Corner Geeks – Page 3

Corner Geeks 14: Post-PC Musings

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:41 — 28.3MB)

Before recording episode 13 Firdaus and I had a pretty lengthy discussion regarding some post-PC topics. Too good a conversation to pass up that I’ve presented it as a standalone episode

Topic Related Links

Windows 8: Consumer Preview | Metro UI on Wikipedia | Metro style design principles (MSDN)
Ubuntu: Website | video of HUD (embedded below)
Linus Torvalds: Wikipedia article | Google+
Mark Shuttleworth: Wikipedia article | Blog
Richard Stallman: Wikipedia article | Home Page
FileApp for iOS
Tags / Metadata: Wikipedia article
Nepomuk and KDE’s semantic desktop and what it means to the user
ID3 Tags: Wikipedia article
Gmail Labels

Corner Geeks 13: The new iPad

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:39 — 18.2MB)

The new iPad

4x resolution increase (2048×1536 vs old 1024×768)
Quad core graphics A5X (still dual core CPU)
5MP rear camera (1080p video recording)
4G (LTE) for US$130 more (different model for different carriers)
Other notable features
- Internet hotspot tethering: finally can tether mobile data to other devices via WiFi (and presumably Bluetooth as well)
- Voice dictation: mic button on keyboard to activate dictation
- Bluetooth 4.0
Same price point as iPad 2 and same battery life
Slightly thicker (9.4 mm vs 8.8mm) and heavier (652g vs 601g)
Weight increase probably due to increase battery capacity (42.5-watt-hourvs old 25-watt-hour)
Retail sales start March 16th (including Singapore) or March 23rd for the International release (no Brunei)
Starting at US$499

The new iPad Wi-Fi

16GB: US$499 (S$658)
32GB: US$599 (S$788)
64GB: US$699 (S$918)

The new iPad WiFi+4G

16GB: US$629 (S$828)
32GB: US$729 (S$958)
64GB: US$829 (S$1088)

The old iPad 2

16GB WiFi: US$399 (S$528)
16GB WiFi + 3G: US$529 (S$698)

AV Electronis iPad 2 Pricing (via Facebook)

WiFi
- 16GB/32GB/64GB: B$528 / B$638 / B$768
WiFi+3G:
- 16GB / 32GB / 64GB: B$698 / B$808 / B$938

App updates

iWork (US$9.99 for each app): Pages, Numbers, Keynote
iMovie (US$4.99): outlining and storyboarding
Garageband (US$4.99): 4 iOS devices can jam in real time via bluetooth or Wi-FI
New iPhoto(US$4.99):
- Multi-touch editing/touch-ups
- Can work with 19mp photos
- Share via iCloud with public link.
- Photo beaming share to iOS devices over bluetooth or Wi-Fi

In other notes

iOS 5.1 was announced and is ready to be downloaded
- Siri for other languages including Japanese
- Increase of max app size downloadable OTA (i.e. via 3G/4G) to 50MB (previously 20MB)
New Apple TV with 1080p playback support and redesigned interface.
iTunes update: supports movies in the cloud: can redownload from any device and watch

Corner Geeks 12: Mobile World Congress 2012

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:01 — 14.7MB)

It took us a while to get back in the groove but we’re back and covered some Mobile World Congress 2012 news.

HTC

new HTC One series unveiled
Superfast photo capture: 0.7 seconds to take a photo , 0.2-seconds autofocus
Capture a photo in the midst of recording HD video
25 gigabytes of free Dropbox space for two years
All devices: Android 4.0 (ICS), HTC Sense 4, Bluetooth 4.0, Beats Audio
One X & One XL
- 4.7″ (1280×720) HD screen
- X:
  - 1.5 GHz, quad core
  - 32GB storage, 1GB RAM
- XL:
  - 1.5 GHz, dual core
  - 16GB storage, 1GB RAM
- 8 MP camera (1080p video)
- F2.0 aperture and 28mm lens,
- 1.3 MP front camera (720p video)
- NFC
- No microSD slot
- microSIM
One S: midrange
- 4.3″ (540 x 960) screen
- 1.5 GHz, dual core
- UMTS: 850/900/2100 MHz
- 16 GB storage, 1 GB RAM
- 8 MP camera (1080p video)
- F2.0 aperture and 28mm lens,
- VGA front camera
- microSIM
- No microSD slot
- UMTS: Europe/Asia: 850/900/2100 MHz
One V: budget
- 3.7″ (800×480) screen
- 1 GHz CPU
- 5 MP camera (720p video)
- 4 GB storage, 512 MB RAM
- Expansion slot: microSD slot
- UMTS: Europe/Asia: 850/900/2100 MHz

