Got my hands on another glove that was specifically built for using touchscreen devices: the
North Face Etip Glove
. I had high hopes for these gloves as my previous endeavor into this realm, the
Burton Touchscreen Liner was rather disappointing.
The verdict? These gloves are much better than those Burton ones but still leave much to be desired. The touchscreen pads work quite well; this time the downfall lies with the fact that the gloves don’t keep your hands warm (a glove’s primary function). Even in temperatures close to the freezing mark, I found my hands cold.
- the palm and other fingers should have “stickier” padding;
- the touchscreen element should wrap around the index finger and thumb so that you can use the sides of these digits;
- the glove should expand to the size of the users hand to ensure a tighter fit.
Rather than buying a baby monitor, I decided to set up a webcam instead. So I picked up an inexpensive one from www.newegg.ca, the Trendnet TV-IP121WN Internet Camera. The advantages are three-fold:
- There are numerous apps (some free) that view the camera from an array of different platforms (iOS, Android, PC). On the iPad at home I use SecurView and I can even look in when I’m out and about using my Google Nexus 4 using TinyCam Monitor Free.
- Once I no longer need a baby monitor, it easily becomes a home security camera.
- It’s a cheaper than most baby monitors.
The picture quality is not bad either and it’s a Day/Night cam so it works even when the room is dark.
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More info on the TRENDnet TV-IP121WN 640 x 480 MAX Resolution RJ45 SecurView Wireless N Day/Night Internet Camera:
- Very easy to set up. If you know how to set up a router, you can set this camera up pretty easily. Once it’s on your wireless network you can view the video on any number of devices.
- It has other functionality such as motion-detection capture, it can even email you (I haven’t yet tested this).
- Cons: The main complaint with the camera, which I knew about prior to purchasing, is that the colour is a little off. For some reason the video comes out with slight pinkish hues.
After mulling it over for a few months, I decided it was time I got a new phone (a Google Nexus 4). I’d been using a Blackberry for a while now and although things started out rosy, it was time to move on to a better smartphone.
I knew that once off Blackberry, I would need more data than I was getting with my current plan. (Blackberry uses
push technology which is typically more efficient data use vs
polling.)
While researching wireless plans, my coworker recommended I check out Wind Mobile. They had a plan that was unlimited everything and a promotion if you brought your own phone. Being that a Nexus 4 is sold by Google unlocked, it seemed like a good way to get a new phone and tie it to a plan that wouldn’t punish me for using too much data.
After talking to Telus customer service a couple of times about my plans, they couldn’t negotiate my existing plan into anything resembling the neighbourhood (cost and features) of Wind. So I decided it was time to leave even though I was still on contract. Because of the price difference in my plan, I save almost 40% on my bill per month. This pays for me breaking my Telus contract after 5 months. It pays for my new phone in two years. Plus Wind requires no commitment (and I have an unlocked phone) so I can keep shopping for better plans if something comes up.
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So how is Wind?
Because I live in Toronto, my
Wind network coverage is pretty good. The only problem I experienced was when I went up to Collingwood to snowboard. Couldn’t get a signal on the hill at Alpine Ski Club.
Further re: unlocked phones
I will realize the biggest benefit to having an unlocked phone when I travel. When I visit the states or go back to the Philippines, I can buy a local prepaid SIM, pop it into my phone and enjoy calls/text/data without worrying about a huge roaming bill.
One of the ways I notice I’m evolving into a parent is in the things I buy and don’t buy for myself. Such is the case with this upcoming snowboarding season. Despite finally getting an opportunity to pick up the Craig Kelly inspired Burton Mystery with my instructor discount, I instead decide to update my HELMET (who am I?!). New snowboard money has been reallocated to the baby fund. :(
Though definitely not on the same level of awesome, the new RED Shaun White Hi-Fi Helmet is cool in a couple of ways:
Since I typically write about some product about a month or two after I acquire it, I don’t often comment about durability or ownership over an extended period of time; that is what I’d like to do with this post. Here are a couple of products I’ve written about in the past and some quick comments about how I feel about them now.
Still my favourite computer I’ve owned. Quick boot-up, still a good battery life, great at everything I want it to do from surfing to watching media to editing video to typing out documents. Hard to imagine I ever buy another PC on the Windows platform. Very happy I splurged on the anti-glare screen.
Within the first year I owned these headphones I had to submit a warranty claim because sound stopped coming out of one ear. The wire is not as durable as advertised, a rip appeared in the rubber near the joint where the one wire diverges into two.
This is likely the last Blackberry I will buy. I’ve had phone envy since purchasing an iPhone 4s for my wife last year. While I still like the keyboard, the device’s shortcomings are most evident in:
- Lack of app support
- Poor quality camera (the delay makes it difficult to take pictures that aren’t blurry unless you own a blackberry yourself and are used to it)
- OS seems to hang intermittently when context-switching. This is a deal-breaker for users who are heavy multi-taskers
The main reason for moving away from Blackberry once I get my next upgrade is that I have no faith in Research In Motion’s development team. Lack of leadership combined with laying off a lot of your R&D personnel generally means you will have buggy products.
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Addendum commentary:
Recently I explored upgrading to an iPhone 5 or the Samsung Galaxy S3 but didn’t feel either offered enough value to jump to without a full phone upgrade credit from my provider (Telus). The maps issue I find disconcerting on iOS while the Android phone just didn’t inspire me to part with my money. Anyway the longer you wait for technology the more you get. It’s rather amazing to me how the smartphone market has evolved into such a state where people treat these expensive, sophisticated devices as so disposable.
When my old laptop suffered the inglorious death of being dropped, I had data on it that I hadn’t yet backed up. Rather than pay some company (a potentially high-cost) to recover the content, I decided it was worth trying myself first. So I bought this USB/SATA Hard Drive Adapter (@ PC Village, downtown Toronto).
Couldn’t be any simpler, you just remove the hard drive from the old computer, plug it into the adapter and the entire unit to the USB of another computer. It works on different hard drive types (desktop/laptop). I’ve decided it’s useful not only as a tool for recovery but also as a thriftier alternative to buying enclosed external hard drives. I’m now taking drives from otherwise useless old computers and using them as extra backup storage, you can never have enough backups. (To protect the circuitry I keep hard drives in antistatic bags after taking them out of the computers.)
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