Posted by carkitter
To me it has 'Ericsson-esque' styling with cues taken from the old T28/T39 designs mainly around the buttons and the side of the phone. This is emphasised by the square-ish styling as seen from the front. Whad-ya think?
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Yeah I definitely agree on the Ericsson styling of it. I don't like how the design transferred over to the Minis though. I personally think they are too fat, but I'd take a full sized X10 any day.
And I think the withdrawal of the HTC Magic was due to a virus that was being transferred from the memory card in the phone over to the user's PC. It has affected 3000 people in Spain and is apparently spreading.
Posted by Evilchap
indeed, the mini doesnt really float my boat. I love my music vids for sitting on the bus for two hours a day, so the big screen of the regular X10 fits the bill nicely. 3.5mil jack being an addedd bonus to.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Definitely man. I have come to appreciate music on the bus a lot more in recent weeks since I started working in the city and living on the shore.
Posted by carkitter
Vivaz now available at EI in black, silver, blue and ruby for $849. Still no sign of the X10.
Posted by Evilchap
@Oli, yeah know what you mean. So where in town you working dude?
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
@carkitter: Is the X10 available anywhere in the world yet? Not really following many Esato threads at the moment so not sure.
@Evilchap: Timezone offered me a job at their Queen Street store. I worked at Timezone in Christchurch so I had a few contacts up here which helped a lot in the end.
Posted by carkitter
No, not that I'm aware of - despite the odd pre-release device showing up online, no-one seems to be able to walk into a store and purchase one yet. Can't be far away though. Voda UK, T-Mobile Germany and Rogers Canada all have April release dates for the X10.
Google Nexus One, Acer Liquid and a few Motorola and HTC Android devices seem to be slipping in via TradeMe...
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-02-03 12:00:45, carkitter wrote:
I built a desktop PC tonight in my AMES A+ certificate course. It even works!
Spec is 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad 1333MHz FSB, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB SATA HDD, 512MB ATI Radeon DDR2 HD graphics, Gigabyte motherboard. DVD drive to come later. XP Professional to be installed via network connection shortly.
When I purchase it later on (without XP Pro) I'll need to add a Monitor and wifi n card. I already have a copy of W7 Professional to put on it.
Check it out on my Twitter page under the WWW link
Next week I'll purchase my AMES PC. I have my eye on a 24" Monitor with HDMI input, a wifi N card and an extra 4GB of DDR3 RAM. Over the next few months it'll be required to run Server 2008 and a few virtual machines while performing gaming and multimedia duties for my girlfriend. I'm really looking forward to how it performs with Cool Iris personally. I wish I could afford an Intel 80GB SSD as a boot drive but that'll have to wait.
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-03-24 11:59 ]
Posted by carkitter
Got a Philips 21.4" monitor and a wifi N card, still looking around for some RAM. I bring the PC home tonight.
Posted by Evilchap
man Im jealous, starting to think about building a new pc myself.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Haha I could never be bothered building my own PC, and wouldn't know what I was doing if I tried! Probably buying a new MacBook Pro soon though.
Posted by carkitter
One of the teachers stuffed up so I get my PC tomorrow all going well. That means I won't have time to get it up and running until Thursday arvo.
Up and running means installing a dual boot of W7 Professional 64-bit and Server 2008, putting Sun Virtual Box on W7 ready for the server/client software I'll be getting next week, plus all the usual SE software, freeware, Anti-virus and browser guff.
My Vaio will still be my day to day computer, I'll only use the PC for DVD's and homework; otherwise it'll be used by my girlfriend. A Core2 Quad running W7 64-bit on 4-8GB of RAM with 21" HD screen will be a big step up from her Acer Notebook with Celeron 1.6GHz Dual Core running Vista 32-bit on 1GB of RAM
She is understandably pleased... 
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-03-30 12:46:07, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
Haha I could never be bothered building my own PC, and wouldn't know what I was doing if I tried!...
We had to build it using the parts we were given otherwise I'd have used a Core i7 processor, a motherboard with 2 PCIe slots (to house 2 graphics cards - I like to have room for upgrades) and probably a 1GB NVIDIA card to start off with. I wish I could get an SSD under $400 to use as a boot drive. Such a combination would be lightning fast.
What we have built is 'server grade' but I wish it was up to gaming level too.
Posted by yea g
On 2010-03-30 12:46:07, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
Haha I could never be bothered building my own PC, and wouldn't know what I was doing if I tried!
Its very easy. If something doesn't fit in one slot, try it in another. The only way it could be easier is if they put a giant orange sticker with an arrow saying "Put RAM here" etc.
