Johns Car, Bike and Gadget Blog

2012-02-12T21:08:00.001Z

Short Cars » Design You Trust – Design and Beyond!

images like this...

Golf GTi edition 30 mpg update : 319 miles @ 26.7MPG

2012-02-08T21:16:00.001Z

319 miles @ 26.7MPG

A cold Feb morning...Arty GTi grille shot

2012-02-05T21:54:00.001Z

SEAT Ibiza 1.4 sport black mpg update

2012-02-04T15:24:00.001Z

Been a while since I've driven the Ibiza to be honest. This average is probably for over two thousand miles or more of mixed driving, mostly town.
clearly economy is not a strong point of this engine!
Aside from limited interior space, that seems the only downside to this great car.
Looked in auto trader this week and the sport black holds its value well too......

2nd Feb and its cold

2012-02-02T08:09:00.001Z

Weekend battery use of galaxy s2 with samsung extended battery

2012-01-29T09:15:00.001Z

Google thinks Im a 35-44 Male tech / car geek ..... yep spot on

2012-01-26T22:02:00.002Z

not too wide of the mark Google...........

Your categories

Autos & Vehicles - Vehicle Brands - Mazda

Autos & Vehicles - Vehicle Brands - Volkswagen

Computers & Electronics - Consumer Electronics - Audio Equipment

Computers & Electronics - Consumer Electronics - Gadgets & Portable Electronics - PDAs & Handhelds

Computers & Electronics - Consumer Electronics - Game Systems & Consoles - Xbox

Computers & Electronics - Electronics & Electrical - Data Sheets & Electronics Reference

Internet & Telecom - Mobile & Wireless - Mobile Phones - Smart Phones

Shopping - Apparel - Clothing Accessories - Watches

Your demographics

We infer your age and gender based on the websites you've visited.

Age: 35-44

Gender: Male

check out yours now at

http://www.google.com/ads/preferences

Golf GTi edition 30 mpg update

2012-01-24T22:19:00.001Z

Missed this one, so its slightly out of order, but here it is now

Golf GTi edition 30 mpg update

2012-01-24T21:13:00.001Z

bye bye Tinka x

2012-01-24T20:48:00.000Z

"BBC Science ROCKS" T-Shirts & Hoodies by neildavies1 | RedBubble

2012-01-20T12:02:00.000Z

"BBC Science ROCKS" T-Shirts & Hoodies by neildavies1 | RedBubble:

Flythrough virtual galaxy simulation

2012-01-18T09:21:00.001Z

A remix of material originally produced for BBC Stargazing Live 2012 (TX 17 Jan 2012)

Autocar : Half Price Heroes : November 2011

2012-01-16T16:36:00.003Z

Some great comments, on some great cars...

Autocar HOT Half Price Heroes summary

download the full pdf from link below :

autocar_9thNov2011_HalfPriceHeroes.pdf

Cars mentioned are

Seat Leon Cupra FR
Smart Roadster
Audi TT 1.8T 225 quattro
Peugeot 205 1.9 GTI
MAZDA MX5 Mk3
Honda S2000
Lotus Elise Mk1
Vauxhall VX220
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII
Subaru Impreza P1
Renault R26
Honda Civic Type R
Renault Clio 197
Ford Focus ST2
Golf Mk5 GTI
Fiat Panda 100 HP
Suzuki Swift Sport
Renault Twingo 133
Maserati 3200GT
Jaguar XJR
Mini CooperS Works GP
Porsche Cayenne Turbo
BMW Z3 M Coupé
Lancia Delta lntegrale
BMW M6
Mercedes-Benz SL55AMG
Audi RS4
JaguarXK
Lexus ISF
Honda NSX
Lotus Exige
BMW M3 CSL
Noble M12 GTO
Caterham Seven R300 Superlight
Nissan GT-R
Jaguar XFR
Audi RS
Bentley Continental GT
Aston Martin VB Vantage 4.3
LOTUS CARLTON
Gallardo Superlegger
Audi R8 4.2 VB quattro
Ferrari F430
Aston Martin DBS
Rolls-Royce Phantom
Mercedes SLR McLaren
Alfa Romeo 8C
Ferrari 599 GTB

BBC Two - Horizon, The Hunt for Higgs: A Horizon Special

2012-01-16T16:05:00.000Z

BBC Two - Horizon, The Hunt for Higgs: A Horizon Special:

2012-01-10T22:17:00.001Z

Review of the Forge Twintake 2.0 TSI system

HYT Watch Teaser – Who Are The Hydro Mechanical Horologists?

