup window that takes focus even if you're in another application would be a bonus)
3. makes you get up! - plays the sound continuously until you manually stop it, so that even if you're engrossed it forces you to get up off your butt and do something about it. Maybe with a backstop at 2 minutes so that it doesn't go on forever if you're not at your desk, like car alarms are supposed to have at 20 minutes (but sometimes don't!)
4. restarts count automatically - when you click (or, I wish, press a key?) to shut it up, it should automatically start the timer countdown running again, so it'll sound again in another 30 or 45 minutes or whatever. One button to do it all. You shouldn't have to stop it and then click Start again, otherwise people will forget to click Start again.
5. choice of interval - lets you choose the interval you want between timer alarms, e.g. 30 or 45 minutes, but won't let you choose more than 1 hour (maybe 2 hours? Don't know medically what the recommended longest time you should spend sitting still is). Choosing 7 hours would defeat the object!
6. pause and restart functions - lets you pause the cycle and resume it again, or even restart it from scratch, e.g. after you've popped out to the little room.
7. choice of alarm sound - lets you select the sound you want - horn, siren, horses neighing, whatever…. Ideally either on the site or, for those who prefer it, a sound file from your their computer e.g. MP3 or WAV.

So here's my shortlist of free online timers that come close to what I want for this sort of use.

Remember, none of them meet all 7 of my criteria. So if anyone builds or knows of something which does, please let me know!

1. http://timer.onlineclock.net/

Pro

Alarm won't stop until you manually click "Alarm Off". Which is what we want to make us get up!

Con

1. After it goes off and you click Alarm Off, you also have to (1) click "Back to Timer" and then (2) select the countdown time afresh, to start it going again. Extra steps which some may forget.
2. No choice of which sound to use.
3. Sounding till you manually turn it off can be a con if you're not at your desk when it goes off - it could drive your co-workers crazy. So remember to set it to Off via the dropdown if you get up from your desk while it's still counting down, and then to restart it when you get back.

Try Online Clock timer. The developer has kindly said he'll look into making the cycle repeat automatically on clicking "Alarm Off", when he has time.

2. Java timer

Click "Count Down", choose hours/minutes/seconds, then click Start.

Tip: if you don't like the label "Tea Timer", click on that label and type what title you like instead, then hit Enter or Return (or click anywhere outside that area). If you mistype you can't backspace, but just click on the name again and re-type it.

The code is from http://javaboutique.internet.com/JavaTimer/ and is available online on various websites such as (click one of these links to try it, it's the same on each):

• http://www.vickiblackwell.com/timer.html
• http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/javatimer/javatimer.html

Pro

1. It remembers your previous setting e.g. x minutes, as long as the browser remains open, so (unlike the previous service) you don't have to re-select the countdown time, so after the alarm sounds you can just click Start to restart the timer (and stop the alarm sounding).
2. Alarm sounds for a decent length of time too.

Con

1. Every day, the first time you go to the webpage you have to click "Count Down" and then choose the number of minutes afresh, to get it going. Some may forget to do that. Similarly the "Tea Timer" title - your changes aren't saved.
2. You have to click Start to restart it each time after it goes off. Again, some may forget to do that.
3. The alarm stops after a few seconds so you might ignore it and forget to stand up.

3. TimeMe (via Vicki Blackwell)

1. Click the Timer Stopwatch Settings link, then (see pic above):
   1. Choose your Alarm sound. Tips:
      1. go for Horn (sounds for longer and is the most insistent, to me) or Beep (loud-ish, but too short in my view)
      2. don't use "Pop Up" - that only plays a sound if you're still viewing that tab, or are in another application; if you're in another tab of the same browser, the alarm won't go off. Also you have to OK the popup before the timer will restart the loop.
   2. Tick Auto Start (so the timer automatically starts counting down whenever your browser opens that webpage e.g. on startup)
   3. Tick Loop to repeat the timer automatically; choose Sound (you can preview them) then
   4. click Save.
2. It goes back to the main page (see pic below). Just click Stop if necessary first, then for Start Time enter 00:30:00 or 00:45:00 (for 30 or 45 minutes respectively) or whatever timer interval you prefer (you can leave the Stop time at 00:00:00), then click Set. That automatically starts the timer going as well.
3. Note that:
   1. The "Stop" button actually pauses it (and you can click Start again to continue).
   2. "Reset" button restarts the countdown from scratch, e.g. if you've got up for a cuppa, you can give yourself a pat on the back and start the 30 minute (or whatever) countdown from 00:30:00 afresh when you get back to your seat.
4. Every time you visit that page (unless you've deleted your cookie) it'll remember your settings.

