Category: Technology

New Navigon GPS with 3d Signage and Buildings (7200T)

Thursday, 28 August 2008 12:11 Written by Mike 1 Comment

Navigon has a really cool new GPS unit coming out.  The 7200T.  It takes navigation to the next level.  We have seen the portable GPS and you wonder, what can be done to improve on them?   They are already really good.  Well…  What if the display would show you road signs and buildings?

Yep, that is right.  Checkout the image from the Navigon web site below.

Here are some of the vitals on this new unit:

  • New very cool Redesigned OS
  • Traffic Updates that are free because they listen to the Clear Channel Total Traffic Network on FM
  • Reality View shows you some very real looking 3d signage
  • Landmark View 3D shows you realtime 3D graphics to represent buildings and more
  • 4.3 Inch, 16X9 touchscreen display.
  • 2GB of Flash storage
  • MicroSD card support
  • 64MB Ram

The new unit will be available in October and in the $450 range.

iPhone App: Voice Dialer

Thursday, 28 August 2008 10:36 Written by Mike 0 Comments

Ok, by now we all know some of things that are not included in the iPhone that most other new phones these days include.  One of them is Voice Dialing.

The only thing I can figure is Apple is counting on the App developers to come up with things that will fill the gaps.

Well for voice dialing there is a new App in the App Store called Voice Dialer that is trying to fill the gap of voice dialing.  Unfortunately it still requires some iPhone hands on to get it to work.

Because of the developer agreement with Apple, applications are not allowed to run in the background.  So there is no way currently to detect when someone pushed the button on their bluetooth headset.  So to dial by voice you must first load the application by tapping on Voice Dialer.

Then you must touch the large button on the top part of the screen while giving the phone a command.

So how does it work?  Actually pretty well.  The first version I had would not automatically dial the number, you had to click on the number you wanted to dial.  The latest update that I have does allow you to set a timer that will automatically dial after a set number of seconds.

I can only think this is so you can verify the person it selected is the correct person.

So far I have found the matches it finds to be pretty accurate.  There is also no voice training like other voice dialers.  You can use simple commands like “call John appleseed work” or “call nickname dad mobile”.

After speaking the command you will quickly see the contact information on the screen and after the set number of seconds for auto-dial, the dialing process begins.

This is still a young app and I am excited to see where they take the app.  This is the first voice dialer app that is work writing about.

New Security Flaw in the iPhone

Thursday, 28 August 2008 10:03 Written by Mike 0 Comments

A new security flaw was found in iPhones that have password protection turned on.  This is not a problem if you do not have password enabled, after all, it is already wide open.

This is the flaw:  When asked for a password, click on the emergency call button then double tap the home button.  If you have your home button setup to go to your favorites you will see a list of your favorites.

From the favorites screen you can click on the blue arrow and see all of the personal information for that favorite contact.

And there is more…  If you click on the email address for the contact you can compose and email, click on cancel and you are back at your email account selection screen and you can then read all of the emails in all accounts.

If in the favorite contact details screen you click on send text message then you can click cancel and you then have access to all of the text messages in your phone.

If you have the home button set to bring up the iPod application, you can click on emergency dial then double click the home button and have full access to your iPod.  No real security issue there that I can see.

The temporary quick fix for this Security Flaw is to go to settings -> General -> Home button and set it to Home.  With this setting there is no more security flaw.

So the question is, was this a “feature”.  I can see where some people would like access to the favorites in an emergency situation.  However, there should be no access allowed to the personal information and definitely no access to the actual email application.

Lets say you are out with your kids and you fall and break your leg and you need the kids to call for help.  But that password on the phone is so they cannot use the phone.  They can at least call home, spouse, etc. without the password.

It appears that the next release of the iPhone will solve this problem.  For now it can solved by changing the options.  But, more than likely you do not have the password turned on anyways so it does not matter.

There has been large concern about the security of the iPhone, should you be worried?  I don’t think so.  This is the first major security flaw so far since the release of iPhone 2.0.  If you compare that to the large number of security flaws that are found in windows mobile, they are not doing too bad.

Sorry Windows Mobile, I really like you too……

Review: Aiptek HD 1080P camera

Friday, 08 August 2008 15:37 Written by Mike 1 Comment

One of the fun things that I do is review different toys… I mean electronics. This review is for the Aiptek HD 1080P camera. Before I signed up for the review, I had already purchased 2 of these camera.

I had a project where I needed to create a 3-D video. Part of making the 3-D video you need 2 cameras to record the video in stereoscopic format. The trick is the center of each lens needs to be about 2 1/5 inches apart. There are not many cameras that you can put together that closely. So I went in search of a camera I could do this with.

I found the Aiptek at Best Buy when I went looking and settled on them for the project.

