Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com

Rachel and I had a great time last night at the second Portland Podcasting Meetup. We hung out with Jason and Anna of the Delta Park Project, Tim Germer of Northwest Noise, and lots of other cool people (if you were there last night, post a comment or email me with your contact info!). We had a great time, and there were lots of people interested in starting a podcast, or learning about different aspects of it.

I recorded some audio using my Dell Axim x50v and a Sony Lavalier mic, but I haven’t listened to it yet, so I don’t know how it turned out. Last time, I used the Griffin lapel mic, and it was just too sensitive (way too much clipping, ruined the recording). I’ll post some/all of it up later, after I have a chance to listen to it.

I also did quite a bit of video, which I’ll be posting up, as well. Look for lots of cool stuff along those lines, probably this weekend. You’ll feel like you were there!

EDIT: Here’s Tim’s write up of the evening’s events. He did a lot better about getting everyone’s name and info than I did. Thanks Tim! Video will be coming as soon as I get a change to pull it off of the camera!

Whenever I go to www.google.com on my T-Mobile BlackBerry 7100t web browser, it insists on taking me to the Canadian version of the Google home page. Nothing I do can force it to the U.S. version. Normally this isn’t a big deal, but it really screws up any Google Local searches I try to do (because Google Local Canada doesn’t know anything about my Oregon zip code).

I know RIM is based in Canada, but come on…

Luckily I have the excellent Berry 411 Search app to do all of my phone and address lookups. I like it much better than plain web searches, for a couple of reasons:

• Store your Home, Work, and Other locations, which are used as context in all searches. That means that results are listed by proximity to your current specified location.
• Perform Yellow Pages, White Pages, Movies, Shopping, Wikipedia, and Google searches from one menu
• Results are tweaked so that phone numbers are clickable hyperlinks to dial - look up someone’s number, then just click on it in the results to dial
• Get maps and driving directions to all address results (Yellow and White pages)
• It’s free

Now that I think about it, Berry 411 Search is probably the most useful application I have on my Blackberry. It’s very empowering knowing that all sorts of releveant data is just a quick search away. I love it.

I’ve noticed that my Google AdSense ads on this page haven’t been changing for the last couple of weeks. They’re stuck on the ones about the Moto RAZR phone. Anyone have any idea why they’re not updating to reflect the content of the front page?

Individual post pages work fine, but these ads on the front page seem to be stuck. Anyone have any suggestions?

Here’s this week’s TinyPodcast. As usual, a new sound setup. I think the sound on this one is the best yet - we continue to try to make adjustments. And basically fiddle, because I’m a geek and I can’t help it.

The show this week is about 40 minutes long, and 19 MB. You can download the MP3 file directly, or subscribe to the TinyPodcast RSS feed in your favorite podcast aggregator, to get the shows delievered to you automatically.

Read on for this week’s show notes…

• YAAS: Yet Another Audio Setup. Hopefully the best sound yet.
• Jarrod reviews the Rave-MP MP3 player. Accepts SD cards, FM tuner, built-in mic. Verdict: Pretty Competent
• Yay work interuptions!
• Will be reviewing some Astraware Pocket PC games (Bejeweled 2, Zuma, etc.)
• Windows Mobile 2005 leak, and Microsoft’s missed opportunity to build on the buzz. Scoble, what do you think? Dell, please, please, PLEASE provide a WM2005 upgrade for the x50v! HP usually gives its users the finger with regard to upgrades.
• New TinyScreenfuls.com header graphic - thanks J Doss!
• New single point of email contact for us - tinyscreenfuls@gmail.com. Send feedback, audio, whatever.
• New voicemail line: 206-339-TINY
• Want a 1GB mini-SD card? kaitliac over at ArsTechnica has the hookup.
• The Engadget Podcast is back! No pt or Lenn Pryor, but Eric Rice is off to a great start.
• Solar death rays
• Congratulations to Lenn and his wife on their new baby, Blue!
• GadgetFamily moment - self serve diaper change
• 128 GB solid state storage coming? RAID of USB flash drives? (use a Mac)
• Achilles body part
• OurMedia.org launched. Host your audio, video, or whatever type of media, for free, forever. Server performance is much better today (they were getting hammered on launch day).
• Delphi MyFi XM2Go update from Kevin: built-in antenna is great, power button placement makes it prone to accidental power ons. Battery is a replaceable 2000mAh, and gets about 5 hours of life on a charge.
• Geeky microphone recommendations from Kevin, which is good, because Josh is a mic n00b

NOTE: We need to make a correction to the new feedback line phone number we talked about in the podcast. The correct number is 206-369-339-TINY. You can also now reach us at tinyscreenfuls@gmail.com, which will go to both Brian and me.

Thanks for listening, and send us your feedback, even if it’s just to say Hi!

FS: (4) 1GB mini-SD cards (with adapters) (New) - Topic Powered by Infopop

A friend of mine over at the ArsTechnica Forums (kaitliac) has imported some 1 GB Mini-SD cards, suitable for use in the Audiovox SMT5600 Windows Mobile Smartphone, a.k.a. the Scoblephone. She’s selling them for $162.50, including insured shipping.

Up until now, the biggest capacity Mini-SD card you could (easily) get was 512 MB. Sandisk has announced a 1GB Mini-SD card, but it’s not readily available anywhere.

If you have a phone (like the Motorola MPX220 or Audiovox SMT5600) or other device that uses Mini-SD, and want a 1GB card, go check out kaitliac’s listing for these cards. I’ll vouch for the Agora forum at Ars, and the Ars community in general.

Robert, you interested in picking one of these up for your Scoblephone?