Progress

Today marks progress in a number of ways. The first is finally completing my review yesterday of the Nokia N800, which I used for a two week trial. The review took a lot longer to write than I thought it would – I’ve not gone into as much detail as I wanted, as it would have taken me ’til Easter or longer to complete it

Next on the list is the progress with my BT problems. I received my refund cheque through the post yesterday morning (three days early, which makes a nice change). It took a lot of pointless and cut-off phone calls to get there, but I finally have my money back. I’ve probably said this before, but now both my direct debits to BT are cancelled and my money will stay with me, until I decide to pay my bills. Fair enough If they were going to tell me in advance that they were going to unnecessarily and incorrectly increase the direct debit from £30 to £178.50, but they didn’t. BT and direct debits – don’t do it. It may save you a couple a quid a month, but it’ll save you the hassle of them making you go overdrawn >: ( If you want to moan at BT accounts yourself, the number is 08000223089 for GB accounts. Others are via 0800800150.

Today is my third day without my XBox – decided to give it up for lent, because I had no idea what else I could. So far it has been easy and I don’t expect it to get that much harder, but it will probably get annoying by next month, especially if an awesome new game comes out that I can’t play

My job at Phones 4U, or chances of having it back are slightly hindered. Apparently all xmas temps have their details and such deleted from the system, and my name is alphabetically high on the list, so it was one of the first. I’ve re-applied online, but the jobs listed are all full-time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to explain my position to the human resources people and get my job back.

I’ve got one minor step further in my 3rd year placement application. I received an e-mail from StepStone to tell me that my application has progressed and that they will be presenting my application to Microsoft in the coming week. There are still no guarantees of a placement, but it’s been good to get this far. Hopefully they’ll be happy with my application, see what they’re looking for and advance me through to the final assessment stage.

[Review] Nokia N800 Internet Tablet

Contents

• Intro
• Aesthetics and Build Quality
• Setting Up
• Functionality Overview
• User Profile
• Conclusion
• Rating

Note: Hovering over abbreviations will give a small descriptive pop-up, showing what they stand for.

Intro
After having the pleasure of a two week trial with the Nokia N800, I am, overall, pleased with what the device can offer. There are some things here and there that could be improved, but out of the box, it’s a nifty little device. The first question that immediately sprung to mind when I first looked at it was, “Now where does the SIM card go?”

After that, a sudden realisation led me to understand that it obviously wasn’t a phone… duh. To be honest, it came as quite a surprise as, up until now, the only N-Series devices I had seen were mobile phones and I did not realise that Nokia had expanded their N-Series product range with these devices.

I then thought about what the device really was – an Internet Tablet. Now, although this device may specifically be designed for this function, the device does have a dark side to it.

January Sure Has Flown By

The past month has been a good one. New Year’s Eve was a lot of fun, and the following week gave me a good chance to relax. The Wednesday after the New Year, gave me and many of my good friends from Sixth Form a chance to catch up, while scoring kills on each other in bouts of Halo 3. That was a lot of fun

I was back to work at Phones 4U at the end of the week, finishing the last few days of my Christmas contract, which ended on the 13th. Last day went pretty poorly to be honest – apparently, sales don’t really pick up until March for PAYG phones. I did get a good seeing off though, so the day ended well. Still waiting to hear if I be re-contracted, but even if I don’t, it was a good experience. Although it does mean finding something new.

Went to see my parents and sister the week before my birthday, to see them for that and finally deliver my Dad’s Christmas present. He was throroughly pleased with his brand spanking new Xbox 360 and it happily complemented his new HDTV and surround sound system. Xbox 360 + full HD = mindblow So when I visit now, I’ll be sure to take home a few games to see them in all their glory!

I bought myself a nice new 24″ monitor for my birthday, a long wanted update to my humble 19″ of the past. The monitor is Samsung SM(Syncmaster)245b and is a real plus, in a number of ways. The first is the extra space on the screen to do things. I can be typing something out, while reading from a website, both on the same screen. The next is the colour on my screen is now properly calibrated, so their aren’t any washed out colours and everything is bright and beautiful Finally, is the increased resolution (max 1900×1200) and of course, the ability (in conjunction with my uber 8800gt graphics card) to play pc games in “HD” quality and at decent framerates. I can still manage to play Crysis on high (no AA) with a playable framerate. I should really write a review for this too… maybe some other time.