Let me first say that if you are looking for a professional High Definition camera, stop reading now. There are the furtherest things from even a pro-sumer high definition camera. I picked them up at Best Buy for about $160.

The old saying “you get what you pay for” fits here. But let me just say, for $160 they are not horrible cameras. In my review process I recorded some video at a carnival of my nephews and when I edited the video just about everyone commented how clear the video was.

The cameras come with very limited build in memory for video but can take SD cards. I purchased 2 8 Gig SD cards, one for each camera.

Here is a review of the camera features:

  • Record at 1080P @ 30 FPS
  • Record at 720P @ 30 FPS
  • Record at 720P @ 60 FPS
  • Record DVD (NTSC) @ 60 FPS
  • Record for the web @ 30 FPS
  • Take still shots at 3, 5, or 8 Megapixels
  • Night recording mode

That is a long list of features. Now the more technical side of things…. As far as the lens… There really is no lens. There is a small plastic cover that protects the sensor. The sensor is very small. It looks even smaller than the sensor that is on my iPhone.

Now one word of warning about the 60 FPS. I use Final Cut pro HD and am running the latest version. It had problems editing the 60 frames per second videos.

After I figured out the problems with 60 frames per second and started recording in HD at 30 FPS, editing was a breeze. To transfer the videos you can remove the memory card and use a card reader to remove the videos. Or you can plug up the camera to a PC with the USB and it will show up as a new drive on your computer. When connected to the USB, the battery gets charged.

There is no image stabilization in the camera and you can really tell when you are shooting in High Def if you do not have a steady hand.  I suggest using the camera mount and putting it on a tripod or monopod if you can.

There is a removable battery however, there is no batter charger sent with the camera. The USB is the method of charging. The camera also comes with cables that allow you to hook it up to a TV.

For the price, this is not a bad camera but it does not feel very sturdy and is low on the spectrum as far as quality goes.  If you are looking for a fun cheap camera that you will not be upset if it breaks, then this is not a bad camera.

But if you are looking for a long term camera or a camera to do some professional or semi-professional work then I cannot recommend this camera.

For the fun project of making 3D movies the camera worked great for me.  But it cannot be used to do any of my other projects.

Parallels for Mac and VMWare Fusion

Wednesday, 06 August 2008 14:33 Written by Mike 0 Comments

it is no secret that I am a huge Mac fan.  I am not a mac only fan.  I am a big unix fan (mainly linux and sun) and I also like Windows too.  Each operating system has it good and bad sides.  For example, I really do not like quicken or quickbooks on a Mac but I really like it on Windows.

So you like the simplicity and reliability of the Mac but do not want to have to give up your Windows programs.  Well, with the Intel based Macs you no longer have to give up your Windows applications.

One solution is to use boot camp which comes with the Mac.  The problem with boot camp is you can only have either Windows or the Mac booted up but not both.

I bet you have heard of Parallels for the Mac that lets you run Windows apps.  In this blog I am going to compare Parallels for Mac and VMWare Fusion.

Both applications create a virtual machine that allow you to install Windows inside of the Mac operating system.  This allows you to run Windows inside of a window on your Mac.  There has been some confusion around some of the marketing for Parallels.

Parallels allows you to run windows apps because it allows you to runs windows.  But unless you install windows inside of parallels you will not be able to run windows applications.

I have had people want to install the Microsoft Office programs for windows on their new Mac so they did not have to buy a new copy that was Mac compatible.  Yes you can do that but you must first install windows under Parallels or VMWare Fusion.

Both Parallels and VMWare Fusion create a virtual machine that runs inside of the Mac operating system.  They have a few other things in common:

  • You can share files between the Mac and Windows
  • Transfer files with drag and drop simplicity
  • Multiple Virtual machines can be created and more than one can be running at one time
  • Support for multiple operating systems (Windows XP and Windows Vista, Linux, etc.)
  • VM Snapshots
  • Support for DirectX

Each product has their own way of doing things.  Parallels for Mac has been out longer and has a few new features.  The beta version of VMWare Fusion is available now for download.

Now Parallels for Mac has been around longer than VMWare Fusion however, VMWare has been around a lot longer than Parallels.  VMWare has had VM products for many years that run on Windows and Linux servers.

I have both of these products and have tried them both and I keep gravitating back to VMWare fusion.

According to the Parallels web site they outperform VMWare fusion but from what I have personally seen, VMWare runs circles around Parallels.  Also, VMWare fusion does not crash on me.  Parallels had some stability issues.

Both companies offer a free trial download so you can try them yourself.  If you want to run your windows apps on the Mac, try them both.  I can personally recomend VMWare fusion.  That is the product I have selected as my choice.

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