photo by Jurvetson (flickr)

Tell your average hipster that they can use VZ Navigator on their phone to get directions to the coolest new club through a GPS chip in their phone, and they'll probably think its pretty neat. Tell the same thing to your average healthily paranoid geek, and they'll hopefully question how else it might be used. Sure its cool, but if Verizon can do it, so can the government. On top of that, they may also turn on on your mic even when you're not on a call. In a follow up to my article on FBI cell phone tapping, we'll be discussing how you can be tracked on your cellphone, and under what circumstances.

Flip a switch and your cell is a bug

There is at least one documented instance where a case against the Genovese crime family relied on evidence collected by activating one of the defendants' cell phone microphones (not during a call, but while it was not in use!) to use it as a "roving bug", recording all conversations in its vicinity. This was done through the cell provider, and could be used against any civilian if a court order is given. The ability to do this is latent in most any modern cellular phone, and requires no physical contact with the device.  Some sources say all GSM phones are vulnerable, while others say it depends on the manufacturer:

from nets.zdnet.com

Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."

If the civilians can find you...

Arguably worse than turning your phone into a bug, it seems any civilian could potentially track you with the help of paid services like Accutracking, uLocate, World Tracker, and Flexispy (just to name a few).

To use these services, the spying person often needs to install the software on the victim’s phone, however the spying person need only have the phone in their hands long enough to navigate to a web page with the phone, and enter their user code. This causes the spying software to be downloaded to the phone and enabled.  In some instances, the user will be sent a seemingly innocent text message that requests they download some software.

Once installed, the offender has a web page where they can view all manner of information.  If the phone has GPS, you will get their exact latitude and longitude. If not, you get the CELL ID of the tower they are closest to, or their general location through triangulation.  Most of these programs also give you the phone's in/outbound calls and text messages, all without giving any indication to the victim that this information is being transmitted.

...So can the Feds

It almost goes without saying that government agencies have a much finer grain of control over tracking your location.  Due to September 11th and e911 compliance, by 2006 all cell phone carriers were required to provide the ability to trace cell phone calls to a location within 100 meters or less.  Since many rural areas lack the necessary density of towers to triangulate to that accuracy, cell phone carriers instead integrated GPS technology into cell phones.  Often times this chip isn't accessible to the user, so don't think that just because you can't see it, it isn't there.  Some networks do have that density, however, and your cell carrier may be able to triangulate your position based on your signal strength to each tower your phone connects to.  In these cases, then the more populated the area you're in (and hence the more cell towers around you), the greater the accuracy you can be tracked down to.  And for any of you would-be 911 pranksters:

from ezinearticles.com

when the person who has the phone has made an emergency call, this GPS transmission will always be sent. This is designed to ensure that the police can always track a cell phone location, in order to get help to people who need it.

Another way the government can pinpoint your location is through the use of a technology called a Triggerfish.  Triggerfish are pieces of hardware that emulate a cell tower.  Once your rough location is determined based on your connection to a cell cite, a triggerfish can be deployed (perhaps in an unmarked black van?) to home in on your signal.  Triggerfish can also get your phone's unique IMEI and serial numbers, phone numbers, and other data.

Update 2-11-2010: Apparently it's completely legal for the feds to track you without a warrant.

What you can do about it

In the case of the Genovese family case, the court denied motions by 10 defendants to suppress the conversations obtained by "roving bugs".  That being the case, I would personally not count on arguing the legality of being bugged or tracked after the fact.

The first precaution I would suggest is to never let your phone out of your site, and not download files from untrusted sources.  Beyond that, the only sure-fire way to make sure you aren't bugged or tracked through your cellphone is to take the battery out when you don't wan't to be... not very practical for the average joe.

If you watch or read a lot of techno-thrillers you probably know the trick of buying a disposable pay-as-you-go phone (with cash).  This is possibly the only way to make sure you aren't tracked, and even then you'll need to change phones quite often to avoid patterns.  All that, however, is beyond the scope of this article.

In reality, while using a celular phone you are at the mercy of the government, the FCC, and the phone company.  The best defense is to stay off everyone's radar by not doing anything that arouses suspicion.  For as they say, being a "law abiding" citizen isn't the issue, whom defines "law abiding" is the real issue.

I just finished assembling it and took it out for a little ride. Its smooooooth and has a ton of pop.

View more photos on my flickr slideshow

Les Spécifiques

• ELEMENT MIKE V AVIARY DECK - 7.88 width - On sale, and its a helium deck, so its lighter and stronger.
• TENSOR RODNEY MULLEN CUSTOM MIDS TRUCKS - Mullen is my all-time favorite skateboarder and he personally designed these trucks.
• SPITFIRE OLSON LIFERS WHEELS - 57mm, 97a durometer, for a smoother ride over crappy asphalt.
• FKD SAWBLADE SPEED BEARINGS - ABEC 5, IMHO the best balance between speed and durability. These ones have a clear shield so you can see inside, with a red spacer for a little extra bling.
• BLACK MAGIC GRIP TAPE - of course!
• MYSTERY RISERS and hardware - No real difference in performence, but they are white and complemented the trucks nicely.

Now to go work of those extra pounds!

Today I was 3 computers deep into remote desktop (RD to one computer, then use that one to get to another, etc). Navigate through that sort of setup long enough, and you start to question what is real, or at least what is actually the machine you are physically sitting in front of. Quite existential, that.

At any rate, on the drive to work today I was doing a little casual geo-wardriving with my new bluetooth GPS receiver and netstumbler and I came across 2 access points within about 100 yards of one another that I found very interesting. They had two distinct names that told me a lot about the persons that set them up.