2012-01-10T16:14:00.000Z

HYT Watch Teaser – Who Are The Hydro Mechanical Horologists?:

http://www.ablogtoread.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/H1-HYT-fluidic-and-mechanical.jpg

Fluid watch : HYT Watch Teaser – Who Are The Hydro Mechanical Horologists?

2012-01-10T09:41:00.000Z

HYT Watch Teaser – Who Are The Hydro Mechanical Horologists?

Lovefilm slaps it on the table: How big’s yours, Netflix? http://t.co/3pavB125

2012-01-09T14:21:00.001Z

Lovefilm slaps it on the table: How big’s yours, Netflix? http://t.co/3pavB125 http://twitter.com/john_oldfield/status/156379967448547328

Road Test - Volkswagen Golf GTI 2.0 E35 5dr (A)

2012-01-01T22:12:00.000Z

Road Test - Volkswagen Golf GTI 2.0 E35 5dr (A):

December snow

2011-12-30T22:26:00.001Z

Taken couple of weeks ago.
Sadly out never stayed and we haven't had a white xmas...

Service due !

2011-12-30T22:24:00.001Z

Golf GTi edition 30 mpg update

2011-12-30T22:22:00.001Z

2011-12-21T14:49:00.001Z

fantastic wet sanding article using a black edition 30 WOW

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=244507

Golf edition 30 mpg update

2011-12-18T20:36:00.001Z

Cruising well above the speed limit kills economy!

Golf GTi edition 30 mpg

2011-12-10T23:46:00.001Z

Golf GTi edition 30 mpg

2011-11-27T18:20:00.005Z

Golf GTi edition 30 mpg

2011-11-27T18:20:00.003Z

ultra low mileage countach £400k !

2011-11-22T21:20:00.001Z

http://www.amarisupercars.com/index.cgi?action=3&f0=1310829176-729#

How I became a programmer and why it may have been the wrong choice blog post

2011-11-22T15:02:00.001Z

great blog post

http://enmaku.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/how-i-became-a-programmer-and-why-it-might-have-been-the-wrong-choice/

which contains this ...

with alt text

"In Connors second thesis it is stated;
There is no fate but what we make for ourselves;
Does the routine destroy our creativity or do we lose creativity and fall into the routine? Anyway, whos up for a road trip!"

50 most brilliant atheists of all time

2011-11-15T21:26:00.001Z

http://brainz.org/50-most-brilliant-atheists-all-time/

many of whom are people I look up to.......

Golf GTI edition 30 mpg update : 308 miles @ 25.7mpg

2011-11-12T23:44:00.001Z

PistonHeads Headlines - Driven: Golf GTI Edition 35

2011-11-12T09:36:00.000Z

PistonHeads Headlines - Driven: Golf GTI Edition 35:

MOT passed!

2011-11-07T21:36:00.000Z

broken indicator needed replaced

xenon auto adjustment failed due to broken wire in headlamp loom!

Awesome - ECS 6-Speed Clutch Bleeder Block - Mk5 etc

2011-11-07T21:32:00.000Z

Awesome - ECS 6-Speed Clutch Bleeder Block - Mk5

mmmm tempted

Samsung Galaxy S [i9000] [HOWTO] get a gps lock xda-developers

2011-11-07T21:31:00.000Z

wifes Galaxy S was unwilling to get a GPS lock before xmas 2018, so a quick forum check finds out how to fix it, eh voila, fixed.....

[i9000 and i9003] [HOWTO] get a gps lock! :) - xda-developers:

basically

Method One – Most Successful , quickest GPS lock
Disable ‘Use Wireless Networks’ under Settings —> Location and Security.
Go into LbsTestMode (*#*#3214789650#*#*) or (use the shortcut method)
Go to Application Settings
Enable MS-Based Mode(in operation mode )
Increase Accuracy to 100
Leave the rest stock
Return to the main LbsTestMode menu
Go to SUPL/CP Settings
Select the Serve FQDN Type drop down menu
Hit AUTO Config
Exit to the dialer and reboot your device twice for good measure.

Morr releases 20 inch VS8.2 wheels : stunning white E93 M3

2011-11-07T12:58:00.002Z

my favourite ever wheel manufacturer releases a new wheel.........

