—Turning on SMS notifications where ever possible to save precious battery life & minimize data usage
March 8, 2013
(photo credit: Wikipedia)
SMS has been with us from the very beginning of the so-called “mobile revolution”, and yet many of us still don’t use it to its full potential. Maybe we’ve been conditioned to avoid the draconian limits and overage charges from the mobile overlords, but strangely these days carriers are the handing out unlimited messaging plans like it’s going out of style. What else could they do? They’ve been gouging us over for years, charging for a service that costs them next to nothing to deliver (don’t get me started on the international text plan racket) and in response people have shifted their methods of communication to more data-centric options like social media, apps like Kik, or the ever-awesome (and free) Google Voice. They’re losing profits and I say serves them right. Now they’ve changed their tactics to making data their cash cow; tiered data plans, or “unlimited” data for “just a little more”. And while it’s hard for us consumers to quell our ever-increasing data addiction, it’s easy for the frugal masses to find a cheaper route.
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—Found this guide on tonymacx86′s website after a serious crash (when will I learn). I had so much fun playing around with this I had to share. Read the rest of this entry »
[Video] BlackBerry Bridge Keyboard & Mouse in Mac OS X (How to)
January 31, 2013
Just wanted to pop in and post a quick update to my little repurposed laptop LCD screen project. Quite frankly I’ve become disillusioned with this whole “blogging thing” in general, and so I’ve changed the motivation behind it. But enough of that, here’s what’s going on:
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Well it’s finally here. Took longer than I anticipated, but that’s mostly because of budget constraints. I finally got around to ordering it on 7/20/2012, and it arrived in about 2 weeks. Not at all unreasonable, considering it shipped all the way from Shenzhen China. In my original post,
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Sometime last year I stumbled upon this great DIY project for the budding tinkerer. The MintyBoost: a portable AA battery-powered phone charger concealed within an unassuming Altoids tin.
Sometimes I feel we are too eager to throw away the new to make way for the newer. The truth is I too have bought into the whole trend, and probably continuing to do so unless one day I wake up to find the world of technology has suddenly got a facelift. You will know where I'm going with my ramble if you have already owned a smart phone.
—Return of the Mac!
June 19, 2012
Okay so we’re back in business. Trinity‘s roaring again. Fiddling with it after a long weekend, it turns out I was using the wrong HDMI port (doh). Once I switched to the HDMI port 1(?), below the VGA port, I was able to boot into Lion. That was a close one. The penalties of trying out the latest updates early on. It was a serious headache reading through Toleda’s guide especially with so many recent updates and changes, but I learned quite a bit in the process. Here are Toleda’s Guides on the matter (& update). They taught me how high-definition sound is handled in OS X and how to do future edits on my own. This should come in handy when my new graphics card arrives (well first I have to choose one). HDMI audio works as before, as well as line-in (mic), line-out, headphones, and I’m told optical 7.1 surround sound, though I have nothing to test it with (yet). Read the rest of this entry »
—”If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”…
June 9, 2012
You know the saying… When I upgraded to the latest version of OS X (10.7.4) I brilliantly forgot to rollback Toleda’s audio kexts which made HDMI audio possible. I have copies so I could replace them, but in addition to HDMI audio I also want to enable all the other port & jacks ie: headphones, microphone, line out. You know, make this thing more functional. Pshh, can’t be that hard right? Read the rest of this entry »
—Controlling your HTPC with a BlackBerry via BlackBerry Bridge (Windows, OS X, Ubuntu, Android, & PS3)
May 11, 2012
If you’re familiar with RIM’s products, by now you might have heard something about linking your BB to the not-so-stellar 7″ device that is the PlayBook. I’m talking about the BlackBerry Bridge App, I mentioned its features before, but I’m trying to put that all behind me. All the disappointment’s been too much to bear. I wanted to think it was great and useful, but then I realized how cumbersome it is to have a device so inadequate you need a BlackBerry to *add functionality.
Anyway, one of my yearnings for Trinity is a shiny new wireless keyboard, with back-lit keys, and a solar-powered recharging feature. They’re coming to market (not back-lit), but I don’t see them coming down to my price range soon. It occurred to me when fiddling around with Bridge that there’s actually a fully-fledged keyboard and mouse buried in the sub-menus and key combinations. The Windows Start Menu key, Ctrl, Alt, F1 to F12, it’s all in there. It uses a bluetooth connection to link to the PlayBook… and Trinity has bluetooth… See where I’m going with this? What if… I could use Bridge to control Trinity? I mean bluetooth keyboards and mice have existed for some time now. Surely it couldn’t be that simple? Read the rest of this entry »
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