I tried everything I could, including restores of iOS, restoring the phone/bluetooth kit, restarting the devices, switching wireless off during use (which has helped others), along with a vast array of other things, all to no avail.

I finally figured it out the other day, partially by accident.  With the devices paired, it was of course automatic for the phone to connect to the Parrot automatically when I switched the engine on.  However, I finally worked out the following:-

1. Disable Wifi (not totally sure if this is vital – your milage may vary).
2. Disable Bluetooth, then re-enable it.
3. Lastly, and this is important, BEFORE the iPhone connects automatically to the Parrot, tap the Parrot in the bluetooth device list to manually connect it.

• Native Wifi tethering – Much more reliable than the Wifi tethering app – my saviour when out and about with my iPad.
• Faster – OH BLIMEY it’s faster!  The reports of 200-500% increase in speed are true!  Whole thing feels much more responsive in all ways.
• Apps to SD card – you’re now able to install apps (that support it) to the SD, saving internal phone storage.

All in all, a nice upgrade!

UPDATE : I’ve also updated the Radio firmware now, and all seems to be okay.  720p now working!

I’ve just received my iPad Camera Connection Kit through the post today.  This unassuming set of dongles attaches to the dock connector of the iPad and allows you to import photos and videos directly into the iPad’s Photo gallery app.

The premise is simple – just plug either the USB or SD card adapter into the dock, then insert the card, or plug in the camera, and the iPad immediately takes you to the import screen.  From here, you can select the photos or videos you want to import and press to start the process.  On testing, my Canon 5D worked fine with the USB connector (with the camera set to PTP connection mode).  A multi card reader also worked fine (direct from CompactFlash).   As for the SD reader, it picked up the videos on the SD directly from my Samsung camcorder, and imported them no problem.

Once imported, you can choose to delete the images on the camera/card, or leave them there.  Also, once the files are on the iPad, you can transfer them to the your Mac/PC by docking the iPad and importing into iPhoto or Lightroom.  I’m assuming many other apps will work too, but these are the two I’ve tested.

On a side note, it works with the RAW files from my 5D with no issues whatsoever (.CR2 format), and I know it also does the same with Nikon cameras (.NEF).

Disadvantages?  Well, you can only use a limited range of devices.  You can’t, for example, plug in a hard disk and play videos off it.  This would be a welcome addition, but it’s doubtful apple will open it up this much.  Strictly speaking, with a jailbreak and a little inginuity, it IS possible, but not to the non-JB, standard user.

Also, when you import the photos and videos, it places them in an ‘Imported Photos’ album, and does not let you choose, or move them around at all.  The only separation you get is the fact that the last import shows up in a separate folder, but that’s as far as it goes.  Hopefully in iOS4 for the iPad, this will be addressed – we’ll have to wait and see…

So overall, a good little set of interfaces.  It does what it says on the tin, and will be an invaluable tool for backing up/previewing shots when out in the field.

A small tip :Once imported, you have to delete the photos manually off the iPad once you’re finished with them.  Unfortunately, there is no ‘Select All’ button currently on the photo app.  Rather than selecting them all individually, which would take ages for a big collection from a long shoot, you can select them a little more quickly by doing the following :-

1) Press the curvy arrow in the top right, as normal to delete imported photos.

2) Instead of selecting each photo individually, touch and hold the first one for a second or two, then swipe your finger around the shot to select them without lifting your finger off.  You can then press delete as usual.  Much quicker, i’m sure you’ll agree!

Cheers!

iPad, Desire and Navicore

Falling short…

Since I got my iPad, the only thing I’ve really lamented is it’s lack of GPS and 3G.  Being the Wifi (read: cheaper) model, I had to make do with WiFi only.  As usual, my tendency to over-analyse and get the most out of anything I have got the better of me, and I started to look into how to plug the gaps in capability.  The spur was the lack of an official Geocaching app on the android OS as of yet.  Supposedly, there’s an Android version coming ‘Soon’ (and has been for about six months!).  At the moment, it’s definitely in ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ territory.

