Saturday, December 24, 2011
Further with Panasonic CF-F9
This computer is really solid for carry on usage and big screen makes things productive. Only thing which is not configured at this point is 3G connection with on-board Gobi2000 module. Firmware loading is pain under Linux (big thanks to Sierra Wireless!) and I even think to replace sierra wireless with some another module working without external loaded firmware. Maybe sony ericsson have a model for that.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Panasonic CF-F9
While been loyal user of Toughbook family, I have kept distance to latest models lately. But after evaluating possibilities, I came across two models: CF-53 or CF-F9. 53 was a bit bulky for me, so I ordered CF-F9. What I like about here in Finland is Toughbook distributor. They ship immediately and I got F9 in my hands in couple of hours. Learn that Lenovo.
But best was yet to come. I put ubuntu 11.10 alternative in for my F9 and world was open. With zero boot to windows I was already enjoying fully featured development machine with my home directory untarred in place. Learn that Windows.
This computer is part of our high security approach to few governmental projects and no skype is allowed here. XMPP rocks and disk crypto keeps mind rested while traveling. Learn that.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Windows Phone :: not so easy life
User interface is complicated. No matter what, I am quite confused all the time when using phone. For example switching between applications is some how confused. Ordinary tasks like forwarding someones number to SMS is pain and I am always lost where I am with this phone. Maybe it's just me.
I don't need xbox live etc stuff on my screen, make them disappear. I need text editor to type quick notes, straight and plain. No flying tiles and partly shown title text and other candy.
Biggest problem is music, video and photo copying to and from phone. When I plug my phone to Linux, nothing happens. Making things dependent of some proprietary binary is no go road for most of users. I see big troubles in this.
And for last; SDK's. We made program for this phone and compared to other platforms, microsoft is pain. $99 money needed, no file based deployments to phones and totally unacceptable code ecosystem for todays open source users.
Nokia, you're on wrong train now.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
XMPP Support for N9
mc-tool add gabble/jabber [account] string:account=[user_id] string:password=[passwd] string:server=[server] bool:require-encryption=1 bool:ignore-ssl-errors=1
and
mc-tool enable [output_of_previous]
Now I can enjoy our corporate high security and standard compliant instant messaging over XMPP.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Ubuntu 11.10 vs Mac Air
Now I have my Thinkpad EDGE with latest ubuntu again in one project and I already enjoy following things (compared to Mac):
- SSH read/write mounts :: These are essential if you work with remote Linux servers.
- Disk space. My 64 GB SSD is showing almost 50 GB free after I have Ubuntu installed. Compare that to Mac Air 64 GB disk which is always full.
- N9 integration. SSH mount to N9 and off you fly, compared to iTunes struggling.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Ubuntu 10.11
So, windows is vanishing, ubuntu is here and mac is serving.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Nokia N9 :: One week and running
I also changed my case for phone and credit cards. I got some Golla thing, which holds slim N9 nicely and I can use my BT in case someone tries to reach me, event my phone is in my pocket or backpack. Kind of new way to think phone, I believe.
I also acquired NFC enabled BT streaming audio receiver, MD-20W from Nokia. It works like it should. I touch it with my N9 and it grabs my audio output to amplifier. Works event while I am paired with normal handsfree device. Nice!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
First upgrade to N9
RM696-34-1_PR_001:~/dev# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
ope-service0
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,144kB of archives.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
When did it began?
I really would like explore a bit deeper into these relations between Finnish prime minister (ex) and Microsoft. Where did it started, what was agreed and how Nokia fits into picture. This is relevant question right now, when we are holding our N9 phones, with Finnish innovated Linux inside.
Friday, October 14, 2011
N9 First thoughts
What I really like is this:
gpg: key F942A3B6 marked as ultimately trusted
public and secret key created and signed.
What I don't like is that Nokia has dropped Jabber support. No more interacting with our company IM server. Shame Nokia. Not all business runs in facebook chat.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Nokia N9 :: It's here
I also heard rumor that this marvelous device, Nokia N950 is agreed to be kept out of market. No other reason than Microsoft to keep it away. Shame on you Nokia, you gave it up too easy and too early.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Phones and Sim's
I got this sim cutter and it does nice job. Just keep in mind to insert sim in correct way. In smaller picture there is this 'micro sim adapter', which is not so good. Micro sim keeps popping out of it constantly and I gave up on those.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Nokia vs Android :: SDK battle
Developers do not pay for SDK's anymore, they choose which is available and technically supported to achieve their goals. I currently run business where money is always an issue and spending 1-15k€ for any microsoft development tool is totally out of question.
I really would like to see some 'analyst' to state something out from this point of view. I thought that Nokia did great with QT, they paid huge money of it and tried to preserve future for developers. Now any developer who should put his efforts to microsoft coding are facing that unlimited fun with license costs and a away to keep it fluent.
But actually, I hope that all of our competitors does windows coding on nokia. That's the way.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Android, Symbian, iPhone
Symbian Anna on my E7, better but sluggish. Email is quite responsive but gets stuck from time to time. Needs rebooting. Calling and texting is breeze. It's big, but robust. Best hardware at this point, even software is lacking.
I think I will give up on these phones soon. Reach me with IM or Email.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Symbian Anna
It worked well, even I realized just a bit afterwards that there were couple extra packets to install (1/2, 2/2 updates). But it was for me quite breeze. No worries in there, like few others I noticed.
