New “Official” Rom Released for Omnia i910
Received email this afternoon…
Thank you for your interest in adding open GPS to your Samsung Omnia from Verizon Wireless. To download the software that will add this feature to your phone, go to:
http://support.vzw.com/phones/index.html?p=4366
Once you download the new software, your Omnia will be equipped with not only VZ Navigator but will also allow you to use other navigational services that you obtain from third party retailers.
Verizon Wireless
Customer Service
Note was sent by Stephen Schwed…
I flashed one of my Omnia i910’s last night. Smooth install, took longer to download the software than to do the flash. Flashing took aprox 7 mins.
GPS is unlocked and it appears that the aGPS functionality is there unlike the Rom upgrade for the Samsung Saga.
Not a lot of additional changes noted, but I don’t have service on that phone to really check it out. Will flash my main phone Friday sometime after I make sure I have copies of everything. I want to reload everything from scratch to get the most out of memory etc.
Thank you for your interest in adding open GPS to your Samsung Omnia from Verizon Wireless. To download the software that will add this feature to your phone, go to: http://support.vzw.com/phones/index.html?p=4366 Once you download the new software, your Omnia will be equipped with not only VZ Navigator but will also allow you to use other navigational services that you obtain from third party retailers. Verizon Wireless Customer Service
Grand Daughter = Camcorder
JVC Everio GZ-MS100 Camcorder
With a grand daughter now at the house 3-4 times a week, the request was for a camcorder to take videos with.
We have had a video camera before, it was a Sharp model 10 or so years ago, but it never worked all the great and the tapes were a royal pain to deal with.
I spent a lot of time looking at these from the very low end up to about $1k before moving back down to this unit. I didn’t think we would use it all the much and spending a lot of $$ on something we may not use a lot didn’t make much sense.
One thing I really liked about this particualar unit was that it recorded on to regular SD cards. While not an “HD” unit, I didn’t need HD quality to start with and with the setting I have it on now, I can get almost 4 hours of video on an 8gb card (something I seem to have a lot of floating around lately).
The battery it came with will last about 2 hours which really is more than enough. Can’t see spending 2 hours video taping anything very often. Normally, most of the video clips are 2-4 minutes at a time which can then be stitched into a longer video with all the segments put together for the “event”.
I can always get another battery, either larger or the same size if that becomes an issue.
Unlike a camera where the images are a fairly managable size, the videos are much larger. A 4 min video of the grand daughter removing fur from the kitty was cute, but before I did anything with it it was 185mb in size.
Using Super (a free video conversion software package), I was able to convert this larger file into much a much smaller flash file (smaller screen size too). Which I could then post on the family site for everyone to see.
I also have been playing with the demo version of Sony’s Vegas 9 Pro suite which can do all kinds of effects, stitch various snippets together and then output very professional looking stuff.
I plan on using the camcorder for video taping Weather events too…. right now it is in San Diego getting a family tour.
Oh… one very strange thing about the JVC camcorder… It comes in 2 colors, the silver one you see and a really cool looking red version. I was going to get the Red version until I saw the price difference… I really don’t get it since it is 
exactly the same unit with just a different color, but on Amazon the silver one was $179 and the red one was $499 .. go figure??? We got the silver one.
Looks like we got a real deal because the silver one is now $269 on the same site though I don’t recall it being advertised as a special.
GPS’s started with 1 now have 3
StreetPilot 2610
For more than 3 years I’ve had a Garmin StreetPilot 2610 in my Truck. Used it every day.
What I really liked about it was the Remote Control. Now you are not supposed to program it while driving and sticking your hand out to touch the screen can be deadly (literally), but with the remote, I found if I held it way down by my side while driving I could watch the road and take quick glances at the device as I slowly entered something. Didn’t do it often but it worked when necessary. Any time I had to do anything more complicated, I just pulled over or had the passenger do it.
Nuvi 790
Recently it was time to upgrade. The cost of GPS’s are way down from when I got the first one. I look a lot and finally picked up a Nuvi 790. I liked the ability to add an 8gb SD card, put a ton of music on it and use POI’s (Points of Interest) locations sets into the memory so that I could see them as I drove along. Things like Circle K Stores, Costco’s and even Walmarts.
Took the unit on a trip to Laughlin and it worked great. However, there were a couple things that really bothered me… #1 when using a route, the current speed is replaced with the Arrival time… I’ve been using the StreetPilot for years to see my speed and this was going to be very hard to get used to. #2 no remote. Just switching to another screen requires you to reach out and touch the device. I didn’t like that. so three weeks after I got the 790 I moved up and gave this one to my wife to use…
Nuvi 885T
I got a Nuvi 885T…… very much like the 790 but with some enhanced features.. #1 It always displays the current speed on the screen. I now have the speed of the vehicle back where I have been used to seeing it for years. It also on major roads puts the speed limit right next to it.
#2 Voice Control. using a button you put on your steering wheel, you can then speak commands to the unit to switch screen, and do functions. This gave back the ability to make changes while driving without the deadly reach out and touch issues.
You can tell it to play music, switch to map view, even get a Weather Radar map from MSN Direct.
It like the 790 has Bluetooth which I use occasionally to link to my phone when driving for handsfree usage, the ability to add a SD card (I again used an 8gb card).
One disappointment with both the 790 and the 885T was the FM Transmitter. It is basically useless. I already had an FM transmitter that I used with a music player in the truck and just plugged the cable from it into both of the Nuvi’s to hear them over the speaker system. With the music player and tons of MP3’s in memory, I get all the music I need while still being able to hear voice directions, Speed Camera alerts, traffic alerts and other info from the unit.
While I left the StreetPilot in my truck most of the time, both of the Nuvi units are taken out when I get out. I used the dash disk for my truck and my wife is using a Garmin BeanBag mount which works really well, much better than I thought it would.
She is on a trip to San Diego right now, giving the Nuvi 790 a whirl right now.
The old faithfull StreetPilot will be a hand me down to one of the kids that don’t already have a GPS in their vehicle.
Okay… Now what?
So I needed a webcam to use with Skype. I got to play with a lot of webcams at work and the one I liked the best was the Logitech 9000. It is simple to use and comes with an array of optional avatars, screen effects and Face Accessories. I especially like the face accessories.
So now I have a webcam… to use with Skype for support “conferences”…
Backup Power just in time
My original APC UPS for my primary workstation fried the other day… nice that it died and didn’t take anything with it. However, this is the 3rd APC that has failed in the past several months and I thought I’d give someone else a try.
I picked up a CyberPower 1500VA/900W unit off of Amazon for a decent price and installed it this afternoon.
It protects both my main workstation and monitor as well as the important residential and business cable modems and the residential cable router. In this current load, the unit says it will last for about 48mins. If there is a real power failure and I am home, I will just turn off the workstation and let it keep the cable modems and router up for a much longer time as the load will be next to nothing then.
Just so happens we had our first thunderstorm of the season… might have been good timing. I’ve got the USB (Yes another USB device) cable and software hooked up and it is watching the unit.
Verizon Omnia GPS Unlock Update – Promise Broken!
UPDATE: See http://www.tnet.com/blogged/2009/07/16/new-official-rom-released-for-omnia-i910/
Verizion said it would unlock the GPS in the Samsung Omnia by the end of the 
2nd QTR….
Well, they apparently didn’t bother. They did release a GPS unlock for the HTC Touch Pro and the Samsung Sage, and they were forced by RIM to correct it on the BB Storm, but clearly they broke their promise on doing it for the Omnia i910.
“Don’t be afraid of dead zones” Right!
Apparently, Verizon is the “DEAD ZONE” in keeping its promises as in like, not keeping them.
I’ve got 4 other family members who have devices with unlocked GPS capabilities in their cell phones, none of whom even care about the feature. ALL of them with AT&T. The only family member that could actually use it, is me with a locked “Broken Promise” GPS Verizon Wireless Omnia i910.
See if I sign up for another 2 year agreement with Verizon now. Not likely.
Planned purchase of the new MiFi 2200 – CANCELED
Plan migration of the rest of the family to Verizon (3 of 4 have data plans) – CANCELED
Plan to purchase any new phones from Verizon – CANCELED
UPDATE: It appears that Verizon is reading the release of a new ROM CF03. The links to the actual download are not yet active. *Edited* 2009/07/15
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