AZTECH 3G ROUTER

I am using an unlimited Celcom D50 3G package as my primary internet connection at home. This is shared with my wife and kids. It is used with a Sierra 875U USB modem. Since there are 4 notebooks at home, I need to plug and unplug the Sierra modem to whatever notebook I want to access internet with, which is quite troublesome. Due to this, the search for a cheap 3G router starts. There are a few models such as DLink, Huawei and Vodafone Zuhause. Most are priced around RM500 to RM800.

At last I found the Aztech 3G Router, which cost me only RM320, at Digital Mall, PJ. It accepts most of the USB 3G modem available. In the box, it mentioned that Huawei E220 works well. However I tried it with my Sierra 875U USB modem with the enclosed adapter. It works without a flaw. The only problem is that it only have one RJ45 output, so it means that all of your notebook or PCs have to be connected via wifi. So I set up the WEP key and got all of my notebooks connected via the router.

Since Celcom had recently upgraded their 3G and HSDPA coverage in Kuantan, my house was covered with HSDPA since last year. I don't think there will be a slow down in the internet speed with all the 4 notebooks online.

Now to setup my wife's Nokia N85 for wifi and teach her how to do it. She might get the hang of chatting or blogging with it later.

Next step is to hang the router high up on the wall, probably in my store room to ensure a very good strength of the wifi signal around my house and the balcony.

TURN YOUR DUMBPHONE TO A SMARTPHONE

After taking over the S40 Nokia 6151 from my wife, I have fallen in love with the phone due to its simplicity and size. However to fully utilize the phone, i need to install softwares which will help me to do my daily work. In my Treo 750v, the common applications which i used are emails, web browser, calendar, SPB finance, Vehicle manager, quran, prayer times and IM. Due to this I have searched the suitable replacements for these applications.

a. Emails: Since all my emails are using Gmail, installing the GMAIL java app (m.google.com) is the solution of my email woes for Nokia S40 device. The Gmail 2.0 allows multiple emails account via the same application. It is very fast and allows you to type email even when there is no phone signal around.

b. Web Browser: Opera Mini (mini.opera.com)is well known to be a great web browser for any smartphones. It works very fast on the Nokia S40 device. The good thing is that it allows you to sync your bookmarks with your online account.

c. Calendar and contacts: For calendar and contacts, i sync the Nokia S40 phone with my Macbook using Isync. However to sync with Microsoft Outlook, you can also use the latest Nokia PC Suite.

d. IM: Fring is the best application for a unified IM for a S40 device. Just download the application from m.fring.com. You can have all your IMs such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ and Google talk within the same account.

e. Prayerminder: For prayertimes, Azan 2.6 from SearchTruth.com gives you qiblah and prayertimes of all the cities in the world. It is free too.

f. Quran: For a complete quran, Quran 1.0 or Pocket Quran gives you a mobile quran. However it still cannot replace Pocket Islam.

g. Encrypted Notes or Password manager: Enigma is quite good for you to keep your bank account numbers and etc. However i am not sure about the level of encryption of this software.

The two application in which i could find (a good one) is the replacement for SPB finance and Vehicle Manager.

But as for now, these application had make my Nokia 6151, a S40 phone a smartphone minus the size. The advantage of Nokia 6151 over Treo 750v is the small size and the battery which lasted for at least 2 days. It also has a FM radio, which my Treo 750v hasn't. However to type long emails using the Nokia 6151 is a no no, very very slow.

NOKIA 6151 SOFTWARE UPDATES

I have been using a Nokia S40 phone now as my primary phone with my Digi line. I took it from my wife who has upgraded to a Symbian Nokia N85. Since I took over the phone, I noted that it has been buggy with the SMS centre always missing. So I decided to upgrade the phone software using the Nokia Software updater. However I need to buy the cable which is the CA-53 model, since bluetooth cannot be used for the updating process. The updating process only took less than 15 minutes.

The updated software repaired the missing SMS centre and the MMS. However i noted that i cannot install the GMAIL java application which resulted in 'invalid application' post installation. Googled a few websites and found the solution here. I need to download directly the GMAIL java app using the Nokia Web browser using this URL : (http://m.google.com/app/gmail.jad?dc=gorganic&ver=v2.0.6). Post installation it works as before. This is maybe due to a buggy jar app downloaded directly from m.google.com.

HOW TO SYNC MICROSOFT OUTLOOK WITH ICAL USING GOOGLE CALENDAR

Since I am currently using both Windows XP and Mac, I need to have my calendars seen in Microsoft Outlook in Windows and Ical in Mac. How do I do it? It was a headache previously. However recently Google adds CalDAV support to Google Calendar. What is CalDAV support? This is taken exactly from Google blog. "CalDAV is an open protocol that allows calendar access via WebDAV. CalDAV models calendar events as HTTP resources in iCalendar format, and models calendars containing events as WebDAV collections. This allows you to publish and subscribe to calendars, share them collaboratively, sync between multiple users and sync between multiple devices." To see the google calendar in your Ical in Mac, just download the setup tool here and follow all the instructions.

So, in simple term, you can have an online google calendar in your ical and all your calendar editing in ical is synced with google calendar. To sync Microsoft Outlook with google calendar, you need to install Google Calendar Sync in your Windows XP PC. Make sure the setup in the Google Calendar Sync is two way instead of one way.

So, guys, your Microsoft Outlook, Ical and Google Calender events will be synced all the time. But all these have to be done manually.

With this, it doesn't matter if your smartphone or dumbphone is synced with Outlook or Ical, all your events in all your calendars will look the same. Even if you left your notebook, macbook, smartphone or dumbphone at home, you can still edit your calendar in a cybercafe at Google Calendar and all the changes can be synced in all the calendars.