Wired House

I live in a wired house. I'd had cat5, speaker and coaxial cable running throughout the house when the house was built in 2003. There was wirless technology at the time, for sure, but it was not as prevalent as it is now. Also, I wasn't sure about the security aspects of the wireless connection at the time. I now have a wireless router and I use wireless connection when I use my laptop even though I still use my wired connection for my main desktop PC. Sometimes I wonder, though, the money I spent for installing the cable may have been a waste. Then, I found this article. The article was written in May 2008, so it's fairly recent. According to the article, the disadvantages of wireless connection are:

1. Bandwidth limitation


2. Signal interference


3. Battery consumption


4. Reliability problems


5. Security problems

I think all of the above reasons are reasonable, except may be #4. I'm glad I've found this article.

Samsung Glyde.... Mishap

It's been a while since I posted. My Glyde is working well without the annoying touchscreen problem. It's a nice looking phone but now I'm not sure if I like its functionality. Making a call is fine. When I want to hung up the phone, here's what I have to do:
1. Unlock the screen.
2. Push the Menu button.
3. Touch the "END" key.

It's just cumbersome.

Another thing that is listed as a nice feature is its front cover. You can answer the call by touching the "Answer" button or sliding the cover open. When you slide the cover open to answer the call, it automatically activates speaker-phone mode. It is somewhat convenient, I agree.

But I had a very embarassing moment because of this. I had one of my friends with me, and we made a call to another friend. I slided the phone open so we could use the speaker. My turn in the conversation was over and I needed to take care of some other things, so I handed Glyde to my friend and went to the kitchen. My friend finished the phone call, or so she thought, by closing the front cover. She came over to me and we started to talk about the person we just called. Let me just say that what we said was not too nice. Suddenly, we heard a voice from the phone saying that "hellooo.. I can hear your guys." I looked at the phone and touched the menu button to see what was going on. The phone was still connected. Without saying anything, I disconnected the call by touching the red "END" button. My friend assumed that closing the lid would disconnect the phone just like all flip phones do. Wrong. With Glyde, closihg the lid just turns the speaker off and the call is still alive.

I learned a lesson. Next time I let other peope use the phone, I will take the phone back immediately after the conversation ended and will make sure to hit the "END" button.

Samsung Glyde ... Replacement

So, I went to the Verizon store to get the firmware upgrade done. Surprisingly when I went back to pick up the phone, the repair person told me that the phone still had touch screen problems even after the software upgrade. So, they gave me a new phone instead. It can be a refurbished unit, and it still has the old firmware. The annoying touch screen hasn't occurred yet.

Samsung Glyde Touch Pad Update

After I posted yesterday, I went online to search a possible fix of the touch screen problems I was having. It didn't take long to find this post at Scartech.net. It looks like I wasn't the only one who was having problems, and Samsung/Verizon released firmware upgrade. I went to the nearby Verizon store to get the upgrade done. But they said that the phone needed to be fully-charged. So, I'll go there again tomorrow. I'll kepp you posted on this.

iPod Touch Screen Protector

Speaking of the sensitivity of touch screen, Scochingdeal.com says there's a 93% off deal at Amazon. Wish I'd known! I'm wondering, though, may be I should look for a screen protector for my Samsung Glyde to avoid the problem I talked about in this post.

Touch Pad Cell Phone

A few month ago, I bought Samsung Glyde. I am satified with the phone except for an occational malfunction of its touch pad. Maybe the touch pad is too sensitive. I can't figure it out. I was really frustrated yesterday because when I tried to pick up the call by pressing "Answer," the touchpad didn't work. I couldn't answer the call, so I tried to call back, but my touch pad was just crazy. I couldn't press "Missed call," "Contacts," or "Dial Pad." It was soo incovenient. Luckily, the person called me back a few minutes later, and I remembered that I can pick up the call by opening the cell phone lid.

I have iPod Touch, and I never experienced its touch screen problem. I need to do a research on the Glyde touch pad problems.

Gadgets and More

I know. I know. This is my weakness. I like tech gadgets. Every time I read about a new gadget, I instantly feel that I "MUST" have it. But there's an ugly thing called "budgets." So, I usually don't (or can't) buy the newest model of whatever is being launched. I observe and wait. The new gadget is always in my mind. Typically, I end up buying a new gadget after one or two versions but earlier than it becomes common amongst the general public. I did that for an mp3 player, and I did that for a cell phone. I will talk about my cell phone later, so today I want to talk about my first mp3 player.

When I first bought my mp3 player, USB ports were nonexistent, I think. So, a device needed to use a parallel port to connect to a PC. Diamond Multimedia's Rio was all the rage. What I bought was not Rio but one that was slightly cheaper and that has a transparent case. I don't even remember the name. According to this article, mp3 players have been around for 10 years. When I read this article, I remember what I was doing at the time...

What I am eyeing for now is a GPS device shown in this article. I don't think I need it but maybe that's why I want it.