The first AP was secured and named "Da Internets". This one made me literally LOL, but beyond that, shows that the user was familiar with the silly internet jargon we love to use (the internets, the intarwebs, the interwobbles...) and was therefore smart enough to know they should secure their wireless to prevent theft of their personal information. That, and they probably are stingy about bandwidth usage.

The second AP was unsecured and named "FREE WIRELESS HERE!" There are actually at least 2 types of people that could have set this up. The first would be a generous person who embraces the movement to provide a network of open wireless across America, and knows to not send private info across their wireless, using a wired connection instead. The second type of person is someone dumb enough to not change the DEFAULT PASSWORD for their access point and also not secure their AP. Then some 31337 h4X0r with the default password list saved on his/her laptop connected to the open AP, saw it had a default SSID of "linksys" or "default" or "belkin" and went to 192.168.1.1 and proceeded to log in with the default password and change the SSID if they were lucky, and infect their computers with backdoors or trojans or sniffed their traffic if they were quite unlucky.

Moral of the story: Be generous or be stingy, I don't care. But please secure your AP's admin account!

If you're interested, here are some of the APs I hit before getting onto the interstate last night on the drive home. Red nodes are secure, green are unsecure, and the size of the node is how close to it I was when I picked it up. If I drove around I could pinpoint an individual AP, but as it is the locations are where I was when I first got the signal.

In other news, I'm excited for what may be announced at Mac World next week. Steve Jobs' keynote, or "Stevenote" is 90 minutes long, and new laptops and a video-rental area in the iTunes Store is not enough to cover that! Or is it? Perhaps he will talk about those for 15-30 minutes, rip his shirt-mic off, and say "Thats it bitches! Keep buying iPhones! BAAAAH! BAAAH! and throw a smoke bomb, cackling as the vapor disperses leaving and empty stage. We'll see.

Oh, speaking of DRM free, apparently Amazon is going to start selling Sony mp3s without DRM! Pretty cool stuff if you ask me. This basically us breaking the dinosaur record lable's balls until they're forced to concede un-copy-protected music so we'll start buying it instead of stealing it. Kudos to them, despite their monetary motives, and hopefully it will last.

Remember, Artists wont go hungry if you don't buy their albums. Labels give them next to nothing for their music, and many artists have spoken up about it (Trent Reznor, Courtney Love, NOFX, to name just a few). Because of this, I'm much more likely to pay for a Fat Wrech Chords or Fueled by Ramen album than I am a Sony or RCA one.

Artists go hungry when you don't go to their shows and don't buy their merch. Support your favorite bands by going to some shows and buying t-shirts! You may even fall in love with the opening band you hadn't really heard of and thus further your own happiness.

Finally! Thursday night at ~7:30pm I received my Seagull TLR from UPS. Its as cool as I knew it would be. After reading all about medium format and TLR cameras for weeks I'm so glad to finally have it in my hands. The only problem has been that was too dark on Thursday to take any photos and I worked all day Friday! I have managed to sneak out when it wasn't raining on my break and take a few photos, but I really want to finish this first roll of 120 film to see how it comes out.

In lieu of taking photos with it, I've been examining it, drooling over it, and taking photos of it. Today I'm working all day again, but I will get out a 5pm and still have time to go shoot photos for a couple hours. Doody will probably be up here by then as well (he was in Portland) so we can go TLR shooting together!

If you really hunt around online you can get some decent info on Seagulls. Most people either love 'em or hate 'em. They aren't exactly bulletproof, so you have to baby them if you want to get 90+ rolls of film through them without repair. The reason for this is they are a cheap camera. As such, while the glass in them is wonderful, the internal mechanisms can jam if you don't 1. Keep it lubed and 2. Adjust the f/stop and shutter speed BEFORE cocking the shutter. This is a must, but once you're in the habit in no way inhibits shooting. They take wonderful photos and are dirt cheap, so if you love your Seagull, it will love you back.

Despite the info I gleaned from forums and reviews of the Seagull 105, I couldn't fine any nice big photos of it. I've decided to alleviate this.

I really wanted to find a freeware 360 degree QTVR creator, but after much fruitless searching I had nothing. Then, finally, I came across a 360 degree presenter that uses only javascript! Its called 3DNP and I sincerely thank Thorsten Schlueter. I've since posted some views of it on my flickr page, but for a real treat check out the 360 degree view of it here.

Expect another update as soon as I get this first roll processed! Yay!

via torrentfreak.com

TorrentFreak contacted Ashwin Navin, President and Co-Founder of BitTorrent Inc. When confronted with the 50 times faster than BitTorrent claim, he said: “BitTorrent can regularly saturate your downstream capacity, which in layman’s terms means BitTorrent is as fast as you can get. The claim is indicative of the fact that BitTorrent is the global standard for P2P transfers, against which all others are compared. BitTorrent DNA took that standard up significantly, but we don’t run around making sensationalist claims to get buzz.”

The wonderful folks at foliagenetwork.com say the leaves are not yet at their peak in my area, although they are very close. I agree with them that the trees are confused by these conflicting periods of very cold/warm weather we have been having. Some places the leaves are vibrant or falling off while 10 feet away they are still green as your neighbor's lawn.

I am hoping the peak of color holds off until next weekend, although when they go, it is like lighting a string of Black Cats, they will not stop for you, you must stop for them. Besides the weather, I want the leaves to hold off because I have a lovely, delicious Seagull GC-105 medium format TLR camera coming my way via UPS!

