サブで使ってる人はおおいにやればいいと思うのだが、サブもメインもなく選択肢無しの状態であえて故障しそうな使い方をする必要はあるまい。当時保証が切れた直後だった気がするし、iBookもなんかがたがたになっているようにみえたし。買い替えられる気もしなかった。そんなときに布団の上なんかで使ったら自爆もいいところだった。

　そのあとなんとか冷却台は使わないまでも布の上に置かないとか、地道で費用のかからない迷信のような延命措置によってiBookはついこないだまで一応生き残った。先日凄まじい音とともにHDDが壊れたようなので、修理は考えていない。

　実際は仕事にスペックがついてこないという理由でMacBookに買い替えて久しいのだが、それはともかく。

　寝ながらキーボードを叩きたいというのは、主に部屋が寒いだとか、腰が痛いだとか、そういう場合は特に魅力的に思える願望なのだが。あと寝落ちしたい場合も。

　肩が痛い首が痛い手首が痛いとなってくると、もう熱暴走を覚悟で布団の上もしくは枕元でノートを使うというのはあまり解決にならない。出来ることなら肘を立てることなく首も曲げることなくごろごろしながらキーボードを叩きたいもんである。

　どこまで堕落するつもりだ、というより、支障のない範囲でどこまでも堕落したい。

　最近ワイヤレスキーボードは位置を決める必要が無いという当たり前の事実にようやく気がついたので、キーボードだけ布団に持ってきて遠いモニタを眺めたりする日々である。エディタのフォントは巨大化する一方だが、近距離で小さい文字を凝視し続けるよりは楽だと思う。

　さらに快適にするわかりやすい手段はモニタを大きくすることなのだが、先々代のWindows機に使っていた17インチは繋ごうと思ったら変換ケーブルが見つからないというオチで先送りである。いくらぐらいするんだろうケーブル。

　ところでキーボードだが、勤め先の面々がApple純正のBTキーボードを使っている。テンキーの無いあれだ。アルミ製の。凄まじい取り回しの良さに感心しだしたのでなんとなく欲しい気がするのだが、やっぱりApple純正を使うのは気が引ける。

　キーボードは基本的に普通に使っていてもうっかり壊れるからだ、経験的に。

　USキーがいいとか純正じゃないと嫌だとか言っていると、ある日突然定価で出費を迫られる。これが大変痛い。だからとりあえずMacでも使えるWindowsキーのついた値引率の凄まじく高いキーボードを愛用することにしている。微妙にキーが足りなかったり認識されなかったりするも、まあ慣れと諦めでどうにかしている。

　正規表現には非常に問題があるのだが、正規表現なんぞ使わねばならない場合はMacBookの本体側キーを使えばまあ問題ない。

　しかしやっぱり基本は純正のUSキーなわけで、だいたい一番使いたいキーボードの上位5機種ぐらいを諦めた結果のようなキーボードを使っているために常にキーボード関連の物欲が尽きない。

　尽きないといってあれもこれも買ってくるわけでもないのが救いといえば救いだ。なんせキーボードは万年筆以上に同時に2つ以上使えない道具である。

　ところでテンキーが外れるマイクロソフトの化け物のようなキーボードが今度発売になるようなのだが、Mac非対応以前にUSBで有線である。

　売り場に並んだら見てみたい気はするのだが、見られるもんだろうか？

　うっかり見たら欲しくなるんではないだろうか。非対応なのはわかっているのだが、衝動買いというのはいつでもなんでも無視するのが仕様であるわけで……。

I actually think something has surpassed my annoyance with cell phones although it is definitely related… the Bluetooth. It boggles my mind how people don’t care how stupid they look talking into the air, it’s like you have an imaginary friend with you. I was at lunch with my manfriend yesterday and he saw a woman he knows and proceeded to talk to her…she was talking but nothing made sense to what he was saying…yes, she was on her Bluetooth. At least try to motion somehow that you are on a Bluetooth (she never did, we had to figure it out). Then I saw another woman on her obnoxioustooth and the server thought she was talking to him…he brought her food but she gave him no acknowledgement or even a “thank you”…you could see he was confused and wasn’t sure who she was talking to. Then the other day I was talking to someone directly, in person, and he wasn’t answering me because he thought I was on a Bluetooth…see how confusing this all is.  Why has the “talking” become such an important thing in life? More people should learn how to just be quiet sometimes. And if you hear most of these conversations they are stupid and unimportant. How can you not hear them because rude people YELL when they talk. If I had to choose between a rudeness of either people talking loud into a phone or into the air…I would opt for the phone.

