Archive for August, 2009
August 18, 2009 at 9:58 PM · Filed under gadgets, tech talk
I love my new nokia n97… It’s a truly amazing and versatile phone that suits me perfectly. One thing i kind of missed was divx support, which i thought would come in the form of divx mobile, which can be downloaded for free from http://www.divx.com/mobile/ but don’t bother. You will download, install and realise that none of the buttons work and it’s pretty crap. If you do manage to get something to play it will be all jerky and no fun to watch.
Unfortunately, even if smartmovie and divx mobile and all of those work on your phone, you still have to convert you divx movies to mobile format for them to play smoothly. Divx mobile by default is pretty low resolution, and i wouldn’t bother with it if I were you.
So, where does that leave you? No 3rd party software works perfectly because your phone is simply too new. I tackled the problem a different way. I know the phone plays .3gp .3g2 .mp4 etc and i know that the realplayer installed on the phone is very quick and easy to use.
Then i remembered a little program i used to use with my ipod called plato video converter (Download it here). Yeah i know, you still have to convert but this does it nice and quickly, relatively speaking. It’s intuitive and nice to use and of course 100% free… Just queue up the files you want to convert and set your computer working. The program makes great use of all 4 cores on my computer and movies convert in about 15 mins, which is not bad if you’ve every experienced slow video conversion. You can even set the pc to turn off once finished, which makes the process even less painful.
you can see from the image what settings i use. Feel free to play around with them but these work for me.
hook the phone up by USB cable and use the mass storage function (easiest/quickest) and dump your new converted movie into your movies or videos folder. You don’t need to worry about about it anymore after that, realplayer will find it pretty much anywhere you dump it.
Conclusion:
I know you still need to convert, but at least you can play files from your file manager or from your videos folder through a supported and easy to use player.
The n97 is made for video, so don’t hold out for new video players when you have a great one already.
I hope this helps some people who want to make the most of their new hardware.
August 17, 2009 at 5:38 PM · Filed under tech talk
I added some bits of code to this blog to monitor my stats, and also allow people to use bookmarking sites like digg, stumble, delicious and technorati. I know they work for some people, but will they work for my little blog?
It’s an interesting experiment really, and i hope that in 1 week’s time (from today) i will be posting those results then.
I am very interested in the results… Will i actually get a lot more traffic than usual?
August 16, 2009 at 2:28 PM · Filed under Uncategorized
“Between street fighting and drug seizures, Tralee town is in trouble”
See full article in the Independant
A rather bleak outlook for a town that i’m quite attached to. Yes there are drug problems. I personally feel quite safe here. Ok, i wouldn’t walk home from town at 3am so maybe it’s not that safe here…
I try to avoid the rough areas and don’t really enjoy going out like i used to. I always leave pubs/clubs before the music stops as i think most of the violence happens after that. You’re needlessly putting yourself at risk if you stay out after that.
I can’t remember the last time i saw a fight here in Tralee, possibly because I have learned how to avoid them. I go out in the town maybe once every two weeks, maybe even less.
I think every town has its problems but very few towns have the problems of a city, like tralee is experiencing. Honestly i think Tralee has become safer. The Gardaí here do a hell of a job, between making their presence felt and dealing with issues my hat goes off to them. They don’t have an easy job and of course they can’t do their job 100% correctly or efficiently, as that’s unrealistic…
We need more CCTV in Tralee, so that the incidents can be reported and followed through on. We need a 100% guarantee that these anti-social acts can be punishable. Most people don’t press charges because the accused is instantly made aware of who is accusing them. Becuase Tralee is so small, you are easy to find and there is no ‘anonymity’ so you automatically feel threatened. The guilty parties know this, and expose this flaw in the system to run riot. They know there’s a 90% chance that they’ll get away with it.
I’m still proud of Tralee, seeing improvements around the place over the past 6 years that i’m here. The Gardaí are doing a fine job, and there are many positives to be said about the town.
I’m not going anywhere for a good while…
August 13, 2009 at 10:25 AM · Filed under gadgets
got my lovely n97 and oh my god is this thing good..
People complain about the keyboard layout but i love it although i wish there was also a function button near my left thumb.
The screen is epic, i have been browsing my favourite web pages effortlessly, and love the way it plays flash content in the browser…
I feel like i have bought a new pc, not a phone.. I love it, and i’m so glad i didn’t get an iphone…
This is so easy…
