I have 28 books on my Kindle Library and I am trying to download them all to my iPhone.

Magazines are not synchrnozied though.

As you can see, the computer actually resumed quite fast from suspension. But it ran into all sorts of problems after resumption. First with the fingerprint sensor and then the Bluetooth radio. I don’t know whether it is a driver issue or simply the fact that those two hardware components had taken their time to wake up. The problem with the mouse is obviously a software issue with IntelliPoint. Since the mouse was already working at the login screen.

Tags: Windows Vista, umpc, Fujitsu, Lifebook, U1010, notebook, origami, mid, umd, Intel, suspend, resume, power save, bluetooth

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I have begun celebrating the coming of this event more than a month ago when I was in Osaka by accessorizing my MacBook with a new wrist rest, a screen protector and a metal cover protector.

The celebration culminated two days ago with my purchase of an AppleCare Protection Plan for my MacBook to extend its warranty for an additional two full years.

The purchase was a no-brainer after Apple had replaced my MacBook’s battery with a new one earlier this week. I am kind of busy now, so I won’t go into the story behind the battery. Suffice to say, my Sony VAIO notebook which is only a few months older than my MacBook (and had cost almost twice that of my MacBook) had suffered a much more serious defect with its battery than that of my MacBook. The Sony VAIO is another long story and the short version is that I was forced to buy a new battery from Sony at half price, the discount was given because my notebook itself was still under warranty but the battery, apparently in the case of Hong Kong, was not guaranteed. I can’t remember clearly the term, which was either no warranty at all or just the first three months. Do yourself a big favour, next time you get a notebook, don’t get a Sony. Its service in Hong Kong is horrible, unfriendly and defensive.

Get a Mac notebook instead. Besides superior design and decent built quality, it offers topnotch service. Even if you are not prepared to dive into Mac OS yet, install Bootcamp and run it as a pure PC notebook. I have done that during my first few weeks with mine. Chances are you will run a lot less into drivers compatibility problems than say a Sony VAIO because Apple makes only a few different models of notebooks and being a real software maker (unlike Sony) they can respond to changes made by Microsoft quickly. And let’s face it, how can they convince anyone to switch from PC and standby the claim that they make the best combination of hardware and operating system, if they can’t prove their machines run Windows better than other hardware makers if not just as good. I have recently removed Bootcamp not only just to save space but because I have migrated most of my daily usage of computers to Mac. I currently have four notebooks and I only carry my MacBook and the newly purchased UMPC out. I use my VAIO and tablet more like desktop computers nowadays and planning to get rid of them soon.

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Video sharing has never been easier.

Tags: .Mac, Apple, iLife, iMovie, Mac, Streaming, Video, Web Gallery, YouTube

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Meanwhile, Dell said it would provide x50V owners with an upgrade to WM5 when it became available. Knowing my XDA Mini from O2 was not going to get an upgrade, I ordered myself the x50v. I made sure a Dell saleswoman in Hong Kong confirmed with me in a July 15 e-mail that I was indeed entitled to the free upgrade before I confirmed the order.

Dell announced in October the new x51v PDA, which is basically an x50v with WM5 pre-installed. I asked the same saleswoman about the promised upgrade. She replied on October 4 to say Microsoft was holding it up. I could wait no longer, and ordered myself an x51v.

Things started to go downhill from there.

First, I discovered the Chinese language add-on software bundled with x51v was not fully compatible with WM5. (All Dell PDAs sold in Hong Kong are native English and require add-on software to read Chinese.)

I tried to visit the website of the company that makes the add-on to see if there was any update, only to discover that its domain name was up for sale.

Next, I called Dell’s technical support on November 1. They confirmed they were aware of the incompatibility, but only after the products had been shipped. Dell has since removed the bundling. Technical support said an update was being developed and would be shipped to owners, hopefully in another two weeks.

I then called the saleswoman again to check the status of my x50v upgrade. She surprised me by saying the upgrade was no longer free and would be available for purchase in a few weeks’ time. I complained, reminding her of the free offer, and she simply said she did not know the upgrade was not free at the time.

Dell: congratulations on beating your competitors to be first in Hong Kong to offer a WM5 PDA. I do not fault you for not making extra efforts to localise your PDAs, as HP and O2 do. Bilingual users like myself have a choice between English and Chinese.

But please find a vendor that is reliable. Please do not release a product that has not been thoroughly tested. And please do not put so much pressure on your sales staff so they make promises they cannot keep.

(This letter appeared today on the Technology section of South China Morning Post)

The song I bought was encoded in WMA using a sampling bit rate of 256 kilobits per second (kbps). I don’t have discerning ears, so sound quality is not a great concern. I bought the song because it was a ‘pre-release’ and it wasn’t available as part of a CD album. A few days later, I bought another version of the same song from Eolasia.com.

When I read about Soundbuzz.com (Technology Post, August 9), I checked it out that morning and found that the two songs I had bought at Eolasia.com were available for $8 each, almost 24 per cent cheaper. While Eolasia.com listed those songs at $10.50 each that morning, it had cut the price to $9.50 each in the afternoon. Soundbuzz.com was still about 16 per cent cheaper.

I therefore signed up with Soundbuzz.com for a free account and purchased three songs right away. After downloading them, I soon found out that I didn’t overpay Eolasia.com after all. While Eolasia.com clearly and prominently lists the digital rights and sampling rate used to encode each song, Soundbuzz.com does not.

I could not find such information during the entire ordering process. It turned out the songs I bought were encoded with a sampling rate of 128kbps. They are available at Eolasia.com at 256kbps. I suspect most of Soundbuzz.com’s catalogue, if not all, is encoded at a 128kbps bit rate. But I can’t say for sure unless I purchase and download more songs.

Mathematically, music at Soundbuzz.com is 50 per cent more compressed than songs at Eolasia.com. So unless they are 50 per cent cheaper, I will stick with Eolasia.com in future. I can also take advantage of the points that I earn from purchases made to redeem even more songs. Digital or analogue, consumers like perks in the absence of a bargain.

The list of what BWA promises to deliver seems to grow daily, and it may eventually transcend all means of digital content delivery. Time will tell if BWA technology can live up to the hype. Meanwhile, I am a flesh-and-blood example of his claim that “no single technology can meet all user needs”.

In response to recent promotions from Hutchison Telecommunications, I have upgraded my LG 8120 not-so-smart 3G phone to the Motorola A1000 Symbian-based 3G smartphone.

As a result, my quest for “internet any time, anywhere” that began in 1996 with a subscription to the Max Messenger wireless internet service offered by AirCommunications (a company affiliated with Motorola) is now being served by four smartphones running on four different operating systems: a PDA phone and a candy-bar phone powered by two variants of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile initiatives, the Symbian-based A1000 and a BlackBerry handheld.

Since I am a gadget junkie, I carry an excess of smartphones. But if four devices served the same need, that would mean three fewer gadgets to carry in my rucksack. It certainly goes beyond the issue of technology alone that I have ended up with four devices that are all capable of accessing the internet any time, anywhere.

Now that Symbian has finally licensed Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync, and Taiwan’s High Tech Computer has a 3G PDA phone in the pipeline that is BlackBerry connect-enabled, my prospects for minimising the weight I lug around never looked so good.

Finally, on the issue of whether BWA licence holders should be charged the same rate as their 3G counterparts, Mr Au states: “There has been no suggestion of unfair competition in the property market as a result of land being acquired by developers at different prices at different times.”

I suspect the risks and other factors associated with bidding for spectrum to operate a new telecommunications service are far more complicated than those that come into play when you are bidding for land.