Darren Straight’s Blog

Last Friday I was supposed to go on a tour of the new BAA Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, but due to some kind of major technical problem the tour was cancelled the day before.

If time permits it hopefully there will be another tour arranged soon before the 27th of March 2008 when Terminal 5 opens to the public.

But for the time being I have been told that some exclusive photos have been posted on Flickr. Here’s a small selection of some of them, the rest in higher quality you can get here.

Check out these great 3D Walkthroughs of British Airways (BA) new Heathrow Terminal 5 Building soon to open to the public in March. I will be attending a press tour on the 7th of March before the official launch too see what it’s like for myself, though unfortunetly I won’t be able to take any photos until the terminal is open to the general public!

That said, I should hopefuly be recieving some nice exclusive photoshots soon - so I’ll be sure to post them!

Anyhow here’s the videos:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVTnxxNbXHc
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5GN4aoXxp4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyTZqeWpXRg
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEoIHcP3zyc
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5iFqxSUAv4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgIcgkd9R_w
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CiBWkCTf5g

Last month I was contacted by Steve Cater who works at vccp as part of O2’s Marketing Team. He asked me whether I would be interested in trialling one of O2’s new phones in a seeding program, similar to that of the O2 cocoon seeding program which gave developers and technology lovers a chance to trial the phone. The idea sounded interesting and it looked like the cocoon program did well so I said yes to testing this new O2 Phone (didn’t know the name of it then).

Last week a package arrived, I opened it up and lo and behold it was an O2 Xda Orbit 2 Phone along with all the necessary accessories and a sim card. I got straight into taking some photos of this shiny new device along with testing it.

Technical Specifications:

General

• Name: O2 Xda Orbit 2
• HTC Code name: HTC Polaris (HTC Touch Cruise)
• Operating System: Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• Size: 110 (L) x 58 (W) x 15.5 mm (T)
• Weight: 130g (including battery)

Display

• Type: Graphical TFT LCD Touch screen, 65000 Colours
• Size: 240 x 320 pixels

Memory

• ROM: 256MB
• RAM: 128MB
• Storage: Micro-SD (Up to 32GB – when available)

Networking

• Internal antenna
• UMTS (850/1900MHz for NA, 2100MHz for Europe) and GSM/GPRS/EDGE (quad-band, 850/900/1800/1900 MHz).
• HSDPA
• 3GPP Release 5 compliant
• DL up to 3.6 mbps and UL up to 384 kbps
• EGPRS Functionality
• EGPRS class B
• Multi-slot class 10
• PBCCH
• Built in Bluetooth 2.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• GPS in-built (Global Positioning System)
• FM Radio: 76-108MHz

Digital Camera

• Main camera: 3 mega-pixel CMOS imagine sensor with AF
• Secondary camera: VGA CMOS imagine sensor

Power

• Battery
• Removable and Rechargeable Lithium ion battery, 1350mAh
• AC adaptor
• AC input: 100~240V, 50/60 Hz
• Standby time: up to 400hrs for GSM and up to 450hrs for UMTS
• Talk time: up to 7hrs on GSM and up to 4hrs on UMTS

What’s in the Box!

Inside the O2 Xda Orbit 2 Box you will find the following:

• Xda Orbit 2
• Xda Orbit 2 pouch + Screen Protector
• Xda Orbit 2 battery to power your Xda
• AC charger for recharging your Xda battery
• Car Charger and Car Holder
• USB sync cable which is used connect your device to a PC and synchronizes data.
• Extra stylus to tap items onscreen.
• Hands-free stereo headset
• Quick Start Guide
• Full User Manual (available on the CD)
• Warranty card for Europe
• In-box CD: Applications Getting Started, Full User Manual - CD contents include: GPRS Monitor & Sprite Backup. Windows MobileTM software, including Microsoft® ActiveSync®4.5 Connectivity Software and Microsoft® Outlook® 2007 (trial)
• CoPilot 7 Live CD containing: Installer for CPL7 Live (as backup to the version in ROM), CPL7 maps for the UK are Northern Ireland, O2 Specific version of the PC CoPilot Central Application

Applications and Settings

The Today Screen and O2 Custom Today Plug-in

The Today Screen is pretty much the same as most Windows Mobile Phones, however there are some nice additions that can be added to the today screen, that of which include:

• Last Call
• Profiles
• Meters
• O2 Calendar
• Shortcuts
• Running Apps (My personal favourite as it let’s me close my Apps without having to go to memory control and end the running application)

Programs 

A nice list of programs and applications are found on the device:

• Office Mobile Use the complete suite of Microsoft® Office applications for your mobile device.
  • Excel Mobile Create new workbooks or view and edit Excel workbooks.
  • PowerPoint Mobile View PowerPoint slides and presentations.
  • Word Mobile Create, view, and edit Word documents.
• Calendar Keep track of your appointments and create meeting requests.
• Contacts Keep track of your friends and colleagues.
• Internet Explorer Mobile Browse Web and WAP sites as well as download new programs and files from the Internet.
• Messaging Send and receive e-mail, MMS, and text messages.
• Phone Make and receive calls, switch between calls, and set up conference calling.
• Help See Help topics for the current screen or program.
• Games Play two pre-installed games: Bubble Breaker and Solitaire.
• ActiveSync Synchronise information between your device and a PC or the Exchange Server.
• Adobe Reader LE View PDF (Portable Document Format) files on your device.
• Audio Booster Enhances your music experience by providing you with controls for adjusting equalizer, 3D sound, treble, and bass settings.
• Audio Manager Browse for music files by organising music files into categories.
• Bluetooth Explorer Search for other Bluetooth devices that have file sharing enabled and access their Bluetooth shared folder.
• Calculator Perform basic arithmetic and calculations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
• Camera Take photos or shoots video clips with accompanying audio.
• Camera Album View photos that you captured using the device camera.
• Comm Manager Manage your device’s connections (including Wi-Fi, GPRS, Bluetooth, and ActiveSync), turn the phone on or off, switch to ringer/vibration mode, and enable or disable the Direct Push function.
• File Explorer Organise and manage files on your device.
• FM Radio Lets you listen to your favourite FM radio stations.
• Internet Sharing Connect your notebook computer to the Internet using your device’s data connection.
• Java Download and install Java applications, such as games and tools, on your device.
• Messenger This is the mobile version of Windows Live™ Messenger.
• Notes Create handwritten or typed notes, drawings, and voice recordings.
• O2 Operator Settings Choose a wireless network operator according to your geographical location and configure device connection settings.
• Pictures & Videos View, organise, and sort pictures, animated GIFs, and video files on your device or a storage card.
• QuickGPS Downloads satellite data over the Internet via ActiveSync, Wi-Fi or GPRS to speed up the time for determining your current GPS position.
• SAPSettings Enables Bluetooth Remote SIM access on your phone.
• Search Search contacts, data, and other information on your device.
• IM Manager Manage the contacts that are stored on your USIM/SIM card. You can also use this program to copy USIM/SIM contents to Contacts on your device.
• Spb GPRS Monitor You will find this program in the provided disc. You can install and use this program to measure the amount of data transfers that you have made via the GPRS or GSM network connection, and calculate network usage costs.
• Sprite Backup Provides you with a quick and easy way to create backups of your data.
• STK (SIM Tool Kit) Service Access information and other services offered by your wireless service provider.
• Streaming Media Stream live or on-demand video.
• Tasks Keep track of your tasks.
• Voice Recorder Record your voice, play it back, then send it via e-mail, MMS or beaming. You can also set the recorded voice as your ring tone.
• Voice Speed Dial Allows you to record voice tags so that you can dial a phone number or launch programs simply by speaking a word.
• Windows Live Use this mobile version of Windows Live™ to find information on the Web. It also lets you sign into your Windows Live account so that you can access your Live Mail messages and send/receive instant messages in Live Messenger.
• Windows Media Player Mobile Play back audio and video files.
• ZIP Save memory and free up storage space on your device by compressing files in the conventional ZIP format.

Audio Manager and Audio Booster 

As well as Windows Media Player, the Xda Orbit 2 comes with the HTC Audio Manager and Audio Booster, which lets you create, edit and delete playlist and listen to your songs which in turn you can fine tune as you have the ability to vary the Bass, Treble, and 3D effect of the sound output as well as choosing from various pre-defined profiles.

Camera and Camera Album with Slideshow

Overall I love the Camera and The Camera interface, though I would love to see the camera have a flash or even just a light, comes in handy for them close night shots!

Here’s some example photos, all photos were taken with the Xda Orbit 2 on it’s highest resolution and quality settings.

