Posts Tagged Gadgets
The most useless invention ever – Guaranteed Laughter
Whenever I am feeling low, this is what I tune into – And I crack up every time I watch this.
This is by far, the most retarded and useless invention EVER made. BRILLIANT!
Click here to view this video directly on YouTube
Build a wifi signal booster (Hint: Me on national TV!)
Posted by CeeTee in Gadgets, Random Thoughts on January 11th, 2010
So here goes!
I had posted an article on my blog on how to boost your wifi signal with stuff you find easily around the house (for 10 bucks or less!)
I did a collaborative segment on Bloomberg UTV with Aalaap (who has been hosting this blog for me) and here goes!
Things I will do in 2010
Posted by CeeTee in Random Thoughts on January 10th, 2010
A LOT of people make resolutions on New Year’s day and 99% of the resolutions go straight to the crapper. I’ve given this one a serious thought (hence the delay of 10 days) for my resolutions in 2010
Work:
Give an opportunity to my colleagues to take charge at work
Less stress at work
Me:
Lose weight! (about time!)
Come on TV (Done already!)
Buy a smart(er) phone than my Nokia E71. Android? iPhone?
Travel overseas
Go on yet another adventure trip on motorcycles like the Leh Trip 
Buy atleast 1 killer gadget to brag about
Make something official ?
Family:
Buy something really nice for the family
Spend time with friends and family even more
Friends:
Spend time with friends and family even more
Others:
Associate myself with atleast 1 NGO or charity
How to boost your Wifi signal strength for cheap! [DIY] [Updated]
In the new age of computer networking, the most basic things that people have switched to is Wireless internet (Wifi).
People say that once you get hooked on to Wifi, it is quite difficult to get off the addiction of trying to search for a wifi network around.
Now that I have moved to a new house (2 storeyed penthouse) in New Bombay, the very first thing I did after subscribing for an internet connection was to put together a Wireless access point.
I have bought quite a few gadgets that support wifi. The wifi-enabled devices at home I have are:
1. My Nokia E71
2. My Dell Latitude D620 laptop
3. Dad’s Lenovo C300 laptop
4. Mom’s Dell Latitude D620 laptop
5. My new gift to dad – A Blackberry 8520
6. Mom and sister’s iPod Touch 2G 8GB
The general problem with Internet connections these days are that the ISP guys pull a wire from outside the window and you are forced to keep your router/modem right next to it. i.e. No wifi connection throughout the house.
I searched quite a bit on the internet on extending the wireless signals right from stock additional antennaes, buying a new router to be added as an access point, upgrading my router firmware to DD-WRT or Tomato with a high amount of risk of bricking my router, etc.
I was in no mood to buy such expensive devices just to get the extra strength, so I thought of a DIY (Do It Yourself) method, which is EXTREMELY cheap, components can be found easily in the house, etc and WORKS wonders!
This DIY method for wifi booster DOES work, and the signal strength from the opposite corner of the house went up from 40% to 90%
The trick is to bounce off the wireless signals inside the house instead of letting the router send out signals out of the window (quite literally!)
Feel free to drop in your comments if you find it useful
There are 2 parts to the Wifi booster. One is the reflector surface (wedding card with tin foil on it) and the other makes the parabolic shape (the template)
What you need:
1. Old wedding card
2. Glue
3. Pair of scissors and a cutter blade (be careful while handling)
4. The will to DIY!
The How-To:
Download the template by clicking on this link
Print it out (I prefer increasing the size to 200% of the original) – Make sure you do NOT mess up the aspect ratio of the image
Glue it to the back of a thin (flexible) cardboard (I prefer an old wedding invitation card)
Trim the cardboard
Cut out the slots pointed out
Glue tin foil to the back of the reflector surface (Aluminium foil) – Ask your mom, she should have some in stock in the kitchen. Keep it under the bed for a while to let it dry (I prefer 2 layers of tin foil)
Use more glue to stick the curve the reflector surface to the parabolic template
Latest firmware for Nokia E71 v400.21.013
Posted by CeeTee in E71, Gadgets, Mobile, Tips and Tricks on November 27th, 2009
So, looks like the latest firmware for the Nokia E71 is out. The version is now v400.21.013 which would be available via Nokia Software Updater (NSU). The change log is as follows:
NEW FUNTIONALITIES:
Gimlet v9.5 (v9.5.3.72)
Quick Office 5.3
Ovi Store 1.5 (v1.5.2)
Ovi Contacts – Preinstalled
Mail for Exchange 2.9.176
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS:
Email Setup Wizard update
WLAN Corrections
Internet Radio v1.16 – Increased functionality
Camera functionality improvement
Incoming call hang issue fixed
Turkish SMS character input improvement
Many functionality and Stability improvements in MfE
Support for Russian and Ukranian keymats
Phone activation Baseline updated
Yahoo account hack fixed
GENERAL
Stability and functionality improvements
Email and WLAN functionality improvements
Increased robustness in handling SMS and incoming calls
Memory leak fixes and crashes
Email and WLAN functionality improvements
CALL HANDLING
Fix for Incoming call hang issue and fast call crash
Fix for making emergency call when the phone is locked
CALENDAR/CLOCK
Minor Functionality improvements
Time display correction when the phone is locked
CONNECTIVITY
WLAN functionality Improvements and fixes for crashes
Improvement in WLAN authentication
mVPN authentication improvements and general functionality improvement
CONTACTS/PHONEBOOK
Functionality improvements for search functionality
EMAIL
Email setup wizard updated
Fix for Yahoo account hack while setting up Gmail account through Nokia Email
Fix for mails getting duplicated after restoring backup
Mail for Exchange upgraded from 2.9.158 to 2.9.176
Gimlet updated to v9.5
Many functionality and stability improvements in MfE
Robustness and functionality improvements in email items.
INTERNET RADIO
Improved functionality
Increased application stability
QWERTY KEYBOARD
Usability improvements
Keyboard mapping corrections for Russian and Ukranian keymat
MESSAGING
Improvement in Turkish SMS characters input
Fix for delivery report for SMS with more than 22 characters
Increased robustness in handling SMS
From what it looks like, the firmware 300.21.012 is pretty much stable for me except for a couple of calls resulting in my phone to hang for a couple of seconds. The camera quality on the 300.xx.xxx is pretty decent for me.
Looks like this one will have to wait till it hits my E71 (waiting for a working HelloOX actually )
My new gadget – LG 32LH80FR LCD TV (LG Jazz)
It’s been over a year that I’ve been contemplating buying a new TV to replace the 14″ Panasonic Sophia CRT TV in my bedroom. I mean the situation was so bad, I had to literally sit not more than 4 feet from the TV to make sense of what is displayed.
Sample Image thanks to Google. The TV in this picture is 21". I had a 14" TV
It was so bad that the laptop I am using ‘Dell D620′ has got a 14″ wide screen
When I buy gadgets, I make sure it is future-proof by ATLEAST 3 years, so going for another CRT TV was totally out of the question. Plasma TVs start at 42″, which was again too much for my viewing distance of 8 feet.
With my viewing distance of 8 feet, I decided on buying a 32″ LCD panel (Calculated the ideal panel size per viewing distance here)
Had lots of options to choose from, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, LG, Toshiba, etc. The list is endless.
Sony was too expensive
Samsung was equally expensive – No goodies
Panasonic was too crappy – Picture quality on DVD was bad
Same goes for the Toshiba
LG was my final choice – A well known brand, good customer support (though a tad expensive, but the after-sales is good, per personal experience), relatively cheaper parts, etc.
Next was the decision on the FULL HD or a HD READY TV (Full HD = 1080p; HD Ready = 720p) – Neither really mattered to me since we have Standard Definition signals in India, and no matter how expensive the TV would be, the picture quality on regular cable will be shitty. No second word on that.
My priorities on the decision were:
1. Should fall inside my budget of Rs 35000
2. Should have USB connectivity in the TV supporting DivX formats
3. Freebies ! (who doesn’t like them ?)
4. Respectable sound (Since buying an external home theatre system would overshoot my budget)
After a LOT of R&D (and trust me, a LOT), I decided on getting the LG 32LH80FR (Commonly known as LG Jazz Full HD). It was falling under my budget, had the features and since it was Dassera festival time, there were good deals floating in the newspapers.
