Archive for the 'Technology' Category

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iPhone 3G Jailbreak

Published on January 8, 2009 in Technology. 9 Comments Tags: Apple, iPhone, ShinyThing.

The iPhone Dev Team had done it yet again! Cracking through and unlocking the iPhone 3G with what they are hilariously dubbing yellowsn0w.

In short, you can unlock your iPhone 3G for use with almost any SIM providing you have the latest 2.2 Firmware and that your baseband is 2.28.00. Yellowsn0w is available on the Cydia app, meaning that your iPhone 3G has to already be jailbroken. I’ve gotta say thank you to these chaps. You’re incredibly talented developers and coders and the third party community is phenomenal. The sheer amount of quality applications and customisation tools really do make Apple’s useless Appstore look tame.

Samsung NC10 Netbook Review

Published on December 4, 2008 in Technology. 4 Comments Tags: PC Hardware, Reviews.

Awww it’s so ickle and cute!

It’s also been a while since I wrote a hardware review so here comes one based on what seems to be the present rated netbook on the market. The Samsung NC10 Netbook. This little bugger is to be the replacement for my Dell XPS 1530, which is soon to be given a new home!

You can find the review surprisingly in the reviews section!

AMD ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2

Published on August 13, 2008 in Technology. 7 Comments Tags: PC Hardware.

OK, Is it wrong to be turned on by this hunk of hi-tech kit? It is amongst the most over the top, powerful cards I’ve ever set my eyes on! Featuring a colossal 1.91 Billion transistor count, and a dual 256 bit memory interface giving you a gigantic 230GB/sec of memory bandwidth it certainly packs a punch against modern graphics cards. It is a greedy bugger though demanding in excess of 280 watts of power!

That sexy slab of PCB contains 16x128mb GDDR5 DRAM chips, so thats 8 per GPU! – 2GB in total. No dual GPU board has had me this excited! Nom nom!

Review @ Anandtech

My iPhone 3G Arrives

Published on July 23, 2008 in Technology. 5 Comments Tags: Apple, iPhone, MP3 Players.

So after much hassle with Carphone Warehouse whom I have a contract with, I finally got my hands on an Apple iPhone 3G. Its an 8GB model rather than the 16GB version though. I can live with that! I’ll continue to use my 16GB iPod Touch alongside the phone as I’ll be primarily using the phone for camera/gps/app use mostly. The iPod Touch will eventually be jailbroken giving me access to superb apps that Apple deem unsuitable for their store. Irony mentions below…

I could write a review but I just can’t be bothered echoing the numerous positive reviews that exist out there already. AnandTech and TrustedReviews have the best reviews I have read if you’re after a lengthy read. Apparently PR will also be doing one at the end of the year when the next version of the iPhone arrives.

I’ll just do a quick rundown.

Firstly the device, just like the v1 oozes om nom nomness and build quality is top notch. The rear covering of the device has mixed reviews, some owners like it and some don’t. Personally I prefer the v1′s brushed alu finish as the 3G’s plastic backing can get slippery on a hot day should your hands become sweaty. Plastic was needed though or the GPS signal would be next to useless.

Call quality is top dogs. I can’t stress how much of an improvement it is over the v1 phone. The speakers are even a lot louder too. The screen remains the same, featuring a high dpi haptic based panel. It is the same panel used on the iPod Touch and both devices are still remarkably identical with a few additions on the iPhone…

3G – Fetching data at around 1MB/Sec means that data transfers are very quick – if you’re in a 3G enabled area. Thanks to O2′s unlimited data tariffs you’re always online so all your emails, calendars, contacts etc are always up to date. If you land in a non-3G area then the phone drops to the inferior EDGE networks, which are approximately 100KB/Sec.
GPS – Nothing new here. The 3G uses A-GPS (Assisted GPS) which not only utilises satellites, but it also locks on to nearby mobile phone masts and Wi-Fi hotspots to triangulate your position. It results in less CPU utilisation and quicker location of the user. It works very well, but cannot be used as a proper GPS. One thing that should be noted is GPS uses some serious CPU power. Google Maps feels rather slow in use when GPS is on, sluggish more like.
Speakers – Yes great, they sound nice and that is all. I am not sure if you can use them for music playback as I won’t be using this device for music playback.
2MP Camera – Well it is a hundred times better then the 2MP camera on my old Sony Ericsson w880i. Firing up the Exposure application fills the screen with a live camera preview. Sadly the camera is extremely under-par for a device of this quality. Infact it is the weakest feature of the device. All photos taken with the camera are location geotagged, although this feature is rather flaky at present.

So that is essentially the list of features that separate the iPhone 3G from the iPod Touch. Hardware wise (minus the above list) both devices are identical and will easily be able to run the high end applications and games that will no doubt hit the Apple App Store over the next few months.

The phone isn’t without issues though. Firmware 2.0 is generally awful with high battery usage, application crashes, sluggish contact list scrolling and typing lag. So much for the apparently ‘buggy, battery draining apps’ on installer.app eh PR?! Jailbreak third party apps had none of this! Apple’s pointers on conserving battery power are so ludicrous that they might as well just state “Get a Nokia N95!”.

Another odd issue is widespread reports of poor signal/reception. I have yet to see more than 2 signal bars on my 3G, and I live in London for crying out loud!

Updates (rather long)

Published on July 20, 2008 in Babble, Life, Site Stuff and Technology. 8 Comments Tags: Apple, Harrow, iPhone, K2 theme, Wordpress.

