Category: Usb

Reviewing the Captr II from Cricket Wireless!

Paul

Cricket Captr II

Click on Image for More information

I recently bought the Captr 2 and I must say from everything I have done with this phone,  I am really impressed.   So before I begin with my observations, I will at least tell you the specifics of the phone itself:

The Retail Price of this phone is $59.99, even that can be a good thing.    I simply love this phone because of the durability of it and how reliable it has been for me.  I have been using a Plantronics Explorer series Bluetooth headset with this phone for quite some time and have great success with many of the features that come with this.

“What Have I tried?”  you may ask.

I will put it to you this way.   On other phones that I have used a head set on I have had very little success with voice dialing.    After you have trained you phone with your own voice could you dial a number without having to even touch the phone.   I like the fact that I could have it call any number I said and it rarely got it wrong.

The Pro’s of the Phone:

  • Obviously the Voice Commands —  They have fixed common problems with voice commands and it works even better.

  • Size —  I am one of those who like to have a small phone, don’t need any bulky phone to show off.

  • Battery life — Having used it for over 3 weeks.   The Battery life is really good, Only having to charge it every couple days.

  • Cost — It being a low cost phone, almost anyone can afford it.

  • Great for College or Highschool Students —  It being limited on web browsing this is good for cost and still keeping it touch with your kids.

The Con’s:

  • Screen size — If you are used to a big screen then this is something that you will have to get used it.

  • Memory size — The phone memories isn’t as big as an Iphone, so you can’t have unlimited contacts or messages on the phone.

All in all, This phone is great for anyone who is on a tight budget.    I have been really pleased with it.   I definitely will recommend this phone to anyone who might need a low cost phone and still be on a budget.   I have not had it dropped calls from this phone and the signal strength has been over 2 bars anywhere I have went.   Go check out the Captr II for yourself and you will be happy with it like I am!!

Related articles

Cricket Wireless Releases the EC1705 Datacard

Paul


The Cricket EC1705 Datacard


The Cricket EC1705 modem is a feature-rich modem in a compact size and light weight.  It connects your or desktop computer to the Cricket high-speed wireless network.  You can send and receive text messages, and use it in all Cricket Broadband coverage areas.  The USB extension cable offers additional flexibility to connect to different USB locations in your PC.  The Cricket EC1705 modem offers you convenience, speed and power, all of which you’re sure to appreciate.

Supported operating systems:

  • Windows Vista (SP1) or higher

  • Windows XP (SP2) or higher

  • Windows 2000 (SP4)

  • Mac OS X (10.4.11+) and (10.5+)

To install the modem and the software, these minimum system resources are required:

  • Port: Type A USB port

  • Processor: 300MHz or faster

  • Memory: 512 MB

  • Free disk space: 30 MB

  • Screen Resolution: 800×600, 256 colors

This was released this week, the EC1705 Datacard, is EVDO capable and will be using the Tri-band. I haven’t had a chance to test this modem out but it does look kinda cool! If you have this leave a message about how you like it!! I’d love to test this out but right now I can’t afford it, maybe later on this year!!

 

Reviewing the Seagate 500 Gb FreeAgent Go Ultra-Portable HD (ST905003FGA2E1-RK): Special Star Trek Edition

Paul


I recently got to test out a new Seagate FreeAgent Go Ultra-Portable Hard Drive with movies pre-loaded onto it.    I wanted to talk about it and let everyone who might be interested to find out more about it.

Product Features

  • 5,400 RPM Spin Speed, 8 MB Cache Buffer

  • USB 2.0: up to 480 Mb/s

  • Sync and back up quickly at your desktop without having to search for cables.

  • Guard the privacy of important files and folders.

  • Get your storage solution up and running quickly.

System Requirements:

To create and activate a Paramount account for your FreeAgent Theater+ media player you will need a
system with:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer

  • Microsoft Windows XP operating system (any version, including MCE) with Service Pack 2

  • installed, Windows Vista or Windows 7

  • 1.5 GHz CPU or faster (minimum of 600 MHz)

  • 512MB or more memory (minimum of 10GB)

  • At least 20GB or more, free hard disk space on your computer and drive

  • Windows Media Player 10+

For the best viewing experience of the films on your computer we recommend you have a screen
resolution of 1024 x 768 (minimum of 800 x 600) and speakers or other audio output. Internet access is
also required.

A choice of up to 20 popular Paramount titles can be unlocked for a fee including:

  • Star Trek (2009) (Free when you buy the Special Edition Hard Drive)

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

  • GI Joe

  • Shooter

  • The Hunt for Red October

  • The Italian Job (2003)

  • Ghost

  • Patriot Games

  • Beowulf

  • Enemy at the Gates

  • The Spiderwick Chronicles

  • The Love Guru

  • Coach Carter

  • The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

  • Nacho Libre

  • Jackass 2.5

  • A Plumm Summer

  • Carriers

  • Dance Flick

  • Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

  • Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

I had a chance to test out this hard drive and I wanted to tell you about my experiences with the software and with the Star Trek (2009) movie.   I must say after playing the movie, I was impressed with the High Definition.   My computer can support High Definition and I was quite shocked that it wasn’t Standard Definition.   While playing the movie, you will notice the Hard Drive will get warm but it isn’t a problem.