After Anna update my E7 received my sim and there I was, back in Symbian. Keyboard is fantastic to use after trial and error on iPhone. And symbian felt quite smooth after update. After this update, I think Nokia is only lacking integration with outside services like Twitter and Facebook. Even I just resigned from Facebook, I believe current Anna implementation of these services is bit outdated. I don't know.
I wish Nokia would have believed in developers in 5 years ago, given them a hand and tools to implement. Things could be different. Still I miss Jabber integration from my E7, like it was in N900. Skype is not for secure communication.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Nokia's Dive
In 2007 when I took this picture I thought that why Nokia acquired EPOC for smart phone platform and made it ten years too late for try out to public consumption. Ever since I have just wondered why Nokia is not capable to do right decision, they kept back Maemo team's with N800/N810 which was superior product on those days. They were too tied to operators and that obsolete EPOC variant in their main products and were afraid to fly with Maemo.
But still, there is one major factor which is affecting to iOs and Android dominance and volume. It's well kept secret and who know how long it will stay like that.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Why there is no good phones available anymore?
iPhone4
- Missing keyboard
- painfull ecosystem, I want to copy those MP3's and images without itunes.
- Multitasking sucks still (I want real Jabber IM client)
- Symbian sucks
- Camera is bad
- I need wifi accesspoint functionality which does work
- I have also Nokia N8, which I occasional use because of it's camera. It's so good, but still does not help for other issues (keyboard, symbian, accesspoint functionality).
- Keyboard, yes desire Z has that but it sucks. Android is not designed to support keyboard well enough (yes, that tiny entry field for SMS's for example) and Z's keyboard is really pain if you compare to E7's. And Z's design is not so good.
- OS is candy, too candy to be usable. Too much complication and somehow cluttered outfit of everything gives me headache.
- I have done some coding with SDK, which is nice. But conceptually my target is to produce something professional and since I don't know when OS decides to close my tasks things turns again unacceptable. Any clue for me related to this?
- This was best as long as it lasted. Elop killed a dream of Meego and successors of this wonderful device. Only disadvantages were battery life and display, which were a bit outdated.
- SDK functionality could have been lot better, giving users access to all telecommunication api's like android. Why it did not happen, I don't know.
- Basically this N900 was really exciting device, which gave me and still does some very intuitive UI approaches.
- IM integration, native Jabber support for corporate security audited IM infra was 10+ for our business, cross platform usage of IM was breeze with this.
So I am juggling between iPhone, Nokia E7/N8/E72 and various Androids, making every night prayers for something like N900 to appear. I seriously checked out Aava's products and other phone hardware to support native Linux because all of this confusion in field. I believe I end up building my phone by myself.
Nokia could have scored with Meego devices, but they ended up to play with evil. How can they believe that we could pay 10k€ for microsoft msdn development stuff to get started, while others offers us open source approach. Think about it.
And yes, seriously I started to follow mr. Jääksi again. I really hope that he gets some air to breath in HP and is able to push something open enough for all of us. Please continue from what you left behind with N900 team.
So, now I am after a good phone at least with these features;
- Open, Linux able operating system with decently supported and free SDK and with future proof vendor.
- Standard Jabber IM integration (no, gtalk and microsoft communicator are not secure)
- Keyboard (Like E7/N900, not like Desire Z
- Wifi accesspoint functionality
- Easy to connect (USB mass memory storage support, micro SD's etc)
Ubuntu 11.04
But from unity I switched to classic gnome, not because unity was lacking but somehow I am more productive under familiar gnome. I believe that I go again with unity, by steps.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Dumpped Mac Air
I think I stick with Mac still on travels, but seriously computing along a way - I just need Linux. No other operating system is in that level.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
iPad 2
I ordered a month access to Helsingin Sanomat, local big news paper iPad version to find out have my earlier thoughts changed. Not much. Even there is good journalism available, stories in digital format feels like short, I have noted this before with other printed vs digital media stories. It remains to see, how frequent reader I develop myself.
Today I also read a news entry that Apple is going to be big in near future, bypassing IBM and others soon. I certainly can see that happening, while other manufactures are struckling with bad decision or with need to please everyone. Sometimes it just requires strong hand. Nokia is something along that same road, dying together with microsoft. Which is shame, I remember myself being employed by Nokia back in 80's and we got toilet paper on discount with company badge. Those were the days.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Magazines with iPad
Saturday, January 29, 2011
iPhone experiences
Sunday, January 9, 2011
iPad magazines and newspapers in Finland
- Learn from Linux Journal. Their approach is best at the moment. You get what you pay for and it feels like that (even it's pdf file you are holding). Even those colorful advertisements are valuable content for me, to keep up with the world.
- Do not get over excited for DRM stuff. I just cannot see value for publisher to keep issues in proprietary form to protect something not worth it. Fair distribution in PDF format would skyrocket paying readers.
- When you deliver you magazine or newspaper in PDF format, you increase readers capable to participate, every desktop, tablets and phones do have PDF reading software.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Year 2011
What I've been doing lately, I've been utilizing some of my spare time to get in order in our computing environment. It has not been easy and there is still tons of work to do, but somehow I see light in end of tunnel. I've learned to use dropbox, youtube and google calendar. I managed to obtain Mac Air 11" and iPad for moving situations, producing some media and doing some fast mind ordering things. I don't say that Mac is best, I just say that carrying around any normal laptop is killer for me after this Air 11". And living in cross platform world, reminds me sometimes life outside of Linux scene. It's there.
So, let's move on to 2011 with happy minds - lets find out what Nokia Meego is going to be, lets see how Microsoft moves to stay alive etc. Meanwhile I enjoy my latest ubuntu computers, ipad and mac air, lets try to be productive.