MORR Releases the 20" MonoForged VS8.2

Morr photoshoot

Golf GTI Edition 35 review in EVO magazine

2011-11-03T22:39:00.005Z

Evo Mag Edition 35 review

Samsung Galaxy S2 i9100 2000mAh Extended Battery kit review

2011-10-24T20:51:00.002+01:00

This is the kit that takes the S2 from a great phone to a fantastic one.
Available from mobilefun but not exactly cheap (£24.95), contains a replacement 2000mAh battery and a replacement back cover for your S2.

Genuine Samsung Extended Battery kit Galaxy S2 i9100

Original battery is 1650mAh
Extended battery is 2000mAh

so its increased by +350mAh
which works out at
+21% (as a % of original size)
+17.5% (as a % of extended size)

which might not seem a lot, but its not an empirical increase in terms of actual battery life.
This is a genuine battery and none of your other 'nonbrandname' batteries you can get on ebay that are no better than the OE version.

Battery is slightly thicker and means that my OE mesh case did not fit.
So this meant I had to scour the forums to see what did....

some useful threads on xda ...

2000mAh battery thread on xda
2000mAh case compatibility thread

in the end I plumped for

SGP Samsung Galaxy S2 Case Neo Hybrid EX Series Soul Black

which has a gel inner casing that has a subsequent harder outer shell, and because its not a 'full' case the increased battery size (and cover) makes no difference.

I have already posted some battery stats but needless to say its a very worthwhile mod, that has increased my battery life to an easy full 'hard' days work, no longer I am concerned that the battery will run out mid afternoon.
commonly i'm at 40% last thing at night, and during low use times (weekends) i can often go a full 2 days!

Id say its added an easy +30% in battery life (maybe even more) , much more than the figures only suggest.

Get one :-)

Golf GTI edition 30 mpg update : 299 miles @ 25.1MPG

2011-10-23T15:36:00.001+01:00

299 miles @ 25.1MPG

Samsung galaxy s2 2000 mAh genuine extended battery life

2011-10-02T21:19:00.001+01:00

Second charge results

2000mAh battery review here ->

New official firmware available for galaxy s2 uk

2011-10-01T08:51:00.001+01:00

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-09-27T23:05:00.001+01:00

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-09-24T13:22:00.001+01:00

Samsung galaxy s i9000 battery life

2011-09-11T19:02:00.001+01:00

Not the golden child anymore after the release of the galaxy s2, but my wife runs this phone and complained about the poor battery life.

So a quick check on kies shows a gingerbread update was available. Eh viola, firmware updated and the battery life is now nothing short of incredible, for a non power user (i.e. a lot of time at idle).

Life has gone from 2 days to nearly 10 days this week!

Shows how good a rom can be, cmon samsung sort out the s2 firmware please to be even half as good as this.

Oregon Scientific BAR800 Ultra Thin Weather Station : Review

2011-09-07T23:56:00.001+01:00

Well, its been a while since i last did a review, few car related updates these days, so heres a home gadget review for one of Oregon Scientific's home weather stations, the Oregon Scientific BAR800 Ultra Thin Weather Station

Basically its a very smart clock with some weather assessement tools added on all in a very attractive iphone esque design.

Heres what oregon say on their website :

"The Ultra-Thin Weather Station is the height of design with its sleek profile and lustrous white finish. Ideal for use on a desk, on a wall, or next to a bed, you’ll have all the information you need to plan your day. Radio Controlled time is always precise and never needs adjusting.. Indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity keep you in the know, while an iconic weather forecast indicates future weather conditions."

Why

Well to be brutally honest, its because oregon sent me a unit to review!
Was i in the market for one? nope, i am however always up for reviewing items and this one had mean keen to see if it was any good.
I have in previous years bought one of the projection alarm clocks (not an oregon make) but i have to say aside from being "fun for 5 minutes" its usefulness was shortlived leaving me with a bulky alarm clock.
This "weather station" certainly had its work cut out, trying to prove its more than a glorified clock.

So onto the review, open and honest with no bias.

If i were looking for a weather station, what might my criteria be for choosing one?

looks

design

build quality

ease of use (including ability to toggle display options)

clarity of display

functions available

support and warranty

how unit is powered

Unboxing

Well labelled and thought out box design, very small which makes you think youve got the wrong item!

It really is a small box.

In the box are :

Install the batteries (supplied) into both the unit and the sensor and voila, its up and running.

