Dell Tablet Mini 5 For Augmented Reality

While the Apple iPad Tablet announcement last month was disappointing for augmented reality developers and enthusiasts, the details about the upcoming Dell Tablet will make you salivate.

The Mini 5 will have a five inch touchscreen with both front and user facing cameras allowing full augmented reality capabilities.  WiFi and 3G connectivity allow enough bandwidth and the 1.0 GHz Snapdragon Qualcomm processor will give the Mini 5 the juice it needs to power resource-expensive AR apps.  It’ll run the latest version of the Android OS which gives it AR credentials right away since there are many apps already made for that system.

The price plan will affect the market that it’s trying to fill, though Dell says they will price it “competitively”.  But I don’t think I could have asked for better features from a tablet for augmented reality.  The weight of the device might impact AR since holding it up will be harder than a smartphone and since it’s a touchscreen, will you want to hold it with one hand and navigate with the other?  I hope some AR developers can incorporate voice commands into their games and products.

And while the screen might be too small in this version, they have eluded to a suite of tablet products so maybe a larger iPad sized version might come out in the future.  Personally, I already have a free smartphone from work, so a tablet that does different things on a bigger screen would be appealing to me.

Will this be a killer device for AR?  Probably not.  But it’ll give developers a bigger landscape to play on and increase the number of AR devices on the market.  The front facing camera certainly makes is a no-brainer for video conferencing.  Just add some facial recognition and you can talk to your kids while out on the road with bunny ears attached to your head.

[Via Wired]

[Via http://gamesalfresco.com]

Whistle While you Work

My name is Mythily and I am a self confessed cribber. I love cribbing about work, unreasonable deadlines, annoying clients, having a boring routine, the heat, about Nemo being cranky in the mornings, about Memoll being too loving in the mornings, about my sister being away, about the geyser not working, about not having much to do in Bangalore, about how my parents aren’t around, how my friends stay in different places, that my new green dress is missing and I am sure the dhobhi stole it and so many other things. It feels good to crib and get sulky. There is some joy in making yourself miserable and feeling sorry for yourself. But then this morning I stumbled across the whistler.

I woke up early this morning and broke all norms of normalcy. Nemo and Memoll were shocked into silence that their mom woke up at 6 am. I could see the questions like “Are we dreaming?”, “Is she sick?”, and “Is the world coming to an end?” flit across their faces. So I tried telling them not to fear, it was only because I expected a client call that I was up so early. So I set up my laptop and waited for the call to come.

I walked over the balcony as I waited and looked down from my balcony. The sun light was flickering through the tree leaves and the morning buzz was different from the late morning buzz I normally hear. There was no blaring horns and vendors screaming out about their goods, and kids crying at being dragged to school and the neighbor telling her husband off for all the million mistakes he seems capable of making everyday. It wasn’t quiet, but at the same time it was too. And then I saw him; the whistler.

There is an unfortunate spot at the end of my street where the garbage is dumped and the lorry picks it up everyday. But it isn’t a well organized spot. It usually buzzed with flies and the stench of the garbage always wafted through the air. It looked grimy and smelt ripe of all the disgusting things people seem to be capable of producing to throw away. And on top of this pile of vile sat a little boy, about 8 or 9, whistling away as he picked out all the plastic; our very own desi recycler doing the work we could have made easier for him if we all took the effort to separate our garbage. No complaints about how people make work harder, or that they disregarded him, or that they found him as disgusting as the garbage, or that he had to smell of it everyday, or all the other worries I am sure he has in life. All he did was do his work, and do it with sheer joy and whistle while at it.

And I thought about my life; and everything fit and looked good. The heat I complained about was more warmth than heat, the clients and work was responsible for paying all my bills, Nemo and Memoll were free enough to show me emotions and let me show mine, my sister was getting a great education being away, the geyser not working made me appreciate the coolness of water on a hot day, Bangalore has given me friends and an easy life, I am closer to my friends coz now we make an effort to keep in touch since we are away from each other, that my parents are healthy and happy together, that if the green dress is missing I am lucky enough to afford another one , and that things were suddenly looking up for me and that I had a feeling that the road ahead was going to be a lot of fun. So here I am, whistling while I write. Pucker up people and whistle away too.

[Via http://mythsnair.wordpress.com]

Happy B-day 23.02'10

Birthdays in history.

1965 – Michael Dell, founder and chairman of Dell Computer Corporation

1994 - Dakota Fanning, actress

[Via http://paulparauan.wordpress.com]

Dell Mini 5

Engagdet has an interesting article on their first impressions of the Dell Mini 5 prototype.