Pro

1. Very customisable, including Loop to repeat the cycle automatically (hooray!).
2. Your settings are remembered on the computer with a cookie. If you delete cookies, this'll go unless you remember to preserve the cookie for this site. But you can always redo your settings.
3. Choice of different alarm sounds which you can preview.
4. "Stop" button to pause is good, as is having a "Reset" button to restart the cycle
5. Decent help page.

Con

1. Alarm only plays once through, not continuously until you stop it. Good for your colleagues, not so good to make you get up!
2. If you use a different computer you have to set up your settings afresh on it. A very minor disadvantage considering most of the others won't save any settings at all.
3. The alarm options are mostly too short (Drums) or too soothing (like Clarinet and Sonata) to make you get up! Phone is too confusing. Which is why I think Horn is best, it's the loudest and plays for the longest time.
4. With browsers other than Internet Explorer you'll have to install QuickTime plugin in order to hear the alarm - e.g. for Firefox.
5. It seems to have paused itself once, in my testing. Maybe it was me, but the button should have read Start after a manual pause, and it didn't, yet it wasn't counting down..

Try TimeMe.

4. Online Stopwatch/Countdown

Quite sophisticated when using the Custom option. And certainly the most Web 2.0, with the ability to add their widgets to your blog or website, Facebook, gadgets for iGoogle etc.

The settings I suggest are as follows (you can test it by picking a short countdown).

1. See pic above - just select "Just the Countdown Timer", pick your alarm sound, pick "Ring until canceled", and I'd go for "Always start the timer at" and enter e.g. 30 minutes (00:30:00) or 45 minutes (00:45:00).
2. Then click "Get Link to Countdown Timer", and click or save the link in the blue box that appears - that's the link you want to use for your home page or favorites in future, which goes to the custom webpage they'll set up.
3. If you've chosen "I will set the time each use", after clicking the link to the timer webpage you'll have to click the number buttons to set the time, then click Set and Start. And each time you go back to that webpage you have to do that too. Which is why I prefer

Pro

1. Sets up a special webpage you can access from any computer over the internet, with your chosen settings.
2. Alarm will keep going until you click "Clear" (if you use "Ring until canceled" as I suggest), so you'll have to pay attention!
3. Good selection of sounds, which again you can preview. The alarms are good and loud too (though "Siren" may cause a real stampede. I like Submarine, Air raid siren and Original bell for being insistent without being too piercing, although Horse race bugle call is rather fun, and "Applause" may reward you for being a good healthy thing and getting out of your seat for a bit!)
4. Pause button available (Start becomes Pause after you click it), which becomes Cont when pressed.

Con

1. You have to remember to click Start when you first open your browser, to get it going every day.
2. Every time it goes off and you click Clear, you then have to click Start again afresh for the next time.
3. There's a Pause option but no Reset (unlike TimeMe). Tip: just click Clear and Start to reset.
4. As with Online Clock, the fact that it won't shut up till you manually click Clear is great if you're at your desk, but bad if you left and forgot to turn it off as it may annoy your colleagues, so you need to remember to turn it off if you get up! And restart it when you get back.

Here are some pages I made earlier, if you want to use them - remember you have to click Start each time after you click Clear, as it won't repeat the cycle automatically (if you try the links below, on this occasion please ignore the arrows, don't click on them, just click the links; and use the Back button on your browser to get back to this page, not the Back button on the webpage):

• 30 minutes, bugle call
• 1 hour, submarine
• Bell, you can choose how long e.g. 30 minutes each time, will ring till cancelled
• Air raid siren, you choose how long, rings till cancelled
• Submarine, you choose how long, rings till cancelled

Try Custom Countdown.

Desktop alternatives?

Online Stopwatch also offer a free basic Windows download which will "stay on top" of your other apps, plus other more customisable SWF downloads for Windows and Mac, all of which hopefully you can download and run stand-alone on your work computer even if your IT department won't let you install software generally.

You just doubleclick the downloaded file to run it, and you're not installing anything, so hopefully your IT department won't come and wag their finger at naughty you - but it's best to check with them first.

Note that the SWF files need Adobe Flash Player installed to run, which you may or may not have on your work computer; the "stay on top" doesn't, but it's Windows only, and is not very customisable.

XNote Timer (again via Vicki Blackwell, NB it's the Timer not the Stopwatch) for Windows also runs stand alone, again without needing to install anything; it's free to try though they ask for payment if you use it, it lets you use your own sound files, you can tick "Restart the timer" to keep it going round and round, you can even set hotkeys to start, stop or reset it, yay.