At this point you need to wait for the sensor to sync with the unit, i went and left it, but shouldnt take more than 30 minutes.

The sensor supplies clock and weather data to the main clock unit, so therefore is supposed to have a clear line of sight of the sky.

(Im unclear on whether this means it should be outside? my assumption is that the clock unit measures indoor temp, whilst the remote unit supplies all other values. but then Im confused at to how the humidity for inside/outside is measured and by which unit)

The first thing you notice is how nicely built the unit is, as well as some heavy apple design cues in terms of colours and finish. The clock unit is supremely thin and fits very well with modern decor.

The clock unit can be wall mounted (fixings supplied) or used with its own very slick perspex stand that attaches to the unit using magnets.

As with all of these type of 'remote' units, the biggest problem youll find is where to put the remote sensor.

(an easy solution is to put the clock unit on a window sill and stand the remote unit behind it)

Item worked straight out of the box and the weather/clock had synced correctly next time i went to play with it (1 hr later).

I have now tried the unit at home in our kitchen, and on my desk at work over the last month.

So here are my thoughts :

Plus points

batteries for unit and sensor are provided in the box (top marks oregon)
shock and surprise, but the weather forecasting function seems to be reasonably accurate
well built for a gadget of this type
seperate sensor allows free positioning of the clock unit anywhere you want
stylish design : from a personal point of view the clear and white design is really classy and fits well with modern colours
magnetic perspex stand is a neat touch
clear design, easy to read display, buttons for toggling options easy to use.
mid range reasonably priced at £49.99 for this type of product
clock unit is very slim, about the size of a normal CD case

Minus points

Instructions are not necessarily clear as to where the remote sensor should be, and whether it should be outside or not
limited to only one sensor (only one possible outside temp)
not sure what happens if you lose the sensor!
really, how useful is a 12-24hr forward forecast? in modern times I have a smartphone that does this.

Others to consider

The marketplace is pretty saturated with this type of gadget, so you really need to decide what criteria you are trying to fulfil before surfing the web.

Summary

Initially i was very sceptical that this weather station would be of any use at all.

However after several weeks, I'm very pleased that it does exactly what oregon state it should, accurately and in a very well designed and stylish case :-)

I have found myself actually using the internal and external temperatures, and of course the time/date.

The Oregon Scientific BAR800 Ultra Thin Weather Station, makes a welcome addition to any home, for yourself or as a gift for a friend.

If you are in the market for a weather station for a reasonable price, then id seriously consider this unit.

[UPDATE 31/10/11 : change in gmt for us moving into winter. I expected the weather station to have autoupdated to -1hr , alas it didnt and I had to do it manually!]

[UPDATE 31/10/11 No2 ! : ok so its so smart it auto-updated my corrected time to the wrong time (+1) again at some point today! So I have set the time zone offset to -1 by using the procedure below.
This fixes it for now but means it wont auto adjust during GMT / British summertime shifts twice a year, and will therefore need changed again march 2012
Sounds like a flaw to me. Shouldnt radio controlled alarms account for GMT changes ????

Anyway instructions on how to change offset below from the Oregon manual

MANUALLY SET CLOCK
To set the clock manually, disable the clock signal
reception ﬁrst.
1. Press and hold MODE.
2. Press / to change the settings.
3. Press MODE to conﬁrm.
The settings order is: time zone, 12/24 hr format, hour,
minute, year, calendar mode (month – day / day – month),
month, day and language.
Time zone offset sets the clock +/- 23 hours from the
received clock signal time.
NOTE If you enter + 1 in the time offset setting, this will
give you your local time plus one hour. If you are in the US
(BAR800A) set the clock to:
0 for Paciﬁc time +1 for Mountain time
+2 for Central time +3 for Eastern tim]

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update 338 miles @ 28 mpg

2011-08-29T23:08:00.001+01:00

338 miles @ 28 mpg

running slightly reduced revo sps settings for boost and timing just to reduce the clutch straining torque spikes!

Blyton Park Trackday August 2011

2011-08-24T20:23:00.001+01:00

Golf Edition 35 by German Tuner B&B

2011-08-24T19:50:00.000+01:00

Golf Edition 35 by German Tuner B&B

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-08-21T08:10:00.001+01:00

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-08-08T22:57:00.001+01:00

Samsung galaxy s2 battery life

2011-08-01T21:19:00.001+01:00

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-07-24T09:13:00.001+01:00

Samsung galaxy s2 kf3 15hrs with 65% remaining!

