Category Hardware

N97: a mediocre stop-gap solution or has Nokia lost it?

Nokia just announced the N97, its first flagship touch phone. The device is evolutionary, or if you prefer ‘marginally improved’ in some areas, compared to, its predecessors, the N95 and N96, while it includes a touch-screen and the new Symbian S60 5th Edition. The new phone seems largely irrelevant in the post-iPhone world and it […]

I can say it's a good start

And that's about all it is. Mediocre now, but promising. Lacking in features, but open. A relatively dated foundation in some respects, but one that's accessible to everyone. Android may not be what people expected; it's nowhere near being an iPhone killer and the software experience could definitely use some polish --- it's without a doubt firmly in the 1990s. But Android innovates too; if not just because it's open, because it is full of extremely innovative concepts --- concepts that can primarily happen in an open environment. Take for example 'intents'. In the end, I'm sure the G1 is going to be 'ok'. Nothing special. But it wasn't meant to be. It's a 1.0, by a company that has no experience in that sort of thing, but at the same time has most of the mindshare.

Hard Drive Data Recovery Talks

Open hard drive Excellent talks on hard drive data recovery by computer forensics and data recovery specialist Scott Moulton, for those that feel confident messing with their hardware. Extremely informative and very useful especially in those cases where you'd like to salvage your data from a broken drive, but don't want to shell out ~€2,000 for a professional data recovery company to do it. Two lectures, one from DEFCON 14 (2006) and another from 15 (2007). There's some overlap, but they're both interesting to watch nevertheless. Around 45 minutes each. Hard Drive Recovery (at DEFCON 14): Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Advanced Hard Drive Data Recovery (at DEFCON 15): Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Image by Flickr/Roberto F. Used under Creative Commons BA-NC-ND licence

Powerbook power plug woes

In a few weeks my laptop will be 4.5 years old. And for all intents and purposes it still holds its own pretty well for practically everything, but the most CPU-intensive tasks. Tasks that I typically perform on much faster desktop machines anyway. Some weeks ago the laptop, a 2003 17″ Apple Powerbook G4, started […]

A week with the OLPC XO-1

I’ve been interested in the OLPC project ever since it started in early 2005. For one it represents a great humanitarian effort that — in theory — promises to bridge the gap between the technologically advanced US and Europe and the under-developed or developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In late 2006 I […]

Realignment: Complete. Almost.

The XServe RAID is no more. It won't be missed by many and was probably owned by fewer. Still its existence, along with that of the XServe were the primary reasons I entertained the idea of an enterprise friendly Apple back in 2003-2004. Admittedly not for long. [via the daringfireball.net]

MacWorld '08. Απολογισμός.

Πάσα στα παιδιά του RT και κυρίως στον Γιώργο που γράφει σχετικά και με βρίσκει σύμφωνο. Μερικές (αναδιατυπωμένες κυρίως) σκέψεις --- με την απαράιτητη δόση γκρίνιας για να ικανοποιήσω τους 'φίλους': Το MacBook Air, είναι ίσως το πιο εντυπωσιακό μηχάνημα που έχει παρουσιάσει η Apple εδώ και πολλά χρόνια (βλ. Titanium Powerbook το 2001) από πλευράς σχεδίασης, αρκετά μελετημένη ως πρόταση με συγκεκριμένο κοινό που γεμίζει ένα μεγάλο κενό στην εμπορική πρόταση της Apple. Αρκετά ενοχλήτική η ακρίβεια της SSD έκδοσης (όμως συνηθισμένη) και λιγότερο το γεγονός πως το wired Ethernet και Superdrive κοστίζουν επιπλέον (και δη $99 για το δεύτερο). Τουλάχιστον αστεία --- και αρκετά κακόγουστη --- η χρέωση των κατόχων iPod Touch για την αναβάθμιση του λογισμικού. Αναμενόμενη, σημαντική, πλην όμως δίχως ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον για τους μη-κατοίκους ΗΠΑ η ανακοίνωση ενοικίασης ταινιών και του νεου AppleTV. Τίποτα για το Mac Mini, κάτι λογικό αν θα ήθελα τουλάχιστον να δω νεώτερους επεξεργαστές να κατοικήσουν στο γερασμένο --- πλέον --- κουτί του. Κλασσικό Apple lock-in και τρομερά άστοχη --- κατα την άποψή μου --- η κυκλοφορία του TimeCapsule· μια χαρά θα τα είχαν καταφέρει με τη χρήση [βάλε το δικτυακό πρωτόκολλο μεταφοράς αρχείων που θες εδώ] και ο καθένας θα μπορούσε να επιλέξει το NAS της προτίμησής του. Προφανώς θα τους αποφέρει κέρδη αλλά νομίζω περιθωριακά, ιδιαίτερα δεδομένης της τιμής του. Αυτά τα ολίγα. Δείτε επίσης και το σχετικό άρθρο του John Gruber. Αξιοσημείωτο το ότι είναι αρκετά αντικειμενικός αυτή τη φορά, ιδιαίτερα στον τρόπο που σχολιάζει τα χαρακτηριστικά του νεου φορητού. :)

Open Sesam…err iPhone.

A few completely unfounded (arguably bordering on stupid) excuses by salesman Steve. GBs of criticism on the web. A botched attempt at Reality Distortion. Numerous hacks. Dozens of semi-illegal third-party applications. Many bricked iPhones. And, now? Apple's spectacular realisation that the iPhone won't glitter forever. It was about time Apple did things right. The industry is not kidding. This is only the beginning...

Arduino

I foresee countless hours of fun with this. I'll try to find one or --- if I don't --- I'll build a board over Xmas. If only my undergrad PIC/digital design courses were that much fun. Check out the video from Makezine for a short introduction.

Photo by Nicholas Zambetti. Taken from arduino.cc

Apple Event: First Impressions

Perfectly timed just before the start of the school season, just when most people already are or are soon going to be on holidays (at least wherever people do go on holidays) Apple announced their new redesigned iMac and the long-awaited iLife and iWork updates. It also gave .Mac a badly needed ‘Web 2.0’ update. […]