Dell’s puzzled the world for quite some time with its outlandish Mini 5 — at first glance it’s just another Android-based MID, but a quick fiddle with it reveals the full-fledged 3G phone inside.

The MID (Mobile Internet Device) is a form factor that has been tried before, but the MID as a modern concept was announced by Intel in 2007. They are mid way between a smartphone and a fully functional laptop or Tablet PC.

They are designed to provide entertainment, information, location based services, communication and sharing. In this day of social networking, twitter, facebook; they are aimed at individual for personal use rather than corporate use.

This of course doesn’t stop learners using them for learning.

So what of the Dell Mini 5? According to Engadget, the Andorid powered device will include:

…a five-inch 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, Snapdragon QSD8250 chipset (with CPU clocked at 1GHz), Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS and WCDMA radio.

WCDMA means that it can use internet on the move (read 3G). At this time, no idea if the Dell Mini 5 will have phone capabilities.

It also comes with a camera:

The main camera offers five-megapixel pictures of reasonable quality, along with decent 640 x 480 video capture but with slight rolling shutter effect (aka “jelly motion”). The accompanying camera app has a wealth of settings for both modes: scene, white balance, brightness, contrast, and resolution. Extra settings for photo mode include flash, self-timer, multi-shot, shutter sound, GPS location and flicker adjustment, whereas video mode has options for video format (MPEG-4 and H.263).

The device has a on screen keyboard for text entry, though as it has Bluetooth, you probably can use a Bluetooth keyboard for dedicated text entry (as you can do with a Nokia N95).

This device allows for both content consumption and content creation. Two key features of any device that learners use for learning. With WiFi and 3G this means that the learner will have the connectivity to access learning resources on the move or in college (if you have a student wireless network). It will also allow for real-time communication via the VLE or a social networking service of some kind, eg Ning or Twitter.

So will learners actually buy a device like this?

Hmmm, well you can ask the same question of Apple’s iPad that has a lot less capability.

Learners (especially in FE Colleges) have not really bought into devices such as the iPhone; though I am surprised by how many have the N95 and N86. They prefer full size laptops over micro-laptops. Having shown and tried devices such as the Nokia N810 with learners, they thought it was “okay” but preferred other mobile devices and “proper” laptops for serious text entry.

The Dell Mini 5 sounds like an exciting innovative device, however I am not sure if these MID devices will be taken up and used by learners in large numbers.

Would you buy the Dell Mini 5?

[Via http://elearningstuff.wordpress.com]

Major carriers band together to from own Wholesale Applications Community

The world’s largest mobile phone carriers say they’re joining forces to make it easier for software developers to write apps that will run on as many phones as possible. The Wholesale Applications Community announced Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is an attempt to retake the initiative from phone makers like Apple and Nokia, which have applications stores of their own.

Together, they have signed a memorandum of understanding with the aim of building an environment or ’wholesale applications community’ where innovative applications can be developed irrespective of device or technology. The members include América Móvil, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, Mobilkom Austria Group, MTN Group, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Softbank Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor Group, Telia Sonera, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, VimpelCom, Vodafone and Wind, as well as Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson device manufacturers.

The new alliance, which represents more than three billion customers worldwide is inviting players from across the ICT industry, not only operators and developers, but also handset manufacturers and internet players to join forces to create an initiative based on openness and transparency. We believe this model presents the most compelling format on the market where developers will thrive and customers will reap the benefits of greater choice. Furthermore, the GSMA is supporting this initiative.

Guessing that the carriers didn’t like how Apple or Google are doing things their own way (and reaping all of the profits too).

[Via http://fonefrenzy.com]

An Explanation of Sorts

Why am I not posting to my blog?

I post here when I want to share what is happening in my virtual life. For the most part, I try to follow the rule of “if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing”. Sometimes I rant and rave. It is MY blog, after all. *wry grin* But these days my virtual life is giving me mostly tears. And I’m loathe to come here and cry repeatedly.

Why has my my life in SL turned to tears? Because I loved SL so much, I bought myself what I was assured was a kick-donkey top of the line gaming computer – an Alienware M17x. I had to buy a new computer because the nVidia GeForce 8800M video cards in my Dell XPS M1730 burned out in November and Dell and nVidia could not tell me when the cards could be replaced. Up til the,n well, I’d found Dell first line support a bit annoying, but no more so than much of life. Dealing with ordering the Alienware became an ordeal, thanks to Dell, who now own Alienware. I was going to blog about that, but quite honestly – it infuriated me every time I thought about it and I didn’t thing that frustration and agony needed to be aired.

At long last my gorgeous fantastic super-duper Alienware M17x arrived (late, thank you Dell Order Modification Dept). Sensational. Until I ran SL. 30 minutes into it, then Blue Screen of Death. The whole first weekend – BSOD on SL, Portal Factory, SOLITAIRE!!!!! I mean – obviously a Dell issue. Then mysteriously it stopped BSOD’ing. Only SL died. Repeatedly. With the BSOD. Just “normal” SL crash-end. I called SL support to see if they could help. With great joy in his typing, Fog informed me that I was running unsupported software and graphics. Not HIS problem. Oh? Then why are so many folk running the same and SL works for them?

Anyway, there really is a post here someday about Dell and Linden Labs and customer support if I can stop crying. I took a day and drove my computer to an SL friend who has years experience in getting machines to run SL. We thought it was solved. It seemed to run without crashing. No BSOD. Until I brought it home. Turned it on, raced into SL. Hung out there for an hour. Went to feed the cats, the dog. Came back to BSOD. Rebooted – let it sit running Firefox and Norton for an hour. No problem. Raised the machine on blocks (better ventilation). Went into SL with my alt. Didn’t move, just sat there. 2 hours – SL crash.

The truth is, I’m no techie. By my mother I’m a techie, but by a techie I’m no techie. I do NOT know what to do, where to turn, except to continually throw myself and my useless extremely expensive computer onto the mercy of friends. And there is only so long you can impose on friends. Dell isn’t going to care that one application doesn’t run – they will blame the application. And trying to fight your way past firstline support sucks you dry of all energy, patience and coherent thought. And LL has already gleefully told me THEY don’t care.

So I sit and look at this $$$$$ computer that won’t do the one thing for which I bought it, and I cry. Maybe that makes me a drama queen or totally emotional. So be it. But because I cry every time I look at it, and I cry each time I boot up SL on my other computer (which needs to run other software, do other things), I’m not having fun. I have nothing positive to share. I cry, my heart sinks, and all I want to do is simply walk away from SL for good and go back to reading. THAT is technology that actually works right out of the box.

[Via http://ahuva18.wordpress.com]

Impending Silence

So… this quarter’s been kinda rough. Personal things, plus almost everyone being away at France… then my phone display crapped out and I was basically without it for a week.

Now this. My laptop’s hinge got knocked out of alignment in a very short tumble off my bed (I think). At first it wasn’t a big deal…and then all of a sudden last week it worsened considerably. I couldn’t open or close it without the casing over the hinge making a terrible cracking noise, and I could see where it was starting to split, too.

Lesson One: Don’t go to Geek Squad.

Yeah fyi? If you’ve got a computer issue, either go to the manufacturer or somewhere you’ve heard good things and trust. I tried Geek Squad because they were in the city and therefore, I thought, more convenient than shipping my laptop off to Dell.

Not. So. Much.

Ordered my box from Dell on Friday and it got in to the campus package center this morning. But last night just as I was going to bed, my laptop proved that it is, I’m pretty sure, suicidal. It took a sudden slide off my bed, through no effort of my own and completely without warning.

In a way, it was like ripping off a bandaid– no worrying about trying to get it closed to put it in the box, cuz now it was DEFINITELY closed. But I still needed to back up my files, blah blah… so I nervously opened it.

This is what it’s supposed to look like:

Sortof. It’s a little out of alignment, because of what’s on the other side…

This is what it actually looks like:

Oops.

Oh yeah, and this piece snapped off too in impact:

There used to be two of those hooks. I found the other one in the carpet, so I’ll be putting it in a ziploc with the first piece, in case they need it.

Right now I’m just hoping Dell doesn’t charge me extra. If they do, I’d deserve it; according to the website the flat rate is 159 (which I already paid) and the only things for which there are additional charges are motherboards and LCDs. The silly thing about this whole situation is that the computer works just fine. There’s nothing wrong with the inside, or with the screen– it’s all superficial damage.

Tonight I’ll be doing a massive backup of everything I have, and tomorrow I’ll be picking up my box and, most likely, shipping it off again. Sooner it goes, sooner it comes back…?

Either way,  I will be online less frequently in the next couple weeks. Dell says ten days to get it back, but I don’t know when the ten days starts.

[Via http://museinginspiration.wordpress.com]

New fragility vs used solidity: Part 2 - Dell Latitude E4300

This is the second part of this two piece article, looking at two laptops which make a lot of sense as used buys.  In this final part we’ll look at Dell’s sleek Latitude E4300.

