General Mobile G777

Yes, it’s no longer science fiction.
You can now finally stop complaining about the nonsense in watching movies at the small screens of mobile phones. The idea is not new, but the device is. And it seems to be the first that can really reach the market: the new cinema phone G777 from General Mobile.

It comes along with video glasses and some other nice features and accessories, e.g. noise reduction during phone calls. They showed it at CeBIT 2008 in Hannover, Germany, but I wasn’t there to see it. I could only read about it, e.g. in this article from Softpedia.

It seems it is already available for purchase. Does anyone have it and can tell me something about? Or better, just send me the money or the phone

I just wonder how this is gonna be when everyone uses video glasses while walking on the street…

Tram Augsburg

The digitization is everywhere.
Recently I was going with the tram which was not really a new one and more looked like 20 years ago. But one should notice that in the old days of course there were no electronic displays showing the next stop or outside the tram to show the final destination. Also many controls at the drivers seat are now done via a small touch screen.

But I also noticed some other thing that made me laugh a little bit: The tram still rings a bell where cars usually honk, but I could hear that this time it wasn’t a real bell like in the old days. Instead they are using a digital sample of the original bell that is just played through a speaker. That’s something I don’t really understand. Why this? Were there problems with the old method using a real bell?

There are many other examples of how the digitilization changes our public transportation environment, especially when it’s about advertising. At nearly every station there are already some video projections or displays showing news and advertising. But there are even more innovative ideas like moving pictures outside a running underground train.

This was also the method to be mostly used on my Nokia N800. It was ok but in some situations you were not able to use the Stylus and want just use your fingers, e.g. when I used the N800 as GPS and I was driving. But also trying to write when sitting in a train didn’t always succeed.

This last issue about occasional having problems using a pen is also the reason why I started to realize that there could be advantages in using an electronic device compared to a pen and some paper.

And so now what do I have to say more: it’s not only the iPod Touch and the iPhone but many many more devices that now just use fingers on a screen as input method.

A very popular group of devices that would not exist without this input method are the GPS/navigation systems.
As I mentioned earlier I once used the Nokia N800 to do this job for me, but then I switched to the iPod Touch and then the iPhone, both versions without GPS. So I had to get a separate GPS system which I really preferred (because some things are better when they’re not all integrated into one device). For this I compared many GPS systems and finally decided to get a TomTom GO 720 (I mostly like the way the maps are drawn and the easy touch screen menus).

As mentioned earlier I once had one of the first Palm PDAs and I wasn’t that happy with that.
Last year I bought a Nokia N800 (now there’s the new and better version 810 with a small sliding keyboard and built-in GPS).

I was very happy with that because it was especially of good use during my vacations: I had a WIFI device with a powerful browser and a better display compared to most mobile phones at that time, and I also bought an external GPS mouse to use my N800 as navigation system. I even did VoIP calls with my headset plugged in with the help of the Gizmo software.

But after my vacation, I didn’t really use the N800 at home or at work. I heard of others using it parallel to watching TV or for any other purpose where you could need a mobile browser. Some even write blog entries at night lying in the bed. This is something I don’t do.
And there was another thing, I didn’t really like about the N800. First I loved the idea that it is running on Linux and you can install so many applications built for the Maemo OS. Later I hated the problems with finding and installing the right apps all the time, and sometimes they crash the whole system, etc.

I found out that I really prefer something out of the box that is working and does just everything I need and nothing more or less. That of course is also the reason why I use so many Apple products these days. And so I also had an iPod Nano (of course the old version), so it’s very comprehensible that I looked forward to get a 2nd generation iPod Touch.

So the iPod Touch replaced the N800. I decided for the iPod Touch instead of an iPhone because I wanted to keep my phone separate. I thought of many disadvantages to have everything in one device (esp. the battery capacity!), but then I really start to hate to always take both with me: the iPod Touch and my old cellular.

So when the new iPhone (3G) was released, I took the initiative and bought an unlocked and jailbroken 2G version (so that I can use it with my existing contract in germany).

Of course because of that, I can’t use any of the new features like Apple’s iPhone App Store, but on the other hand with the old 2G iPhone I have a much longer battery time, and I’m really happy with it like it is.

But both have one thing in common, they’re build on Adobe AIR. I didn’t come across of that until now, so I was very interested in about what this actually really is. But it’s not easy to understand from a first glance. I think the best way to understand what it’s about is this comparison between browser and desktop applications (developed with Adobe AIR). Well, I would say, it’s just another example of convergence using all advantages of desktop applications together with the power of browser based applications. From my opinion this really looks very promising…

Another blog I recently discovered is Geekologie where everything is geeky but not all is about technology. Instead you can find a lot of extraordinary and funny things (and videos!) there.

Last but not least I want to tell you that I finally got a Twitter account because everyone is talking about and I have to test it. But I’m pretty sure that this is not the thing I really will be using…

China's Great Solar Led Wall (iTechNews)

Of course, they also have evolved. LED displays get bigger, brighter, clearer, and have any form possible. Just try a Google picture search on the term and you gonna be astonished. Even 3D displays can be found, e.g. like in this article about a Litefast 360-degree LED display on techdigest.tv.

