Richard's Notes

Didn’t Apple get the transition to daylight saving time wrong?

Here in NSW, we transitioned to daylight saving time at 2:00am on Sunday, 3rd October.

When I checked my iPhone on Sunday, everything appeared OK. However, when I checked this afternoon, I noticed that the iCal icon was displaying yesterday’s date. Weird.

Of course, there’s no way to make the iCal icon refresh. I ended up rebooting my iPhone. Lo and behold, after rebooting the date on the iCal icon was set correctly.

Looks like Apple has some more work to do on iOS 4.x to get it to transition to and from daylight saving time correctly.

I bought an Elgato EyeTV Netstream DTT Network Dual Tuner on the recommendation of my brother. Being a dual tuner, you can either watch/record two TV channels simultaneously or have two users on your network watch one TV channel each.

The biggest issue with EyeTV is the lack of electronic programme guide. OK, you can get a trial subscription to IceTV, but that’s not good enough when compared to Windows Media Centre (WMC). Did you know that MWC has a free EPG? That’s right, free. Why can’t Elgato arrange for a free EPG for EyeTV.

Luckily for us here in Australia, Paul Shipley has written a tool to generate an XMLTV formatted EPG which can be impored by EyeTV. Thanks to Paul, I now have an EPG for EyeTV.

Yesterday, I bought a Logitech M505 mouse.

First impressions …

• the M505 is better than the Logitech V470 Cordless Bluetooth Mouse. The M505 is faster and more responsive, especially after the mouse has been sitting idle for a while. I found that the V470 took a long while to respond after being in sleep mode.
• the M505 is better than the Apple Magic Mouse. The M505 has a middle mouse button — I didn’t realise how much I’d missed the middle mouse button. A lot of mouse actions have now magically (pun intended) become a lot easier to perform. Please remind me not to buy a mouse which does not have a middle button.
• I miss the Apple Magic Mouse’s scroll with momentum.

It’ll be interesting to see if my first impressions last. I hope that Logitech don’t let me down this time, like they did with the V470.

As reported in a previous blog post, my Sennheiser MM50 headphones died. The right channel failed.

I did contact Syntec International Pty Limited (the distributor here in Sydney) and they were helpful. They suggested two options:

• Return the headphones to the retailer for replacement; or
• Mail the headphones and purchase receipt to them and they’d replace them for me.

Hmm. Only one issue. I didn’t know where the receipt was.

After I returned from holidays (or vacation as some other countries call it) I found the receipt. I chose to return the headphones to the retailer, Maccentric at Miranda. The sales person was great. She listened as I described the problem and then explained the Maccentric repair/replacement process. We filled in the paperwork and I went on my way.

Two days later, Maccentric SMSed me to let me know that my replacement headphones were available for collection. I returned to the Maccentric shop the following Saturday where my replacement headphones were waiting for me. I collected my new headphones and I was on my way.

Kudos to Maccentric for making the replacement of my MM50 headphones quick and painless.

My Sennheiser MM50 headphones have died. I haven’t had them all that long either — no more than 9 months.

Like others in this Whirlpool thread, the right channel of my headphones has stopped making sound. It’s super annoying to listen to stereo music with just the left channel.

Mind you, when the headphones are working properly and you have the correct size ear plugs fitted, these headphones sound great. If you think the bass is a bit tinny, try the next size ear plug — it will make an enormous difference.

Syntec International Pty Limited is a distributor of Sennheiser products here in Sydney. They have an Service and Spare Parts e-mail address which I’ll use.

This is very disappointing. Here in Oz, these headphones cost AU$130.00, so I’d expect them to last a lot longer than what they have. Thankfully, they have a two year guarantee, so a replacement set should be at no cost to me.