My Gadgets

No real reason for this post, other than the fact that I have these objects lined up on my desk at the moment, so I thought I’d describe them.

Palm Tungsten E PDA

More details here. I love this thing. It’s slim, powerful enough for me, and does lots of things in a small package.

Nokia 6810 Mobile Telephone

Provided by my work, so I didn’t get a choice of model. This thing has a fold-out QWERTY keyboard, so I don’t have to bother with the predictive text thing. It does make it a bit chunky though. I have got it set up with GPRS, so I can read this website! Remember to use the mobile version, with no graphics, and simpler layout [edit – no longer available]. Good battery life, and a loudspeaker for hands-free calls (untried as yet), and an FM radio for listening to Radio 4 (are there other stations?). One major gripe – the headphones use this wire coated in a nasty feeling plastic, kind of sticky, which makes them very hard to untangle after they’ve been buried in your bag. Sometimes I get on the train, and by the time I’ve extracted the headphones from their ‘kabelsalat‘, I’ve arrived at my destination.

Sony MZ-R700 Recording Minidisc Walkman

Ah, this thing. Got it in 2001, after a friend gave me a detailed explanation of how it all works. It’s been great. I make MP3 compilations by setting up a playlist in Winamp, with the Pause Between Songs plugin running to ensure track marks get inserted, then record in MDLP mode to fit over 3 hours of music onto one disc. I spent £150 on it 4 years ago, and see no reason to spend the same amount on an MP3 player now. OK, the convenience, the cool factor, yadda yadda. By some clever hackery (not my clever, I just followed the instructions), my MZ-R700 thinks it is an MZ-R900, with added features! w00t!

Well that concludes the gadget roundup for today. Fascinating.