Another 15 minutes

I previously wrote a post about my problems with playlists and music with the TouchFLO3D music player, and today I found a solution/workaround for this problem and decided to publish it as a new post.

This problem applies more to people using non-English versions of Windows Media Player or have music of a non-English language that have special characters in its name.

I have a Swedish Windows Media Player on my computer which I use to sync my music to the HTC Touch HD mobile phone. The problem occurs when the album name contains Scandinavian characters (“åäö”) or the “album name” ID3-tag of the mp3-file is empty and you use a Scandinavian WMP, then the default folder name on the computer and the playlist will be “Okänt album” (eng. Unknown album), but the actual folder name on the device will be “Oknt album”, so the file is simply not found from the path given in the playlist. This will make the entire TouchFLO player to crash and display an empty playlist, instead of just that song being missing.

The solution is to check and edit the ID-tag of all mp3 songs and putting “Unknown” in the album title for example, this way the path in the playlist and the actual path will be the same and everything will work with your playlist.

Note that the path will not be renamed if you just edit the file and re-sync, you have to delete the folder on the device and force a new sync so WMP will create the path again, now with no Scandinavian characters.

This works for me, but the bug with not being able to scroll through a playlist containing several hundreds of files remains and must be fixed by HTC. I hope they release a fix for these kinds of special character problems too.

The HTC Touch HD (Blackstone) mobile phone is probably one of the most advanced out there right now, and many users have alot of questions, thoughts and there are also a few bugs. So here is a list of hints, tips, tricks and solutions for your HTC Touch HD. Among my previous posts you can also find descriptions of current problems with the phone as well as some links to free software for your Windows Mobile device that can certainly come in handy.

So here is a list of some hints, tips and tricks I’ve found most useful so far…

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Today I saw Max Payne, a movie based on the computer game with the same name, which is a very cool game by the way. Mark Wahlberg play the role as Max Payne. I think they captured the atmosphere from the game very nicely with the footage, gore and the dark description of the city. What is abit strange though is that the weather in the city goes from snow to pouring rain and back to snow again in minutes from scene to scene sometimes, one notice this because the snow really adds value to the footage in most scenes. But none the less it reminded me of the game very much, and it really has that computer game like story to it. Other than that I don’t know if it’s really that good of a movie, it’s abit too dark and weird for my taste, atleast in the beginning until enough of the plot is revealed, but if you stick with it for a while it will start to make more sense. If you ever played the game I recommend you see it.

Today the public beta of Windows 7 was released and I decided to download a copy and try it out on a virtual machine. So I configured a machine (Other, 32-bit) with 512 Mb RAM and 16 Gb disk (Windows 7 requires 8.3 Gb). Booting up on the DVD starts the very straight forward setup of the operating system, when it asks for serial number/cd key just continue with a blank one. After a while of copying, unpacking of files and a couple of automatic reboots you’re at the desktop and can begin to look around.

The setup proceedure and OS interface reminds me alot of how Linux is installed with Ubuntu and Fedora, looks and feels very simular. There are probably alot of things to explore, the first thing I noticed was the screen resolution slider that showed available settings and the file structure of “libraries” and also possibility to “stack” files by type for example, which could come in handy if you have alot of files in the same folder.

Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer 8 (beta) and Media Center. There is a serious bug in Media Center with mp3 corruption that Microsoft now have released a hotfix for.

I haven’t really used Windows Vista alot myself but my impression is that Windows 7 is more lean, clean and probably more stable and optimized. While Windows Vista is more like what Windows Millenium was before Windows XP came. I think that it reminds me alot of when I last installed Linux though (Fedora). I will continue to try some stuff on my virtual Windows 7 machine and see if my first impression last.

A few months ago I posted a page about HTC Touch Diamond vs IPhone 3G but I think that comparing IPhone 3G with HTC Touch Diamond was not as appropriate as comparing it with the newer HTC Touch HD, which is really the “IPhone killer” right now. So here I will post the info about these two phones.

IPhone 3G: Nice design, touch screen and good interface. Overrated phone that doesn’t even have basic functionality like MMS (it has now/soon though) or radio. Also buggy with 3G in Sweden (fixed?). I don’t see what the hype with IPhone is all about. The screen is only 480×320. Dimensions are 115.5×62.1×12.3 mm and it weighs 133 grams. Only a 2 megapixel camera. It has a multitouch screen, which is nice. Keywords that apply: new (?), fresh design, overrated, no radio, expensive to own, appstore.

HTC Touch HD: Nice design, touch screen and good interface. The phone has all functions one would want from a phone these days; MMS, GPS, 3.5mm headphone plug, memory card capability (32 Gb I’ve heard, it comes with 8 Gb), high resolution screen (800×480), radio and more. It is pretty much the same size as the IPhone, but a millimeter shorter, narrower and thinner  (115×62.8×12 mm), but it weighs abit more (147g). It has a 5 megapixel camera, but no flash. It gives very good battery time, I only charge mine once a week at most with normal use. I think it’s probably the most complete phone yet, allthough the touchscreen is better on IPhone with its multitouch etc, but this still is good enough for sure. The interface does not feel slow either, like it was reported to be on the Diamond. If you’re an advanced user you can tweak and customize this Windows Mobile 6.1 based phone alot. The screen on this phone really gives a crystal clear display and watching movies on it is very nice. I think the sound on it is very nice, much better than my previous Nokia N95. Keywords that apply: new, fresh design, has all functionality one want.

I think both of these are nice phones, but there are some things that gives the HTC an edge I think, like the display, memory, radio, battery time, design and that you are not forced to use iTunes and a specific network operator out of the box. One thing I would like for Windows Mobile though is an AppStore. But for me the winner is HTC Touch HD, and I got one that I’m really happy with.

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I got “Rock Band” for Playstation 3 today and was hoping to play all my instruments from Guitar Hero World Tour. I read “official” compatibility charts for all instruments and the games so I knew it should work, but it didn’t. Rock Band does not recognize the drums of Guitar Hero World Tour, atleast not yet. There is hopefully a patch coming for the game on PS3 to make this happen soon, as you can read here. It is unclear if Rock Band 2 will recognize the drums, but I hope it will work right out from the box when it comes. If not they will just have to fix this, and fast, since they’ve pretty much promised both these games will work with the World Tour drums if I understand the situation. But right now, I can only use the guitar and microphone with Rock Band.

Today I bought tickets for me and several members of my family for the concert by Jean-Michel Jarre (World Arena Tour) at Hovet arena in Stockholm the 14th of May (2009). They were pretty expensive, but I think it will be a nice experience. Jarre’s legendary music has always sort of been part of our family when I grew up and we all enjoy it, perhaps more so me and my father, in fact the name of my fathers yaht is inspired by one of his songs. Jarre is well known for his innovative synthesizer instruments and spectacular live concerts with lots of lasers and visual effects and he’s a pioneer of the electronic and synth music genre. The most well known hit of Jean-Michel Jarre is probably “Oxygene” (first came out in 1977).

Looking forward to this, long wait though… Click to view post details and see a video teaser from one of his concerts to get an idea of the experience.

Jean-Michel Jarre and his laser harp

 By the way, what’s up with taking a service charge on e-tickets? That doesn’t seem like the way to go.

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