On a spanking Sunday morning at 08:55 I am currently listening to what could be the most relaxing track ever – Stir It Up, from Bob Marley & The Wailers Legend album. I had forgotten how sublime this album was.

Blood Test Woes

Recent life updates would most notably be visiting my doctor for the first time in 18 years to have my first ever Blood Test. I have a severe aversion to needles and even threatened my dentist at the age of 15 so suffice to say that I was shitting bricks. I am no stranger to knives or being stabbed but if you come at me with a needle, I’ll run a bloody mile whilst screaming like Carlton from Fresh Prince. The whole process went by really fast even though the doc was doing the procedure in my left arm, my right arm was clenched ready to let rip. My mother was there to keep an eye on me though! Sad yes, required? Hell yes.

Carphone Warehouse iPhone Woes

What else? A week after its release I am still trying to get a flamin iPhone. I seem to be blessed with living amongst retards in my home town. They seem to exist everywhere right now. I have only been with Carphone Warehouse for 13 months now and I never knew how crap an experience it was to get any sort of information from one of their employees in a store.

I played a blinder on Friday though. I had visited various CPW stores in my town over the week and came to the conclusion that they were only selling iPhones to new customers and not those wanting to upgrade to one. Sounds silly but bear with me here. For days I had been told that they wouldn’t be getting stocks for weeks now and they had computer problems. I can understand that…to an extent, just don’t play me for a fool here.

Me: I’d like to sign upto CPW for an iPhone and an 18month contract please if I may.
Salesman: Sure, if I can take your details, proof of address then I can <checks computer> yes get an iphone delivered to you on Monday. What colour would you like sir?
Me: Oh you have them in stock? In that case could I upgrade my other current contract to an iPhone, and then let my girlfriend know that you have stock?
Salesman: Er, let me just check if we can get you an iphone sir. Hmm, our allocation system isn’t quite working and won’t let me set you up with one.
Me: I can see the reflection of your screen in that cabinet behind you mate, I see either a figure of 400 or 500 on the screen.
Salesman: …but the system isn’t really working and I can’t order one for you.
Me: But you could when I wanted to sign up as a new customer?
Salesman: Sir if you could call the CPW Customer Helpline here they could possibly upgrade you…
Me: Right, cheers.

You could repeat the above about 4 times as I had repeatedly visited various CPW stores around my town. I had read of other CPW customers being in the same situation so I had an idea. Why not ring up their Helpline and say I wanted to ‘leave’. I am out of contract so why not? Mobile phone companies would do anything to keep a customer. To cut a long story short I phoned up and requested a PAC code (a code used to port your phone number to a new network), and they asked why I was leaving. I fed them the story and they right away asked what iPhone I wanted and what colour. So I now have 2 months free on a £35 month contract and an iPhone coming on Monday. Sweet!

WordPress 2.5 = A Whole Lot of Headache

Can I even give myself in to liking WordPress 2.5? I can’t stand the damn thing and no matter how much I use it, I just can’t get with the stupid admin screen! It is a mess! I am not the only person with these views it seems. WordPress development is progressing at such a rate that plugin/theme authors can barely keep up – this isn’t good. I’m still trying to sort out compatibility issues with Internet Exporer 5/6/7 and now WP2.6 is out!

Thieves/Expenses/CatCams

That thieving tart PR has stolen the theme I was going to move this blog to. This current K2 theme doesn’t feel as robust as it used to any more although I guess WordPress 2.5 is mostly to blame here. So theat tart who is too lazy to find a good theme for himself has stoled the one I was going to mod! Thieving Apple fanboy scum!

What else? Oh I have just spent £1200 on a bloody prayer ceremony at my house. This lasted over two days and really cheesed me off. I hate things like this and I’m not even flipping religious in the first place. It was mainly for the parents though so I can’t complain. Actually I can because I’m about to buy them a 42″ HDTV for a £1000 ffs.

What else? Oh Mr.Lee has his own CatCam! Ever wondered what your kitty cat gets up to when it leaves your house? Well Mr.Lee’s owner stuck a camera on his collar and the results are great!

Apple’s App Store arrives

Worra load of crock. Apple’s big iPhone launch as well as Firmware 2.0 launch has kinda backfired on them. Firmware 2.0 is an utter buggy pile of poo right now, with features such has widely reported high battery usage, repeated apps crashing, phones/touch’s automatically freezing etc. One list (here) just highlights even more stuff.

Luckily the App Store, accessible via iTunes and a small application on your device is rather good. I wish I could say the same for the quality of apps there because they are all rubbish aside from a few. Installer.app via Jailbreak has way better third party applications so far.

Twinkle: The Twitter client from Installer.app makes its way to the store with a bang. This is basically a location aware chat client that lets you leave twitters (140 character messages) to others in your area. It is a great idea that works so well.

Spinner Prologue: A maze game that makes use of the accelerometer present on the iPhone/Touch. Frantic, fun and you end up waving your device around like a llama.

Remote: Apple came up with this free masterpiece. It turns your device into a wifi remote allowing you to fully control iTunes on your computer, or even AppleTV. Doesn’t sound all that – until you try it that is. Eats up battery power though!

ZinTin: Now this is another location aware app. It allows you to exchange photos, share information with other users in your area. Every user has their own ‘wallspace’, which can contain your own photos as well as images from other users. A great idea that is strangely addictive.