But, there's no Pause, and more importantly you can either get your sound file to keep playing continuously (which is what the Loop option here does, confusingly) till you hit Stop, or you can have the cycle automatically restart - but you can't have both. So either tick Loop to keep the alarm playing, then click both Reset and Start each time it goes off; or else, use "Restart the timer" and remember it'll go off once but it won't nag you continuously till you deal with it. Tip: click More, pick Timer; to change the options e.g. sound file, interval, you should change to Stopwatch then change back to Timer.

Verdict

I'm lazy, so I like TimeMe - it's got good options which involve zero work once you've set up your options and browser home page; then you just have to remember to launch your browser (not even that if you autostart your browser on startup). None of the other online timers will restart the countdown cycle automatically when you stop the alarm sounding.

I just wish TimeMe also had an option to make the sound keep on playing continuously till you shut it up (while still repeating the timer cycle). Then it would be perfect for making me get up out of my seat! I guess one loud honk will have to do me for now.

The TimeMe people told me they do have that option, but not for the free version. You have to get the paid version if you want that.

One day maybe we'll have chairs that'll give us a good prod (or electric shock?!) and physically tip us out of them at regular intervals. 'ealth & safety, innit? But not for some time yet, I suspect. (Meanwhile, if you're looking for a decent chair to try to save your back, see my computer /office chairs review.)

Tags: review, timers, online timers, countdown timers, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

Nokia N900 mobile phone review - for developers & consumers

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I received a Nokia N900 cellphone a few weeks ago to test and return, thanks to James of WOMWorld. I was asked to look at it primarily from a developer's viewpoint, but I'm going to consider it for both average users and developers. First developers, then users.

Now if I'd had an N900 unit to play with when the phone first came out in the UK last year in Q4 2009, my review would probably have comprised raves unlimited.

The N900 is a very nice phone indeed, an extremely solid bit of kit, and I personally much prefer a smartphone with a physical keyboard than one without - it's much, more more practical than a soft keyboard, and certainly a whole lot faster for email, tweets, texts, documents etc. Highly portable device with physical keyboard, yes yes, I'm still waiting for something that can even come close to the Psion 5mx (which uses EPOC32, Symbian's big daddy - see Wikipedia on the 5mx).

Furthermore, the N900 uses the open source Linux-based operating system Maemo, which can run the excellent free open source Firefox browser, aka Fennec on mobiles. (Firefox is my favourite browser, oh if only it were as fast as Opera.)

However, news came out in April and May 2010 which might give some pause. What news? First, in April Nokia announced that the open source MeeGo operating system would merge Maemo with Intel's open source Moblin OS. Second, in May Nokia said:

Many of you have been asking whether the new MeeGo platform will be supported on the N900 once it’s device-ready. Although Nokia N900 devices are being used for platform development and testing purposes by those involved in the MeeGo project, Nokia doesn’t have plans for a full scale commercial MeeGo upgrade on the Nokia N900. The reason? It’s really about ensuring that you have the best possible experience designed for the features on your Nokia N900 device. Nokia realises this news may be a disappointment for some, rest assured that Nokia will continue to support the core Maemo software on your Nokia N900, as evidenced by the PR 1.2 (V10.2010.19-1) update available today.

Developers

So, this means that N900s won't be officially upgraded to MeeGo and the N900 will officially remain on Maemo, a platform which realistically Nokia won't be putting as much into in future.

This discussion typifies the kinds of misgivings which those announcements have triggered.

Now it's good news that Nokia have said they'll still support Maemo on the N900 (otherwise they might have had a riot on their hands!).

But surely that's not going to be their core focus - they're inevitably, and understandably, going to be concentrating more on their key strategic areas for the future, namely MeeGo (and presumably Symbian).

Which doesn't seem so good for those who've forked out on a far from cheap bit of gear, and seems doubly strange given that, as Nokia noted in their quote, the N900 has been used a lot by MeeGo developers and testers.

Maemo has a thriving community of developers and users, including some very helpful developer guides and support fora e.g. SDK installation documentation. But one can appreciate from a business viewpoint why Nokia decided to go the MeeGo route.

What may make less sense at first is why Nokia decided not to support MeeGo officially on the N900. No doubt it would cost them resources to do so, but surely not officially updating existing N900s to MeeGo would cost them in user loyalty (and even more in already low sales) - perhaps unquantifiable, but still probably significant.

