with all of this Windows 7 beta buzz in the air i thought i’d throw up one of our Dell XT tablets w/thelatest windows 7 beta build 7000 running.

enjoy!

[youtube hioUYiWlHNQ]

imo, the origami experience 2.0 is a great step towards a more user friendly netbook experience (given it has a touchscreen), the browser alone is much improved over anything to date that runs on windows for such a device (makes it feel like the iphone’s safari)

enjoy!

[youtube Mp21JySw6dA]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp21JySw6dA

i started this new year off by scoring a few decent deals on a few upgrades to my desktop rig.  last year i didn’t really upgrade too much since i moved gaming platforms back to consoles (PS3 and late wii) and in a way burned myself out of upgrades/system building the year prior (went through about 8 cases, 6 mobos, 4 vid cards in one year).  however the super low costs of memory and 3ghz dual core processors really got my upgrade-sense a twitching.  in addition, i have fully transitioned all my machines from XP to Vista and actually am enjoying it over XP (vista’s not that bad people, get over it!)

my main needs for a desktop are:

-video encoding/transcoding/authoring

-photo editing/resizing/photoshop etc

-file-serving/hosting (main fileserver for rest of local network to get data from)

-basic gaming pc (do latest games but on lowest settings, nothing crazy good)

-playback hd content via hdmi

-do normal pc stuff (email, internet, etc)

osx and ubuntu support are not required (i’ve abandoned both for my desktop os, more novelty than productivity for my desktop; laptops different story).

i debated between Intel and AMD and actually went with AMD this time (prefer intels for my portables though).  i was able to score a AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (3.1ghz per core, dual core) w/psu for around $55 on neweg and then got a new asus mobo for about $90(8gb max mem support and hdmi output w/asus hybrid sli) and finally 8gb of kingston memory for around $90

i should get my upgrades by end of next week (saved on shipping since i’m in no hurry); i’ll post and update on how she runs!

seriously though, who doesn’t want to try to run a system w/8GB of RAM!!!!! and yes, this will require Vista x64.  also, 3ghz per core is pretty impressive too!

i went the factory option since 1) it was covered under warranty 2) very seemless integration and a good system 3) gave me a SD card reader via a pc card slot

at the time the  benefits outweighed the negatives (cost was only negative at time).  they have for some time, however this year i decided to update my maps for my navigation system and thus this post.  more ranting after the jump.

actually, i purchased my 06 Civic Si with the factory GPS navigation system back two years ago.  the main reason i chose the factory navigation vs a diy/aftermarket kit was that the honda system was very good; i’d seen the previous version in my pals 05 Acura TL.

factory navigation systems are usually pretty good systems; they, for the most part, are much more stable in terms of not crashing or being buggy (the automakers have a higher bar vs the manufacturers of navigation units selling to consumers not in cars).

there are two huge negatives against factory navigation systems or at least most.

1) COST! they are friggin expensive.  my honda civic’s navi package was an good $2100 extra.  but the build quality is very excellent (its an alpine navi system when it all comes down to it) but you do get the system backed by warranty and installed (can be costly if you buy  an aftermarket and don’t know how to wire/install)

2) map updates (ie MORE COST). yes, this is what kills me. with Honda navigation systems you have to buy, YES BUY an updated DVD w/new maps.

oh wait.. this dvd doesn’t just cost $10 or $20 or heck even $50; it usually runs in the $200 to $250 range.  and each year, if you wanted the most updated maps, you’d have to get a new dvd.

THAT IS JUST WRONG!!!
i’m sorry but the fact that i paid already 2K for a navigation system should be enough to justify free map updates.  plus, its not like they are adding any new functionality to the GUI or interface.

hey, add a new mp3 playing skin, or even a FREAKING WORKING RANDOM mode (yes, my random/shuffle is the same each time i enable it; not very random to me.  why is it that random isn’t random? it should regenerate a completely random list!!)?

well, that is my soapbox rant of this month.

boo to costly map/dvd updates to factory navigation systems that already are overpriced.

the hoda touchscreen kit was made by fidohub.com and being sold on ebay or directly through their website; also there is an ongoing forum thread over at msiwind.net on this particular kit which me and quite a few other users have posted notes on the installation.

this isn’t true step-by-step guide/video but more of a general overview of what you will need to do and a few quirks i ran into while installing.

keep reading for the full post with videos and a demo in osx and vista.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the kit includes all items (adhesive tape and padding included), a quick mini manual/product guide and also a cd w/the drivers for windows, linux and osx tiger/leopard.

