I’ve been trying to come up with a clever title for this post for over half an hour. There has to be some brilliant pun with words like “desire” and “erect”. It just seems to elude me. Oh well. What really matters is that this little piece of plastic makes sure my Desire is always ready to go.

Modern smartphones run out of steam so quickly you need a quick way to charge them. This particular desktop charging cradle was sent to me by Mobilefun.co.uk, and it offers great value for money. The base has rubber feet that give it plenty of grip, and on the back there are two micro-USB connectors. One is used for power only, whereas the other offers full data sync capabilities. A data cable and a small power brick are supplied with the cradle.
More HTC Desire desktop cradle needs better headline

I’ve been using computers daily since I was twelve, and I’ve never had any trouble with RSI or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. When I look back at how I sat hunched over my Amiga 500 while playing games, that in itself is a small miracle. Nowadays, I pay close attention to my posture, and I can work long days without even the slightest hint of pain. Until I pick up one of my mobile devices that is.
More Anyone else getting RSI from their phone?

Google recently switched on full navigation for Android devices here in the Netherlands. Suddenly, my HTC desire doubled as a PND (Personal Navigation Device). The maps on my TomTom were starting to get old, and updating them costs about as much as a new unit, so Google’s timing was perfect. All I needed was a holder to affix my phone to my car’s windscreen. Luckily, MobileFun offered to send me a review unit of their “HTC Desire car kit“.
More HTC Desire car pack review

I’ve been promising a new version of WP-Cumulus for a long time. I’ve tried working with more experienced PHP developers, but it’s been hard to find a really good one who’s able to devote time to the project. I still think a plugin like this should be a team effort, but for now I’m going to kick things back into motion again myself.

What’s ready at this point is a much cleaner rewrite of the plugin files, with the display logic in a neat little class that port authors will hopefully be able to reuse. I’ve also got a Flash movie that uses a user-defined system font, as a result is much smaller, and supports unicode tags.
More WP-Cumulus 2.0 is finally in development (again)

I can’t help but wonder how they can possibly make this for 60 euros? The Lenco TFT-725 combines a DVB-T receiver with one of those 7″ screen typically found in portable DVD players. Throw in a card reader, MPEG 1/2/4 playback, a USB port and you’ve got a pretty amazing deal. And, as I tested yesterday, it all actually works as advertised.
More Lenco TFT-725 does DVB-T on the cheap

I’ve blogged in the past about how hard it is to find decent hosting. Many of the companies that friends have recommended have failed miserably for me, and to make things worse, 99% of web hosting review websites can’t be trusted. HostMonk seemed like a good initiative when it was launched, but it still doesn’t have a quality metric. In comes whoishostingthis.com’s hosting review feature.
More Another legit hosting comparison website

A little while ago, Nickelodeon started airing a new kids TV show called “Team Umizoomi“. It features a team that consists of two humans and a robot… which looks a lot like the green little mechanical man that Google uses as part of the logo for their Android mobile operating system.

On the show, Team Umizoomi solves problems using each member’s unique skills. Milli is great at pattern recognition, Geo has a thing for shapes, while Bot excels at math and has a large display. I see some parallels with the Android OS here too. Things QR codes and Google Goggles are all about shapes and patterns, and modern Android phones have speedy processors and large screens.

But then again, I may be reading way too much into this…

I’m not a big fan of the DVD format anymore. I used to love how they could fit an entire movie onto a tiny disc, and marvel at the image quality. But then they put FBI warnings, trailers, animated menus and all other side of crap onto them, and more and more of my discs got scratched. Time to rip all of them and store the movies on a media server. I’ve been experimenting with different software solutions to do this, and today I tried WinX DVD Ripper Platinum. “WinX” is commercial software, priced at $29.95, but you may be able to get a hold of ot for free if you read on.
More WinX DVD Ripper Platinum quick review and giveaway

I’ve been following the development of Google’s Chrome OS for a while now, and have played around with some of the early builds that have been floating around online. It’s well on its way to becoming a stable and usable operating system, but I’ve been getting the feeling recently that it may have been been surpassed by that other Google OS, Android. Especially since Android comes with a very good browser.
More Does Chrome OS still make sense?

Google’s Adroid mobile operating system is in a bit of a tough spot here in The Netherlands. The first phones running it were released exclusively on T-Mobile, who at the same time were offering the iPhone. Besides the fact that the G1 (HTC Dream) and G2 (HTC Magic) weren’t very appealing by comparison, T-Mobile seemed to not market them much. And then there’s the fact that Nokia had a firm grip on the smartphone market in Europe. I too have been using an E71. But not anymore. My HTC Desire arrived last friday, and I’ve spent some time with Android. What I was wondering most was how it would compare to the iPhone OS.
More Comparing apples and robots