I have always been fascinated by TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) cameras ever since I first saw one at one of my Uncles' weddings when I was just a wee lad. When I started really getting into photography I went straight to digital because I am a geek like that, and that was the camera I had at my disposal. Of course I had used 35mm when I was younger, and even developed my own black and white film in Graphic Arts class in high school, but I had never shot 35mm film with an artistic eye. Because of all this, I never really thought about using any film camera, much less a medium format camera.

That all changed fairly recently. One day while perusing the local Goodwill out of sheer boredom I came across a cool looking old 35mm camera. I bought it for $7, took it home and looked up the instructions for it online. I came across Ken Rockwell's website and found out what I had was a Nikon L35AF with an amazing 5-element lens! After shooting 1 roll with it at Mount Katahdin my interest in film was renewed. Now Doody and I love to go hunting for cheap vintage cameras at thrift stores and (if we ever find any) flea markets.

Despite my rekindled fondness of film, I had assumed it was prohibitively expensive to get into medium format photography, and hence never bothered to check. Do you see why ignorance is bad, children?

Thanks to Doody purchasing a Seagull TLR (Seagull is THE oldest camera company in China, so they know a thing or two) down in Portland, my interest in both TLR cameras and medium format photography was renewed. A little research online showed me 120 size film is not nearly as expensive as I thought it would be, and as you will see below, great cameras can be had on the cheap as well.

The camera that revolutionized the TLR market in the early 1900s and is the model all others have since copied was the Rolleiflex by Rollei. Rollei still makes cameras today and you can pick up a Rolleicord TLR for about $3500 (OUCH!), OR you can get a vintage Rolleicord, Rolleiflex (the amateur line of Rollei TLRs), or Yashica Mat off ebay for about $100 (+/- $50) depending on condition. A 50-70 year old Rollei or Yashica will take better photos than any modern 35mm camera if the lenses are in good shape. These cameras cost the same to repair as they do to just buy a working one, so only but a used camera if the seller guarantees the shutter works and the shutter speeds are correct, and that the camera as a whole is in good working order (never by "as is" or "seems to work"). Another major point: make sure the lenses have no scratches, are not fogged, and have no lens fungus.

Sorry, I suppose all that is for another post, but what I am getting at is that I went camera hunting! Now I should mention that there are many other types of medium format cameras besides the TLR type, but they hold a special place in my heart with their two lenses and top-down viewfinder, so that is what I wanted. After watching a couple dozen auctions (you have to be diligent to get one for $75-100 instead of $150-200) I found a Seagull TLR, supposedly used only a couple of times, in absolute perfect condition! I ended up picking it up for $96, and it is en route as I write this. I will definitely post later with high resolution photos and updates on my adventures in medium format negative and slide film.

So, beside the fact that I am a sucker for old cameras, why would I shoot medium format film? For one, medium format cameras just look cool. They have that vintage look and feel about them, are very interesting with their top-down viewfinder and, in the case of TLRs, two lenses. The biggest point, however, is that any decent-condition medium format camera can run circles around any digital SLR in terms of image quality. The reason for this is the size of the film. Only cameras approaching 10 megapixels or more can rival 35mm quality, so imagine how much quality you gain when using film 4 the size of 35mm!

Another great thing is that if I want a new digital SLR it will set me back $700+ (the Canon Digital Rebel XTi I want is about $700 with lens at a good priced store) while my Seagull is 1/7th that price! On the other hand, buying and developing large quantities of film is quite expensive if you are not being paid to do it, so I do still need that Rebel at some point in the future. There is nothing wrong with digital, but TLRs are just another fascinating facet of photography to explore.

Ok, time to head home and relax. I am still not 100%. Expect updates very soon!

PS: This post was purposefully contraction-free for no particular reason.

I knew this was coming, especially in light of the iPhone and the steadily declining iPod shipments (thinning out their stocks), but to physically see it, in all it's glory, is another thing all together. It comes with Wi-Fi, web browser, and all the other goodies that the iPhone has (sans cellular). I, for one, don't mind keeping my phone as a phone and my iPod as an iPod, so the fact that the iPod Touch has all that stuff does better justify getting one rather than an iPhone.

We also now have a new nano (that reminds me of the Zen V), and now plays video and has cover flow?! As if that wasn't enough, the newly dubbed 'iPod Classic' is now all metal and comes in up to 160GB! Now that's what I'm talkin' about.
Crazy times we live in my friends, crazy times...

via Threat Level

A new law expanding the government's spying powers gives the Bush Administration a six-month window to install possibly permanent back doors in the nation's communication networks. The legislation was passed hurriedly by Congress over the weekend and signed into law Sunday by President Bush.

The bill, known as the Protect America Act, removes the prohibition on warrantless spying on Americans abroad and gives the government wide powers to order communication service providers such as cell phone companies and ISPs to make their networks available to government eavesdroppers.

Basically, all phone, internet and Voice over IP service providers (including Skype, Google Talk, and Gizmo Project) can now be ordered to put in back door spying measures for the government, all without warrant. I'll stick to encrypting sensitive emails and using paper for other sensitive data.

I can't wait to see what kind of success the iPhone will have, and you can be sure I'll keep you up to date with all the latest developments.

Can you say "I Want One!" kiddies? I can:

Its a motorized snow-skate created by some engineering kids at the University of Waterloo, and its really, really awesome. Check the video out via MAKE.

(image Copyright © 2007 Apple Computer)

Yes, the iPhone is here! No, not that one, you sneaky Cisco devils. This is the true iPhone, the one that has been discussed and dreamed about for what seems like years. Catch the full scoop after the jump:

As expected, its a perfect blend of an iPod and a phone, with loads of other features tossed in for good measure.

