Using Your Phone For Blogging On The Train

If you want a creative solution for doing blogging on the train, you can’t get more McGyver-ish than this simple solution.

My note taking solution is a Motorola Q9h and a Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard. Works great if I have a flat surface to rest the keyboard on, but working on the train is a bit harder. I can’t balance the phone in a position that makes it viewable while being able to type at the same time. What I really needed was a method for putting the phone on the seat-back in front of my while I type on the keyboard which sits on my lap. I toyed around with various thoughts for a few days before coming up with an ultimate, minimalist and yet workable solution.

So here are the details: as mentioned, I have the Q9h and I also have a hard plastic belt holster. It works by clipping the phone in screen in, so it protects your screen. You can flip the phone over to face screen out, but it will not clip in at the top. So I raided the top of my daughter’s dresser for two elastic hair ties and a barrette. I prefer the hair ties to rubber bands because they don’t tend to break nearly as easily as a rubber band. One of the ties goes around the holster to keep the phone in the holster (since it won’t clip). The second tie gets doubled up to shorten it and slipped into the belt clip portion of the holster. I then clip the barrette into that same tie and slip the barrette into the back of the train seat, between the cushion and the hard back plate. Presto, hands free phone holder that keeps the phone at eye level!

Total cost, less than $20 and that includes the holster! And totally portable! Look around for a solution similar with your device and make good use of your commute time. Enjoy.

How A Program Makes Your Bluetooth Headset More Valuable

So on a topic related to my last posting, here is another solution for bluetooth connectivity.

Many of us who own cell phones and Smartphones also have invested in Bluetooth headsets (if you’re like me, you’ve got more than one!).  They’re extremely useful for making phone calls without having to fumble for the phone when it rings and you don’t have to worry about getting tangled up in cords.  And many people have cell phones that are capable of playing MP3 – of course all Smartphones have this capability.

When I first got my Windows MobileSmartphone, I wanted to use it as my media player.  I wanted to listen to music and Audible books, but specifically, I wanted to use it to listen to podcasts.  There are several that I listen to on a regular basis, but I wanted to get down to one device – I didn’t want to buy an iPod or other MP3 player.

Of course I could always use the stereo headset that came with my 2125, but honestly, it’s not the most comfortable thing to wear.  And of course, I wanted to make use of my investment in my Bluetooth headsets.  But most Bluetooth headsets don’t support the Stereo Headphone Bluetooth profile that is required to “reroute” the sound of audio programs to the headset.

Along comes BlueCast (http://www.smartphone.net/software_detail.asp?id=2013).  It’s a relatively simple program to use (I have no idea about the complexity that goes into it).  You fire it up and there are two options, Turn On and Stop.  When its turned on and you’re connected to a Bluetooth audio device, it will reroute your audio and play it through you headset.  This is a Windows Mobile Smartphone-only product

 

 

Now I can listen to my podcasts in my car on my way into work, etc. just wearing my Jabra 250V headset. This allows me to keep one ear open for traffic, etc. while I still listen to my personalize audio.  Another upside of this product is that your smartphone will continue to work like it does with your wired headset, meaning it will pause your audio automatically when a call comes in, allowing you to take the call, and then resumes when the call is over.  The only downside is that now I wear my headset batteries out faster than before!  But seriously, it doesn’t take up more battery power than if you were on a call – its just that I use my headset more now. 

The sound quality is pretty decent too. Its only mono, so even if you have wireless stereo headphones, you’ll still hear one channel (but in both ears) and there is a little hiss or pop sometimes when you’re not listening to anything, but that is generally due to the wireless aspect of the connection more than anything to do with the program.  I have experienced some static with some of my headsets, but not others, so I have attributed it to the quality of the headset.

All in all, to me it is certainly worth the $12.95 cost for podcast listening freedom.  I have to admit that I was a little put-off by the cost at first myself, but after using the product, I saw huge potential in it and I use this product most days of the week.

Enjoy!

Don’t waste your money…

So, if you've read previous blogs, you know I am using a Cingular 2125 Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone.
But this morning, I had a problem, where the headset jack broke, making is so that the phone only made sound through a headset. Kinda sucked. But unfortunately for me, not too suprising, as I've had this happen to me a few times over the years with my iPAQs.

Upon realizing what has happened to my beloved phone, I plug my phone into my PC and run PocketBackup ( http://www.thbi.de/us/software/pock…ckup/index.html). It dutifuly backs up the contents of my phone and I then head-off to the Cingular store for a replacement. No drama there and I'm back in about 20 minutes with a new phone.

I power up the new phone, plug it into my PC and run Pocket Restore. There's my first clue that this software isn't what is cracked up to be. First, I can't find the backup file for the phone. Why? Because apparantly the backups are dependent on the phone name (each WM device has to have a name) and the factory-default name is different from what I HAD called my first phone.

So I was forced to load up Tweaks2K for my phone and change the name to what my first phone was named. OK, now it can find the file and does a restore. Now, I've done a fair amount of customizing on my phone, and one of the many change I've made is to Start Menu and how the programs are listed. All of my most frequently used programs are right on the first screen. So imagine my suprise when I see the factory-default Start Menu. What gives?

Well, apparently it doesn't copy anything in the Windows directory or its sub-directories. Nothing. AND not the registry. For those of you who don't know, the registry is where all kinds of info about your phone is stored and its important. So you need to RE-REGISTER all of you programs all over again, etc. THAT SUCKS!

But then, to put the icing on the cake, I realize that my Ring Profiles don't work. Will only do Normal. I tried everything to get them to work. Finally, I had to do a hard-reset. Profiles worked again. Turns out, that there are xml files that make up your profile settings on your phone, and Pocket Backup backs those up. Great? No. Because apparently copying over them does something to them and then the don't work. Had to do another hard-reset, but this time I realized it only about 10 minutes into the process.

So, short answer to this story is, save your money. These folks are asking for $24 for something you could do yourself. If it can't restore a phone from a hard-reset, then it shouldn't be called a backup program!