Read posts about wireless

October 9

Eye-Fi Cards can now post directly to Flickr, Twitter, and RSS (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

Eye-Fi SD cards add Twitter, Flickr, RSS support - Boing Boing Gadgets.

These just keep getting more and more appealing. An SD card with built in wifi, geolocation tagging capability, and now the ability to post straight to Flickr (it didn’t have this before?), Twitter, and RSS feeds.

They’re still kind of spendy, though. $99 for 2GB, I think, is the current price. When larger cards (4 and 8 GB) are so cheap (less than $15, sometimes), you have to really want what the Eye-Fi cards offer. I want one, but I don’t know if I want one to the tune of a hundred bucks. :-)

Posted in: cameras , eyefi , flickr , gps , linkblog , sd , twitter , wifi , wireless
April 24

Video: Amazon Kindle Unboxing and First Impressions (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

I finally broke down and ordered an Amazon Kindle, now that they’re back in stock. It’s an ebook reader device, and since I read so much (borderline obsession), and there are growning piles of dead tree versions of books all over my house, I figured a Kindle was a good idea.

In this video, we go over the packaging, basic functions of the device, discuss its wireless features, have a look at the fabulous (dare I say revolutionary?) electronic ink screen, and generally check out the new gadget.

Camera help and cameo appearances by my wife Rachel and our son Gabe. You can download the higher quality original Quicktime movie file (about 6 minutes, 72MB), or get a code snippet to embed/share this video on your own site by clicking the little “connect the dots” icon in the player above.

I’ll be posting more thoughts as I use the Kindle more (I’ve had it less than 24 hours), but the verdict so far is: I LOVE this thing! I only wish I hadn’t had to wait so long for Amazon to get them back in stock.

You can find out more about the Kindle, browse the books, newspapers, and magazines available for it, and generally get more information at Amazon’s Kindle page (affiliate link - if you decide to buy one, and use that link, I get a small percentage, which helps to pay for my gadget buying habit).

Post a comment or message me on Twitter if you have any questions, and stay tuned for a lot more Kindle information in the days and weeks to come! :-)

Update: There’s a LOT of great discussion going on down in the comments for this post. I’ve been typing like mad, answering questions, so make sure you have a look if you’re interested in what book formats the Kindle can support, what you can use the SD card for, what I think of the DRM on the Kindle, how the design feels in my hands how to use the Kindle to read RSS feeds for free, and more! :-)

Posted in: amazon , blog , books , ebooks , gadgets , hardware , ink , kindle , reader , unboxing , video , wireless
March 4

I Have the Coolest Keyboard in the World - Apple Wireless Keyboard (Tiny Screenfuls (JoshB)) by Josh Bancroft

It’s been over a year since I got my beloved MacBook Pro (when I joined Intel Software Network). For most of that time, I’ve been using one of the previous generation Apple Wireless Keyboards - the one with the white keys and transparent base. It’s been a great keyboard (even though the white keys get filthy, and the transparent housing lets you see all the disgusting gunk, dust, and board chow that gets caught in there). A couple of weeks ago, I was helping our department admin order an Apple keyboard for someone else in the group, and she asked if I wanted one. What do you think I said? ;-) A day or so later, in email, she asked if I wanted wired or wireless. I thought for a minute - the new Apple Wireless Keyboard doesn’t have the full size separate number pad, arrow keys, and PgUp/PgDown/Home/End keys (the wired USB version does). Could I live without those? I decided to give it a try.

Last week, the new keyboard arrived, and I’ve been blown away by it ever since. :-)

It’s Bluetooth, which means that it will work with more than just Apple computers. It does have some Mac-specific keys, though, like Exposé and Dashboard. It also has the traditional Apple volume up/down/mute, and eject keys, and this latest version adds media shuffle controls - Play, Next, Previous, etc. - which to my delight work to control iTunes even when I’m in another application (like right now, writing this in MarsEdit). But the amazing part of it is just how freaking thin and light it is:

Apple Wireless Keyboard, Old and New

It is much smaller than the previous full sized keyboard. The little roll at the top/back holds 3 AA batteries. One end of the “roll” unscrews for battery access, and the other houses the power/pairing button.

Apple Wireless Keyboard, MacBook Pro

The keyboard is almost exactly the same size as the actual keyboard on the MacBook Pro:

Apple Wireless Keyboard, MacBook Pro
Apple Wireless Keyboard, MacBook Pro

So how has it been to use it for a few days? It took some getting used to. My fingers had to relearn the spacing/layout of the new keyboard, but that happens with any keyboard. And now that I’ve gotten used to it, I’m in love. The feel is wonderful. Even though the keys are shallow, and the whole thing is very thin, the tactile response of each keypress is lovely. The old keyboard feels mushy and stiff (at the same time) and bouncy by comparison.

Do I miss the full size number pad? Not really. Once, today, I was typing a phone number or a zip code or something, and my hand went to reach for it, then realized it wasn’t there. Not a big deal. The arrow keys are in roughly the same place (and exactly the same place as on the MBP itself), and the trick of using Fn+Left, Right, Up, and Down for Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn is the same thing you have to do on the integrated keyboard, so that, too, isn’t really a big deal. I do kind of miss the dedicated forward Delete key, but again, Fn+Backspace does the trick, just like on the MBP.

Overall, I love this little keyboard. I pick it up and wave it around at people, just to marvel at how thin it is. And it just looks so darn cute sitting on my desk, being all tiny next to the huge stuff that surrounds it (the old Apple Wireless Keyboard, my 24″ monitor, my MBP, etc.).

This would be the absolute perfect home theater PC/living room computer keyboard if it had some sort of integrated pointing device or trackpad. So thin, light, and beautiful! :-) Now, if they would only update the design of the Mighty Mouse to match it’s thin, aluminum companion…

Posted in: apple , blog , bluetooth , hardware , keyboard , wireless
January 30

OLPC Part 11: How I dealt with pop-up alert boxes, sshd, and the best thing so far: nxclient (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

At work, and some other sites, to connect to the wireless, you get a popup that asks for a login or password. The XO browser sucks at this. Plain and simple, it doesn't block popups: it simply doesn't render them. So when you have to log in to a wireless connection or a password site that uses a simple Javascript authentication popup, you never see it. Our Juniper Netscreen 5GT at work is like this, and thus I could not get wireless access.

But I remembered that the old text browser, lynx, does popups in a very unusual way. So when I was connected at home, I did a "yum install lynx" as root, and only had to download one extra dependency. Then I tried my Linksys WAP, but sadly, that popup is password-only (even though it asks for a login and password, you just leave the login blank). Lynx didn't know how to handle "blank field," so it kept asking me, "Do you want to not use a login/password." I didn't know how to tell it, "No login, just password."

But work asks for both, and I am happy to report I got connected today.

In other news, thanks to a reader tip who answered a question I forgot about (is sshd enabled and let you log in?), it seems that not only is sshd enabled, but there is no password for root (which I knew locally via "su -"). This would make it seem as if a root login is available to anyone who connects to my system! Yikes! I could imagine at an OLPC conference where one rogue hacker... does rude things.

However, I noticed that ssh to my own IP (192.168.x.x) and to localhost (127.0.0.1), logging in as "root" a blank password gets denied. I had not tried logging in for a different system to my OLPC yet, but I figured this was the next best thing. I checked the sshd_config file, and it seems to be default "PermitRootLogin=yes," and I saw no PAM restrictions to prevent root login, the /etc/passwd file has a shell enabled, so I was at a loss as to what is blocking me, until a little research showed that "PermitEmptyPasswords" was a feature in the conf file, and the default is "no."

I am still not sure this is safe. Apparently, the build that shipped with the OLPC is okay with changing the root and olpc account password... for now... but I want to know, WHY is sshd enabled?

The chorus of angels part of this post has to be installing the NX client. It was also easy with yum.

  1. Go to the NoMachine site
  2. Download the nxclient***.i386.rpm (via wget, the XO browser did something with the file... never figured out what, I did a find / -name "*.rpm" and everything and couldn't find the damn download)
  3. Become root
  4. Edit your /etc/yum.conf and change "gpgcheck=0" (or you'll get an error about an unsigned key)
  5. Do yum localinstall nxclient[blahblah].i386.rpm
  6. Agree to the dependencies (I only had one)
  7. After the install, get out of root with an "exit" (safer this way)
  8. To run the NoMachine client, /usr/NX/bin/nxclient and it will launch the config setup.
  9. You're on your own, now. If you haven't used nxclient before, well... read their documentation! :) Obviously, it would have to connected to an NX Server on a Linux box.

Because of this, I don't need to worry about installing much else on the OLPC; it's on my Linux box at home. Browsers, bookmarks, my image files, even IM are all via an ssh X connection this way. This is MEGA-cool!

NXclient working on the OLPC
Posted in: computer , nomachine , nx , olpc , review , ssh , wireless
January 23

How the MacBook Airs wireless boot feature works - MacFixIt [ma.gnolia] (Put together quickly (Haligan)) by MichaelBiven

How the MacBook Airs wireless boot feature works - MacFixIt

MacBook Air will support wireless network booting (netboot).

Saved By: Michael Biven | View Details | Give Thanks

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Posted in: macbook air , netboot , remote disc , wireless
September 6

Thoughts on The Beat Goes On (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

Despite being a day late, I still want to comment on the iPod announcements made yesterday.

iPod shuffle
New colors and no storage bump on the shuffles gets a huge yawn from me.

iPod nano
The actual nano looks much better than those leaked shots that were floating around a few weeks ago. There was no storage upgrade for these guys either, only price drops to $149 and $199 for the 4 and 8 GB version, respectively. Video finally comes to the nano, but with such a tiny screen I wonder how useful it will actually be. Still, having the nano hooked up to a TV via video out makes for a very portable DVD player replacement.

iPod classic
80 GB storage for $249 (and 160 GB for $349) makes the 6th Generation iPod (or 1st Generation iPod classic?) quite the monster. The standard iPod form factor has become, as the name suggests, a classic and I'm glad Apple stuck with it instead of forcing everyone to the touch screen.

iPod UI
The new iPod UI is an incremental upgrade, with the most notable feature being Cover Flow (which I don't find much use for personally). The new UI also marks the first time that the nano and classic have reached software feature parity (video on the nano also means complete feature parity), so it'll be interesting to see if Apple considers the nano/classic "complete". Prior to yesterday's announcement, it had been two years since both devices saw a significant upgrade, and I wonder if it'll be just as long before we see the next big change for these two lines.

iPod touch
I couldn't make up my mind over whether I thought Apple would actually release a phoneless iPhone this soon. On the one hand, pricing would have been tricky - either it would be priced too low to cannibalize iPhone sales or priced too high to make it a terrible value. On the other hand, there was only so much further Apple could take the iPod classic before it had to enlarge the screen (thereby necessitating removal of the click wheel). I personally dislike the design of the device. The chrome border is gone in lieu of either a matte metal or plastic (hard to tell from the shots) and the iPhone's scratch-resistant matte back is gone for the iPod's iconic scratch-prone shiny metal back. Further, the upper bezel looks disproportionate without the earpiece and the WiFi antenna's plastic covering makes the back of the device asymmetric. Other minor things I noticed (and am apathetic about) are that the sleep/wake button has switched sides and that the headphone jack is on the bottom of the device.

iTunes WiFi Store
Apple is ever slowly creeping into tablet/UMPC space and the touch was the second step in that direction. Instead of working down from the desktop, as Microsoft has done (with limited success), Apple has worked up from the iPod. It's apparent from the name: this isn't a MacBook nano, it's an iPod touch. Unveiling the iTunes WiFi Store and partnering with Starbucks is a small step into building Apple's mobile eco-system, something other device makers have either not attempted or have been unsuccessful at. This will be the touch/iPhone killer feature, and perhaps the future of mobile advertising - truly contextual advertising and services that supplement a brick and mortar's main operations. It's not the device that will reach out to the world, but the world that will reach in to your device.

That said, I don't see myself using the WiFi Store that much since I don't use the iTunes Store much to begin with. However, if the WiFi store allows for over-the-air podcast downloading, then I'll be all over it.

Ringtones
I'm tech-savvy enough to not need iTunes to walk me through making ringtones, but I would argue against those complaining about the price. The extra $.99 is something I see as AT&T having a hand in. Still, $2 for both the song and ringtone is a good deal compared to the $2-$3 one might pay for a ringtone-only otherwise.

iPhone at $399
Though Apple announced during their last earnings call that margins would be lower this season, no one saw this coming. The market is interpreting it as a sign that iPhones aren't selling as well as Apple would like. The original 5 GB iPod dropped 25% five months after introduction (from $399 to $299), so large cuts aren't completely out of the ordinary for Apple. I see the price drop as something Apple planned all along as a way to aggressively go after market share after milking early adopters for an extra $200 and as a way control demand during launch.

Am I upset that I paid $599? Absolutely not. I was perfectly paying that amount and the price drop doesn't change that. I don't see Apple owing me anything much more than I see BMW paying me for the depreciation of my car when the 2008 models come out (in fact, I'm paying them for the depreciation). Price drops and technology progressing are facts of life. The only thing that I might be upset about is that the cost of entry to the iPhone Club has gone down and iPhone owners who felt a sense of superiority and exclusivity as a result of ownership just dropped a few rungs on the social ladder now that the iPhone is accessible to "regular" people. I am not in that group. I see adoption of the iPhone (or Mobile OS X platform in general) a good thing for users, both in terms of a greater demand for new software features or an increased pressure on other device makers to make better devices.

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Posted in: apple , iphone , ipod , itunes , mobile , music , news , thoughts , wireless
June 17

iPhone Camps (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

There are a bunch of camps that everyone considering an iPhone fall into:

  • Those that will buy it because it's Apple
  • Those that will buy it because it's cool
  • Those that will buy it because they want to try multi-touch
  • Those that will buy it because they want a converged device
  • Those that will buy it because they're fed up with Palm OS/Windows Mobile/Blackberry OS
  • Those that will buy it because they need every new gadget
  • Those that won't buy it because it's Apple
  • Those that won't buy it because it's an Apple Rev. 1 product
  • Those that won't buy it because it doesn't do 3G
  • Those that won't buy it because it doesn't have an SDK
  • Those that won't buy it because it requires a 2-year contract
  • Those that won't buy it because it doesn't have a removable battery
  • Those that won't buy it because they need more than 8GB
  • Those that won't buy it because it's $500-$600
  • Those that won't buy it because it's out of stock

I'm not quite sure what camp I belong to, but I'm a candidate for the no 3G and no SDK camps. I'm looking to replace my aging Treo 650 with something that doesn't randomly shut off, and the current contenders are the Blackberry Curve and the iPhone.

3G may not be that big a deal-breaker since the BB Curve doesn't have it either, but the slow connection speed on my Treo 650 make it almost unbearable to use. I'll have to decide whether this is enough of a big deal for me to consider the Samsung Blackjack, which does have 3G.

HTML + AJAX do not an SDK make. Though I don't doubt that there will be a real SDK in the future, the lack of one right now makes me wary of jumping into a closed platform. That's one of the main draws for smartphones and the iPhone falls flat in this regard.

That said, am I missing any camps? Which camp do you fall into?

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Posted in: apple , iphone , mobile , wireless
February 1