TrackIDâ„¢ is a feature available in most of the newer range of mobile phones from Sony Ericsson. It’s a feature that allows you to record a few seconds of a song using your mobile, and get track, artist and album information sent to you in seconds. While it’s a handy tool to help you identify the song name, it’s considered under hyped in a sense that many haven’t tested it or aren’t even aware of it.

In this article, I’ll demonstrate step-by-step how to use TrackID via my Sony Ericsson W880i

First, I play a song in my WMP11, let’s try with a Cantonese song and see if TrackID is able to recognise it or not..

Then, while the song is being played, I launch TrackID from my W880i main menu..

Press start to identify the music track currently in play..

Recording in progress..

And wait for the sample track to be uploaded to the Internet..

And here you go, you’ve got the song info! And surprisingly it can recognise Cantonese songs too. You can also send the info to your friend via SMS :-)

But one thing to take note, the success rate is definitely not 100%, I’ve tested it quite a number of times and it doesn’t always work. Anyway, have fun with it if you’ve got your latest Sony Ericsson Walkman phone with you.

Unfortunately, I absolutely loathe iTunes (slow and clunky) and am already perfectly happy with foobar2000 as my music player. Thankfully, I’m not the only one with that mindset..

One software which I’ve been using for quite awhile now instead of iTunes is called YamiPod. An acronym for ‘Yet another iPod manager’, it is a freeware application with versions for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It does not require any installation and basically runs straight after extracting it to a location of your choice.

For the first start of YamiPod, you would be prompted to select the type of iPod you have (and/or the generation). This would only have to be done once and it would remember the next time you connect your iPod. Once that’s sorted out, you would be presented with a simple interface which supports drag and drop from Explorer/My Computer (for Windows). Screenshots of it can be found here.

A list of other iPod managers can be found here. I have yet to try any others, so if you have tried another which you think is much better, feel free to let us know. :)

And for those of you who think iTunes is the best music player, do try out foobar2000. It’s highly customisable, extensible and not bloated with crap. You can check out the configuration I’m using here.

As promised, I’m writing a review for W880i, the replacement of my lost K800i.

W880i is the latest addition to Sony Ericsson’s famous Walkman family. Let’s start with the specs of this phone – it has a 1.8″ QVGA screen, 3G Support, Walkman 2.0, unbelievable dimension of 103 x 46.5 x 9.4 mm, 2MP camera, flight mode, M2 support and interestingly, the package also includes a 1GB M2 (which isn’t that cheap in retail). There are two choices of color for W880i – Steel Silver (the one I’m using now) or Flame Back.

Design

The form factor and build quality of W880i are probably the main reasons why I opted for this phone. At 9.4mm of thickness, carrying this phone in pocket is never an issue – it’s so slim that I find it extremely hard to resist. The phone enjoys a metal faceplate, and the back of the phone utilizes soft-touched plastic, this clearly distinguishes W880i from the rest (which most of them have the “plasticky” feel). I personally feel the buttons look OKAY but maybe it’s not for those with big thumbs, for me it’s still acceptable. In short, Sony Ericsson W880i’s design is revolutionary (compare to those phones like W810i, W800i, K750i that look almost similar) and targeting fashion-conscious users.

User Interface

UI of W880i is similar to other modern SE phones, other than that, it supports flash theme that allows you to see the visualization, artist and song name in the main screen when you’re playing song with the Walkman 2.0. Navigation of menu items is pretty smooth, and I can see some major improvement in speed compare to K800i (for example, it takes shorter time when I copy all the phone contacts to sim card, or when I delete all the SMS).

Because of the overall similarities with my previous K800i, I find it very easy to adapt in operating W880i.

Display and Audio

With 240X320 resolution fits in the 1.8″ screen, the display is crystal clear. Of course it’s not as great if compare to K800i simply because it has a bigger screen, but it’s rather understandable because W880i is meant to be a compact phone. When maximum brightness is used, the display is still clear under direct sunlight (at the expense of shorter battery life of course)

Audio quality from the speaker is probably the major disappointment of W880i – playing a MP3 at maximum volume results in leaky sound from the speaker. However, when stereo headset are used (HBH-DS970 and HPM-75), the sound quality is great. In conclusion, though it’s a “Walkman” phone, it’s not ideal for playing songs directly from the speaker.

Camera

W880i has a 2.0MP camera – without flash, without macro mode, without auto-focus. You really can’t expect much from the camera quality, it’s unfair for me to compare it with the previous K800i which is a cybershot phone. While it’s good enough for casual, outdoor photography under bright condition, it’s not an ideal package for delivering quality picture especially under restriction condition like low brightness. The video camera has no surprise either, it only allows me to record at QCIF resolution.

