Prakash Advani's Blog

After clocking 10,000 + Units of the Plug Computer, Marvell is releasing Plug Computer 3.0.

For those who came in late, Plug is a small lower powered computer which can do those nightly downloads, uploads, data captures, image captures from web cams and more.

What new?

• 2.0 GHz
• 1 Watt power consumption
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Wifi
• Bluetooh
• SD Card
• eSata
• Runs Linux

Read More.

Olympus has been bringing Micro Four-Third cameras to the market faster that expected. After the E-P1 and E-P2, they have now released E-PL1 which is cheaper by US$ 200.

Here are the specs.

• Kit includes 14-42 Zoom lens
• 12 MegaPixel
• 2.7″ LCD
• HD Video support
• List price US$ 599

E-PL1 has a few advantages over E-P2:

• Dedicated REC button
• Magnified live view button
• Up to 14x live view magnification
• Lighter low-pass filter
• Built-in flash

E-P2 advantages over E-PL1:

• Two control dials
• More direct-access buttons (including ISO and white balance)
• Superior image stabilization system
• AE/AF lock button
• Orientation sensor
• Larger, 3.0″ LCD
• More substantial construction
• 1/180 sec flash sync speed (rather than 1/160)
• Maximum shutter speed of 1/4000 sec (rather than 1/2000)
• Maximum ISO of 6400
• Virtual level display
• Built-in stereo mics/speakers
• Optional wireless remote
• Electronic View Finder (EVF) bundled, in EPL-1 it is optional

Detailed comparison of all the three models at DP Review.


USB 3 devices have finally started showing up in the US and expect them to be more widely available everywhere else in the world, later this year.

USB 2 has been around, but with serious bottlenecks. Its slow and gets slower when you connect multiple peripherals. Is USB 3 going to solve the problem? It looks promising. What is USB 3 all about?

• 10 times faster than USB 2.0 with 5Gbps.
• USB 3 is bi-directional so its much faster. In USB 2 data can flow only in one direction at a time.
• Realistically you should get 3 times faster transfer speeds for external drives.
• Backward compatible with USB 2. If you connect to older systems, you will still be able to use, but at slower speeds.
• More power. Since more and more devices are being powered by USB, USB3 provides more power to adequately power those external hard drives.
• Linux is the first operating system to support USB 3, and yes Microsoft has followed by including support in Windows 7.

The first place where USB 3 has started showing up is in external hard drives. If you are looking for one, you should consider USB 3. To get USB 3 performance, you will need USB 3 port on your computer, which is lacking in most of the PCs/Laptops sold today. However you can buy a hard drive with a card for your PC/Laptop.

From Amazon: 1 TB USB 3 external desktop hard drive with PCIe USB 3 adaptor.

USB 3.0 Expresscard for your laptop.

Now that the dust has unsettled on the iPad and more anxiety is being generated , I decided to write my two cents.

Apple is known to be an innovative company and they have done exactly that with this device, however they could do better. What they seems to have done is just zoomed up the iPhone , guess Mr. Jobs is getting old .

Apple realised that people liked the iPhone but found the screen size too small, so why not make it bigger while everything else remains the same.  Good strategy because you can use all your iPhone apps, bad one because it still has the limitations of the iPhone.

Here is what I liked:

• Nice 10 inch Screen which is sufficient for most work and entertainment.
• 1024X768 resolution which is decent for all apps.
• Slim .5″ and light weight 1.5 Pounds (700 grams).
• Option for WiFi or 3G (3G may be locked to service providers as this is common Apple Strategy.)
• Huge collection of applications, as all iPhone apps work.
• 10 Hours of Battery life.
• Flash storage (SSD).
• eBook reader, so you can use it as a ebook reading device, however dedicated eBook readers are easier to read because they don’t emit light.
• Orientation sensor, so you can use it vertically or horizontally.