If you have ever upgraded your msi wind’s memory or harddrive; this mod isn’t too bad. the scariest part is taking apart the lcd bezel and putting it back together.

Here’s the video showing a few of my steps; again not a step-by-step but more of an overview:

[youtube Sor_btsSV-s]

Here’s a link to the pdf guide that Hoda provides.

TIPS:

-this is not a beginners mod; i would consider this to be a mid-level to advanced skill requirement.

-if you can, i’d photograph or record exactly the way the cables are located in the lcd bezel; it will make it easier to put back together

-when applying the padding and adhesive to the touchscreen; be sure to keep both at the very edge on the grey area; otherwise it will affect your touchscreen’s performance and cause erractic behavior.  also when you are mounting the touchscreen to the lcd; take your time so you can line it up the first time since the adhesive is pretty sticky and makes it hard to remove and readjust.

-some users have had to remove the padding behind the LCD itself; i did not have to do this but others have.

-be very careful when putting the bezel back together in that you don’t shatter your touchscreen by pressing too hard or screwing the screws too tight.   also, the first time you boot into windows or osx; you will need to enable the touchscreen by enabling the camera (FN+F6).  once you do this, install the drivers and then reboot.  after the reboot; do a 4 point calibration and enjoy! the calibration will be remembered by the touchkit (ie once i calibrated in windows, osx was already calibrated)

-a few users have reported that they had to resolder the connectors on the usb hub/controller; something to be aware of.

-take your time! its not a race to the finish!  if you have problems hit up the forums over at msiwind.net or drop a note in the comments!

happy msi wind hacking!

i ordered the kit from ebay after seeing it being posted on the front page over at msiwind.net ( a direct link to Hoda’s page is here )

the biggest selling point of this touchscreen kit is the fact that it is solderless and also adds additional internal usb connections for other possible mods (ie integration of a gps dongle or perhaps even an internal 3G card?).

so, how hard was it to install? was it worth it? lets find out! keep reading for the setup notes and a video.

Intro/Prep:

first things first, adding a touchscreen to any kind of computer or device (in this geeks book) is your right of passage as a true modder/geek. so i guess i passed!

lately, i’ve been loving my MSI Wind quite a bit (perhaps a bit too much) and really was looking for the next mod.  touchscreen kits have always interested me (from my carpc and that lilliput screen to my venture into tablet pcs) but adding one on my own sounded like even more fun!

the first thing you’ll want to do is unpack your kit and then add the addhesive padding  and 3m tape to the touchscreen.

i left the protect layer on to prevent smudging and scratching the panel and pulled back the edges to put the appropriate tape on and paddding.  BE VERY CAREFUL to not let either go over the grey area in to the center when applying the padding part. one little overlap can affect your digitizer’s performance.

then of course remove the usual screws from your wind and pop off that bottom.

Install Notes:

following the guide provided by the manufacturer was pretty easy.  its very straight forward and is more a matter of ‘nerves’ than it is skill (which always seems to be the case when taking apart a $400 device).

be gentle when trying to get off the hinge caps from the lcd panel; i broke one of mine but plan to fix w/some glue.

be sure to make a note of how the cables are routed prior to taking apart, cable routing took the most time for me and also trying to find the sweet spot for the usb module.

lastly, install the drivers before you try to use! my digitizer was crazy acting and i thought i even installed it wrong, but i installed the driver/utility and its working like a charm!

here’s a video of it in vista (along w/the origami experience too) OSX vids will be posted later this week.

enjoy!

