New gadgetry at the Starport

[mdlbear]

As I mentioned upwhen, I went to Fry's yesterday: the main purchases were a 4GB microSD card, a cheap bluetooth headset, and a power supply for Nova to replace the functional but noisy one I had to put in a month or so ago.

The headset was the cheapest I could find; a little Plantronics job that charges via what looks like a micro-USB plug. Haven't had occasion to try it yet. The microSD was a 4GB Kingston that came with SD, mini-SD, and USB adapters; it'll be $10 after the rebate.

The PSU was the cheapest I could find with a 120mm fan, a 500W supply from Apevia, whoever they are. In spite of the fact that it's rated significantly higher than the 380W Antec it replaced, it appears to be more efficient: UPS load went from 26% to 22% of 480VA. So that's a win.

The office is noticably quieter now, though there's still some fan noise from the miniITX system I'm using as a router.

The main thing still pending hardware-wise is the AT&T fiber hookup; I really need to get email redirected off the old service in preparation for that.

Comments

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

If you've never used Bluetooth before, getting two devices (e.g., headset and phone) to communicate with each other may involve a bit of voodoo. Actually, I only had trouble synching my headset with my phone when I first started... but trying to connect my phone to my computer (using a USB Bluetooth dongle on the computer) only works about a third of the time. (The phone's software doesn't like it to share files that way anyway - I originally set this up so that I could make custom ringtones for myself, but file transfers mostly don't work.)

[mdlbear]

Haven't tried connecting the computer; I didn't have any trouble getting the headset to pair up. Still trying to figure out which button to push when, though; I think answering on the phone and transferring the call to the headset might be problematic.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Well, headsets and cell phones are designed to pair up with each other. I've had trouble pairing a computer and a cell phone - I haven't tried pairing the headset with the computer, largely because I have a regular set of headphones (with mic) that plug into the computer's audio jacks. As for pressing the buttons, it depends on what model phone you have, but on mine, a "tap" on the button on the headset is supposed to transfer the call. There's enough of a lag in the transfer process to be slightly confusing.

[mdlbear]

*nod* I think the tap is the way it's supposed to work with mine, too, but the timing seems to be a little tricky. I know (now) that when I make a call with the headset closed it automatically goes to the headset, and I get an "unmute" indicator on the headset which presumably transfers it back.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Every damned phone seems to do it differently, and the only thing to do is RTFM, which is usually written in Engrish :-(

Electronic gadget therapy :-)

[zencuppa.livejournal.com]

My MP3 player died a couple of weeks ago. I used it to listen to a bunch of work-related and personal podcasts when I clean the house, do dishes, etc. and also to record interviews (It was an old IRiver with 245MB, yes, very old). And I used it during boring workouts on the cardio machines at the gym.

I really, really missed it.

So yesterday Jim mentioned that a decent MP3 player was for sale on www.woot.com. It was a refurbished Sandisk Sansa e260 4GB Media Player, that also plays video, records audio and has an FM tuner, for $24.00 and $5.00 shipping.

And now I am just waiting for it to arrive in about a week :-) Yay!!

[tregare.livejournal.com]

at&t fiber. is that the U-Verse service?

[mdlbear]

Yes.