The nitty, as well as the gritty

So whats this hot little number packing? Oh, just a 3.5-inch multi-touch wide -screen! That means you can touch two places at once, and it recognizes them. That's something completely new in the mobile device arena. But don't worry, the proximity sensor will shut off the key bad when you have the phone close to your ear, so your cheek doesn't decide to get click-happy while you're on a call. Touchiness aside, you can now also watch wide-screen videos on an actual wide-screen... Wide, thats a funny word. Say it out loud with me, "WIDE". Funny, huh? Anyway...
It still plays music and audio books as well, but there is oh so much more.

First off, lets get some specs out of the way:

• 11.6 mm's thin (damn!)
• 3.5-inch multi-touch wide-screen
• 480 x 320 resolution, 160 ppi
• Quad-band GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900)
• 135 grams
• 5 hrs battery life for talking/video, 16 hrs for music
• Cingular exclusive prices of $499 for 4GB (ouch! but MANY will fork out for it) for a 2 year contract, and $599 for 8GB
• Ships this June in the US, Europe this Fall

For the Talkers and Texters

Just like the name would lead all English speaking humanoids to conclude, its a phone. As such, its got a dialpad(via touch-display), call logs, and an address book (that syncs with your computer), but it also has easy to use conference calling (my Razr isn't exactly intuitive in this department), and stores your voicemails so you can listen to them whenever and visually navigate through them like email. No more listening to your first 6 messages Bob sent you to get to the 7th one from your wife. On the negative, there is no built in VoIp support, which I suppose is to be expected since Cingular would rather you use their minutes on this phone, but it would be nice to have the VoIp option when in a wireless hotspot. Perhaps Gizmo Project will run on it, but that remains to be seen.

For SMS the iPhone has a soft-keyboard with predictive entry and auto-correct, with an iChat style interface that always makes me drool. With this style of display you can easily see which conversation you were in, just like what gmail did for multi-reply email.

Ahem... Camera?

Of course, being a modern cellular phone, it must have a camera... probably one of those dinky 640X480 ones that everyone loves to use, right? Nopers. You know Apple never does anything half-assed, and as such the iPhone has a big-ole 2 Megapixel camera. One oversight is that its a fixed-focus camera, which somewhat reduces the grandure of it all. I would think Apple would see this as a big downside. Also, the camera is on the back, which makes sense for taking photos with the viewfinder, but cuts out any hope of video chat/calling, something that could have really be a deal-maker for this device.

The photo management system that kicks the crap out your regular cell phone's list-o-pictures. On the iPhone you get a thumbnail grid of photos. Select a photo to view it full-screen, and drag your finger horizontally to go to the next or previous photo. Grab a place on the photo with your thumbs and drag toward the edges of the screen to get a Minority-report-like zoom on that portion of the photo. You have to watch the QuickTour to see just how rad that looks (select the "Photos" tour on the right of that page).

You call that a smart phone?

Like your Daddy's 4lb brick of a "smart phone", the iPhone has web and email. Apple does it up proper with a rich HTML email client and a portable version of Safari, accessing the web with either Wi-Fi or EDGE (Its got Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR as well, of course, though I don't know how integrated it is with things like iTunes and the photo app). It automatically syncs your email as well as bookmarks from your computer, and it's fast enough to surf the net while downloading your email in the background. You can view websites either portrait or landscape, and can zoom as well. So i guess its more like an iPod blended with a phone and a Nokia 770 (though my 770 blows it away in resolution :p ) As for the email client, it is both intuitive and much easier on the eyes than a regular cell phone. It has a large enough screen to read text and view inline photos without strain.

The iPhone also comes with its own map viewing software that downloads maps, satellite photos, and points of interest from Google Maps. Its not GPS, so you have to know where you are, but it'll definitely help you get to any destination.

Did I forget to mention it runs OS X? Oh, well it does... somehow. This gives it the ability to, among other things, run widgets. To you non Mac/Konfabulator... er Yahoo Widget Engine users, widgets are little applications that provide useful tasks like the stock widget that tracks your favorite stocks, or the weather widget that, well, tells you the weather of course! Calculators, notes, clocks, timers, RSS readers, and nearly anything else you could ask for are available in the form of widgets. No word yet on how whether all OS X widgets will run on this or not, and more importantly, we don't yet know what 3rd party application support there is. It may not be open to anything but widgets, or it may run ported versions of OS X apps, or it may have a full SDK waiting to be unveiled. Nobody knows at this point.

And so faithful readers, thats all we know for now about the new Apple iPhone. I'm super excited about this thing, though I won't be getting one any time soon, nor do I need one at the moment. Its got some really innovative new features, and a few downsides as well as a dash of question marks. However, as this slick gadget has been the subject of endless speculation, you can bet your copy of The Economics of Industry that many will pay any price asked by Jobs for this little gem. Oh, and be sure to go to the iPhone Website for QuickTours of all the features packed into the iPhone.

Update: Gizmodo has a ton of photos of the iPhone on display, and more at apple insider
and this is interesting...

I don't recall how I came across Moo -- It must have been either Nyrath or del.icio.us/popular -- but in any case, come across it I did.

Do you like business cards? Meh, boring right? Do you love Flickr and your photos? Sure, we all do. Why doesn't someone combine the two? Moo did. They're a wonderful little printing company that currently offers a product called MiniCards.

MiniCards aren't strictly business cards, they're much smaller and more creative. They're more like little calling cards or "hey want a cool little fun snippet of one of my favorite photos?" cards. I plan on using them to promote my photo sales or just to give away to friends that ask for my email/hompage address.

Moo uses Flickr to get your photos. You click a link and it brings you to the Flickr security page that asks whether you trust Moo. Its ok, you can trust Moo. Once thats done you'll jump back to the MiniCards page where it asks you which photos you want to turn into cards. I got in on the 10 free cards to Flickr Pro members promotion (sorry, they ended the promotion after 10,000 packs) but you normally buy a 100 pack for $20. Once you've selected your photos you just crop them a little and tell them what to put on the backs (colors, fonts, name, contact details, whatever you want).

These little cards are as beautiful as they are functional. I can't wait to show them off! Check out my 10 pack and the little holder they came in on my flickr (also check the Moo pool), and go check out Moo's MiniCards too. If you don't have a flickr account, you really should get one anyway, but thats for another post.

Carl Zeiss (who also produced the lens in my own digicam), have announced a custom lens they built for a private party thats the biggest non-military lens ever produced!

This beautiful beast weighs in at 564 lbs and has 15 optical elements arranged in 13 groups. It has a focal length of 1700mm and Carl Zeiss had to come up with an all new focusing and aiming system using servos to move the heavy glass elements. It's made to mate specifically with a Hasselblad 203FE 6x6cm medium format camera as per the customer's request. I can't imagine the photos this takes.

PS: keep in mind that more Mpx will get you closer to an analog quality, but it is nowhere near close at present.

Sure, it has a silly name, but if you want to get your whole family involved in hours of fun, want to experience revolutionary gameplay, and don't want to spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars for a gaming system, you NEED the Wii.

Nintendo is the only console creator left with originality and passion to push gaming to the next level, and it shows.

I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. My Sony DSC-F717 finally fell prey to the inevitable: ccd failure. It was all at once too, one night i'm taking a picture of my cat passed out in a laundry hamper, and the next day I go to turn it on and get an abstracted smear of purple vertical lines.

This is a problem for many older sony cameras and clies manufactured between 2002 and 2004. Many other manufacturers also use the same defective ccd, a complete list if affected cameras can be found at the link above (imaging resource).

There are a few theories as to why this happens. Either the use of epoxy chip packages instead of ceramic is causing moisture in, or a bad iodine-bearing bonding compound on the wiring, or just faulty ZIF connectors.

Regardless, Sony has shown an amazing care for its customers by repairing all affected Sony cameras for free regardless of warranty status, including S&H!

via IR

"From October 3, 2005 through October 2, 2007, Sony will repair, free of charge, affected products exhibiting the above-mentioned problem where it is caused by the image sensor device. Sony will also cover the cost of shipping and handling to service to correct this issue."

I'll post photos of the sensor later tonight, as well as update you on the process of sending it in for repair.

So, although I'm super-bummed about my camera being broken, a new CCD is at least cool, since mine is a few years old. And, if you own an older camera from any manufacturer, check the above linked website to see if your camera is at risk.

the Nokia 770 is an "internet tablet". I know this is a new term to most of you, but it comes to us by way of two more familiar words: Internet (as in websites, e-mail, rss, and IM), and Tablet (as in a portable computer built into a screen). Put 'em together, and the definition is exactly what you'd think: A small, portable computer, built into a screen, that is meant to access the web!

It looks like a PDA, but it's not. PDAs handle contacts, calendars, and to-dos. This puppy's all about the Net with some bonuses on the side (we'll get to those later). It's main applications are accessing webpages, reading rss feeds, and checking email. Before we get too into things, I have to tell you the coolest part...

It runs Linux! A version of Debian to be exact. I ask you, how cool is that?

The Web, Anywhere

The 770 receives its connectivity wirelessly through 802.11g. It also can mate with your bluetooth enabled cellphone to place data/dial-up calls. While data calls are slower than a wireless LAN, it is definately a wonderful feature to have when you are not in range of an open Wi-Fi hotspot.

the many ways to connect

The browser is a version of Opera, and it renders pages like no other handheld ever has. The display is a crisp, bright 800x480 65,536 color touch-screen beauty. At 4.1 inches, its screen is about the size of a Sony PSP's. It displays websites, photos, and videos vividly and crystal clear. On a side note, I've read that a few reviewers were disappointed that they had to "scroll sideways" on webpages to view all the content. A few seconds of research found be the "optimized view" option in the menu. Voila, perfectly formatted text that can even be zoomed as large as you want , all without horizontal scrolling. I might also add that this baby is a dream come true for reading web-comics since the screen is so beautiful and wide.

Lay of the Land

On the desktop there is a feed reader, internet radio, web shortcut, and clock. All of these can be customized or hidden. The internet radio is a bit superfluous, but everything else fits nicely. The system tray is along the top-right and has brightness, sound, connection, phone-link, and battery indicators. In the screenshot below you'll see a custom indicator at the far left that I installed. It's a cpu/memory plug-in that takes screenshots too, but we'll address customization in just a bit. Desktop icons are along the left and include the browser, email and the program menu. Below these, running applications are displayed.

the desktop

Hand-Eye Coordination

Input is done via touchscreen and stylus. The included styli are flat, which is new to me, but they have more surface area than my clie and visor styli and seem to cause less fatigue to my hand. When you're not using it, the stylus stowes away in a compartment in the back of the unit as usual. Text can be input through either the on-screen keyboard, or handwriting recognition.

on-screen keyboard

The keyboard is faster for me, but I'm getting faster at the handwriting as I tweak the characters I teach it. A quick button tap switches input styles.

handwriting being converted to letters

On the front of the Nokia 770 there is a d-pad with select button for navigation, and a back button for exiting out of menus and going back when in the browser. There are also home and menu buttons, guess what their functions are, heh. Along the top are widescreen, +/- rocker, and power buttons.

the top buttons (L to R: power, rocker, full-screen)

The widescreen button is very useful when in the browser, viewing pictures, and watching videos. The power button isn't used too much as the 770 is designed to sleep when not it use. Close the cover to set it to standby, and open the cover to wake it up. The rocker button's main function is zooming, but it has another great use I'll discuss in the next section.

