Which Tablet?

Posted on 07 May 2011 by johannes

For someone who wants to buy a tablet right now, especially in Australia, the choices in the market are far from clear. If you fancy an Apple Ipad 2, you are guaranteed a great user experience, a good selection of apps and nice applications such as GarageBand and iMovie. However, if you look at the hardware, even though the dual-core A5 is a little powerhouse under that screen, the hardware list is a little disappointing. The camera is a disappointment and the lack of slots for expansion as well as being tied down to an iTunes only transfer can make things complicated under certain usage scenarios. Furthermore, even if you have cash burning a hole in your wallet, there is hardly any stock anywhere.

In the Android camp, at the moment there is the new Samsung 10.1v being sold through Vodafone. The tablet runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb and it has good specs, such as a nice camera, 3G connectivity and being an Android tablet, it can be used as a USB storage device. However, the Samsung lacks any expansion slot whatsoever. This makes it a slight disadvantage if you are one of those movie and music hogs who like to take a lot of media on the go.

Recently, I started to see some Acer Iconia A500 tablets around the shops. Yesterday, I looked at a couple in a JB-HiFi store somewhere in Sydney. The unit definitely feels nice to hold and amazingly light. It has a brushed aluminium back and the camera seems to be quite good. However, so far there is no 3G version available in Australia.

Dilemma is sometimes a wonderful thing, as I think I will wait until there is a tablet in the market that will fit in as a daily use tablet without being tied down to any particular device ecosystem.

 

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Samsung galaxy s problem with juicedefender app

Posted on 20 March 2011 by johannes

Having recently acquired a samsung galaxy s android handset, I proceeded to install all the apps that I had installed on my htc legend. One of them was the juice defender app, which worked quite well on the legend.

Soon after I installed the app, I noticed that the battery would drain quite quickly. Within about 4 to 5 hours the battery would be totally flat. As soon as unplugging from the charger, the battery would be down to 80% within about 10 minutes.

Thinking there was a problem with my phone, I began to check all my settings. I then realised what the problem was when the juice defender app was starting really slowly. In fact, the app was causing the phone to really lag badly.

I immediately uninstalled the app and believe it or not, my
battery life improved after uninstalling Juice Defender.

You might want to try this if your galaxy s suddenly drains battery like there’s no tomorrow. Now my battery lasts 8 hours plus like it should.

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Updating Vodafone Samsung Galaxy S to Android Froyo 2.2

Posted on 13 February 2011 by johannes

I recently acquired a Vodafone-branded Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9000 phone. Since I purchased it second-hand, it was not part of any contract with any carrier. However, I found out that it was locked to the Vodafone network as it would not accept a SIM card from Virgin. To unlock the phone, I just headed over to the Vodafone unlocking website and after entering the phone’s IMEI (found under menu > setttings > about phone), I was able to unlock it from the Vodafone network. In some cases, the unlocking could cost money, but in this case I seemed to just get the unlocking code straight away.

After the unlocking, I checked the version of Android installed and found out that the phone was still running Eclair (Android 2.1). Using the version of Kies (the Samsung Phone Manager) that came with the phone on two mini CDs, I was told that the firmware on the phone could not be upgraded. This was quite disappointing since I had just upgraded my HTC Legend to Froyo (Android 2.2) the week before.

A few Google searches later, I tried to use the Registry spoofing method that was discussed  on a few websites and it just didn’t work. In the end, the method that worked was updating to Kies 2.0 and it seemed to find the Froyo update for the phone straight away.

The update took quite a while, but it seemed to have done a proper job and restored some of my settings minus the apps that I have downloaded. So, if you want to upgrade your Vodafone Samsung Galaxy S to Froyo, there is no need to use any spoofing or custom-cooked ROMs, just update your version of Kies to version 2.0.

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Thinking about vodafone egypt and facebook tunisia

Posted on 06 February 2011 by johannes

Looking at the situation in Egypt and Tunisia recently, it is hard to deny the role of technology at work in both situations. In Tunisia, the role of social media, namely Facebook, came to the forefront in the organisation and discussion that took place, in and outside of, the country amongst those who opposed the incumbent regime. In Egypt, technology became an issue because of the government’s attempt to cut off connection between the masses and the rest of the world.

