TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

So my Xperia X10i has had a Clear Coat on it since I got it, or almost.  That makes it 2-3 years old now. The CC has held up well.  3 years on, the CC is now visibly coming off at most of the corners and edges.  It's still good and stuck on the phone overall, mind you, but it is clear it is losing its staying power.  Eventually all the edges and corners will be loose. The CC seems to have done it's job.  I've dropped the phone a couple of times, and I don't see any scratches in the plastic.  So it seems to hold up over the long term.  If I kept the handset, I'd probably cash in on the lifetime replacement guarantee.  But I'll likely upgrade before then.

Random impressions of the Vaio Z - the latest 2012 model, not the previous 2 generations.  I never used those, although I understand the Z2 is effectively the same as the Z3 in size, shape etc. The price has effectively dropped by almost $1,000 because the Power Media Dock is now optional.  Good for those of us who are not terribly interested in a secondary video card/external monitor capability. Neither the lappy nor the sheet battery weight anything, but somehow you put them together and they feel a bit heavy.  Not bad, mind you, but you will notice. Nobody talks about the sheet battery.  This thing is great.  It adds a few mm to the height/thickness of the lappy.  To mount, clip it on and rotate two thumbscrews.  It takes about 15 seconds to get on or off, and is really easy, so it's not necessarily a permanent install once it's on. The battery fits into a small connector on the bottom of the lappy.  The connector has a cover on it, whi...

Well, despite the e-mail from WIND recently , they have put the Galaxy S III up for sale on their site.   Thanks for NOT telling those of us who pre-registered, WIND!  Good on ya. Confusingly, one part of the site says that the phone is ONLY available on WINDtab, which is their pseudo-financing plan.  Still, it seems like you can go to the phone detail page and add the phone to your cart anyway. Price is $649 at time of writing, blue and white both available.  Haven't tried to purchase yet, so no idea if you can go ahead and compete the process yet or not.  WIND claimed supply shortages, like all the other North American manufacturers, so I wouldn't be shocked to find the delivery time is a bit out there right now. [Edit]:  Tried to purchase and got the strange error "The consumer is not eligible for authentication".  What little I can find indicates that the payment processor for WIND (Centurion) can't identify my PC Financial Mastercard proper...

And not just on eBay, either. Thanks to an inquiry, I learned that a Canadian-based company called SysComp is reselling the Mastech MS8226 as model number DVM-101.   They don't even attempt to re-brand it, they just re-sell the Mastech unit as-is. So if you're leery about buying from GoodLuckBuy , here's an alternative for you.  Note that I got my two from GoodLuckBuy with no worries, and they do sell both the true-RMS and non-true-RMS versions.  So if you want to save a few dollars, go non-true-RMS. SysComp does offer a bundle with a suitable RS-232 to USB adapter, which can be handy.  There's no guarantee the MS8226 will work with all adapters. The interesting bit, however, is their open-source logging software for the MS8226.  Which is strange, since the Mastech instruments are hardly commonplace.  Even weirder, they support a few other instruments.  And weirdest of all, they support PC, Mac and Linux.  (This is mostly by virtue of th...

Samsung must have put one hell of a muzzle on their carriers this time around. Five days since the original Canadian launch date for the Samsung Galaxy S III.  WIND Mobile has yet to say a word. Nothing about the launch date.  Nothing about a delay.  No hint that the new launch date is "supposed" to be in 2 days (according to MobileSyrup).  No hints at all.  Nothing! Two days to go and nothing?  Wow.  I wonder if they're going to get it at all, sometimes.  More to the point, when?  This week?  This month?  Three months? C'mon WIND.  Toss us a bone here. [Edit]  Here's the bone: Irritatingly enough, there is no news about when anyone might get it in Canada.  USA news indicates a July 1 date for many carriers, so we can only hope that this will also be true North of 49th.