Shine on you, crazy Clio

Renault is my favorite target in these days.
Here is the Clio dashboard.
Some designer might have thought that chrome plated finish are sexy.
Truth is that no matter where the sun is, a ray will reflect exactly into your eyes.

More car keys nonsense

This is a Renault credit card sized car key.
Probably the most uncomfortable key design ever.
You have to insert it in a slot to start the car, so you can't keep it in the wallet with your other cards.
It wouldn't be possible anyway because it's too thick.
It's even too big to stay comfortably in you pockets without fearing to break it every time you sit down.
Congrats Renault!

Metallic noise from the hood

While driving in EV mode on bumpy roads, I've heard some metallic noise coming from the hood.
At first, I thought it was the hood itself, but at a closer examination I've excluded it because it rests on rubber supports while closed.
Maybe today I've found the source of the noise.
There's a felt-like rigid sheet under the hood. It's bolted on all sides except one, where it can vibrate against the hood.
I've placed a small wooden spacer to keep it in place.
I'll see in the next days if the noise will vanish.

Which one would you rather drink?

Look at these two yogurt drinks:

Is it just me or the second one does not invite you to drink at all?

Maybe it's the color of the bottle ("dirty" white), or the color of the writings (dark red), or the shape (sharp edges), but everything seems to shout "liquid soap, do not eat".

The other one, instead, is smooth, shiny and colorful: maybe they just have a better marketing department?

Yaris rear wheel woes

Looking at the rear wheels I noticed that there was something relieved:

 A closer look revealed that it was kept relieved by all the sand and small stones that probably got inside from the road.

 To remove all the dirt, you'll need to detach the whole piece by unscrewing the screw that's directly below.

Be prepared to repeat from time to time, as the front is not tightly coupled with the rest, so all the dirt from the road will collect inside.

Who's the engineer that came up with such a bad design in a car with one of the most advanced engine?

Motorola Defy vs Samsung S2 Plus

I've been using a Motorola Defy for the past 2 and a half years.
Now I switched to a Samsung S2 plus, expecting to find some improvements.
The S2 has a bigger screen than the Defy, but a lower resolution. Anyway I like the bigger screen more than the lack of resolution, that is not dramatic.
The AMOLED screen is way easier to read in sunlight, but contrast and gamma seems out of range: reds are loaded and dark photos are darker than on the Defy.
Current Samsung firmware doesn't have color calibration either.
With some gamma correction, this screen could kick asses.
With a bigger screen I would have expected a better on screen keyboard experience, but typing on the screen is a pain as always.
The battery is another notable difference from the Defy. It just drain faster on the S2. 
Way faster.
I never had to charge the Defy in the middle of the day. I wish I could say the same of the S2 Plus.
I don't know if it's a hardware issue or a software setting, but I have the clear feeling that the lower part of the screen is less sensitive.
The Defy was resistant to water and dust. The S2 clearly is not. This is something that I miss.
The S2 has double the RAM and double the cores of the old Defy.
This makes the S2 more responsive, but I expected a little more: there are still some apps that force the launcher to be reloaded, like dolphin browser.
The GPS gets a fix in a handful of seconds, probably thanks to the glonass system, but the compass is always wrong.
Even after calibration. This makes using Google sky really frustrating.
In the end, while the S2 plus is a good phone, I still think that the Defy, at its time was a notable terminal. An updated Defy would be a clear winner for Motorola.

A stroke of genius

I'm going to nominate for the Nobel prize whoever has invented this:

The asymmetric USB connector.

At last you can plug it right at the first try without even looking.

Are there 2 different revisions of Yaris Hybrid?

When I received my Yaris Hybrid, one the first things I checked was the 12V battery jump start procedure.
The manual clearly states that you need to access the battery located under the back seat and attach the jumper cables there.

It seems that new cars delivered in 2013 undergone a review of the fuse box.
They have a positive battery terminal where a jumper clamp can be attached, so you don't have to access the back seats.

The old ones seem to miss that terminal.
The car manual has been changed as well.

Here is my right fuse box, with no terminal available:

and the left one:

TV 2.0

Notes on how the new TV should be. Apple, take note!