[youtube VphX6awBXqQ]

also, thought i’d drop a few notes about some upcoming projects i have in the works (most of them involving my new fav netbook, msi wind).

my HP DV6700T follow-up review:

-original purchase date: 8/2/2008
-setup/configuration: DV6700T model w/T9300 CPU, Bluray drive, HDMI/Nvidia Graphics, Vista Ultimate.

back in early August, i finally broke down and purchased my HP DV6700T.  my main goal in purchasing this laptop was to eventually replace my desktop with a powerful entertainment laptop.  i built my laptop via HP’s site and basically maxed it out w/the top CPU (penryn T9300), all the bells and whistles (webcam, biometric, array mic, bluray drive, hdtv tuner expresscard, both 6 and 12cell batteries, docking station).  I’ll make my followup short and sweet by doing the typical likes, dislikes, overall.

likes:

-still love the design of the HP DV6700T
-bluray drive + hdmi port = portable High-Def anywhere;
-Vista’s media center; i use it to show my photos, music, watch my mp4 movies, and also record HDTV OTA w/the HP HDTV Tuner kit; very nice interface for using on an HDTV
-raw power of the T9300 cpu

dislikes:

-not being able to map the Quickplay keys to other applications (can in xp but not in vista)
-cost if purchased without any coupons (my build would have cost around $1600 before some killer coupons, which HP offers most of the time)

overall:

HP’s entertainment line lives up to being what it claims; a portable high-def system.  if you have an HDTV and want to use a PC w/it; the dv6700t works great on an HDTV and media center is a very solid GUI to make using on a tv worthwhile (again, i did have the mce remote and hdtv tuner). if i had to do it again i still would buy it!

———————-

my current/future projects:

this next month or so i plan on doning a few more hacks/mods to my MSI Wind netbook.  just recently over at msiwind.net, a solderless touchscreen kit has surfaced.  prior to this kit, soldering was required for getting power and data to the motherboard and in turn was a big no go for me since my soldering skills are in need of some practice.  so hopefully i will have a few posts in the next few weeks on installing this.

while i’m on the topic of my msi wind, the above touchkit also adds an internal usb hub to ‘allow future items to be added’.  so i may try to find  a usb gps receiver and integrate into it also. we’ll see how ambitous i am.

three weeks back i upgraded my PS3’s harddrive, again. this time i went up to a 500GB Western Digital drive.  i hope to do one more upgrade when 1TB laptop drives are introduced.

finally, i thought i’d also make a note about my Olevia 237V HDTV. i’ve now owned my Olevia HDTV for 2 years.  I purchased it from Newegg.  a ton of users have noted on my blog/review page for my tv that they have had tons of problems with the tv itself and with customer support over at Olevia.  i personally (knocks on wood) have not had any problems yet with my tv.   however, i realized that the reason why i may not have had problems yet is the fact that i do not use the TV’s builtin ATSC tuner; rather i use my HDTV mainly as a monitor.  Prior to my HP laptop; i had a cable dvr box that i used for hdtv.

Picture quality and lighting on my 237V has remained consistent and even; quality still looks as good as my parents brand new Samsung 720P HDTV they bought 2 months ago.  I do use my HDTV on avg about 3-5 hours a day.

My PS3 and bluray movies and games look great, minimal/if any ghosting and pixelation.  So in short, it works just as good as it did from day one.

so with that note, i’ll end this semi-long post.  expect to see further msi wind hacks/mods once my kit arrives!

have a happy, safe, and geeky holidays!

We have several more applications in development. You can see our iphone applications at qdideas.com.

Official and slang abbreviations are included. New abbreviations will be added with future updates.

Feel free to supply feature requests and comments. Nice customer reviews on iTunes are always appreciated.

The Medical Abbreviations application for the iPhone is available for $0.99 from the iTunes store.

We will update here with addtional details as we get through the submission process.

if you have a msi wind and are running OSX Leopard on it, you probably have found out that yes the speakers work but the mic and headphone jacks do not.

as of right now, there is no software workaround known and most likely never will be (joel in the comments pointed me to this thread at msiwind.net on getting headphone working natively! no mic though ). 

so, what do you do if you still want to be able to use headphones and a mic?  do what i did, get an OSX compatible usb audio device; keep reading for a quick demo of the Plantronics Audio 480 System (newegg link approx $50)!

the plantronics audio 480 system is basically just a headphone set w/mic and a usb audio dongle w/a mic in and headphone out.  the most important thing about this system is that its 100% OSX ready out of the box w/o any drivers, that alone sold me!

below is a video of me using it w/screenflow on my MSI Wind.  i was able to score my set for $22 but normally its around $50.  it also comes w/a case to hold the headphones/mic and the usb dongle and extra earbud inserts.

