Dash-mounting the smartphone

One of the things I always wanted to do with my last phone was mount it to my dashboard somewhere visible. I tried a few cheap dash-mounting devices and found most of them fell off or were too flimsy to hold up the phone at all. With my new phone, I decided to splurge and actually set myself up right.

I'd seen a link to Proclip's mounting brackets while on Tomtom's website before, and figured if they were strong enough to hold up a GPS, they ought to work for a smartphone. I picked my vehicle from the list, selected the only bracket placement available for my car, and then picked out my phone. They had multiple bracket options and I chose the one that had a permanent USB attachment with a lighter-adapter charging cable so I could keep the phone plugged in easily on the road. After giving my CC info and muttering about shipping costs, I waited to receive my hardware.

The bracket was slightly more difficult to install than they'd implied, but not much, and does feel very solid now that its on. The adapter for the phone itself is screwed onto the bracket with four self-tapping screws, and has a nice adjustable tilt-swivel back to line up the phone the way you want it. With Ontario having made new laws about cell phone and other electronic device usage in vehicles, its nice to have the phone mounted in an easy-to-see location that doesn't require me to pick it up to see who's calling.

All in all the solution is very good, feels very solid and has survived being driven around the province a couple times already now with no problems. The only peripheral issue is that the phone's USB cover blocks access to the charging port by default and as its on a very nice little rubber hinge, doesn't actually move very far out of the way. While it does in fact slide into place nicely in the car bracket, it does require first removing the USB cover and pushing it far off to one side so it won't block the port as the phone is dropped into position.

My Dreamy new phone

I recently got a sexy new white HTC Dream phone. That's the same phone as the T-Mobile G1 for those who don't know, but sold by Rogers in Canada as the Dream. I get a new phone periodically with work, and my old Nokia which had been dying a slow and painful death was finally up for replacement.

I wanted this phone for a few reasons. For one, it has a lot of apps available (like those "there's an app for that" commercials for the iPhone) in the Android Market, but unlike competitors, it actually allows installing of 3rd party applications from outside the store as well. There are in fact several online non-Google markets to find applications from, especially those that aren't approved by your carrier.

Secondly, it lets me do a lot of the things I've wanted a new PDA for, like tracking my calendar, contacts, E-mail and to-do lists. It has a functional keyboard that lets me type, and software to let me support remote systems (which happens to be a large part of my job) by SSH and VNC.

Importantly to me, it also supports Wifi in conjunction with 3G wireless, meaning I'm not paying my cell phone provider for usage if I'm near an access point (such as at home, work, a hotel or restaurant).

From a purely technological perspective, it has quite a bit of memory expandable with a MicroSD memory card, a GPS, motion sensors and real magnetic compass, a very bright back light, the ability to take 3 megapixel photos and decent quality video, and a number of other cool features you can find on their website. I'll throw a few more opinions up as I use it more.

Mini Ninjas are fun

Mini Ninjas, from Eidos Interactive is a great game. I played the demo off the PSN with my wife and 7yo daughter and they both loved it so I went and picked up a copy at retail. Its been a hit so far all week.

This is a cute game with a simple story and not-too-complex fighting but quite a few items, spells and collectibles to make it interesting. That said, it also looks great.

The controls are pretty simple, you can move and look around, you can sneak in tall grass or bushes, you can attack with your primary weapon, or stun enemies with a kick, or use spells you learn and items on them such as shurikans or cherry bombs. There are also situations where you'll need to balance along tightropes, run along a wall to cross a crevice or jump between walls to reach higher places. There's also fishing.

As you progress, you find and rescue some of your friends who have their own skills, such as mesmerizing enemies with a flute or picking them off at a distance with a bow and arrow. As the main character, you can also possess nearby animals and use them to attack or sneak past enemies or to search for ingredients for potion recipes you'll purchase along the way.

I must say I haven't finished the game yet, but its proving to be a lot of fun, as is trying to get 100% at the end of each level for the collectibles. The trophies are also well chosen in my opinion. I'm annoyed by games that give progress trophies for the completion of each chapter of the game, and this one doesn't.

On the PS3, the only completion trophies are awarded for completing the game on each hard or normal difficulties, rescuing each friend, and for the major boss battles. The rest are for actual accomplishments like collecting one of each ingredient type, defeating a certain number of enemies as a bear, or with a bow, or for rescuing ever trapped creature in the game. One interesting MGS style trophy is for completing any level without being spotted.

MTV VMA 2009

I'm still watching, but the MTV VMAs this year have already been very memorable. An excellent tribute to Michael Jackson, followed by a very rude Kanye West, followed by a surprisingly incredible performance by Taylor Swift, who Kanye had just dissed.

Lady Gaga wore the strangest outfits, and had an odd blood-dripping performance. P!nk did an incredible job from high up on a trapeze with half her chest covered by a heart pasty, and when Beyonce won an award, she showed her good character by calling Taylor Swift up on stage to have her moment instead.

I expect the show to be much-discussed, and its already been twittered to death, but I enjoyed it very much.

Where are the diesel hybrids?

Hybrid cars have been the focus of a lot of people bent on having more efficient automobiles for a while now, but why do they all run on gasoline? Its seemed obvious to me for a while that diesel engines have always been where hybrid cars should go, its just that in North America, most people avoid diesel and gas stations often don't have it.

Diesel engines from what I know have always been more tunable to run very efficiently at specific speeds and are therefore a much better choice for generators in general (and are often used in that capacity). Using a fixed-speed diesel engine to generate electricity for a hybrid vehicle seems obvious, and its been done for both city buses and the military HMMV.

It would seem though that someone has taken matters into their own hands, as seen at redlightracing.org (possibly off-line from heavy traffic), documenting how a tinkerer has replaced the gasoline engine in his Honda Insight with a Diesel. From his own story submission to the discussion site Slashdot:

On a 3,000 mile cross-country shakedown journey the car averaged 92mpg over 1,800 miles. Around a very hilly town in Northwest Washington, the car is averaging 78mpg.

Maybe we can hope such a thing will become available on a mass scale in the future.

Monsters finally going portable

PixelJunk Monsters is a great little tower defence strategy game for the PS3 available only through the PSN (Playstation Network) Store. I know several people (see the bottom of this entry) who became quite addicted to the game and wished there was a portable version. Their wish has come true.

Announced today on the Playstation blog, the PSP version will be coming out soon to give you that hectic monster killing fix on the go.

Some of you may point out that the original was also playable on the PSP via Remote Play, but that requires owning a PS3 (which not all PSP owners do), that it be online, that it have nobody else playing it, and introduces some lag in the game play.

No questions asked, this game is going to be much loved. Hopefully its as complex and mind busting as the original and its expansion.