Tech and life

If you spend a lot of time on the move and need to charge your mobile devices, have a look at the Powermonkey-classic charger from power traveller. I’ve just bought one on Amazon (£16 in the UK; about 25 US dollars) as my daughter is about to head out to Africa with a group to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and will be away from conventional charging facilities for at least 5 or 6 days. She needed a portable charging unit capable of charging her mobile phone and mp3 player.

Charging the Powermonkey

Charging the Powermonkey is very straightforward – it comes with a universal mains charger (which works in over 150 countries) with a selection of interchangeable plugs. You can also charge the Powermonkey from a USB port on a PC using a separate retractable USB cable. A red light glows when charging, green when charged.

Charging your devices

The Powermonkey is supplied with a selection of charging tips for various devices but if you can’t find one to suit your device, you can always use your usual charging cable (USB port to device) because crucially there’s a female USB tip for the charger (shown attached in the image above) – so it’s just like charging your device from your PC. Or additional tips for specific devices are available on the power traveller website.

Haven’t tried it out fully yet but the specs say it holds its charge for up to one year and delivers power for 40 hours iPod use, or 96 hours mobile phone use. I read a review on Amazon which said it would charge an iPod twice before it needed charging. Anyway, I’ll update this post when I’ve confirmed how often it can charge up our devices before needing recharging.

By the way, I don’t do paid product reviews, and I’m not being paid for this post. Just blogging about solutions which work for me.

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With the ever-expanding smartphone market these days, it’s important that your blog is mobile ready, meaning for example, that it can be rendered nice and clearly without having to scroll around too much on your phone. If you have a WordPress blog, there are a number of plugins which will remove the sidebars for example and convert the blog to a nice clean format for viewing on a cellphone. But which WordPress plugin to choose? Here’s a quick run through of how I narrowed the field down.

I went through my Diigo bookmarks and found I had bookmarked blogs discussing quite a few plugins: WordPress Mobile Pack, WPTouch, MobilePress, Wordpress Mobile Edition, and Wapple Architect Mobile to name just a few. But what I really wanted to get hold of was a comparison to see what people thought was the best mobile plugin.

Comparisons of WordPress mobile plugins

I found it hard to track down any blog which had reviewed and compared mobile plugins. In fact, if anyone’s interested and has access to a range of cellphones, there’s an opportunity for a really useful blog post here. WPFeed compared a number of plugins and chose Wordpress Mobile Plugin (but when you click the link now you’re directed to WordPress Mobile Pack), and the only other site I came across was Alpha2beta which I had Google translate from Chinese. They also compared a few and chose WordPress Mobile Pack.

I know that WPTouch is being quite well received, particularly for iPhone and Android platforms. Technically Personal uses the WPTouch plugin. In a reply to me in the comments there, Raju said he had tried quite a few plugins and found problems with them all. Wapple was a disaster he said.

Narrowing the choice down

On Mahalo Answers, I asked ‘What’s the best Wordpress plugin to make my blog mobile friendly?’ I received three answers recommending WPTouch, Wapple Architect and WordPress Mobile Pack. I was getting the feeling now that it was between these three. I liked the Wapple recommendation:

Finally, I tried a search on Twitter for wordpress AND mobile. Jumped into an interesting lead:

@dannybrown Did you test other WP mobile plugins before you settled on Wapple Architect? I’m finding it hard to pick one for my blog

@techandlife I did. Tried WordPress Mobile, WP Touch (good for iPhone, not so great others). Wapple best one I found

@techandlife And Rich Gubby of Wapple is just awesome http://bit.ly/7z2qwx

I checked back on my own bookmarks and Wapple Architect sounded really promising even though it doesn’t work for some. So I thought I’d try it first.

Installing Wapple Architect

Wasn’t just a case of downloading and installing the Wapple plugin. Had to register to receive the Developer Key, click a link in an email to complete registration, then received a Developer Key which was required to set up the plugin. Didn’t take too long though. During set up, you can upload an image to use for your mobile header and which would be automatically resized. Didn’t work for me on this occasion but I’ll try that again later. Incidentally, 2 days after registering, I received an email from Rich Gubby the Lead Developer at Wapple offering to help with the mobile styling – that’s a nice touch.

Testing Wapple Architect

I found a testing tool online to check mobile-readiness at mobiReady. My blog checked out okay.

At mobiReady, you can also check how your blog renders on a Nokia N70, Samsung Z105, Sony Ericsson k750i, Motorola v3i and Sharp GX-10.

I don’t have a smartphone but I fired up the browser on my LG Cookie and had a look at my blog:

Finally, at the top of the sidebar on the desktop version of this blog, I’ve also tried to indicate that it’s now mobile ready.

I’d love to hear how this blog renders on your mobile. Any annoyances you’ve noticed or any improvements you think I can make? If you do comment, let us know what mobile you’re using.

There are times when you might want to set up reminders on your phone from your PC rather than from the phone itself. You might not have your phone handy, flat battery,  left it at home or work, etc. A number of web applications allow you to send free SMS reminders to your cell phone; some require registration and some don’t:

Remindr – No sign up required. A really simple interface which also offers reminders through twitter, jabber and email; currently, SMS reminders are disabled. If these come back, I’ll update this post. However, before SMS reminders were disabled, I wasn’t able to receive any in the UK; but perhaps it worked fine in other countries.

