the Technology Affinity blog
In a few words: burst the shackles of the wire!
In these times the wire should only be required to charge the device’s battery.
Let’s look at a few key features after the break …
Backed another one …
Imagine if you had a stand that could hold your dearest device in whatever position you need it? Enter …
Earlier this week I upgraded from my first DSLR, the Nikon D60, to the new Canon EOS 550D. My first tests with it were done in Delhi in bright daylight as well as tricky indoor low-light situation and I am very happy with the upgrade.
While the Nikon D60 is a great camera to get into DSLR photography I have come to my limits with it quite quickly and was ready for the next step. For about 1.5 months I evaluated both Nikon and Canon systems, fairly early decided that I want to give the Canon system a shot now.
Then for the actual camera my requirements were:
- 15+ megapixels
- 1080p HD video recording
- Liveview
- high FPS for continuous shooting
- >3400 ISO
- user-friendly menu/settings
- ideally dedicated ISO setting button
I recently received my shiny new Google Nexus One, as well as the stand, and captured the glorious moments with it as an unboxing feature.
Now if there were two things, and there are, that are not to my liking, I’d have to say:
- Exchange support does not include Calendar!!!!!!!
- No HTC Sense UI
Now while there are ways around both issues through apps (paid-for ones), it is just not the same. For a while I pondered to sell my Google Nexus One and get the HTC Desire instead so at least I can get the HTC Sense UI. This would be intriguing if it wasn’t for one crucial difference in hardware between the Google Nexus One and the HTC Desire, the hardware-based noise reduction tech. Since I’m using the Google N1 mostly for business it is quite crucial that I get the best voice quality possible. So after long deliberation and having found a good set of pretty good replacements for some key components of the HTC Sense UI I’m finally leaning towards keeping my Google Nexus One and not pawning it off so I can get the HTC Desire instead.
HTC Sense UI replacement apps:
- Basic home theme: “GDE – The new home experience!” by MiroMind [paid for], with the “Hero Theme for GDE” by Diceman4 [free]
- Clock/Weather Widget: “Weather Widget” by Android Apps [paid-for], with the H7C skins for clock and weather [free]
I’m aware that this is by far not an exhaustive list of all HTC widgets it is still a good enough work-around, short of having to root the device and flash the HTC Desire’s ROM onto my Google Nexus One.
Other replacement features to match HTC Desire:
- “FlipSilent” by Maven Peter: this mutes your phone if you turn it face down
Great replacement for complete Exchange sync/push access:
- “Exchange for Android” by NitroDesk, Inc. aka Touchdown [paid-for]
We’re the most delighted and happy owners of a Roomba 581. Ever since we openend up the box we have several extra hours available to do meaningful things every single week.
Here are some photos we took during unboxing the happy helper.
