TwoThirtyAM

Much like when you get burned by your friend with the Moto Razr when they send you an MMS and then laugh at you because your “state of the art smart phone” can’t get a simple MMS which is a technology from the early 2000 era, the browser can burn you just the same. “Oh hey, go check out that webpage on your phone man.” Sure thing, after all, I do have the internet in my pocket, right? Well, you do, if the internet you want doesn’t have and kind of Flash. As you see in this screenshot, I am not looking at this page on the go or any other with any kind of Flash content.

So who do you blame? The website developer for not having an HTML version? Apple for not having Flash on the iPhone? Jesus for not making everything work? (I guess that is a bit redundant since Jesus is the CEO of Apple) (hopefully that got you riled up, feel free to flame me with “fanboy” messages now) :)

What’s the point here? None, really. Just stating the obvious, yet again. How many years before we actually get the /ENTIRE/ internet in our pockets? It did take 2 full years to get MMS on the iPhone…(at least that is what we have been told, I’ll believe it when I have it)

It has often been said that Apple hardware is a thing of beauty, and I have to agree. Just look at this Apple Xserve RAID array, stunning!

Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 35
Camera Body: Nikon D40
Camera Lens: Nikon 18-55

Time to get all conspiracy theory on you! This may be way out in left field, but I am just shooting from the hip here and telling you what it looks like to me on the surface.

It seemed to take forever but a couple weeks ago we finally got Skype for the iPhone! Sure it took longer than it should have but what on the iPhone doesn’t? Well, after the first install, we came up against the app crashing upon starting, consistently. Well long story short, it turned out to be some kind of incompatibility with Jailbroken iPhones and MobileSubstrate. So we were back up and running just fine after a MobileSubstrate update. So it was MobileSubstrate? Well no, take a look at the lengthly article by Saurik on the matter.

So fast forward to today, a new Skype app update, cool, so I install it. Upon launching the app, I get the following message “This version of Skype is only supported on unmodified iPhone OS 2.2″ which you can see in the screen shot.

Bottom line, what is this app doing that no other app is?
Why is this particular app so different in the way it works?
Do they not work with the same SDK that everyone else does?

I really hope this turns out to be no big deal and I have blown it way out of proportion to be honest.

With all the talk of actions being taken to make Jailbreaking “illegal” and so forth, I don’t want this app to turn into a fact finding mission for Apple/AT&T to begin shutting off service for iPhone users that are “breaking the rules”.

Comment below, tell me I am over reacting…please :)

(the app seems to work ok, but is this the beginning? Because obviously if you have Jailbroken your phone, you know that you are not going to get technical support on anything)

This week’s photo comes from our Mexico trip as well. This was from the day we went out to look at some California Gray Whales. It was a fantastic trip, and we saw a pretty good amount of whales. :)

Click the image to see larger

Here is a link to the whole trip gallery. Mexico Trip Feb2009 – Whale Watching

Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 85mm
Camera Body: Nikon D40
Camera Lens: Nikon 55-200

To continue with the “Concept Corner” series, this week we have a short write up about car tail lights. What about them? Well, an idea I had a while back to help with traffic flow and safety.

Living in California, I see horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE drivers everyday. Because of this, I am always looking for ways to make driving safer for those of us that can handle driving a car. This idea is actually rather simple, but could prove to be rather useful.

As I am sure you all know, when you are driving you have generally have two states that you are in: accelerating or braking. When you are accelerating you have no means of letting others know you are doing this other than the fact that they can see you moving. On the other hand, when you are braking, you have brake lights on the back of your car to indicate your action. This means that from the other driver’s point of view there is effectively no difference in what they see when you are accelerating, maintaining speed or have taken your foot off the accelerator and are coasting.

This is where yellow brake lights come into play. This would be another 1 or 2 indicator lights in the back (perhaps side markers as well) of you car that would illuminate when you are neither breaking nor accelerating but simply coasting. This would give other drivers insight into what your actions are most probably going to be. If you take your foot off the accelerator pedal in your car, you are most likely trying to slow down or are getting ready to apply the brakes. This yellow light would give the other drivers around you the opportunity to react accordingly.

I realize that in order for a system like this to work, we need to have an educated and intelligent populous when it comes to driving. This unfortunately doesn’t seem to be the case around here. People around here seem to have the idea that you are either pressing the accelerator or the brake; there is no in between. If only people understood the concept of throttle control..

I would love to work out a prototype of this system and do some real world testing. Unfortunately, due to cost and the vehicle code laws, I don’t think I can make that happen at this time. But, as always, feel free to contact me if you are someone that feels there is something to this, and we can work on getting it pushed forward. Of course, if you feel the opposite I would love to hear your feedback as well.

With the recent launch of the Amazon Kindle 2, the eBook reader market is a hot topic once again. I have been interested in the technology behind eBook readers and e-ink for a while. The offers have been pretty slim in years past, however. I was at Fry’s Electronics the other day and happened to pass by what was now an “eBook reader section”, so I stopped and looked. Now, they of course did not have a Kindle to play with since you can only get it through Amazon, but they did have several others. They had three that utilized e-ink technology; 2 Sony, and an Astak EZ Reader. For the most part they were the same, and unfortunately that means they all have the same screen flicker that comes with the territory when you are using current e-ink technology. The fourth unit they had was a Jetbook from ECTACO. This unit was different in that it didn’t use e-ink, but rather a VGA monochrome reflective-type TFT LCD. This screen is very easy on the eyes and does not suffer from the same screen flicker “problem”.

Overall I really enjoyed the unit, it was very portable and easy to carry. Had a quick power on time and was comfortable to hold. For page turning, you can use the 2 page turn buttons on the bottom face of the unit, or a thumb slider on the left hand side of the unit. Both worked quite well. After the first few days I was sold on the unit, until, yes unfortunately there is an until, I looked at a PDF book. Up until that time I was reading a .txt text eBook. With text files, the page flips were instant, very clear and fit the screen perfectly. Now, when you move to PDF books, it’s a whole different game. PDFs don’t fit the screen very well, and unfortunately the page flips take considerably longer, making it just about as uncomfortable as the e-ink flicker.

Finally, price. With the Kindle coming in at a hefty $359, the Jetbook is cheap at only $199. However, with the limited number of book formats it works with, and the inability to display PDF eBooks as well as .txt files, it makes it still too pricey for what you get. If this unit was $99, it would probably be worth keeping for text files.

For now it looks like I am back to Stanza and my iPhone for eBook reading, at least until the Kindle (or other models) fix the e-ink flicker and page change delay. It’s coming soon though, I can feel it!

Photography is really starting to become a passion of mine in my life, and because of this I am starting a new weekly post segment where I will be posting 1 of my original photos each week with a short write up and some picture background info. The format might change a little from week to week but eventually I think it will level out. As always, let me know what you think, and feel free to leave comments, feedback, and critiques!

This weeks photo “Mexican Sunrise” was taken in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico while we were on vacation there in Feb 2009. It was taken from the balcony of the condo we were renting.

Click photo for larger view

Photo Info
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/2000
ISO: 320
Focal Length: 200
Camera Body: Nikon D40
Camera Lens: Nikon 55-200

A little background: We used an AppleTV for a while in the living room to serve all of our media. Well, long story short, the AppleTV sucked one too many times, so in the closet it went, and out came the Mac Mini to take its place on the home theater rack!

Problem: The Mac Mini is a little on the old side. I had already cracked the case and upgraded it to 2GB of Ram, which made it a little more usable. However the real problem was realized when attempting to watch full screen flash video (Hulu). It came down to raw processing power; the older Mac Mini only had a 1.5GHz Intel Core Solo! Yes, a Core Solo! Shame on you Mac Mini!

Solution: The short story, swap the processor! I wasn’t looking to spend a fortune on a processor for this machine since it really only needed to be “good enough”. I decided to pick up a T2400 Intel Core Duo running at 1.83GHz. You can find them for between $30 and $50 on eBay. The install is pretty simple, crack the case open, remove the optical drive and take out the logic board. The worst part is the stupid plastic pins that hold the CPU heat sink on, they are brittle and break easily. The processor is a simple locking socket, so no big deal there. Apply some new thermal grease, and reapply the heat sink, and you are good to go. Reassemble the machine and start watching full screen flash! One last reminder: ensure you reconnect the fan controller cable or your fan will default to full speed (which is your indication that you forgot).

Final thought: It was an easy install, and only took about 20 min (40 if you include having to take it apart again to plug in the fan controller that came unplugged) and best of all, the machine is much faster now and plays Hulu like it’s nothing! If you have an older Mac Mini, I highly recommend the upgrade.

10 months. 6500 tweets. Addicted. Yes.

Ok, now that I have admitted it and it’s out in the open, lets move on. :)

My girlfriend and I went on a vacation to Mexico for 8 days. It was a fantastic trip!! I had been gathering up gear that I was going to need, during which I realized, I would be without the normal means of communication I have now. Internet everywhere I go, iPhone in my pocket, and so on. To normal people, this would be ok, but my addiction to bandwidth wouldn’t allow it! So instead I formulated ideas on how to twitter while being disconnected in mexico (for a reasonable amount of money). Now in all seriousness, I wouldn’t die if I couldn’t twitter (hopefully), but I took this as a challenge / project of sorts, just to see what could be done. Lets get into the details a little, here are the ideas I had..

Options:
- Peek e-mail device (possibly hacked to work outside USA).
- Unlocked / Jailbroken iPhone 3G w/ Mexico SIM card.
- Laptop with rented 3G Card.
- Rent a mexico cell phone.
- Laptop with WiFi (if available).
- No twittering at all. not an option ;)

Right away, let me kill of some of these options. Obviously no twittering at all was not an option, or why would I be writing this! Secondly, WiFi was non existent to say the least!

Ideally, the Peek device would have been perfect. It is cheap, simple, and used cell data instead of WiFi. If you setup an email gateway to sent tweets through email, you are set. The problem is that the unit is locked down to only work with the T-mobile SIM that it came with, and since the SIM is blocked from roaming it made the device completely useless.

Next we have my iPhone 3G. My iPhone is unlocked so all I had to do was get a local Mexico SIM. I got said SIM from a company called Movistar. The problem I found with getting SIMs in Mexico is that they are all pay-as-you-go, so they didn’t seem to have any that included cell data. This knocked out any hopes of using iPhone apps to twitter. Instead I was left with only SMS as an option. Great huh? well yes and no. Twitter uses a US short code which doesn’t work from mexico, so I had to setup a SMS gateway to pass the tweets through. This was the only method I tried that actually worked for me reliably.

On a last note, there was 1 single ethernet cable in the place we were staying that worked most of the time, although it seemed to have the slowest DHCP server on the face of the planet, so that was an option as well, sort of, although it didn’t allow for mobile twittering

Long story short, if you can’t get international data, SMS is totally the way to go!