Month: June 2009

Just a few weeks later after the 1st Push-To-Talk app for Skype, there is 2nd one that can be downloaded from here (I haven’t tried it, yet!)

A screenshot can also be seen there! Which proves once again, the community will find its way and get what it’s searching for, with Skype’s support or with without.

Hopefully the Skype Staff will re-consider including the removal of SkypeMe.

Technorati Tags: PTT, Skype
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As some steady readers know, I am a supporter and fan of Wolfbernz’s BlogDumps.

It’s again Top Sites Tuesday and today’s theme is what is your blog about?

Well, what is my blog about? So…this is hard to tell… originally it was supposed to be a pure fun blog with no serious contents on it, hence the name “Nafcom’s Crap Blog”, but it turned out I found something about various things that I found interesting enough to post.

So, it turned out to become a place where I provide solutions for problems I were having and I had to find the solution myself. Many information is not available elsewhere, and so I often get emails from people asking me about drivers, workarounds or other solutions I found and I even receive positive comments about my blog posts.

The 2nd theme of this blog is supposed the difficulties and adventures in global communication.

So thanks for the support and interest all the years, I am glad it proved to be helpful for many people 🙂

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Technorati Tags: Nafcom, Blogdumps
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I have written about the fact that SkypeMe has been removed earlier, it was the status that made you showing available for calls and chats from strangers.

It was a cool feature that unfortuantely was used by a lot of spammers to annoy people.

Instead of finding another way, Skype removed it. Now Skype has made an official announcement in March why it was removed.

Today, I learned that there is a tool to re-add SkypeMe mode in SKype 4.0. I just tried it today and it works 🙂

Well done! Thanks! 🙂

but there are too ways: The above tool (scroll up on this page to see the download link) and using skype on devices phones that still have skypeme mode. since the last skype status will be the one used for all other skype instances!

Technorati Tags: Skype, SkypeMe
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Just stumbled over this:

A very funny commercial for Skype at least!

Being a Skype addict since the first day they released it. (Back then when it was still half-duplex) I also remember the posts on their forum regarding the awful experience with the live chat that the Skype Customer Support offered. Then they removed this way of communicating with the Skype support relying totally on emails.

Now the live chats are back: (contact them here – by the way: Server times out as I write this).

So I thought it would be a good idea to write to them asking what the plans for Skype for Iphone are, as T-Mobile Germany allows now voip telephony as an extra bookable package.

However the holy Skype support didn’t even know about the existance of Skype for iPhone and insisted that there is none but only the 3rd partly application “Fring”.

When he found out he was right, he insisted I shall ask 3G/Edge. The conversation was pointless, my question was not answered, I ended the conversation.

Background is that, despite T-Mobile Germany removing the block tehre is still a block for VoiP on the iPhone over 3G/EDGE because Apple’s Appstore forbids it.

Conclusion: If you need help try the forums for a chance and/or the email support.

Technorati Tags: Support, Skype
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I was recently invited to text the new Vopium for iPhone. So it would work like entering your mobile phone number and it would SMS you with a download link to Vopium, in the case of the iPhone it will be a link to the app in the AppStore.

Bring time with you when you want to register, and setup vopium, it will take a while. However they have excellent guidance online.

Vopium is very proud about their excellent call quality to Pakistan.

It re-routes all calls through their gateway if you are on GSM not wifi.

Quoting them:

“How Vopium works:
Vopium is a free software program that uses mobile VoIP, Wi-Fi & GSM technology to reduce the cost of international phone calls on mobile whilst also maintaining excellent call quality. Free and easy to download, Vopium integrates directly with the address book on the phone, automatically re-routing all international calls via the least expensive method available. “

, however e.g. for iphone users over here the least expensive mode depends on the tariff. in mine I can decide whether I have a flatrate for national landline phones or T-Mobile mobile phones. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the answer what kind of gateway number it uses (mobile or landline?) for re-routing in time for this review, I have used Wi-Fi anyway.

Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi calls are for free while ordinary calls cost a little. The costs are compareable to Skype’s.