LG Jazz - LG 32LH80FR
The prices as of 4-Oct-2009 were as follows from different vendors
1. eZone – Rs. 37500 (No freebies)
2. Croma – Rs. 35500 (No freebies)
3. Reliance Digital – Rs. 42000 (No freebies)
4. Jumbo Electronics – Rs 46000 (No freebies)
5. Vijay Sales – Rs 34,000 (With free LG DV388 DVD Player with USB-DivX support)
Guess which one I chose ? 
I picked up the TV from Vijay Sales at Palm Beach Galleria Mall in Vashi for Rs. 34,000 – Since they did not have the DVD player in stock, they promised they will arrange for one this week. Payment was done via EMI with Bajaj Finance, who honestly, have the lousiest ‘customer care’ representatives. Formalities took over an hour to finish and I reached home at 11 pm. Obviously I could not wait to hook up the TV, so I got started off (After the awesome unboxing experience). Took me about 20 minutes to get the TV up and running (All you need is a Philips screwdriver – Would recommend a magnetic one since the screws are quite long)
Unboxing pictures:
LG Jazz Unboxing - Box - Front
LG Jazz - Unboxing - Side
LG Jazz Unboxing - Contents
The contents of the box are as follows:
1. LG 32LH80FR TV (well, like, DUHH !)
2. Base Stand
3. Bracket connecting the TV and the base stand
4. Wall mounting bracket (Not applicable for me, though I did get one)
5. Remote control with 2 AAA Batteries
6. Power Cord
7. Content CD (Haven’t checked what it contains’
8. 8 Screws in total for Base Stand and Bracket
9. Anti-Static wiping cloth (Did they pick it up from Apple ?)
10. User Guide and Warranty card
So, to sum it all up:
Pros:
1. Matte finish screen
2. USB Connectivity with DivX, Audio and Image file playback (AVI for the people who dont know rat about DivX) in the TV
3. Decent Sound quality (It has a woofer at the back, 2 speakers at the side and 1 at the front-bottom of the TV)
4. LOTS of connectivity slots (HDMI, Composite, etc)
5. Absolutely BRILLIANT quality when watching movies over USB
6. The very fact that I have my own LCD TV ! (Shouldn’t this be number 1 on the list ?)
7. Future proof (This one is a FULL HD)
Cons:
1. Wobbly stand (but I can live with it)
2. The remote control is tall as hell ! (I guess every LCD TV now ship with long-ass remotes)
3. Quality loss in SD Signals (regular cable TV for the rest)
I will be posting an extensive review of this TV in a couple of weeks.
Feel free to drop in your comments!
My top 10 Symbian S60 applications
1. Google Maps
The latest version of Google Apps lets you find directions (though not entirely accurate). The AGPS is not a very big hog on your GPRS bills (thanks to the ability to switch to a raw map view). Latitude is one more feature that lets you share your location (and your friends location) on 1 place. Layers are another addition to Google Maps recently where you can add layers of your choice in terms of Terrains, Wikipedia, 3D buildings, etc
Was taken by me when I was on my way to my Leh trip http://twitpic.com/8khjb
2. Fring
This application is a no-nonsense all-protocol chat application. Supports AIM, GTalk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and a few more. It also lets you make VOIP calls and status updates to Facebook and Twitter. My personal favorite
Alternative – Nimbuzz
3. JBTaskman
This is a very simple task manager for your S60 phone. Gives you the control over your phone. Task startup rules, task switching, phone info, etc. A MUST have for every geek who owns an S60 phone
4. Screenshot
Very simple application that just takes a screenshot of the current display on your phone. It is a little tricky to set up the Screenshot key since my E71 does not have a dedicated camera button. I use the backspace button to take the screenshots, open JBTaskman and kill the Screenshot application process. Simple !
Apologies for the retarded GIF image
5. RSeven
Something that I was looking for to avoid the very buggy and incredibly bloaty Nokia PC Suite. This one lets you take a backup of all your SMS, contacts, call log, images, sound files, etc to their website. Their website then displays a sweet timeline of when the stuff was saved/arrived on your phone.
6. Swim
Another very simple application that automates the sync application on your S60 phone. The timings are quite tricky and they are relative. If you set the schedule to ‘Every 12 hours’, it means that from the point you select that option, Swim will automatically load up and Sync your phone. I have set it to ‘Sync every 12 hours‘ at 1.15 am/pm (thats the time I am usually home for lunch or sleeping)
7. Traveler
Lets you keep track of the temperature in your city and the wind conditions. Also supports currency exchange rate updates which are downloaded from the server. A very annoying bug is that this applications always asks me to update my city and timezone when I start it up. I stay in Mumbai, but whenever I start the application, the city gets reset to ‘Delhi’.
