jeudi, août 21, 2008

Pocketsurfer (V.1)

There doesn't seem to be any independent review of the Pocketsurfer on any blog. I've had one (actually two - see below) for 6 months.


The idea of it is that it's linked to the internet but you can't make phone calls.

Some problems:

It takes a minute to log in. Also it switches off after 5 minutes. So if you get up to make a cup of coffee, you find it's switched off and you have to log in again. (Altho' you only have to press 2 keys to do so.)


This is probably because the battery is not very good. Supposedly it lasts 4 hours fully charged but 2 hours seems more like it and it's not clear when it is fully charged. But it's no big deal to run it from the mains.


It's quite cheap to run. You get 20 hours a month free, clearly inadequate, but it's only £6 a month, which compares very favourably with my mobile phone (the dreaded Orange network), which is £5 a week. And at times the mobile is unbelievably slow.


It doesn't do sound or videos. Maps are OK at first but the more you shift the scale or direction, the more confused the maps get.


When you're on the home page, it gives you 3 "news" stories. These appear to be chosen by a Canadian-Scots bureaucrat. (HQ is in Montreal). The "news" is never about Georgia or plane crashes, it's government waffle, frequently from the pages of the Scotsman about the government of bonnie Scotland. However, type anything in and it takes you to Google's home page. One problem is, if you use Google News and want to switch to another nation, say Australia or the new India:Tamil service, it's a matter of luck to do this. Quicker to go to Google.au.

Often the page you want is difficult to read. I abandon the attempt about a 1/4 of the time. Also, if you switch from one page to the next, the screen slowly changes from the 1st page to the next. This is a bit confusing. However the display of about ten lines at a time is OK and a lot easier than a mobile. As is writing E-mails or blogs - a bit slow, but still easier. Colour is variable - simple colours are quite bright, but complicated ones tend to be dinjy.

This is the second Pocketsurfer I've had. The 1st had to be taken back to the shop (Maplin) and they send it off to be repaired/exchanged. This took about 1/2 hour because the (non) assistant appeared to have been in Britain for about 2 weeks, barely speaking English and clearly unfamiliar with our alphabet. But I got a new one after about 2 1/2 weeks.

I'm not too good with modern technology - anything after 1990 basically - but there doesn't seem to be any way of saving pages or bookmarks. However you can get onto the wondrous Net 19 times out of 20, as against less than 1/2 the time with the ghastly Orange World.

When I bought it it was £180. It's now down to £150. To me it's worth about £60-80. (kr 600-800). But I do use it every day. Perhaps I'll get the larger Acer sometime, which is a small computer with internet, currently £200.

15 commentaires:

Morten Svendsen a dit...

Denne saken her? Ikke dumt, egentlig. Men kanskje ikke helt moden for å overta markedet ennå ...

Laurentio a dit...

An entire post with no Franglish? That's very "out of character" for you. What gives!? :)

Anyway, £150 seems a little steep - I think you can get an Ipod that can go online for less, but that may only have wifi - I suppose your PS uses mobile broadband or something? (From a phone company that the company have contracted with?)

Can you sync it with a PC calender?

Laurentio a dit...

Del resto, gratias pro articulo del Guardiano.

Si, le corte del mercato commun (le qual es su nomine correcte, si io memora ben) assume de plus in plus potentia, a un tal grado que un pote questionar si nos vive in democratias.

Mi vetule professor de corte de EU Hjalte Rasmussen ha mesmo proponite que Danmark simplemente ignora le "lege" del corte e accepta un processo, ma como le articulo mentiona, alora nostre prime minstre non pote esser le prime presidente europee, como ille sonia de esser.

Anonyme a dit...

Mobile broadband? No - troll magic ha ha ha. C'est pas la bande large, c'est tout ce que je sais.

I wrote in English to be le seul non-business revue.

Est-ce cela means tu as etudié Jura avec ce M. Rasmussen (qui semble very famous)? Tu es avocat?

"Can you sync it with a PC calendar?" Warum wood u want to do that? Yuletide will be décembre 25. Duckpond Day the usual.

Laurentio a dit...

Nå, så muss it vel ser wifi via hotspots, ikke? Or maybe they've invented a ny teknologi von der I haven't hørt.

Jeg studierte nich avec Sr. Rasmussen, mais il var le professeur. (Not that I ever actually attended any lectures.) :)

He's not so famoso, seulement quant le medias ecrirent sur l'UE illes le appella.

Ich bin ein proffesioneller idler.

If you could sync the thingy with a PC, then you could use it as a sort of PDA.

After all the ducks have been eaten by Norweigan dingos (see other posts), the day has officially renamed Dingo Day.

Laurentio a dit...

*been* renamed

(Interestingly the Juts pronounce 'blevet' as 'been'. Coincidence?)

Anonyme a dit...

Comment prononcer "blevet" comme "been/bean"? C'est insensé!

Mais Mid-Jutland ont presque ejecté la Ville de Manchester! Coincidence?!

Anonyme a dit...

Bien, "bleven" es un forma archaic de "blevet", usate ancora sovente in J.

Us danes sind too faul a pronunciar consonantes (o vowels for that matter), dunque we get "bleen", und the other day I could swear I heard a jyde i fjerneren who couldn't even be bothered to pronounce the 'l'. E Voilà.

Flot af FCM, men til gengæld Caroline Woz got spanked at US Open.

Anonyme a dit...

Intéressant. Peut-etre tu pourrais mettre quelque chose sur ton blog (en anglais?) sur les différences entre la pronciation(sic) danoise et les autres. J'ai récemment begun to suspect que les phrase-books dansk sont lying to us sur la vraie pronciation dans le duck-pond.

Wi-fi - non, je pense pas que c'est pas ça.

Vem er Sofus Kr£lben - er - Krœlben? Er han dœden?

Laurentio a dit...

Le diff. de pron. inter danese e le altere que? (Linguas scandinave?)

E proque in anglese? :)

Ha tu really gelesen un parleur danese? Que scribeva illos super le udtale?

(Sry bout the interrogation, mais il me interessa.)

Ma si, nos ha certo un tendentia a omitter letteras, mesmo syllabiles, e es in general multo sloppy con our tunger.

Le pocketsurfer pare functionar per gprs comprimmite - så io suppone que illes ha contractata con un alcun phone companies.

Sophus Krølben (Kroelben) era un footballer danese. In 46 dies 100 annos habera passate desde ille scorava 10 goals contra Frogland in un singule match!

Anonyme a dit...

Hm, anque duo goals contra le Simias de Montania ... Impressionante ...

Anonyme a dit...

Si. 0-2.

Si, de certo es GPRS.

Io va responder plus tarde su la proniaction de Hamletspeak, by cause is complicato.

in 1908 var Danmag top amateur-team sur le plateforme des vaches.(el mundo)

Laurentio a dit...
Ce commentaire a été supprimé par l'auteur.
Laurentio a dit...
Ce commentaire a été supprimé par l'auteur.
Laurentio a dit...

Okay, jeg afventer Deres respons!