Hower they also offer international packages (flatrates) but the special thing about them is that they also have special flatrates for Turkey, India and Pakistan!

What are your alternatives for voip calls on a non-wifi connection on the iphone? Well, for once there is IM+ For Skype but there the routing works like a call back service and costs you money. Then there is Talkster but it doesn’t support all countries.

So Vopium closes the gap here.

About call quality I cannot say much yet as I didn’t have a chance to make a lot of calls yet but I have suggested them to give me a chance for further test calls and I would post the test results in a follow on my blog.

So far, when I complained about a call to a Peruvian mobile sounding like Micky Mouse, they’ve improved that so customer service works.

Also the short call to Bulgaria mobiles was in fine quality.

So go and get it and try it out 🙂

Technorati Tags: Vopium, iPhone
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Well, I received a few requets asking if the Pleo Ucube Li-Polymer rechargeable batteries are any good.

Above you can see one of the chargers I bought from Ucube. The battery can be seen here as the batteries are out of stock and won’t back in again and they stopped mail trading anyway, I decided to get them from Ucube directly. All I had done was sending an email to them. A few days later I received a reply. After a couple of quick calls and emails everything was sorted out and they arrived by EMS from Twaian to my place within 5 days OK wrapped and damage free 🙂

Some people wondered about Ucube and whether the battery is the same from Litec-Computer and any good.

I also received a reply from the to my last post, they are not really seen as “Ugobe Asia” but as a Taiwanese PLEO agency.

Well, the Egg Charger came boxed with one Li-Polymer rechargeable battery inside. It comes with an output USB port, what is that good for? Well, it can be used to power up USB gadgets when the battery is inside ad fully loaded.

Included is a Taiwanese manual but an English manual was sent to me on request. All in all I can say, that communicating with them is a pleassure. No issues, neither with the emails nor on phone, even the manual is perfectly translated and professional.

The battery was promised to last 2 hours continuesly playing with Pleo. So far I can say it’s playing since 3 days for an impressive time span still on the first charge.
Loading time is superb with 3 hours. (original Pleo NIMH rechargeable batteries take 4 hours to me).

Impportant to know: It doesn’t come with a PSU but a multi-switch PSU should be no issue. input is 12v 600 mAh.

So if you are desperate for good batteries for your Pleo, getting them from Ucube in Taiwan is a possibility.
The hardest part was to fill the 4 A paper for the bank transfer to Taiwan 🙂

Technorati Tags: Pleo, battery
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Pleo is rescued! Jetta in Hong Kong won the auction
(source: Robots Rule Pleo Blog) quoting them:

“Jetta Company Limited, the company that manufactured the Pleo baby robot dinosaur for Ugobe, bought the intellectual property rights and other assets at the Ugobe bankruptcy sale that occurred on May 21. I spoke with Steve Ohler today, the United States liaison for the company, and he confirmed the news. He said the company is firmly committed to re-launching Pleo and continuing the line including accessories such as the vital battery and charger components.“

They also quote Jetta’s press release:

“Hong Kong – Jetta Company Limited acquired the assets of Ugobe and will be re-launching “Pleo” in the near future. Established in 1977, Jetta has focused on manufacturing an extended range of toy, consumer electronics, juvenile, robotic and gift products and is one of the most recognized engineering and OEM companies within the toy industry. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Jetta currently operates five production campuses in Guangdong Province which combined has over 4.5 million square feet of production floor space. At the forefront of the fast-paced toy and robotics industries, Jetta continues to strive for “excellence” and is pleased to add “Ugobe” to its operations.“

Technorati Tags: Pleo, Ugobe
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The new owner of Pleo has put back up the PleoWorld.com website today ! Everything works and looks like before it was taken down by Ugobe! Inlcuding broken Forums and broken mailing list, even emailing to them works, which I just did and so let’s see whether they really give support now!

This will help a lot of new Pleo owners since it’s still available in shops locally and online in many places of many countries and often owners are shocked when they found out the homepage to register is no more!

Technorati Tags: Pleo, Pleoworld
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I have decided recently to finally get myself a Pleo from Ugobe. However Ugobe went bankrupt roughly a month ago so bad news for me.

