michaelwyres.com » Gadgets

When Your Music Really Blows!

Michael Wyres — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:36:39 +0000

I was wandering around Bunnings this afternoon, after finding a price on a new mixer tap to replace a seriously stuffed tap in our kitchen, when I happened upon this little gem of tackiness:

A tower fan. With an “MP3 Input” – more likely, just a 3.5mm audio input jack.

And speakers. And a clock. Probably has alarms too!

Who would buy such a thing?

Too. Damn. Funny.

Yes, The Solar Panels Work

Michael Wyres — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:32:22 +0000

We’ve just received our first power bill since the installation of our solar panels.

I think they are working.

It’s better than half of the same quarter last year, and not covering a full quarterly period.

Looking forward to the next power bill!

Zap! I Think This Powerboard is Broken!

Michael Wyres — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:54:16 +0000

Amidst some recent project work for a major Melbourne hospital network, I stumbled across this powerboard in the engineering department of one of the hospital campuses.

Given I found it in the engineering department, I’m sure it was there due to the “degraded” state it was in – (ie: taken out of service) – but given this particular campus specialised in aged care, I started wondering what caused the “degradedness” of the unit.

Gladys stuck her fork in it? Alfred tried to water it?

However it was done, not a bad effort.

Optus: ICS for Original Galaxy Tab “Soon”

Michael Wyres — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:41:03 +0000

Good news for owners Optus-branded versions of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab – (myself included) – with news that the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) coming to the device “soon”.

I commented on Twitter over the weekend that my device had finally updated from Froyo to Gingerbread, but lamented that it wasn’t taken all the way up to the latest ICS.

Then comes this tweet back this morning from Optus:

Sweet.

iOS5 Over The Air Updating

Michael Wyres — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:02:15 +0000

Well, we’ve had Apple release the first delta update to iOS5, so we can now see “over the air” updating for the first time – and I was impressed.

Only 44.2mb, downloaded, verified, and installed in 13 minutes on an iPhone 4 – (not a 4S) – and all is well.

Certainly beats plugging it in and downloading 650Mb all the time! Nice one Apple.

Heap Big Wind Turbine

Michael Wyres — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:54:23 +0000

In the last couple of days, the strangest looking wind turbine has been erected in North Geelong.

Or is that a sub-space transmitter?

Holy Levitation Batman!

Michael Wyres — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:03:30 +0000

I was just pointed towards this really cool video about quantum levitation.

The possibilities for transportation systems alone are mind boggling.

Awesomesauce.

Setting Your iOS5 Device Up For Wireless Sync

Michael Wyres — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:53:06 +0000

So, you’ve managed to update your iDevice to the newly released iOS5 – hopefully you didn’t have the problems that some have had.

Now that you’ve done it, how do you setup one of the coolest new features – wireless iTunes synchronisation? You’ll never need to connect up your device to your computer with a cable ever again.

Well, you will at least one more time!

The first thing to do is to connect your device with your Apple cable to the computer you normally sync with. Once iTunes finds your device, go to its summary page and make sure that “Sync with this [iDevice] over Wi-Fi” is ticked, like so:

Click “Apply”, and do a normal sync to save this new setting to the device itself.

Now, disconnect the device – and you may never need to connect it by cable again. Make sure your device is connected to your wireless network.

Go into your “Settings” app, and under “General” go to “iTunes Wi-Fi Sync”, like so:

Once inside you can click the “Sync Now” button – watch what happens in iTunes on your computer. Your device will also sync automatically whenever you plug it into your charger, and you can tell it to sync from within iTunes on your computer, and it will find your phone on the network.

Pure magic – and about time!