[youtube SmI1c5J6XOY]

if your really ambitious you could most likely replace the current audio system in the wind w/this or perhaps mod it in (main thing would be able to find usb power and header; i plan to use the wind touchscreen info as a basis for my hack).  if i get that ambitous i’ll be sure to post my results.

quality of audio and mic seems decent but i’ll have to use more to give real feedback. enjoy!

After finally deciding to upgrade my PS3’s harddrive (again) to a 500GB drive, i decided to start tagging my mp4 movies.  i’ve been using the Zune software and iTunes as my main music/video players lately.  so by instinct i updated all of the metadata for my mp4 videos in the zune software.

later that day, i came back and imported a tagged file into iTunes and did not get any of the metadata transferred over.  i then started looking into other apps to do this; however after doing some digging in the zune software found the problem or quirk.

when you update metadata in the Zune software player, the player itself will have to recreate the mp4 file w/the tag info for it to properly tag. so if you tag about 70 some movies like me; you have to wait quite sometime for all 70 files to get the metat data updated.  i found this by going to my movie folders and seeing a mp4DC.tmp file that kept growing and then resetting and would eventually be identical in size to my mp4 files.

i believe that the zune player is updating the container which in turn houses the metadata info so it has to offload the video while it does this (?? i’m guessing here).  So just be sure to leave Zune open after updating metadata! 

this also will expain why your pc may seem like its working really hard after you imported your full mp4 library into the zune software. (noticed it on my wind and was worried my harddrive was about to die).

Explore our neighborhood with a touch.
Experience Microsoft Surface in our lobby.

Our lobby actually had two surface systems being used as coffee tables.  The first one we found was actually turned off.  Even after finding and flipping the hidden power switch, nothing happened.  As we were walking out, I noticed the surface “water attract” screensaver running on another device.

Control–

Manipulation of the objects on the screen were very intuitive.  My 2 year old was clicking and moving objects easily.  My 6 year old figured out how to resize very quickly.  Controlling the surface was very similar to iPhone controls.   

Applications–

Our device had only three applications:  pictures, music, and maps.

The pictures application mainly showed off pictures of the hotel properties.  The pictures were easily resized and manipulated with your fingers.  In fact, my kids were all resizing and moving pictures at the same time.  Johnrchang has a good flickr pic of this surface application:

The music application was a little more clunky. All the album covers could dragged out a list.  Clicking them flipped the album to show which songs were available inside.   Dragging these songs to a playlist started playing the songs.

The maps program was probably the most impressive.  It was started up in a full screen Microsoft Virtual Earth view of our current location.  By dragging and resizing, MightyQ started a nice impromptu tour of the city.  When the city roads did not demonstrate things very well, a flip into satellite view helped greatly.  One could zoom out as far as looking at the earth as a globe.  I think Q was disappointed that he could not tour the kids around the solar system as well.  Here is a tech-recipes flickr pic of my son manipulating the map:

Impressions–

To me this was one of the the most impressive things Microsoft has designed in a while.  Several visual bugs destroyed the illusion sometimes, but for the most part, the graphics and controls were great.  In the end, however, it really felt like playing with a giant version of the iPhone.  Whether built by Microsoft, Apple, or many other companies, I have no doubt that one day we will see surface-like devices everywhere. 

microsoft surface

1. Local Law Enforcement - for those events that aren’t 911 worthy but still important (like fender benders).

2. Poison Control Center - 1-800-222-1222 You should have this number wherever you are, poisonings don’t just happen at home.

3. Your Bank(s) - for questions on your account and stopping payment on checks.

4. Customer Service for your Credit Cards - in case your credit cards are stolen.

5. Family Doctor/Pediatrician/Dentist - for those medical emergencies that require your physician’s assistance. Having Your dentist’s emergency number is a must, having a dental disaster on the weekend sucks!

6. Automobile Insurance Agent - for car related disasters.

7. Home Insurance Agent - for home related disasters.

8. Health Insurance Customer Service - for prequalification calls and insurance questions. Helpful when you’re at the hospital and run into problems.

9. Your Children’s School - some how, some way, you’ll call them sooner or later.

10. Your Pharmacist - useful for any questions you have about your medications and for phoning in refills.

Applications I’ve added to my BlackBerry:

1. The Gmail for Mobile application is a great addition to your BlackBerry, giving you full access to your Gmail account.  That includes your contacts, archived email, labels, and chat history.  The application will frequently check for updates to your inbox and notify you of any new messages.

   

2. Google Talk provides you with a great chat client to keep in touch with your friends and family.

   

3. Viigo is a RSS feed reader with some great features for not only giving you access to your feeds, but also weather and stock information.

    

4. MarketFilters Analysis is a must for any BlackBerry user who is invested in the stock market, especially with the market being so volatile. You can access quotes and charts of all of your stocks. 

   

   

    

5. While Viigo can give you weather reports, WeatherBug Direct provides you with a viewable temperature for your area and the icon turns red if there are any weather alerts in your area.  Clicking the icon takes you to more weather info for your area.

   

   

6. Opera Mini provides a much more user friendly web browser than the one that comes with your BlackBerry, with the option to view sites in mobile or standard form.

   

7. TwitterBerry is a Twitter client for your BlackBerry.

   

8. The Google Maps Application is a great app to have on the go, coming in handy if you get lost or need directions to your destination.  They have also recently added Street View to the mobile application.

   

9. Flickr Photo Uploader is great if you take pics with your BlackBerry, giving you the ability to upload the photo to your Flickr account as well as title it and assign it to a photo album.

   

10. Google Sync provides a quick and easy way to sync your BlackBerry calendar with your Google Calendar.

    

previously i had setup my MSI Wind to triple boot XP, Vista and OSX Leopard however i’ve been receiving quite a few remarks and comments on my triple booting video about ‘why no linux?’ on the Wind. 

So, today’s post will be for the Linux/Ubuntu fans out there that want to see how the Wind performs w/Ubuntu 8 on it.  in this post, i hope to highlight some tips and a general plan of attack on doing a triple boot setup of OSX, XP, and Ubuntu on the Wind (concepts are applicable to other netbooks/laptops/computers).

keep reading for the video and details!

first, lets start out with the video of my MSI Wind booting all three operating systems (due to youtube’s 10min clip limit, i had to break the video into two clips) also, the total time of both clips is about 19mins so you’ve been warned!

Part1 (XP install and start of OSX setup)

[youtube Wmn09tY-n_8] 

Part2 (OSX install and ubuntu install)

[youtube gnNTj2xdhMw]

the guide below is not meant to be a step-by-step howto on installing but rather more of an overview with some tips/info that i’ve found useful in dual/triple booting off a single harddrive.

Overview of system setup and requirements:

• MSI Wind laptop (duh! hehe)
• External DVD/CD-ROM 
• XP Prof install cd
• OSX Kalaway install dvd
• Ubuntu install cd
• optional:  upgraded harddrive and added memory
• optional: osx compatible wifi adapter (factory msi wind adapter will not work)
• medium to intermediate level of OS installation/disk management/command line usuage
• half a day to do the install, work out the kinks
• all data backed up to external hdd, dvds, etc (never a bad idea to backup)

Hard disk partition overview:

One of the most important things to consider or think about whenever you dual or triple boot multiple operating systems on a single harddrive or system is the size and setup of the partitons. 

the setup i used for my MSI Wind;

partition1 = XP and NTFS (legacy ntldr bootloader)
partition2 = OSX and HFS+ (darwin bootloader)
partition3 = Ubuntu and ext3 (using swap file vs swap partition; avoids logical drive; grub bootloader)

For the sake of our sanity, i will explain the order of setup on a brand new harddrive or one that has had all of its partitions and non-logical drives removed (unpartitioned). 

1. we will create our first partition1 for XP when we do the installation of XP.
2. the partition2 we will created in XP as a partition but will format it during the OSX install
3. the final partition3 will be created when we install Ubuntu (we will do this manually).

Operating system installations:

OS Install 1: Windows XP

Boot to your Windows XP installation CD

Let it load up the installation wizard. 

If you had windows xp installed already and want to redo your whole installation (ie wipe everything out), XP will tell you that a previous version is already installed.  Follow the prompts to remove the previous XP installation.

Once the previous installation has been removed; you will be brought to the screen that asks you where you want to install XP.  For the sake of simplicity/ease, we will delete ALL partitions that are listed (again, remember to BACKUP DATA prior to doing this!!!).

Next, we will create a new partition for XP by hitting the letter ‘c’.  Also be sure to change the total disk size of the partition from the default size to what we want.  (i have a 250gb hdd, i made my xp partition 110gb).   Select the partition we just made and hit Enter on it.

XP will now ask you to format the harddrive; i usually just do a quick format in NTFS.

Then just go through the XP installation like you normally would.  Once you have XP loaded up, you will want to get your drivers all reinstalled.  

However, prior to installing OSX Leopard; we will create the partition for OSX in XP using Disk Management.

• Right-click on My Computer > Manage
• Go to the Disk Management section
• You should see your main harddrive showing and on it you should see the XP partition and an unpartioned area.  Right click in the unpartitioned area and choose to “Create Partition”. 
• This will be the partition we will install OSX.  So we will not need to format it or assign a drive letter (choose none for now) since we will do this w/our OSX installation dvd and Disk Utility.

OS Install 2: OSX Leopard

Boot to the OSX Leopard installation DVD (you will need a patched version of course, i used kalaways)

You will get a command prompt asking to Hit F8 for options or any key to boot; i usually hit F8 to get the command line.  At that command line, type -v to turn on verbose logging (shows you whats going on in the background) and then hit Enter.

OSX will start going through loading the installation disc and hopefully will bring up the OSX Leopard installation wizard. 

Once you see the OSX Leopard welcome screen; you will see the Apple icon and choose the Utilities menu.  Under here, choose Disk Utility.

This will open up the Disk Utility; on the left hand pane you should see your harddrive listed and also you should now see 2 partitions.  the XP NTFS partition and the one we created after installing XP (prob labeled as dsk0s1).

Click on the dsk0s1 (non XP partition) and then click on the Erase tab.  Now, lets format this partition to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the Volume format, give the partition a name like OSX and then click on Erase.  This will take only a few mins to complete. Once its done, quit out of the Disk Utility (it will bring us back to the Welcome installer screen)

Now click Continue and accept the license agreement.  Then when it asks for the Destination drive to install on, choose the OSX partition we just formated/erased and click Continue.

On this next screen, there is a Customize button at the bottom, be sure to click this!!! We will want to customize the install for our MSI Wind’s hardware and processor.

I choose these options for my wind:

• Kernel = only choose the Vanilla Kernel
• Video Drivers = only choose the Intel > GMA950 (if we have issues later, we can reinstall the kext files; i’ll post a link at the end of this blog).
• Network Drivers = choose the RTL1000 only (we may need to come back after installing to add our wifi drivers, we can do this using an program called Pacifist).
• Audio = i leave the defaults checked
• Mobo Chipsets = uncheck all of these.
• Applications = i add of them in since they are very useful ones

Once we have the above packages checked/unchecked; click Done.

This will return us to the Installation wizard, lets start the install by clicking Install.

The installer will verify the install DVD; you can skip this to save time.  Now OSX should install; this will take about 30-45 minutes.

Once the install is completed; it will reboot your machine and hopefully you will load up to the Darwin bootloader and OSX.  Tweaking the system will not be covered in this post.

OS Install 3: Ubuntu

Boot to the Ubuntu Installation/Live DVD.

Click on Install Ubunut option; it will load up the installation wizard and again may take a few minutes to do so.

Once it loads, we will go through the wizard.  When you get to the partitioning/disk setup; we will do this manually.  We will create a new ext3 primary partition  for Ubuntu.

After we choose our installation options, we will have the final confirmation screen.  BE SURE TO CLICK ON ADVANCED so we can change where the GRUB bootloader is installed; change it from the default MBR to /sda/dev3 (dev3 = 3rd partition).

Then click Install and let Ubuntu do its thing.

Hopefully we after the installation completes we should reboot and in turn have the Darwin bootloader showing us the three different operating systems.

Once you verify you can boot to each operating system; you can come back and finish up the installs by installing the device drivers, applying any tweaks or patches, etc.   I will not be covering these in this post since this post is probably WAY too long already.

Good luck my multi-booting peeps!

well, i admit it.  i love my iphone.  don’t let my sony ericsson comrades know or my fellow blackberry addicts!

i received my first gen iPhone from my tech-rx bossman Q, about two months ago now and haven’t looked back since.  at first, i thought i’d get bored with it or annoyed at not having a physical keyboard.  however its two months later and i’m still using my iPhone as my main phone.

sure, its not a perfect phone (no picture messaging, copy/paste, no video recording, meh-camera quality), but its pretty close given the proper applications.  So, what applications (official App Store and unofficial Cydia) do i have on my iPhone? i thought you’d never ask!  keep reading for my must-have list!

Winterboard
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: Yes
Store: Cydia
Description: This is THE skinning application for the iPhone. This app lets you download other summerboard or winterboard themes/parts of themes.   

Addition’s iPhoneModem ( http://iphonemodem.com )
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: Yes
Store: Cydia
Description: this application combined w/a mac client allows iPhone users to tether their iPhone to a mac/pc and in turn use the iPhones data connection on their mac or windows computer.  You cannot get this on the Apple App Store (ie you must have a jailbroken iphone to run this application, download from Cydia).

Reminder
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: Yes
Store: Cydia
Description: this application is probably one of the most under-rated and unknown Cydia apps since it was just released in the last month and also changed names.  this application gives one re-ocurring notifications for new email/voicemail/txt/missed calls and also adds a MUCH needed taskbar icon!!!!  get it asap!! the developer has added some much wanted options in his last build. a MUST have for any jailbroken iphone.

dTunes
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: Yes
Store: Cydia
Description:  if there was any way that would describe what dTunes is it is this: its the portable napster of 1998 NOW and on the iPhone.  add bittorrent download/search options with the last update and your probably asking yourself, “how do i jailbreak my iphone?”

TuneWiki ( http://tunewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page )
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: Yes
Store: Cydia
Description:  another great music program.  this one lets you playback lyrics as the music from your iphone library streams, also lets you see who in your area is playing what and a ton more community features.  the whole ‘portable’ karaoke feature is sweet goodness by itself!

Twitterrific
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: No
Store: Apple App Store; Free to use, Pay for extra features
Description: do you use twitter? do you have an iphone? you need this app then! lets you post to twitter and also upload photos from your phone or take them and upload to twitter via twitpic.

midomi
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: No
Store: Apple App Store; Free
Description: music and video searching by sampling either: music clip, humming, singing, typing part of the name of song/lyric/artist.  and its free!

Pandora
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: No
Store: Apple App Store; Free
Description: THE streaming music client for the iphone.  works amazingly well over Wifi and 3G, works pretty well over EDGE even. just like its bigger brother PC/Mac version. 

Showtimes
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: No
Store: Apple App Store; Free
Description: movie showtimes and reviews and theater locations. 

NES
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: Yes
Store: Cydia
Description:  NES emulator for the iphone; sure you prob won’t be able to really play any of your NES roms but atleast you can say you can! runs decent, can use motion for dpad controls.

WifiToggle and swapBT
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: Yes
Store: Cydia
Description:  these two apps are also MUST haves for any jailbroken iPhone.  each of these apps adds an icon to your iphone that lets you instantly toggle on/off  wifi or bluetooth.

Stanza
Requires Jailbroken iPhone: No
Store: Apple App Store; Free
Description: one of the best ebook readers out there and of course free! lets you add books via a desktop client (mac or windows).  also reads almost all of the main ebook formats (rtf, lit, pdf, doc, txt)

so, what apps from the App Store or Cydia are in your “Must-Have” list for your iPhone? drop your lists in the comments area!

I will post about our design considerations and our theme designer in a later blog post. For now, here are some before and after screenshots for comparison.