(I know full well just how that feels as a user, having had a T-Mobile UK G1 Android smartphone - just over a year old, but it seems T-Mobile UK aren't even providing customers with version 2 of the same operating system; their tech department claim the upgrade is up to HTC rather than T-Mobile, whereas conflictingly their customer services say T-Mobile have just decided to postpone it to some unknown indefinite future date to tie in with other moves! I shall be leaving T-Mobile as soon as I've time to sort something else out. Not just for that but for the often (not always, but usually) terrible customer service too. And yes, I can upgrade the G1 myself, and I will. I was just curious to test how well T-Mobile deals with such queries and looks after their existing customers on a continuing basis, and from my own experience it seems that they don't really care that much).

On the MeeGo front, however, things are not as bad as they might appear, and the MeeGo news shouldn't put developers off completely from the N900.

Why? Because, unofficially, there is MeeGo for the N900. Lots of developers, including Nokia employees, have been working on that. MeeGo 1.0 was released towards the end of May, including MeeGo for the N900 (e.g. installation without erasing Maemo 5; and images) as well as for netbooks etc.

You of course have to know what you're doing in order to unofficially install MeeGo on the N900 (as a blog post with a video of the installation pointed out pithily, "If you need this video to install MeeGo on N900, you should NOT be installing MeeGo on your N900"!). Obviously, developers wouldn't have a problem MeeGoing their N900s, but most average users would.

And remember if you install MeeGo on your N900 you can say goodbye to any official Nokia support, although no doubt developers won't be too bothered about that, and there's the MeeGo community.

So for developers now might indeed be a good time to pick up an N900 on the cheap, but with an eye to the future it would seem more sensible to focus on MeeGo rather than Maemo. With some work, the N900 is even Androidable to some extent…

Nokia (and Intel) really need to think hard about how they're going to attract developers to MeeGo instead of the Googlified and equally open sourced Android, and, just as importantly, how to get them to stay with MeeGo longer term, given the highly competitive state of the current smartphone market - and I'm not just talking Android or iPhone, Microsoft seem to be doing a great job winning even hardcore Linux developers over to Windows Phone 7.

Consumers

What about the (non-developer) consumer's viewpoint? As I mentioned in my blog post on the MoMo session on the implications and difficulties for developers of there being so many different mobile phone platforms, the position for consumers is not unaffected by the position for developers, especially in relation to smartphones - because if developers don't want to produce apps for a platform, then users will obviously have fewer and more expensive apps to choose from.

There's also the slight question mark over ongoing support for Maemo which might worry some people, even though Nokia have said they'll keep updating it. On the other hand, a lot of people who go for smartphones probably change their phones every year or two anyway, so this may not be an issue for them, and there are certainly still enough apps available for Maemo to keep most people happy for a while.

A final issue I've heard about is this - it seems that simply in order to update phones that they have already paid for, N900 users are being forced to sign up to MyNokia, with texts automatically going from their phone (at their expense) sending their personal data to Nokia. Many N900 users were (as you can see from the comments) very concerned about it, and I understand some still are. Yes you can opt out (Settings > MyNokia), and Nokia aren't the only business to do this, e.g. to use Android phones properly you are forced to have a Google account, but it's a question of advance notice and transparency, and changing the goalposts on people after the event (or being perceived to).

In these increasingly privacy and consumer rights-conscious times, it's important for businesses to remember that anything which can raise data protection or privacy issues, or which apparently tries to restrict (after the purchase) users' ability to use fully something they've previously bought, can raise hackles at best or result in being sued at worst - as Google found out with Buzz, Sony with the Playstation "downgrade" (and litigation), and Amazon with the Kindle and 1984.

Even the fact that you have to register before you can download any apps from Nokia's Ovi Store will put many people off - and surely Nokia want to promote the benefits and encourage the use of their store? (Tip - you can install Firefox to your N900 direct from Mozilla without having to go through Ovi; and the Maemo site is fine.)

Developers haven't been too happy about Ovi either, notably the lack of push updates - see my write up of the Mobile Monday multi-platform event.

So Nokia have to be very careful how they manage this sort of thing, reputationally, and be much more aware in future of these issues, in advance, before they do anything similar again - whether with the N900 or anything else. And improving Ovi generally would help too.

N900 and G1

Moving on, here's a brief (for me!) user-perspective comparison of the N900 against my G1, as it's similar in that the G1 uses the (also open source) Android operating system and has a physical keyboard and touchscreen. Pictured above side by side, N900 on the right, keyboard open and then shut.

