iPhone 5s, 5c - still no FM radio

Of all things that I miss on new portable devices, is none other than the FM radio. I should make a correction, most MP3 players had one, so did an earlier Nokia phone. My old Huawei u8350 also had and FM radio. The amber update for the Nokia Lumia series will also bring the FM radio. The Blackberry 9360 that I should have gotten also has an FM radio.


Commercial radio is an annoying waste of time,  do not get me wrong. If you have access to public radio that offers news coverage, documentaries, interviews and other magazines, you will find an FM radio very convenient.

Perhaps this is part of Apple's model:  make everything commercial.When using streaming services you are normally paying for bandwidth.

Virgin Mobile, a subsidiary of Bell Mobility, is a bad corporate citizen

For over a year, I had an account with Virgin Mobile. I do not like to use a phone, but I had to have one. Now in remote areas, I can rarely get coverage. My account had some remaining funds when I found that out. Acknowledging it was a prepaid account, I did not think I could get my money back, I was hopeful that the money I spent wasn't going to waste. 

Unfortunately, Virgin Mobile was of no help. They did not follow up on my communications, that is I had to call back, and then later write an e-mail. In fact I felt I needed to get the message below in writing for completing the task.

Fortunately, I did find a website that listed organisations that can receive donations via SMS.

Mobile Giving Foundation lists a few organisations.

Here was my request:

I contacted Virgin mobile by phone last month to request that the remainder of my balance be transferred to a charity such as the one on the Virgin Mobile website http://www.virginmobile.ca/en/members-lounge/regen.html?itcid=FOT:34

I learnt that most I do not have a signal the majority of the time, and therefore will not be able to use the phone.

The customer service agent said I would be contacted by e-mail with instructions on how to transfer the balance, however I haven't received a message.

Please advise how the remainder of my account balance can be transferred to a charitable organisation.


Thank you, 

Here is Virgin Mobile's response:

A pleasant day to you,
Thank you for taking time to write to us.  This is Melissa from Virgin Mobile.  I will be very glad to assist you on your email inquiry on how you could donate your account balance to charity.
Upon reviewing your account, I do see that you were able to call us  and spoke with one of our Customer Service representatives regarding this matter.

I  was also able to verify that your case has already been escalated to our Billing department for further possible resolution.  In line with this, our Billing team had said that " We have no way to refund your  balance and if they would like to donate it, you will have to use your own resources to find a method to donate (such as a SMS donation).  However with Virgin, weare not affiliated with any as of this time and  this is not a service offered by us.  Sorry about that.
The reference Case I.D. # is  XXXXXXXX.
For further assistance or concerns, feel free to give us a call at 1.888.999.2321 or 611 from your handset and one of our Customer Care specialists will be glad to help you.
We're open from 9:00 am to 9:00   P.M - Monday to Saturday and 10:00 am to 7:00pm (EST) ¿ Sunday.
I hope I was able to assist you with this information.  Take care and have a great day ahead!
Regards,
Melissa
VMC Team

Windows : Search makes the Start Menu useless - From 95 to 7, and finally in 8 designers got it right

The old start menu introduced in Windows 95 was a good idea. One place you access a tree of folders with their respective programs.
However if you look at most start menu folders, you will see that it is a mess :

• Program shortcut ( OK, that is what you want/need ) 
• EULA
• Link to the developer's website
• Help file ( when will you access that file without being in the program? )
• Link to register the program

When it comes down to it, you only need one item : the shortcut to the program.

In Windows 8, I rarely find myself looking at the tiles of the start screen (Metro) to find out what program I want to use.  I just type it. Sometimes the item I am looking for is in files, sometimes it is in settings. I just press Tab to move to next group.

There is no need for a touchscreen. Just get a good keyboard you'll be set.

Another reason why I should have gotten a Blackberry - Shortcuts

My bias is clear. I like to type, and I find touch screens slow and unpredictable.

Here is a list of shortcuts that would make a mobile device useful :

from (http://www.knowyourmobile.com/blackberry/8072/blackberry-keyboard-shortcuts-complete-list)

A comprehensive list of BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts - whatever typing shortcut you're looking for you'll find it here...

Messaging shortcuts

These shortcuts can be used in the message.