Task.fm – You have to register for this one. Also offers reminders through twitter and email. Task.fm uses natural language and can understand many different time and date formats.

and here’s the reminder settings dialogue box:

SpringPad – Have to sign up for this. You can add your local time zone in the Settings panel but I could not add my mobile phone profile as a new channel. I didn’t find the process intuitive enough, or perhaps SpringPad can’t deal with overseas telephone codes:

Remember the Milk – Register and set up your local time zone under Settings (General tab). Set up your cell phone under Settings (Reminders tab):

My UK provider O2 was listed but, as with SpringPad, I failed to get a reminder sent to the phone even though I seemed to follow the correct procedure.

Google Calendar – You’ll have to register if you don’t already have a Google account. You can tell Google Calendar how far in advance of your event that you want the SMS reminder. Look for the “Reminder” option on the right side of the Create Event form under the “Options” section. It’s just a simple select box. To set up where you want to receive reminders, you need to go to Settings and then click the Mobile Setup tab. Enter your phone details and you will be sent a verification code to your phone. Enter the code you are sent in the last box on that page and you are good to go.

Which free SMS reminder services work in the UK?

Of the five choices I could find to send free SMS reminders to my mobile phone, I found that only two would work to a mobile service in the UK – Task.fm and Google Calendar. Google Calendar allows reminders in advance of your event and also requires verification of your phone details. A nice idea as it prevents any possible abuse whereby someone might easily send unwanted ‘reminders’ to someone else’s phone. The other 4 services that I listed don’t require any verification that you are in fact the owner of the phone receiving the reminders. However, having said that, I really liked Task.fm. Again, this service allows reminders to be sent in advance of the event. I found it really quick to set up a reminder – even quicker than on the phone. The free account comes with unlimited email reminders and up to 15 SMS reminders per month, while the pro account at $3.99/month allows unlimited email and SMS reminders.

Have I missed any free reminder services here? Which service do you find works best in your country?

The iPhone is the phone everyone wants these days. 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, loads of apps to choose from and install, and lots of street-cred. But for some, perhaps this or any smartphone with a monthly data plan is just too much for our budget, or for our needs. A cheaper prepaid or ‘pay as you go’ phone might be sufficient for you as it is for me.

A month ago, I decided it was time to move on from my ancient Samsung clam phone and try and move with the times. I did have a shopping list of things I was looking for in a new phone. First, with advancing age and deteriorating eyesight, a good-sized screen was a must. Second, I never was a great fan of texting on a standard phone keypad so I really wanted the option of a QUERTY keyboard. Finally, I wouldn’t consider myself a power user, at least not yet, so a ‘pay as you go’ or prepaid phone rather than a contract would be ideal.

It didn’t take long to decide on the LG KP500 Cookie, a full touchscreen phone for those on a budget. I can read the 1.75 x 2.75-inch screen (240 x 400 pixels) without putting on reading glasses, the touchscreen has the option to bring up a QUERTY keyboard and it’s available on a Pay and Go contract in the UK. I went for the O2 Pay and Go plan. I’ve also bought an 8GB SanDisk microSD card to store pictures, videos, and MP3s and have added a black silicone cover and protective screen.

After a month or so with it, I have to say I’m really pleased with the phone. There are lots of features I like – quick access to speed dial numbers by swiping your finger across the display to turn the page; yellow note reminders which you can leave on the nice bright screen, along with a good sized clock and calendar. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera and can record video in QVGA at 12fps. It has a media player that plays most popular digital music formats – WMA, MP3 and AAC audio and 3GP and MP4 formats for video. It also has a stereo FM radio. The built-in accelerometer brings the QUERTY keyboard into view in landscape mode. You can also play slideshows from your photo gallery on the screen. When viewing your photos individually, you can swipe your finger across the image to bring up the next or previous image. The phone comes with a range of Office document viewers – you can open and read XLS, DOC and PDF files in this mobile. The menus are quite intuitive and I pretty much know my way around already. Utilities also include a calculator, unit converter and, of course, reminders and alarms.

I’ve loaded up a number of tech podcasts onto the microSD card and I can listen to them through the speaker or the headphones. I’ve already blogged about trying to get at least half an hour of brisk walking each day and I can listen to podcasts through the headphones while I walk and am alerted of any text or calls that come through. Connectivity includes Bluetooth and USB to upload and download files to my PC.

On the downside, I would have preferred a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack rather than the proprietary LG jack and the camera isn’t brilliant at 3.2 megapixels and has no flash.

One other thing to watch when using the QUERTY pad in reply to a message is that if you stray slightly away from the letters X and Z you may hit ‘Send’ by mistake and you’ll instantly send an unfinished message – as I’ve done a couple of times. The LG PC Suite for uploading and downloading files between phone and PC is a little cluncky and it takes a little longer to upload podcasts for listening than I expected. And of course there is no 3G or wireless, just the EDGE, GPRS and GSM networks, so web browsing is not a realistic option. Basically, if you need internet on the move, this phone isn’t for you.

Still all in all, a great little phone for keeping in touch – a nice bright touchscreen that’s easy to read, yet the phone is just the right size and at a good price. It’s about 20% smaller than the iPhone 3G and weighs just 89g. And on a Pay and Go plan. Well worth considering if a smartphone with web browsing isn’t what you need.