Samsung F480 Tocco Accessories

Since buying the Samsung F480 Tocco a while back, I decided to have a look to see what kind of accessories are available for it.

Here are some of the more essential accessories (to me) that I came across:

I haven’t bought any of these as of yet so I can’t comment on how good they are.

Samsung F480 Tocco

Two years and three months on (or thereabouts) from purchasing the Motorola L6, I’ve upgraded my mobile phone to the new touch screen Samsung F480 Tocco.

My Thoughts So Far.

I love the display. One of the main requirements during my search for a replacement to the L6 was a large display. While the display on the Tocco isn’t as big as that of the iPhone, it’s not too far off. Because it’s a touch screen phone there is no real need for any buttons on the front panel. Although Samsung have decided to put three buttons at the bottom.

The widgets are pretty cool too. Much like the sidebar on Windows Vista, you can drag and drop different widgets onto the main display. By default there are not a lot of widgets to choose from. I’ve yet to try downloading/installing more, but I’m sure there are (or will be) plenty to choose from.

It also has a 5 Megapixles camera. That’s more than my Kodak Easyshare C330 digital camera (pictured left). The Kodak is only a 4 Megapixles camera. So it looks like I won’t be needing that camera anymore ;)

I haven’t played with the camera on the phone properly yet so I can’t really say whether it’s any good or not. Maybe I should hold off on throwing/giving away the Kodak digital camera for now.

Another feature I quite like about the Tocco is the leather cover optional extra. I say optional because the phone comes with two backs. One plain and one with an attached leather cover (shown right). I will be using the cover because I don’t want to get any scratches on the display. Thankfully the cover does not hinder you in any way while using the phone. Even during calls.

Speaking of calls. I have to laugh at myself thinking back to my first received call on the Tocco. Being a touch screen phone you would think that when two options appear on the display itself that read ‘accept’ and ‘reject’, that you would press the them. Right? Well, like me, you would be wrong. That’s what the buttons at the bottom of the phone are for. Sounds weird doesn’t it? It certainly caught me out :)

Before I bought the Tocco some of the reviews I read suggested that sending text messages was somewhat cumbersome. I find the opposite. To me the process is very intuitive and because of the display all the letters and numbers are easy to read and select.

So do I have anything bad to say about the Tocco? No. OK, there is one thing. But it’s so small it’s hardly worth mentioning.

In order to lock and unlock the touch screen you need to press a button at the top of the phone. What I have noticed so far is that there is a slight delay in the screen unlocking itself. This has led me to press the button again thinking that it didn’t work the first time. Only now I’ve pressed it twice and the screen unlocks itself and then quickly locks back up. From what I can tell there is certainly a difference in the time it takes to lock the screen in comparison to the time it takes to unlock. Like I said, it’s a small thing and I’m sure that over time I will become accustomed to it.

Overall I’m very happy with the Tocco and I’m sure it’ll be more than two years and three months before I upgrade again.

Why not buy the iPhone you ask?

To be honest I would have loved an iPhone. But they’re just too expensive here at the moment. Maybe when the price drops I’ll consider it, but until then I’ll be very happy with the Tocco.

Need a new Graphics Card

The graphics card in my Compaq died on me on Wednesday last. Since then I’ve been using my Dell to research new graphics cards. It hasn’t been as straight forward as I was hoping it would be. With so many different choices, it been difficult making a decision.

  • ATI vs Nvidia
  • PCI-Express 2.0 vs PCI-Express
  • DVI vs Dual DVI
  • HDMI, HDTV, HDCP, Tv-Out
  • GDDR3 vs GDDR4
  • Overclocked vs Superclocked vs Default

I’ve had to read up on what each feature meant to get a better understanding of what each card is capable of. And then there’s the choice of manufacturer.

  • ASUS
  • BFG
  • Club3D
  • EVGA
  • Gainward
  • Gigabyte
  • HIS
  • MSI
  • Point of View
  • PowerColor
  • Sapphire
  • XFX

I still haven’t come to my final decision yet. It has to be soon though, because the longer I delay, the longer my PC is out of action.

From reading reviews, it seems the best on the current market in my price range are the Radeon XD3870, the GeForce 8800GT or the GeForce 8800GTS.

Choices…. so many choices!

Update

After lots of research, I eventually decided on the EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB. I also ended up buying a Corsair Memory 620Watt HX Series Modular PSU, because the current PSU isn’t powerful enough for the new card.

I just hope the delivery is faster this time than it was with my last purchase from the same online store.

MP3 Car Stereo [Revisited]

A good while back I talked about wanting to get an MP3 Car Stereo. What I ended up buying was a Goodmans Car Stereo. The reason I bought this one was because it had a USB port on the front panel. That meant that I could simply insert my USB flash drive (which incidentally has recently died) and I listen to mp3 songs.

This has turned out to be a very good alternative to an actual mp3 car stereo. It’s so easy to add or delete songs and it also means there’s no longer a need to haul around a case of CD’s :)

My USB Flash Drive Died :(

My 1GB OCZ Ultra-Slim USB Flash Drive has died! Well I think it has. I’m having trouble writing data to it – even after a reformat, so I guess that’s it. The lifespan of the drive was 14 months. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. For €31 you’d think it would have lasted a little longer.

So I guess that means it’s time to get a new one. I could buy the same one again (this time for €17) or upgrade to the 2GB one (for €24). I’m not sure what I want :-) Because I mainly use it with my car stereo, I like the ultra-slim one. It’s small and unobstrusive. But if I go for another ultra-slim one, will it suffer the same faith? Should I go for something a bit more sturdy? I’m still undecided :-/

Opinions are welcome (and needed) :)

Update

Some how the flash drive has miraculously repaired itself or so it seems! I’m able to write to it again :)

But I think something it still screwy with it because it’s only a 1GB flash drive, yet according to Windows it has a capacity of 4GB :-/