Sony

Xperia S companion devices: Xperia P (mid range) and low end (budget)
Overview: Reasonable screen size, dual core but Android 2.3 with ICS supposedly coming in Q2
Sony Xperia P – mid range
- 4″ (960 x 540 pixels) Reality Display
- 1 GHz , dual core
- Android 2.3 (Upgrade to Android 4, Ice Cream Sandwich, planned in Quarter 2 2012)
- 8 MP camera (1080p video)
- 0.3 MP (VGA) front camera
- 2D and 3D panoramic images.
- 16GB flash storage. 1GB RAM
- NFC
- UMTS: 850, 900, 1900, 2100
Sony Xperia U – budget
- 3.5″ (854 x 480) Reality Display
- 1 GHz dual core
- Android 2.3 (Upgrade to Android 4, Ice Cream Sandwich, planned in Quarter 2 2012)
- 5 MP camera (720p video)
- 0.3MP (VGA) front camera
- 4GB storage, 512MB RAM
- UMTS
  - 900, 2100 MHz (Global except Americas)

Huawei

Press release: Huawei releases their own quad-core CPU said to be better performing and lower power consumption
Overview: 4.5” 720p phone screens with ICS
Ascend D Quad
- 4.5″ (1280×720) screen
- Huawei quad core 1.2GHz/1.5GHz
- Android 4.0
- 8 MP camera (1080p video)
- 1.3 MP front-facing camera
- 8GB storage, 1GB RAM
- UMTS: 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz
Ascend D Quad XL
- 2500mAh vs standard 1800mAh in Ascend D Quad
Ascend D1
- 4.5″ (1280×720) screen
- 1.5 GHz dual core
- Android 4.0
- 8GB storage, 1GB RAM
- UMTS: 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz
MediaPad 10 FHD
- 10” (1920 x 1200) IPS screen
- 1.5 GHz K3 quad-core processor
- Android 4.0
- 8 MP camera
- 1.3 MP front camera
- 2G RAM

Viewsonic

Dual SIM phones
ViewPhone 4s
- 3.5″ (640×960) screen

1GHz processor

5 MP rear camera
0.3 MP (VGA) front camera

Android 4.0

Dual SIM

ViewPhone 5e
- 5″ (800×480) screen

Android 4.0

Dual SIM

ViewPhone 4e
- 3.5″ (480×320) screen

650MHz
Android 2.3

512MB of RAM

3MP camera

Dual SIM

Samsung

Galaxy Note 10.1
- 10.1 1280 x 800 TFT LCD

Android 1.0

64GB storage

3 MP camera, 2 MP front camera

Pressure sensitive S-Pen

Preloaded with specially designed versions of Adobe Photoshop Touch, Adobe Ideas and other graphical software items, users can draw graphics and sketches and edit images on the device

Split screen option: , users can ‘break’ the 10.1-inch display in two, with S Note on one side, and a live web-browsing or video playing window on the other side.

Galaxy Beam
- 4″ (800×480) display
- 1GHz dual-core processor
- Android 2.3
- TI DLP nHD (640 x 360) Projector built into phone

Nokia

Nokia Lumia 610
- 3.7″ (800 x 480) LCD screen
- 800MHz + 256mb memory
- Most affordable Lumia smartphone yet
- WinPhone 7.5
- UMTS: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
- No microSD slot
Nokia 808 PureView
- 4″ (640 x 360) AMOLED screen
- 1.3GHz CPU
- 41 MP camera sensor
  - Typical 5 MP photos utilizing 7 pixels to 1 ‘superpixel’ for better image quality
  - Lossless video zoom: 1080p 4x, 720p 6x
- Symbian, S3 Belle
- UMTS: 850/900/1700/-21001900/2100 MHz
- NFC

Corner Geeks 11: SugarSync

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:29 — 8.0MB)

SugarSync

https://www.sugarsync.com/
Free 5GB with no file size limit (source)
SugarSync’s comparison page
Main Sections

Synced Folders: select which folders which are to be available for syncing with other devices (can select any folder on computer and use SugarSync manager to select with folders to Sync with)
Magic Briefcase is the Dropbox folder. Anything in it will be synced to all computers with it installed
Web Archive: web backup but not available to sync
Mobile Photos: photos from mobile devices

Upload by email
Good sharing: can share within app itself. read / write access

Selectively share any file
Share folder

Photo gallery (to public)
File structure (to SugarSync users)

Web Client available
Mobile Client applications are pretty full featured:
- Can share folders / files straight from the device
- Ability to manually sync folders/files to the device: good if going offline
- Added bonus: Android does background photo upload and syncing.
Cons: Versions only 5 previous versions
Availability: Windows, OS X (No Linux), iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch), Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian
500MB referral bonus (free account) or 10GB if referral to paid subscriptions of 30GB or more with no limit (source)
Cheaper than Dropbox (SugarSync plans vs Dropbox plans)

30GB @ $4.99/month or $49.9/year
60GB @ $9.99/month or $99.99/year
100GB @ $14.99/month or $149.99/year
250GB @ $24.99/month or $249.99/year

SugarSync - Webclient — SugarSync Webclient

SugarSync - WebClient - Sharing — SugarSync WebClient Sharing

Corner Geeks 10: Online Storage and Dropbox

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:36 — 15.0MB)

Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com

Free 2GB with no file size limit
Can increase storage by referrals (250MB for each up to 8GB). Must sign up and Install
A Dropbox folder . Anything you drop there will be synced to any computer that access to the same folders
Stored locally on computer (no need to download to retrieve as it is auto downloaded when changed elsewhere)
Simple. Just save files in the Dropbox folder
Can share folders (full read and write access only)
Versions of documents for the past 30 days
Public folder: but folder link does not show all files in that folder, i.e. must direct link to each file
Bandwidth limits for public files: 10GB/day limit for free plans, 250GB/day for paid plans
Quite expensive for paid plans:
- 50GB $9.99/month or $99.99/year
- 100GB $19.99/month or $199.00/year
Clients for: Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, BlackBerry
Web Access via website
Closed source
Recent security issues: optional passwords, config.db issue

Corner Geeks 9: Live Streaming setup for Ran8adidas

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:18 — 30.0MB)

Show Notes

What we wanted

Live streaming of the event
Video
- multiple cameras if possible
- perhaps one overview shot
- one on-the-go camera following events like the Twitter hunt. Follow contestants around “Amazing Race” style
Sound
- clean sound from the mixer for opening ceremony / speeches
- also want to capture atmosphere/sound around the camera
Internet
- need for streaming
- simplest of them all. 3G dongle
Master control at the laptop controllilng the stream / switching audio and video accordingly

Mobile video

DSLR / camcorder approach:
- Possible but need wireless transmitters making it cumbersome
- DSLR sensor limited time
Keep-it-Simple-Stupid approach:
- Use smartphones with Wifi and cameras
- Small, simple, only need wireless access point if needed
- Possible to attach external microphone to device for interviews
- Advantages
  - Can move around freely
  - Requires no additional hardware for video capture hardware on computer.
  - Fairly cheap and easy to setup if you already have the devices (more people have smartphones now)
- Disadvantages
  - Latency
  - Lower quality?
  - Potentially unreliable connection vs wires? Wireless inteference. Network going down?
  - No zoom!
- Mobile Video apps
  - IP Webcam
    - Android
    - Free
    - Starts a webserver on camera device. Accessible from any computer on the network. View and listen in a browser
  - PocketCam (Desktop software)
    - iOS / Android
    - US$4.99 / BND$6
    - Windows or OS X software to be installed on the host
    - Creates video and audio device driver on host. Once connected access like a webcamera and USB mircophone
    - Audio lag!
  - WebCamera
    - iOS / Blackbery / WinMo / Symbian
    - US$2.99 / US$19.95 / US$19.95 / US$9.95
    - Works similar to PocketCam: Windows or OS X software to be installed on the host
    - Used iOS version that can take video and photo from camera and it will send it to host computer
  - There are other apps for Android and iOS but many do not provide audio which is what we wanted
- Multiple Camera feasibility study
  - IP Camera: separate VLC instance for each video and each audio for each camera. Gets complicated very fast
  - Pocket Camera / WebCamera: only one PocketCamera / Webcamera host software allowed to run at one time on one machine
  - Not possible to use multiple cameras using only one app. Mixer and match is possible
  - Needed proper communication between in-the-field camera user and master control

Sound

Input from mixer via line-in on laptop (not don’t have get a USB sound card)
LadioCast for audio mixing and piping of audio. Can even monitor sound without sending it to live stream

Internet

Needed wireless coverage
Used iPod Touch as a WiFi signal monitor. Activated voice control, tap the wireless signal to hear the strength level (probably there is an app for this but did not explore)
To forgoe a 3G router: OS X Internet sharing (Connetify.me for Windows)