Communications 

Communicating to someone is simple and effective just like it should be with it’s smart dialling feature and big keys. The Video calling feature looks great though I must admit I haven’t had a chance to test it out yet. The sounds great on voice calling though.

CoPilot Live 7

The Xda Orbit 2 having both built in GPS and CoPilot Live 7 is great, I’ve taken it to the test on both short and long routes, the longest so far being from Sittingbourne in Kent to Gatwick Airport. (49 Miles). Shall be using it when I travel to Heathrow Airport soon on a press tour of the new BAA Terminal 5 Building and again when I travel up to the Alton Towers Theme Park in 3 weeks time.

Having GPS and CoPilot 7 makes me want to switch from my MDA Vario 2 which has no GPS, though it does have something else which I value, that being a sliding keyboard.

FM Radio 

Haven’t used it a lot yet due to the fact that every time you want to use it you have to plug in the headsets but I’m sure if I do switch fully to this phone then I’ll soon be using it, always great to have some live music on your phone!

RSS Hub 

I love this RSS Hub, it helps you keep up to date with the latest news from your favourite news sites, blogs and podcasts.

Settings 

There’s a ton of settings options to help you customise the Xda Orbit 2 just the way you want it. 

Touch Keyboards and Keypads 

The Xda Orbit 2 has 6 different ways you can enter text onto the screen, the newest ones being the Touch Keyboard and Keypad, now while these are great, I do somewhat miss having a physical keyboard like my MDA Vario 2 Sliding keyboard. On the other hand however not having a sliding keyboard makes the Xda feel much more lighter and less bulkier. So I guess it’s just a case of getting away from the good old keyboard and getting to grips with touch keyboards.

TouchFLO 

TouchFLO has been added to gives you better touch panel experience. Using TouchFLO, you can easily scroll and pan the screen by sliding your fnger on the touch panel. TouchFLO also has the Touch Cube where you can add your favourite contacts, access media, launch programs, and more. Also while on a web page, document, or list (such as contacts list etc.), you can slide your finger upward to scroll down or slide your finger downward to scroll up. To scroll to the right, slide your fnger to the left. To scroll to the left, slide your fnger to the right. 

Overall Conclusion!

I love the O2 Xda Orbit 2, it looks great, it’s weighs less and is is less bulkier than my T-Mobile MDA Vario 2. It also has GPS which is a great addition to a mobile phone for someone like me who loves travelling. I can’t wait to start using it more and more every day.

However there are some problems, unlike my T-Mobile MDA Vario 2 the O2 Xda Orbit 2 doesn’t feature a physical sliding keyboard, just it’s virtual touch keyboards and keypads, so that is somewhat disappointing as I have got quite attached to my sliding keyboard as I use it regularly to write texts, emails and posts while at tech events. Maybe I just need to have some more time away from the sliding keyboard and more time getting used to the virtual keyboards and keypads.

Also there’s no Flash or Flash Light for the camera so night photos is a no.

Here’s a quick list of some Pros (The Good) and Cons (The bad) of the O2 Xda Orbit 2:

Pros (The Good)

• Fast processor
• Large memory
• Inbuilt GPS
• Light weight not bulky
• FM Radio
• O2 Added Extras
• Good batery life
• TouchFlo system and Cube
• Good quality screen
• CoPilot Live included in ROM
• Micro-SD Compatibility
• O2 HSDPA network coverage in my area (T-Mobile doesn’t) so the internet is much faster.
• Lots of Extras!

Cons (The Bad)

• No HTC Home application
• No sliding keyboard
• No Flash on Camera
• Camera could possible be more than 3 Mega Pixels though not totally necessary

Now the question is should I switch fully from my T-Mobile MDA Vario 2 to the O2 Xda Orbit 2? As doing so would mean I would have to change my mobile number from T-Mobile to O2. Also I’m thinking about paying for unlimited web/internet each month depending on what I do, however there’s pros and cons to both T-Mobile and O2.

T-Mobile as a larger fair use policy of 1GB (The Max plan is 10GB) per month on it’s so called unlimited web access plan, however there’s no HSDPA Network coverage in my area with T-Mobile so it’s quite slow - get annoyed at how slow it is at times when the pages don’t even load.

To ensure a high quality of service for all our customers a 1GB (of data both sent and received in the UK) per month fair use policy applies. If you exceed 1GB per month, we may tell you to reduce your future use. If you again exceed 1GB per month, we may tell you that we are going to apply network protection controls, resulting in a reduced network speed for 14 days. If you exceed 1GB per month for a third time , we may tell you that we are going to apply further network protection controls, resulting in a reduced network speed until you upgrade your price plan to include a larger data allowance. We do not permit use of this service to provide modem access for a computer or for peer to peer file sharing, internet phone calls or instant messaging. 

O2 however has a much lower fair use policy of 200MB per month on it’s so called unlimited web access plan, however O2 does have HSDPA Network coverage in my area and I love it! Just a slight problem if you normally expected to only use 200MB per month with HSDPA that would soon be overrun.

The O2 Web Bolt On can only be used for internet browsing on your phone. A fair use policy applies and if your usage substantially exceeds that of other users, which is normally expected to be below 200MB/month, you will be charged standard rates for additional browsing. We will send you a warning text message advising you to limit your usage before this occurs and a text message to confirm when you are being charged

It seems there is a O2 Web Max Plan which is 3GB per month for £30, I’ll have to look into that!

Special thanks and Links 

Just want to say special thanks to Steve Cater who works at vccp as part of O2’s Marketing Team for giving me the opportunity to test the O2 Xda Orbit 2, it’s certainly been a great experience so far and I’m looking forward too seeing what else I can do with it, there’s always great tweaks and stuff over at the HTC Polaris section on the XDA Developer Forums.

Here’s some useful links:

• O2 Xda Home
•  O2 Xda Blog
• O2 Xda Orbit 2 Product Information 
• HTC Polaris section (XDA-Developers.com)
• O2 Xda Orbit 2 Review (4WinMobile.com)
• Getting to know the Xda Orbit 2 (Neville Hobson)
• O2 Orbit 2 / More on the O2 Orbit 2 and CoPilot (Simon Judge)
• O2 Xda Orbit 2 (Stephen Davies)
• The O2 XDA Orbit 2 My Office On A Phone (Keith Bond)

Labour-saving machines save us labour, that’s the point. They transport us from the ground floor to the fifth floor. They take us from A to B. They wash and dry and cook and clean for us.

But these machines use energy which produces CO2. It would help if we could use them less or use them more efficiently.

Take lifts. Or rather don’t. If you work on the 25th floor of a skyscraper, fair enough. But lifts are like vertical taxis - you wouldn’t hail a cab to go 100 feet down the road so why summon one to take you a few floors up?

So use less machine power and more of your own steam power. And if you take the stairs or find a way to resist other labour-saving machines, please come back and click DONE IT so we can count how much CO2 we’ve all saved.

Touching the stairs
Stair-climbers James, Jo and Pete risk their lives by trying to reach the third floor. It’s a story of guts and sacrifice; a story of genuine heroes who don’t know the meaning of the word ‘lift’ - or do they?

Lifts Are Not F.A.B
By Michael Wright To illustrate the considerable dangers of lifts, Michael Wright not only reused some old bits of polyboard and silver spray to make a skyscraper, lift shaft and lift, he reused some old bits of airfix for the props, two old marionettes to be the lift victims and one of those victims to be the evil lift-cord cutter. The result: a tremendous piece of psychological insight about lifts and why you should doubt them big time. Music by the very talented Aaron Paul Low of Sacred noise, produced by the very kind London Partizan.

It is with great sadness that the Computing Laboratory mourns the death of David Shrimpton, who died on Saturday 29 December 2007 in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury. David was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas and bile duct in January 2007, and throughout his illness was remarkably positive about his condition and his circumstances, and was very much helped in this by his wife Terry and his children Ian and Hannah.

After a first career in mental health nursing, David studied Computer Science at Oxford Brookes University, remaining there to complete his PhD and subsequently to stay on as a member of staff. In 1998 David joined the Computing Laboratory as a Lecturer, and in his nine years in the department he contributed hugely to its life and work.

In his most recent role as Head of Teaching, it was David’s role to negotiate and agree staff teaching loads, and he always accomplished this onerous task smoothly and with great good humour. The reason that it ran so well - and this was something that he brought to all his interactions with students and staff - was his uncanny ability to understand other people, and what made them tick. This empathy made David an excellent teacher, on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as an outstanding PhD supervisor, who will be very much missed by his present and past research students.

When David joined the Lab his main research interests were in distributed systems and support for multimedia applications, particularly the convergence of digital television and Internet technologies. This led more recently to interest in many aspects of the World Wide Web. David played a key role as evangelist for new web technologies, and had taught a number of tutorials for the World Organization of Webmasters. Its Executive Director, Bill Cullifer, said “David was an amazing man and he’ll be missed.” David was also the Computing Lab’s representative on the World Wide Web Consortium; the Chief Executive of the W3C, Steve Bratt, also extended his condolences to David’s friends and family.

In tribute to David’s life and work, the Computing Laboratory will be planting a tree on the campus later in the spring.

Authored by Simon Thompson
Published 14 January 2008
University of Kent

The Library of Congress has published over 3,000 historical photographs from two of its most popular collections on Flickr in “The Commons,” a project aimed at creating a rich database of photos from public collections and civic institutions.Photos from the George Grantham Bain Collection and the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information were chosen for display online due to their popularity on the Library of Congress site, and their freedom from copyright restrictions.

By posting these photos, the Library hopes to not only increase their visibility, but also increase their value through social tagging and community input. The Bain collection has minimal identifying information, and the FSA/OWI collection has only some subject indexing, so comments and tags are encouraged.

The Library is also open to suggestions for which future collections to post, and according to the FAQ, many already have photos of the American Civil War in mind.

You can check the photos out at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/Library_of_Congress

Happy New Year Everyone!

I owe it all to you out there who stop by this site to read, comment, subscribe and spread link love. As always, I’m very grateful for your support and encouragement as goodness knows how blogging can be a time-consuming and work-intensive activity. A lot of the fun I derive from it is not just from the fulfilment I receive from baring my thoughts to the world but also from the interaction I get from my wonderful readers.

Once again I wish you all a Happy New Year, may 2008 be filled with blessings, joy, health and prosperity for you, your family and friends.

Christmas has passed but hey you can still come and roast your chestnuts on the red-hot fire that is The Magic Condom - a racy new online Panto starring Jodie Harsh and Paul Kaye that promises to be the filler in your stocking.

Your ticket to The Magic Condom is just one click away, so visit the website and watch the hilarious, sexy and interactive safe sex panto.

Happy Christmas to you all, I hope everyone has a great Christmas and an even better New Year, thank you all for visiting my blog this year, it’s been a pleasure having you here!

Please Enjoy The Snowman animated movie from 1982 below, it’s a great story:

Britons are risking losing valuable images and data forever with almost one in five who own a portable device losing phone numbers and contact details on mislaid items and 40% admitting to not backing up photos on portable devices, according to research commissioned by Network Appliance (NetApp), a leading provider of storage and data management solutions.

The YouGov survey of 2,035 online adults, reveals that whilst 58% of those that own a portable device store up to 500 photos, only 6% are very worried about losing them. It also indicates that 60% who had lost a device with phone numbers on had to source the contact details from scratch.

Surprisingly, only 44% said this had made them think twice about backing up information in future. Not surprisingly, however, 25 to 34 year olds (33%) have mislaid more portable devices with phone numbers and contact details than any other age group, with over 55s (8%) losing the least.

Mark Stevens, UK Area Director at NetApp said: “Data backup and protection is not just a concern for businesses. Today’s ‘Digital Generation’ load an increasing amount of information onto phones, iPods and laptops everyday, and with this comes risk.

“People need to be aware that saving images and numbers without backing them up means they could be lost forever.”

The research findings also highlight a gender gap in attitudes towards data loss among those storing photos on portable devices, with three times as many women saying they were very worried about losing images than men. Men who have lost devices with contact details are less likely to change their behaviour than women with 54% saying they would not backup or change the way they store information, compared to 43% of women.

Mark Stevens, UK Area Director at NetApp said: “Clearly there is a level of education needed to help consumers protect their information.

“Protecting your data doesn’t have to be complex. The right solution will speed and optimise backup and recovery processes, heighten data availability and you can keep in contact with friends and family, as well as retrieve lost images.”

Other findings from the study include different attitudes towards data protection across Britain:

• People from the South of England are least likely to have photos backedup on their portable devices than in any other region (32%)
• Those from Scotland are the most careful with 48% having images backedup.
• Londoners are most likely to lose a portable device containing contact details (26%), compared to 15% of people in the South and 15% in the Midlands and Wales
• 47% of Northerners would change the way they store information following the loss of a device with Southerners least likely to change their attitudes (35%).