About a month ago, I returned to the task of finding a suitable device. I don't understand how a device intended for swimming can work with bluetooth: surely the distances involved and the water would prevent transmission. This time I was smart enough to look for devices that only work from their internal memory card. There were two serious contenders: one cost about 700 NIS and the other about 600 NIS. I decided to order the 'cheaper' one: it's only five or six times more expensive than the piece of junk that I previously bought. The above picture is of the Finis Duo player that comes with 4GB memory.
Apart from anything else, this device has easily accessible controls, although I doubt that I'll need more than on and off. I thought that there was no way to control the volume, but whilst looking at the FAQs for this device, I see that there is... sort of. The instructions say Volume Up: Press and Hold to increase volume, blinking GREEN light but it doesn't say on which button to press. Presumably the big button on top of the X sign - although I wonder how this is disinguised from turning the device on and off. This button appears to control the power, the volume, play and pause. No doubt I'll get the hang of it.
I pondered how I am supposed to 'wear' the device: which bones conduct the sound? The blurb says that An integrated clip design secures the Duo™ to goggle straps to rest on the cheekbones for a comfortable and streamlined fit. Looking closely at the phones, I can see where how the goggle strap holds the phones.
4GB memory doesn't allow me to store all that I might have wanted to listen to. I've loaded it almost completely; in the future, I'll see which songs don't suit swimming (no King Crimson nor van der Graaf Generator!).
Due to the price of this device, I had to pay customs duty (anything over $70 or $75 is liable for duty). I received an SMS supposedly from the Israeli Post Office on Saturday, but this looked like a scam. Then I saw in my (physical) mailbox a note from the Kibbutz 'post office' that I had received a parcel and that I had to pay 87 NIS duty; the SMS said 10.25 NIS duty. I tried to pay the duty via the official Israeli Post Office, but I didn't seem to have the correct parcel number. The parcel was physically in our office, but the lady there wouldn't let me have it until I paid the duty (I asked her out of curiosity how she would know, and she said that she would take my word for it). As I had to go to the local town's post office anyway for something else, I took a picture of the parcel's label, hoping that the postal clerk would be able to figure out the correct identity number.
I showed the clerk a printout of the website to which I was directed from the SMS - he identified it as spam, as I suspected. Thinking about it now, I find it strange that the scamming sum requested included agorot (cents); I imagine that the customs duty is rounded to a whole shekel number (who uses agorot now?). I also understand the psychology of the scam - it's only a small amount, so it won't cause much damage. But if 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 people pay 10 NIS - that's a lot of money!
I find the timing of the scam interesting - how did the scammer know that I was about to receive a parcel?
| Blog # | Date | Title | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| 337 | Michael Palin | TV series, Prague, Poland, Michael Palin | |
| 456 | More spooks | TV series, MI5 | |
| 928 | Chicken breasts in tomato sauce | Cooking | |
| 1013 | What are the benefits of ERP enhancement? | ERP, DBA | |
| 1203 | 27/02/2019 | Pneumonia again | Health |
| 1476 | 27/02/2022 | More musicians | Obituary, King Crimson |
| 1587 | 27/02/2023 | Bone conduction headphones/mp3 player | mp3, Headphones |
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