2011-07-14T23:00:00.001+01:00

New firmware definitely seems to have improved battery life. Usually down to 40% on previous ke7

Galaxy S2 firmware upgrade KE7 to KF3

2011-07-14T22:03:00.000+01:00

another day another samsung galaxy s2 firmware update :-)
Using Kies again, and sticking with official Samsung updates (KF3 is still 2.3.3)
(although note that there is a 2.3.4 leaked firmware if you want to use Odin)

Heres the status after the upgrade

so far the battery life seems improved.

check out Android Forums for what 'may' be in the release.

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-07-12T23:09:00.001+01:00

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-07-07T21:54:00.001+01:00

love the edition 35 in white...

2011-06-27T13:24:00.001+01:00

Samsung galaxy s2 battery life update

2011-06-20T20:07:00.001+01:00

Full charge > 24 hrs

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-06-20T20:03:00.001+01:00

chrome://net-internals/

2011-06-16T12:28:00.002+01:00

paste into chrome browser , eh voila lots of cool and useful tools

chrome://net-internals/

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-06-07T20:46:00.001+01:00

Professor Jim Al-Khalili meets ... Brian Cox

2011-06-01T22:09:00.000+01:00

some people whos opinions I greatly respect....

Professor Jim Al-Khalili hosts a series of 'an audience with' interviews at the University of Surrey. heres just 2

ALapRecorder : no HD video on Galaxy S 2 i9100

2011-06-01T21:54:00.000+01:00

great app but alas you need to select 400 as the resolution for playback to be correct. HD just doesnt show correctly.
Developer is very helpful and Im sure will find a solution in due course. See link below
Adyno Support Forum link

aLapRecorder HD for Android on AppBrain

Samsung galaxy s2 battery life i9100

2011-06-01T13:52:00.001+01:00

Still fantastic on ke7, although I have noted some odd reporting for gps items again, where copilot shows up but I've never ran it.
Wifi sharing is also something that drains battery but I don't need.

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-05-30T13:12:00.001+01:00

Samsung galaxy s2 battery life

2011-05-27T22:49:00.001+01:00

Stats with 30% battery life still remaining on ke7 firmware using launcher pro

firmware update KE2 to KE7 Samsung Galaxy S2 i9100

2011-05-23T22:13:00.001+01:00

no sooner have I just updated to KE2 than KE7 is released!
Crikey talk about a turnaround at Samsung, frequent firmware updates abound lol.
no idea what the changelog is but I flashed anyway (using Kies)

edit

from THIS LINK the changes appear to be

Samsung Apps has been updated
Picture in the Background Effect Menu has been changed
Battery Life seems to have been improved
More free RAM on start-up
Camera has been updated-The pink spot problem has been fixed, better image quality and improved zoom panel

Golf gti edition 30 mpg 329 miles© 26.9mpg

2011-05-22T22:40:00.003+01:00

Samsung galaxy s2 i9100 battery life update

2011-05-20T23:26:00.001+01:00

19hrs with 50% barry life still left!

50,000 miles in golf gti edition 30

2011-05-20T07:48:00.002+01:00

Oh how the miles creep up....

which is exactly

1298 days or
112,147,200 seconds or
1,869,120 minutes or
31,152 hours or
185 weeks

from the day we picked her up on 30th October 2007.

which is an average of 38.52 miles/day or 270 miles/week

Galaxy s2 battery life

2011-05-17T08:43:00.001+01:00

Full day

Hspda galaxy s2

2011-05-16T19:07:00.002+01:00

Just happened to try a speedtest on the s2 whilst at a pubic location, needless to say I was shocked at the data rate!

Test Date: May 12, 2011 10:25:00 am
Connection Type: Hsdpa
Server: Manchester
Download: 3373 kbps
Upload: 1577 kbps
Ping: 118 ms

http://www.speedtest.net/android/52785414.png

Ookla operates Speedtest.net

Samsung galaxy s2 i9100 quadrant score

2011-05-15T14:58:00.001+01:00

Samsung galaxy s2 i9100 battery life

2011-05-14T17:57:00.001+01:00

Last set of stats after the firmware update. Still surprises me just how long this phone lasts given its spec.
General use with wifi at home and gsm all other times.

Hspda is also incredible.