Navicores and Desires

As you may or may not know, I recently took the leap from my trusty iPhone to the ‘other side’ – i.e. Android.  Specifically, I went for an HTC desire, and haven’t regretted the switch.  Seems as though the switch was a good call at the moment.  Android, you see, is much less locked-down than Apples iOS, which although it is excellent in itself, is rather crippled, mostly to keep the control of the OS firmly in Apple’s grasp.  Android, on the other hand, whilst not being completely open, is getting much more in that direction.  Out of the box, Android is less locked-down, with just a little techie work required, in a process called ‘rooting’, to make it more-or-less completely open (in an OS-sense).

With a cool little app called ‘Wireless Tether’ installed on the rooted phone, it created an ad-hoc wireless network for your device (laptop, iPad etc) to join.  Once joined, your device can use the internet connection of your Android phone, avoiding the need to take out a separate plan for your iPad. Bear in mind this may be against the terms and conditions of your mobile contract, but take it easy, and avoid using for VoIP and other network-angering activities too often, and you may escape notice – depends on how vigilant your provider is…

So that’t the 3G side of things sorted.

Where am I?

Next comes the GPS.  The iPad Wifi is equipped with Bluetooth, which should make it a doddle to pair a standard Bluetooth GPS unit with it, right?

Wrong!

Apple, in their infinite wisdom, have decreed that you can only use your Bluetooth for very limited activities, specifically, headsets, headphones keyboards and, ummmm, well, not much else really.  My lovely little Navicore SiRF III Bluetooth GPS unit has been languishing in a drawer for about the last two years or so.  Luckily, some clever developer has come up with an alternative Bluetooth stack for the iPad (and iPhone), which enables these devices to support accessories that they previously couldn’t.  This wonderful bit of code is known as ‘BTStack’.  The caveat?  Well, Apple wouldn’t like you doing this, so your iPad needs to be Jailbroken.  This is ridiculously easy to do (just google for it), and enables you to install homebrew apps.  The particular app in question is called ‘BTStack GPS’, and is available via Cydia (the homebrew app installer that gets installed when you Jailbreak the iPad).  It is one of the few ‘paid’ homebrew apps, and after furnishing the developer with all of $5.00 via paypal, you get your full-capable version of BTStack GPS.  A free version is also available, though all this does is display the position within the BTStack GPS app itself, and doesn’t pass it on to other apps.

Once installed, all you have to do is run the app, and pair it with your Standard SPP GPS receiver.  Once paired (and your reciever has a GPS signal), it causes the iPad to act as if you have built-in GPS.  All apps I’ve tried so far work flawlessly with it, including the official Groundspeak Geocaching app.  This is, currently, just the iPhone version running on the iPad, but it is sufficient until Groundspeak sort out an iPad version.

So there we go.  A WiFi iPad with 3G and GPS Connectivity.  Simple!

So what’s it like? Well, first the bad. Ummmmmmm.

Hmmmmmm.

Either it’s post-purchase bliss, or there really isn’t much wrong with this thing as far as I tell at the moment. I know that there have been a lot of detractors when it comes to Cupertino’s latest output (ignoring conveniently the iPhone 4 for the time being), but after 24 hours of use, I’m starting to think that maybe people are going at this from the wrong angle. In a similar way to how they did with the iPhone, people rare seemingly enjoying pointing out what they perceive as flaws, and make them out to be a deal-breaker where the device is concerned. Things like the lack of multitasking (now to be sorted via the update to iOS 4.0), and the “walled garden” approach to application development, are often touted as reasons to dismiss apple mobile devices outright, without, seemingly, giving them a chance in other ways.

Yes, in a way I think that the restrictions placed on developers by Apple are a little harsh. For example, the turning down of all apps submitted that, in any way, duplicate functionality of the base device, means that no one can produce a fully featured alternative browser. The denial of a release of Adobe’s Flash plugin for iPhone and iPad has been hotly debated in recent months. However, I’ve owned an iPhone for the last two and a half years,and to be honest, I’ve never really found it to be much of an issue. The quality of the appraisal program that Apple employ is dubious to say the least. Just type the word ‘fart’ into the app store to see how many apps there are related to that particular bodily function, and you’ll get an idea of what i mean.  In other words, an approval process doesn’t mean all the apps are any good.  However, there are a lot of great ones out there, and the main issue about having an Android phone now rather than an iPhone is that the app store (or ‘Marketplace’ on Android), hasn’t yet got the spread of apps that are on the Apple app store.  Also, just due to the Apple devices’ visibility, most good apps are released on the iPhone / iPad platform first.  In a nutshell, I’ve lived with this exact situation on the iPhone for the last few years and never really had the issue with it that other seem to.  If you are happy with an iPhone, you’ll be happy with an iPad.

