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I complained earlier about the horrible customer support from PalmOne. Well, I finally received a reminder e-mail 2 weeks after I submitted my repair request. It complained that I hadn’t yet sent in my Treo, but didn’t mention having any previous problems with their e-mail servers sending initial shipping instructions. Anyway, I sent in my Treo via next-day FedEx air. They promise a 5-7 day turn-around on repairs, so I log-on to their website to check status on the 7th day. Estimated completion date: 12-July-2005. You’ve got to be kidding me — another 2 weeks! $190 and they don’t send me mailing instructions and thenRead More →

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The repair of the cracked screen on my Treo 650 is not going well. I paid PalmOne $190 to send in my phone and have it repaired. I was supposed to receive and e-mail from them with shipping instructions, but it never came (and no, it was not a problem with the spam blocking software on my mail server — I checked). I check the status of the repair and it says “e-mail sent”. There is no way to have it re-sent, there is no contact information, e-mail address, phone number, or anything. So I’ve basically paid $190 for a repair order number with noRead More →

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As I mentioned previously in my blog, I purchased two network home music players: a Roku SoundBridge M2000 and a Sonos Digital Music System Bundle. I used both for a couple of weeks with the objective being a winner-take-all comparison where one is kept and the other is returned. A brief summary of the detailed results is posted below: Setup: Sonos wins by a moderate margin; neither was excessively difficult but the Sonos was less confusing. Music Format Support: Roku wins by a small margin because of WMA DRM support. Search: Roku wins by a large margin. The Roku is that it gives detailed songRead More →

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Most people seem to forget that there is a free option to the Verizon high-speed data plan that uses your minutes but otherwise is free. It’s called QNC and it operates at 14.4 kbps speeds, which is fine for infrequent use. Here are the details for enabling this feature, based on info from this thread on TreoCentral Forums: From the Palm main screen, select Preferences and then select Network Hit the menu drop-down key, select New Enter the following settings: Service: QNC Connection: Virtual Modem User Name: qnc Password: qnc Phone: #777 Details… –> Advanced… –> Modify –> Script… Send: at$qcmdr=2 Send CR: Send at$qcqnc=1Read More →

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I’m in the midst of figuring out how to get music from my computer to my house and my car. There are so many formats, codecs, and DRM systems that it has been difficult for me to pick the best format. I started with 128kbps fixed bit rate mp3, then went to ~220kbps Variable Bit Rate mp3, and then tried DRM-protected WMA files downloaded from MusicMatch, and finally WMA Lossless. Of these, the VBR mp3 seems to be the most universal and offers great sound, though it is a lossy format. Looking at the devices I will probably be using, FLAC (free lossless audio codec)Read More →

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I’ve been using MusicMatch Jukebox as my main media player for at least 5 years now and I purchased a lifetime upgrade long ago. Today, I’ve decided to abandon it for several reasons. First of all, I found a bug that can delete music files when using the supertagging feature. I lost half of two different albums and music management software should never do that. Secondly, I’ve purchased about 100 DRM-protected songs from them. Many of these song are mis-tagged and there is no way for me to edit the tags. For example, some are “Norah Jones” and some are “Jones, Norah” and want themRead More →

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In: Home Theater
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Let the music player testing begin. I’ve decided it’s time to get the music off of my PC and into the rest of the house where it can be enjoyed. I’m having a tough time deciding which player to buy; I’d narrowed it down to the Roku SoundBridge M2000 and the Sonos ZonePlayer but couldn’t decide based on features alone, so I ordered both. The winner will stay and the looser will be returned. I also considered the SlimDevices SqueezeBox2 but it is basically the same as the Roku without any support for WMA DRM-protected files that I purchased, so I marked it off myRead More →

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I had always hated carrying my Treo 650 in my shirt pocket. It falls out much too easily any time I would bend over for anything. This time, I just happened to be leaning over a piece of cast iron. I just ordered a belt holster despite my wife basically forbidding me to do so because it “looks terrible on your belt”. Maybe it does, but it doesn’t look as terrible as a screen that is cracked into 5 pieces with a space bar that doesn’t function. I have no option other than returning it to PalmOne and having it repaired for a fee ofRead More →

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I’ve been buying music online from Musicmatch for the past year and a half. I like the fact that they have fairly high bit rates (168K) and that Musicmatch Jukebox is so easy to use. Now that However, now that I’ve started listening to music on multiple PC around the house, I’ve become very frustrated with the DRM and the fact that I requires that I jump through so many hoops. I have to play every single song in Musicmatch Jukebox on every PC so it can first download the decryption keys. As I download more music, I have to repeat the process. It’s myRead More →

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It figures, just a couple of weeks after I convert a Sprint Treo 650 to Verizon, Verizon announces that they are going to carry it. Oh well, at least I’ve been able to get a few extra (early) months of enjoyment. I’ve tried to get by with not using a case or belt clip because my wife thinks phones look terrible when worn on your belt. However, it’s now fallen out of my pocket about six times and three of those were on tile or concrete, so I order a belt case from TreoCentral.com. I also ordered the Treo Wireless Bluetooth headset and the PalmOneRead More →