• The TV should turn on immediately: my IPad wakes up faster than my TV. Just ibernate the whole thing, instead of a full boot. 
• When turned on, image and sound should came up simultaneously. 
• The TV should be able to accept commands as soon as the image is shown, not several seconds later (LG, I'm talking at you). 
• If the TV is woke up by pressing a number, it should turn on already tuned on that channel (again, this is for you, LG).

The Reboot Syndrome

Shouldn't reboots be an exclusive feature of Windows-based OSes?
It doesn't seem so.
This morning, while driving, I turned on my Yaris infotainment system with the MODE button on the steering wheel.
It turned on as usual with the FM station tuned in. (Bad design here: it was on the USB player when I turned it off yesterday)
I pressed MODE again to switch to USB and bang!

The screen showed the Hybrid logo of the boot sequence.
After that, it correctly switched to USB.

Note:
QNX should be a crash resistant OS, able to reload only the offending module.
Reboot was really fast, barely the time to think "what's that?" and the system was back on line: however it's not an excuse...

Calling out for a car key standard

Here are a couple of car keys from two different brands:

On the left, you have the lock button up the unlock button down.
On the right you have the unlock button up, and the unlock down.
The first has two raised bumps on the lock button and no bumps on the unlock.
The second has one bump on the unlock and no bumps on the lock button.

It's simply impossible to lock and unlock the car without getting the keys out of the pocket and looking at them.

Dashboard ergonomics

Nearly all new cars have on-board navigation.

But still many prefer old-style external navigators.

One of the reason is they have better ergonomics: they can be plugged on the windshield so they are in the line of sight while driving.

The new Yaris Hybrid is no exception: the infotainment system is way too low on the cockpit:

With the help of GIMP, I've tried a little redesign:

There's enough room for an higher navigator position, and lower air outlets would help air circulation also.

There's a thread about this on the Hybrid Synergy Forum here.

Double click

Here's the key:

To lock or unlock doors only one press is required.
I keep all my keys in the same pocket, so while I was searching for my home key, the car lights flashed: the unlock button accidentally was pressed by the other keys rolling in the pocket.
Single click is a bad design choice:
single click -> select
double click -> execute
that's the way on my desktop, that should be the way in my pocket too.

Yaris Hybrid 12V battery

It's under the back seat, but its panel is kept in place by a couple of these plastic pegs:

You'll need a little screwdriver to extract the peg and his surrounding ring.

Here is it, removed from its housing.

Now it's possible to remove the plastic cover.
I've found it easier to start from the side of the seat, pulling to detach the cover.

Here is the 12V battery:

Lesson learned: always keep a screwdriver in the car, in case you'll need to charge the 12V battery while on the road.
Shame on you Toyota: why not just use a tool-less retention mechanism?
Every car driver, hybrid or not, has some story to share about low batteries, so access to the 12V one should be as easy as possible.

The Intel stock cooler

I've just installed a new i5 processor.
The stock Intel cooler is now the loudest component in my PC.
Louder than my old Athlon X2 4400+ stock cooler.
Why don't they just supply a higher quality cooler with a 200€ processor?

LG vs Samsung

I have two LCD TVs, an LG and a Samsung. Both do their work quite well, but there's one feature of the LG that I can't really stand: when turned back on from standby, it tunes on the last channel it was when turned off, and you have to wait a handful of seconds before being allowed to change.
The Samsung TV instead, can be turned on tuned on a specific channel just by pressing the channel number on the remote.
This saves some time and some frustration too.

HP iPAQ rx5935

My 2007 TomTom-equipped iPAQ is still performing his duties. During its life, it's been used as a mobile wi-fi browser, a lullaby generator for my daughter and, of course, a navigator.

It's even equipped with a nice leather slipcase, but it has a design issue: the power button is left exposed and is really easy to press. I've found it powered on while stuffed in my pouch many times: any other item that casually touches it, may turn it on.

Superior User Experience

So, here it is, the fabled Apple user experience...
Choose a language:

I'm italian, so...
Holland???
Would it be difficult to propose Italy as a default location, given that I've just choosen Italian as a language?

iShoe?

Guess who's going to sue you?

A pathetic attempt to profit on the Apple brand.

Anything may happen

and now?