I don’t know, the world is getting weird.

• Spessore: 13,9 mm
• Display: 2,4"
• Risoluzione: 240x320 a 262000 colori
• Bluetooth
• Connettività triband GPRS/EDGE
• Radio FM
• Riproduzione file DivX
• Memoria espandibile fino a 8 Gigabyte tramite schede microSD
• Possibilità di utilizzare il cellulare come webcam wireless
• Tecnologia "Face Detection" e "Smile Shot" (scatta quando la persona sorride)
• Stabilizzatore di immagine con sensibilità fino a 1600 ISO

Gravi mancanze il WiFi e tecnologia 3G. Per ora LG non ha ancora comunicato il prezzo del KC 780; si sa solo che arriverà in Europa nel mese di Novembre.

Via HWupgrade

The End Of American Capitalism?

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 10, 2008; A01

The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is claiming another casualty: American-style capitalism.

Since the 1930s, U.S. banks were the flagships of American economic might, and emulation by other nations of the fiercely free-market financial system in the United States was expected and encouraged. But the market turmoil that is draining the nation's wealth and has upended Wall Street now threatens to put the banks at the heart of the U.S. financial system at least partly in the hands of the government.

The Bush administration is considering a partial nationalization of some banks, buying up a portion of their shares to shore them up and restore confidence as part of the $700 billion government bailout. The notion of government ownership in the financial sector, even as a minority stakeholder, goes against what market purists say they see as the foundation of the American system. Full read: http://tinyurl.com/3wtv6w

FTSE sinks to record low as panic sweeps Asia

Panic shot through stock markets around the world today, suggesting that drastic actions by central banks have failed to calm investors.

The sell-off in stock markets worldwide came after after devastating falls on Wall Street yesterday.

London shares dropped below 4,000 for the first time in five years, and were down 325 to 3,988 at noon. The pound fell to $1.6909, its lowest level for five years against the dollar, and was down 1.2 per cent against the euro. Full story: http://tinyurl.com/43fbhj

World finance chiefs grasp for solutions in firestorm

In the face of a growing financial firestorm finance chiefs from the Group of Seven nations were due to meet in Washington on Friday in search of a solution.Financial authorities in the major powers have already pumped massive amounts of liquidity into the global banking system in an effort to unclog credit markets and joined in a coordinated cut in interest rates.

But panic was still gripping markets, which have hit multiyear lows in the United States and most other countries amid loss of confidence.Full read: http://tinyurl.com/3ggybm

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Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/29fqep

I’ve recently been working with a venture team that is focused on an interesting and rapidly-growing new communication medium.  It is known by many names.  I prefer to refer to it as ‘place-based media,’ because it is more appropriate to the overall goal of the medium – i.e., ‘right time, right place’ – but digital 'out-of-home' OOH advertising has strong traction as a term, as well.

Place-based media is an interesting medium that is garnering a lot of current attention.  In the past year, for example, NBC launched its NBC Everywhere division to chase the opportunity with the division’s general manager, Mark French, commenting that "media has become very fragmented. People are consuming media in a variety of different settings." NBC’s goal is to be wherever people are ‘consuming’ media.   CBS, meanwhile, acquired SignStorey, which had built a network of place-based screens in more than 1,400 grocery stores across the United States, for $71.5 million in cash, and has subsequently rolled it into CBS Outernet. 

Why is there so much interest in this space?  And why should you, as a marketer, care?

Place-based media presents a unique opportunity for marketers to engage with consumers in a non-aggressive, entertaining and informative fashion.  It reaches consumers as they are making decisions relative to specific categories of products and services.  It grabs consumers’ attention as a new, interruptive and non-saturated communication channel.  And it offers precision of category, subject-matter and geographical targeting that is often not available via other mediums.

Sounds like the holy grail of marketing, right?

As with any new medium, place-based media has its plusses and minuses.  Next week are some thoughts and guidelines on understanding this space and on engaging place-based media as part of your next marketing campaign …

Source: Propelling Brands, Adam Needles

In the patent application, the company has given the following description of the device :

An audio headset usable for conducting a voice call through a phone, and for playing audio, such as music, frotR a streaming audio device, by means of a speaker. The headset comprises a signal transceiver, wirelessly connectable to a plurality of devices, including a voice call device and an audio device. A control unit in the headset can be controlled by means of a switea, which is operable to selectively set the control unit to a single point connection setting, in which only audio signals received from p first device are relayed to the speaker, or to a multiple point connection setting, in which audio signals received from the first devicl or from a second device are relayed to the speaker. The first device is typically a mobile phone, and priority is preferably alwayp given to voice call signals from mobile phone even in the multipoint connection setting.

Lo primero que necesitas es tener Bluetooth en el ordenador o usar uno por USB, esto es obvio. Vamos a instalar AD2P (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile). ¿Y ahora que? Todo funciona con un script hecho por alguien de la pagina FOSSwire que es muy fácil de utilizar. Si algun usuario avanzado quiere ver los scripts que se instalan puede hacerlo aqui.
Mis cascos son unos Nokia BH-501, hay que decir que no todos los cascos son compatibles con la tecnología AD2P (enlace en inglés). Si los tuyos tambien son compatibles hoy es tu dia de suerte. Necesitas tener instalado el paquete bluez-utils. Lo puedes descargar desde Sistema/Administracion/Gestor de paquetes Synaptic. Despues descargas el script y lo abres. [Descargar script]
El siguiente paso es abrir una consola (Aplicaciones/Accesorios/Terminal) y pones lo siguiente:

bash a2dp.sh

El script se ejecuta y configura todo para que funcione correctamente. Te saldrá un mensaje diciendo que pongas los auriculares en modo de espera. Activalos y presiona Enter. Al cabo de unos segundos aparece una lista en la que aparecen los dispositivos que se han detectado. Copia el numero que aparece delante del modelo de tus cascos y lo pegas al final de la pagina y vuelves a pulsar Enter. Esperas a que termine el proceso y todo listo.

El script alterna entre el modo bluetooth para usar los cascos y el modo normal para que se oiga por los altavoces. Para cambiar entre un modo o otro tienes que introducir el siguiente comando en la consola

~/.a2dp/toggle.sh

Aparece un mensaje que te dice que ha cambiado al modo Bluetooth o al modo normal. Para que este proceso no sea tan engorroso, tener que abrir la consola cada vez y introducir el comando, puedes crear un acceso directo. Para hacer esto tienes que darle en un espacio vacio en la barra superior con el boton derecho y pulsar en "Añadir al panel" y despues pulsas en "Lanzador de aplicación personalizado". Aparece una ventana como la que pongo un poco mas abajo en donde pone lo que tienes que poner. En el campo "nombre" puedes poner lo que tu quieras, lo importante es el campo "comando". Por cierto que despues de "bash" va un espacio.

Pulsas aceptar y se crea un lanzador en tu barra. Al hacer clic deberia de aparecer un mensaje como este:

Y eso es todo, espero que le sirva a mas gente porque es un puntazo.

Enlace: Fosswire

There are some exception though and even a lot of old models do not have Bluetooth on-board. Until now if you really wanted or needed this technology your only choice would have been to buy a new cell phone. That can be pretty expensive so it’s great to know that now we have an alternative: the Movon MAG1.

This gadget was created by Movon, a South Korean firm specialized in Bluetooth devices. It is a Bluetooth dongle designed for all those cell phones that do not support Bluetooth.

Using it with the every kind of mobile phones is very easy. All you have to do is to plug the Movon MAG1 where you normally would plug wired devices. Then all it takes is the press of a single button (the big one in the center of the Bluetooth dongle) and your are ready to use the wireless technology.

Because it can be used with old cell phones that do not optimize their power consumption Movon also thought about that. The information about the MAG1 consumption is a bit misleading but this lightweight device (only 12 grams) can guarantee several hours of continuous use.

Unfortunately the Movon MAG1 will be available only in South Korea and there are no plans yet to market it elsewhere.

When using Bluetooth this happens because you have to wait for the operating system to boot and load the necessary drivers or software. So until the OS is ready the Bluetooth devices cannot be connected and therefore used. For this reason the user has to keep handy a wired mouse and keyboard just in case the boot goes wrong.

Now CSR plc, a British Bluetooth chip specialist, developed a solution for this problem. It is a software called BlueCore Input Connection Enhancement (BlueICE) that works using a host interface built into a PC or housed in a dongle and the BlueCore4-EXT silicon.

At start-up the regular host module presents itself as a USB composite device so devices can be used immediately. The host module can then be reversed to operate as a Bluetooth device allowing the devices to talk with other devices that support the specification.

This solution will enable PC manufactures to bundle directly Bluetooth keyboard and mouses without having to use only wired devices. If largely adopted BlueICE would also increase dramatically the diffusion of Bluetooth devices since it solves one of the biggest issues. By the CSR estimate the market for Bluetooth keyboards and mouses will jump up to 340 million units.