Goodies

application menu

In addition to the browser, rss feed reader, and email application, the 770 also has an audio (and internet-radio) player, a Video player (which BTW comes with the Ice Age 2 trailer that looks absolutely stunning on the screen), PDF viewer, image viewer, calculator, sketchpad, notepad, and a couple of games.

I've added a few videos to my MMC card and they looked really amazing. Hitting the full-screen button gives you a display that knocks out the iPod, though video playback isn't always as smooth.

The media formats it supports are:

• Audio: MP3, MPEG4-AAC, WAV, AMR, MP2
• Image: JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG, Animated GIF format,SVG-tiny, ICO
• Video: MPEG1, MPEG4, Real Video, H.263, AVI, 3GP

Did Someone Say Open Source?

The real clincher on this baby, for me anyway, is the ability to customize it. No, I don't mean adding thousands of pink rindstones to it like a pathetic-looking sidekick, I'm talking about free software via a super-supportive and thriving development community. This thing runs Linux, remember!?

There is a python port for the Nokia 770 (tres cool) but most development is currently being done with the maemo platform. There are already over a hundred ports, applications, and games available for the 770 on the maemo wiki alone, and more are coming out every day. Instalation is a breeze with the package manager, simply click on a link to a package and hit yes when asked whether you wish to install it or not.

reading an ebook

I spend a lot of time checking out sofware to add to mine, as well as looking at different used people are putting theirs to. For example, some people have coupled theirs with a $70 gps receiver to create a GPS solution for their car, or hacked an iPod cable to be able to mount their iPod and watch all their movies on the big widescreen display.

I prefer to use my Nokia 770 as an ebook reader. After a quick download and install if FBReader, I can open an ebook, turn it sideways, and hit the full-screen button to turn it into a more than capable reader that kicks the pants off my clie. To scroll pages I just use my thumb on the rocker switch.

Under the Hood

RS-MMC card and slot with cover open

The Nokia 770 is a bit underpowered, I assume in order to keep the price tag down, and although it doesn't impair use much, I wouldn't have minded a bit more RAM and a faster processor. As it is we have a Texas Instruments OMAP class 250 MHz processor, and 128 MB RAM with 64 MB for the system and 64 MB for storage and applications. Memory can be expanded via the RS-MMC flash memory slot, which comes equipped with a 64MB card. There are tutorials online on how to crate a swap partition on a larger RS-MMC card to boost performance. I've yet to try it, but be sure that I will in the near future.

Bad Press

I apologize, but it's time to do a little ranting. I've read a lot of mixed reviews on the 770, and all the bad ones pretty much complain about it not having telephone capability. Although it will have a stable VoIP program soon, they are missing the point. They think that because it is made by Nokia, the fact that it doesn't have a phone means it is somehow crippled. The iPod doesn't have a phone, so what? I don't hear anyone bitching that it doesn't have a keyboard, phone, or PIM suite. It is meant to do one thing, and do it well. So is the 770, and it does. Please stop trying to pigeonhole Nokia, thank you.

Every device that comes out does not have to be some all-in-one convergence solution that does your laundry and calls your grandma on her birthday. Part of what makes gadgets so fun is that they are all unique and do different things.
"Yay a wifi-locating key fob!"
"Does it have a bottle opener?"
"No, who the hell cares?"
How boring, not to mention pointless, would it be if one owned even 4 gadgets that all were telephones and multi-function (web, PIM, etc) devices? Some things need to be specialized. I like being on the web, and I don't want to carry around a 4lb notebook to do it, so this baby is a dream come true.

*Sigh* if you still want to use it as an organizer, there are a couple of PIM suites available, and more are sure to come.

The Cons

Of course, the Nokia 770 does have it's shortcomings. For one, it has an inadequate 128MB of memory, causing it to hang while loading some applications or when too many browser windows are open. A 1GB RS-MMC card can solve the lack of storage to an extent, for an extra $70.

It also boasts a less-than-staggering processor speed (250 MHz). I know clockspeed isn't the only determinant factor in a processor, but a 500MHz would definately pep things up a bit. I believe these decisions were made to deliver a lower-priced product, and the trade-off seems worth it. Also, it should also be noted that all non-application processing should be handled by web servers (as per it's intended usage) anyway.

Unless you get really good at the handwriting recognition, text input is slower than it would be if there was a thumb keyboard. Not including one keeps the footprint of the 700 to a pocket-sized minimum, but if you desire a faster input method, for writing blog posts for example, I suggest picking up a cheap bluetooth keyboard (thumb or fullsized, your choice).

La Conclusion

In summation, if you want near-constant access to the internet wherever you go without lugging around a bulky notebook pc, the Nokia 770 is your device. Its screen is beautiful, its very versatile, and it's super convenient. Besides being somewhat lean in the CPU/RAM department, only shortcomings are the ones you'll find if you want to make it be something it's not (ie: use it as an all-in-one such as a pda phone). I love mine, use it every day, and am more than 100% hapy with it, if thats mathematically possible. It's not a replacement for your desktop PC, but it is a pocket-sized portal to the web, and I have no real urge to own a notebook computer after having this. Nokia is big on open source software, and has, in my opinion, hit the nail on the head with this specialized device that fills a niche previously left void.