8. iON Battery Timer
Ok, this HAS to be the awesomest little utility EVER. It displays the juice left in your battery and the sweetest thing is that it tells you the time in which your battery will run out. And trust me, it is bloody accurate ! $10 per IMEI. TOTALLY worth it. You can install a trial version for 7 days and check it out. It’s BRILLIANT!
Capree.iON.BatteryTimer.v1.02.S60v3.SymbianOS9.x.Unsigned
9. Opera Mini
This section will hold the super ups of Opera Mini 5 Beta. Installed it yesterday and trust me, Opera has failed to disappoint. I mean, how can they have tabbed browsing on a mobile browser ? Very slick interface and very smooth animation. These small things really DO matter. Touchscreen S60 device owners will truly enjoy this application. A couple of negatives (though this is a beta version) has to be the lack of Opera Link (syncing all your bookmarks, passwords, history, etc) across browsers (I have Opera 10 as my primary browser, so this helps). The dictionary on my E71 also can not be used in this application. I am sure the Opera developers will be implementing it in the final version. It is awesomely fast (thanks to the Opera proxy servers) and is incredibly light on your GPRS bills. Watch out since this browser will definitely start a revolution in mobile browsing.
Opera Mini 5 Beta running on Nokia E71
10. IRRemote
Ok, this app is an on-and-off for me. Most of the times I cant find the TV remote or I am too lazy to get up and bring it myself. Solution ? Kick start this application and you can literally control your TV ! Channels, volume, presets, EVERYTHING. Also supports ACs, DVD Players, Hi-Fi systems, Radios, etc
My iPod Touch [Updated]
Not many of you guys know. I’ve run into some major trouble with my iPod Touch 2G 8GB.
I haven’t been using my iPod Touch (or seen it either) for the past 3 months, but my Mom and sister have made it their primary gaming device.
One fine day, all panicky, my sister came in to my room and says ‘Bhaiya, WiFi does not work !’ – I was thinking it could be that it was disabled from SBSettings or the network settings have been corrupted somehow.
Had a look at it, navigated to Settings > General and saw that I see some gray-ed out text that reads ‘No WiFi‘. Panic mode 1 creeped in. Went to the ‘About’ section and saw that the WiFi MAC address says ‘Not Available‘. Panic mode 3 (yes, it was scary)
Hunted on a LOT of forums on iPod Touch Fans and some other forums and most of them could get it working after doing a network setting reset. I tried it. No luck.
I thought it was probably the jailbreak on the firmware 3.0 that was messing up, so I decided to erase my iPod and it’s settings and start fresh. The process took about 1 hour to get back to the ‘virgin’ settings, but still the MAC address was not available and WiFi would not work.
Searched some more on forums and I read somewhere that because of firmware 2.2.1’s heating issues (which somehow I never came across), the WiFi chip would have been fried
Elsewhere I read that an application called ‘WiFiFoFum‘ (as retarded as it sounds) (app store link), which shows a sweet-looking radar and the WiFi networks in vicinity – THAT messed shit up here.
I could not turn back and finally had to give it to the service center guys in Navi Mumbai at a Reliance Digital outlet (who are the authorized service center for all Apple products).
Went to the Reliance Digital Store today and they said that they have ‘Ordered for it’ – I am assuming it is a replacement (which, presumably, they did not realise that it was jailbroken, so YAY !). I’ve been asked to come again on Friday evening at about 9pm and check if it is here already.
Update [19 Aug 09] : So finally I got my hands on my iPod Touch 2g 8GB and I realized a couple of things:
1. The folks at Reliance Digital are too stupid to know what a Jailbreak is.
2. They gave me a brand new iPod Touch 2G 8GB instead of a refurb (except if Apple calls THAT a refurb)
3. The service was kinda quick and painless (unlike what I’ve read on a few websites)
4. If you need to get your Apple product serviced/fixed and there is no apparent physical damage, insist on speaking with Mirza at Reliance Digital outside Vashi Railway Station. Not that he is smart, but he is just stupid
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