New Mobile Phone Arrived

My new mobile phone arrived today to replace the faulty replacement Blackberry Curve. It's an HTC ChaCha Android phone. Jolly different to anything I have had before.

Will take a while to get used to it but this is my first blog from it and it is so easy compared to using BB!

I switched to Google from Outlook for calendar, address book and some email. That was easy too. Now I just need to sort the remaining emails and I'm sorted.

Replacement Mobile Phone Arranged!

I should up and running with a new mobile phone on Tuesday. Vodafone agreed to an early upgrade to replace the faulty replacement phone they supplied on Monday.

I have had some problems with the Blackberry browser in the last year so I am going to try an HTC Android phone. Fingers crossed it turns up on time and works as they say it will.

Blackberry Curve Died Tonight

I was just using the web browser on my replacement Blackberry Curve 8520 when the dreaded white screen returned. The only way out of this is to remove the battery. This forces a reboot each time. As the reboot finished the white screen reappeared. Having tried and failed 3 times I admitted defeat and have consigned the Blackberry to the scrap heap.

I rang Vodafone twice today to try and sort but didn't get very far. I also didn't realise it was this serious. I'm now without a mobile for phone and emails, probably until Wednesday at the earliest.

Blackberry Woes

My Blackberry Curve has been using the battery at an alarming rate over the last month or so. Changing the battery for one from a previous Curve improved matters for a couple of weeks but in the last day or two it is back to eating the battery again.

Vodafone technical support agree that I have a problem, well at least with the Blackberry, and are sending a replacement. Should be here tomorrow but since we are away it will be Monday before I start using it. In the meantime I am carrying a Powermonkey in my pocket which can recharge it several times through the day so I'm never without it.

I also mentioned the problem I am having trying to blog from the Blackberry, click here to see my previous posts, and it isn't getting any easier. Since my blog is with Google and the Blackberry web browser is the main problem he suggested looking at an Android smartphone to replace the Blackberry when the contract is up for renewal in 7 weeks time. Android is partnered with Google which is why they are supposed to work so well together.

Will keep fingers crossed they offer something decent that makes my life easier, well the blogging bit of it anyway!

Lecture in Norwich Tuesday 19th April

I am giving a lecture in Norwich tomorrow, Tuesday 19th April. Hope the roads are clear otherwise it could be a 5 hour drive from here.

Felt awful today, I have a cough and cold. Fingers crossed I'm better later on.

Caught up with printing, including all of the contact prints of the new London negatives that I took in March. Will try and scan for adding to web in next week or so.

Will take camera and tripod to Norwich and take some photos on Wednesday if the weather is good. May also drive across to the Norfolk Broads as I don't have any shots of these.

My Blackberry is still not letting me blog reliably. It loses all of the text sometimes so for some time I have been writing the blog in a memo and copying and pasting the text across when it is deleted by the software. It also no longer synchronises with my pc Outlook diary. The last Blackberry desktop software update deleted all of my configuration settings for the 3rd time. The last 2 occasions it either deleted my diary data or duplicated every entry so I'm not going through that again. Roll on August when the contract ends and I can change it!

Problems using Blackberry for Blog

Still having problems using Blackberry for doing my blog. The Blackberry browser keeps hanging so it doesn't load complete web pages. Opera Mini seemed a better option to start with but the more I use it the more it plays up. Now it drops the text completely and clears the clipboard too, this was where I had started to put the text before publishing in case it crashed. Had to step back through the web history to find the text for last blog. This is not a reliable way to blog! Also not what I need before a 4 week photo trip.

Mobile Blogging with a Blackberry

Most of my blog entries are made using my Blackberry smartphone. Unfortunately, it hasn't been easy as screen displays wrap strangely or not at all, buttons don't work reliably and simple things simply fail to work and I lose all of the text. I even changed Blackberry models to try and improve matters.

Over the last few months the problems mostly seem to relate to software. I now have a couple of other apps to use as alternatives to the built in Browser, which still doesn't work and resulted in a blank blog being sent out on Sunday.

This has been written and hopefully sent with Bolt software. Fingers crossed it works! I needed to sort as we have a 4 week trip to New Zealand fast approaching. Will try and get back to regular posts, assuming everything works.

Isn't modern technology wonderful! And people wonder why I still use manual film cameras. Dave Butcher

New Mobile Phone part 3

Third time lucky!

Received 3rd phone in 2 weeks today, a Blackberry 8520 Everything seems to work. Yippee!

Now back on line with blog, web editor and Outlook diary and address book. Just in time for going away to show in Welwyn at weekend.
Dave Butcher

New Mobile Phone part 2

Well that didn't last long! Wasted several hours trying to get it to work. Emails and blog were fine, browsing normal web sites was fine but the admin pages of my web site didn't properly load so wouldn't have been able to make edits on our travels.

The HTC Magic phone is being collected by Vodafone tomorrow. It was a nightmare to use and didn't link up with Outlook so no diary, address book, task lists or memos. Disaster. Not sure why the technical department at Vodafone recommended it in the first place.

Back to a new Blackberry tomorrow. Will keep fingers and everything else crossed that it all works.

Darkroom day today. Printing some orders from recent shows (Great Peak Fair and Sevenoaks).
Dave Butcher

New Mobile Phone

My faulty Blackberry Curve 8310 was replaced by a newer version (Blackberry Curve 8900) a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately the new version could not access this blog or my web editor. I now have a new HTC Magic Google phone which lets me blog again. Not as easy to use as Blackberry, it has a touchscreen. So blogs are back, now need to check web editor and links with Outlook for emails, calendar and address book. Fingers crossed it works.
Dave Butcher

Scanning Day

Today I scanned 50-odd images for Lake Light, my new book on the Lake District. Tomorrow should see the last scans completed (about 30 left to do). Then I need to crop and tweak them before dropping them on the web site. Once we have them all the job of selecting the final ones for the book can begin. We need about 90 images, depending on page layouts, and will have about 150 images to choose from. The new Lakes images should start to appear on my web site from next week. I will drop a few on this blog before then though.

Having some problems with my new Blackberry, which I received a week ago. I am unable to type text in new blog entries. It lets me type in the title and web link but nothing else. A lot of my blog entries are done on my Blackberry while travelling around so this is a serious problem for me. Will see what Vodafone say tomorrow.
Dave Butcher