Darren Straight's Blog

Snow blanketed Great Britain on January 7, 2010, as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite passed overhead and captured this image. Snow covers most of England, from the east to the west coast. (The large image shows snow cover over the entire island of Great Britain.) The cities of Manchester, Birmingham, and London form ghostly gray shapes against the white land surface. Immediately east of London, clouds swirl over the island, casting blue-gray shadows toward the north.

Frigid temperatures followed snowfall, leaving roads and sidewalks treacherously icy, according to news reports. As of January 7, overnight temperatures had plunged to -18 degrees Celsius (-0.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in isolated spots, with more widespread temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit). The heavy snowfall downed power lines, leaving several thousand homes in southern England without electricity.

According to the Federation of Small Businesses, transportation difficulties kept an estimated 10 percent of the workforce home on January 5 and 6, and thousands of schools were closed. Forecasters warned that frigid temperatures could linger for up to a week. Eurostar was operating at a reduced capacity and airports remained open although passengers could expect delays.

A contributor to the persistent cold and snow across much of the Northern Hemisphere’s mid-latitudes in December 2009 and January 2010 could be the fact that the atmosphere was in an extreme negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation (AO). The AO is a seesawing strengthening and weakening of semi-permanent areas of low and high atmospheric pressure in the Arctic and the mid-latitudes. One consequence of the oscillation’s negative phase is cold, snowy weather in Eurasia and North America during the winter months. The extreme negative dip of the Arctic Oscillation Index in December 2009 was the lowest monthly value observed for the past six decades.

Snow across Great Britain

Just want to wish everyone a quick but thoughtful Happy New Year!

Thank you to all of you who visited my blog in 2009 – it means a lot to me, especially as I don’t get as much time as I used to on updating this blog.

However  it’s 2010 and a new decade has arrived, so I shall be dedicating more time to this blog to bring it back up to track, already you can see that I have tweaked the theme a little to make it run faster. Start emailing me suggestions – I’m on the case….

Following up from my previous post about the Harry Potter Hogwarts Express Fan Trip Train Ride 2009, which gives you a chance to travel by steam train from Paddington to Oxford aboard the Hogwarts Express (GWR Hall Class 4-6-0 no 5972 Olton Hall) steam train this Saturday the 18th of July 2009.

I can now confirm travel times as obtained from uksteam.info.

Saturday 18 July 2009

GWR Hall Class 4-6-0 no 5972 Olton Hall

(alias Hogwarts Castle)

TIMES

Steam hauled: Paddington-Oxford

The Hogwarts Express Steam Train and Carriages have also been spoted making it’s way down to London from Scotland:

•  5972 ‘Olton Hall’ heads away from Carnforth for Southall with ECS. 5972 was heading down to London to work a Harry Potter special on Saturday for American fans from Paddington to Oxford.
• 5972 Olton Hall in charge of the Hogwarts Express ECS from Carnforth to Southall in conjuntion with a railtour from London Paddington on Saturday to coincide with the release of the latest Harry Potter film
• another shot of Olton Hall in a downpour. the train was running as 5Z59
• 5972 Olton Hall, 5Z59, Hest Bank, 16 July 2009 – 1348 1
• 5972 Olton Hall, 5Z59, Hest Bank, 16 July 2009 – 1348 2
• http://railways.national-preservation.com/download/file.php?id=3896&mode=view

Anamigo.com is an online community where you can find everything about pets and the people that love them. Aside from the tips and advice on pet care and the latest accessories, you will find adorable photos of member’s pets. If you’re into dog pictures, cat pictures, puppy pictures and pictures of all the other pets around the world, you’ll love Anamigo.com, your pets place online.

• Anamigo.com sponsors a PET PHOTO CONTEST
• Win up to $300 a week – Daily prizes!
• Anamigo.com launches a first of it’s kind social network for pet love.

Canon the technology giant has launched a pan-European online interactive football game competition to promote its sponsorship of UEFA EURO 2008TM and re-launched online store.

Curious, an online EMEA specialist agency is behind both the development of the football game and design and front-end build of its re-launched online store, in partnership with Canon’s retained e-commerce agency Digital River.

The flash designed game called ‘Canon Store Hot Shot’, is held on Canon’s online b2c store which went live this month in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands and Austria, to tie in with the re-launch of the online store and to offer people the chance to win VIP match tickets at the UEFA EURO 2008TM tournament.

Caterina Bonfiglio, European B2C Team Leader from Canon says, We wanted to drive traffic and promote our new re-designed B2C store in a fun and interactive way among our customers. Curious understood us: – they designed a fun and exciting game that ties nicely with Canon’s sponsorship for the UEFA EURO 2008TM. We are very pleased with the result and think it adds the fun element to our e-store and we are confident that its awareness will increase among our customers.

The game is a fun-packed penalty shootout between the competing countries to gain the highest score, with the top 15 scorers winning double VIP match packages to a UEFA EURO 2008TM game until mid-May. Following that, other Canon prizes will be up for grabs until July.

Dan Kersh, Head of Online at Curious, states, The online store game is an engaging way to interact with the consumer across European countries that aligns the Canon brand with its sponsorship and new offer of selling direct to the consumer through its re-launched store.

Curious has developed and delivered pan-EMEA games for various other clients, including divisions within Dell, and the Scottish Football Association.

You can find the store at: https://store.canon-europe.com

The Alton Towers Resort is banning parents from using PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistant) this May half term in a bid to increase quality family time.

It would appear from research revealed today that kids are fed up with their parents spending more time reading their emails than having fun with them. Brits work the longest hours in Europe*, meaning that parents are work obsessed and unable to switch off from their jobs for even a day! Over half of parent’s questioned 56% – feel that they can not disconnect from work, as they are constantly accessible by the office, and 40% head off with bags packed full of work items including documents to read, PDAs and laptops.

Dr Pat Spungin child psychologist and founder of RaisingKids.co.uk said; We all need to use weekend breaks as a time to reconnect and invest in our most important relationships in order to restore our work/life balance and put the fun back into going away. While lots of people take a break, many are not actually taking a holiday. It is vital we learn how to reprioritise and put work into a healthy perspective.

As a direct response, the Alton Towers Resort will be piloting a PDA Free Zone during May Half Term (May 25th June 1st inclusive), to encourage parents to disconnect from the office and reconnect fully with their families. PDA police will be onsite to enforce the ban and any adult caught using a PDA whilst at the Resort will be asked to report to one of five PDA Drop Off Zones where they can safely leave their PDA’s for the day. If the scheme is successful, it will be introduced full time.

Russell Barnes, Divisional Director for the Alton Towers Resort explains; What we have here is the ultimate short break location where every member of the family can unwind and have fun. We feel it’s so important for parents and kids to focus on nothing more than having the best possible time, we are prepared to take drastic action to ensure that parents really leave their work behind!

The Alton Towers Resort, part of the Merlin Entertainments Group, is home to the UK’s best loved theme park with 2 hotels, a waterpark, a spa, an extraordinary golf course, and nineteenth century gothic towers. It is located upon 500 acres of Staffordshire countryside and offers a unique combination of rides and attractions for all ages, from soft play areas for tiny toddlers to ground-breaking, world-first adrenalin inducing rollercoaster rides.

I thought this was a really sweet and cute thing to do. Just check out the link below to see what I mean!

Junior High Sweethearts Get Engaged In Bay Area Math Class

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)