Galaxy S2 firmware upgrade / screenshots / battery life

2011-05-14T09:24:00.003+01:00

I wanted to take screenshots with the Galaxy S2...... previously (with Nexus One that was with a USB cable and starting ddms.bat (im in windows 7). This time around plugged in s2 via usb and it defaults to 'Kies' connection. To get around that you need to enable the usb debugging option BEFORE connecting cable, anyway it still wont work as you wont have a compatible USB driver. So you first need to install Kies (as a minimum to get the USB drivers, or you may want to actually try it)
Kies download site

at this point I thought Id try it and it seems to work ok.
It mentioned a firmware upgrade

, so hell why not.........all went well until the final step (of copying update to phone) when it failed due to an uninstalled driver!
phone with green android fella saying 'Dont disconnect client' but it had failed!!!! genuinely thought wtf Ive just bricked my new phone .....
disconnected cable but screen remained.
Kies then indicates you can do an emergency firmware recovery, although to my mind this seemed a little excessive and i didnt want to loose everything.
So i removed the battery and just restarted the phone, thankfully it just started up .......PHEW

(at this point the failed driver now pops up to tell me its installed ok FFS!)

undeterred (and on the basis it seemed to have failed for an obvious reason) I tried again, eh voila worked this time.......

Improvements ? no idea , the only things Ive seen so far are

a) improved battery life ! crikey I was already impressed before but now it seems even better, easily a full day with 'use'
b) battery stats now seem to report correctly for each process , before they didnt seem to record half the stuff that id used.

Anyway that was me side tracked from my intial reason for downloading Kies!
As it turns out on my web travels (for other info) I found some S2 tips and tricks, the best one .........

Galaxy S2 can take screen shots on the standard firmware without root.
Just hold 'home' and quickly press camera button, eh voila job done. Even sticks the photos in their own gallery, SUPERB well done Samsung.

The general quality, lack of bugs etc shows that Samsung has certainly moved on from the i7500 days, by no means perfect but a LOT better.

Loving the phone so far, albeit that its already superceeded by an NFC version soon to be released , THANKS SAMSUNG!

Enjoy some links below

Forums
http://forum.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii/
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s2/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1055

one click root
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1056334

Firmware download links
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1075278

specs
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/Samsung-Galaxy-S-II_id5106/fullspecs

FAQ
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1065995

custom fonts
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=894397
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=745345

swype tips
http://www.swypeinc.com/tips-tricks.html

UPDATE : It seems that if you are on Orange UK handset then DO NOT UPDATE for now!

BMW blog s1000rr sportsbike review

2011-05-14T09:00:00.002+01:00

great review , I could almost feel it, I SO WANT THIS BIKE NOW lol

BMW blog s1000rr sportsbike review

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update : 386 miles @ 30.6mpg

2011-05-09T22:02:00.001+01:00

386 miles @ 30.6mpg a very frugal tankfull

Good job as it was 57 litres and £83 to fill up!

Edition 35

2011-05-09T21:56:00.001+01:00

Carscoop: New Volkswagen Golf GTI Edition 35 Comes with 235-Horsepower

Samsung galaxy battery life continued

2011-05-02T11:52:00.001+01:00

Seems pretty good to me.
Yesterday was 25 hrs with 30% remaining, albeit mostly spent hooked up to wifi as opposed to cell network. Still pretty impressive and probably about the same as my old nexus one.

Golf GTI and Seat Ibiza both get serviced

2011-05-01T19:10:00.000+01:00

its been a busy time for car servicing!

first off we had the Golf GTI minor service @ 49166 miles for the fixed price of £129.
Went again with Gilbert Lawton Manchester (original supplying dealer) and spent the day shopping with the family whilst it was being done.

Tried out a mk6 diesel courtesy car which wasnt too bad.
They did however have a lovely R Line Tiguan......but its a lot of dough £26k!
so not going to happen.
Also liked a Mk6 GTD 5 door, sadly the salesman was clearly disinterested and lacking any skills, very poor, so i gave up!

However the service went well and the service staff were great as usual.

and also

Seat Ibiza 1.4 Sport 2nd service @ 12727miles £159 which includes a free code to extend the AA recovery for a further year FOC.

samsung galaxy s2 battery life

2011-05-01T12:12:00.000+01:00

Samsung galaxy s2 update

1. battery lasting around 15hrs with lots of playing and around 2hrs of nav use.
2. First bug appears to be the battery usage stats which just appear to be nonsense! Google nav use reported as co pilot ffs.
3. Big screen great for my 'old' eyes lol

found another useful app too

Elixir for Android on AppBrain

Of note AppBrain and Market both keep a note of the phone you sync with so I now have 2 profiles (1 for a Nexus One and 1 for the Galaxy S2)

also found out that my wife doesnt get 3G because she has an old SIM (no 3G in the SIM number), so that needs replaced before she can get decent data transfer for her Galaxy S

I have also found the merge duplicates feature of gmail contacts (on web) to be invaluable.

Cool 911 turbo on dymags and sport cups...

2011-05-01T11:09:00.001+01:00

BMW M3 E46 M3 Touring that was never production built...

2011-05-01T10:20:00.000+01:00

had a M3 coupe for years, surfed forums and yet never knew this ever existed...

BMW M3 E46 M3 Touring article on bmwblog.com

image it with CSL wheels and a supercharger....

in fact a google search revealed someone did actually build one similar...

330ci M3 engine transplant

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update : 341 miles @ 29.8mpg

2011-04-30T10:11:00.003+01:00

341 miles @ 29.8mpg

upgrade from Nexus One to Samsung Galaxy S 2 (i9100)

2011-04-28T22:18:00.000+01:00

where to start...?

not so many moons ago, I ventured into the Android stream with the Galaxy i7500.
Needless to say that became a disaster, with the phone being unfit for purpose and never got upgraded past Android 1.6. I eventually got O2 to accept the phone back and swap me an HTC Desire. I passed this on to my mate Allan, and bought a Nexus One off ebay....

Ever since I have loved the Nexus One for its completeness and the fact it gets updated frequently.
Recently upgraded to Gingerbread 2.3 I had no plans to change until I was shopping with my wife this week and she 'casually' upgraded to a Galaxy S !
Boy did I notice how slick that phone was compared to the Nexus, not only that but the Phones4U bod let slip that they had just had stock of the Galaxy S2 arrive......

Dual Core CPU with 4.3 inch screen, it didnt matter I was gripped in tech envy, I had to upgrade (thankfully I was due an upgrade).
I threw caution to the wind and upgraded.

So heres the Samsung Galaxy S2

Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, Orion chipset
Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
480 x 800 pixels, 4.3 inches Gorilla Glass Display
Multi-touch,Swype text input
Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)
16GB/32GB storage, 1 GB RAM
microSD, up to 32GB Expandable
8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash Camera
2 MP Front facing Camera
1080p@30fps Video Recording
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and 3G (HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps)
Bluetooth v3.0+HS
microUSB V2.0
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Adobe Flash 10.1 support
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1650 mAh

Long story short, its fffing fast with no delay in any situation.
The screen is enormous (maybe too big?)
My wife likes the TouchWiz interface (very iphone like) but I however much prefer vanilla android. I could have stuck with it, but the 4 'dock' icons really bugged me.

I was used to LauncherPro on the Nexus which allows a fully customisable dock, so I tried to install it but it wouldnt run!
Quick google search and it turns out that you need to run Home Switcher first..

Home Switcher for Froyo for Android on AppBrain

then you can use Launcher Pro (I have paid for the Plus version unlocker too)

LauncherPro for Android on AppBrain

then its simple to configure LP to have a snazzy scrollable dock and to arrange my app icons the way I want (5 columns)

whoop, I was made up, now back to matching what I had with my nexus.

Quick summary of my initial thoughts

Well made
very light
very thin
huge screen
no lag
apps install almost instantly
comes with gingerbread 2.3
i personally dont like touchwiz but iphone or new android users may like it. easy to work around it, and soon enough there will be plenty of roms released.
battery life seems ok so far
stacked with preloaded apps
apps list in touch wiz is annoying. adding widgets to screens is very slow in touchwiz, wheres launcher pro is much quicker.
front facing camera for skype

so my initial impressions are very encouraging, normally Id spend ages researching but this time ive jumped in.

Its going to be a year for dual core Android phones, but for now this phone really hits the spot.
Has Samsung reinstated my faith? Maybe
Will it get updated Android versions? Who knows!

Conduit 2 on amazon.co.uk

2011-04-28T21:05:00.002+01:00

very impressed so far.
graphics and gameplay really good. a swansong for the Wii before Wii 2 drops perhaps?

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update : 370 miles @ 30.9mpg

2011-04-22T22:30:00.001+01:00

370 miles @ 30.9mpg
Just shows what a few motorway miles can do to improve your mpg !