Desired action	Shortcut
Reply to a message	Press R
Reply to all	Press L
File highlighted email message	Press I
View email address of a contact in a message	Highlight the contact and press Q To return to the display name press Q again

These shortcuts can be used in a message list

Desired action	Shortcut
Open a highlighted message	Press Enter key
Mark a message as opened or unopened	Press Alt and U
View received messages	Press Alt and I
View sent messages	Press Alt and O
View voicemail messages	Press Alt and V
View SMS text messages	Press Alt and S
View call logs	Press Alt and P
View all your messages again	Press the Escape/Back key

These shortcuts can be used to move around a message list

Desired action	Shortcut
Move to the top of the screen	Press Shift and Space keys
Move to the bottom of the screen	Press Space key
Go to the top of a message list	Press T
Go to the bottom of a message list	Press B
Move to next date	Press N
Move to previous date	Press P
Move to next unopened item	Press U
Move to next related message	Press J
Move to previous related message	Press K

BlackBerry use made easy

Built-in touches often missed by users despite being in the manual

Desired action	Shortcut
Insert a full stop	Press Space key twice
Insert '@' and full stops into email addresses	Press Space key while typing in the address
Type and accent or special character	Hold the appropriate key and roll the trackpad or trackball
Capitalise a letter	Hold the letter key until the capitalised character appears
Exit a screen or dialogue box	Press Escape/Back key
Move the cursor in a different direction	Press Alt key and roll the trackpad or trackball
Change an option field	Hold Alt key and click a value
Jump to an item in a list or menu	Press the first letter of the item
Select a check box	Press Space key. To clear the box press the Space key again
Select a line of text	Press Shift and roll the trackpad or trackball
Turn on the backlighting	Press (but don't hold) the Power button
Find contacts from the BlackBerry homescreen	Press the letters for the contact's first and last with a space between them
Switch to another program	Hold down the BlackBerry button until the programs appear. Toggle through them using the trackball or trackpad and click Enter to select
Move down a screen	Press Space key
Move up a screen	Press Shift plus Space key
Multitask while on a call	Press the BlackBerry button while on a call, followed by selecting the homescreen. From here you can access any other application or emails

BlackBerry applications shortcuts

These shortcuts can be used while in applications including Docs to Go and the BlackBerry browser

Desired action	Shortcut
Change the size of a column in a spreadsheet	Press the W key
View the contents of a spreadsheet cell	Press Space key with the cell highlighted
Search for text in a spreadsheet	Tap F followed by the text you are looking for
Switch to another worksheet	Press V and select another worksheet
Skip forwards through slides	Press N key
Skip backwards through slides	Press P
Start a slideshow	Press S
Stop a slideshow	Press Escape
Enter a new web address in a browser	Press G followed by the url
Add item to bookmarks	Press A
Show bookmarks	Press K
Refresh a web page	Press R
Show a history of the most recent sites visited	Press I
Insert a backslash to a web address	Press Shift followed by Space

Windows 7 - Clearing up space 2.7GB from the WINSXS folder

(NOTE : There should be images from Windows 7 below, but I already upgraded to Windows 8. It is a great improvement if you use a keyboard as a main input device, and I imagine that if you use a mouse or a touchscreen a lot, Windows 8 must even be better. Nevertheless, the instructions and Windows Explorer work just the same.)

If you are upgrading to Windows 8 and find yourself limited on space, clearing out every GB of space you can is necessary. I only have a 60GB drive, so clearing 20GB for a 64-bit installation was not easy. I only had about 1GB of photos, no music, and not much else. For sure some junk was here and there, but I needed to clear out programs that I didn't need anymore. After uninstalling what I could, moving media and other personal documents, I was still about 5GB short of space.

Fist off, I recommend that you try Folder Size - the program will list the data in each folder. It may tell you where there is something well off.

That is how I found WINSXS...

The c:\Windows\winsxs contains a lot of folders, and presumably files that haven't been used. That could be the case at the time of installation, or since an update came along. To be sure that you are not deleting files that you will need, the recent files must be sorted from the current ones. Using a details view in Windows Explorer, add a column  "Date Accessed".
Sort using that column and you may find folders that date back to 2009. Select and move to another folder. (Ironically, my screenshot is of Windows 8 with files of 2012!)
 
Reboot.

Run applications that you normally use.


If all is well, you can just delete those files.

I gained 2.7 GB of free space.

For the time being, I will leave Windows 8 intact. It will need customization down the line, however I appreciate how snappy it is compared to Windows 7 or OSX.