2009 – Page 8 – atmaspheric

1/19/20091/19/2009

TechCrunch Crunchpad looks great but …

TechCrunch has taken a considerable next step in the development of their web tablet concept revealed earlier this summer. As you can see in this video it’s actually quite functional, quick and looks pretty nice.

Assuming they develop this device further, and that’s a big if at this point, it may end up as a ‘tweener which is not a good thing for CE devices. The netbook market and this tablet have massive overlap both in function and price. For the $299 price you can get a very capable netbook that offers a considerable amount of capablity through a real keyboard. The screen resolution on the CrunchPad (as it’s being called) is higher than any netbook 1024Ã—768 (pages fit without scrolling) and it’s also 12″ which makes it larger too. Weight seems comparable in it’s current proto state to the 10″ EeePC.

What the CrunchPad seeks to do it apparently does it quite well. I thought the performance in page loading and video playbook looks awesome! It tends to takes a higher end netbook to do the same stuff at that speed… Coming back to the keyboard though I think being able to tap out email and IM is really important for people – let alone posting to blogs, Facebook and other social sites. On screen tapping is not going to be very fun …

1/17/20091/17/2009

Google Reader can translate!

I was playing with Yahoo Pipes tonight to get Netbooknews translated from German when it occurred to me that there might be an easier wayâ€¦. And there is! Google Reader offers a translation option right in the feed settings. Just choose Translate into my language and you are ready to go. A nice bonus is that any click-through links are also translated on the site.

1/16/20091/16/2009

Nokia N85 on the Windows 7 Device Stage

As a follow-up to my previous post on the Windows 7 Device Stage, I spent a bit of time today exploring further and discovered that the Nokia N85 is in fact supported by the Windows 7 Device Stage.

In order to see the Device Stage today you need to navigate to the Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers> and then click on the Nokia N85. The options are focused on support with links to the manual, additional S60 applications, product info on Nokia.com as well as a link to Ovi, Nokia Services.

When you connect the N85 over USB you get the standard AutoPlay option. Iâ€™m not sure if thereâ€™s a way around that, though for now given the limited As you can see from the offering inside the Device Stage for this device, Iâ€™m not really missing anything. In fact looking at the AutoPlay options there’s quite a bit more function there. While the Device Stage seems to be centered around support for the N85, Autoplay enables some real actions you might want to take.

1/15/20091/15/2009

Windows 7 Opens New Ways of Interacting with Devices

A friendly tipster shared a particularly cool feature in Windows 7, the Device Stage …

“Windows 7 introduces a new way to interact with your phone, camera, printer, or portable media player from the Windows desktop. Device Stage is new visual interface that makes it easy to find the things you want to do with your devices on your Windows 7 PC. You could think of Device Stage as a multi-function version of Autoplay where it displays all the applications, services, and information related to your device. Device Stage not only works for devices connected to a Windows 7 PC via USB, but also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as well. In many cases, software installation isnâ€™t required for Device Stage â€“ with any additional drivers that might be needed automatically retrieved from Windows Update. [Windows Experience Blog]

As a Mac user, I’ve always been either puzzled or frustrated by the amount of driver installation required by Windows. Windows 7 seeks to change that to make it easier but also adds a new level of customization for either the manufacturers or even a wireless carrier.

The example shown on the Windows Experience Blog is for the Nikon D90 and as you can see it really is an enhanced way to handle the old Autoplay function.

In this case it’s pretty straightforward, but Nikon is offering access to Picturetown (their online picture service and Nikon Transfer in addition to standard Windows functions for importing or browsing. They’ve also included links to the support site and to the device’s manual.

What I really like about this though is the opportunity provided to tailor what you are shown based on what you have… or even who it’s from. This next view is for the Nokia 5800 Express Music.

Here Nokia promotes both Ovi and S60, and provides an easy link to the manual. The view is an S60 branded view though could very easily be from a carrier with links to their services or support content.

I’ve already seen how well Windows 7 handles new hardware installation by adding a printer, changing my wireless card and connecting a few phones. In each case, Windows 7 was able to easily connect and inform me of the various drivers (if more than one) it was simply taking care of … it’s your call whether you want to see the details or not. I’ve yet to see the Device Stage in action even though the N85 which I’ve connected over both bluetooth and usb is allegedly a supported device. I”ll chalk it up to beta for now …

At WinHEC in November Microsoft shared how the Device Stage will evolve to enable common tasks to happen within the OS rather than requiring proprietary applications from each company. As you can see in the screenshots, the Device Stage can bridge both standard “in house” functions with those the manufacturer would like to handle themselves. Apparently we’ll be able to be notified and perform advanced tasks like firmware updates in addition to simply syncing or browsing which is the main purpose at the moment.

I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen so far in Windows 7. When I added an Epson Artisan 800 printer (supported by Device Stage), it was seen on the network and Windows just did what it needed to activate the device within a few moments. On my Mac I needed to actually find, download and install software in order to get it working. Quite the change for Windows to offer the simpler process!

1/15/20092/3/2009

The Samsung NC10 Hackintosh

I’m happily writing this on my Samsung NC10 in MarsEdit in version 10.5.6 of OSX. Courtesy of an awesome forum and guide, I was able to install OSX on a partition and now have this little trooper of a laptop triple booting across WIndows 7, XP and OSX. I’ve been going back and forth between Windows 7 and OSX and think I’ll get rid of XP at some point down the line when Windows 7 is ready for release.

At first I tried my own way with the OSX project, but discovered after failing (twice) that perhaps I should read the guide through and once I did it was actually very straight forward and relatively simple to do it. The experience of failure certainly helped as I know a lot more about the process, but in general if you are comfortable partitioning a disk and installing an operating system it’s really not so bad.

If you are considering this project, there are a few kinks that I still need to sort out and these are known issues currently being worked on by the community:

My screen brightness tends to be lower than I’d like when booting over battery power.
Sound through the headphone jack does not work.
Ethernet is not supported as the Marvel controller has no OSX driver.
In order to get wireless running you need to swap the wireless card, which I’ve done.
The trackpad is a bit less controlled than I’d like though I’ve been using a mouse with the system quite a bit anyway.

The amazing upside here is that OSX easily sees the Windows 7 partition and vice a versa. I’m able to use dial up networking for remote connections. Software updates appear to work just fine as illustrated in the following:

As I had previous discussed the wireless slot on the NC10 is pretty small given the size of the system and you need to have the right card to swap in. From everything I’ve read, the Dell series of wireless cards seem to be the most compatible across Windows and Mac OS. I chose the Dell 1490 which offers 802.11 a/b/g. While I’ve got an N capable router I have too many things that run on G and it did not seem worthwhile at this stage to pay more than twice as much just to say I had it.

Back inside we go … I removed the 15 screws on the underside and gently pried the cover apart. Here’s a quick shot of the wireless slot empty:

As you can see the stock card and the Dell are exactly the same side … unlike my attempt to get the Airport Extreme card in there.

Once the card was installed I noticed as expected that Airport was not enabled yet. This is because the network port is tied to the previous hardware. Adding the new port is simple. Open the Network Control Panel and select the + in the lower right as seen here:

You can name it anything you like and also remove the prior one which is what I did so the new one could actually be called Airport. As soon as I added this new interface it found my home network and I added a preferred network for my office and that connected instantly today when I got to work.

After that it’s up to you what you want to do … I’ve installed my core apps and synced in my personal data. While the NC10 is not of the same caliber hardware as a Macbook, the cost and bang for the buck here is substantial. The NC10 is showing around 6 hours of battery life which is far better than any MacBookPro performance I’ve seen yet actually a bit less than my experience in XP. I think Windows 7 and OSX are running a pretty close race in the battery life department here and to be honest while more is better with regard to battery life, I’m very pleased with 6 hours.

Gotta love the Mac!

1/15/20091/15/2009

OSX DUN on the Samsung NC10 Netbook

It’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasure of traveling with a Mac laptop and even though my current setup is a tad unique, the same rules apply. The Samsung NC10 netbook is a killer travel machine … light weight, strong battery life, great keyboard etc. It also happens to run OSX like a champ and I’m really very happy with my sub 3lb mac hackintosh. A few kinks to work out still (brightness controls and sound through the headphone jack) but generally speaking this a great way to go – though far from a simple out of the box experience.

