The next time you find yourself in B.F.E. without internet access here’s what you do. Call up your cell carrier and tell them that you’re interested in the “internet on the phone thingy” for your phone (playing dumb helps). Express that you’re not sure you’ll like it so you’d like to try it for a month free, they’ll oblige. If you have a Bluethooth enabled phone this trick will impress, if you don’t have BT then you’ll need the “usb-to-whatever cell phone you have” cable. The Motorola Razr uses a plain mini-usb cable which is cool. You won’t need any account info or passwords from the representative on the phone. They’ll tell you to download special software to make this happen, you won’t, but just play along.
Next you’ll turn bluetooth on from the menu bar. Then sync your phone with the Mac. I had to change the name of my phone to “XXCHOCOLATE” to get my “Verizon locked down phone” to work. Open “Internet Connect” and select the Bluetooth tab.
Use: #777 as your number to dial
Use: YourCellNumber@vsw3g.com for Account Name.
Use: “vzw” as password
Click Connect. You’ll see the screen of your cellphone show RX and TX activity. Try and set the handset in spot with good reception. I was able to get some pretty good downlaod/upload speeds using speedtest.net
Not bad for being in the middle of nowhere with no cable or dsl to speak of. I can’t say it’s worth the $49.99 a month they wanted, maybe $19.99.
Note: Later I tested the Verizon “VZ Access Manager” and had a good experience with it. Advantage of using Verizons manager is a nifty graph of your current speeds and it will reconnect automatically if the signal is lost.
Malaysian cinemas have found a powerful new weapon in their fight against movie pirates — military-style night-vision goggles.
The ushers are using Night Vision goggles to look in to the audience during the movie. Because the nightvision goggle have an image intensifier the low light conditions would be no problem for an employee with goggles. Though this seems extreme, Malaysia is a hot bed for piracy. Malaysia is often the source of pirated material that circles the globe. I’ll call this countermeasure exsesive if it’s practiced in the U.S., lets hope not.
I’ve had issues with my blue tooth headset. If I turned quickly or tilted my head just right the headset would just slip off, maybe it’s the shape of my ear. Either way it’s an expensive device and I’d like to get more use out of it. So I stripped it down to just the PCB and installed it in a hat I wear often. Check out the Mod !
I really miss this show. After TechTV “merged” with G4TV everything went down hill. Well thanks to people like ZDTVfan and YouTube we can relive those moments. I trust that future Tech shows will model themselves after the successful format that was The Screen Savers.
I’ll keep these episodes up as long as YouTube will allow. This episode kicks off Robot Week on The Screen Savers
University of Michigan students Doug Li, Jeff Loevell, and Mike Zajac created a fascinating “Rubik’s Cube Solver†robot for their final project.
Check out the video
As soon as I can get someone to email me the schematics for this project I’ll be putting it to use. Check out the source site and download the video. http://mrl.nyu.edu/
Beating the U.S. In the race to bring iTunes synchronization to the RAZR line of slim phones, mobile network operator O2 in the UK has now begun carrying the RAZR V3im. A software-upgraded version of the V3i, which itself was originally slated to debut with iTunes compatibility, the V3im now offers functionality previously available only through the bulky-by-comparison ROKR E1, however retains the 100-song limit as imposed by Apple despite being bundled with a 512 MB microSD memory card. The V3im also offers 3G connectivity and a 1.3 Megapixel camera which together enable video calls, as well as Bluetooth connectivity.
I’m currently working on converting my V3c (verizon) into a V3im via software/firmware updates. I’ll keep you all posted.
The folks over at Multi-Touch Interaction Research have made a “Bi-manual, multi-point, and multi-user interactions on a graphical interaction surface.” It is a must see, so I’m mirroring the video here.
This is a great starter Robot.
“Mousebot is a simple bot that uses two “eyes” to sense light and then turns towards the light. A single large “whisker” is mounted on the front of the mouse to detect collisions. A collision with a wall will cause the mouse to reverse and turn then take off in another direction. This project is pretty cheap, if you have a mouse to use the other parts can be obtained for less than ten dollars.”
Once you have your cable and you’ve downloaded the drivers just connect the phone, windows will prompt you for the drivers.
Direct the windows prompt to the correct drivers for your phone. Then you should see a “usb modem” installed.
Next go to your network connections and “add a network connection”. The number to dial is #777 (this connects you to your vision plan which is a data service, so no analog conversion needed). Your user name is your sprint pcs e-mail e.g. jsmith123@sprintpcs.com. Your password is usually the last four of you social or a password you set up for you vision plan.
Once you’ve created the new connection just connect you phone and double click the connection. You should see you phone dial the #777 then switch to a RX/TX screen. Rx= receive Tx= Transmit. That’s it you’re on the net (or at least you should be). Go have fun, do a few speed tests and enjoy the fact that you didn’t have to buy a $299 pcmcia card to accomplish the same task.
or any other sanyo