So, how is it then?  The answer is best expressed in one, very British, adjective.  Lovely.

The screen is fantastic quality, and the interface is a joy to behold.  It is by far the single most responsive piece of technology I have ever used, with more or less no lag when performing any task.  At no time do you feel you’re waiting unnecessarily.  The whole unit feels solidly built, and the weight, though not feather-light, is certainly not an issue.  The on-screen keyboard is the first I’ve used that I can genuinely type on at full speed.  This makes real-world use of the iPad for blogging, word-processing etc a reality.

Due to budgetary constraints, I chose the 16Gb WiFi model, as, to be honest, storing lots of music and movies on it is fairly far from my mind.  I’ve never really been one for movies on the move, and I have an iPod or my HTC Desire for my MP3s.  I’m much more interested in its use as an imaging/photography tool, and for web browsing, twitter, reading ebooks/magazines etc.  I’m going to get the camera connection kit when it becomes available here in the UK.  This allows the connection of any (in theory) mass storage device to the dock connector, to transfer files (including RAWs) from cameras and media cards to the internal memory for reviewing and backup.  This will be a great way to give myself a little more storage when I’m out on shoots, and will mean I don’t have to cart the netbook or laptop around too.  My recent migration from the iPhone to the HTC Desire will pay dividends soon, as come the Android 2.2 update, it’ll make my Desire into a mobile Wifi Hotspot, meaning I can use that as my access point when I’m out and about.

Apps-wise, the growing choice of iPad specific software is really impressive.  A lot of the older apps have been updated, some for free (i.e. they now have a version that works both on iPad and iPhone), whereas other seem to have come out with what is commonly now being called an ‘HD’ version.  usually this means buying it again if you want the iPad version.  Depending on the app involved, and the price, this can be a bit of a bind.  However, the most expensive app I’ve ever bought, Logmein Ignition, happily did the former.

Some of the highlights app-wise so far…

• The aformentioned Logmein Fusion.  This app, great on the iPhone, has been updated to use the iPad’s higher resolution, which has made an already great PC/Mac app all the better
• Google Earth – Good old google earth, is, not surprisingly,  much more usable on the iPad.
• The first electronic issue of Wired Magazine is an explosion of multimedia delight.  It’s hard to explain without experiencing it, but the dynamic layout,  embedded media and hotlinking make the whole thing a joy to behold (and to use)!
• Brushes – The already-well-regarded iPhone paint package gets a resolution and usability upgrade for the iPad.
• FlickrStackr and Photo Pad are both fantastic Flickr-based apps.  The former has a better interface for online browsing of your flickr photos, and enables you to comment etc.  The latter is a syncing tool which downloads all or part of your Photostream for offline viewing.  Great for showing people your online portfolio when you don’t have an internet connection.
• Ebay - A great app, making browsing and buying via eBay a joy on the iPad.
• The Elements – A real showcase app for the iPad.  This is a reference book with a graphical periodic table.  Each element has its own set of pages with animated and interactive diagrams, and loads of info.  Written in quite an entertaining way which borders on the silly sometimes, but is nevertheless a great read.
• Last but certainly not least, the official WordPress app has received and iPad boost.  Turns it from a basic editing tool to a much more comfortable blog composition tool.  Still no WYSIWYG editor, but fingers crossed for the future…!

Blimey – I could go on and on.  One thing to note is that you can run most of the iPhone apps on the iPad too.  These appear in the centre of the screen, at the same resolution as on the iPhone.  Mostly though, I wouldn’t recommend using them this way, as they don’t look particularly nice.  Exceptions where function over form is important, like, for example, Skype, of which the iPhone version runs perfectly on the iPad.

Battery life for this thing is phenomenal.  I had an afternoon (a good six hours) of (non-charging) syncing, browsing, YouTubing, and general messing around, and my battery life was still around 50%.  Now to me, that’s one of the most impressive things about this device.  Full stop.

In the end, the iPad is a device that does what it does extremely well, and in a way that is so polished, that it is yet to even be approached for quality in the tablet world.  It’s a media consumption device that branches out into other arenas with a generally high level of success.  As I get a bit more into real-world usage, I’ll report back and give my opinions.  Until then, its going to be interesting finding out…

The one thing I’m missing in using my iPhone for this is the restriction that film photography places on you.  The thing about digital is that, in the end, if you don’t like a shot, you can delete it.  I’ve purposely been trying NOT to retake shots I’m not happy with, reason being that I wouldn’t have the chance to review and reject with film like I do with digital.  I’ve been really enjoying it, and I’m going to carry with the iphone Lomo – Including a run down of the apps I’ve been using to produce the shots (more on that later!).

Talking of yesterday’s Eureka moment, I had another, even bigger on this morning. A real slap on the forehead, why-didn’t-I-realize-that-before moment.

I was thinking back over the film cameras I’ve still got, and digging through my collection of old Zenits, Canon EOS and Minoltas, when i remembered an old TLR (Twin Lens Refex) medium format box I got hold of years ago.  I got hold of it back in university, in an attempt to do some experimentation with Medium Format 120 roll film.  Unfortunately, it’s something I never actually got around to doing, what with the advent of digital and all the cheap snappyness associated with it.  So I dug it out…

Turns out, it’s a Lubitel 166B.  What’s a Lubitel 166B when it’s at home I hear you cry (or not). Well… it’s a Russian camera, produced in the early 80s, but based on a design from around 1950.  It was cheaply made as a way for Amateurs to experiment with using Medium Format. The best bit…?

It’s made by LOMO.

I’ve had it here all this time, and never realised I was sitting on a bit of classic Lomography kit!  It’s one of a selection of cameras used by the Lomo community to capture images on film. Examples of such work can be found at http://www.lomography.com/photos/cameras/Lubitel%20166B/popular.

Looking over it – it’s a lovely little bit of kit.  It feels so raw and primitive compared to the most basic of digital SLRs.  It’s completely mechanical, so no batteries, and no electronics.  It’s a box, with a variable hole at the front, that allows you to project a fixed image on a piece of film.  In short – it’s a camera – with no bells and whistles.  No auto focus, no auto exposure.  Nada.  Why is it that that makes me feel so excited???  Shouldn’t I be looking at this, in all it’s out-of-date plasticness, and be horrified at the prospect of having to manually work out exposures?   The answer is a resounding no. The simplicity of all this is what interests me.

Anyway – I thought I’d take a few shots of the little beauty (ironically, with my Digital SLR) and share them with you…

It’s got a plastic-covered body, with a metal underframe.  Focussing is done manually on a groundglass screen (pic two), and there is a little pop-up magnifier which assists the process a bit, though ease of focussing is not meant to be one of its strong points.  There is something nice though, about using a focussing screen to frame the shot rather than a held-to-the-eye viewfinder – not sure what – I just like it! Aperture (f4.5-22) and shutter speed (Bulb, to 250th Sec) are done manually.  It does have a self-timer though, so selfs are a definite possibility. Pic one shows it all packed up and capped.  It only weighs about 500g – nice and easy to carry.

The upshot of this is that I now have a ready path to follow in actually trying genuine Lomography.  Bizarrely. I’m actually looking forward to the restrictions that this camera and the use of film will place on me.  The fact that it has the viewfinder on top is also going to be interesting.  This will allow me to ‘shoot from the hip’ so to speak. I know for a fact that getting interesting candids probably wont be as hard with this. I will, of course, blog about it once I’ve done a bit more fiddling around…

Let me explain…

Photography is an art.  In the end, it’s all about the aesthetics.  Beautiful photos opportunities rear their heads in the most unlikely of places.  There are things, that, unfortunately, generally need to be present in order to produce most photos.  One, not surprisingly, is a camera of some sort.  Kit. Equipment. Tin. Glass.   Also needed is some form of technique.  Rules of thirds, exposures, shutter speeds, so on and so forth.  Not to say that these things are the be all and end all, but they help.

So.  Now take the large proportion of that clutter out of the equation and out of the process.  So – what do we have left?

Raw potential – that’s what.

What am I babbling on about?  Well… I love photography; that much is clear.  However – sometimes, I feel like having to make sure I have kit with me (from camera, to tripod, to batteries, to memory cards, blah blah until the end of time), as well as having to carefully consider technique and the pressure of finding a shot to start the inspiration flowing, end up producing a grand total of bugger all.  You can easily end up being stifled by everything and anything you have with you, be it in your kit bag, or in your head.  So – what about the times you’ve got too much in your head to fit any more in (never mind photographic technique!).  What about the times (and there are many), when you don’t have your kit with you?

There is something that many of us now carry about our person that is capable of producing basic reproductions of the scenes around us.  That something is our mobile phone.  The majority now have some sort of camera in-built.  This applies to my very own iPhone.   I have a 1st Gen iPhone 3G, with the 2-odd Megapixel camera, no flash etc.  To use an internet cliché – meh.  Its pretty useless in most situations.  Bar brightly lit scenes, with nobody actually moving, it’s output it is, at best, severely lacking.  Mostly, I’ve looked at these shots and tried to work out how I can make them better – turn them into something beautiful.   Its not an easy task,  and has meant that the iPhone has really been mostly confined to the limits of I-haven’t-got-anything-else-with-me-but-want-this-snapshot trivialities and keepsakes.

Then I had bit of a back-to-front idea.  Instead of trying to bring up to standard something that was not, why not play on it’s weaknesses, and revel in its low fidelity?  In other words, rather than messing about trying to make them better, I would see if I could make them ‘worse’ (in a manner of speaking).  I started to punch various synonyms of lo-fi photography into google, and came back with some interesting stuff.  Not surprisingly, there are a lot of bods out there with similar ideas.  It seemed that lo-fi photography was (paraphrasing the Wikipedia entry), a reaction to the general perceived ease of taking technically perfect photos in the digital age.

Another term which reared it’s head was Lomography.  Again – from the Wikipedia entry…

Lomography emphasizes casual, snapshot photography. Characteristics such as over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, “happy accidents,” and alternative film processing are often considered part of the “Lomographic Technique.”

There are 10 ‘rules’ of Lomography (again, more details can be found here)

1. Take your camera everywhere you go
2. Use it any time – day and night
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it
4. Try the shot from the hip
5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible
6. Don’t think (william firebrace)
7. Be fast
8. You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film
9. Afterwards either
10. Don’t worry about any rules

So… Lomography is the art of photography sans rules.  I like the sound of this.  Something a bit more freeform, a bit less constrained by the aformentioned technique and kit. I’d heard of this a while back, but only today linked the iPhone camera to the possibilities.

Thing is, the rules above are great, but some of the rest of the philosophy is a little skewed.  The whole thing is based around the ‘Lomo’ brand of Russian Cameras, and shooting on 120 film.  I’d love to do that, but unfortunately, both associated cost, and time would be a hindrance.  Unfortunately, the community based around the art tend to be rather protective about what can be defined as Lomography.  Don’t get me wrong – I’d love to do it properly.  I started out in darkrooms, and the smell of developer and fixer is still something that takes me back to some of my most formative and creative days as a photographer.  However, for now, I’d have to be happy to embrace the philosophy encompassed by the ten rules above, without conforming completely to the standard.  In essence – dancing round the first nine rules, whist fully embracing the tenth.

I’m going to give it a go with my iPhone.  I’ve set up a separate Flickr account, as I want this to be as freeform and spontaneous as possible.  I don’t want these photos muddying my standard Flickr Photostream, as I don’t want my standard photos muddying this.   I want it separate.  The ‘Lomostream’ will be at :-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/axemanlomo

It’ll also be on a constantly playing slideshow on my homepage for the time being, which will look something like this :-

Well.. truth be told, it’ll look exactly like that, and will update in real-time as I upload more shots.

Let’s see where this takes us shall we?

The main problem with doing this is that there are a lot of different distributions (or ‘distros’) of OSX86, and knowing whch of them will work fine on the AAO is a bit of guesswork. There are, however a few that have been used by quite a few people. The XxX, iPC and iAtkos distros have all been installed successfully, and I believe that all of these are available up to OSX 10.5.6.

Each distro has a very similar set of optional components, though if you use a guide for one for another, then you may have to go hunting through the options to find the things you need, and they’re not always named the same.

A great guide is available at :-

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=153352  

This is for the iAtkos distro, but works fine for the others if you can search out the relevant bits in the install. Its a good step by step guide with a lot of feedback from other forum users afterwards also.

One tip – make sure you install the ‘Shutdown Fix’, as if you don’t then your AAO will crash about 50% of the time when shutting down running on batteries. It’s not a big issue (just hold down the power button to switch off), but always feels better and neater when it doesn’t crash!

Insanelymac in general is a great source of info for anything OSX86-related.

Also, the OSX86 Wiki at http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page is also a godsend.

Cheers!

Aspire One - OSX Flavour

I’m always the same.  I get a device or gadget, and, when I’m getting used to it in the first few weeks, I always go into ‘What can I do with this?’ mode.  I’ll see what it can do, even if its things that I’d never use again.  I was happily playing around with Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire one, and actually getting very used to it and being very happy with it.  However, after using my desktop iMac for so long, I pined for something a little more mac-like.  I went hunting, initially for themes for Gnome.  However, I soon started to come across loads of stuff on the web about how people have installed Mac OS X onto theirs.

I’d read quite a bit in the past about so-called ‘Hackintoshes’.  Ever since Apple made the move to Intel x86 Hardware, those in the know (1337 Haxxorrs and the like) had been fiddling with OSX’s innards to get it to run on vanilla PC hardware.  Previously, I hadn’t really followed this up, as early reports were of nightmarish installs, and unstable environments, making it more of a hobby / experimental thing than anything.

Thing is, stuff never stands still for very long.

The stories I was now reading were much more tales of success, and how OS X on x86 PC platforms had become a reality that was no longer out of reach of the common (non-1337) user.  A project called OSX86 (http://www.osx86project.org/) has been brewing to a fine vintage quite nicely for a few years now.  This has now got to the point where several ‘Distros’ of OSX are now available (from various… ahem… locations), which can be installed on a wide range (though not exhaustively so) of PC hardware.

Although the quality (generally) of Apple hardware is very high, and the consistency good, not everyone can afford the admittedly high prices that Apple charge for you to take one of their machines home, but they still want to experiment with OSX.  In my opinion, OSX is an OS that I haven found equalled, both for speed, stability (apart from Linux and *nix-based OSs), and lovelyness in the usage stakes.

With netbooks being de rigeur at the moment, many have longed for a Mac-based version.  MacOS is the perfect Netbook OS.  However, Apple have never got closer to the Netbook form factor than the (extortionate) Macbook Air, and (oversized for this purpose) Macbooks.  This is what has prompted getting OSX86 up and running on Netbooks, particularly ones like the Acer Aspire One and the Dell Mini 9.

Now… the main issue with this is one of legality.  Apple have a EULA that, strictly-speaking, prohibits the use of OSX on anything other than Apple hardware.   Now, you can form your own opinion on this, but many believe that as long as you purchase a license, you should be ale to install the OS on whatever compatible hardware you want to.  One thing I would NOT condone is running OS X without a license.  It is a fantastic OS that has taken many years of development, and is a joy to use.  It’s WORTH THE CASH.  I am lucky enough to have a license for Leopard that I once used on my original iMac G5, but when i sold that, I restored it back to Tiger and sold it as-is.  I’ve had a spare Leopard license hanging around since then.  I repeat – if you want to use it, BUY IT. Due to the restrictions, I suggest that this is for experimental and educational use only.

Anyway!  After much faffing, scouring the net for hacks and tweaks, I got OS X up and running on my Acer Aspire One A150L.  All-in-all, it wasn’t too difficult (though took a bit of trial and error).  One of the finest resources for info on this is the InsanelyMac forums at http://www.insanelymac.com/forum.  Make sure you check it out. Tutorials a-plenty on this are available therein.

The verdict?  Well tickle me with a feather and call me Jeffrey if I wasn’t surprised…!  I must admit, I was expecting to install it, have a mess around, get frustrated and wish I hadn’t bothered with this in the first place…  I couldn’t have been more wrong!

After a few patches, everything now works!  That includes…

• The built in webcam
• Wifi (after the change outlined below)
• Mobile Broadband Dongle (and management App)
• Sound and Mic
• All graphical effects
• Keyboard layout
• Fan speed (no noisy MicroMac for me!)
• Battery indicator
• Card Reader (as long as you have it inserted on boot, and make sure you eject it before inserting another)

And if I’ve missed anything out… then its because basically, you can take more-or-less everything else as read…

Okay – let’s dampen the fires a little.  There is one thing that would be useful that Doesn’t work, and that’s sleep mode.  However, this, to me, is not actually that vital, as I don’t really use it that much.  In the end, I can easily live without it.  You CAN get hibernation working, but to be honest, I can’t be bothered, as the OS boots so damn fast anyway (about 30 secs or so…!).  Secondly, the in-built wireless (an Atheros PCI Express card) doesn’t easily or reliably work with OS X.  I changed it for an Dell 1490 Wifi card for a few quid off ebay, and OSX picked it up as an airport card with no issues at all.  There we go, that wasn’t so painful on the negatives front was it?

OS X runs like a dream on the Acer Aspire One, with it’s Intel Atom 1.6Ghz CPu and it’s 1Gb or RAM.  I don’t know how well it would run on the 8Gb SSD version – I reckon a HDD is pretty much a must, just for space’s sake.  Nothing stopping you giving it a go though, as a browse of the forums shows it has been done.

I thought, as I did a quick vid for the last post, I’d do the same for this one.  So… just to prove it, here’s a vid of the OS starting…

How good is that eh????

(Note to the noise-sensitive : for some reason you can REALLY hear the fan on this vid, especially after the OS starts. In all honesty, it’s not loud at all, and the power management seems to deal with the fan speed absolutely fine. Nothing to worry about! The condenser mic on my camcorder is waaaaaay too sensitive!)

Anyway.  I’ll sign off now, and leave you with the thought that for £250ish, you can get yourself an A150L plus a copy of Leopard, and experiment with a MicroMac of your own!

Cheers.

Aspire One, Ubuntu Style!

After much deliberation, hand wrangling, and reading around, I decided to go for a netbook.  Many people look on these things as underpowered toys, but after having a bit of a play with one in PC World, I decided to take the plunge.  After all, if it ended up being no good, I could sell it on the back of the current netbook craze and make my money back easily enough.  So how did it work out?  Very well as it happens. The model I decided to go for was the Acer Aspire One.  After a bit of cashback and some vouchers, I managed to get hold of one for £125, which was, in my opinion, a great price.  The A150L is an Intel Atom based 8.4″ netbook, with 1Gb of RAM, plus a 120Gb Hard Drive (rather than the Solid State thing in the earlier models).  It has built in 802.11b/g WiFi, but no bluetooth.  The screen is glossy, but to me this isnt an issue, as the display is bright and clear, and very sharp (despite only being 1024×600).  The keyboard is pretty responsive, and I actually like the feel of it, and dont find it to be flexible like others have reported. The keys are 85% of the size of standard laptop keys, and whilst small, are still easy to get used to, unless you have a bunch of sausages for fingers.  The built in webcam is basic, though works absolutrely fine for the likes of MSN or Skype.  The trackpad is small, but again works very well.  The placement of the left and right buttons is unorthadox, with the buttons mounted to the right and left of the trackpad.  I use ‘tap to click’ anyway, so the placement doesnt really bother me, but if you like your buttons rather than your taps, you may want to use a notebook mouse with it.

The case is mostly glossy, and along with the screen, soon becomes close friends with your fingerprints.  You’ll find yourself obsessively wiping the thing for a while, until you get used to it… The ‘L’ models come with Linux preinstalled.  The flavour in this case is a kind of cut down distro known as ‘Linpus’.  This has Firefox 2 (rather than the more up-to-date 3) installed, as well as a simple messanger client, a proprietary mail client, as well as Openoffice, and various other apps.  However, for someone with more than a little OS experience, the whole thing feels a little restrictive.  You can enable a more advanced mode, which actually enables you to install more apps.  However, it still feels a little ‘Knobbled’ (so to speak!).  The whole Linpus install has a relatively pretty front end, which is great for people who just want to use it in its basic configuration, and makes it a brilliant first computer for a technophobe who just wants to surf the net, write a few emails, do a bit of word processing etc. After a good play with the installed OS, I decided to do a bit of research and replace the installed OS with something a little more flexible.

I decided on Ubuntu Linux NBR (Netbook Remix).  This is a version of Ubuntu that, whilst not being cut down, has a rather nice Netbook front end shell. The install couldnt have been easier.  I just used a little app to write the 1Gb image to a USB flash drive, which was then booted from on the netbook.  This booted into a live distro, which I had a play about with.  Once I decided I wanted to carry on with a permanent install, I just selected the relevant menu option, and the OS install proceeded.  I made a few tweaks to the partitions, but apart from that it was a case of next, next, next. Once installed, the OS takes only 40-50 secs to boot.  All devices work absolutely fine, apart from the SD card reader, which only works if a card is in it at boot time.  As long as you do this, you can take the card out and put another in and it will read it fine.  The webcam, sound, Wifi, etc, all work with no issues whatsoever.  The device has three USB connections, as well as VGA out, and the normal Mic and Headphones sockets.  It’s also furnished with two memory card slots.  The left one is SD only, and just serves to expand the machine’s storage (i.e. it comes up as a separate partition I believe).  The Right one is a multi card slot which takes SD, MMC, Memorystick and XD cards.  This is a more standard reader, but as previously mentioned, is not 100% working in Ubuntu. With Ubuntu, you can install any number of packages from Linux application repositories with the ‘add/remove’ app.  The main menu (the Ubuntu version of the windows ‘Start’ menu) is presented on the netbook shell as a nice full screen interface.  It’s easy to switch back and forth between the NBR shell and the standard Ubuntu desktop. Even the suspend/resume works perfectly, meaning you don’t lose the good power-saving facilities that netbooks are designed for. The battery life only weighs in at about 2 hours maximum, so you need all the power-saving you can get. You can buy bigger batteries (twice and three times the capacity and physical size), but this has an obvious impact on the size and weight of the device, kind of diminishing the point of it.

It works!

I was gobsmacked that even a ’3′ mobile broadband dongle was picked up and installed via a wizard. All it did was ask for my provider, and it went away and did the rest.  It then just appeared as a connection option in the networks menu.  Brilliant!  Even though, in relation to the Aspire One itself, the dongle seems huge, it’s not really a problem as you’ll be taking the thing out when you pack it away anyway. Playing video (including streaming DivX, Xvid etc over the WiFi) worked well, but this is partly due to Ubuntu.  Apparently the pre-loaded Linpus Linux is not so forgiving, and lacks basic support for DivX, XviD, Quicktime and some other common codecs.

Overall? I’m impressed.  I didn’t think the thing would be more like a mini laptop than a purpose-built net surfing device.  It has, however, proven to be much more powerful than I though it would be, and is, in effect, a fully fledged linux box.  It even runs the Visual effects if you choose to enable them, but only in the full Ubuntu Desktop.  Running these in the NBR mode causes issues with graphical glitches. You can buy the same model with Windows XP installed, but the idea of using Windows for a dedicated surfing and email machine kind of fills me with dread security-wise.  Apparently, some have even installed Vista, and Windows 7 on it, with reports that both run fairly well.  I’ll stick to good old Ubuntu though. All-in-all, its a really good purchase.  It does exactly what I want, and it does it well.  For the price, it amazes me what you can get now.  With more and more companies sticking their toes into the lucrative waters of the netbook phenomenon, it seems that price to power ratio is only going to improve.   Going by the few days usage that I’ve had with the Aspire One, I’d recommend it heartily to anyone who wants what it proclaims to do.  Anyone who wants a true laptop replacement would be best to try it out first if possible.

I won’t list full specs here, as you can find them easily via the gift of google. Just for a bit of fun, I thought I’d stick a quick video overview (and I mean quick).  See below – press the HQ button for a much clearer view once playing if your bandwidth will handle it. Oh, and apologies for the apparent widescreening that youtube has done. It seems to have chopped it a little, but it doesn’t really affect it too much…