Last week I finally gave up on my old APC BP650S (6+ years), even after replacing the battery it was never able to handle the load with any kind of safety margin. It calculated 6 minutes of battery run time, but in reality it would die in less time not allowing Vista to shut down in an orderly manner. APC has a trade in program which is very good. I purchased an RS 1300VA LCD for $162 + shipping of $12. The cheapest I found it on line was $199. They also provide a shipping label to return my old unit. I think this was an excellent deal since I no longer have a use for the old unit. The unit now shows 21 minutes of run time, more than enough to shutdown my Vista desktop. I also have 2 Samsung LCD monitors, the Directv HR20 DVR, the one TeraByte external eSATA array, and other miscellaneous electronics attached to it. The one problem I have encountered so far is that the PowerChute Business Edition Basic console won't recognize it, however the agent does. The PowerChute Personal Edition application works fine. I want to use the Business Edition because it emails status when a power event occurs. I will have to chat with APC support today.
My other project this weekend was to see if I could figure out a better way to migrate my iTunes music to my T-Mobile Wing. I previously discussed a method here. The problem with my previous method was that it requires the Storage Card to be placed in a card reader and it did not create a playlist on Windows Mobile. Removing the Storage Card on the Wing is pain because of its size and the associated cover. I did find a Windows Mobile application, Softick Card Export (the Windows Mobile software echo system is great), which lets the Storage Card be recognized as a drive solving that issue. Unfortunately, iTunes Agent is not stable on Vista Ultimate with iTunes 7.3.x.
After some research I found that Windows Media Player in Vista Ultimate will play unprotected AAC content, so all I needed was a way to convert the iTunes playlist into something WMP would play. I found iTunes Export, this utility from Eric Daugherty reads the iTunes xml export files and converts the library or playlist to .m3u or .wpl format. I will write up my experience in more detail tomorrow, but for those who can't wait, the process takes five easy steps; use the iTunes export feature to create an .xml file of the playlist you want to sync, use iTunes Export to create a .wpl playlist, open the .wpl playlist in WMP, and drag the playlist over to the Storage Card sync device. Then sync your Windows Mobile device with WMP. It is that simple and the playlist is synced as well...
BTW, there is a big issue with iTunes 7.3.x, Apple broke the backup to DVD feature. This was a great feature introduced with iTunes 7.x. I think this is a major flaw, the only thought that came to mind was that if this was a Microsoft product it would be all over the news (it is all over the iTunes forums). Why is that? For all of Apple's claim of writing superior software, I guess they are only human after all...I do respect their inovation, but they could afford to lose the "holier than thou" attitude.
It looks like the HTC Kaiser maybe the 3G Windows Mobile device T-Mobile USA will release whenever they turn up their 3G network (rumors are that the frequencies T-Mobile purchased last year in an FCC auction have not be released by the Federal Goverment). The Kaiser was released as the T-Mobile MDA Vario III in Europe last week.
This week:
- Post a summary of my Wing tweaks, I will do it..
- The updated Dock-N-Talk should show up, we will see how well it works with the Samsung T-409 and HotSpots@Home.
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