Archive for the ‘Cool Gadgets’ Category
9th May 2010
John Benson just got his shiny new iPad 3G and he’s rather excited to try it out. But the thing is, the iPad uses the rather newfangled MicroSIM and as everyone is aware of by now, those things aren’t really available everywhere just yet. I failed to mention, he lives in the UK.
At this point I’d probably give up and use wifi until MicroSIMs become available where I am and rant about how much I wasted all that extra money for an iPad 3G. Good thing Mr. Benson didn’t give up.
He was able to convert an ordinary Vodafone SIM card into a MicroSIM, and he did it with – you won’t believe this – a chopping board, a meat cleaver and a pair of scissors. I know, I know. I can’t believe it myself. But he was able to cut the SIM card into the required dimensions without ruining the contact points.
He says on his blog:
The only parts that matter to us are the contacts which are common to the MicroSIM and SIM. Electronically, the SIM and MicroSIM are the same so we can cut the rest away and not worry (so long as we are careful).
Basically, you have to line up the MicroSim on top of the bigger SIM card and make sure that the two center lines are in place. You can use the meat cleaver to create a guide line, then use the scissor to cut off the extra edges off the SIM.
Granted, you will need steady hands to make this work. But until MicroSIMS become more prevalent, this nifty little hack would do.
You can read the complete instructions (with pictures!) over at JohnBenson.net
9th May 2010
Maybe you’ve heard of Nokia’s upcoming N8. The new Nseries phone, set to overtake the N97 as Nokia’s new flagship phone, is making a huge buzz here on the web. To think the phone’s not even released yet.
There is a lot to be excited for the N8 anyway. Besides, this is the first phone to run Nokia’s new Symbian ^3 operating system. The specifications of this phone is also astounding:
- Screen size: 3.5″
- Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) OLED
- 16.7 million colours
- Capacitive touch screen
- Finger touch support for text input and UI control
- On-screen alphanumeric keypad and full keyboard
- Dedicated camera and volume keys
- Bluetooth 3.0
- HDMI
- 2mm Charging connector
- Micro USB connector and charging
- High-Speed USB 2.0 (micro USB connector)
- USB On-the-Go
- 3.5 mm AV connector
- FM Radio
- FM Transmitter
- Internal memory: 16 GB
- MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32 GB
- 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
- Xenon flash
- 720p video recording
Whew, that’s quite a lot, isn’t it? The camera alone is enough for anyone to consider getting the Nokia N8. It’s looking like it’s going to be more than a capable content creation device. Throw in the fact that it doubles as a portable entertainment center, people can enjoy HD-quality video with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound by plugging into their home theatre system. I don’t see how you could lose by not having this phone.
Oh yeah. The operating system. The Nokia N8 was already given an early review, and the reviewer panned Symbian ^3, going as far as to jokingly accuse Nokia engineers of sabotaging the brand. To be fair, they were testing an early version of Symbian ^3, and we might find an operating system that might just be able to compete against the iPhone. Although knowing Nokia, the first few iterations of the N8 won’t probably be as good as we’d hope it would be. We’re probably better off waiting for a couple of firmware updates.
9th May 2010
Gravity may currently be the king of S60 Twitter applications, but the thing is it’s not free. Also, there really is nothing that should stop any other app developer from making a Twitter application that can rival Gravity’s reign on the Twitter S60 market. Okay, there’s Tweets60, but I honestly find it to be a bit clunky and once you’re used to Gravity’s gorgeous interface, everything else just pales in comparison.
Nokia finally decides to join in the mobile social messaging space with Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta. From Symbian World:
The Nokia Beta Labs have announced that Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta is now available for three additional devices; the Nokia E71, Nokia E72 and the Nokia E63. Nokia Messaging for Social Networks a great little solution that provides contextual homescreen widgets that allow you to jump directly to your Facebook and Twitter posts and tweets to comment, has support for live Facebook and Twitter updates pushed to your phone homescreen and moreover gives you multiple ways to interact with your friends and social network circles straight from the client.
A bit a warning to those who are going to download Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta, though. Since it is beta, the Twitter client is sluggish beyond imagination. I tried it on my Nokia E63 and I had to uninstall it right away. I won’t go as far as to say that it was slowed down to the point where the entire app became unusable, but the speed is really unwieldy. Maybe if it were running on a phone with better hardware like the N97, it won’t be a bad experience.
Download and install here.
9th May 2010
Now, I don’t mean to sound like a fanboy here, but the iPhone still is the best-looking smartphone out there. I may not be totally sold on the iPhone OS and Apple’s Apps Marketplace, but the iPhone’s smooth, minimalistic hardware always appealed to me. And then there’s the iPhone OS. I know, there’s so much love for the iPhone OS and its huge apps marketplace, but it really is not my cup of tea. I’d rather go for something more… open. Kind of like Google’s Android.
Now of course, we can’t really ask for Google Android to be installed on the iPhone, that’d be a pipe dream. But that never stopped an iPhone hacker known only as Planetbeing from trying. He was able to port Google’s Linux-based operating system. This is probably the first time anyone has done this, and nobody can deny how huge this is.
From AppAdvice:
It’s still in alpha version for now, but with some improvements, this would allow anybody to use both iPhone and Android OS on their iPhone. Just like you can do Bootcamp on your Mac to access PC apps, you’ll be able to go on Android to try all these apps that don’t exist, or were not allowed on the iPhone. Imagine for a second that Adobe manages to puts flash on there, well, you’ll get to have it too.
Obviously this is not condoned by either Google or Apple, and it is unclear if you are going to break your iPhone’s warranty by doing this. Now if somebody, anybody, can pull this off on the iPad…
Download the Android iPhone port here. Read the original blog post here.
9th May 2010
Apple released a new draft of their iPhone developer program license, and it contained the following clause:
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
The thing is, Adobe has been, for a time, trying to find a way to bring Flash or at least Flash-based apps to the iPhone. In fact, Adobe has proved that there is no technical reason that Flash can’t run on the iPhone, and that developers can create well performing and compelling content for the device with Flash.
Mike Chambers says that Apple’s new developer program license “has the effect of restricting applications built with a number of technologies, including Unity, Titanium, MonoTouch, and Flash CS5. While it appears that Apple may selectively enforce the terms, it is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5. Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications (100+ on the store today) created with Flash CS5 from the iTunes store.”
However, they feel that it’s not a total loss. There’s Android, which has been doing well because of the Droid and the Nexus One, plus the fact that Android-based tablets are just around the corner, which everyone who would like a tablet PC but don’t give a damn about the iPad (like me) are excited for. This is going to be interesting.
[via]
