2013 — 24 July: Wednesday
Having spent some time1 this morning getting over the shock of a pitiful attempt to rain, I've been spending / wasting considerably more trying to transfer my little gallery of DVD cover artwork over to my new toy so I can browse it more easily on the hoof. Or in a DVD emporium.
My initial attempt...
... naturally (I would have thought?) involved cunning use of the USB cable that came with the phone. Shock. Horror. The connection came, and went, and came back, and went again (ad nauseam) until Win8Pro decided enough was enough and admitted the device or the connection or the phase of the moon (or whatever) had failed.
My next happy thought2 was to browse "The best apps" section of my new HTC Book, volume 1 for advice and, from there, visit the App Store to grab me a copy of "AirDroid". After some registrational faffing around, I now have a browser interface on my BlackBeast wirelessly to the little Beast. And some, at least, of my artwork is now already (finally!) settling down in its new home from which — courtesy of the terribly nice "QuickPic" App that I already know from my Tablet PC — I can browse it in its full hi-def glory on the amazingly crisp HTC screen. At a ridiculous 416 pixels per inch I imagine my retina is the limiting factor — well that, and any transient inability to don the 'correct' set of glasses.
Of course, this being...
... basically a Linux computer and a Windows computer trying to chat politely, the file transfer process wasn't entirely free of fraught. My first mistake was trying to use my preferred Firefox browser. "Can't transfer files unless you use Chrome" was the gist of the reply. I suppose I should have seen that one coming. When I eventually broke through the pain barrier, I found myself facing a browser interface remarkably similar to the one provided by the Synology NAS. In other words, a customised Linux desktop presented inside a Win8 web browser. Neat.
Providing I remember to click "Upload" each time before dragging and dropping an image subfolder from BlackBeast, all is well. Each time I forget, I get a directory listing uploaded instead. It's transferring the images (they hover around the 350KB to 400KB mark) at about one per second, and I have to tackle one subdirectory at a time (thank you, Win Explorer) so I've plenty of time for tea and breakfast.
I've already taught myself not to panic when I see "Move" when I want "Copy" (thank you, Win Explorer) as "Copy" is what I'm getting.
Done!
Next task: slap together a bite of packed lunch and set off for pastures new. [Pause] I have a sneaky suspicion it's going to be a warm walk today. And humid.
7.5 miles or so...
... but how come it all seemed to be up hill? Still, the pint of cold water before I left Mike and the quick shower back at Technology Towers has worked wonders.
However field-testing the new smartphone revealed a devastating flaw. The display screen is very nearly totally unreadable in bright sunlight. I don't recall seeing any mention of that in any of the reviews.With greater leisure, and a fresh cuppa, I can now confirm what I have long suspected: one of the front panel USB ports on BlackBeast is distinctly "iffy". Using another one brings me immediate, trouble-free, access to the internal storage of the HTC One, which is a relief. I suspect data transfers will be somewhat faster than with the AirDroid wireless setup. Of course, I'd already used that to transfer all the data I currently intend to before I'd even left the house this morning. Typical.
[Longish pause]
It still boggles my little mind to see just how much computing power has been squeezed into this tiny device. It has a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. And is noticeably more responsive than the Asus Tablet PC in manipulating the same set of data. Of course, by the end of my first 24-month contract I have little doubt — unless humans have managed to blow the planet to pieces — there will be better, faster, smaller, more capable devices. Just amazing.
I still have no idea why it beeped at me, though, a few minutes ago. No email or text message in sight at the time. And, unless I call myself from the landline phone, I don't even know what the ringtone sounds like :-)
I think I'll put the Amazon Kindle App on it next and give some of my ebooks a whirl.
I drew...
... this colourful Triffid to Mike's attention earlier today:
Meanwhile, having uninstalled Network Magic, I no longer have the means of generating a pretty network map, so I've been casting around for some freebie PC-related clip art. There's lots of it around, but you seem to get what you pay for. I'm debating whether to bother adding the smartphone to my existing diagram. After all, it's by no means the least capable bit of kit. Kindle works like a dream on it, by the way, though the battery life is interestingly different from its Android Tablet PC cousin.