Bernie’s Ramblings

That’s a rhetorical question, since I’ve already filled it up. With flash storage prices so low, I got myself a Sandisk 4 GB microSDHC (class 4, if you must know) for my Palm Centro last week. Initially I had wanted to download the whole Tomeraider’s version of Wikipedia onto it but at 3GB++ for the complete version, I decided it wasn’t worth it. There wouldn’t be any room for anything else. Maybe when the 8 or 16 GB cards are more affordable, I’ll reconsider.

So here’s what I did instead

• filled it up with reference and dictionaries for the English language
• keep videos of my little nephew
• sync 600 or 3.02GB worth songs from iTunes using iTunes Agent
• copied a couple of ebooks for eReader and Mobipocket Reader

Even though PocketTunes Deluxe, the audio player software bundled with the Centro, has native syncing with Windows Media Player, I chose to go the long way so that I can sync with iTunes. This is because I find iTunes much easier to use, not to mention I rely on its smart playlists to compile my select which songs get synced. The smart playlist is like a query tool for songs, yes, it’s pretty neat. I use it to select songs that meets the following criteria for syncing

• a limit of 600 songs
• is rated 3 stars and above
• is frequently played
• hasn’t been played for the last 15 days (so I don’t forget about the older songs, happens when you have 13+ GB of audio)
• hasn’t been skipped more than 5 times (just to be certain I don’t sync songs I dislike)

By relying on smart playlists, I’ll almost guarantee only songs I like or songs I’ve not played for quite a while get’s synced to my Centro. Now if only there’s a way to rate songs on it.

Yesterday was my last day in Axon. The gang threw a small dinner party since it also happened to be Ryan’s birthday. Had a blast. During the short time there I’ve gained quite a number of new friends. That also means it won’t be a big deal with me leaving since I’ll probably keep in touch with the gang. Good luck in work guys! Love all of you.

And a great deal of it was with its on-screen keypad. It’s so hard to type it’s not funny. I wonder if it gets better over time. I did notice that if I hit exactly above the keys, it works better. Easier said than done though. The good news is, the error rate seems to go down a bit when using the keypad in landscape mode because of the extra space between the virtual keys. Too bad there’s only a landscape keypad in Safari.

I’ve read somewhere that hardware keypads are going the way to the dodo, but I digress. It’s still faster, it provides tactile feedback and it allows typing without needing to bloody look at the keypad.

This is a nice series of videos about photography. Reminder to self - go through them. More videos: http://youtube.com/watch?v=sqMI72jsXRQ#

I just realized that TakePhone, the dialer replacement application for Treos, has had a few betas released since the official stable version. The new version seems to have an updated skin (nice!), a built-in plugin for showing a big clock (handy) and other tweaks in the configuration menu.

I was wondering for quite a while how some users seem to be able to show a clock. Guess I just found out the answer. Get the latest beta from ShSh Software.

TakePhone is one of the few registered software on my Centro. That should say something about the quality and usefulness of the application. I got mine when it was on sale for only $4.95.

This post over at Engadget says Vodafone releasing iPhone in Australia, Italy, India, and seven other countries. I wonder if Celcom will be the first telco in Malaysia to bring in an iPhone. Hmm….