With a PC running windows it’s easy to get a bluetooth to phone data connection using either PC Suite or Ovi Suite and your choice of Nokia handsets. On the mac side, you need some modem scripts and and a little patience. I hope this brief guide helps. I’ve written about DUN connections previously but thought this would be a good time for a new post as the conditions have changed. OSX 10.5 has moved things around in the network panel though it’s not too hard to track down what to do. For this example I’m using a Nokia N85 and ATT.

The first step is to define a PPP connection and you do that right on the first panel once you’ve selected Bluetooth. I’ve set the following options:

Telephone Number: WAP.CINGULAR
Account Name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1

Ross Barkman’s excellent modem scripts are still THE way to go for anyone looking to use a phone as a modem on their mac. I downloaded the HSDPA scripts and dragged them over to /LIbrary/Modem Scripts. Once there they become available within the Network Control Panel though you need to select other as your brand of phone. I chose the first script which is the Nokia HSDPA CID1 version. Enable error correction and compression in modem is active and I’m ignoring dial tone. I turned sound off too though because you are not actually dialing I don’t think that actually matters.

Last step is to check the far right tab under advanced for PPP. I did not change anything in mine, though you can certainly check the box for Connect automatically as needed if you find you’ll be doing this for an extended time. That will make sure there’s an open network connection anytime something makes a request so be sure you are comfortable with your data plan.

1/14/20091/14/2009

E71 Firmware updated

Last night before bed, I saw the news and updated my E71 to firmware v200.21.118. If Iâ€™m not mistaken, this is by far the quickest weâ€™ve seen a NAM update following the EMEA release. Excellent!

Iâ€™ve been restoring my applications today and so far so good. I love the two new black and red themes â€¦ and see Internet Radio is now baked in along with MyNokia though Iâ€™ve yet to see the sign-up prompt.

Firmware updates on the E71 erase everything, so please do a backup if you want to try and retain your existing info. I tend to just move forward rather than restore from backup, but thatâ€™s me â€¦

1/14/20091/14/2009

N79 Active – Heart Monitoring Sport Fitness Combo

The rumored Polar Bluetooth Wearlink revealed itself today as part of a new Nokia bundle combining the new N79 Active with an armband for sports use. Sportstracker is the key application keeping score and if desired even geo-tagging your media as you go. I love this idea and look forward to checking it out when itâ€™s released.

Update â€“ Press Release is here. Looks like it will be 375 Euros â€¦

1/13/20091/14/2009

Battery life is the key to mobility

There are of course many factors when it comes to mobility, but battery life tends to be the Achilles heel for most devices. Today for the second time I left the NC10 unplugged inadvertently at my desk. I did not use it that much directly (more in ambient third screen mode) and only discovered it was unplugged at the end of the day when I went under my desk to pull the cord. Yesterday I actually did the same thing, but realized when the system refused to update the BIOS without a DC connection.

Now on the train home I see Iâ€™ve got about 35% or about 1:16 left to run at this current brightness (3 of 8) and activity (Firefox, Tweetdeck, Windows Live Writer and iTunes) level. I only woke the system from sleep once after an extended away period in a meeting which is killer considering any other laptop Iâ€™ve used would absolutely have been dead by lunch.

1/13/20091/13/2009

ASUSTek envisions the digital home ecosystem

While the idea is not a new one, only Apple has really “succeeded” at bringing a successful vision of their digital home ecosystem to market with a good degree of success.Â Microsoft only lightly pushes their version today though I’m figuring quite a bit will change when Windows 7 arrives for release.

Asus is actually in an interesting position.Â They sell both Windows as well as Linux products and offer some very big bang for the buck.Â The customers I’ve come across (mainly on the netbook side) are quite brand loyal and it would be easy to see how a lower cost mobile device could also be added as a control point in the home.

As Mr. Shih envisions the future, families will want to surf the Web and watch Internet video on televisions

â€œToday, the family crowds around a small PC screen when they are sharing digital media and getting on the Internet,â€ he said. â€œIn the living room, it should be more convenient to use the big screen.â€

Didnâ€™t Microsoft fail at this vision with WebTV, I asked. Now the technology is much better, Mr. Shih replied.

To Mr. Shih, thereâ€™s no reason to stop at the TV.

