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Fix for Nikon D60 Flash not Working (Video)

Author Thomas | 23.02.2010 | Category Electronics

Around Christmas last year, the flash on our Nikon D60 stopped working. The flash was tapped while it was up and stopped working after that. The flash made a clicking sound every time we tried to use it, but the flash wouldn’t fire.

After calling the the local camera shop, they said it would probably cost $170 (we heard some people reporting $250) just to send the camera into Nikon to be fixed.

Oh, those were the days before the Internet. After a search on the Internet, we found a video tutorial (shown below) of how to fix this exact problem.

The issue was a small trigger in the flash mechanism came off the hinge it pulled back. Simply taking off the flash top cover and placing the trigger back on the hinge did the trick.

A few tips though, open the flash, turn off your camera, and take out the camera’s battery (you may get a little shock otherwise).

I used the Husky 8-in-1 Precision Screwdriver and found that the Phillipss #000 worked best. It took a while to find out how the precision screwdrivers were rated. With Phillips. 1 is big, 0 is smaller, 00 smaller, and 000 the smallest I found.

Nikon D40 Flash Fix from Northern Light Films on Vimeo.

So thanks to Northern Lights for the video tutorial above!

New LLG iPod Touch Protective Case

Author Thomas | 06.11.2009 | Category Electronics

The new LLG Protective Case for the iPod Touch is a great case for the iPod Touch.  I tried it out with a second generation iPod Touch which had the Invisible Shield already applied to the case (the Invisible Shield is a thin, clear, protective film applied to the iPod Touch).  As with any device with the Invisible Shield on it, getting it into and out of the case can be tough, but you don’t want your iPod to slip out!

The LLG Case is made from leather but has a firm and durable form, so hopefully, it will protect against drops much better than other cases.  The iPod slips in though the top and all the bottom connector jacks can be easily accessed.

The only downside is that the light sensor seems to be partially hidden by the case, but alas, so it is with the other case I have, but it hasn’t been that much of a bother.

The real benefit is that the LLG case protects the iPod well but will still make it easy to put my iPod in my pocket.

Toshiba Laptop Deal from Best Buy

Author Thomas | 26.09.2009 | Category Electronics

I was in need of a second laptop that I could take with my while traveling.  My main laptop is a 17″ HP, and it’s heavy to take around on trips, and since it has a lot of data on it, I don’t want to risk the hassle of loss, damage, theft, etc.

So here I was in the market for another laptop.  I steered away from buying the cheap ones on eBay, because there is something to purchasing a laptop from an establishment with customer service, return policies, and valid manufacturer warranties.

At first, I looked for a netbook, something small, that I could use for emails, etc. while traveling.  I was appalled to find that the netbooks were so expensive when I found a full laptop for the same price at Best Buy, I knew what I would get.

I researched online, and couldn’t find a better deal than this laptop at Best Buy the Toshiba Satellite.  The computer is a basic laptop, no real frills, but it works great for what I need and is a big step up from a netbook for the same price (or less) than the current netbooks.

Our Best Buy had it in stock, although, I wasn’t impressed by the employee’s knowledge of the product.  The price tag was missing on the display, so I asked the employee, and he quoted the wrong price, he then went on to explain that it was 64 bit windows and would run slowly and that this display model was optimized to run more quickly.

After the employee left, I checked the OS, and it was 32 bit.  The processor is faster than my other laptop (RAM is the same).  The price online was the correct price, and the bit about running more optimized?  Give me a break.  New PC’s come with so much extra junk on them running in the background, it’s ridiculous.

Here’s a list of some of the mods:

Remove

• Live Update
• Norton 360
• Google Desktop
• Quickbooks Financial Center
• Wild Tanget Games
• Desktop Icons
• Skype
• Toshiba Resources
• Play Games
• Shop at Amazon

Install

• Enable Windows Defender and turn off unneeded services
• Install Avast
• iTunes

Turn off UAC

Overall, I’m happy with my new netbook…I mean laptop/notebook.

Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder Review

Author Thomas | 13.07.2009 | Category Electronics

The Canon VIXIA HV40 HD HDV Camcorder is a great camcorder and camera.  Although it still records to DV Tape, the camera can film in either HD or non-HD mode.  The camera can also be set to record at 24 frames per second which all you movie buffs will know is the frame rate for cinema film.

Versatile - The camcorder is more versatile than other camcorders out there.  You have the option of using all auto settings or switching to manual (programmable P) mode that lets you video in Portrait Mode (wish I would have had portrait mode when I did some wedding videos a while back), Sports mode, Snow, Fireworks, and Night.

Manual Focus – The manual focus feature is great.  There’s a little roller on the side of the camcorder that lets you set the manual focus.  Just be aware that you need to press the Focus button and have slid the AUTO to P slider to the P mode.  The switch is below the zoom.

Quality – The video is extremely crisp and clear even when filming in the non-HD mode.

“Constant Flash” – The camera has an embedded light that you can turn on to highlight your subjects in low light conditions.  Personally, I think this is much better than “night vision” which we used once or twice on our old camera, but that was it.  Unless you’re filming lions in Africa at night, the light you can turn on will work just fine.

Audio - The audio recording is clear and we didn’t notice it picking noise from the camera itself.  The camera can also filter our wind to a small degree.

Great Applications for the G1 Android Phone

Author Thomas | 23.03.2009 | Category Software

There are some pretty cool applications for the G1.

ShopSavvy

• An incredible application.  It’s so fun to scan items in the store and find them cheaper somewhere else or on Amazon.com.
• If you want to see prices more quickly, turn off the location finder in the application.  That way the app doesn’t have to find out where you are and get local prices.

Power Manager

• Great for saving battery power.  I highly recommend it.  Another great benefit of the Power Manager is that you can easily toggle the Wi-fi, GPS, Cell Location, etc.
• The application has different settings that will take effect on your phone based on the battery level.  You can have it automatically turn off the Wi-Fi, etc.

Opera Mini

• This web browser is great for the G1.
• Pages are downloaded much faster because the images on the page aren’t displayed at full quality.  On the smaller screen however, they look just fine.

MyTracks

• Just ran this morning using MyTracks.  It’s pretty cool, but it took it a second to get a GPS lock on my location.
• The application tracks your position based on GPS and will store the route that you ran on Google Maps (you’ll need to be out in the open for the GPS to get a good lock).

Brain Genius Deluxe

• This application/game is a fun little way to beef up your memory skills.

SkyMap

• This application is great.  Go outside at night, point your phone towards the heavens and the application will show the constellations in the sky based on your location/time of year.
• The constellations are mapped out with names.
• This would have been handy when I was working on that constellation merit badge when I was 12!

Here’s a video demo of SkyMap that we found on YouTube.  The video is a little blurry, but you get the idea:

I’ve downloaded and tried a number of different applications, but ended up not using them very much and removing a number of other apps that always ran in the background but I never used.  How to find out what applications are running in the background, use the System Monitor application – very handy.

All these apps can be found by accessing the Market icon from your android phone.

Flameless – Wickless Scented Wax Candles

Author Thomas | 17.03.2009 | Category Home & Garden

The world is all a-rage with Scentsy Candles because they’re wickless, have a unique design and are somewhat safer than regular candle warmers or wicked candles. There are however a number of alternatives if you’re set on getting a candle that actually looks like a candle but isn’t as dangerous as a candle warmer.

Wickless LED candles can provide the perfect candlelight atmosphere without the danger and smoke of wick burning candles.  We purchased a 3 pack of candles that are LED powered and are quite impressed.

The candles make a great addition to the home decor and are great for dinners, parties, etc. A few more things we like are that the candles:

• Flicker like real candles
• Will last for hundreds of hours on 2 AA batteries
• Do not heat up
• Have a Vanilla Scent (it’s not strong, but there, and probably better than nothing)
• The LED light is hidden within the wax about half way down into the candle
• Make a great flashlight at night if you need to go and check on the kids without turning on the lights
• Are portable

 

 

Because the candles are so portable and safe, they take you back a couple hundred years when candlelight was the “light bulb” and flashlight of the day.  We’ve found ourselves turning on the candle at night and taking it down the stairs to check on something at night rather than flipping all the lights on and going blind.  The candles are fun to use and the kids like them at times instead of a night light.  There are a variety of candles such as these; the three-pack is nice for the cost savings. The wickless candles are available here with free shipping.

G1 won’t turn on and LED light won’t show when phone is charging

Author Thomas | 10.02.2009 | Category Electronics

The excitement of having a G1 Android phone from T-mobile came crashing down when I pulled out my phone and saw that it wouldn’t turn on.  I thought that the battery must have run out but it was odd because I thought the battery had plenty of charge left in it.

I plugged in the phone and to my horror found that the LED light wouldn’t turn on.  Sick to my stomach I searched the net and found a few people suggested charging it a bit longer to see if the light comes on, others recommended removing the battery, and some recommended returning the phone.

I tried charging it for a bit, and it didn’t work.  Holding down the power button, and holding the power button plus the camera button didn’t accomplish anything except for letting me know it still didn’t work.

I tried taking out the battery and was really concerned about breaking off the back piece since I really didn’t see how they took off the back at the store to insert the SIM card.

There’s a great little flash demo here:

http://tmobile.modeaondemand.com/htc/g1/

Just click on Guides > Battery Removal to view how to remove the back cover.  Yes, it’s simple, but you want to protect your phone don’t you?

I couldn’t remember if taking off the back voided the warranty, but hey, if you need to get your SIM card out, the back has to come off.  I took the back off and removed the battery, waited a few seconds and then replaced the battery.  Viola! It worked.

Could have been a simple fluke with the phone, a bad application maybe, or perhaps the phone got tossed around a bit (unlikely).

The night previous to this problem with the phone, I installed a number of apps from the marketplace:

• Compass
• Mileage
• OI Notepad
• Package Tracking
• Power Manager
• Stopwatch
• System Monitor
• Video Recorder

I had also received the R33 update to the phone.  A combination?  A single culprit?  My guess is that it might have something to do with the R33 official system update or it could have been one of the apps that digs a little deeper into the phone control such as Power Manager or System Monitor.  If not a software issue, than it’s a battery or battery connection problem.  Either way, I’ll be watching close and will probably uninstall some of the unnecessary apps.

Still love the Android G1, although, I’m going to be even more cautious with it now.

G1 Android phone with T-mobile – Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Author Thomas | 28.01.2009 | Category Electronics

I put off getting a smart phone for as long as I could until the “real” phone came along with features I had been waiting for.  A big fan of Google, I was excited to buy the G1 phone; however, the instructions that came with the phone had only a few steps to getting started, the rest was left to guess work and Internet searches.

Improving Battery Life:

Charging the G1 Battery - There’s lots of talk all over the Internet of how to improve the battery life of the G1 phone with little reference to the source.  I’ll take as an authority, the guy at the T-mobile store who had the phone himself and said that when he started using his phone, he saw the battery life wasn’t good, he then let the battery run down to a couple percent and then charged it back up for 3-4 hours.  He repeated this step for the next few charges and said his batter life was much, much better.  I’ve done that now on my phone and have found the same.
GPS – GPS on the phone will drain the battery quickly, but as you can see, the GPS is only functioning when the GPS icon (looks like a little satellite) is in the top right of the status bar, so don’t be too concerned about that.

Wireless Internet - Most people agree that enabling the wireless uses up the battery more quickly.  I’ve found that the Edge network (your data plan connection through T-mobile) isn’t the fastest thing out there, but it works just fine.  Faster than dial-up.
Set Sync Times for Email -   If you want to save more battery life, don’t have the phone sync every 5 minutes.  You can turn off Auto-sync at Home > MENU > Settings > Data synchronization > Auto-sync. For what it’s worth, I leave mine on auto-sync.  If you use the Email application (for other accounts than your Google Gmail Account for example), you can set the check rate by opening the Email Application (from your application lists) > MENU > Account Settings >Email check frequency. You can set for 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 minutes.
Adjust your screen brightness – From Home, press MENU > Settings > Sound & display > Brightness (you’ll need to scroll down to see it).

Fair Compare – Comparing battery life to your previous phone probably isn’t fair because you were used to your old phone, the features, etc., and it was probably pretty boring, now you have a new phone and want to play with the features all day long, of course the battery is going to run out more quickly.  After you’re done using the phone every second of the day, you’ll see the batter lasts much longer.

Password Protection:

The guy at the T-mobile store had this on his phone, and I thought it was pretty neat.  The password is a Connect-the-Dots type of password to open your phone (great for keeping kids or coworkers from playing with your phone and running the battery down).

From the Home Screen (you get here by pressing the button that has a house on it), press Menu > Settings > Security & location >Screen unlock pattern
Set your pattern here to enable a password.  You can come back and disable/change the password if you want to turn the feature off.

You can still answer incoming calls without having to use the password which is nice.

Activating the G1 Phone:

“Can’t activate/connect” error - If you’re activating your phone for the first time and are enabling the data plan for the first time, the guy at the T-mobile store said it takes about 20 minutes for the data plan (which is needed for the phone to work) to activate.  Mine took about 30 minutes before the phone would let me pass the activation screen with my Google account credentials.

Contacts – Importing and Using Contacts on G1

Auto Sync of Contacts - Contacts from your Google Account will be imported right to your phone’s listing of contacts and will continue to be updated as you sync your phone with your Google account.  This feature is fantastic because you can easily add/delete contacts from Google and have the updates transferred to your phone.  Old phones required that you sync to your computer or Outlook.  What a mess!

Adding Pictures – Within you Gmail Account (use your computer and visit https://mail.google.com to get there), you can add pictures to your contact profiles.  Upload them from your computer, or use a link from the web if you use Picasa Web Albums, you can view your albums and add pictures easily.  You can also paste a URL address to a picture on another website.  Click on the Contacts link on the left-hand side of your Gmail account.  You’ll then be at the contacts page where you can add/change contact info.

Importing contacts from your SIM Card – For some reason, I don’t think this happened automatically on my phone.  From the Home Screen, Click on the Contacts Application then Press MENU > Settings > SIM contacts importer to access the import feature.

You’ll probably have some duplicates as I did having some one’s phone number in my SIM card and email in my Google Contacts.  Let you phone sync with Google, and then modify your new contacts as necessary in your Gmail account.  Note, if you didn’t use a Gmail  account prior to getting the Google Phone, the phone has you set one up when activated for the first time.  You can export contacts from Outlook or other mail programs and import them into Gmail quite easily.

Contacts – Sending Text Messages, Editing, etc.

Sending Text Messages – When within your contacts program, press and hold on a contact’s name, you’ll then have the option to:

• View contact
• call Mobile
• Send SMS/MMS
• Add to favorites
• Edit contact
• Delete contact

Press the Back Arrow Button if you don’t want to use those actions at that time.

Sending Text Messages to Multiple People at the Same Time – This one took a little research, but it makes sense now.  Click on the Messaging Application, Press New Message.  In the To field, start typing the name of the first contact, and a list will appear of matching names.  Press the contact you want to include, and start typing the name of the second person you want to add to the text message and so forth.

Android Marketplace – Getting New Applications for Android

Download Free Applications for your Android Phone - Just like the App Store by Apple, you can download free (and at some point paid-for) applications for your G1.  One of the best is called ShopSavvy that helps you compare product prices just by scanning a bar code using the G1’s camera.  It’s a great feature, you’re in the store, you see a product you like, flip it over and scan the UPC bar code, in seconds you can see if the product is cheaper somewhere else nearby (remember the G1 has GPS) or pricing on the Internet such as Amazon.com.

Access the Android Market by accessing your application list and pressing the icon entitled Market.  You can then download and install.  Install apps with a little bit of caution, research them a little bit so you don’t get an application that doesn’t work well or worse, causes problems for you phone.

The guy at the T-mobile store (don’t you love that title?) said that the applications are available for free right now, but sometime (perhaps mid to late 2009) the applications will require a fee just like many of the Apple “App Store” applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The Status Bar – Best Tool Ever

Status Bar Features – Well, maybe not the “best tool ever,” but it does come in handy compared to my old phone.  The bar is located at the very top of the screen.  The status bar will let you know what services are running (GPS, Wifi, Edge, 3G, Bluetooth, etc.) in the right corner.

The left corner (also called the “Window Shade”) shows notifications that the phone has for you.  For example, icons representing new Gmail, Email, Text Messages, voicemail, missed calls, and calendar events will appear.  Simply touch and pull down the status bar to see notifications.  You can dismiss notification, link directly to emails, call people back from missed calls; it’s great.  Slide the notification bar back up from the bottom to get back to the screen you were viewing previously.

Keeping Up-to-Date

You might want to subscribe to the Android Community Feed at http://androidcommunity.com/feed/ to get the latest info on what’s happening and what’s coming up.  Another good resource is the Google Android website at http://www.android.com

Fun Tips and Tricks – Hands On Video Demos of the G1 Android Phone from the Developers

Saving Stuff from the Internet – Save pictures and Mp3’s directly from the web to your android phone.

Using the Map Application to view Traffic Conditions

Using the Window Shade to see New emails, Text messages, calendar events

Customizing the Home Page and Searching for Applications

Keyboard shortcuts on the G1 Android - There are some pretty cool keyboard shortcuts that let you switch between applications on the G1.

Shortcuts you can use when currently viewing one application and you want to switch to another:

Switch to shortcuts (hold down the magnifying glass button (the search button) and then press the letter short cut at the same time:

Search + B = Browser
Search + C = Contacts
Search + E = Email
Search + G = Gmail
Search + I = Instant Message
Search + L = Calendar
Search + M = Maps
Search + P = Player (media player)
Search + S = Test Messaging
Search + Y = YouTube

G1 Accessories to get Started

Screen Protection - I recommend the
Invisibleshield T-mobile G1 screen protector by Invisible Sheild for the Google Screen. I’ve tried other screen protectors, and it works the best. I don’t think the whole phone needs the Invisible Shield on it, just the screen, but that’s a matter of preference.

Also came across this rubber case for under $2. Not bad.

Update 4/4/2009 – I can’t believe I forgot this! The below video got a lot of people excited about the G1 before it launched. I had forgotten about it, and just tested out the Street View on Google Maps. It’s awesome! Now if you’re looking at the location you’re already at, no big deal, but saw you’re going into town and want to know what side of the street something is on or to double check the accuracy of the map/destination location, use Google Street View on you G1.

OVO Digital Photo Album / Frame – 3.5″ Display

Author Thomas | 30.08.2008 | Category Electronics

The OVO 3.5″ Digital Photo Album is one of kind.  It’s sleek design and ease of operation makes it a great choice.  Depending on the size of the pictures imported to the album, it can hold over 1,000.  Slide show mode makes it easy to share pictures.

The OVO digital photo frame comes with a stand so it can stand upright on a desk.  It’s battery is rechargeable and is charged when connected to your computer.

The photo album comes with a slip case, USB cable, software, and instructions.

Digital Photo Keychains

Author Thomas | 11.07.2008 | Category Electronics, Home & Garden

There are a lot of “interesting” digital photo key chains out there, but one trumps them all.  The MX Digital Photo Keychain has a metal backing similar to the ipod (very nice looking). It can store around 100 (re-sized) pictures.

The software is included in the photo frame and works through your computer’s USB port. It also has a calendar and clock features.

Also available in white: