4 posts tagged “open source”
T-Mobile G1
Smartphone
Link: T-Mobile G1
As hinted at in Episode 673 and last week, Dick and Leo finally talk about T-Mobile's G1. Made by HTC, the G1 is the first phone featuring Google's open-source smartphone operating system Android.
It has bluetooth, wifi, GPS (though not turn-by-turn), 512 MB built-in memory, although it has an microSD card slot and comes with a 1GB card; a back-lit qwerty keyboard (which is revealed by sliding out the screen) and a replaceable battery; a 3.2MP camera, but like the iPhone, it does not shoot video, and like the iPhone it does not support Flash on the internet. Unlike the iPhone, it supports voice dialling and "cut and paste".
Physically, it weighs just under 6 ounces. At the bottom is a panel of buttons: a big Menu button, underneath which at the centre is a trackball (for navigation and as a select button). To the left of the trackball are the "Call/Send" button and the "Home" button; to the right of the trackball are the "Back" and "Hangup/Power" buttons.
On the left hand side of the phone is a Volume toggle, and on the right hand side the camera button. For the earphones, unfortunately it's a microUSB connection and you'll need an adapter for your 3.5mm jack earphones.
The display is 3.2 inches at 480 x 320 resolution, with a capacitive touch-screen. It does not support multi-touch, but does support long presses (through which you get a context menu including "cut and paste"). It has an accelerometer and is supposed to adjust itself to Portrait/Landscape mode, at least when the qwerty keyboard is open.
Since Android is open-source, many applications are expected to come out supporting the platform, and will not be filtered as in the case of the iPhone. You can access the apps from the Android "Market", and Google will tell you in relation to each app what types of access the app may have on the phone - such as communications, your location and your personal information.
The phone comes with the standard Google apps, such as Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, and like the iPhone, offers a mobile version of YouTube. If you don't use Gmail, there is another mail application. Unfortunately, this other mail app cannot open attachments (which Gmail can by HTML conversion), nor save them. The IM app supports major instant messengers such as AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo and of course Google Talk. Like Google's desktop browser the Chrome, the Android browser is WebKit-based. Another app that comes with the phone is AmazonMP3, with access to Amazon's DRM-free mp3 downloads - which only works with Wifi, and not 3G or Edge. The phone also has its own music player software.
At the moment, the phone is available in T-Mobile stores only in cities which has T-Mobile's 3G coverage.
Favourite Episodes
In Episode 679, Dick and Leo were asked if they had a list of their 20 favourite/funniest episodes. Ludwik Trammer of gizwizsearch can answer for them. Search queries on his site show which episodes are most frequently accessed - 182 Titanium Spork, 465 Electron Echo Piano, 462 MP4 Watch, and of course 282 Toothpick Bird.
Ludwik also tells us that the accumulative length of all the DGW shows now exceeds 7 days.
One More Thing
Ludwik is going to introduce a new feature on his site. In fact it is already operational. Just go to his site and see if you can spot the difference. Otherwise, just wait for an announcement through Dick and Leo in tomorrow's recording session, or in next week's episodes.
Video Podcasts To Wait
The last time Leo talked about video podcasts (with hopes of getting DGW on video) was Episode 671. Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, Leo has decided to be a little more prudent, and maybe putting that on hold, although he may still put out a weekly "best of" video podcast.
Second Longest Episode
At 31:03, today's show is the second longest episode, just 12 seconds short of Episode 634, the Lexmark X9575 Professional.
Listen to Episode 686
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
It has bluetooth, wifi, GPS (though not turn-by-turn), 512 MB built-in memory, although it has an microSD card slot and comes with a 1GB card; a back-lit qwerty keyboard (which is revealed by sliding out the screen) and a replaceable battery; a 3.2MP camera, but like the iPhone, it does not shoot video, and like the iPhone it does not support Flash on the internet. Unlike the iPhone, it supports voice dialling and "cut and paste".
Physically, it weighs just under 6 ounces. At the bottom is a panel of buttons: a big Menu button, underneath which at the centre is a trackball (for navigation and as a select button). To the left of the trackball are the "Call/Send" button and the "Home" button; to the right of the trackball are the "Back" and "Hangup/Power" buttons.
On the left hand side of the phone is a Volume toggle, and on the right hand side the camera button. For the earphones, unfortunately it's a microUSB connection and you'll need an adapter for your 3.5mm jack earphones.
The display is 3.2 inches at 480 x 320 resolution, with a capacitive touch-screen. It does not support multi-touch, but does support long presses (through which you get a context menu including "cut and paste"). It has an accelerometer and is supposed to adjust itself to Portrait/Landscape mode, at least when the qwerty keyboard is open.
Since Android is open-source, many applications are expected to come out supporting the platform, and will not be filtered as in the case of the iPhone. You can access the apps from the Android "Market", and Google will tell you in relation to each app what types of access the app may have on the phone - such as communications, your location and your personal information.
The phone comes with the standard Google apps, such as Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, and like the iPhone, offers a mobile version of YouTube. If you don't use Gmail, there is another mail application. Unfortunately, this other mail app cannot open attachments (which Gmail can by HTML conversion), nor save them. The IM app supports major instant messengers such as AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo and of course Google Talk. Like Google's desktop browser the Chrome, the Android browser is WebKit-based. Another app that comes with the phone is AmazonMP3, with access to Amazon's DRM-free mp3 downloads - which only works with Wifi, and not 3G or Edge. The phone also has its own music player software.
At the moment, the phone is available in T-Mobile stores only in cities which has T-Mobile's 3G coverage.
Favourite Episodes
In Episode 679, Dick and Leo were asked if they had a list of their 20 favourite/funniest episodes. Ludwik Trammer of gizwizsearch can answer for them. Search queries on his site show which episodes are most frequently accessed - 182 Titanium Spork, 465 Electron Echo Piano, 462 MP4 Watch, and of course 282 Toothpick Bird.
Ludwik also tells us that the accumulative length of all the DGW shows now exceeds 7 days.
One More Thing
Ludwik is going to introduce a new feature on his site. In fact it is already operational. Just go to his site and see if you can spot the difference. Otherwise, just wait for an announcement through Dick and Leo in tomorrow's recording session, or in next week's episodes.
Video Podcasts To Wait
The last time Leo talked about video podcasts (with hopes of getting DGW on video) was Episode 671. Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, Leo has decided to be a little more prudent, and maybe putting that on hold, although he may still put out a weekly "best of" video podcast.
Second Longest Episode
At 31:03, today's show is the second longest episode, just 12 seconds short of Episode 634, the Lexmark X9575 Professional.
Listen to Episode 686
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
AppleCore's aTV Flash
Software Hack for the Apple TV
Link: AppleCore LLC
Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday
AppleCore's aTV Flash is a software upgrade for the Apple TV (Episode 152), which does not void the warranty for the Apple TV. It's a collection of Open Source hacks for the Apple TV. You reformat your Apple TV, put the software on your own USB flash drive, plug it to the back, reboot it, and you get added capabilities for the Apple TV, including playing various media formats which Apple TV cannot, and plugging in your own external USB hard drive.
You can also do it yourself for free, with Patchstick.
An Unbiased Comment
Leo has a letter to read, c/o Dick. An employee of Shoes.com A J Fuller is peeked that Leo has mentioned Zappos.com for getting shoes, but has never mentioned Shoes.com.
Under the Desk
Dick recently learned that Charlie Chaplin in the silent film Modern Times operated all the devices and gadgetry under the table all by himself, which reminds him of Leo. It's all under the desk, including Leo's TTTT gadgets.
Thanks to zhackwyatt who's left a comment on this post, we now have links to the portion of Modern Times where all the "automated" machines were working (which in fact were operated by Charlie Chaplin from under the desk). It's near the end of this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDnDaDYZ2AQ, and continues on at the beginning of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fyyt3JGGvk.
More on the PurseGuard
Check up on the latest sales figures of the PurseGuard Ultra (Episode 406), and learn again about Dick's Piloti shoes (and the spelling) and speed laces. Dick wears the Spyder SV. Leo wonders if the Piloti shoes will fit, as he has feet like pancakes.
A Refund for Leo
Leo has made enough noises about his unfortunate incident with PayPal to enable him to get a refund, finally.
Listen to Episode 637
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
You can also do it yourself for free, with Patchstick.
An Unbiased Comment
Leo has a letter to read, c/o Dick. An employee of Shoes.com A J Fuller is peeked that Leo has mentioned Zappos.com for getting shoes, but has never mentioned Shoes.com.
Under the Desk
Dick recently learned that Charlie Chaplin in the silent film Modern Times operated all the devices and gadgetry under the table all by himself, which reminds him of Leo. It's all under the desk, including Leo's TTTT gadgets.
Thanks to zhackwyatt who's left a comment on this post, we now have links to the portion of Modern Times where all the "automated" machines were working (which in fact were operated by Charlie Chaplin from under the desk). It's near the end of this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDnDaDYZ2AQ, and continues on at the beginning of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fyyt3JGGvk.
More on the PurseGuard
Check up on the latest sales figures of the PurseGuard Ultra (Episode 406), and learn again about Dick's Piloti shoes (and the spelling) and speed laces. Dick wears the Spyder SV. Leo wonders if the Piloti shoes will fit, as he has feet like pancakes.
A Refund for Leo
Leo has made enough noises about his unfortunate incident with PayPal to enable him to get a refund, finally.
Listen to Episode 637
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Neuros OSD Media Centre
Video Recorder/Converter
Link: Neuros
It makes use of the analogue hole to transfer the input video into digital form, on to your choice of external storage (such as a USB hdd, flash drive, memory cards or NAS). Hook up the Neuros OSD between your video source and the TV (using RCA jacks), connect your storage to the Neuros OSD, and start recording into MPEG4. You have a choice of 2 resolutions: 320x240 at 30fps for playback on portable devices, and 640x480 at 30fps for playback on TV and PC.
It is also a very capable playback device for audio, video and still photo, supporting many media formats, including mpeg4, mov, wmv, flv, avi (including Dvix and Xvid), mp3, ogg vorbis, wma, flac, jpg, bmp and gif. You can choose your playback source from an USB-connected storage, or any memory card in the built-in card reader (supporting most major memory cards), or from any networked source via the ethernet port (such as your NAS or even the internet).
Its firmware is upgradable, and the software includes built-in automatic software update capability. Because the device is based on open source software, Neuros also encourages open development of additional features for the OSD. Comes with a remote control, an IR Blaster, and RCA cables (European models include SCART adapters).
Automatic Podcast Generator
Dick and Leo lament the missed opportunity of getting a push-button automatic podcast generator, while Leo was away in Tasmania, from Ludwik Trammer, DGW's official statistician, database compiler, RSS feeder, general factotum and all-round nice guy.
Missing Feature
Girl Geek Myra Joyce (who wrote in in Episode 495) referred to the letter read in Episode 526 about the Canon Pixma iP4300. To her disappointment, the CD-label printing capability is enabled only in models shipped outside of the US (which could be enabled for US models but only with some dismantling and reassembly of the printer).
The Ultimate Toaster
Leo has come up with an idea for the ultimate toaster. It can print any image you want on your toast. A toast before it's even made and one destined for the Gadget Warehouse.
Listen to Episode 546
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Diamond Rio 500
MP3 Player
Link: RioWorld
Dick's Gadget Warehouse
From 1999, the Rio 500 was one of the first portable MP3 players, if not the first, capable of USB transfer. 64MB internal storage, with a Smart Media card slot for expansion - up to 128MB for later firmware versions. It ran on a mere AA battery.
Immature Astrology
Joe Morrow thanks Ludwik for letting him access the first 50 episodes of DGW (there being no direct access or links on TWiT to Episodes 2 to 50, although there are some "lost" pages for Episodes 6-10, Episodes 21-25, Episodes 31-35, Episodes 36-40, Episodes 41-45, and Episodes 46-50).
Joe will be buying the Celestron Skyscout from Episode 2 for his new-found hobby of "immature astrology" and recommends a piece of open-source software called Stellarium, downloadable from www.stellarium.org for Windows, Mac and Linux. Leo talks about Google Earth and Google Sky.
Listen to Episode 410
Read Dick's Write-Up
Go to TWiT
