iPod touch 16GB [photo]

Love my iPod touch. The weird thing is that it has already been jailbroken out of the box.

Nabaztag now officially sucks

Not so long ago this little guy was the most popular geek toy. The intelligent wi-fi rabbit that can be programmed using very basic API to read the news, e-mail messages, stream mp3 music, online radio and tell the weather, turned out to be a waste of money. Here is the deal. Violet company that makes nabaztag bunnies had a false flash demonstration on their website. If you visited nabaztag.com around June last year (or earlier), you would see the bunny happily streaming Internet radio, reading e-mails and sending messages to other nabaztag owners by voice. Also, one could see nabazatag reading children books, recognizing objects and much more cool stuff all thanks to RFID support which never became available. I got my bunny (led by on-site demo) last year (see earlier posts for details).

At the time people at Violet were promising RFID support. The bunny worked quite well on my Mac and I was happily toying around with it. There were some glitches with the bunny but nothing serious. Problems arrived in December last year when Violet announced that they are changing platform and switching to Jabber. That change should make the bunny work and respond faster. That hasn’t happened!

Users had to wait for months for Violet to officially roll out Jabber platform and when they finally did, it turns to be a total disaster. Truth is that Nabaztag is now quicker but it does not work as it used to anymore. The bloody thing now won’t go to sleep or wake up at scheduled times, read rss feeds regularly and sometimes even refuses to connect at all. I’d strongly advise anyone who is thinking of buying nabaztag now, to stay away from it. Not to mention that RFID support is still unavailable.

The PC of the future

It seems that we have entered the final years of using our PC computers the way we used to. Now, in the web 2.0 era things are changing. Advanced web technologies will enable full migration of the software from our hard drives on the Internet. As the Internet speed increases every month, soon we’ll be able to use complex software packages from the remote location online without needing to download and install it on our computers. That way users will be able to easily choose which software they want to use and probably will pay a monthly fee instead of buying a whole package.Another thing is the storage space. The usage of multimedia features(music,photos and video) has increased so now we need terabytes of hard drive space to store all of our favourite photographs, music collection or some hilarious holiday home videos. Services like Flickr and YouTube are making things easier for us by allowing users to upload their photographs and video on their own servers. By doing that, we don’t need as much storage space available locally but also we can share our media with family and friends easily and quickly.

Other hybrid solutions offer users remote desktop systems, backup tools and so much more. The Internet is not a huge database of vast variety of information available on it. More and more software applications that we use in our everyday lives are Internet-dependent so we won’t even know when the Internet transition kicks in. Facebook, Myspace,Twitter and Pownce web 2.0 services that made us forget about using conventional e-mail in day to day communication.What kind of computers we will be buying in the future then? Well, I think that we will be using some sort of terminals that will have ultra-fast internet access, lots of RAM memory and less then 30 GB hard drive built-in.

Configuration like this would be more then enough for many average PC users. Software developers on the other hand will also be more concentrated on developing web-based applications that will be easy to use and access. Our future is online, are you ready?

Reasons why I don’t like MacBook Air

When I first saw the new MacBook Air laptop on the 2008 Macworld, I was really impressed with the design, until I checked the specifications. The new MacBook Air models (see the previous post for details) are ultra-thin and light. Having that in mind, Apple had to sacrify a lot when it comes to the computer overall performance. First, the screen size of 13 and 14 inches is just too small for today’s standards. Due to the fact that MacBook Air is so thin, there wasn’t any room to squeeze an optical device into it, so if you buy one you won’t be able to read or burn CD’s and DVD’s.

Apple is trying to compensate that by adding a rather interesting feature called “Remote Disc” that allows you to access the DVD or CD drive of a nearby Mac or Windows PC. If you can’t live without having an optical device on your Mac (and who can), Apple offers an external SuperDrive for MacBook Air models (sold separately - $US 99.00). These models are equipped with 65 and 80 GB hard drives and the 13” model has 80GB while the 14” one has only 65 GB. It’s a bit odd that the higher performance model has less storage space.

Glossy widescreen TFT LED backlit display supports millions of colours, but Apple could at least add some touch-screen technology and tablet-like feature to it. When it comes to peripheral connections, Macbook Air has micro DVI, USB 2.0 and an audio output. I am not saying that MacBook Air is bad, it’s just that I think technology is not yet ready for something that is ultra-thin or ultra-small because there are so many features that can not be implemented, or have to have very limited support. I am sure that MBA will be loved among travelers, journalists and business people who want decent features combined with light design. Others who want more power from their laptops better wait for the new MacBook Pro models.

Watch the guided tour >>

How To: Creating a music DVD with Roxio Toast 8

Modern CD / DVD burners and software allow you to create flashy DVD music discs. Music DVD can contain many hours of music, it has navigation menus and it displays album artworks. Once you create a music DVD, hook it up to your home theatre system to experience Dolby digital. You can use regular DVD + /- R or RW discs to create music DVD, but it’s even better if you use HD-DVD (15GB) recordable disc. Recordable HD-DVD’s can be bought from Amazon for around US$ 17.00 depending on manufacturer. In this tutorial I am going to explain how to easily create music DVD using HD-DVD format that provides superb image and sound quality. Optionally, you can use regular DVD-R, DVD R DL or even DVD RW. I highly recommend HD-DVD! Before you begin, take a look at the checklist to make sure you have everything you need.

Checklist:

- Mac Book or a MacBook Pro of newer generation.

- Roxio Toast 8 *

- Blank (recordable) HD-DVD disc

- Lots of patience

Now when you are sure that you have everything you need, we can begin the tutorial.

1. First you need to carefully choose music from your CD collection that you want to use. If you don’t have that many CD’s, you can make an audio DVD of your entire collection if you like. The more, the merrier! On your Mac or your external hard drive, create a new folder where you will copy music from your CD’s to. You name it say “My audio”. Please only use CD’s that you have bought, otherwise it could violate copyright laws in your country. CD audio music is easy to copy to your hard drive using simple drag and drop. The music is in AIFF (uncompressed format). Make sure you have enough storage space. It is also important to say that some music CD’s are copy protected which means that music can not be digitally copied or extracted. The good news is that most of the copy protection systems have been developed for Windows OS, and do not work (or they can be disabled easily) on the Mac. If you need more help about digital music extraction, remember, Google is your friend!

2. After you have ripped and sorted all your music in folders, run Roxio Toast 8, click on “Audio” and select “Music DVD” from sub-menu. Click on “More” button then click on “Encoding” tab, check “Custom radio button ” and set it as pictured below:

You can also choose the menu style that you want. Roxio has a few menu styles but they are rather boring. I’d recommend downloading additional menu styles to make your design more unique. Keep in mind that when you are dragging music, do not drag the whole folder then open it, select all files and then drag over the burning window.

3. When you are sure that you’ve done everything right and your files are being imported, hit “Record disc” button to start recording process. While recording is in progress, you can make a coffee, do some groceries, because encoding and burning will take time (this is where lots of patience kicks in). Burning and encoding speed will vary depends on how fast your Mac is.

Tips:

- Always use uncompressed music.

- Never download album artworks off the Internet. Instead scan your own album artwork at higher resolution.

- You will get best performance if using HD TV set.

If you have additional questions, leave a comment or contact me.

Copying and distribution of copyrighted material is illegal!

This article is also available in PDF and can be found here.

Google Ramblings

Ok, it’s official now, Google has acquired Jaiku! If you don’t know, Jaiku is mini-blog social networking platform especially suitable to use with mobile phone devices. Unlike Twitter and recently Pownce, Jaiku was never gained much popularity among users for some reason. Now, that Google owns the platform, things are about to change. Google already owns some popular web services: YouTube,Blogger,Gmail, Google Earth, Google maps and many more smaller services within google.com portal. Another rumour that has been spreading on the Internet is that google is about to make it’s own version of a mobile phone device called “gPhone” It is very likely that gPhone is going to be similar to apple’s iPhone and it will use same touch-sensitive technology iPhone uses. Here is what, in my opinion, could make gPhone the best mobile phone device ever:

Operating system: iPhone uses OS X as a platform which makes it unique to other mobile devices on the market. gPhone thus has to find as unique platform to use, so it can compete with the iPhone. Developing a new operating system for a mobile device can be rather expensive and risky. Google needs to adopt already developed solution. So guys, do you remember BeOS? It was a great operating system but lack of software and hardware support forced developers to shut down the original project. BeOS variations still exist, (see Zeta OS) but they can not be considered a serious OS for a PC again because of lack of software and hardware support. I think it would be great for Google to acquire say Zeta OS and modify it to make a brand new mobile platform that would be used with gPhone. BeOS is very similar to OS X. It’s powerful and it has friendly GUI. I remember back in 1998 when I first tried the original BeOS, I was really impressed. It had great graphic and networking performances combined with an intuitive interface that looks like NEXT.

Application support: Google does not have to be worried about application support as they already own vast variety of services that all can be used on gPhone too. iPhone for instance already uses YouTube. Gmail is the most popular web based e-mail service and it’s very reliable and most important, it’s free! With a few modifications made, (IMAP support) gmail could seamlessly work with gPhone. It would be integrated into the OS just like .Mac service is seamlessly working with OS X. Putting together Blogger and Jaiku would be great, and I don’t need to mention Google Earth and Google maps as we all know what kind of potential they have.

Hardware tweaking: Google has had enough time to see how competitors (LG-Prada and Apple) are going with their products. Now, if they are smart enough, they can correct all mistakes made by LG and Apple hardware-wise. I hope they will be able to do the job right.

What now you are asking yourself? What’s missing? I think the missing link is that Google does not have an online music store. Both Apple and Yahoo have one. It would be great if Google could offer a wi-fi music store. I am really looking forward to seeing if Google is up to the challenge of developing a mobile phone device. Good luck!!

Smile, you are on camera

My opinion is that technology is always good, it’s people who are making it look bad. After 9/11 we are in a constant fear of terrorist attacks, but is that a good reason for governments to spy on ordinary citizens?

Surveillance cameras: If you’ve been to London, New York or any other big city, you couldn’t not notice presence of surveillance cameras just about everywhere. They are meant to protect us from terrorists and the bad guys of sorts, but the cameras are intruding our privacy and make us feel uncomfortable (no cheating your wife on the street or a public place. In other words, people just don’t like being watched, period!

RFID passports: RFID (Radio-frequency identification) will be available in the new passports . RFID is a way of storing and remotely retrieving data. RFID chips can store a large amount of information about a passport holder, much more then it is available now. Authorized persons (at the airport for instance) use RFID readers to read and collect information off the RFID chip. RFID chips can already be found as a replacement for bar codes in big supermarket chains and department stores.

For more info about how RFID works, see this CBN news report - All rights reserved:

Airport Security: If you often have to travel by air, you know that you have to wear your “stripper clothes” at the airport and oh, no shoes applied. Otherwise, you’ll be stripped by the airport personnel whether you like it or not. If that is not humiliating enough for you, don’t worry, if some “old chum’” at the airport decides that you are looking kind of suspicious, you can easily be sent to a “special room” for some additional checking.

All the things mentioned above should help us and make us feel safer in the crazy world we live in. Question remains how all that affects our every day life. Do you feel safer?

Please note: This article contains some copyrighted material!

How to: Inhale more life into your PowerBook

You still haven’t switched to Intel-based MacBook or a Mac Book Pro, and you are “stuck” (like myself) with an (not that) old G4 PowerBook? Here is some tips of how you can get the most out of your PowerBook macintosh.

Memory upgrade: Adding more memory will increase your PowerBook’s overall performance. PowerBook comes with 512 or 1 GB of SODIMM memory, depends on which PowerBook model do you own.

Installation procedure: Flip your PowerBook over and set it down on a desk. You should be looking at the backside. Turn off and unplug your Powerbook. Take out the battery. Take out the four screws that are holding the cover of the memory slot using screwdriver. When installing additional memory module, make sure the gold pins are facing down at a 30º angle, and make sure the pins are positioned correctly. Also,make sure that you have your module inserted correctly. Boot up your mac and go to system profiler to see how much memory do you have.

External hard drive: Having an external hard drive is always a good thing. If you don’t have one already, I would recommend purchasing LaCie or WD models as they are very reliable. Installing applications and saving backups onto external HD helps you keep your PowerBook hard drive “clean” and more organized. When buying external HD, make sure that you buy one with FireWire interface. That will enable faster data transfer.

Maintain Regularly: Maintaining your mac properly is very important.

Battery Replacement: If you haven’t had your PowerBook battery replaced in a long time, it’s time to get a new one. If you are that lucky to find a new PowerBook battery, buy it straight away You can try on e-bay to get a battery that is slightly newer then the one you have. Calibrating your battery is also recommended.I hope that these tips will help you to get more out of your beloved PowerBook and that you still enjoy using it as when it was brand new.

Mac vs PC argument

I am really sick and tired of hearing constant arguments on which is better, Mac or a PC, both online and in the real life. I can’t understand why mac users are trying to prove an obvious thing - Macs are better! If the PC users are happy with their Windows crashing, viruses, malicious software, spyware etc. , then I’d let them have it. I know so many people saying how they are happy with their Windows machine but when something goes wrong, they are pulling out their hair and cry. So stop arguing. I am sure that PC users sooner or later will actually see that their OS suck and switch to Mac.

How To: Search engine submission

You have created and uploaded your first web site and you are proud of what you did. Now you want other people to see it too. After you have your website hosted up on the server and it works well, second step is submitting it to as many search engines possible. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN etc, are indexing pages by keywords so make sure that you have them on your web site because they are very important. In this short tutorial I am gonna show you how to submit your web site using http://www.addme.com/ search engine submitter.

1. Go to: http://www.addme.com/submission.htm where you can choose between free or paid submission.

2. I will use free submission, so click on Basic Search Engine Submission (14 search engines)

3. Before you begin, they recommend that you put a small badge of their site on your web site in exchange for a free service they provide you with.

4. Now comes the fun part. There is a few fields that you need to fill before you can actually cast your submission. Website or Business Name is where are you going to put your web site name e.g “John’s web space”. URL field prompts you to enter your web site URL:http://www.johnswebspace.com. From a drop-down menu you have to select the type of your web site. It can be a blog, business or a private site. Now you need to enter a description of your site and the keywords for it. Entering keywords is very important because search engines use those when finding your web site on the Internet. Make sure that you have the same keywords as you do in your HTML code. It is very important that keywords match. After you have entered all that is needed, double check it. When you are sure you have entered everything right, fill in your contact informations. Do not tick any boxes on the page bottoms unless you want some more spam in your inbox

5. Click next to go further in the process. On the next page you will see the red “Add me” button before the name of a search engine. If you want to submit your site to that engine, click “Add me”. When you get confirmation that the submission was successful, click next and keep repeating the steps for each search engine that you want to register your site with. Some search engines require you to confirm your name and your e-mail address. When you come to a final step, you will be asked to recommend “Add me” services to your friends by entering their e-mail addresses in the fields. You can skip this step as it wont affect your submission process.

6.You will receive an e-mail for each engine that will tell you if your submission has been accepted.You have to wait for at least 10 days for your web site to become available on all the engines you have submitted it to. If you have additional questions about website submission,leave a comment or e-mail me.