So help Saving The Pleo!!! <--- click it :)

So my first step was trying to find out whether I could still buy it from one of my prefered sellers for a reasonable price. I found that ComputerUniverse still have them in stock for a reasonable price (around 250 € back then).

Then I tried to ask the remaining local companies/partners of Pleo / Ugobe whether they still support Pleo owners, etc.

Pleo Malaysia and Pleo Italy haven’t replied to date (I resent my inquiries yesterday this time directly to their HQs)

Then I found that there are stronger rechargeable batteries (Li-Polymer ) that can keep Pleo awake for 2 hours instead of just one.

I did a longer research and found that Litec Computer was very helpful but unfortunately the batteries are sold out, only some chargers are left in stock. Then I found in the forum Pleo Dino Netherlands a post quoting Ucube (Ugobe Taiwan) address.

To avoid further frustration I did a search on them and found the statement of Ucube that they will continue supporting Pleo:

“Asia-Pacific region has always been the product support is responsible for Ugobe Asia from, Ugobe Asia and the United States is Ugobe separate company, Ugobe company is mainly responsible for the United States R D and design, it is the Asia-Pacific region sales and after-sales service and will not be affected .”

Furthermore they stated:

“Ugobe Asia for the Asia-Pacific region with Pleo pet owners to provide technical support and customer service, all the rights and interests of all users will not be damaged. “

So I decided to give it a try and sent an email to Ucube asking wether they would sell me the batteries with the chargers and a dew days later I received an email with a calculation for a pack of 2.

Since some questions were left open I decided to give them a ring and the person who picked up was very nice and polite and with very decent English skills 🙂

after a couple of more small calls and emails the payment went through and I today received the EMS Tracking information for the parcel!

They also confirmed that they “of course!” will support Pleo as ususal despite the bankruptcy of Ugobe!

So much dedication for Pleo owners deserves a golden Leaf award, hehe! 🙂

(template from Liza Kliko)

Meanwhile there are rumours that Pleoworld Italy won the auction of all the Pleo stuff.

If you are searching for a way to get your XBOX360 remote working in Windows Vista, check out this post on the All Reviews Online blog!

You got a Media Center infrared receiver and have the problem that it doesn’t install in Windows XP X64? There are some manuals (for Windows Server 2008 32bit) on the internet and some hints but they are spread everywhere and are outdated and don’t work in most cases.

So I sat down and figured it out on my own within 2 hours.

Like some some headsets and some scanners, the drivers for Windows Vista X64 will also work in Windows XP X64, however 3 issues:

1) It is downloaded from Windows Update severs for installation
2) It won’t install on Windows XP X64 without modification
3) The installation process has some issues

First of all, I copied the following files from the Windows Vista X64 Service Pack 2 folder into a separate folder (Just used search function within the Vista folder):

circlass.inf
circlass.sys
CIRCoInst.dll
hidclass.sys
hidir.sys
hidparse.sys
usbcir.inf
usbcir.sys

Then you create a sub folder and copy all files of one of the Windowswinsxsamd64_input.inf folders of Vista.

It has to contain the following files:

hidclass.sys
hidir.sys
hidparse.sys
hidusb.sys
input.inf

Now open and edit the files

usbcir.inf
circlass.inf

replace all places containing “NTamd64…1” with “NTamd64” otherwise the drivers won’t be installed.

Now you boot up Windows XP X64, it will ask for the drivers. Select to choose your own, click on “browse”, select your folder with the driver files.

It will then ask if you really want to install, confirm this.

Notice: Now at the end of the installation, the installer will crash. It might also accidently cause another action like a program start (it tried to start Sega Rally which I had installed) or it will simply freeze the installation window of the driver routine.

Afzer you killed the frozen installer talk, Windows will tell you it found new hardware and installed it successfully.

Then it will find an “unknown device” and ask for those drivers. Go now to the subfolder in which you put the 2nd driver and select this. Also here you confirm you really want continue installation! And done!

If you want the driver you can also email me.

Technorati Tags: X64, IR
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