Both cases demonstrated the crucial role played by the internet in this age of digital communications. The Tunisian government attempted to censor discussions and remove any material that might provoke discussions and outrage, by hacking into the accounts of journalists and reporters who were writing about the situation. In Egypt, the government ordered the shut down of all operations by the few internet service providers in the country.

While Facebook took action, albeit a week late, by forcing users to login via the secure http protocol (https), Vodafone was one of the first internet service providers in Egypt to shutdown their services. The contrast between attitudes of the two corporations could not be more stark. Facebook decided to move to protect their users while Vodafone just complied with a ridiculous request from a government that has been well known to be a collaborator of the military state of Israel and an agent of the United States in the Middle East.

On the face of the issues, one should applaud Facebook for standing up for the privacy of their users. However, it may be the case that Facebook was just trying to protect their corporate image in the eyes of their users all over the world. In the cases of the journalists who had their accounts hacked and deleted by Tunisian government agents, Facebook would not let them open accounts without using their real names. It might be OK to enforce this policy under normal circumstances, but to force these journalists to publish in Facebook under their real names would be like giving them death sentences.

The actions of Vodafone Egypt, however, was completely deplorable for letting a corrupt government control the connectivity of the country to the rest of the world. Their action in complying with the Mubarak government’s request basically left their subscribers in the dark and unable to reach the outside world effectively to expose the goings on in Egypt.

Some food for thought, I guess.

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Updating AU Vodafone HTC Legend to Froyo

Posted on 04 February 2011 by johannes

I have been using an HTC Legend running Eclair for the last six months and it has been running quite well. I like the small size of the phone, since it is a bit smaller than my previous phone which was a Nokia E71. It does all the things that I would like to do on a phone:

  1. Push email
  2. Web browsing
  3. Supports Flash-based application
  4. Occasional games
  5. Good quality snap photography
  6. Plays music
  7. Great configurable interface

However, I feel the need to update to Froyo, because there is no support for wi-fi sharing and installing apps on memory card in Eclair. These two features meant that I had to wait months while HTC updated the official ROM for Legend on Vodafone, thanks to the custom HTC Sense interface. Thankfully the official ROM was available early December 2010 for HTC Legend owners in Europe and Asia.

For a while I thought that Vodafone Australia would make the official HTC Legend ROM update to Froyo (Android 2.2) through an OTA (Over The Air) update. By late January I grew tired of waiting and checking, so I headed over to the HTC site and decided to update the Android OS on my HTC Legend manually. To get the official ROM update you can go to this page in the HTC site.

The update process was nice and simple, but I had to remember to backup several things as the update will erase the entire phone:

  1. SMS: I use SMS Backup and Restore, which backs up all your messages to the removable microSD card.
  2. Pictures: this could be done manually using Astro File Manager
  3. Contacts: if you don’t use Google to sync your contacts, you need to back this up.
  4. Apps: you can use Astro File Manager to backup all your apps.

After about 15 minutes, I had a nice phone running Froyo, with all the features that I wanted. All up, it took me roughly about an hour to get my HTC Legend to the same settings and apps that I had running on Eclair. So, if you have a spare hour or hour and a half, with a little bit of care, you can update your Australian Vodafone HTC Legend to Froyo.

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It’s official: anyone can crack GSM encryption

Posted on 30 December 2010 by johannes

Using four feature phones and a computer, a pair of researchers demonstrated that it is possible to sniff and decrypt a session across a GSM network in as little as a few minutes. The researchers used a custom firmware loaded onto the phones which act as network sniffers, with the decryption done on a computer, after the packets were sent via USB connection.

The implication of this is quite significant, as it means that GSM eavesdropping is now possible with commodity hardware that does not cost five figures in US Dollars. Anyone with access to the right software and the right phone hardware could decrypt any conversations or SMS across a GSM network.

This process has been made somewhat easier by the tendencies of mobile phone networks to send voice and SMS traffic to the old GSM network while reserving UMTS for data use only. On top of that, the researchers revealed that often the same key is used across multiple sessions, which means that once the encryption of a particular session has been cracked, the same key can be used in the next few sessions without having to decrypt a new one.

Read the original article at arstechnica for more details

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Experience using Logitech Harmony 300

Posted on 25 December 2010 by johannes

Scenario: I bought a Logitech Harmony 300 programmable universal remote as a christmas gift for $28.95 from Officeworks. Due to the recipients of the gift being non-technical people, I had to set up the gift myself to work with the various devices they have in their living room.

