My cool new toy; An android tablet..

I went out and got myself a POV Mobii Tablet, 10′ screen, running Android on a very efficient but fast Nvidia TegraII chipset. It’s the perfect antidote to the iPad.

I’ve had it a week now and I am very impressed; it is fast, [...]]]>

Toys for Boys

My cool new toy; An android tablet..

I went out and got myself a POV Mobii Tablet, 10′ screen, running Android on a very efficient but fast Nvidia TegraII chipset. It’s the perfect antidote to the iPad.

I’ve had it a week now and I am very impressed; it is fast, responsive, very portable and has excellent battery life (the screen backlight is the killer in this, keep it on minimum and I double my runtime.. which shows how efficient the rest of the machine is). Android is working well, although some dialogues and applications still betray the fact it was designed for small screen devices. I did a bit of work to get the Android 2.3 virtual keyboard; and flash running on it (actually all I did was hunt for and download down the relevant installers and double-click them) plus a few apps and a tweak that lets me run the ‘proper’ Android marketplace as well as the POV supplied one (which is not so good). Wifi is good once connected, but it can be slow connecting when I have changed locations.

It ships with Android 2.2, but is ‘rooted’ as supplied, so I can replace key OS elements without having to hack it first. I am sure that I’ll be able to get the full Android 2.3 release on it eventually; and since the Galaxy tablet runs the same screen resolution (but in a 7′ form factor) and there are many 10′ android tablets in the pipeline, I’m sure that the UI experience is just going to get better. Also a hacking community is already building around it, and it’s ‘badge cousin’ the Advent Vega tablet sold in the UK.

Apple fanbois please note: 1) I have multiple application markets on this (choice!) 2) It has a Standard USB port, I can plug a memorystick, or even a USB disk into it. 3) It has a bigger screen than the iPad.. 4) It has a HDMI port and can play full HD content (Nvidia Graphics.) 5) It plays Flash, Flash based websites simply work. (this is currently a hack, I installed the FlashPlayer beta myself; advantages of an open system!), an ‘official’ flash player is due later this month. 6) It has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

– Henry Spencer

Fedora14 shook me out of my reverie a bit; I have it running on my netbook PC and home desktop (parallel to Windows7, which I also like but think is overpriced [...]]]> First post in a while, I’ve been ignoring the tech in order to devote some serious time to my boat, my fish, and myself.

Fedora14 shook me out of my reverie a bit; I have it running on my netbook PC and home desktop (parallel to Windows7, which I also like but think is overpriced compared to Fedora! )

Now I have to finally install the touchscreen I have been hoarding for the last 8 months into the netbook.. I’m curious how it will work. All this is in preparation for going the the UK next month for a RedHat training course.

“If you look back over the history of technology, one thing stands out above all others, namely that the inventors of radical technologies rarely foresee the applications that people will find for their inventions.

Marconi [...]]]> is currently getting a lot of attention.
I like this piece in the Guardian about it, here’s a choice quote..

“If you look back over the history of technology, one thing stands out above all others, namely that the inventors of radical technologies rarely foresee the applications that people will find for their inventions.

Marconi conceived of radio as a point-to-point communications technology rather than broadcast (one to many) technology. Henry Ford thought he had invented a way of making motor cars, whereas in fact he invented a way of manufacturing products in huge volumes at low marginal cost.

And the geniuses who conceived the internet thought they were inventing a way of enabling folks to log in remotely to mainframe computers, whereas in fact they designed a technology for enabling us to send email, spin the World Wide Web, girdle the earth with a zillion lines of personal communication – and, yes, share music and video files.”