I really need a new computer, pretty urgently. I keep blowing the damn usb fuse in this one, it only has 1gb ram, core 2 duo 2.2GHz with no hardware virtualization, and very little expansion card space. My freeview HD tuner is jammed in there just beside my graphics card.
Have my eye on the Sony Vaio VPCF117HGBI, Core i7, full HD screen, Blu ray burner, 6gb ram, 1gb video graphics, and in a laptop. All for $3500, a little bit high for a computer, but not unreasonable for those specs. The only problem I see with it so far is the rather crap 1 hour battery life. Let's just hope that 1 hour playing crysis and not 1 hour surfing the web
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2010-03-31 11:00:47, yea g wrote:
On 2010-03-30 12:46:07, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
Haha I could never be bothered building my own PC, and wouldn't know what I was doing if I tried!
Its very easy. If something doesn't fit in one slot, try it in another. The only way it could be easier is if they put a giant orange sticker with an arrow saying "Put RAM here" etc.
I really need a new computer, pretty urgently. I keep blowing the damn usb fuse in this one, it only has 1gb ram, core 2 duo 2.2GHz with no hardware virtualization, and very little expansion card space. My freeview HD tuner is jammed in there just beside my graphics card.
Have my eye on the Sony Vaio VPCF117HGBI, Core i7, full HD screen, Blu ray burner, 6gb ram, 1gb video graphics, and in a laptop. All for $3500, a little bit high for a computer, but not unreasonable for those specs. The only problem I see with it so far is the rather crap 1 hour battery life. Let's just hope that 1 hour playing crysis and not 1 hour surfing the web
Yeah but I wouldn't really know what I was doing when buying the parts. I think I could manage to slot them together once I had the bits I needed. I;d rather just but me a new Mac anyway.
Which I will soon hopefully, but the rumours are that the new MacBook Pros will be Core i7 so I don't want to but one until I see what the new ones are like! Only thing that could tempt me away from a Mac is a Sony like what you're looking at yea g, but I would probably miss OS X if I went Windows only.
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-04-01 05:47:03, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
Yeah but I wouldn't really know what I was doing when buying the parts...
It's not that hard with a little research.
You decide what you want to do with the PC - gaming, server or just cheap browsing and email.
Then you choose a processor to do the job, and the corresponding motherboard to match the processor and it's cooling needs (if going high-power, high-end).
Then the case, RAM, HDD, DVD ROM, Network card and Graphics card pretty much choose themselves depending on your budget.
I am going to run probably 4 or 5 Operating Systems at the same time all on virtual machines so I need 4GB RAM minimum (preferrably 8GB), a Quad Core processor and a 64-bit OS. All necessary for my Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) homework beginning on Tuesday.
I sat and passed my first COMPTIA A+ exam today - 84%, one more on Tuesday afternoon.
Posted by yea g
hmm... I think you'd be better off with 8gb running that many VMs, although it depends on what os they are going to be running
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-03-30 13:21:15, carkitter wrote:
My Vaio will still be my day to day computer...
That's because I was very happy with the speed of my Vaio on W7, but I've just been transferring some photo files from the Vaio to the PC via USB stick and what takes 15 - 20 mins to upload onto the USB takes 1 - 2 mins to download, the PC is that fast!
It's not just a read/write difference, deleting the files from the USB takes a fraction of the time too.
Posted by lukechris
On 2010-04-01 06:23:31, carkitter wrote:
All necessary for my Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) homework beginning on Tuesday.
Sorry to butt in and no I'm not from NZ
but I have done the MCITP Microsoft Certified IT Professional course its really good. How much are the exams in NZ?[ This Message was edited by: lukechris on 2010-04-01 09:41 ]
Posted by carkitter
You're very welcome here!
I'm not sure how much MCITP exams are; the CompTIA A+ exams I am doing cost GBP 168.50 each and are provided online by an Australian company 1300 miles away. The diploma course I'm doing comprises 3x 12 week short courses - A+, MCITP and CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) and costs about GBP 6,500 with all the exams included (resits cost extra). I'd like to do CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) sometime in the future.
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-04-01 12:50 ]
Posted by carkitter
Anyone built a Cantenna before? Looks like I'm gonna need one for the PC as sitting under a desk is not good for wifi reception.
Posted by lukechris
On 2010-04-01 13:57:22, carkitter wrote:
Anyone built a Cantenna before? Looks like I'm gonna need one for the PC as sitting under a desk is not good for wifi reception.
Jesus, you lot do talk about random stuff
. What router are you using?
