Tag Archives: 3

Computers/Technology, Movies & TV, Symbian, Web/Internet

X-Series Up and Running

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So after a pretty long wait, earlier this week our new phones were finally enabled by 3. It took their IT department several attempts to get it all working – including one slightly bizarre call where I was speaking to Simon on one mobile, whilst testing the other, and he was on the other end talking to one of the IT staff on another phone. Ultimately, they just came on. I had a MSN messenger message from Simon saying that the IT department had tried something else, but they thought it was unlikely to work – but it did.

Over the past few days I have been installing software onto the phone, and trying out various of the features of both the Nokia N73 and the service, including installing Opera Mini and Google Maps Mobile – both of which run well and look great on the phone. Also, in a move that probably will please Andy Tiller who spent a good deal of time trying to help me last year, I have got Shozu installed onto the new phone. Unlike with the K750 it went on without a hitch, and I was impressed with how easy it was to upload a picture. You can see my Shozu uploaded pictures on Flickr. (Nothing particularly awe inspiring as yet though…)

Although I said that I was going to leave setting up the Slingbox for our new house, since after the events of last weekend there will be no new house, I had to find a way to get the Slingbox somewhere suitable, but connected to the network. In terms of the best place, this had to be downstairs on top of our Sky+ box, as this isn’t in a cabinet, and so shouldn’t suffer from the heating problems I had when I previously tried out the box. However that is about as far from our internet connection as you can get in the house, and in a location that although a wireless link would probably work, the performance would be pretty poor. Running a normal network cable is not really an option either, so instead I turned to Power Line Communication, specifically a pair of HomePlug Turbo units from eConnect.

eConnect HomePlug Turbo

I have to say that these are probably the first device I’ve come across that really deserves the title plug-n-play, I literally plugged one unit into a socket upstairs, the other in downstairs, hooked the cable up to our router and the Slingbox popped up on the network, no configuration required at all. Speed wise it is not quite up to the speed of a direct network connecting, but faster that I could get with a wireless connection, running at between 65Mbps and 75Mbps. Certainly for anyone looking to extend their network in a similar way it seems by far the most straightforward way to do it, and certainly beats messing around with wireless settings.

Initially I have set the Slingbox up as before, using it’s inbuilt terrestrial digital decoder. Later I may well set it up to use the Sky+ box as well.

Having got that all set up, and confirmed it was working using the desktop version of the SlingPlayer, I then moved on to try the mobile version supplied as part of the X-Series.

The first thing it did was to download the latest version of the software itself, and then it was just a question of entering the identifier code for our particular Slingbox. Unfortunately this is the one really tedious aspect of the whole set-up process, as the identifier is a very long hexadecimal identifier, which is a bit of pain to key in using a mobile phone keypad. Thankfully it only needs to be entered once, as the player stores the Slingbox in it’s built in directory.

Slingbox Mobile in Action

Unfortunately, the picture doesn’t do it justice, the picture quality is surprisingly good. The main issue, which could well be a routing issue between 3 and our current ISP, Zen Internet is that the data stream quite often stalls. Looking at the router, the data is still going out, it just seems to be getting delayed somewhere along the way to the phone. At some point I’ll try using a desktop version of the player on some other connections and check out the variations in quality and performance, and hopefully nail down where the stalling in the stream is coming from. It is not apparent when watching on the LAN, so I can only conclude that it is somewhere along the way across the Internet.

Anyway, despite the hiccups, it still is a really impressive feat. Whilst the mobile sized screen is not the best way to watch TV, the mere fact that it works as well as it does over a mobile connection is amazing.

Computers/Technology, General, Symbian

Still Waiting for X-Series

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So there I was on Saturday, fully expecting by this point to be able to write about my now activated X-Series phone, but come Monday morning, I was still getting the ‘your phone will be activated in 24 hours’ service message on both mine and Beth’s phone.

I’d already talked to Simon on Sunday about the time it was taking, so when I let him know that the phones were still not on, he chased it up. After talking to some colleagues he came back with the answer that both our phones, together with a whole batch of other sales (another six customers I believe) that went through at the same time had produced an error on registration. From what I can gather, although our phones and SIM cards are valid for the 3 network, the phone also has to be registered at the other end. As part of this process, the sales order number is validated, and for some reason the network systems are refusing to accept all the sales order numbers for our particular batch – so it’s not just us with the same problem. Currently their IT department appear to be trying to fix the problem to allow the phones to register – not the most salubrious start to our relationship with 3 – have to hope that X-Series is worth it!!!

Apple/Mac, Computers/Technology, Symbian, Web/Internet

Joining 3 for X Series

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As some of you may know, my brother works for 3, the 3G only mobile phone operator here in the UK.

Not surprisingly he has been trying for years to get myself and Beth to switch over to his companies network from our current operator O2 who I’ve been with since I got my first mobile phone back in the the days when it was known as Cellnet.

Well this week he finally succeeded.