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update : 270 miles @ 22.5 mpg

2011-04-15T18:04:00.001+01:00

270 miles @ 22.5 mpg!
£75 to fill up again

Damn You Auto Correct! - Funny iPhone Fails and Autocorrect Horror Stories

2011-04-12T13:38:00.001+01:00

Damn You Auto Correct! - Funny iPhone Fails and Autocorrect Horror Stories

Heres a taster, but so many more at the link. Had me crying with laughter :-)

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-04-02T08:49:00.001+01:00

An Analog Watch That Looks Like a Digital Watch [Watches]

2011-03-31T09:05:00.000+01:00

An Analog Watch That Looks Like a Digital Watch [Watches]: "

You name it, this watch has got it—it's greedily made from platinum, gold, titanium and carbon fiber, and has three mechanics in the analog watch face that align to make the time look digital. Further details on just how much this digital-pretender will cost have sadly been cloaked in secrecy, for now. [Wired UK] More »

Service due soon !

2011-03-30T17:04:00.001+01:00

Seems to come around way too quickly. Not sure of I will go vw dealer or independent this toke around.

Seat ibiza mpg 292 miles@33.3mpg

2011-03-29T18:38:00.001+01:00

Seat ibiza mpg 292 miles@33.3mpg
Not great at all for a 1.4!

Error 2131 ITunes / TS-L632H_AS04 drive and fixing the issue for good

2011-03-28T00:20:00.000+01:00

Trying to burn a CD using iTunes and getting a 2131 Error?
Well funnily enough my dad, with a ASUS laptop was which he asked me to sort out.

Turns out the 2131 error is related to the drive.
tsst corp CDDVDW TS-L632H, which was revision AS02 on his laptop (running Vista)
(Right click 'Manage' on the 'My Computer' icon and navigate to 'Computer Management', then select the DVD drive. Right click properties Tab, one of th details should indicate the revision)

http://www.itunes2131error.com

managed to find
THIS link.

and

http://www.firmwarehq.com/Samsung/TS-L632H/files.html

I used the 'http://www.firmwarehq.com/download_1537-file_TS-L632H_AS04.zip.html' link. ITS VERY IMPORTANT YOU ONLY USE THE VERSION SPECIFIC TO YOUR DRIVE.
most times it wont let you install a non compatible version.

I then just extracted the 'One Click Tool(TS-L632H_AS04).zip' and ran it :-)

Job done , Itunes now works as expected.
Took hrs to find a suitable firmware but 5 minutes to install.

Enjoy

Conduit 2 Wii : open for pre-order on Amazon

2011-03-23T12:36:00.001Z

aLapRecorder : worth a look android app

2011-03-16T21:43:00.001Z

aLapRecorder for Android on AppBrain

Wonders of the Stoner System

2011-03-16T21:13:00.000Z

Golf gti edition 30 mpg update

2011-03-14T22:21:00.001Z

304 miles @ 26mpg

Nexus One GRI40 Gingerbread is go :-)

2011-02-25T22:02:00.000Z

at last, been trying manual checkins for a while but takes a while for Google servers to cycle through the OTA update.
So being impatient Ive downloaded the file and installed manually :-)

Follow process below

How to manually update your Nexus One to gingerbread

The Nexus One's over-the-air update to Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread (erm, not Android 2.4) is starting to push out. But if you can't wait (that'd be us), you can manually install the update. It's the same thing as the OTA update, just, not OTA. Here's how to install:

Download the update from http://android.clients.google.com/packages/ota/passion/81304b2de707.signed-passion-GRI40-from-FRG83G.81304b2d.zip

Rename the file to update.zip. Note that if you're using Windows, just rename it to "update" (no quotes, of course) because it's already a zipped file.
Copy the update.zip file onto your microSD card.
With your Nexus One off, hold down the trackball and press the power button.
You'll be booted into a white screen with three Android robots on skateboards. Select "Bootloader."
On the next screen, select "Recovery."
Your phone will reboot, giving you a picture of the Android robot and an exclamation point inside a triangle.
Now press the power button and volume up button at the same time. It could take a couple of tries.
Now (using the trackball this time) choose "Apply sdcard:update.zip" and let things run their course.

how to take a Nissan GTR R35 apart .....!

2011-02-23T21:12:00.001Z

track prep for a brand new GTR R35