- Mbook &Wi Fi Secure Sites

- Psion Screen Flex

- Asus Eee

- HTC Universal un-re-settable

- OQO e2 - alleged to be a 1-pound wonder

- Happy New Year

Date: 31 Dec 2007 21:04:13 +0000
From: Melvin Woody <address truncated>
Subject: Mbook &Wi Fi Secure Sites

After assorted false starts, Opera on my Mbook now works  anywhere in my house (covered by  a 2wire router) and in assorted open sites. Because the country house is remote, I could readily remove the security protection.  But the wi-fi at our other house in town is a secured site to which I have access with my Dell lap top because I've entered a security number from the bottom of the router in the setup for the
Dell.  But I don't know where to enter that on the Mbook.  Can anyone instruct me about how to do that?  It would be a great convenience to avoid taking my heavy laptop into town every time I go there.

Melvin Woody

Date: 31 Dec 2007 21:30:26 +0000
From: John Spillett <address truncated>
Subject: Psion Screen Flex

Regretably my 5MX Pro screen flex failed suddenly on New Yeas eve. As I only paid £40 for it , it is off to Psionflexi to see if it can be given a second life. In the meantime the old 5 will come out of retirement.

Happy New Year to all.

Date: 1 Jan 2008 12:03:15 +0000
From: Dick Chatjaval <address truncated>
Subject: Asus Eee

Hi all,
While on holiday in Thailand, decided to buy the 4gb 512mb ram black Eee and upgraded to 1 gb ram.

Here are some first impressions: (All programs are built in, no new software added yet).

Battery life:
Played music and worked on excel files with wifi off-battery life 4 hrs
Surfing internet with wifi (no music)- battery lasted about 3 hrs

Programs under 'Work' tab:
Open office 2.0-Excel, word files transferred and saved to ms office format (default) with no problems. Tranferred either by SD card, usb stick or emailed to myself. SD card and usb thumbdrive (4gb) instantly recognized.
Did not try Presentations program yet for powerpoint files.
PDF Reader-
very good for reading pdf files received by email.
Dictionary-
english to english, and english to chinese. Still getting used to it. Nice to have.
File manager-
works like on windows. Very good, opened most excel and word files from here.
PIM-
was hidden in the Accessories group, together with Calculator. Haven't tried it yet and probably will not use since I prefer the pim  on my mobile phone.
Calculator-
KCalc seems quite useful, has sq root, x squared functions etc.
Mail-
Thunderbird mail program, very intuitive to use. Only tried out basic functions.

Internet
Wifi connection setup was easy, showed all active wifi hotspots. Was in Macdonalds at the time and connected to the free access point. There is a slot for LAN cable.
Firefox browser-
worked well with no problems to sites like BBC News and Engadget.
Messenger-
(msn and yahoo) worked very well with Pidgin messenger program.

Multimedia
Music player through speakers sounded ok- external speakrs on both sides of screen. Headphones sounded quite good. Mp3 songs were stored on the SD card to save disk space.
Webcam- fun and easy to use. Not great quality but good enough for casual use.
Played back on Video manager.

Games included are Sudoku, Solitaire, Ltris, Frozen Bubble, Crack Attack, Penguin Racer and Potato Guy. 

Boot up when power off takes approx 25 seconds. Shutting down was 3 seconds.
From standby mode it took 6 seconds to boot up and to power down to stand by mode was 3 seconds. I think standby mode will drain the battery.

Overall impression is favourable. Size is like S7. Negatives in comparison are poorer battery life (will buy additional one), no instant on, no Data program preinstalled, PIM not as good.
Positives are seamless internet connection, good document and sheet program, good multimedia programs, 3 usb input slots, thumbdrives work well, good firefox browser. Free Linux programs.

Hope this helps potential buyers. Sorry the post is quite long for those not interested in this laptop.

Best,
Dick

Date: 1 Jan 2008 16:01:45 +0000
From: Charles Barraball <address truncated>
Subject: HTC Universal un-re-settable

I had just done a back-up to a SD card;

I filed the back-up in New Folder, which I was not allowed to re-name...

Then the screen froze, a rare occurrence, and would not recover from soft re-sets, or hard.

Drat!

Who should repair this? HTC or a mobile phone repair shop? It is out of warranty.

Any recommendations in SW London?

If replacement ...

the big key pad and screen are essential (arthritic fingers and failing eye sight)

as is a back-up - able diary.

What would you reccommend, please?

Thanks
--
Charles

Date: 2 Jan 2008 11:01:43 +0000
From: Chris Cooper
Subject: OQO e2 - alleged to be a 1-pound wonder

Another possible Psion successor? Intermediate between the 5mx and the netBook in size [5.6" (L) x 3.3" (W) x 1" (D) (142mm x 84mm x 26mm) - 
weight: 1 lb (454g) with standard battery]

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/oqo-hsdpa,review-1040.html

Date: 3 Jan 2008 03:39:58 +0000
From: Dick Chatjaval <address truncated>
Subject: Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all digestees!

(Sorry, I forgot to say this in my last post about Asus Eee.)

Best regards,
Dick