â€œTo make the whole digital home possible, in the eventual state every wall becomes a display,â€ he said, â€œThe mirror should become a screen.â€

Why?

â€œBecause you want to blend it into your life,â€ he explained. â€œYou already watch the mirror.â€

And how will you control all these screens?

In Mr.Shihâ€™s view, as likely as not, it will be on a cellphone. And the company is working on a low cost smart phone called the Eee Phone. [via Bits Blog]

I’ve always been excited by the prospect of the digital home and will be quite interested to see how this pans out.

1/13/20091/13/2009

Ovi Suite – Syncing Smoothly in Windows 7

One issue Iâ€™ve had running Windows 7 was Nokiaâ€™s PC Suite refuses to install due to some privilege issues.Â Iâ€™ve tried a few tricks and it seems itâ€™s just going to fail.Â The good news is that Ovi Suite installs just fine (except for Nokia MusicÂ which I will have to try separately in compatibility mode) and brings a sleek UI and connections to the Ovi.com portal.Â I was pleasantly surprised to see that my E71 was also able to connect even though it is not listed as a supported device.Â The E71 will actually only sync PIM data for the moment though â€¦ no media sync through Ovi Suite until itâ€™s eventually supported (right Nokia??).

The real benefit though is that I now have a simple way to connect to my phone for a data connection which is something I do daily during my commute.Â I know there are other options but prefer DUN over Joikuspot or Walking Hotspot for a 2 device connection as the connection seems to just work better.

As you can see in the image above, my N79 is syncing while Iâ€™m typing this.Â Iâ€™ll give the rest of the suite a whirl over the next few days, but having this working is a big bonus running Windows 7!

1/13/20091/13/2009

Something’s missing in Windows 7 Photo Import

Windows 7 has a very nice approach to importing images and video from a device yet itâ€™s missing a rather critical feature â€¦ image preview!

I love that I can add a name (album) and tags, but without the image preview itâ€™s impossible to know what the pictures are â€¦ making this pretty useless.Â The picture highlighted was taken tonight and I am pretty sure is of my daughter, but of the 8 pics captured not all were good.Â Thereâ€™s no way to de-select the blurry ones or make sure you get the good ones.Â Something to work on before release â€¦

1/12/2009

Google takes Quicksilver Pro … I hope it’s coming to Windows!

Google has launched a new Mac application based on Quicksilver called Google Quick Search Box. At first I missed why I would want a quick Google search on my desktop, but when I read this lifehacker post on the topic it became clear this was really Quicksilver reborn as a Google product.

Iâ€™ve used Quicksilver for years and there are some awesome extensions to make your life easier and productive without ever touching the mouse. On the PC, I use Launchy though it pales in comparison to the functionality in Quicksilver (macros and application plug-ins come to mind). I really hope this one makes it over to the PC side so I can use it across all my systems.

1/12/2009

two-finger-scroll – awesome donationware

As I’ve previously mentioned the Synaptics software is not yet working in Windows 7 which is a definite bummer, but that problem has been solved with an excellent donationware project on Google Code. two-finger-scroll is a quick download and once installed you can use two fingers to scroll through any screen.

I’m loving this!

1/12/20091/12/2009

Some system updates arrive for the Samsung NC10

I suppose you might have noticed that the Samsung NC10 is something of a new obsession in my writing here â€¦ Par for the course with a new device, Iâ€™m afraid.

Today the Samsung Software update popped up when I got to the office and informed me that there were some updates.Â Three in fact â€¦ though the first notice was for the notifier itself.Â Once it updated, there was a notice for both the system bios as as well as the easy network manager.Â

The process was smooth taking about 10 minutes which included two reboots â€“ one after the initial updater and then another after the bios update which took most of the time.Â I canâ€™t say I am noticing anything new here â€¦ Windows 7 still generally resumes from sleep without sound, volume and display controls which is quite frustrating to say the least.Â At least the reboot process is fast â€“ much faster than my work machine so itâ€™s all good.

1/12/20091/12/2009

Black NC10 available now

A very tempting transition option while still within my return period with Amazon … The Samsung NC10 in Black is finally available. I probably would have ordered the black one if it had been ready a few weeks ago. Debating now though as I am quite committed with software and my personal configuration. Thanks Joseph!

1/12/20091/12/2009

The almost status of Nokia Software Checker

Ricky beat me to blogging this, but I also had the same experience using the Nokia Software Checker on the N79. Nokia Software Checker appears on the newer Feature Pack 2 devices (N79, N85) and appears to be an application who’s sole purpose is to schedule checks against the firmware database.

In theory this is a very handy thing as having the latest software on your mobile tends to deliver new features and most importantly bug fixes. Â Updating firmware via FP2 is a simple non-destructive process so updating to the latest software is also painless. Â

Back to the Nokia Software Checker … I noticed this application on the N79 first and decided to try it last week. Â After pinging the Nokia server, I was told there was an update (not what update) and suggested I connect to my PC to run the software updater there instead of prompting me to check right on the device. Â Over the air updates are a key feature on these new devices and I was surprised to see it not referenced. Â I tried the OTA update anyway (homescreen > *#0000# > check for updates) and was told there was no new software available.

I’m not sure why there is a disconnect between the two applications and the database online here, but this is not a good way to create a positive user experience. Â I’ve not had the chance to try an update from my PC yet but I’m guessing that the software update via PC and Phone are in sync and that it’s the Nokia Software Checker that’s out of alignment.

1/11/20091/11/2009

Windows 7 beta on the Samsung NC10

I should probably preface this post by saying Iâ€™m far from a windows expert. I am quite comfortable within XP but donâ€™t really have much experience in Vista outside of the few occasions Iâ€™ve launched it in VMware to flash a phone. I use XP daily for work, but basically just tolerate how it all works. I definitely prefer OSX, though the more Iâ€™ve used Windows on a daily basis the less I find I care as there are ways to basically to everything I need on each system.

The Windows 7 beta was leaked at the same time I ordered the Samsung NC10 netbook so I decided to go for it. I had a few days of experience in VMware before the NC10 arrived and overall I find that itâ€™s quite peppy and looks really slick. It definitely reveals XPâ€™s age visually and offers some general niceties. I was pleased to see that performance in both virtualized as well as the netbook environment was excellent. The standard install / startup of the NC10 includes some Samsung specific applications for controlling the keyboard, trackpad, battery etc and none were obviously included in the Windows 7 install though they all installed without too much hassle in Windows 7. I did have to use compatibility mode to install things, and thus far the only conflict here seems to be the synaptics trackpad software. Through some trial and error I was able to find that the conflicts are unfortunately with most of the cool stuff you get with the synaptics driver. By disabling the virtual scrolling and gestures, I was able to stop the trackpad from freezing. While this essentially reduces the trackpad to a basic device again, I at least can continue using the PalmCheck feature which prevents the trackpad from activating while typing. With the smaller keyboard this feature is actually critical for me.

Otherwise Iâ€™m running Firefox, iTunes, Tweetdeck, Chrome, Windows Live Writer, Evernote, Launchy, Skype, WinSCP, OpenOffice, Boingo and probably a few things Iâ€™m not remembering. Iâ€™ve seen a few circular stalls (the windows 7 beach ball) which I expect to have resolved when I upgrade from 1 to 2GBs of RAM. Windows 7 installed beautifully and seems to handle pretty much anything Iâ€™ve thrown at it. Iâ€™m looking forward to seeing how things evolve over the course of the beta.

1/10/20091/10/2009

Hacking the Samsung NC10

One of the real reasons I wanted a netbook was to be able to play around a bit with some things I would not normally get to do on a daily machine. A key goal is to get OSX installed and running so Iâ€™ve got a netbook hackintosh system going. So far I do actually have OSX installed and running along with Windows 7 and XP though the standard hardware inside the Samsung NC10 does not have any network drivers within OSX. I knew this going in and thought it would only add to the fun of toying around with this system.

Tonight I remembered that I had a spare Airport Extreme in the house and thinking the card inside might work in the NC10 I ran to get it along with some tools â€¦

The Airport Extreme open and card removed â€¦

I then took the back case off the NC10 to get to the good stuff â€¦

Unfortunately it was pretty obvious right away that the card was quite a bit larger than the internal space available so Iâ€™ll have to try again with a known working option.

This was a fun project while everyone else in the house was sleeping. Hopefully Iâ€™ll be able to report back soon enough after a successful transplant.