The fundamental reason I haven’t switched over until now has been the attitude of 3 towards data usage. Although Beth uses her phone as a phone so-to-speak, my main usage is data. Indeed for the past few years I’ve been on a long retired low user with only about 30 minutes of free monthly calls – which I don’t use, and then a data bolt on. Through the phone I can access pretty well anything I like on the internet, including downloading my e-mail, any websites I want and so on.

Until recently, for a domestic mobile phone user the situation on 3 has been very different. The company operated their mobile internet service as a Walled Garden offering only approved websites, so I would be unable to use the phone to access my own e-mail or websites, and a lot else besides. However at the tail end of last year that all changed, with the launch of the X-Series offering. There are lots of bits and bobs in the package, including a version of Skype, and a version of Microsoft Messenger, but the key things that attracted me were that it was flat rate unlimited mobile internet usage, and in one package they were offering a Slingbox at almost half-price, complete with a client for the phone. Cost wise it is a £10 a month add-on to any of the regular tariffs, or £5 without the Slingbox. When you consider that this is around what I’m paying O2 for a 5Mb allowance, after which I get charged about £1 a Mb, you can see why the deal is so attractive. On top of that you obviously get a new handset – currently only the Nokia N73 is supported, but with other phones to come – and I was hooked.

So as Beth wasn’t left out (and so I had someone to video call) we also got a new deal for Beth, in her case she got an LG U830.

X- Series Hardware

Anyway, the postman turned up this morning with a couple of packages for us containing the new phones and the Slingbox which we spent the day playing around with and sorting out.

The Nokia N73 is one of the large range of Symbian based Smartphones. It is certainly clear when you take it out the box quite how far things have come since my previous dabbling with a Smartphone, with my Nokia 3650. The screen is a significant improvement, and higher resolution, and with one of the best cameras on a current phone – second only to the camera on the Sony Ericsson K800i it is definitely clear how far things have come.

Nokia N73 SE K750i Size Comparison

In terms of size and looks things have improved too – size wise it is not that much bigger than my current Sony Ericsson K750i – thickness is about the same, the main difference is in the length.

Anyway, since we have to wait twenty-four hours for the phone to be activated, I’ve only loaded my calendar and contacts onto the phone, and trying out some of the online toys will have to wait. Not that it mattered though, as I had the Slingbox to play with.

As you can see from the pictures, the Slingbox isn’t all that big either, but it definitely is powerful in what it can do. Essentially the box makes a connection between your TV reception, and your network, allowing you to watch TV anywhere that can access your network. As a result, not only does it allow you to watch TV on any computer in the house, but if you have remote access to your network, any computer in the world. The software that goes with the box is also clever enough to adapt based on the speed of the connection between your computer and the box.

Unlike a lot of audio/visual equipment, the Slingbox comes with everything you need, including all the different sorts of cables to connect to your TV and video equipment. Although the box can drive a Sky, or indeed a Sky+ box, it takes it over – so if the Slingbox is watching one channel, the TV can’t watch another. The real power is that the box also includes both an analogue, and a FreeView tuner. Now although we’re not in an official FreeView area currently, we will be when we eventually move. As a result I didn’t set the box up permanently, but instead had a play around. Beth probably wouldn’t have much liked it being left set up anyway – as the nearest aerial point to the broadband connection is in a different room on the other side of the house, for most of the day I had 15m of network cable trailed across the house!

Anyway, the Slingbox was remarkably easy to set up – with the wired connection and UPnP enabled on the router it really was plug in and play, even on a Mac.

I’m quite used to, even with equipment that is listed as Mac compatible, to find that it is a lot more difficult to set up without a PC, but that’s not the case with the Slingbox. Although still in beta, the Mac version of their client worked flawlessly, and took me through configuration of the box, including updating the firmware over the network, and configuring all the channels. I also found that despite not being in a FreeView area, the box managed a pretty large selection of the channels that are available, including all the major stations. The picture was okay too – at least until the wind started to blow the aerial on the roof around a bit later on. Certainly it was enough to try out the box, both across the wired network, and also from a laptop hooked up wirelessly.

The main criticism I have is that the box runs pretty hot – not quite as hot as our Sky and Sky+ boxes, but certainly enough that putting the Slingbox into the same enclosed TV stand that we have our upstairs Sky box in seemed to be asking for trouble. As a result of that, plus the current need to have a network cable trailed across the landing, I packed the box back up until I could sort out the networking, and find a better location for the box. Since I’ll have to do the same anyway when we move, I suspect that, unless there is some pressing need for the box (like a US trip where I need to bring some British TV along with me) it will be something to look forward to when we move into the new house.

If you want to find out more about the X-Series offering, take a look at the main website which lists all the key features, and has prices too. The offer is only available direct from 3, they’re not allowing it to be sold through any third party. There is also a great X-Series blog maintained by some of the people at 3, which includes a regular posting of the frequently asked questions about the service.