Other things we used

Phone holder to tripod mount
- Can get the at a shop in the Mall, near Netcom. Can’t remember name
- Others options at DealExtreme
Tripod: can place camera in certain places. Can extend tripod to get different angles
Charging cables! Must remember to charge mobile devices. iPod Touch 4G lasted about 2 hours of streaming

Final Setup

iOS Webcamera easiest to work with
CamTwist to add overlays
Ladiocast to pipe audio. Connected to mixer when needed. Add microphone from the mobile cameras when interviewing / asking questions
Tripod to place camera so no need to be there
uStream to send out stream and record it

Other Considerations

Phone upgrades:
- External microphone using Steel Series Headet adapter (Kiulap) which gives headphone output and microphone input. can be used for better interviews
- Battery packs
- Stablizers / Lens
  - Owle Bubo
  - SLR Lens mount Photojojo
- Other Links
  - External Microphones for iPhone 4, iPad and iPod Touch Audio input
  - Handheld Hollywood: Site for using things like iPhone and stuff for content creation.
Have a sign that says, “we’re streaming live”. While recording I was thinking of the implications of this for privacy
Have a dedicated chat room to interact with the viewers. At least had a screen of some hashtag that we could sometimes show on twitter.
Get better upstream for better video and audio
Have a dedicated screen / projector / laptop on our booth showing what’s streaming.

Corner Geeks 8: The Brunei Apple App Store

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.5MB)

A ‘live’ / non-Skype Corner Geeks recording this week as I sat down with @mfirdaus as we discussed the Brunei Apple App Store while also passing him the InstallESD.dmg file for Lion. We hope that this is the start of more services being opened to Brunei and perhaps a legal way for people to get music, movies and TV shows in the future.

Show Notes

Apple brings the iOS and Mac App Store to 33 new territories, including Brunei!
We can register with a Brunei Credit Card
AV Electronics, the premium reseller of Apple products, says they aren’t currently selling Brunei iTunes gift cards
Registration without a credit card is possible with the same hack/work around to register a US account without a credit card (try download a free app in the App Store and create an account from there)
Brunei just has an App Store, not a full iTunes store with Music / Movies / TV Shows
Not all apps available in the iOS App Store: e.g. WhatsApp (could be developer’s setting when publishing app or some other unknown restrictions)
Prices shown in store are in US dollars
App ratings are reset meaning Brunei apps could make it to the recommended list
Sources for US gift cards: PC Game Supply / Jerry Cards (I have bought once from each of these sellers before and can verify that they work)

Corner Geeks 7: Live Streaming – Part 2

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (22.1MB)

We get back into podcast producing and we resume our topic on “Live Streaming” (part 1 here) giving details of how to set up a more advanced live streaming system. Some related links on the topics we covered are listed below. Feel free to add your own links in the comments with regards to tools you use for live streaming

Live Streaming Services

uStream (Free): has co-hosting, recording features and mobile client (iOS, Android, Windows Phone)
Justin.tv (Free): has desktop and mobile clients(iOS, Android)
Livestream (Free)
Stickam (Free): co-hosting and mobile clients (iOS, Android, J2ME)
Vokle (Free): new and modern with good co-hosting feature and recording. Latency was an issue when we used it. No mobile client
Google Plus (Free): not really live streaming but can have up to 10 people video chat but latency was good
Vidyo (commercial)
Bitgravity (commercial)
Wowza: set up your own streaming server (i.e. make your own uStream.tv)

Live Streaming Utilities

Flash Media Encoder (Free, Windows, OS X)

Video Effects

uStream Producer (Free: OS X, Windows): easy transitions and allows output of webcam/pictures/movies/screen/music and also has PIP support. No text overlays
CamTwist (Free: OS X): powerful with many video effects. can do screen casting, slideshows, movie playback, changing of video sources, text and image overlays and so much more
ManyCam (Free: OS X, Windows): easier than CamTwist to use, has screen casting, displaying of images (slideshow), movies, text overlays
Webcam Studio for Linux (Free: Linux): seems like a CamTwist for Linux which advance functionality

Other Hardware

Eye-Fi: an SD card with wireless capabilities for wireless transfer from camera to computer
Zoom H1: used as a line-in recorder

Video Switching

BoinxTV (Commercial, Software): software is to be installed on a Mac to provide TV studio like functionality. Check out Daniel’s video of how it used it for the Making of Gear 65 #28
Tricaster (Commercial, Software & Hardware)
Sony Anycast (Commercial, Software & Hardware)

Audio Effects

Line-in (Free, OS X): simple tool that sends audio from one sound device to another
LadioCast (Free, OS X): an Icecast client but has the ability to do audio mixer and piping
Soundflower (Free, OS X): creates 2 sound devices which can be used as streams to pipe audio from one app to another
JACK (Free, Linux, OS X): Jack OS X – similar to Soundflower
VACard (Free, Windows)

Corner Geeks 6: The Nokia N9

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:36 — 15.4MB)

Related Links

Notable Hardware Specifications

Quad-band GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
Penta-band WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100
Screen size: 3.9″
Resolution: 16:9 FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels)
AMOLED display
Capacitive touch screen
8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
HD quality video capture in 720p resolution at 30 fps
Wide-angle lens
Large lens aperture F2.2 for better and faster photos in low light conditions
Dual LED flash
Continuous autofocus
Touch-to-focus and exposure lock
Internal memory: 16 GB or 64 GB
RAM: 1 GB
Dedicated power, camera and volume keys
NFC (Near Field Communication) for easy pairing and sharing
WLAN IEEE802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
High-Speed USB 2.0 with micro USB connector for transferring data and charging
3.5 mm AV connector
Micro SIM card

Notable Software Specifications

MeeGo for Nokia N9 (MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan)
User interface simplified to three home views: events, applications and open apps
Swipe gesture instantly takes you back to the home view you started from
Multitasking and app switching through open apps view: a live snapshot of all running apps
Apps compliant with Qt 4.7
Software updates over the internet
Support for MS Outlook synchronisation of contacts, calendar and to-do with Mail for Exchange
Support for viewing documents in Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF and Open Document Formats
Online calendar synchronisation with CalDAV

Corner Geeks 5 Part 3: WWDC 2011 – iCloud

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:56 — 27.0MB)

Check out Justin Lee’s keypoint summary of the keynote or just refer to Apple’s iCloud page or the features page for their info about iCloud.

Brief Show Notes

What is cloud?
- Save once. Uploaded and Distributed ‘everywhere’ (i.e. all your devices)
9 uses:
1. Contacts
2. Calendar
3. Mail
4. Apps Store
5. iBooks
6. Backup
  - Daily wifi backups
  - Music / Apps / Books
  - Camera Roll
  - Device Settings
  - App Data
7. Docs
8. Photos
9. iTunes
1,2,3,7) Contacts / Calendar / Mail / Docs:
- similar to Android and Google or Exchange
- change once, push everywhere (locally stored vs cloud stored for Google for docs at least)
- Google at least can access from web. Apple to find out
4,5,9) Apps / iBooks / iTunes
- Buy once, deploy everywhere or look through purchase history. click to download
6) Daily cloud backup (huge I think. I agree. Google could have done this for Android but doesnt. I want to rant about Android here haha.)
8) Photo stream
- Syncs photos taken anywhere to all attached devices
  - iOS Devices
  - PCs
  - Apple TV
- Like Eye-Fi. kind of but requires Internet. Eye-Fi can be local transfer to PC.
- 1000 photos stored on the device (to save permanently to device, move pic to album)
- 30 Days limit for all shots on cloud
- Photos all on PC all saved (iPhoto integeration?)
- I think this kind of functionality is useful for photographers. I’m suprised not a lot of Bruniean photographers use Eye-Fis.
7) Documents in Cloud / iCloud API (There could be an actual iDisk like thing for normal documents?)
- iCloud API: Looks like dropbox but seems to be like it’s centered on sandboxes per app basis?
- Obvious ones are things like Pages and Keynote
- Being able to sync settings for apps.
  - Game saves
  - To have something like Kindle’s Book resume thing.
  - Hopefully alternative browsers can setup something like Google Sync. Syncs my tabs and bookmarks. Please make this happen.
Similar to other exiting services:
- Microsoft Exchange
- Dropbox + Google Docs/Calendar/Contacts/Picasa Web/Music
- Amazon music
- For Brunei context music and videos / movies not available (yet?) for Google / Amazon offering without using complex work arounds. Easiest option is iTunes.
Possible Issues:
- Will there be sharing? Or only to personal account?
- Data caps / be sure not to use all your data quota and end up paying
- Do we get offline backup?
- All your data, are belong to fruit
5GB storage space (unsure which files are categorized in the 5GB, but music / photos not included in the quota)
Free, No ads
Available in the Fall (most likely September) but some features available now with iTunes update on Mac/PC or App Store update on iDevices