Extra Credit

For more information on the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, visit these fine folks:
Nokia's 770 page
Nokia's feature list/specs
Internet Tablet Talk and their forum
A couple hacks at nokia770.xantus.org
The Zack eXperiment: Usability Experiments On The Nokia 770
The maemo website, wiki, blog, and application list.
The 770 Fan blog has great articles,
as does Connecting Geeks
and mulliner.org
nokia770.com has good news stories,
so does The Syncing Apple
Somebody made a customized version of Google maps for the 770, it fits perfectly when you zoom the screen to 150%.
Guides on how to rip DVD movies into your 770 are at the maemowiki and thoughtfix.

All photos copyright 2006 Thomas S.E. Gagnon.

It was a really straight-forward process, and only took about 10 minutes. You should definately try it out, because its just plain rad to chat with everyone via Google Talk!

BTW: Even if you don't do this, you should consider using Google Talk anyway, especially if you want free long-distance calls via computer (think Skype, but easier and googley).

Call me whatever you want to, but I love the Harry Potter series, and I want this iPod!

Mind you I don't want the extra $249.00 of Complete Harry Potter Series audio that acompanies it, I already have all the audiobooks, and have no need for $249 of duplicate audio. I do, however, want that laser-etched hogwarts crest. Sure, sure I could get 2 lines of 27-letters each laser engraved text for free, but getting anything written on it would be nowhere near as cool as the crest on this baby. Not to say I'd turn down a new iPod, as mine doesn't hold all of my music, and has some interesting quirks now and again like always playing the 2nd song in the list of whatever i click on to play, but if it could be bought without the audio books, I'd get this one.

Look. --->

Did you just cry out in unbridled joy and astonishment? Did the people around you all turn and stare?
I did. From my mouth flew an undecipherable gibberish that could only be described as "colloquial".

Yes me boys, 'tis an iPod. Aye, she plays video. We knew it may come soon, but not this soon. I was all set to write an in-depth, lengthy run-down on big-eyed, petite vixen, but one of my favorites, Webfroot, beat me to it.

In that right, you really should read about it there. And I will give but a few facts to whet your appetite:

• It comes in 30GB and 60GB models
• It can still hold music, album art, and photos, as well as 150 hrs video (60GB model)
• It has a big ole' 2.5-inch display
• It has 5 more hours battery life than the 4th Gen
• It comes in black, sans Bonno (yes!)
• The 30GB is 45% thinner than the 4thGen and the 60GB is 10% thinner than the 20GB 4th Gen!

Welcome to Google Earth.
Google Earth is a 3D globe on your pc. It allows you to type in any address, or coordinates, and it zooms from space down to the address. On my PC (and 4Mbps cable connection) it takes several seconds for the image to come into focus as it streams the data from Google's vast satellite image aquisitions, but it's well worth it when done, especially in metropolitan areas where the resolutions allow you to make out the models of some cars on the streets (sort-of...).

With the controls, one can zoom, rotate, and change viewing angle. I personally like to hold down a rotate button and get vertigo until I fall out of my chair.

To get to places, there are Fly To, Location, and Direction searches. Once viewing an area, one can toggle pointers for lodging, road labels, terrain, dining pointers, borders, and building pointers. Once can also set custom placemarks to mark areas of interest for future reference.

Local search lets you search for restaurants, hotels, and driving directions. Layers make it easy to layer multiple searches, save results to folders, and share them with other users. Some current layers show parks, schools, hospitals, airports, and shopping.

Google touts the program as being useful for planning a trip, getting driving directions, finding a house or business, or just exploring the world. I've used their satellite imaging on maps.google.com in the past to find NIKE and GLOBECOM sites around Maine, and this will definately make it easier and more fun to do things like that.

These are just a few of the features in the program. I strongly suggest downloading it now (completely free, no registration).

via earth.google.com

The idea is simple. It's a globe that sits inside your PC. You point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Tap into Google search to show local points of interest and facts. Zoom to a specific address to check out an apartment or hotel. View driving directions and even fly along your route. We invite you to try it now.

Google Earth is free for personal use. You may (optionally) choose to upgrade to Google Earth Plus.

Google Earth Plus gets you:

• GPS integration - read tracks and waypoints from your GPS.
• Higher resolution printing (greater than screen resolution).
• Customer support via email (not just web).
• Annotation - adds draw/sketch tools for richer annotations (can be shared as KML).
• Data importer - read address points from .csv files.

Google Earth Plus is aimed more at cartographers and map enthusiests.

Systm Episode 2 - Build your own MythTV box is out now!

Bittorrent links for Xvid, Windows Media, Theora, and h.264 quicktime 7 versions are available at systm.org

What may be even more stunning (at least it was to me) is the news that Apple has been building an x86 version of OS X with each PPC release they've done!

via Arstechnica:

Speaking to developers, Jobs said that every build of OS X has also been built on the Intel platform. Jobs said that Apple had dedicated teams for a "just in case scenario," and that the company had decided a long time ago to make sure that the OS was platform independent. This "secret double life," as Jobs referred to it, means that a transition can be done smoothly over the next few years, and Jobs seemed to exude some confidence, showing Tiger running on an Intel demo box.

The justifications for this move include the lackluster performance of the PowerPC 970 (IBM's inability to break 3.0GHz), and heat/power issues that have prevented the creation of a G5 PowerBook.