What I don’t like:

• No expandable storage, as there is no memory card slot.
• No USB either so you cant add any peripherals or storage either. You need to purchase additional accessory (Camera Connection Kit).
• No Phone, who would want a 10 inch phone? But we also don’t want to carry so many devices. So phone capablity via bluetooth would be nice.
• No Camera? you got to be kidding. How the hell are we going to use this for our our Skype Videos? Note: Apple has filed a patent for in-screen camera, so this may show up in iPad v2.

Pricing:

This is attractive and offers a good alternative to Netbooks.

Full specifications:

Size and weight

• Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
• Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
• Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
• Weight: 1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model; 1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model

Display

• 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
• 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Wi-Fi model

• Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Wi-Fi + 3G model

• UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900,1800, 1900 MHz)
• Data only2
• Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Location Service

• Wi-Fi
• Digital compass
• Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
• Cellular (Wi-Fi + 3G model)

Other features:

• 30-pin Dock connector (same as iPod and iPhone)
• 10-hours of battery life (Over one month standby time)’
• Full capacitive multi-touch interface
• 16-64GB of Flash memory storage
• 1 GHz Apple-branded A4 chip (developed in-house)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• 802.11n WiFi
• Built-in Speaker
• Built-in Microphone

There is surely a market for devices between a phone and a laptop. The phone has a tiny screen, while the laptop is too big to carry around, so the iPad fills the space well. This will trigger many other OEMs to come up with similar devices, (Dell/HP/Acer are you listening?).  The competition should give us more choices and yes similar functionality can easily be achieved on a Linux platform.

I was comparing the pricing of External drives and here are the results. Its Amazing to see how we used to talk in MBs, then GBs and now TBs.

The cost per GB for two 1TB is the same as one 2TB. Unless you need more than 1TB which is a lot, I would buy a 1TB drive and keep the budget for another drive in the future. Who knows by the time you run out of your 1TB, you could get another 2TB a the same price.

The bottle neck will now be the data transfer, USB 2.0 is just not fast enough.. so look for eSATA. Your PC/Notebook should also have an eSATA port. A NAS box with Gigabit Ethernet would also be fast, provided your network card and your network is 1GBps.

I have been using the Jawbone, noise cancellation headset for a while. Its sold at a premium over other brands. It worked very well for a few days and did an excellent job in noise cancellation. However after a few days it started giving way, due to the poor build quality.

The ear hook was the first to break down. The unit ships with 3 ear hooks to fit different ear sizes, I have used up all the ones supplied and now I don’t have any left, as they keep breaking. Also the body plastic has come off, and that exposes the electronics.

Now only if they fixed the quality of plastic, it would be a great product.

LG launched a new LCD TV Monitor (Flatron M197WA) , here is my mini review of the product:

• Its a 18.5″ Wide, I was actually looking for 22″ but this turned out to be good enough.
• 1366 X 768 resolution which is HD ready (1080p).
• Built-in HDMI port which can be used with Blueray, new generation of up-scale DVD players and the new breed of HD digital cameras. They all use HDMI. Note: HDMI cable is not included and has to  purchased separately.
• 20000:1 Contrast Ratio: Not sure if that made any significant different but nice.
• 5ms response time: that’s good enough, but if you are into serious action gaming, you may want a 2ms.
• Built in TV function, for the couch potatoes. Also includes remote.
• Built in speakers, the sound quality is functional but nothing to write home about.
• Comes with a detachable stand, so it can be used on the desk or can be wall mounted. Wall mounting bracket needs to be purchased separately.
• She’s got the looks, the monitor is a good looking baby.
• Lots of ports: DVI, HDMI, D-Sub (standard monitor input), Composite AV.
• Power Consumption 35W, 1W on Standby.
• I tested this on Ubuntu 9.04 and was detected immediately with, no additional tweaking needed.

Street Price in India: Rs. 12,500/-

Overall a good buy. I have only tested the PC functions, have yet to test the TV capabilities.

