Gadget Addiction

As anyone who has been paying attention to my Facebook comments can attest, I have been on a gadget purchasing spree lately.  Gadgets have always been fascinating to me – ever since watching those early Bond movies.  On the whole though, they have tended to disappoint after purchase. The calculator watch – yeah, that looked real pretty!  The early walkie-talkies – that weren’t wireless!

Now though, gadgets are actually living up to the literature and there are some decent bargains out there too. Couple of weeks ago I ordered a Touch wireless FM transmitter – $4.99 from some website. It works well enough for me. Yesterday I picked up my first Blue-tooth headset on clearance at Staples for a whopping $3.50. Wanted to test if it would work for Skype with my netbook – it does!

Last week Amazon sent an email featuring some electronics I might be interested in. Normally I would just delete it without even opening it, but I thought why not just check and see if there is anything. Not that I need anything, but just look (famous last words).

There was this Ooma product – free US and Canada calls for life. Uh-huh, what stupid thing is this? Have to plug it in to an always running PC? Buy a special phone for it? Get crap call reception?

I almost didn’t bother, but then I saw it had almost 5* reviews – I was more curious now. There was this one review by a guy who covered everything you would ever need to know about it. He was a VOIP engineer, but didn’t work for Ooma, just loved the product and wanted to see the company do well. Amazon page

I ordered it. Set it up in 5 minutes with my complicated network and can use my existing phones with it and no PC has to be on. Neat, one time $220 cost with free calls as long as the company stays in business. Even if it only last another year, it will have paid for itself.

So now I am feeling a bit gadget addicted – need a constant fix of new toys to play with! Good thing there are a lot of free or 99c apps for the Touch!!!

Wifi not so reliable…

I am just back from a vacation to Scotland – took some of my buds over with me!! In preparation for this trip I kind of went on a tech gadget spending spree.  Shock  horror, yes I spent some of my hard earned dosh.

Picked up my Ipod Touch and a netbook and some headphones with the special built in microphone for the Touch. Then I signed up to Skype, iCall and FlightStatus.

All of this was designed to make it easy for me to stay in touch with UK and US people while I was in the UK. Needless to say, actual performance of this did not live up to expectations.

Not that it was the hardware that was a problem. Wasn’t even the software that caused me much in the way of issues. No, it was the darn wifi network connectivity that was dismal!

The hotel wanted to charge me $15  for 24 hour wifi access – or use the PC for free in the reception area – guess what I chose! So then I was like, no biggie, just got to find one of these wifi cafe places – like McDonald’s or Starbucks. Yes, they had them, but we were never going to them when I needed the access. Can’t very well drag my friends of to McDonald’s while I make a Skype call to book a restaurant for dinner!

Even at the airport which had signs posted all around about free public wifi – never once was I or anyone around me able to connect to it. Sometimes I could connect, but the response was so slow I would have used up my battery before I got my tweet out!

In Edinburgh I gave up and bought a pay as you go cellphone for $50. The cellphones there are so much more advanced than US ones – it even has an FM radio in it! Everyone texts over there, and I now understand why it is so popular – no PC and always connected!

The Skype account was actually quite good – I created an online number that was local to the UK so that anyone calling me in the UK can use a cheap call to get to me – even when I am in the US. It also lets you forward the call to another phone number – cell or land-line and then to voicemail.

Verizon gave me  global cell phone before I left, but even with the plan it would have cost 99c a minute – even to check voicemail. I was much to worried to use it often. Wouldn’t bother with this again.

The touch was still good – even without my precious internet access.  I downloaded an app before I left called Stanza which is like an ebook reader. They have a bunch of library books that are free – got a nice Agatha Christie one and then a new release book too. Invaluable when jet-lag kicks in at 3.30am!!!

So next time, I will take my new phone over to the UK and just get a new SIM card for it – sound all geeky now, but the lady in Carphone Warehouse set the phone all up for me – phew!!! Then I can text my buds and not feel like such an offline loser when I have to ask how to send an SMS….

I am just so Touched!

A few weeks ago I bought an Ipod Touch. It was one of those gadgets that had been sitting at the back of my mind, but not enough to make me run out and buy one. I don’t know what happened though…oh yes, I remember now. I am going for a vacation trip to Scotland and won’t be staying with my Mum. How is one to stay connected on the web if you have no PC with you?

I didn’t want to bring a laptop – too much hassle. So I was looking for alternative. Just needed something that would let me surf basically. I looked into a blackberry, but I was dubious about the whole cell phone data transfer costs.

Into my radar pops the Touch – uses wifi so no cell phone contract and it looks cool and is cheaper than a laptop. Who could ask for more? Course, I had to have one right there and then – instant gratification and all that!

Oh, how it changed my life…well maybe not quite that extreme, but I do love it. Amazing how many places have wifi available now. I downloaded some free apps that let me do quick currency conversions, bank account checking, free voip calls, airline checking options, weather and time for specific locations, Google maps and toilet finder based on location and of course games.

I’m not a big gamer – but I am addicted to Solitaire again. It also changed my TV viewing habits. I can surf while I watch TV on the couch. /never realized how distracting Twitter could be when watching CSI!!! I now find that every 10 mins I have to check if I have new email of tweets. I check the news before I go to sleep at night. Ahhh, portable web surfing in the palm of your hand – I LOVE it!

And there are so many cool FREE apps that let you play. I have one that lets you make your own bobble heads out of any picture you have loaded. Another one lets you tap a drum set along with any music you are playing. Stupid little things, but fun to amuse friends with.

I got the 8gb version and I still have a load of space left. Probably if I was really into the games I would be better of with a bigger version. For now though, this little gadget suits me just fine.