[Dev] Unlocking the Windows Phone 7 legally with #ChevronWP7

Yesterday I finally unlocked my HTC HD7 Windows Phone 7. The reason I had to do this was because I wanted to run my own developed software. Possibly when this works as expected I can buy the license to also publish them to the marketplace.

For now it just for hobbying and thus the Chevron WP7 single phone license is good enough and it's not too expensive ($9). It is endorsed by Microsoft and so I do not have to be afraid that the phone can not be upgraded. It is possibly to pay via paypal or creditcard and it's an easy process. In total it took me less then 10 minutes to pay and too unlock my phone.

The nice thing is that I can now develop my own software and put it on the phone. Homebrew software you can find from other developers can now also be put on the phone without having to resort on the Microsoft Marketplace.

Some nice apps:

Mango Battery Status - Shows the battery status on a live tile, also shows a graph of the battery level in time when clicked.

Hub folders for Windows Phone 7 - Enables the possibility to have a tile which leads to a set of tiles when clicked. This really reduces the enormous quantity of tiles on the main screen.

Development tooling:

Download the SDK from Microsoft

Windows Phone 7 development for absolute beginners, a video series which will help developers to get started.

[Diving] #Diving in a #Cenote in Playa Del Carmen, #Mexico

Last October I went diving for the first time in a cenote. A cenote is a deep natural pit filled with fresh water and most of the cenotes are part of quite extensive cave systems. The nice thing of the cenotes is that the water is very clear due to the natural filtration through the ground. This gives a surreal effect of floating through the caves since the presence of the water is not visible.

In some of the pictures a halocline effect is seen, this is due to the mixture of fresh water and salt water. This also indicates that the cave system is quite extensive since we were more then 4 kilometers away from the sea !

This was the first holiday that I used my new combination of the Canon 60D and the Ikelite underwater housing so I had to experiment a lot. So some of the pictures could be better ... The Ikelite strobe/videolight was perfect and gave more light then any of the divelights I have seen down there.

[Fun] Accidents happen

[Dive, Photo] Ikelite underwaterhousing for the Canon 60D

Yeah, yesterday I finally picked up my new Ikelite underwaterhousing for my Canon 60D DSLR. And boy, it's really big ! Check out the package of cigarettes in relation to the housing in the next picture:

The quality of the housing is actually really good, it really feels quite sturdy. Almost every button on the camera is accessible via the external buttons on the housing.

In the next picture you can see the rubber ring in the backplate. It's a nice way to check if the back is fitted correctly so that it keeps the water out (which is pretty important when taking it for a dive).

The back of the housing shows the lens which is placed in front of the viewfinder so that it should be no problem to look through it with a diving mask on. At the bottom of the back the TTL indicator is visible for the external strobe. I chose the Ikelite DS-161 and it is also a big boy ! But more on that in another post.

[Photo] B&W Type 90 photo bag

Two days ago I finished my search for a photo bag which I could use for storing my Ikelite underwater housing, the ikelite strobe, my DSLR camera, the Canon strobe, adapters, my noise-cancelling headphones, my netbook and some of the necessary adapters. So I ordered it and yesterday it got delivered.

I needed a bag which I could take as handluggage in the plane which could store all my mentioned stuff safely. I found the B&W Type 90 photo bag, it consists of a sturdy nylon bag with a ABS plastic casing inside which is watertight up till 5 meters. It can be used to stand on but when necessary it can also be used to sit on. In the top of the case there is an air pressure compensation valve which can be used to equalise the pressure after a flight so that the case can be easily opened.

Next to the bag, the case and the padded insert one receives a shoulderstrap and a special strap which can be used to carry the bag as a backpack. There is no instruction book how to use it, so I will tell you. At the end of the strap there are 2 pairs of quick-connects and they are placed around the handle on top of the bag. The other 2 ends are fastened to 2 metal round at the bottom of the bag.

The nice thing is that it also comes with a fully configurable padded insert which can fit in the nylon case but also in the bag itself.

According to the specification of B&W the bag, the ABS plastic casing, the configurable padded insert, the shoulder strap and the backpack straps had a net weight of 4 kgs. That is totally not true, so beware !!!

The total weight is 5.5 kgs which is quite heavy when considering the allowed cabin baggage weight is about 10 kgs ... I will sum up the weights of the individual components:

• The nylon bag itself [3.3 kgs]
• The ABS plastic casing [1.1 kgs]
• The configurable padded insert [1.0 kgs]
• The backpack strap [0.15 kgs]
• The shoulder strap [0.1 kgs]

I will probably combine the nylon bag, the ABS plastic casing and the shoulder strap which adds up to 4.5 kgs. That leaves me a total of 6 kgs for all the stuff I want to take with me as handluggage when going on a holiday ...

[Fun] Oldest battlefield 2 player, Dutch and 66 years old

I just ran into this movie of Jaap, a Dutch man 66 years of age, which loves to play Battlefield 2 !

[Photo] Canon 60D or 600D

Recently I deciced I wanted to make FullHD movies when diving. I had the combination of the Canon S70 and the matching underwater housing. However the problem was that this camera can only take movies of 640*480 which was nice up to a few years ago.

The Canon 500D I had was able to take FullHD movies but only at 20 frames per second. That was not enough for me and so I had to replace it with another camera.

I started to do some research and finally ended up at either the Canon 600D or the Canon 60D. There are quite some differences and I am not only talking about the price. They can however both make FullHD movies at 24, 25 and 30 frames per second. Both of them also have a display which can swivel and that is also one thing I wanted to have in my next camera.

This link on snapsort shows a nice comparison of the 600D and the 60D and based on this I made my choice for the 60D. The following differences made me choose for the 60D:

• Pentaprism instead of a pentamirror
• 9 cross-type focus points instead of 1
• Longer battery life 1100 shoots instead of only 440 shots. Especially important when diving, hard to change the battery.
• Faster continuous shooting, 5.3 fps instead of 3.7 fps
• Body somewhat bigger and heavier, for large hands this is also a plus

So what leaves me now is searching for a new underwater housing for my Canon 60D. I probably end up with the Ikelite housing together with the DS161 strobe. But that's something for a next post !

A review site regarding the Canon 60D