I'm doing the MCITP: Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician certification course now, and its great, the exams cost less than £200 and its something good on my CV as well as everything else. I'm only 15 so doing all the cheap exams now whilst I can, because chances are when I'm over 16 I'll never find the time to do them
. Why are you doing your course? Is it work related? Chances are it won't help me but like I said it looks good 
Thanks
[ This Message was edited by: lukechris on 2010-04-01 17:16 ]
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-04-01 18:15:19, lukechris wrote:
What router are you using?
The router is a Belkin N1 but it's not my router, that's the problem. It's my landlord's and it's locked in his room and the signal has to travel through two doors and down a hallway to reach us. Then it has to go around the bed and under the desk to reach the PC, that's why I'm considering a cantenna. Plus I like building stuff like that...
On 2010-04-01 18:15:19, lukechris wrote:
I'm only 15 so doing all the cheap exams now whilst I can, because chances are when I'm over 16 I'll never find the time to do them
. Why are you doing your course? Is it work related? Chances are it won't help me but like I said it looks good
I'm doing my course because I'm retraining for work in the IT industry having left the motor industry. I expect to find an IT job in September after the third course finishes.
Chances are it will help you a great deal. Have you seen where IT has taken Masseur?
Posted by carkitter
X10 now available in black and white versions running Android OS v1.6 at Expert Infotech.
Not sure if SE has v2.0 update available yet, anyone?
Posted by tranced
It's still running the cupcake.
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-04-04 08:38:35, tranced wrote:
It's still running the cupcake.
Cupcake is v1.5
I thought reason for the delay was to get v2.0 on board?
I would definitely wait to see what happens with SE's updates. Will they undermine their products by releasing updates late or not at all? Motorola and HTC are on the ball, SE really have no excuse.
Posted by lukechris
On 2010-04-02 10:03:02, carkitter wrote:
Chances are it will help you a great deal. Have you seen where IT has taken Masseur?
Erm, nope?
Lol sorry
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2010-04-04 23:59:37, carkitter wrote:
On 2010-04-04 08:38:35, tranced wrote:
It's still running the cupcake.
Cupcake is v1.5
I thought reason for the delay was to get v2.0 on board?
I would definitely wait to see what happens with SE's updates. Will they undermine their products by releasing updates late or not at all? Motorola and HTC are on the ball, SE really have no excuse.
Yeah my brother is pretty much waiting to hear whether an update will come, and whether or not the X10 will suffice as a day-to-day music player. If both turn up positive, he's getting one.
And if I'm lucky, he'll get me to buy it and send it down to him. Might get a wee play on it too haha.
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-04-05 00:18:18, lukechris wrote:
On 2010-04-02 10:03:02, carkitter wrote:
Chances are it will help you a great deal. Have you seen where IT has taken Masseur?
Erm, nope?
Lol sorry
Well my understanding is that Masseur is an Australian who lives mostly in the UK travelling across Europe where he works on contract for various companies doing IT support. This supplies him with the funds to purchase Vaio's and smartphones on a regular basis as well as indulge an interest in flying plus other things. I've lost count of how many similar success stories I'd heard about Kiwi's who've studied IT and taken their qualifications overseas.
That's a big improvement on lying under dashboards installing carkits or changing CV joints on Honda's, I can tell you.
Posted by tranced
Sorry I confused the terms before.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2010-04-06 02:18:42, carkitter wrote:
On 2010-04-05 00:18:18, lukechris wrote:
On 2010-04-02 10:03:02, carkitter wrote:
Chances are it will help you a great deal. Have you seen where IT has taken Masseur?
Erm, nope?
Lol sorry
Well my understanding is that Masseur is an Australian who lives mostly in the UK travelling across Europe where he works on contract for various companies doing IT support. This supplies him with the funds to purchase Vaio's and smartphones on a regular basis as well as indulge an interest in flying plus other things. I've lost count of how many similar success stories I'd heard about Kiwi's who've studied IT and taken their qualifications overseas.
That's a big improvement on lying under dashboards installing carkits or changing CV joints on Honda's, I can tell you.
Too true. My uncle had an IT job in NZ that was ok, but then he got a temporary job offer in the UK which he took. Turned out it was heaps better over there and his wife (my aunt) went over there to live with him after he got offered the position permanently. Now their youngest daughter has relocated to live in the UK (two oldest have left home) and from what I hear they're doing rather nicely.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Anyone notice that both Vodafone and Telecom no longer sell the Aino? Through their online stores at least. Weird.
Anyway, I bought a new Sony head deck for my car yesterday from Parallel Imported. Was my first time in their North Shore shop, was actually quite exciting.
Saved $100 over the official Sony price too!