Oh god oh god oh god, despite whatever Apple may attempt, I pray my rig will be running OS X in a year. Of course, it goes without saying (though I'll still say it) that this is a major development, and be sure I'll stay up to date with news as it comes to my attention.

thanks Webfroot for the rundown! Go there now, or go to Arstechnica's article.

UPDATE:

Apple's Decision to Use Intel Processors Is Nothing Less Than an Attempt to Dethrone Microsoft. Really.

WWDC: What developers are saying

As stated in the newsletter, "While Systm is a general interest HOW-TO show, thebroken will continue to have 40'z and hacking". Thats good news, for though I welcome any show by Kevin Rose, I would hate to see The Broken go the way of Call For Help.

They're throwing a release/Dan's birthday house party tonight with invites going out to "Kevin, Dan, Keith and Ron (systm/thebroken crew) along with other TechTV staffers (Leo, Pat, Yoshi, Martin, Alex, and others (Ramzi) have all been invited)." with a webcam and IRC chat for us lowly fans. I didn't catch anything until a few minutes ago, however, and it apears they shut the cam off at 10:11 pm PST. There are only three people chilling in the picture, so I assume they party didn't go well, or it was crazy nuts and someone went to the hospital. I'm guessing the former, which saddens me with memories of our first and only "rave" at Jalbey's house.

As for new The Broken episodes,

I'll quote the newsletter:

After several weeks of lawyer negotations with G4 (my 9-5 job), they have agreed to release me from my contract. Friday May 27th 2005 marks my last day on the G4 network. That means we are focusing on thebroken / Systm FULL TIME! We are starting to plan the next episode of thebroken now, and we'll send out another update as we get closer to the release! Now that this is our full-time job, expect to see many more video releases coming your way!

It is sad to remember how G4 completely destroyed TechTV and every good program on it (except X-play, somehow), but I am elated that we still get to see many of the people that made it a great place to watch.

Ugh! The torrent is 97.4% complete. My posts are never long enough...

If you only have a basic account, do NOT upload full-sized pics. You have a 10MB of bandwidth limit per month and will use it up FAST! I did my first month.
Instead, resize your pictures to 510 by 383 (510x383), which is the size they will be displayed at anyway, since users cannot zoom your pics if you have a basic account. This will allow you dozens upon dozens of more pics per month.

If you hate resizing pictures by hand, or writing a psp photoshop script to do it for you, go to the Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP page and download Image resizer. It puts an option in your right-click menu to resize any selected pictures (batch or individual depending on what you selected before right-clicking). You can do any custom size, or choose from presets. One important note though: It creates separate images by default. If you want to resize the originals you must select that option in the advanced button. It is extremely easy to use and resizes very nicely.

At the PowerToys page you can get a bunch of other indespensable add-ons, including TweakUI, which NO XP machine should be without. It lets you customize nearly everything about how XP looks and operates.

While I'm at it--if you have an LCD or fuzzy screen, get ClearType Tuner. It makes it easier to read text on your screen by adjusting the way fonts look, it really works wonders, and installs in the Control Panel for easy access.

Also check out Open Command Window Here, Alt-Tab Replacement, and Virtual Desktop Manager (all at the PowerToys page).

Also, if anyone wants a gmail account, whether it be for coolness' sake or just 'cause you need a new email addy, I have 50 Invites. Just request one in the comments or e-mail me at euicho [at] euicho.com and I'll send you one.

The expeditionary team studied the elder layers of river sediment in which the fossils were found and latest analysis concludes the fossils are far older than previously estimated, and are very close to a layer of volcanic ash laid down 196,000 years ago.

Our race's age has just been discoverd to be 50,000 years older than previous estimates had concluded!
(www.realestategates.com/news).

Now granted, maps.google.com is in its beta, and probably isn't as comprehensive as some of the competition, but MAN look at those sexy maps! Search your street address, and view the 3D shadowed address bubble. If that weren't enough, the whole map is dragable, like a pdf file! This means no more clicking an arrow image thats linked to the next image. Its all real-time baby. Get directions to or from a location and get an interactive list of directions with a zoomed window of all the key turns and directions.

Google Video searches the text of the closed captioning data from a T.V. program and grabs screenshots off the video stream from time the text occured. Searching within a T.V. show is something one couldn't do before unless it was an older show and had an episode guide. It could go mostly unused, or it could become another thing we don't remember how we lived without. To date they have but a few stations dating back to December 2004 (still in beta), but it is ever expanding. Besides, a search for Family Guy gave me numerous results, so what else does one need?

I had absolutely NO idea that this many people actually used wireless networking up in Maine. I havn't even gone around half of campus yet either. The best part, though, is that I can hit 4 networks from my apartment including the hospital across the street that has a wicked fast connection. As I drive around Bangor, every few seconds Netstumbler squawks at me, detecting another MAC.

This is too fun for words. Now I just wish I had a cheap GPS unit to plot the locations automatically with netstumbler!

While how to obtain pirated goods, and how to stay out of trouble, are common knowledge to most every power-user, even some technophiles don't know how that content gets to the networks they download it from (ie: P2P networks).

Most people today believe that when the latest album or movie shows up in the search results of their client of choice, it is because somebody bought said medium, and ripped it and shared it on the network in exchange for others doing the same thing. This, however, is not quite how it works in the real world.

To find out how it really works, and where you're pirated content really comes from, read this excelent article by Wired about The Shadow Internet. It is a must read.

see also:
Profits from Piracy
Piracy Paranoia Proves Counterproductive
Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution