Thursday, January 30, 2014

Blackberry 10 System Update Available for 10.2.1.537

Blackberry has recently made Blackberry v10.2.1.537 available this week.

I received the notification of the update on my Blackberry Q10 yesterday and I installed it. I will be writing about the update process in my next blog entry.

I've been using my Blackberry Q10 running v10.2.1.537 for about 1 day and I really like it. The thing that I like most about it is the ability to install Android APK files without having to convert them into BAR files first. I managed to install a lot of Android APK files on my Blackberry Q10 today and these Android applications work flawlessly on my Blackberry Q10. I also tried the FM radio function on v10.2.1.537 and I liked it a lot even though it required the headphones to be plugged in (the headphones are used as an antenna for the FM radio).

You can get information about the 10.2.1 update and the changes/enhancements that it brings from Blackberry's official blog *HERE* (for some reason they omit mentioning that v10.2.1 brings the ability to easily install Android APK files onto a Blackberry 10 device).

My next blog entry will detail my experience updating my Blackberry Q10 to v10.2.1.537.

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that the comments are moderated and any comment containing a URL link (whether embedded or not) will automatically be flagged as spam and will not be posted.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Panasonic KX-TG4034C Expandable Digital Cordless Answering Phone System Review

I got the Panasonic KX-TG4034C cordless phone set during the Canadian Boxing Day/Week sale. I've been using it for a few days now and I thought that I would write my thoughts about the phone set after using it for a little over one week.

The system that I purchased contained 4 phones, 3 charging stands, and a combination answering system charging stand.

Each phone uses 2 x AAA NiMH rechargeable batteries (all included). After inserting the batteries into the units, the cordless phones displayed a message indicating that they needed to be charged a minimum of 7 hours. I decided to configure the phones (ring settings, tone/pulse dialing, date/time, etc.). The configuration is pretty straight forward based on the manual. You can get a copy of the manual *HERE*.


I tested the phone and I would say that the sound quality if very good when I connected it to a POTS (regular landline) as well as when I connected it to my Linksys Internet Phone Adapter. However when I plugged it into my ZTE WF720 Wireless Home Phone Device, the sound quality was not that best. The results were to be expected since with my Linksys Internet Phone Adapter, the sound quality would largely depend on the internet quality (speed) so this explains why the sound quality was almost comparable to a POTS (regular analogue phone) line because at the time of my test, I was getting a very good download/upload speed from my internet service provider. I believe that the issue with the sound quality when I plugged it into my ZTE WF720 Wireless Home Phone Device was due to two reasons. The first reason is that I don't get very good signal strength from my cellular carrier at home and the second reason is that the main charging stand which also functions as the transmitter/receiver for all phones (where you must connect the actual phone cord into the unit) is somewhat close to the ZTE WF720 Wireless Home Device. When positioning electronic devices, they should not be placed too close to one another because of interference from the different electronic devices. For me, I was limited in this respect.

I don't believe that the subpar sound quality from the Panasonic KX-TG4034C when plugged into my ZTE WF720 Wireless Home Device was due to the cordless phone unit itself because when I tried to continue the conversation on a corded phone which was also plugged into the same ZTE WF720 Wireless Home Device, I received the same subpar sound quality which makes me strongly suspect that it was due to me not having a good signal from my cellular carrier. To describe the subpar sound quality, I would say that you hear a slight vibration/rattling when the person is talking. The person whom I was speaking with also informed me that she would describe it similarly.

Continuing the rest of my testing of the Panasonic KX-TG4034C on a POTS analogue telephone line, I was very happy with the results.

The Panasonic KX-TG4034C cordless phone system has a lot of features. You can read about them in the manual which I've included *HERE*.

One of the features that I like about the KX-TG4034C is that it has the ability to block callers. If you subscribe to Caller ID service, you can enter a phone number into the Call Block list and when that number calls, the phone will ring once and then the caller will get a busy signal. The Pro Call Blocker unit that I reviewed *HERE* does something similar except that it rings once and will hang up on the caller. The Pro Call Blocker unit also allows the person to block area codes whereas the KX-TG4034C requires the complete phone number.

Another feature that I like about the KX-TG4034C is that it has a night setting. This allows you to have the phone automatically turn silent between a certain time period (ex: 11:30PM to 6:30AM) so as to not disturb you when you sleep without having you remember to silence the ringer before going to bed and then turning on the ringer when you wake up.

One other feature that I like about this phone unit is that it has an alarm. However, the alarm only has only 2 settings. It can either be set to go ring once or it can be set to go ring daily at a specific time. Personally, I would prefer that there were 3 settings (once, daily, and weekdays). I think that a weekday alarm setting is more practical. Because the initial settings screen for the day/time requires that you enter the year, based on having the year, it is possible to know whether the day occurs on a weekend or a weekday.

The handset's speakerphone ability (handsfree) is a good feature and I find the sound quality to be more than acceptable when comparing it using a cellphone's handsfree/speakerphone feature.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the KX-TG4034C unit. The feel that the range for how far the cordless phones can be used away/separated from the main charging transmitter/receiver base is good.

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that the comments are moderated and any comment containing a URL link (whether embedded or not) will automatically be flagged as spam and will not be posted.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year!

Just writing a short blog entry to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

I didn't post as many blog entries during 2013 as I did in 2012 but hopefully I'll post more in 2014 (and beat my previous record of 49 in 2012).