Experience: After getting the remote out of its box, I briefly read the manual. I honestly first thought that I could find a way to add the devices to the remote using the computer by visiting the Logitech website. After poking around for around 5-10 minutes, I failed to find any mention of where you should go to carry out the setup procedure. In the end, I noticed that the manual said that you have to visit a website with the address myharmony.com

After going to the site, I was greeted with an account setup screen. I filled in all the necessary details (email, password, etc, etc) and then I clicked next. After the account creation step was successful, I was told that the setup procedure would only work through Safari 3 or Firefox on OS X.

I felt that this part was a bit of a let down, since I had come to the site using Google Chrome browser and  was not warned of any impending doom until after I clicked next in the setup procedure. This meant that I had to launch Firefox (I prefer Firefox to Safari) and login again before being able to continue. It is a minor issue, but I feel that a company such as Logitech should try to make the experience as smooth as possible even for non-technical users. Telling a user that the browser being used is not compatible is not necessarily bad, but letting them know after the process had begun (in this case in the third step), is a little annoying and confusing. I would have preferred to be told in the very first step that the browser I was using was incompatible.

Despite the little hiccup, the process as a whole was quite smooth and orderly. You put the batteries in the remote and then you plug it into the computer’s USB port when prompted during the setup process. Once the software can see the remote, it then prompts you to add devices. I added the following devices to the remote:

  1. Sharp Aquos LC-37D85X Television
  2. Rowa RDV650 DVD player
  3. Samsung DVD-R155 DVD recorder.

After the setup process finished, the remote seemed to work just fine with all three devices.

Verdict: I would recommend this device to others, even though the Harmony 300 is limited to only 4 devices (reasonable for most homes). The setup is quite quick and straightforward and the software used in the setup is quite intuitive.

What’s in the box: 2 AA batteries, remote, manual, warranty card, USB cable.

Merry Christmas people.

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Who’s gonna step up into Craigslist shoes?

Posted on 25 December 2010 by johannes

The shutting down of Craigslists adult services on a global scale has been applauded by some as a victory against the exploitation of women and children. While on the surface it seems like a victory, it could be just a hollow victory.

The move by Craigslists to shut down its adult services section came about after a few years of being hounded by various Attorney Generals in different states in the US. Many accusations of “enabling prostitution” have been leveled against the site, despite its taking certain measures to properly identify advertisers to make sure that there was no crime being committed through the use of the site.

The shut down of the Craigslists adult services section will mean that the advertisers will go somewhere else. There is no shortage of internet entrepreneurs out there who will be willing to take some dollars to advertise adult services. It should also be noted that the shutting down of an adult services section of a website does not in anyway bear any relationship to the exploitation of women and children, because the exploitation of women and children is not caused by Craigslists.

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The dilemma of password security

Posted on 24 December 2010 by johannes

This is a topic that has been written about many times before, but so far there is no good replacement that I have seen, other than oauth. Password security has been proven to be the weakest link in many organisations’ security schema.

The recent case of security breach at Gawker Media is a case in point. It proves that passwords get reused for other websites in quite a few cases and that people often choose really obvious and weak passwords.

However, until there is a replacement, the best case scenario is to use a strong password, but strong passwords are hard to remember. If one has a different password for every site that requires registration, then each person would have quite a few complex passwords to remember. This is why people choose weak passwords and reuse passwords across sites.

I guess rule number one is to not use your banking password for anything else. So, in a sense, one can have multiple tiers of security depending on the importance of the sites. This, however, is quite tricky to define since people place different levels of importance to different sites.

Let us hope that there is a new scheme around the corner to allow for better security all around.

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Kodak online photo display patent, is it obvious?

Posted on 23 December 2010 by johannes

In the age of software patent and patent for just about everything else to do with technology, Kodak has launched a patent lawsuit against Shutterfly. Shutterfly have fought back with counter claims, but this means that, if validated, the patent could have very wide ramifications for Flickr and other photo sharing sites such as Google’s Picasa.

What it means is that essentially anyone who publishes photos online could be infringing Kodak’s patents. This situation is just untenable for a lot of the smaller site operators, but for the bigger companies such as Yahoo!, which owns Flickr.com and Google, which owns Picasa, they are more likely to challenge such a lawsuit and seek to invalidate the patent, which is one of a claimed 400 related patents that Kodak has in its portfolio.

Let us hope that all parties can see some sense in the end.

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