What’s awesome: Super-fast Intel 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo; magnesium alloy chassis feels very solid; exceptional keyboard action and optional backlit keyboard; optional Latitude ON instant boot.

What blows: Screen is bright but washes out quickly at vertical angles; refurbs with an integrated webcam are rare; six-cell battery provides four hours of varied use but sticks out.

Current retail price: Starting at approx $1,650 on Dell’s website and easily equipped at over $2,000, depending upon configuration.

eBay good or refurb condition: Approx $600-700

The second laptop I ever purchased was a used Dell Latitude. That was back in 1997 and it lasted for years; it would probably even turn on now if I knew where it was. Latitudes are typically manufactured to higher tolerances than Dell’s Inspiron and Vostro ranges and like their name, Latitudes are meant to withstand traversing the latitudes and longitudes of the globe.

What’s it got?

The E4300 keeps this tradition alive with a beautifully solid magnesium alloy chassis housing a superb keyboard and trackpad as well as a pointing stick.  The E4300 comes with a couple of processor options. I’m looking at a unit here with Intel’s SP9400, which is a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo with a whopping 6MB of L2 cache.  The E4300 is also available with a 2.26GHz processor if you need less power.  Other specs on my unit include a 13 inch screen, 7200RPM hard drive with 160GB capacity, 3GB RAM and Intel’s current generation GMA4500MHD graphics chipset with hardware Mpeg-2 decoding.  There’s also a DVD rewriter which slots into the side, Firewire, an SD card slot, USB 2.0 ports and crucially for multi-environment users, an anti-glare matte screen.  Unbelievably the E4300 weighs only 3.8lbs including the six-cell battery in a pretty thin chassis.  So now high retail price starts to make sense.

In use

Without a doubt the E4300 has the best keyboard I’ve used on any laptop, with key presses that have perfect feedback in my opinion.  It’s even better than my ThinkPad T61.  The pointing stick can execute a single click, the trackpad supports scroll and zoom, and there is a third mouse button. These are all nice touches in a world of disappearing buttons.  Some E4300s have a backlit keyboard which is perfect for using in a dark room or on a night flight.  There’s also an ambient light sensor which dims the screen, saving you from tired eyes and prolonging battery life.

The 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, makes the E4300 extremely snappy in Windows 7 64-bit.  From menial tasks to audio editing the E4300 feels like a full power desktop replacement in an ultralight package.  I produced podcasts on it and yet it is light enough to hold in one hand as a netbook replacement.  High definition video played without a hitch, remember this has Intel’s onboard graphics chipset with the hardware HD decoder so the processor is able to laze around which watching most videos.  But even when watching high definition Flash content on YouTube there was no stuttering.

Dell has added some thoughtful power saving features to the E4300.  It can be set to switch off a variety of peripherals when running on battery, such as the DVD drive and network ports.  With the six-cell battery fitted this beast was good for around four to five hours of use with WiFi, when web surfing and performing general tasks.  There’s also a five point gauge on the exterior of the battery so you can see roughly how much charge is remaining,  Bear in mind that used laptops tend to have used batteries, so ensure you have enough spare cash for a new battery just in case the current one is in bad shape.

Choices choices

As an option, the E4300 can be configured from new to be Latitude ON ready. Latitude ON is a fast loading linux based operating environment. There are two levels of functionality; ON Reader gives basic access to email on the laptop but no internet access.  The full ON implementation is a system-on-a-chip offering internet access and days of battery life according to Dell. Some units are simply ON ready, which means they neither have ON Reader nor ON, but can be upgraded later. I haven’t tried an E4300 with the full ON implementation, and the feature only recently debuted on the Latitude Z.

On the downside the integrated webcam and backlit keyboard are options rather than standard fittings, so be careful if you’re buying a used machine. The screen, while very bright, fades out quickly at vertical angles.  Also, the six-cell battery protrudes from the rear of the laptop, similar to designs from other manufacturers, which spoils an otherwise sleek look.

Is it a worthwhile contender for your cash?

On balance the E4300 is an unbelievable deal at current eBay prices. It feels solid and yet it’s extremely light and has a faster processor than the base model. It also crushes the Acer Timeline series in performance and build quality.  Of course there’s more risk with buying a used laptop than a new one, so do your research and test before you buy if you can.  If you can live with that risk and if you get lucky , the E4300 is an amazing bargain.  I put my money where my mouth is on this one and so far it’s the best laptop I’ve ever owned.

Neil Berman

www.theonbutton.com

[Via http://theonbutton.com]