In order to view these movies on your laptop or computer your will need to acquire the license from the Paramount store to make the movie you choice available to be watched from your computer or if you have the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+1080P HD Media Player STCEA201-RK. This is good for those who might want to view this on your High Definition Television sets. It is just as cheap as the Roku. After your get the rights to watch the movie on that computer, you no longer need to have Internet Access to watch it. Great for when you are traveling and can’t get internet access. You only can give three systems the rights to view that particular movie that you bought through the Paramount store, but the prices are comparable to those you get fromAmazon Video on demand. The only drawback is that you will need to use Internet Explorer 8 or Higher to buy or acquire a license from the store. You have to make Internet Explorer your default bro
wser when you want to buy a new license for a movie off the hard drive.

I never heard a sound out of the hard drive while it was running. I could tell they made sure to keep it quite when they made the hard drive. The other nice thing about the FreeAgent Hard drive is that you only need to have one USB port to use this, and no power cords are required either. I must say that is also nice to have when you are on the go, no need to find an extra power outlet.

Seagate FreeAgent Ultra Portable
Amazon: $99.99 (Silver / Black)
Mwave: Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 500GB 2.5 Ultra-Portable Hard Drive STAA500100 USB Black
Mwave: STAA500102 USB Blue
Freeagent Go Special Edition(movie)
Seagate: FreeAgent Go Pre-loaded with Star Trek on it(No longer Available).
Amazon: No links available
NewEgg: No links available
Seagate Docking Station
Amazon: $16.99

If your backing up a lot of GB’s of data, the drive does get warm but that is also normal. It was never hot enough to burn me or hurt anything. I find the small size to be quite nice to have when traveling and going places with it. Not bulky or overweight, only about 1/2 pound of weight when you pick it up. The only drawback that I can see is the way they use the lights to show you when the hard drive is being used, a few small holes will dim and light up and unless you are really watching those lights you won’t know!

The Programs that come with this are quite powerful. Great Backup tools and Syncing tools for keeping your important data backed up. There is even a Carbonite trial on the Hard drive to encourage your to keep your data backed up off site. I do recommend people trying Carbonite because you never know what will happen to your home or your computer.

Would I recommend this to My Science Fiction Friends?

I most certainly would recommend this to any one who might need to have a way to backup their files and also have a way to have portable movies on the go. I can say that this idea of having media on a portable device like this is a great way to watch movies offline.

I’ve also asked them some questions that I am waiting for a response but when I do find out, I will update this post for those who might have the same questions. I will also update the links so you can buy these hard drives online!

A Sneak Peak at the A600 3G Broadband Cricket Card

Paul

So I was doing a little research and found this nugget from my Affiliates Network:

Features:

Removable Memory Format:  microSD
Storage Capacity External memory up to 4GB
Text Messaging Yes
Contact Directory Yes
Language English/Spanish

Wireless Capabilities:

Technology CDMA
Mode Tri-Band
Data Transfer Speed 3G (EVDO Rev 0, Rev A) and 1x
USB Broadband Modem (A600) Looks interesting, and I am thinking this will be the next thing the company will start Advertising for. Right now though, it cost 119$ with a 50$ Mail in Rebate and you spend 69$. With a CDMA only USB Card like the UM100, you know the speed of that. Now According to Wikipedia for 3G and I’ll quote:

Thus users sold 3G service may not be able to point to a standard and say that the speeds it specifies are not being met. While stating in commentary that “it is expected that IMT-2000 will provide higher transmission rates: a minimum speed of 2Mbit/s and maximum of 14.4Mbit/s for stationary users, and 348 kbit/s in a moving vehicle,”

Now this is a much improved speed and I will be testing this in the future but for right now it is untested. I’ll have another article in the coming months about this. I also like the look of this but haven’t seen it first hand. The other thing I like is the the 4 Gigabytes of MicroSD memory. [intlink id=”3171″ type=”post”]I can see a whole range of useful programs you can install on the USB and make it Portable to a point[/intlink]. I’ll improve on that later on once I play around with what you can have on the card and what you have to have to use the USB modem. The Modem supports Windows 2000 through Windows Vista 64 Bit, also Supports Macintosh.

More to Come!!  (Check out the UM100 Review)

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Using Skype with Cellular BroadBand Modems

Paul

If your like me you will want to make sure you have the best possible speed and connection with your broad band modem. Here are a few articles to better help with you get the best possible speed with a broad band modem like a Cricket modem:

Some other things to consider are:

These will start to make it better for you to use a modem and get the best possible speeds from the modem.  You have to realize what your coverage area is.  There are many factors in regards to your modem speed but that is something that you will have to figure out how to get better speeds.

How do you use Skype with your Cellular broad band modem?

Somethings to remembers with your broadband modem is you won’t have a good connection no matter how hard you try.   Most cellular carriers don’t want you to us it with VOIP(Voice of Internet Protocol).   So you will have to pay close attention to how you use the bandwidth and what you are doing while making a VOIP call.

The good thing about Skype is, it comes with some very useful tools to better watch your bandwidth and to help get the best possible connection.  You will want to make sure not to have it be a super-node, to do this you go to:

Tools then;Options

My settings for Skype with Cricket<

As you can see I checked off use port 80 and 443 as alternative incoming connections, I also like to see all the technical information and bandwidth usage per call.  I made sure to use Socks5 to prevent skype from becoming a super-node. I also have it set to not automatically start up when I load windows.  To do that all you have to do is go to the General tab and un-check start Skype when Windows start.   You can use any port you want as long as you use the same on the SOCKs5 setting also.   I just made the port up it can be 0 to 4 numbers long.   If you want to understand what ports are this little document will greatly help you figure out which ports are good to use.  Some other things to remember when you use Skype for long periods of time is if you need to call someone you should try not to use the internet to much for that takes bandwidth also.  It is better to have Skype use all the possible bandwidth you have available.