“Wireless” parece ser el término tecnológico de moda. Anteriormente fue MP3, o DivX, ahora todo aquel producto que lleve impresa la palabra Wireless es sinónimo de modernidad y alta tecnología, ya sea un televisor o una cadena de alta fidelidad. En el mundo de movilidad es habitual oír hablar de estas tecnologías con normalidad, y es que Bluetooth y WiFi son palabras de uso cotidiano.

Como sabemos, las posibilidades que nos brinda el interconectar dispositivos sin cables son enormes, transferir archivos, compartir recursos, conectar a Internet, etc. Pero, como todo, tiene un punto negativo, y es que las conexiones inalámbricas son extremadamente vulnerables en cuanto a privacidad y seguridad. Por ello debemos preguntarnos si estamos dispuestos a asumir los riesgos que supone, o si queremos perder algo de tiempo en prepararnos y evitar molestias de ahí en adelante.

Un ejemplo simple lo podemos probar nosotros desde un ordenador dotado de estas tecnologías. Hay herramientas dedicadas íntegramente a la auditoria wireless, es decir, a analizar y probar este tipo de conexiones realizando estrictas pruebas que intentan poner en entredicho la seguridad. Con esta herramienta podemos violar la seguridad de casi cualquier tipo de conexión WiFi y capturar la información que comparten dos dispositivos vía Bluetooth con, a penas, un par de clics.

Por ello debemos intentar estar preparados frente a estas vulnerabilidades para garantizar nuestra privacidad.

En las conexiones WiFi, la concienciación de los usuarios por parte de los fabricantes de routers y puntos de acceso, y proveedores de Internet está ayudando a que cada vez haya menos puntos WiFi abiertos, es decir, sin seguridad habilitada. Lo ideal en nuestra casa u oficina, es tener la encriptación de mayor robustez ofrecida por el punto de acceso, como WPA2con una clave aleatoria con la máxima longitud posible, nada de “casadejuan” o cosas sencillas. Y para nuestro dispositivo móvil, lo mejor es contar con una protección cortafuegos, en el ordenador ZoneAlarm es un firewall gratuito de gran calidad, y para nuestro móvil MOSSECofrece soluciones a medida que garantizan nuestra privacidad.

Bluetooth podría considerarse la conexión multimedia por excelencia. Si miramos el catálogo de accesorios Bluetooth para teléfonos móviles veremos que la mayoría son manos libres, auriculares estéreo, altavoces… Por ello al hacer un simple escaneo con nuestro móvil es fácil encontrar multitud de terminales con esta conexión habilitada. Esto es un serio problema, ya que, cuando se configura en modo “detectable”, el aparato envía una señal que indica que está disponible para “emparejarse” con otro dispositivo Bluetooth y transmitir datos en ambos sentidos. No obstante, si un atacante detecta esta señal también puede intentar emparejarse con el dispositivo y robar su número de identificación personal (NIP). Puede seguir felizmente ignorante mientras el atacante, que ha averiguado el NIP, podría estar robando información almacenada en el teléfono (Bluesnarfing), enviando mensajes de texto (Bluejacking), realizando llamadas o incluso escuchando las nuestras, o introduciendo virus que roben o destruyan nuestros datos.

Por ello es recomendable llevar Bluetooth siempre desactivado a no ser que sea estrictamente necesario, como cuando usamos un manos libres. También es recomendable hacerse con un buen antivirus, tanto en el ordenador como en el teléfono o PDA, y mantenerlo siempre actualizado.

Las nuevas tecnologías inalámbricas son excelentes para convertir tareas cotidianas como la compartición de archivos en algo mucho más fácil, pero debemos tener claro que suponen un riesgo para la seguridad de nuestros datos, y debemos tomar medidas para evitar incidencias.

Sinceramente, por mucha seguridad que tengamos si alguien se empeña seriamente en romperla, lo conseguirá tarde o temprano, así que, como ya hemos dicho, mejor tener el Bluetooth y el WiFi encendidos sólo cuando sea necesario, y contar con suites de seguridad para, por lo menos, ponérselo más difícil al intruso y enterarnos cuando suceda.

We all knew it was approaching, but brace yourself, the Storm has made landfall. Tuesday night, Research In Motion and Verizon Wireless officially introduced the first touch-screen BlackBerry to the world: the RIM BlackBerry Storm.

Also known by its code name, BlackBerry Thunder, the Storm features a touch-sensitive display that's unlike that on any other touch-screen smartphone available today, thanks to RIM's own twist (more on this below). There are plenty of other highlights as well, including dual-mode functionality, support for Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A, integrated GPS, BlackBerry OS 4.7, and more.

Now, before you run out to the nearest Verizon store, we've got some bad news. Unfortunately, you won't be able to get your hands on the BlackBerry Storm quite yet (groan). A specific release date and pricing were not announced, but Verizon said the Storm would be out by the holiday season with "competitive" pricing. Obviously, we're not fans (and we're guessing you're not either) of such vague answers, especially in light of the RIM BlackBerry Bold delay.

RIM and Verizon did come by our office to give us a full rundown on the features, as well as some brief hands-on time with the device, so without further ado, here are all the details and our impressions of the RIM BlackBerry Storm.

Design
Obviously, the touch screen is the biggest highlight of the BlackBerry Storm, but as we mentioned earlier, it's unlike any other touch-screen smartphone we've seen so far, including the Apple iPhone, T-Mobile G1, and Samsung Omnia.

Rather than provide haptic feedback (or none at all), RIM developed something completely new called ClickThrough, which consists of a suspension system that lies beneath the display, so that when you go to select an application or enter text, you actually push the screen down like you would any other tactile button.

Admittedly, it was a little weird when I first tried it. Given that with all other touch-screen devices, it's just a matter of lightly tapping on an icon or some similar action, it wasn't my first inclination to physically push down on the screen. My colleague Kent German also tried it out and had a similar reaction; while cool, the idea behind it took some explaining to fully realize the capabilities. Now, that's not to say we don't like ClickThrough; it just takes a little acclimation. Plus, it was responsive and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and accurate it was to compose messages and notes.

In terms of text extry, the BlackBerry Storm features a SureType keyboard when the smartphone is in portrait mode and then switches to a full QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode. The Storm has a built-in accelerometer so it will automatically rotate the screen depending on if the phone is held vertically or horizontally (left- and right-hand support included). The letter/number keys also glow blue when you're typing.

The quality of the display is slightly better than the RIM BlackBerry Bold's. The Storm features a 3.25-inch diagonal display with a 480x360 pixel resolution and support for 65,000 colors, where as the Bold has a half-VGA, 480x320 pixel display. The handset itself is about the size of the BlackBerry Curve, but slightly thicker. It measures 4.4 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inch deep and weighs 5.6 ounces. It's equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack, has four shortcut keys (Talk and End, Back, and BlackBerry menu), and a microSD slot behind the back cover, among other things.

Features
Don't be fooled; the RIM BlackBerry Storm is more than just a pretty face. As far as phone features, the Storm, like the RIM BlackBerry 8830 World Edition, offers dual-mode functionality. This means the phone switches automatically between CDMA and GSM networks to offer seamless international roaming--all while keeping the same phone number. (Note that the phone does not support domestic GSM bands, and a SIM card is included in the box.) It also works on Verizon's EV-DO Rev. A network as well as Europe's 2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA band. There's a full HTML Web browser (no Flash), and the Storm will also support Verizon's V Cast Music and Mobile TV services, though not immediately at launch.

Other wireless options include Bluetooth 2.0 with support for stereo Bluetooth headsets and dial-up networking and GPS but no Wi-Fi. BlackBerry Maps is onboard if you want text-based turn-by-turn directions, but for more advanced navigation features, such as voice prompts, you'll be forced to use Verizon's VZ Navigator service.

The BlackBerry Storm will run the latest BlackBerry OS (version 4.7), so you finally get an updated interface while still getting support for multiple e-mail accounts (BlackBerry Enterprise, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, POP3, IMAP4, and more) with wireless synchronization. In addition to an attachment viewer, you can also do some light editing on Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files. There's 128MB of flash memory and 1GB of onboard memory, which is all supplemented by the microSD/SDHC expansion slot (supports up to 16GB cards).

Though the BlackBerry is historically known more as a business device, RIM and Verizon hope to attract more consumers with the BlackBerry Storm and it comes with a number of multimedia capabilities. The media player can handle various music and video formats, including MP3, AAC, WMA, WMV, MPEG4, and H.264. The included Media Sync software will also help you synchronize your iTunes files with your BlackBerry. The Storm is equipped with a 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording, auto focus, and flash.

RIM BlackBerry Storm(Credit: RIM)

Finally, it will come preloaded with instant-messaging clients (Yahoo, Windows Live, AOL, and ICQ) and a number of social-networking apps, including Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr. You'll also be able to download more programs over the air through the new BlackBerry App Center.

Outlook
OK, obviously, the RIM BlackBerry Storm has a lot to offer. The touch screen alone already has people drooling and clamoring over the device, and then you add the laundry list of features, and you're looking at a recipe for success. But will it actually deliver? Well, it's a hard to say, having only had about half an hour of hands-on time with the smartphone.

Overall, I was impressed--nice design, feature rich. Again, the ClickThrough touch screen takes some getting used to, and I wonder how it will hold up over months of use. Performance wise, the device seemed snappy, but I also caught a couple of bugs. For example, the camera activated while trying to perform some function in e-mail. However, I know it wasn't a final product, so I won't hold that against RIM. Music and video playback were pretty impressive as well.

There's enough appeal there for consumers, mobile professionals, and new and old BlackBerry users, but I think price will play a huge factor. Verizon has to be careful not to cross that fine line between what's reasonable and what puts the device out of range. What do you guys have think? What are the BlackBerry Storm's hits and misses? Do you want one? How much are you willing to pay?

http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/...CarouselArea.0 ]]> http://mvpittman.wordpress.com/?p=167 Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:43:19 +0000 mvpittman http://blog.mvpittman.com/2008/10/08/t-mobile-shadow-update/ Today, at work, I'm going to work on making my T-Mobile Shadow experience better. In between tasks, and generally filling time as I can, while doing work, of course. So, it is going slow. (I'm starting this post at about 10:00 AM. I've been at it off and on for an hour, inbetween reading training material, reviewing trouble tickets, dodging funny pictures sent to me by my colleagues and such.

For those of you, like my Aunt Staci, who says that I make "boring" posts. This one will probably be boring. Fair warning and all that...

So, music... I've purchased a set of Motorola S9 stereo bluetooth headphones. They're great, and I was going to use them with my Apple PowerBook, but I need Leopard for stereo sound, rather than the simple headset/microphone profile. I'm selling my PowerBook anyway... not specifically for that reason, Mostly because I don't want to pay for the battery upgrade, memory upgrade, and Leopard upgrade, but I digress... The bluetooth headphones work great with the phone, and I'd like to use them when I work out in the mornings before work.

I loaded a few songs from my PowerBook onto the phone, using a memory card that we've bought. They were encoded in AAC (.m4a, like on iTunes/iPod/iPhone) and they worked fine in the Windows Media Player. I haven't ripped all of my CDs, but I wanted to make sure that if for some reason, I go nuts and use Apple as my primary system, that I could use my ripped tracks on the phone. Seems to be fine.

Incidentally, I'm probably going to stick with Windows Media Center and just deal with the OTA subchannel nonsense or maybe go with Media Portal or some other free replacement on our DVR box. It's working very well, and syncing playlists and such seems like it will be great with our phones. Sigh... I've given up freedom for convenience, so I guess I deserve neither. I'll learn my lesson and come crawling later, I'm sure.

I'm also going to try to get my phone updated, and I guess I need to call in to customer service and grab those spare extra capacity batteries that are supposed to be free, but couldn't be sent to customers subscribed for less than thirty days... Sigh.

I'm also going to try to install moBlog, and see if I can try to use my camera phone and post directly to my blog, making some of those life moments more publically available. Maybe then I can justify having this fancy toy, rather than simply saying my wife needs to keep a schedule with her, and I just got one too.

We'll see how it all goes. Good luck to me.

Okay... went to lunch, came back... lunch was just awful, food-wise. My PC is getting re-imaged at 1:30, and I've got training to finish up. moBlog just didn't work right for me. I couldn't get it to work, and I gave up. I do wonder why Wordpress.com has a mobile client for iPhone, and not for Windows Mobile, but there's no real guesswork. Announcing a client on iPhone is bigger news...

I did manage to get the T-Mobile update installed. Avril Lavigne and Dave Matthews Band now emenate from my phone... very nice indeed. There's some better text input stuff too.

I think it is just time to sit down this evening and rip discs on the big box... WMA or MP3?

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FREE Shipping WORLWIDE 1 - 10 Business Day

Price : USD 40.99 , MYR 139.40

FREE Shipping WORLWIDE 1 - 10 Business Day

I recently purchased an iPhone believing like many others that this device would be the long-awaited device to pwn all other devices.  Well, perhaps it's not a commercial grade HD camcorder, but it does take decent photos for a phone.  Anyhow, the iPhone is a GPS navigator, a digital camera, an iPod, a web-browser, an email utility, a gaming platform, and a cell-phone all-in-one.  Oh, and it has plenty of add-on applications to keep you up to date on everything from stocks to the weather.  So what is the iPhone 3G missing in the midst of all these great abilities?

Stereo headsets.  Yep, you heard right.  Stereo Bluetooth Headset functionality is not available for the iPhone - while many competitors do and have been offering this functionality for over a year now.  Now you may ask why a class-action lawsuit over this?  Well for one... one of it's most pivotal, most primary functionalities is being an audio player (an iPod).  Now that in and of itself isn't worthy of any kind of lawsuit... it's just evidence of very poor engineering and management of Apple's flagship product.  What makes it worthy of lawsuit is all in the marketing.

Apple markets its product as "Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR" capable as seen on its Tech Specs page and retail packaging.  Now the lay person would look at this and see 'Bluetooth 2.0' and think to themselves "Well that must be better than Bluetooth 1.x" as common sense would dictate.  Then they'd see '+ EDR' and think, "oh cool, it supports MORE than just Blueooth 2.0 - it supports this EDR thing too - whatever that is".  As anyone can plainly see, the customer now has a stated reason (provided by Apple) to believe that his/her Bluetooth devices should be supported on his/her shiny new iPhone.

The trick is that supporting "Bluetooth 2.0" doesn't mean ANY Bluetooth devices are supported at all (it only means the hardware layer is there - I just learned this myself and I am a software engineer and work with technology every day)!  The saddest part is that there are so many standards and so much misinformation out there that it is difficult for even me to keep on top of it all (another great example of this is the over-the-air cable switch to occur in February 2009).  A device could have a Bluetooth 2.0 chip inside it and state it supports Bluetooth 2.0 right on the packaging (like Apple has done) but not support a single Bluetooth device in all the world, but the packaging would still be telling the customer the truth (however so misleading that truth is).

In adding the '+' in "Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR", Apple has gone so far as to say "in addition to" Bluetooth 2.0 (which in all actuality means absolutely nothing in regards to compatibility) Apple continues... "we also support EDR".  This adds another layer of misinformation to confound the unlearned customer.  So what is EDR you are wondering.  Well, according to Wikipedia (yes, I had to look this up as I personally do not know what every acronym in the technology field stands for) EDR stands for Enhanced Data Rate (basically meaning faster transfer speeds over Blueooth 2.0).  So if you or I were to look this up, there is no inkling to explain that certain Bluetooth devices are NOT supported.

Now the question is - is it Apple's fault OR the customers fault that the end-user (the customer) doesn't know what this "Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR" actually means (which we now know means: nothing at all)?  Also, if the customer does know what this means how are they to know what devices are supported?  A simple explanation on Apple's site and packaging stating "Bluetooth handsfree profile supported" and can I go so far as to say "Blueooth stereo profile not supported at this time" would have made this clear to me and the over 1 million other iPhone owners before getting trapped in a multi-thousand dollar deal (you do the math) with AT&T.  Apple chose not to state this.  The fact that "Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR" actually means absolutely nothing when it comes to compatibility with other devices (such as headsets, car adapters, headphones, etc) shows Apple intentionally mislead many people to believe their devices were indeed supported when they were not - and to top it off we have no idea if Apple EVER intends to support them.

To summarize: Apple states on their packaging and website that Bluetooth devices are supported by the iPhone.  This however is only a half-truth as only the handsfree profile is supported and all other devices are not.  This is not stated anywhere in any Apple literature available to a customer prior to purchase of the iPhone and in many instances reported online - AT&T store representatives have actually told customers the false information that stereo headsets do indeed work with the iPhone.  Now this can not be blamed on Apple, but the fact that Apple does not have any literature to falsify those claims can be blamed on Apple.

Mais uma vez vou falar sobre bluetooth marketing. Quem lê este blog sabe que acho isso muito legal.

Descobri uma agência especializada neste tipo de publicidade que lançou serviço, na minha opinião, muito interessante. A agência chama-se Pontomobi Interactive e o serviço é o GeoBluetooth. Este serviço é voltado para que outras agências possam planejar suas ações de Bluetooth Marketing com elementos de geolocalização.

O novo serviço dá a possibilidade de escolha dos pontos de acordo com o Local (cafés, bares, lojas etc) e Perfil (centro empresarial, faculdades, rodoviárias etc) desejados. No site é só escolher estes dados, depois os locais através de localização por Bairro, CEP ou Rua e solicitar o projeto.

Dá também para apenas consultar onde existem pontos bluetooth e se quiser ir conferir pessoalmente a campanha.

Como diz André Massita, Gerente de Bluetooth Marketing: "A iniciativa surgiu para atender a demanda crescente do mercado imobiliário, que vinha buscando formas diferenciadas de divulgar seus lançamentos nos arredores dos empreendimentos e acabou se mostrando uma ferramenta interessante para os anunciantes que buscam estar cada vez mais próximo de seu target de uma forma nova e interativa".

Nestes locais de campanhas de bluetooth marketing, é possível o envio gratúito de arquivos com imagens, vídeos e áudios para os celulares que tenham a tecnologia bluetooth.

"Sendo o Bluetooth Marketing uma mídia de proximidade, a idéia é ajudar as agências e anunciantes a localizar os melhores locais para divulgarem seus conteúdos".

Fonte: Mobilizado BLOG

• Framework de aplicaciones: permite reuso y reemplazo de componentes.
• Máquina virtual Dalvik: optimizada para dispositivos móviles.
• Navegador integrado: basado en el motor open source WebKit.
• Gráficos optimizados, con una librería de gráficos 2D; gráficos 3D basado en la especificación OpenGL ES 1.0 (aceleración de hardware opcional).
• SQLite para almacenamiento de datos estructurados.
• Soporte para medios con formatos comunes de audio, video e imágenes planas (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
• Telefonía GSM (dependiente del hardware)
• Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, y WiFi (dependiente del hardware)
• Cámara, GPS, brújula, y acelerómetro (dependiente del hardware)
• Ambiente rico de desarrollo incluyendo un emulador de dispositivo, herramientas para debuguear, perfiles de memoria y performance, y un plugin para el IDE Eclipse.

Los componentes mayores del sistema operativo de Android, cada sección se describe en detalle:

• Aplicaciones: Las aplicaciones base incluirán un cliente de email, programa de SMS, calendario, mapas, navegador, contactos, y otros. Todas las aplicaciones escritas en el lenguaje de programación Java.

• Framework de aplicaciones: Los desarrolladores tienen acceso completo a los mismos APIs del framework usados por las aplicaciones base. La arquitectura está diseñada para simplificar el reuso de componentes; cualquier aplicación puede publicar sus capacidades y cualquier otra aplicación puede luego hacer uso de esas capacidades (sujeto a reglas de seguridad del framework). Éste mismo mecanismo permite que los componentes sean reemplazados por el usuario.

• Librerías: Android incluye un set de librerías C/C++ usadas por varios componentes del sistema Android. Éstas capacidades se exponen a los desarrolladores a través del framework de aplicaciones de Android. Algunas son: System C library (implementación librería C standard), librerías de medios, librerías de gráficos, 3d, SQLite, entre otras.

• Runtime de Android: Android incluye un set de librerías base que proveen la mayor parte de las funcionalidades disponibles en las librerías base del lenguaje de programación Java. Cada aplicación Android corre su propio proceso, con su propia instancia de la máquina virtual Dalvik. Dalkiv ha sido escrito de forma que un dispositivo puede correr múltiples máquinas virtuales de forma eficiente. Dalkiv ejecuta archivos en el formato Dalvik Executable (.dex), el cual está optimizado para memoria mínima. La Máquina Virtual está basada en registros, y corre clases compiladas por el compilador de Java que han sido transformadas al formato.dex por la herramienta incluida "dx".

• Núcleo - Linux: Android depende de un Linux versión 2.6 para los servicios base del sistema como seguridad, gestión de memoria, gestión de procesos, stack de red, y modelo de drivers. El núcleo también actúa como una capa de abstracción entre el hardware y el resto del stack de software.

source

 Get your grown man on with a lil bit of tech in between. Be the first to rock this James Bond style watch!

Already a phenomenon in Europe and Asia, and now launching in cities across the United States, this new medium of advertising prompts Bluetooth phone users to opt-in to receive a free downloadable message. Clear Channel Outdoor and Qwikker, the leading providers of location-based mobile content distribution infrastructure, are offering this mode of advertising.

Bluetooth-enabled bus shelters, located in Washington, D.C.’s major pedestrian areas, will deploy a silent prompt to mobile users with Bluetooth within a 30-foot radius.

The galleries will be able to target new and younger audiences through this innovative medium of advertising. A message from the Smithsonian will appear on pedestrians’ mobile screens, and those who accept the message will receive a detail of the bus shelter advertisement and a message urging them to visit the featured exhibition, “Garden and Cosmos.”

This advertisement magnifies the eyes of a Nath Yogi from the exhibition and gives users the opportunity to use the artwork as wallpaper for their mobile devices. -- www.newsdesk.si.edu