tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-336130622011-12-15T04:01:21.783+01:00A slightly geeky blog, biased towards reviews and commentary on gadgets, technology and watches.0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-26228149684985348322008-02-04T00:04:00.000+01:002008-02-04T00:06:10.845+01:00

Please visit my new (more broadly themed) blog:ClockworkTechnology.

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-88054468755882412592007-04-09T18:46:00.000+02:002007-04-09T18:55:06.389+02:00

I had planned to do a full review on this handset for some time, but re-reading my original post made me realise I have little to add to my initial impressions recorded below. Of course, this is positive, since it means that 5 months of everyday use have largely bourne out the favourable first impressions. There are, however, a few niggles I wish to record: Firstly, the phone could be somewhat

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-24979030566172309052007-03-03T01:38:00.000+01:002007-03-03T02:01:28.794+01:00

This is my new watch, on my wrist (with apologies for the poor quality of the photo - taken with my Nokia 6233's typically-useless 2 megapixel camera). It's purchase was the result of a prolonged search for a watch that was elegant, yet tough enough to survive daily life on my wrist - I'm fairly hard on watches and so far only my Casio G-Shock has managed this feat for more than a year (a watch

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1166647920594880832006-12-20T21:32:00.000+01:002006-12-20T21:52:00.606+01:00

Just in case you didn't know already... The new Bond film, and the new Bond, for that matter, is simply awesome.Now I will freely admit I am a Bond fan, and have been since I was a child, but this is another order of excellence. Daniel Craig's Bond makes Jason Bourne look almost wimpish and gives the character depth that has just not been seen earlier in the franchise (with the possible exception

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1164923722126326462006-11-30T22:38:00.000+01:002006-11-30T22:55:22.156+01:00

Amidst the kerfluffle surrounding the new headphones-take-up-more-space-than-the-player iPod Shuffle, I thought it apposite to cast a glance back at the original Shuffle. Ridiculed by the press at launch ('an MP3 player without a display, are they mad?!') the shuffle was in fact a great success - and having owned one for about a year (which is still my main MP3 player), I know full-well why.

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1163623621868940192006-11-15T21:03:00.000+01:002006-11-15T21:52:25.526+01:00

...and the new kid on the block is: The Nokia 6233! This, rather different, handset is the replacement for the tiny LG. The 6233 is the newest incarnation of the classic 'business Nokia' handset and the successor to the 6230i. I was briefly tempted by the svelte new Nokia E50, but readers of my first 'Smartphones' post here will know why I was able to resist this Symbian-driven temptation.

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1163454649133556212006-11-13T22:34:00.000+01:002006-11-13T22:51:49.950+01:00

In my defence, I must first say that I did point out in my review of this phone that the earpiece loudspeaker was too quiet. I did not, however, realise quite the degree to which it was too quiet until I had made a few phone calls in noisy environments (something which, by simple coincidence, hadn't occured in the first month of ownership) - and discovered that this was, in fact, impossible.

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1160778075580563802006-10-14T00:03:00.000+02:002006-10-14T00:21:15.600+02:00

Ever notice how there are still tons of people using Nokia's classic 6310 handset? I have several colleagues who do; and we still still pass one around as our office on-call duty phone. This, despite the fact that it's an ancient design, totally lacking in new 'features' like cameras and MP3 players, quite big and clunky and has been out of production for some time. Ever wonder why people stick

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1160075535437324982006-10-05T21:07:00.000+02:002006-10-05T21:13:32.876+02:00

Attentive readers will already be familiar with my disappointment at the quality of the Nokia 8800 I (briefly) owned, but news of its successor still gave me pause for thought. I saw one 'in the metal' for the first time today and muct confess it does look terribly nice... That 'thumbprint', incidentally, is much subtler and less obvious in real life than in all the photos.I wonder if they've

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1159360720276302122006-09-27T14:36:00.000+02:002006-09-27T14:39:17.896+02:00

An attentive reader pointed out an error in my review of the KG320: The 'multimedia' key on the side of the phone does, in fact, also serve as a dedicated camera button when the phone is in camera mode. Apologies for the mistake.

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1159202618641349112006-09-25T17:01:00.000+02:002006-09-25T18:43:38.890+02:00

... and here it is, the promised full review. Having owned this phone a month, I now feel sufficiently impartial to review it fully (and in light of the dearth of reviews on the web, perhaps that's no bad thing).The review is in 4 main sections, covering (I hope) the major aspects of the phone:1. Design, construction and display:The main thing that strikes you about the KG320, just as much after

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1158012847379169522006-09-12T00:07:00.000+02:002006-09-12T20:05:16.750+02:00

OK, I'm kinda late to the party with this one... but my, this is a stunning piece of design. I just love the way they've gone totally back to basics to focus on improving core telephony functions with some genuinely innovative technology: Electronic ink display, twin antennas, extra-loud speaker. I've heard the battery can give more than 2 weeks standby and that the expected retail price (without

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1157650469906966332006-09-07T19:16:00.000+02:002006-09-12T16:03:20.840+02:00

More good news on the KG320... I wrote in my first impressions that the battery life was "expectedly mediocre"... only to find that this has steadily improved after charging and using the phone a few times, to the point where the 2-3 day standby seems to have pretty much doubled and the phone lasts 4 days without problems. I thought (and keep reading / being told that) lithium-ion batteries don't

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1157479405881152462006-09-05T19:33:00.001+02:002006-09-06T00:15:10.773+02:00

You may, by now, have noticed me enthusing about the LG KG320 phone, with which I have replaced my Windows smartphone (see the first post in this blog). What I hadn't yet mentioned, was that I briefly had another phone in between... Like many people, I had always always admired Nokia's stainless-steel 8800 luxury model. I hadn't seriously considered buying one however, thinking it would be a

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1157400836550031092006-09-04T22:04:00.000+02:002006-09-05T00:06:18.396+02:00

Thanks to this brilliant post from the Consuming Experience blog, I have been able to get PC sync connectivity up and running with the LG. The instructions provided are for the KG800 'chocolate' phone but work equally well on the KG320 (apart from slightly different menu locations for the necessary options). The key is to install the modem software on the PC and configure the phone as a modem

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1157317864333137372006-09-03T23:07:00.000+02:002006-09-04T13:21:32.866+02:00

Everybody loves 'top ten' lists... and I was recently sent a link to a rather wonderful Top 10 most beautiful cellphones list on the Fosfor Gadgets site. I also recently came across a list of The ten best mobiles ever made by Henrietta Thompson, author of the wonderfully geeky Phone Book. Naturally, I had to come up with my own variation on the theme. ;) The top 10 best mobile phone designs ever

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1157059259428131212006-08-31T22:24:00.000+02:002006-09-04T22:33:31.920+02:00

News of this phone has spread quickly across the web, oweing to it's good looks, diminutive size and weight; and of course the newfound LG 'chocolate' heritage. Initally thought to be another Asia-market only techno wonder, the chocolate's little brother has followed in its footsteps to Europe... and has become my new phone. I plan to publish a proper review when I've had the phone a bit longer,

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33613062.post-1156978118403642952006-08-31T00:48:00.000+02:002006-09-02T01:25:21.600+02:00

The Smartphone MythNot so long ago, I wrote an article called The Bizarre Evolution of the Mobile Phone - describing how the search for ever sleeker and tinier mobile phones had apparently been abandoned, in favour of feature-creep and the rise of the smartphone. As my conclusion in that essay made fairly obvious, I had bought fairly heavily into 'the smartphone myth' and now, a little more than

0b5cUr1tYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16132691908459409790noreply@blogger.com0