Old Version versus New Version:

Platform Transition

Early on in the process, we decided to transition from our php hybrid hacked-to-death platform to WordPress. The exuberant wordpress community, the ease of writing unique plugins (without hacking wordpress itself), and the large existing plugin library were reasons that we decided to go with WordPress. Most of our other blog projects were WordPress driven, so it has become comfortable territory to us.

My concerns around wordpress deal with speed and security. Q had generated an amazingly efficient static caching system for our old system. I am still unsure that we will be able to get the performance under WordPress as fine tuned. By its nature, our old hybrid platform had some security weaknesses, but Q effectively isolated it from overwhelming attacks. The huge popularity of WordPress makes it a big target for hackers. Hopefully, the large community of developers can stay ahead of them.

Comments

The forums are dead. Most of the popular forums threads have been roughly imported into the appropriate comment threads under the related tech-recipe. As successful as my buddy arn’s macrumors is with a forum based site, forums never really worked well for us. The noise to signal ratio was pretty high, and forum sign-ups are painful. By having comments directly related to a specific tutorial, hopefully we can keep the quality and focus of the discussion at a good level.

Disqus is an amazing comment system plugin. It makes commenting and thread-following much easier for the Tech-Recipes users. Moderation and spam-reduction are great benefits on the administration side as well. Plus, we keep control of the comment database so we can always move to another comment platform if we wish. Our biggest hiccup during the transition was importing our previous forum comments into disqus. As impressive is the disqus software, their customer support surpasses it. They immediately responded to our cries of help. Between the tweaks on both ends, comments were enabled within 24 hours.

New Features for TR2.0

We have always highlighted the current most popular tech-recipes. However, now on every page you will get a context-sensitive most popular list in the right-hand column. For example, while browsing a category, the top tutorials for that category will be listed. Or while browsing through an author’s articles, his/her top tutorials will be listed.

Q has developed a new advertising delivery system for us. I do not want to de-thunder his eventual release of the system. However, I will say this: It beautifully manages multiple ad campaigns through multiple categories. Since we pay our authors by percentage of ad revenue, it must also keep up with the author of the content as well. Q’s plugin does this as smooth as silk.

Q is also perfecting our media offloading system. Since our tutorials are including more and more images and video, it made sense to get our media off our main server.

The Future

Certainly, the rollout to 2.0 is not complete. We still need to wrap up more redirections for some 404s. I will be tweaking the theme for a long time to come. Speed, security, and our plugin systems above will continue to be tweaked and debugged. Still with all of this work on TR 2.0 to finish, it is fun to start brainstorming new features for TR 2.1.

Concurrently, we are also developing a couple of web applications for the medical industry, a medical iPhone application, and a fun flickr integration.

It is a great time to be part of QD Ideas.

I knew that $result was the output from a symfony plugin.  I just did not know what all was contained within this object.

$result is actually the obj/variable in question.

Anyway, here are the two options…

echo nl2br(print_r($result, true));
var_dump($result);

php, objects

With the help of a bookmarklet on your web browser (Firefox, Opera, or Safari) and iTunes, you can easily and quickly put YouTube videos on your iPod without the need for any other software.  With the large amount of videos on YouTube, you will always have something to take with you watch on your iPod. 

First, you will need to create the bookmarklet to download the high quality MP4 version of the desired video. Note: the credit for the great javascript behind the bookmarklet goes to Lawrence Albert at Unlock for This. Create a new bookmark, name it (something like YouTube Download) and then copy and paste the following as the location:

javascript:window.location.href='http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id='+swfArgs['video_id']+"&fmt=18"+"&l="+swfArgs['l']+"&sk="+swfArgs['sk']+'&fmt_map'+swfArgs['fmt_map']+'&t='+swfArgs['t'];

Now, go to YouTube and find a video. Once you have browsed to the video’s page, click on the newly created bookmarklet. A download prompt will appear. Accept the prompt to begin downloading. The video will download with the name video.MP4.  Rename the file to the appropriate name.

Open iTunes and add the downloaded file to your library.  Connect your iPod and sync.  Your video will appear in the Movies section on your iPod.

If you own a Microsoft Zune, follow the above steps to create the bookmarklet, download the video and then use your Zune software to convert and sync the video with your device.

No other software is required. Please note that the bookmarklet will not work properly with Internet Explorer.