The message from Sony Ericsson is clear – it’s a WALKMAN phone, and not cater for photography enthusiasts.

Others

At only 9.4mm of thickness, one would expect that this phone will have limited functions, but this is definitely not the case. Not only that it’s a 3G phone, it also supports stuff like RSS, A2DP, bluetooth, flight mode and comes with Netfront web browser – the functions of W880i is pretty comprehensive.

But if you think W880i has all the features that one could possibly expect, then it’s wrong. Many would notice the absence of radio and infrared. As bluetooth is pretty common nowadays, it’s acceptable not to have infrared integrated in it, but IMO everybody would like to have radio function in a Walkman phone.

Lastly, I’d like to talk about the battery life. It’s reasonable for people to assume that W880i would have relatively shorter battery life because of its slim design, but this assumption is incorrect. SE claims a talk time of 6.5 hours (which is only 0.5 hour shorter than K800i). For me, a normal phone user (3-4 calls, 20-30 SMS and around 5 songs per day), the battery lasts around 3-4 days, which is really decent IMO.

The bottomline

Pros:

• Slim and elegant design, excellent build quality.
• Bundled with 1GB Memory Stick Micro (M2)
• Packed with features
• Decent battery life

Cons:

• Camera lacks auto-focus
• No FM radio
• Leaky sound from the speaker
• Small buttons (not for big thumbs)

My rating: 8.5/10

Got myself a iPAQ recently and I choose not to go down the converged smart phone-PDA route. It was a tough choice between an iPAQ rx4540 and an iPAQ rx5750. I settled for the rx4540 after much deliberation comparing the trade-offs in their various shortcommings. The rx4540 was small enough (size, price and features-to-cost ratio) and capable enough to satisfy most of my needs at RM1288. (Actually it was the lack of WiFi on the rx5750 that did it in – despite being RM400 more).

Pitched as a ‘Mobile Media Companion’, HP is touting the iPAQ rx4540′s multimedia capabilities over its productivity features. The complete funky styling redesign also seems to sell its ‘lifestyle’ sales pitch. A laminated silver finish silver body (some say it feels plasticky but I appreciate it as it isn’t prone to displaying fingerprints) with maroon side panels is certainly a break away from the standard PDA designs out there, as with it’s landscape orientation as default (though the display orientation between landscape and portrait can be flipped by a hardware button on the side). Holding the rx4540 in either screen orientation feels good in your hand thanks to the rounded edges and smooth finish.

The rx4540 is small. It measures 102mm x 63.5mm x 16.75mm and weighs 127g – that roughly the same size as an iPod. Now while small is good on a portable device, inevitably it is this, that leads me to one of three grouses, I have so far about the rx4540 – the 2.8″ display. It’s smaller than the older standard PDAs display, especially on a device that calls itself a “Mobile Media Companion”. It is still however reasonably good for watching videos with it’s 320 x 240 pixel resolution and 64K color depth. The QVGA anti-glare transmissive display is considerably bright and has good color saturation with excellent viewing angles – good for videos but terrible for reading. (I’ve made this grouse known during the registration survey). Running your stylus or finger over the screen, I notice that it is very responsive and has a hard coating (non-squishy texture).

The rx4540 is powered by a 400MHz Samsung processor and operates on a Windows Mobile 5 that comes with a quite a number of productivity applications, including Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, Messaging (for push and POP email), Internet Explorer, Calendar, Pocket MSN and Notes to name a few (too bad Windows desktop OSes doesn’t).

A SD card slot supplements the rx4540′s generous 1Gb (128 MB ROM and 64 MB SDRAM, Up to 1,088 MB user available including 1 GB iPAQ file store) built-in memory is ample for storing my PDF files, documents, videos and music. Having an SD card slot also means the ability to read SD cards from digital cameras and picture-viewing is done via HP’s Photosmart Mobile which is a (emphasize: very) basic image application that has slideshow, setting-as-screensaver and sending via email or Bluetooth features but lacks any image editing features. You can, however, annotate photos with text or voice (courtesy of the built-in mono microphone).

Video and music playback is taken care of by Windows Media Player 10 Mobile which can sync with the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10. While transferring movies and videos may be a lot faster using a memory card reader, going through Windows Media Player lets you set up smart play lists, automatic synchronizing, smart shuffle and automatic conversion of formats not supported on the pocket PC. While music formats supported natively are obviously the standard MP3 and WMA, video is however limited to WMV. Transferring via WMP 10 greatly reduced a video’s file size but doesn’t retain the aspect ratio but fortunately doesn’t degrade quality noticeably during conversion.

For Internet access, the rx4540 has built-in 802.11b/g WLAN and Bluetooth 2.0, the latter of which lets you go online by connecting to a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone and GPRS/EDGE (though I don’t have a Bluetooth cell, luckily there’s a lot of hot spot available in the Klang Valley to hitch on to, when I actually need Internet access). HP’s has added a neat OEM application called iPAQ Wireless which sits on the today screen and enables you to active/deactivate either WiFi or Bluetooth or both with a tap of a button. It would have been great if it had GPS though to help the mobile traveller navigate the big city streets.

The rx4540 has a 3.5mm audio jack and bundles with a mediocre set of ear buds, but one thing the rx4540′s audio isn’t is mediocre. The audio playback sounds fantastic with the audio applet providing a customizable equalizer with six presets and a remarkable 3D surround sound setting. External speakers are drown-able by ambient sounds though, even on maximum volume.

The final grouse i have about the device is the lack of a directional pad which limits my choice of the many action games offering for Windows Mobile 5 – disappointing as its two-handed design makes it perfect for game play. Luckily though I’m a RTS and RPG centeric in my game choices so stylus control is all I need.

I think that HP would have expounded the potential of both these 2 series by combining them which would have offer a even better rx series minus the aforementioned shortcomings and the elimination of an extra production line. Scouring the net, I found that they eventually did, in this in rx5900 series – not available in M’sia as of yet. Maybe it’s the the next logical choice upgrade after a year or two? XD

I got it for around RM100. The box came with a USB extension cable with cradle, manual and driver on CD, quick installation guide and of course the adapter itself. Here’s what I think about the device:

• Installation: Installation and configuration is pretty easy as it claimed. What I needed to do was plug in the adapter, started the driver installer, restarted my OS, connect to the access point by keying in the WPA already. In fact I did not read the quick installation guide/user manual at all.

• Design: The design is simple and nice. I like the cradle which is pretty solid IMO.

• Signal strength: My wireless router is located at ground floor and my room is located at 1st floor. The signal strength is around 70-80%. It’s not as good as my Thinkpad T43′s Wifi, but it’s good enough as I’ve never encountered any service disruption since I use it. I’m glad that I don’t have to use any signal amplifier kind of stuff.

• Speed: No issue with the speed at all since it’s running on 802.11g standard and my PC USB 2.0

• Price: In my impression, I always think the price of USB Wireless Adapter is way more expensive than it worth. At RM100, DWL-G122 is slightly cheaper than Belkin’s counterpart, but a little more expensive than some unknown brands.

I’d give an overall 7/10 for this product. The main pros are the ease of installation as well as the solid cradle came with the package. The cons, however, are the hefty price and somewhat disappointing signal strength.

P/S: If you’re wondering why the Keroro Gunso model is there, yeah, it’s just for fun coz I feel it’s cute :D It didn’t come with the D-link box of course :P

I originally was thinking of Logitech’s Ultra Flat Keyboard since I kinda like the feel of thin profile laptop-like keys but the key layout seemed a little cramp from pictures. My friend at work had the M$’s model on his desk, so I borrowed it for a day to try out and decide whether to get it (which I eventually did).

First impressions

The moment you put this keyboard on your desk, you would notice that the keys are slightly curved. It’s not as brutal as the Microsoft Natural keyboards where you have the keys split into two separate sections (I loathed that design totally). Next would be the laptop-like keys, and finally the additional media control, shortcut buttons at the top and a calculator shortcut button at the top of the numpad portion of the keyboard.

Pros

It was truly plug and play with the Toshiba laptop at work, with it being detected and ready for use in a couple of seconds. Media control buttons worked as it should with the Windows audio control as well as Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic and foobar2000. The Web/Home key wasn’t hardcoded to start IE but the default browser, search popped up the standard Windows Search and Mail started the default mail application. The calculator button on top of the numpad was a rather intuitive addition which seems well thought.

The slightly curved design took just a short while of getting used to but once that phase was over, I really liked it. The laptop-like keys worked just as stated with minimal effort required in registering the keystrokes. Compared to my previous Logitech keyboard, this was really really quiet.

Cons

I really can’t think of any cons of it after using it for three days. It’s definitely targeted towards those who prefer laptop-like keys, so it will be a very serious negative point if your preference is towards standard desktop profile keys.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a new keyboard with laptop-like keys and an overall good design, Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 is something you might want to consider.

Now if only M$’s software division would be able to produce software of similar standards to its hardware division’s products. :D

After checking the prices and availability of mice, I decided on the Logitech MX400 laser mouse. I would’ve gotten just a plain optical one like the MX5xx series, but apparently they’ve been phased out, so laser it is. Been using it for a couple of days, and here’s my assessment of it.

No complaints about the shape of the mouse. It was pretty much in the mould of the MX700 which I’ve been using with my desktop at home, albeit with a slightly more curvy design/look and a lot less lighter (MX700 had the weight of two AA batteries which made it really heavy). Besides that, the scroll wheel had a tilt function as well allowing scrolling horizontally on top of the traditional vertical scrolling. Sensitivity has gone up slightly from the standard optical, so I don’t have to bump up the sensitivity as high as previously. As usual, the Logitech’s bundled driver/utility allowed further customisation of the assigned tasks for each button (called SetPoint now instead of MouseWare).

Unfortunately, I did find some faults with it. :( Missing from the mouse were the scroll up/down and toggle button which I had some use of on the MX700. Next, I wasn’t quite sure why clicking the scroll wheel didn’t close the Firefox tabs which works on every other mouse I’ve used before. Setting the scroll wheel to function as a ‘middle mouse button’ in SetPoint doesn’t seem to fix it either. Not quite sure the reason for that behaviour. (Edit: refer to comments for fixes/workarounds, thanks to commenters! :))

Another odd thing about having SetPoint running is the presence of a helper executable as part of your processes which they’ve named ‘khalmnpr.exe’. I don’t know how they came about that name, but the first thing that came to my mind when I saw it running in my task managed was that it’s some spyware. They ought to have come up with a better name really..

That said, I’m quite happy with it thus far. I’m not going to be able to comment on its precision since I haven’t done any FPS gaming for a really long time and neither am I using the mouse for precise graphic editing. So if you’re looking for a comfortable, ergonomic mouse, Logitech’s MX400 is one you might want to consider.

A week ago, I wrote a post regarding my MacGyver wannabe act.

Wondering what happened?

According to the video demonstration, it should take me no more than “a few minutes” to decipher the combination to my lock once I got pass the initial stage.

Unfortunately, as shown in the image, it has been a week and my lock is still firmly fastened. (yes, i give up)

Upon more scrutiny of the video as well as my own lock, I discovered the following to be possible reasons as to why I failed:

• 1. I am no MacGyver (most likely reason).
• 2. My lock is not made by “Master Lock” as mentioned in the video.

I think reason no. 1 is the most likely cause for my MacGyver wannabe failure.

Ok…I’m not sure if he actually did that in the TV series, but I’m certain he has picked a couple of locks before. That is what I am about to try doing.

Why?

I am the proud owner of a typical locker room combination lock, of which I have totally forgotten the combinations to.

It just so happens that Core77 recently published a post on how to ‘break’ the combinations to one of these locks. How convenient. =)

So wish me luck as I try to break my own lock. (Disclaimer: this is MY lock!)

To make things simple for you, I have embedded the video from Core77′s post onto this post as well. Take a look at it:

The Hole – video powered by Metacafe

This is going to be my first mini-review (when I say “mini-review”, it’s really just a simple write-up). Anyway, I’ll try to be unbiased as possible to maintain the credibility of this article.

Yeah, it’s about the gadget that I’ve been using since last month, Sony Ericsson K800i. Yes, the previous hyperlink obviously isn’t just for fun, it is clickable and it will lead you to the official site of the phone with its specifications. So the main selling point of K800i is the 3.2 Mega pixels cyber-shot branded camera, other than that it features QVGA screen, 3G functionality and A2DP as well.

So without wasting time, I’ll go straight into the pros and cons of this baby:

Pros

• 3MP camera, with xenon flash, and different presets for you to play around with – Document mode, Landscape mode, Portrait mode, Twilight mode just to name a few. One thing worth mentioning is that, its capability of taking photo under dark condition (be it indoor or outdoor), is impressive. It is one of the best (if not the best) camera phones around.
• Crystal clear QVGA screen. It is really clear that I feel reluctant to switch back to any phones with 176*220 resolution. It’s really not something that can be described with words but you just have to experience it yourself.
• I like SE’s user interface, it’s quite user friendly and there are quite a number of enhancements from its predecessor (more flexible alarm settings, better MMS authoring system etc.)
• I can store more SMS compare to K750i (1000 SMS)
• Obviously, with 3G, I can access to the Internet with higher speed.
• Purple color keypad light, which I find it unique.

Cons

• Slightly oversize. A bit too big for me to type my SMS and too thick to put into my pocket as well.
• Flimsy lens cover. I feel like it’s going to loose any time soon. Further more, it is prone to finger print. I don’t think the glossy finishing is such a good idea anyway.
• Small and stiff keypad, definitely not the favorite for heavy SMS users.
• So-so design. I prefer K750i design, K800i looks rather weird to me, especially the screen-keypad ratio and the camera portion.
• Expensive Memory Stick Micro (M2). But price is subject to drop, of course.

The bottomline

• Overall, it’s a nice phone but slightly big for users with small palm. An ideal device for those who’re looking for a phone with good camera and clear screen. I’d give it 7.5/10 :)

Original article here