1. General - N900 feels a lot heavier in weight. I wouldn't want to have extended conversations on it without an earpiece, as I'm feeble and can't hold heavy objects for long without getting tired and I do find the N900 a tad heavy personally.
2. Keyboard - N900 keyboard is much smaller as you can see above, but interestingly I found it much faster and more accurate in use than the G1. Probably because Nokia really know what they're doing on the hardware design front. And the N900 doesn't stick out on the right between keyboard and hand. But, I really missed having a Menu key and a Back or Escape hard key. (Tip: to get out of a menu on the N900 you tap outside of it.)
3. Phone use - an example of better design is, you can set it up so if you hold the N900 portrait style up to your ear, it automatically just goes into phone mode, a thoughtful and clever touch. Whereas with the G1 it takes a tap or two to get to the dialler screen. Conversely though, when switching from landscape to portrait mode on the G1, the screen automatically follows suit, but not on the N900. The pull out stand to prop the N900 up at an angle facing you is a nice extra.
4. Screen - for someone used to the G1, the N900 takes a bit of getting used to. Scrolling, especially (even though it seems like it would be similar); it's the different timing of how long you have to hold things down for, etc, especially when using fingers not stylus (yes it comes with one but I don't like using styli (styluses?), too easy to lose). So the N900 didn't always do what I wanted or expected (based on my G1 experience), especially in the browser when it would often zoom instead of opening a link or vice versa, but once you figure it out it's mostly fine if sometimes still erratic. If in doubt, press & hold the screen & see what happens, and try holding first then swiping (not just a straight swipe). Tip: even when there are more menus available underneath, there's no clear indicator of that. Just hold-swipe & see.
   
5. Gmail etc - as a heavy user of Gmail and Google Calendar, I missed the Android integration with those Google services (including my contacts) once I didn't have them, which you don't on the N900. Entering username/password details on a phone, even one with a keyboard, is a pain. (I secure my phone by requiring a password on first switch on, which is my security compromise.)
6. Speed - N900 seems faster than the G1 for surfing, especially with Firefox. Even using the same SIM & network.
   
7. Battery life - again, N900 seems better than G1 although to be fair I didn't install that many apps. It also has a physical lock to stop it turning itself on if you inadvertently bump into something, aas happens too much with my G1, making its poor battery life even worse. The G1 that is, not the N900. Again, a nice attention to detail point.
8. Usability - a lot of basic "how tos" are missing from the manual, and should have been included. Really I mean just operational tips for those not used to a touchscreen smartphone that works in the way the N900 does (which is different from say the Android or iPhone), e.g. how to get out of a menu without selecting anything. Just adding a few small but fundamental things like that would have gone a very long way. Although I know this phone isn't so much aimed at the average user.

Conclusions

As a developer phone the N900 is still pretty good (it is Linux), especially if you can now get one at a bargain price and MeeGo or Androidify it.

As a user, I wouldn't be too upset with the MeeGo announcements if I already had an N900 (you're no worse off than e.g. if you had a T-Mobile G1 and wanted Android version 2 - you just won't get it unless you DIY). The N900 is a very decent phone and there are going to be apps and updates for a while yet (check out Maemo apps). MeeGo being quite new, there's much more out there for Maemo currently, and as I mentioned it's possible many people would want to get a new phone before there are as many apps out for MeeGo as Maemo (or indeed before a full new MeeGo handset is available), anyway. Indeed, Firefox for the N900 on Maemo was updated relatively recently.

If Nokia had chosen to upgrade all N900 users to MeeGo for free or a token fee, that would better indicate an ongoing commitment to Nokia users and help make people feel more confident about buying Nokia phones (even though Nokia have said they'll keep supporting Maemo, it's not the same).

But as it is, for average users I wouldn't suggest rushing out to buy one now, especially given that the N900 is already a bit long in the tooth in mobile phone time (mobile phone years are, of course, far shorter even than dog years). Unless perhaps the price was really cut down.

Such a shame about the lack of official MeeGo upgrades for the N900. I actually prefer the N900 over the G1 as a device, not least because of the build quality and faster keyboard use (despite the weight) and attention to detail. I'd buy one myself if I could be assured of getting the same range of apps for it as for Android at the same sorts of prices (as I said in my MoMo post, often it is about the apps), and if there were adequate guarantees as to its continuing future support and proper OS upgrades (not to mention full easy Gmail etc integration! though there are ways round, of course). In other words, were the N900 supplied as a full blown Android phone out of the box, WOMWorld would have had a lot of trouble prising it out of my small but very grippy hands!

Tags: review, Nokia N900, N900, mobile phone, mobile phones, cellphones, developers, consumer, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience