As of this Friday, I’ll be heading off on an intense trip around the world. I’ll be out and about for nearly a month and a half, and I will hopefully be posting from all over the place in that time.

My new iBook is going with me, as is my AirPort Express, Nokia 6230 and HP iPAQ H5550. I’ll be stopping off in Honolulu (Hawaii), Sydney (New South Wales), Perth (Western Australia), Singapore, London (England), Chicago (Illinois?), Minneapolis (Minnesota), Los Angeles (California), Las Vegas (Nevada). Some of those are just lay-overs, some are for longer stays (a couple days). It should be interesting to say the least.

It will be interesting to see what access is like in different places, and hopefully spot some cool technologies around the place. Stay tuned to hear the latest as I progress 🙂

Well, I went ahead and did the Service Pack 2 upgrade for Win XP Pro, and have had nothing but problems recently with my wireless adaptor. I don’t know if it’s directly related or not, but basically my adaptor would drop out and not allow me to get an IP (even though it thought it was connected successfully). Obviously this is a problem for getting internet access.

With no time to waste figuring out what the hell is going on, I’ve disconnected the adaptor and resorted to plugging my desktop directly into my router (ugh – cables!), and I have complete access again. What tells me that it’s the adaptors fault is that my laptop and iPAQ still work just fine, connecting to the same router/cable modem etc.

So now my desktop is back to a cabled connection, but I suppose that kind of makes sense. Somewhere along the line I’ll sort it out, but for now that will have to do.

On June 10th, I pre-ordered a Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard, from ThinkOutside, the guys who came up with the cool, accordian-style fold-up keyboard, and the single-fold keyboards now around the place.

This model, being bluetooth, was intended mainly for use with my iPAQ, and would have made email and document work easier and more effecient. I was also hoping to be able to try it out on my Nokia, but that was more for nerd-factor than anything else. So what’s happened?

Nothing. And a lot of it.

When I ordered it, I was under the impression that the keyboard was supposed to be released in about a week. It wasn’t. I emailed, they said it would be out by the end of June. It wasn’t. I emailed again, they said middle of July. It wasn’t. I emailed again, they said end of July for sure. Guess what? It wasn’t.

Apparently there’s a problem with the packaging or something at their factory, so they can’t ship them yet. I don’t really care. I wanted to be able to use it on the business trip I’m going on this week, so it’s not going to get to me in time. I’ve emailed them now and requested that they cancel my order and don’t bother sending me one. I’ll get one later if I can justify it to myself.

Pity – I was looking forward to trying it out.

Well, I got the replacement headset from Amazon… which had exactly the same problem as the first one!

I called Logitech this time, and talked to a guy called David who was really helpful. We went through the process of pairing, connecting etc. Tried turning off anything else bluetooth in the area (i.e. phone and iPAQ); nothing worked. Apparently there is a known issue with their Mobile Phone Suit software that can cause a similar problem, but I wasn’t using that anyway, so that wasn’t the case.

After trying everything we could think of, David checked the product number (on the barcode) and apparently mine was one of the original release ones. They have upgraded the firmware since that model to make multiple-pairings and different profile support better. I’ve sent back the headset (to Logitech in CA this time), at my expense ($12.50!), and they’re apparently going to send me one of the newer models to see if that will work, so fingers crossed.

My headset got here today, Amazon don’t mess around!

On first appearances – totally cool 🙂 It is a big big/bulky when you put it on (sticks out from your ear a bit, and waggles when you flick your head around), but it sits nicely, and feels quite comfortable, so it’s ok, and like I mentioned, I don’t need it to be ultra-sleek anyway. The case that it comes with is really cool – doubling as a charging cradle and travel protection case. I plugged it in and got it charging while having a quick look at the manual. Nothing too interesting, basically one button handles everything, it’s just a matter of how long you hold it down.

Pairing the headset with my phone (Nokia 6230) was extremely easy – just put the headset in discoverable mode (turn off, then hold down the magic button until the light flashes blue + red), then tell my phone to search for available enhancements (via the Bluetooth menu). A pairing code is required, but that’s just ‘0000’, as the manual states. Enter that and you’re off.

Then I started noticing some problems… browsing around with the headset connected, I’d get the volume indicator come up randomly, repeatedly. Turns out that the headset was disconnecting and reconnecting every couple of seconds.

I thought I’d give it a go with my iPAQ (H5500). Very similar process, equally simple. Headset into discoverable, then on the iPAQ you go to the Bluetooth Manager, make a new connection, select ‘Headset’ as the type. You need to search for it, then enter the pairing code (0000) and you’re connected. I chose not to bother with a secure/encrypted connection, since it’s just audio.

2 seconds later, I hear the tone on the headset that says it’s disconnecting, then another 2 seconds and it connects again. Same problem as with my phone – repeated disconnect/reconnect.

Since I was still at work at this stage, I decided I’d leave it until I got home to have a proper look at things.

When I got home, I had the chance to also try connecting to my PC. Now of the 3 different connections I have available, I at least expected my PC to work. I’m connecting a LOGITECH headset, to my computer, via the LOGITECH Bluetooth Hub. Guess what – same problem. I can pair it perfectly, and it thinks it’s connected, but then it just disconnects and reconnects again and again.

I’ve emailed Logitech tech support, but from my experience, they’re not very good. Amazon are going to have a return on their hands in the near future I think. Fingers crossed that the Logitech people just send me a new one or something, because I definitely think it’s something wrong with the headset. 3 attempted connections; 3 of the same faulty connection problems; sounds like a firmware problem to me!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I got a new phone before I left Australia, the Nokia 6230. I got it because it had Bluetooth, took video and photos, and was tri-band (so it would work in Australia and the US). Unfortunately, because I am on a pre-paid T-Mobile, I don’t have access to data or multimedia messaging, so it limits the cool things that I can do with my phone, but it still rocks, and is way ahead of most of the handsets available here, which was a bit of a surprise.

Some of the cool things that I like being able to do with my phone;

1. Take a photo and then Bluetooth it to my iPAQ for editing, saving etc
2. Dial a number on my phone, directly from my iPAQ
3. Synch the Contacts (phone numbers etc) from Outlook on my PC, across to my phone – I always have every number I know about on hand now
4. Use the loudspeaker/speakerphone – it’s surprisingly useful
5. Take photos to use for my wallpaper!
6. Play mp3s – can’t help it on that one, had to add it 🙂

So basically, I think it was a great purchase. Being stuck on T-Mobile (because they are the only ones I can find here that will allow me to bring my own handset, and use their SIM), and paying a fair bit for my calls sucks, but it’s bearable to keep using the phone, ’cause it’s so much better than the other stuff around here (and I paid for it outright man, I’m not going to retire it already!).

If you’re looking for a nice-sized, sturdy, full-featured phone for use in Asia, Australia or America, then the Nokia 6230 is your man 🙂

After getting my diNovo and getting it set up, I suddenly had Bluetooth on my desktop PC. So – what to do, I couldn’t very well just leave it there only running my mouse and keyboard, I had to see what else I could cook up. First step was easy: iPAQ.

I got my iPAQ transferring files quite easily, and after some tinkering with simulated COM ports and whatnot, I now have it so that I can do a complete ActiveSynch via Bluetooth, which is pretty cool I reckon. I just turn BT on on my iPAQ, then go to the synch program on it and say “Synch via Bluetooth” and off it goes. I have it and my desktop in a paired, trusted relationship, so they don’t ask for any passphrases or permissions or anything now. I can right-click on files and say “Send to… Bluetooth device” and send a file directly to my iPAQ as well, which is handy if I just want to throw one additional file over there, rather than doing a complete synch.

When it was time to move overseas, I decided it was also time for a new phone (possibly a bad move, but that’s another story about the tyranny of telecommunications companies and their strangle-hold on the market). I decided to get a Nokia 6230 for a couple reasons, mainly photos + video + bluetooth + tri-band. I installed the Nokia PC Suite 5, which includes the Nokia PC Synch and some other bits and pieces, and again, after some fiddling around with simulated COM ports, had it synching up with my PC (Outlook)’s Contacts and Calendar entries. Now I get 2 warnings for things, one on my iPAQ and one on my phone :). The best part though is that it means every contact number I have in my PC, is also available on my phone, which is a great thing to have.

So my Bluetooth Triangle consists of my desktop PC, which includes Bluetooth mainly to drive the keyboard and mouse, but which provides a central connection point for my phone which synchs in contacts and calendar items, as well as the ability to transfer photos and videos (and MP3s, since it has a media player built in), and my iPAQ, which does complete synchronisation with the desktop. I also can use my iPAQ to edit images taken with my phone’s camera by simply ‘toothing them over to it, working away, then ‘toothing them back – easy!

You heard right partner – the new version of WiFiFoFum is out (v0.3), and it now supports GPS! I whacked it onto my iPAQ and went outside with the GPS unit attached, played around with the settings and it was off and running!

Using the Leadtek CF card, I had to set WFFF to look on COM4 for the GPS, and then it picked it up. The GPS takes a while to warm up and get a fix once you put the sleeve on and stick it in, but once it does, it updates every couple seconds by the looks of things. I haven’t tried it moving any faster than walking pace, so don’t know if it adjusts automatically based on velocity or not.

I went for a walk around my block and picked up all the usual suspects that are always on (pookie.net, mustwebcast.com, home (network) and 2 x NETGEAR), but now should have coordinates against them as well. The other cool new change to WFFF is that the stronger signals now go to the middle of the radar, so you can see better when you are getting closer to them, although it’s still kinda hard to tell, because they jump around a bit. Depending on how good the Destinator maps/software are, I might have to get MS Streets and Trips, because it comes with Pocket Streets, which looks pretty cool. I mainly want to be able to plot known points on a map, and be able to output that map somehow preferably (on my PC), so I don’t know if the Pocket PC Destinator software includes anything for desktop or not – we’ll see, since apparently it’s going to be in-store ready for pickup within a couple days.

I figured it’d be a good idea to update the firmware and ROM on my iPAQ, so I checked out the HP downloads site, and sure enough, there were updates available. I downloaded the following updates;

• HP iPAQ Pocket PC h5500 Series Firmware Update
• HP iPAQ Pocket PC h5500 Series ROM Update

intending to update the BIOS and all on-board stuff to get me up to date. I didn’t bother with the Bluetooth manager update, or the WLAN update, because it appears that those things are included in the BIOS updates. So anyway, I install both the firmware and the ROM updates, which results in clearing everything off my iPAQ and having to reinstall everything from scratch.

No problem I figured, I’ve done this on my Palm before, and everything (applications etc) just got transferred back the next time I synched… apparently not.

So I synch again, and it wants me to create a new profile on my desktop, because I haven’t named my device back to the same name as I had it before (“jane”, named after the computer-based lifeform in Ender’s Game!). That’s no good – I want it to synch back the same stuff, same data, same details etc. After playing around a little, I decide that I’ll go whole hog, so I close down ActiveSynch, get into the registry and start hacking around to move all the new settings which I’ve just created as ‘jane2’ and change them over to point to the other directories etc (‘jane’). Then I change my device’s name back to jane again, and see what happens.

At this point, everything appears to be fine – it actually works, and it’s synched all the old data back, and looks like it’s accepted me as an imposter jane… sort of, or something. Wonder if this is an exploitable way of stealing someone’s data? All I really did was created a new profile, then hacked the registry and pointed it to all the same directories as the old profile…

On top of that problem though, now I have a bigger one – WiFiFoFum doesn’t appear to work!

I don’t know if it’s anything to do with the hackery that’s gone on, I can’t see why it would be, because that was more to do with synching and my desktop machine, I didn’t do anything dodgy on my handheld. I can only assume that this means that there’s some sort of problem with the new ROMs and the way that WFFF is coded. According to the program, when it tries to start up, there’s this problem;

WiFiFoFum.exe
MissingMethodException

WirelessManager::Init+0xc
Form1::.ctor+0xa2
Form1::Main+0xa

Hopefully the guy who writes WFFF can figure out what’s going on there and can fix it, because in the meantime I have no warstrolling toys again :(. Once I get my GPS unit, then I’ll really wanna be able to get out there again, so until then it’s not too bad, but then there’s no GPS support in WFFF yet either, so that’s not really an issue is it?…