Looks like the Symbian exposium 03 would have been a nice place to be, (hoping to go next year) but more fun would have been to be at the All About Symbian pub meet, that took place last night. Just look at some pictures from Gadget 17's Photo blog. Especially Ewan wearing a Kilt. Its been quite busy in Symbian software front too, with Opera, OPL and Vexed.

A few weeks has passed since a last entry, been thinking about building a personal video recorder / multimedia station from an "old" motherboard, that's been laying unused. It would have TiVo like capabilities, and a few extras, like mp3 player, picture viewer and be controllable with IR. It would be nice to find a Bluetooth software for my 7650 that could be used too. And if I ever get a good net connection in home (read broadband) instead GPRS, maybe control it through internet and 7650 - imagine, you are somewhere out and remember that there is something good coming from tv. Just get connected with 7650 and program your PC to record. And also with net connection it would be possible for the PVR-PC to display weather information and maybe some other net content.

I am now looking at two alternatives for the software, both would be running on Linux, and are opensource. First alternative is Freevo and the second is MythTV, both are looking good. Can't really decide, maybe have to test both, but the Freevo looks nicer at the moment. Now all I need is a little cash to buy WinTV PVR 350 or WinTV PVR 250 TV tuner card from Hauppage :D and Im almost there.

The system setup would include:
Celeron 600MHz
WinTV PVR 350 (260€) or 250 (195€)
Sapphire Radeon 7000 32MB SDR TV-Out (dirt cheap 38€)
256MB memory
Ethernet card
80GB Harddrive (Or maybe two)
CD-RW (maybe later on a DVD-RW)

It really seems that mobimate is working on bringing WorldMate to Series60 according this interview with Ramel Levin, Director, Product Management at MobiMate on Wireless Dev Net. Sweet. For those that dont click on links, the WorldMate is a world clock, weather forecaster, currency converter and (limited) map application rolled into one kickass app.

Opera Software is really in progress of making the best browser, for any computer platform, even better. There has been added new features in nearly every update since 7.0 The latest version seems to be much more faster and the old style tabbed browsing from version 6 is now included. That was the only feature I really missed, when upgraded to 7.

Y'z dock 0.7.0 beta is now out. It fixes most bugs and might be a bit faster than the old one. This app is so nice. I got rid of all icons in the desktop, just using the dock. No more clutter.

And while waiting for Matrix Reloaded it is nice to have a matrix style screensaver, and the one from ChaosSoft is propably the best one there is. If you know of better, then please tell me :D And you could also check out the new episode of Animatrix. I really cant wait for the Reloaded to come...

A whole week has passed since last post here. But its been busy few days, have had time to browse AAS, though. Its really amazing how much there is a repeat questions... Now it seems that the 3650 sales are starting, atleast the posting rate in 3650 section is now rising constantly, but it isn't yet anywhere near, what the rate was on 7650 section before xmas.

Finally finished the first skin for irRemote completely, I think it will be included in the next update. Now already putting together a new one, it is beginnig to look really cool. Should be really much faster designing it, than the first one. Lately havent had time for anything else much. Nothing interesting happening in symbian world, even. Bored...

I've been really busy last few days with the irRemote skin project, it is almost finished. It has changed quite much from the version I posted a few days ago. It now has skins for TV, CD, DVD, Tuner, Tape, Amp.

Yesterday found out that there is more functions in the irRemote, than I knew of, and now been adding lots of new shiny buttons to the set, and redesigning some old ones. Today is the release day of irRemote and my partially finished skin is included in the installation package. But I think I can finish the skin by today evening. So I think there will be a new version of it shortly after, with all the functions included.

Today finally finished the first skin project for irRemote. It was really easy to design, but it was really massive job as it has so many buttons and the XML positioning really took time. The screenshot is below.

Here is a early version of a tv remote, the finished is pretty much like that.

I was able to make the skin size go down from originals over 300kB to under 150kB. Now I'm already designing something new, this time keeping it really simple so the file size should be hopefully under 70kB. No idea yet, when the irRemote will be available from psiLOC.

The new processor is really nice, the Photoshop is so much faster. And now the Y'z dock works really smoooooth :D its the best mac style app launcher for PC.

I slept for 4h hours earlier, now just got the computer to work with the new processor. Now it feels like new :D Been playing Serious Sam: Second Encounter for a few hours. I like kicking some alien ass.