LED technology is integrated everywhere in our daily life, today nearly every old (bulb) lamp has been replaced by LED, e.g. the torch light, the lights of your car or your bike, many small ambient lights, etc.

Just look around! See that shiny digital world on lights!
You can read about some more new inventions about LED also on this blog: iTech News Net which also reports about China’s Great Solar-powered LED Wall.

Hey, and isn’t christmas coming next? So why not put some lights on your house? Let’s say 42000 LED Christmas Lights. Or like the Wizards in Winter…

Ok, so now there are some things that wanted to be mentioned for a couple of months.

Epamedia in Donauzentrum

Did you notice that it’s even getting more and more? I’m talking about the LCD screens in our public environment. Initially this was the first motivation to start this blog. Because there are many things changing in our everyday life which we just adopt and soon accept to be normal. We even really don’t notice how this world is changing more and more into something some time ago we only knewed from science fiction movies.

Coming back to the issue of the LCD screens: They’re now everywhere. They got cheaper and cheaper and so not only all information screens like you can find at the central station or the airport have changed into LCD screens, but also the advertising industry now use it nearly everywhere. There are screens showing menus at fast food restaurants, small screens at the pharmacy or at the waiting queues at the supermarket, and at many many more places. They really decorate our environment.
Especially on the streets and in the big shopping malls it’s really fascinating.

During my time in vienna I was often at the shopping mall Donauzentrum which also has a lot of LCD screens. It’s a project of the company Epamedia where you can see a lot more examples like these.

Don’t get me wrong. I do have nothing against this development, the opposite is the case, I really enjoy it! And I just ask myself, how long will it take until it’s like in the movie Minority Report which I know is based on real studies.

While I knew VMware from working with it on Linux and Windows before, I also knew that Parallels has been primarily developed for the Mac. Both provide a trial version for free download, so which of them should I give the try?I decided to use both, but started with Parallels. Maybe it’s because of my very old WindowsXP version or because of the many USB devices that were connected during install, but the install was not easy and hung several times. So I started Windows installation in the virtual machine again and again, which just always got some steps further, until I finally managed to get a running Windows! Of course this did not lead to a good first impression of Parallels.

But after that, running applications including Word in the virtual machine worked without any problems. I just didn’t manage to access a USB harddrive from within the virtual machine.

So I decided to also install the trial version of VMware Fusion. Here the Windows installation succeeded in one step. Interesting… The applications run in the same good way as with Parallels (but I had to take care not to have both virtual machines running at the same time! ;-)). And: The problem with the USB harddrive existed also here, so this is nothing special with Parallels, I guess.

Both allow for full screen display and a special mode where only the windows are shown as if they were just applications running directly on the Mac. One difference I noticed very soon: Parallels better integrated into the Mac OS desktop by means of registering file types with the Parallels guest applications, e.g. Word-Documents could be opened by just clicking on them and then Parallels started Windows and Office. But this is just one thing that I didn’t want or needed.

Ok, so but what’s the conclusion? I think they’re both good, but I guess I like VMware a little more. Considering the prices for simple and single user editions they are both the same ($79,90).

About a comparison on Windows or Linux I cannot tell anything yet but I want also test this when I found time (i.e. testing Parallels as for VMware I already know how well it works!).

But no matter if it was for AT&T at McDonalds or T-Mobile at Starbucks, they all want you to pay and it’s not really cheap (although the new plans of AT&T are now slightly cheaper). Because of having hotspots at public places like at the airport or the central station I only chose T-Mobile to connect with. Especially in Europe it’s nearly all just covered by T-Mobile. Well, I guess this is maybe also going to change now if they lose all Starbucks worldwide?

And I think I remember having problems with AT&T and the N800 even to establish a link with the hotspot. (Usually you get a password free connection but then you get a portal site to authenticate for the connection via web.)

Beside of all the commercial hotspots there are some still available for free, but of course there are not so many of them and that’s the point: If you just enter the next Starbucks and you got everything you need that’s fine, but if you have to drive to find the next free hotspot, e.g. at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and then when you get there, they tell you it’s currently not working (that’s what happened to me)…

And there are some other disadvantages when trying to use mobile internet access just by public hotspots: You lose a lot of time not only in finding the location with the right hotspot but sometimes also to get your connection working. And to keep it running! Because what’s really typical is a fading connection quality and just in the middle of writing an email the connection is suddenly gone. Often then you even have to completely log in again and start everything from the beginning…

Especially at a hotel or motel providing internet access via WiFi you have to be  really lucky to be close enough to the access point. Of course this is also one of the reason for bad coverage on big areas like an airport. Here additionally there is a capacity problem if too many people try to use it at the same time.

Compared to internet provided by mobile network operators, it seems that there are only disadvantages using public WiFi hotspots, especially with the more and more available low price plans. But they also have problems with capacity and coverage, especially at the same places where WiFi hotspots are provided and usually work much better.

So what’s the conclusion?
I would wish that I don’t have to care how my internet connection can be established. I just want to pay a flat rate and get internet wherever I am.

Until then I will try to use what’s cheaper and what’s working for me!