nick m.
weblog
Incase Power Slider – Fail
0Yesterday, I purchased the Incase power slider for my iPhone 3G S. It boasts that it will double your iPhone battery life while protecting it with it’s case. Since battery life is important to me and I find my self constantly running out of battery (usually around 2pm each day), I was excited to get my hands on this. Even posted a tweet about it.
The initial reviews I read indicated that it was worthy of purchase at the right price. Best Buy had it for $47, which I thought was a great deal (since it was originally priced at $99). The packaging indicated iPhone 3G, but not specifically the iPhone 3G S. I asked a worker in the mobile phone department if it would work OK in the 3G S and she indicated “yes, I use it on my iPhone 3G S every day.”. Sold.
The instructions say to fully charge the device before putting your iPhone in it. So, like a good person who just RTFM’d, I plugged it in and let it sit for a couple hours until it was fully charged. What happened next was what surprised me…
I inserted the iPhone into the bottom part of the shell (per instructions), then put the top part of the shell on. The battery on the iPhone did indeed show that it was charging, which is what the user manual said it would do. Then, without warning, my 5 bars of 3G signal, disappeared and went to No Service. I was shocked, so I power cycled the iPhone, just incase it needed to officially recognize the new battery device. Still, No Service.
I took it out and put it back in, probably about a dozen or so times. Each time, the No Service indicator came up about 5 seconds after using the Incase Power Slider.
I googled some more and found other reports of people having the exact same issue. A few people mentioned that Incase retired that model of product because of issues, but I couldn’t find anything to support that claim. Since I really need my phone, I decided to return the Incase Power Slider to Best Buy and find something different.
I ended up with the Invisible Shield. So far so good with the Invisible Shield, but that’s a different post…
Summary: Incase Power Slider = Fail (in my humble opinion)
Ghetto Tweets
0I installed Ghetto Tweets a few months ago. There is a pretty good review about it, here…
Overall it’s a fun little app to play around with. Minutes worth of fun.
Some examples:
Here is @BarackObama talking about Ted Kennedy. Here is the real update…
Here is @LeviPBlauvelt talking about me. Here is the real update…
Here is @LeviPBlauvelt again. Here is the real update…
Here is @scobleizer talking about @biz. Here is the real update…
Firefox Opens Behind Applications in Snow Leopard
0Ever since the upgrade to Snow Leopard, Firefox started to open behind other applications. It launches from the dock normally and is the active application in the top menu bar, it’s just behind everything else. You can click the icon again or command-tab to bring Firefox to the front, but I must say, it is quite an annoyance.
A google search revealed a mozilla support thread reporting the same thing, but at the time of this update, no replies with any details on how to fix it. See this URL.
I’ve switched my default browser back to Safari now, until a time when Firefox opens the way it should.
Sam’s Matchbox Car Art
0One of Sam’s favorite things to do with Matchbox cars is to put them in lines around the ‘toy room’. Sometimes they are in line by color, sometimes by ‘type’, sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason, just some cool looking lines. The lines of cars usually intersect at some point, see the photos below…
Keep it up Sam, these are some awesome looking designs.
Honda Spree-Before & After
2We acquired a 1986 Honda Spree over labor day weekend, 2009. We weren’t satisfied with the stock, Honda Spree look, so we decided to re-paint it, in honor of or little Miss Elizabeth. Her favorite color is pink.
Lizzy says “Lizzy RIDE!” over and over again when she wants to go for a ride. It was a fun project to repaint the scooter…
Thanks Grandpa G for all the help and for the scooter…
Coltan Usage
0I was watching a show called Eco Trip on the Sundance Channel tonight. This episode was about cell phones.
Sundance Channel - Eco Trip - Episode 7
Amongst all the details about how bad they are for the environment while they are being made as well as after you dispose of them, one thing caught my attention more than others…
One of the elements needed to make a key element in just about every piece of electronics we use today, is called coltan.
Coltan is the metalic ore from which tantalum is made. Tantalum is what most capacitors are made from.
The show indicated that most of the worlds coltan resides in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I don’t think I need to explain why reliance on the DRC for such a core element of all electronics is a bad thing. Well, maybe I do, just a little…
An excerpt from Wikipedia on the DRC:
The Second Congo War, beginning in 1998, devastated the country, involved seven foreign armies and is sometimes referred to as the “African World War”.[4] Despite the signing of peace accords in 2003, fighting continues in the east of the country. In eastern Congo, the prevalence of rape and other sexual violence is described as the worst in the world.[5] The war is the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II, killing 5.4 million people.[6][7]
I googled around to see which companies get their coltan from the DRC and which don’t. Most information I found was related to cell phone manufacturers… This website, ethicalconsumer.org, has a buyer’s guide to mobile phones, which talks about the big companies that are ranked by Greenpeace (which should mean, they do everything they can to get their materials in an ethical/green way), it’s a good thing to have a Greenpeace ranking…
- Nokia
- Sony Ericsson
- Samsung
- Motorola
- Apple
The website also indicates that Australia is taking over the market on coltan, which is where the responsible manufacturers should be ensuring their products components are sourced from.
Another point in the episode talked about the e-waste is handled and that the majority of it still ends up in a poverty stricken countries around the world. PBS has a great story about it…
To sum up:
- Be responsible
- Recycle your old cell phones / electronics
- Ask the recycler where the devices end up
- Don’t just throw electronics in the garbage
- Check out Eco Trip, I really enjoyed it
Next time you look at your cell phone or computer, remember that some it probably came from the Congo and might end up Ghana.
UPDATE:
Ran across the makeITfair.org website shortly after posting this… They’ve posted a list of companies that have responded to their list of principles to follow. http://makeitfair.org/companies/company-responses-to-the-makeitfair-list-of
Camping with Sam
0Sam has been talking about camping all summer, we’ve driven by a lot of camp grounds and he always says he wants to go camping. Tonight (08/08/2009) we setup the tent in the back yard, made a camp fire, ate smores and camped out.
Sam was so excited about the opportunity to sleep in a tent, it was very cute. We gathered up our flashlights, bottles of water, iPhone (equipped with the Sprout Player for nighttime Sprout shows) and all our sleeping bags, pillows and sleeping gear and headed out to the tent.
After a couple hours of camping fun, it began to thunder and get pretty scary out, so we checked the weather (the weather channel iPhone app) and indeed, rain was 30 minutes away. We packed up our stuff and headed inside. Sam was very cool about coming inside. The thunder was enough of an incentive for him to want to go in the house.
This is a picture shortly after entering the tent.
Confusing Excel 2007 Prompt
0I was working in Excel 2007 the other day and was in a tabled sheet when I tried to delete a specific row of data. Excel prompted me with this question. Interesting question Microsoft, in fact I do not want to delete a sheet row, just one row in a sheet.
Roots, Milwaukee
0The food was awesome, the service was great and it was in a nice part of Milwaukee. Quiet and quaint.