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-04-08 12:03:31, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
Anyone notice that both Vodafone and Telecom no longer sell the Aino? Through their online stores at least. Weird.
Yeah, I know
Sorry couldn't resist.
I had seen that actually - Vodafone's SE page is looking a little depleted. Perhaps they are getting ready for the release of the X10, Vivaz, Aspen, and X10 mini?
On 2010-04-08 12:03:31, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
Anyway, I bought a new Sony head deck for my car yesterday from Parallel Imported. Was my first time in their North Shore shop, was actually quite exciting.
Saved $100 over the official Sony price too!
Nice! Will you be streaming music via BT from the Aino or using a USB input slot?
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2010-04-09 13:43:31, carkitter wrote:
On 2010-04-08 12:03:31, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
Anyone notice that both Vodafone and Telecom no longer sell the Aino? Through their online stores at least. Weird.
Yeah, I know
Sorry couldn't resist.
I had seen that actually - Vodafone's SE page is looking a little depleted. Perhaps they are getting ready for the release of the X10, Vivaz, Aspen, and X10 mini?
On 2010-04-08 12:03:31, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
Anyway, I bought a new Sony head deck for my car yesterday from Parallel Imported. Was my first time in their North Shore shop, was actually quite exciting.
Saved $100 over the official Sony price too!
Nice! Will you be streaming music via BT from the Aino or using a USB input slot?
Well I hope so! It will be good to finally see a bit more love for SE round here. Cant wait to see the X10 in the flesh!
I didn't get a bluetooth head deck though. I think it may have been a waste of money to be honest because I don't use my Aino for music playback. But the model I got has both a USB port and an auxiliary 3.5mm jack on the front of it so I can plug in pretty well anything. So I plug my X1000 Walkman in by the auxiliary because so I get twice the equaliser effect which sounds awesome with all my drum & bass music. Drum & bass has become a bit of an obsession for me now.
Posted by yea g
Well it looks like Telecom will be getting the X10, not sure about Vodafone yet
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-04-12 01:26:13, yea g wrote:
Well it looks like Telecom will be getting the X10, not sure about Vodafone yet
That's if their still in business by the time it comes out. It seems like Telecom are in a lot of strife at the moment, caused I suspect by many years of mismanagement.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Speaking of SE and Telecom, Vivaz is out now on XT for $999. Just a bit over-priced for my liking.
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-04-16 13:24:20, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
Speaking of SE and Telecom, Vivaz is out now on XT for $999. Just a bit over-priced for my liking.
Good to see XT showing Vodafone how to release
phones in a timely fashion.
Looking at the XT plans, it doesn't pay to buy a phone from Telecom at all. The subsidies are too low and the plans can be had with no term so might as well buy from EI.
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-04-16 14:19 ]
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2010-04-16 14:51:51, carkitter wrote:
On 2010-04-16 13:24:20, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
Speaking of SE and Telecom, Vivaz is out now on XT for $999. Just a bit over-priced for my liking.
Good to see XT showing Vodafone how to release
phones in a timely fashion.
Looking at the XT plans, it doesn't pay to buy a phone from Telecom at all. The subsidies are too low and the plans can be had with no term so might as well buy from EI.
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-04-16 14:19 ]
True, I don't think I'll ever buy a phone from Vodafone or Telecom again. I prefer the freedom importing gives me, along with the lower prices.
Posted by chunkybeats
Yep agree I would never buy a phone from a carrier. I remember my w810i from the UK and it was with T-Mobile. It was so branded to to the hilt it slowed the phone way down! I ended up getting it unlocked and then reflashed it and it was amazing!!! I still have my little w810i (4 years old and going strong!) but I gave it to my gf as she was on telecom (a crap sanyo contract phone). Now she is on 2degrees, brought her number over and loves it!!! Only sad thing was the contacts on the memory stick broke and now there is on memory stick access no more! Thanks to my dodgy memory stick but oh well!! I'm still wanting to de brand my w995a and maybe sell it as I just realised I cant use a foreign sim card in it (unless its NZ or USA) so thats sucks!!! X10 looks the boy for me!!!
Posted by yea g
On 2010-04-21 05:46:46, chunkybeats wrote:
I cant use a foreign sim card in it (unless its NZ or USA)
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100
Supports all those bands, so it should work in most other countries. But it will only be 2G in countries that only use 900MHz 3G
Posted by carkitter
All countries with 900MHz 3G also have 2100MHz 3G which the W995a is compatible with, so you can use a W995a overseas. It's the same situation as with the iPhone 3G/3Gs which is 850/2100MHz UMTS.