Important Bits:

• Runs Linux, so full multitasking and no more crashes
• 3.5G and WiFi connectivity
• 5-inch resistive WVGA screen
• slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• ARM Cortex 8 processor @ 600 MHz
• 32GB of internal memory, big enough than most other phones.
• MicroSD slot for expansion
• FM transmitter
• 3D Graphic accelerator
• Flash Player
• 5-megapixel camera
• 3.5mm jack

Dell Ideastrom has this excellent suggestion: Standardize Power Cables for Laptops

This will be so cool! You don’t need to worry if you forgot to carry your laptop power cord, hotels/airlines can have direct supply for laptop power and the convenience will be amazing.

Its also necessary to standardise on the power adaptors for other devices. The good news Cellphones will have stand power adaptors by 2012. This has been agreed at GSMA 2009 by Nokia, Motorola, LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. They will use the micro USB port as the standard. Can’t wait for this to happen! Apparently this move will good for the environment as they will save tons on adaptors as they can now be re-cycled.

Canon has launched the 500D/T1i, this fits in between the entry level 1000D and the professional series 50D. This also have video capabilities which all the SLRs are now adding.

Key Features

• 15 Mega Pixel. Same sensor as the 50D, which is a good thing but does megapixel  matter any more? Perhaps for some.
• High Definition Video (1080p) recording.This is at 20fps, while you can get 30fps if you shoot in 720p.
• Extendible ISO up to 12800
• Live view with Face Detection
• HDMI output
• 9 Point autofocus
• SD/SDHC Card
• 524g weight

Main advantage over 450D

• Video capabilities
• 15MP vs. 12
• Higher ISO vs 1600
• HDMI connectivity

If these are not important to you, then you could get a 450D at a bargain.

Advantage over Olympus E620

• Video as the 620 doesn’t have video.

Advantage of Olympus E620 over Canon 500D

• Image stabilisation in the Body

Its very easy to get a computer with what ever hardware configuration you want, you can go on-line and configure it with all possible permutations and combinations. Except for one.

Its very difficult to buy a hardware of your choice without Windows. What if you want to use Linux? What do you do? You may still end up paying for the Microsoft Tax, even if your Windows partition is just sitting there and doing nothing.

Solution: Buy a hardware of your choice and apply for a refund. Yes its possible, may not be very easy but definitely worthy a try. Venkat Raghavan managed to get a refund on Windows. Read his blog and enjoy your refund.

Now if more and more people start doing that, not that Bill would become a popper but vendors would give us Linux users a choice.

The Neuros LINK a disc-less PC designed to be connected to your TV comes with a wireless “Keymote”to control the unit from the comfort on your couch. Like a PC, it is customizable and expandable:

• 2.8Ghz CPU
• 1GB DDR SDRAM memory (expandable up to 8GB)
• Up to 1080p H.264 video playback
• Support an extensive list of video and audio formats: MPEG2, MPEG4, .vob, .mp4, .avi, .asf, .wmv, .mkv, .mp3, .aac, .ac3, Flac, Ogg, …
• HDMI (max resolution 1920×1200, 1080p), DVI, VGA outputs
• High-definition 6-channel Audio output
• Optical S/PDIF audio output
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 802.11 g/b WiFi, up to 54Mbps
• Software:
  • Linux Ubuntu 8.10 (intrepid ibex) operating system
  • Seamless integration with the free Neuros.TV= service
  • MythTV as a local media player (and, transitioning to XBMC)
  • Open-source video players (MPlayer, VLC, Totem). A comprehensive list of formats, containers and media can be found on the above websites.
  • Transmission BitTorrent client pre-installed with Ubuntu
• 6 USB 2.0 High-speed Ports, 1 Firewire
• Accessories included:
  • Controller: 2.4 GHz wireless keyboard trackball controller
  • Stand
• Housing: 300mm x 90mm x 326mm (11.8″ x 3.5″ x 12.8″)
• Noise: under 27dB

Read the review on ARS Technica.

FujiFilm has launched a 3D camera which has two lenses and two sensors. One captures the foreground and the other the background.

To actually get a 3D picture, you need to send the photo to a special lab to process and send the photos back to you.

Looks innovative, initial pricing seems to be high, expect it to get more competitive.

Read More.

Nokia has developed a phone that charges itself using microwaves. It picks up waves from TV signals, radio and other mobile phones.

Finally all the radiations that’s been cooking our brains is finally being put to some good use.

LG has recently launched this mobile phone in India with a claimed battery life on 1 month (standby). I have been playing around with this phone and here is my take.

This is a basic phone with a street price of Rs. 4175/- (US$ 85 Approx)

Whats good about this phone:

• The battery went on for 3 days with moderate usage. I wasn’t able to to test the claim of standby time. MP3 playback drains battery.
• The phone includes FM Radio and MP3 function.
• Inbuilt speaker is quite loud but quality is average as compared to expensive phones.
• Good screen resolution, better than the basic phones from Nokia.
• USB cable included to sync address book with PC and can be used to charge the phone as well.
  Note: This is a proprietary cable, so you can’t use any standard USB cable, you have to use this one.
• You can record video, audio and record songs form FM Radio. I tested this and works well. You can also record your phone conversations .
• Can playback audio and video files using handsfree, bluetooth or through inbuilt speakers.
• Can play FM  Radio on the speaker (provided you have your handsfree cable connected which acts like an antenna)
• Supports stereo bluetooth headsets! When even the iPhone doesn’t
• No degradation of performance after loading 900 contacts + 1000 mp3 files.
• Inbuilt 60 MB memory which is free even after loading all the contacts.
• Expandable memory, so you can add MicroSD card. I tested this with Sandisk 4GB MicroSD and works well.
• Decent 100 pages manual.
• Mobile tracker included, so if your phone gets stolen, and someone changes the SIM, you can get an SMS alert of the new number on any 2 alternative numbers of your choice.
• Handy and light weight.
• You can exchange Business card from other users (including Nokia), the card is saved as vCard format (which is s a standard), you can also save any contact as vCard to the memory card.

Side note for Linux users (Tried this on Ubuntu 8.10): When you connect the phone with the USB cable, it gives you an option on the phone to select Mass storage, if you select mass storage, the phone will get auto mounted, then you can then drag and drop any files that you like for example you can copy mp3 files which can be played back on the phone.

When you plugin the USB cable, it also gives you an option to select COM port, if you select COM port,the phone gets detected as  /dev/ttyACM0 . To test you can type:

echo atdt111 > /dev/ttyACM0

and the phone will dial 111 Make sure you select a number that won’t call the police!

I was also able to use KMobileTools and access the phonebook but haven’t done extensive testing.

Limitations.

• Camera is of a low resolution, so if you are primary looking for camera function, this camera is not for you.
• The interface is not very intuitive, takes time getting used to.
• Cannot charge and use handsfree at the same time, as they use the same slot.
• No 3G, EDGE, GPS or Wifi, so if you are looking for using more of data functions, this one only has GPRS support.
• T9 dictionary is included but can’t be customised, no way to add your own words. No way to cycle through words.
• Handsfree quality is good for music but has a hissing sound when used for phone call.
• No standard headphones jack, so you can’t directly connect any other headphones (except bluetooth).
• No stop watch or timer included.

Final Thoughts: Excellent phone for its price, if you really need any of  the missing features, then you need to look for alternatives.

If your hard drive is seagate, then you may need to update the hardrive firmware.

A firmware issue has been identified that affects a small number of Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 hard drive models which may result in data becoming inaccessible after a power-off/on operation. The affected products are Barracuda 7200.11, Barracuda ES.2 SATA, and DiamondMax 22.

If your drive is one of the affected ones,  you can get the update firmware here.

After the iPhone has shaken up the cellphone market, celllphone manufacturers are desperately trying to create an iPhone killer.

Nokia too announced the Nokia N97 to compete in this space and here are the features:

• 3.5″ Wide Screen (16:9)
• Symbian
• WiFi and HSDPA
• A-GPS
• 3.5 mm standard headphone jack.
• MicroSD slot.
• 5 Megapixel Camera with Carl Zeiss lens.
• 32GB onboard memory, expandable to 48 MB.

Unlike the iPhone, Nokia is following a lot of standards, which is plus.

Nokia is desperately trying to by adding more features over the iPhone, but they need to understand that features is not the reason why iPhone is selling millions its the whole experience. Not sure if this will be an iPhone killer but surely iPhone is a Killer

After having bad support experience from Nokia, I am personally not going to touch Nokia in the near future.

Apple just released the latest firmware 2.2. I have successfully upgraded my original iPhone to the new firmware. My iPhone came with firmware 1.1 and was updated to 1.1.4.

Standard disclaimer applies: If you end up with a fancy looking brick, don’t blame me. This is also known to work only on the older iPhone and not on the new generation iPhone 3G yet.

Here is what you need to do:

1. You need to update your iTunes to the latest version 8.0.2 (if not already), don’t update your iPhone firmware yet, just update iTunes and sync your data.

Syncing is an important step as when you update your firmware, all your data gets erased and then iTunes syncs it back.

2. Download these 4 files.

QuickPWN Windows Version OR Mac Version

Note: I have not tested this on Mac.

iPhone firmware 2.2

Bootloader version 4.6

Bootloader version 3.9

3. Update the iPhone to Firmware 2.2: Don’t do the automatic update, go to Advanced setting tab, hold the shift key and click on Update. This will give you an option to select the 2.2 firmware file that you downloaded in Step 2.

4. Optional: If you phone goes into recovery mode, like it did for me, Go to the Advance setting Tab again, hold the shift key and click on Restore. This will give you an option to select the 2.2 firmware file that you downloaded in Step 2.

5. After the update, your phone will get locked or will show emergency model. Keep it plugged in.

6. Start QuickPWN and select the firmware files and the boot loader files that you downloaded in Step 2. Follow the instructions, you will need to hold the home/power button in various combinations, QuickPWN will instruct you on that.
You will be given an option to install Cydia, Cydia is another installer and gives you more options to install 3rd party apps.

It also given you an option to replace the logo. If you select that option, your iPhone Apple boot logo will be replaced with a Pineapple

7. Once QuickPWN unlock your iPhone, check if you are able to make calls. If not, re-do step 6.

8 Once successful, go ahead and sync your iTunes to get your contacts. Also sync photos, music and video. I prefer to do each of them separately as its time consuming, so you can sync what’s necessary first.

9. Enjoy your iPhone 2.2 with all the new features.

For me it unlocked successfully, I am able to use EDGE, WiFi, etc. Don’t yet see all my favourite applications yet in the installer, perhaps they need to get tested on 2.2 before they show up.

Sources:

QuickPWN

Firmwares and Bootloader links

Most end users wanting to move to Linux, expect to play MP3 music and sync their music with their iPods, iPhone, and XXX (put your favourite mp3 player here.)

Apple does not have iTunes for Linux, its only available for Windows and Mac, I wonder why.

iPhone being extremely proprietary, makes it incredibly difficult to write open source software to do what iTunes does. We will get there someday, but for now, here is a work around.

Install Virtual Box.

Then Install Windows within the Virtual Machine.

And then install iTunes on Windows.

Run a script to enable USB connection and you are ready to go.

Here is the link to the script, its been tested on Ubuntu, but may work on other distros.

Mint has this nice article on how Apple got its India strategy wrong for the iPhone launch:

Lost Opportunity | How Apple got its strategy wrong

To add to this, Apple charges its customers in India full charges for the handset, which means no subsidisation from the service provide and yet the handset it locked to the service provider.

In US, handset is locked to AT&T but then subside the cost of the handset and charges only US$200. The rest they make up over the 2 year contract.

In India too, Apple should either sell the handsets unlocked at full price, or if the service provider wants to lock the handset, they should subsidise the cost.