900MHz 3g is used in rural areas because the signal is more reliable over long distances but has less capacity than 2100MHz which is better suited to urban, highly populated areas where celltowers are closer together.
Edit: What do you guys think about the iPhone 4G? I'm really scratching my head over it.
On the one hand it's getting a big upgrade this year which really threatens to blow all other smartphones into the weeds.
But on the other hand, Apple are showing signs of getting too carried away with world domination and I for one don't wish to support that. Here's what I mean:
With iPhone OS 4.0 Apple are looking to integrate paid advertising within apps. It's unknown whether this will make it into parts of the OS as well. The ads will be inserted by the app developers and 40% of the advertising revenue will go to Apple (up from the App Stores 30% of app sales revenue). While I'm a capitalist at heart and all for software developers earning money where they can (App Store app prices all eventually trend to free), I am concerned with Apple adding another massive revenue stream to the already massive revenue stream the iPhone and now iPad have created. Money is power and I firmly believe that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely Already small signs point to Apple going off the rails.
What makes advertising on the iPhone attractive to potential advertisers is that the iPhone is a premium device so the audience is in the wealthier segment of the population. iPhone owners are also conditioned to making purchases online (through iTunes) and the most popular things to do on the iPhone is browse the internet and send/receive email and this interests advertisers also. Most successful apps have over 1 million downloads to their credit which is greater than the circulation of many newspapers and most websites.
It's not enough that Apple competes with Microsoft (with OSX), PC manufacturers (Mac Book, iMac, etc), MP3 manufacturers (iPod), Portable gaming manufacturers (iPod Touch), Phone Manufacturers (iPhone), eReaders and Netbooks (iPad), now they want to compete with Google for online ad revenue. Apple get a share of purchases of online content in music, music videos, movies, TV shows, ebooks, soon eMagazines and eNewspapers, and now online advertising. It's almost like a sales tax on online purchases, only without the accountability of elected government controlling the spending. Apple's market cap is already more than that of Nokia and Google combined.
I'm worried that Apple is getting too powerful for its (and our) own good. Apples reputation for secrecy and OTT control of everything is well known. I'm rapidly losing interest in being a party to it any longer. Apple has a lot of leverage with developers and advertisers by having a customer base of iPhones and iPod Touches exceeding 50 million devices and and another 8.5m sold this last quarter. I would need some reassurance that US regulators have things in hand or that Apple has systems in place to increase transparency going forward before I would endorse it with a vote from my wallet. Maybe I'm just being a little paranoid but having Apple this far ahead of everyone else in the mobile space with no accountability makes me uneasy.
Whadya think?
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-04-21 14:06 ]
Posted by Evilchap
yeah to be honest I just simply dont like anything Apple. Its because I sat down at a MAC and sat completely stumped at not having a "right click" option. What kind of world doesnt have right click? Nope gona be an X10 for me all the way, the masses can keep their iphone.
Posted by carkitter
Have you guys seen the new range of smartphones from Dell? They give SE a run for it's money in style and no waiting for Android 2.1
Dell Lightning (Windows Phone 7)
Dell Thunder (Android)
Dell Tablet (Android)
Dell Smoke (Android)
Dell Flash (Android)
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-04-22 11:39 ]
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2010-04-22 07:50:35, Evilchap wrote:
yeah to be honest I just simply dont like anything Apple. Its because I sat down at a MAC and sat completely stumped at not having a "right click" option. What kind of world doesnt have right click? Nope gona be an X10 for me all the way, the masses can keep their iphone.
A common confusion for non-Mac users. There is a right click and it works if you have a mouse with left and right buttons. With no mouse, you can either put two fingers on the trackpad and click, or control+click. Very intuitive once you get your head round it.
Regarding the new iPhone, I love it. Always been an Apple fan but the iPhone never did it for me until I saw this and heard about the changes in OS4. The advertising is worrying, but not enough to put me off. I'm sure that if there are problems with it, there will be an outcry and it will be fixed.
Posted by carkitter
Xperia X10 dummy phone spotted in Lynmall Vodafone kiosk on the weekend...
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Yeah? I saw an Asian girl walking round with a white X10 just yesterday at Takapuna Mall. Looked amazing and I'm somewhat tempted!
Posted by carkitter
X10 at EI: now $895
That's remarkably cheap when you consider the release prices of X1 ($1600), W995 ($999) and W910 ($899).
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
The X10 actually did release at EI at over $1000 nearly a month ago. It has since come down in price. My brother and I have been watching it!
EDIT: BTW it's actually $924.
[ This Message was edited by: Muhammad-Oli on 2010-05-05 07:39 ]