Rumors of a next-gen iPhone coming this summer continue to grow. 3G connectivity and GPS are the common expectations, but a new report from CNN (http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/04/29/att-to-cut-the-price-of-apples-new-iphone/) indicates AT&T might subsidize the cost by $200. This is welcome news for anyone planning on making the switch after their current phone contract runs out - like me!
Just as interesting to me is the likelihood that the various methods of unlocking iPhones are contributing to this move. Currently, there are only two incentives for using an iPhone with AT&T service: convenience and visual voice mail. It's just easier to sign up with AT&T on an iPhone than to unlock it, and other services don't support the iPhone's visual voice mail.
However, VVM is just one feature of many, and hackers have devised extremely easy ways to unlock the iPhone. Thus, very little prevents people from using their iPhones on other networks. Some estimates put the percentage of unlocked iPhones in double digits, up to 30%. The incentives and safeguards to keep users locked in are insufficient. Added incentive is needed and it's in the form of money.
I'm sure other factors, like new competitive devices from rivals, are contributing to the move, but the impact of the unlocking hacks is undeniable. AT&T offered a lot to get the exclusive rights to the iPhone. They're not just going to roll over as hackers take it away. Kudos to the hackers for helping to force their hand. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
Lifehacker (http://lifehacker.com/384257/do-you-handwrite-html) recently asked its readers if they handwrite HTML. They, of course, didn't mean that literally, rather they were asking who codes in text, typing tags instead of formatting in a web editor. Nobody would actually handwrite HTML.
After some early teasers, details regarding a huge multi-site giveaway have finally been revealed. I guessed it dealt with mobile tech since my main mobile tech sources were involved: jkOnTheRun (http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/04/win-one-of-31-h.html) and GottaBeMobile (http://www.gottabemobile.com/31+Days+Of+Dragon+Giveaway.aspx). But the giveaway is literally much bigger than that.
31 HP Pavillion HDX entertainment notebooks (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/ho/WF05a/12139188-78299199-78299212-78299212-78299212-80247383.html) are being given away next month, each from a different website, including those previously mentioned. The "dragon" is derived from the stylized imprint that wraps the machine.
Normally, I wouldn't care about a notebook giveaway unless it was a tablet, but this thing hits the opposite end of my tech spectrum, filling my need for a fully loaded media center. Comes with a built-in Blu-Ray drive, plus all the outputs I need for my HDTV and home theatre system. I'm definitely putting myself in the running for this bad boy. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
Tanya and I enjoyed Friday evening out on the deck, she with her catalogs and journal, I with my tablet. I took the opportunity to test eBoostr (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/search?q=eboostr+trial) on battery power.
Not the cleanest test. I resumed from hibernate then rebooted to restart the eBoostr trial. Also, it was pretty humid and warm, above 80°, so my tablet would be running warm anyway.
I kept notes in Outlook journal via TEO (http://www.tabletoutlook.com/teo/default.aspx), which kept track of the time. Aside from that I started off just running Firefox, but about 20 minutes in, I played music through iTunes. The playlist was streaming from the network drive, so I was running the wifi pretty hard with low signal strength due to being outside (at least no one can hijack my signal unless they're sitting on my deck).
After about 70 minutes, I got the low battery alert at 10%. Not bad given the constant wifi and level of screen brightness necessary for working outside, but also not an improvement over normal.
On the other hand, operation was noticeably smoother than normal. I keep the processor stepped down while running on battery, which can result in jerkiness, but web surfing was snappy, music was free of hiccups, and inking notes in TEO was smooth. Might be because of the speed of the cache.
With the processor stepped down, read speeds were slower than before, but the flash cache was even faster by comparison to direct access. Could explain the smoother operation. Regardless, eBoostr certainly appears to be doing its primary job of boosting performance. I'll give it a tougher workout as circumstances permit. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
With my fresh flash memory card in place (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2008/04/eboostr-trial-sd-card.html), the next step in my eBoostr trial (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/search?q=eboostr+trial) is to download and install the software.
The eBoostr website (http://www.eboostr.com/) is simple and straightforward. There seems to be a dearth of documentation, but that might be intentional given the size and simplicity of the app. Installer is only 1 MB and installed in seconds, not counting the reboot.
After the reboot, eBoostr started up and asked to build a cache file. The eBoostr FAQ suggests a cache of 1 GB, unless you have many apps or big software packages installed. I think I run many apps, so I went with 2 GB.
Building the cache took a good 10-15 minutes. Presumably it's a one-time process, but can be redone as needed. (As of this writing, there was no rebuilding after two reboots.)
After the cache was built, I ran the built-in speed test to get a baseline. Based on a previous report by Loyukfai on the GM forum, I was not expecting to be impressed. My expectation was wrong.
[screenshot]
Apparently, my new high-speed SDHC card is nearly as fast as advertised, clocking in at ~14MB/s. which makes reading from the cache 1.8x faster than reading from the pagefile. Considering my hard drive was upgraded to 7200 rpm with 16 MB cache (vs. my old 5400 rpm with 8 MB cache), that's a fantastic jump in speed.
But again, speed is secondary in this trial. Lowering heat by reducing hard drive activity and power consumption is the goal. Thus, I'll be leaving its so-called Power Save Mode on, even when plugged in. Supposedly it redirects cache requests to the flash drive cache instead of the hard drive. That test will be mostly subjective, but I'll keep an eye on battery usage too.
What's really nice about this trial is that I can test out the full version of eBoostr with no long-term time limit. The free trial has no expiration date, but it turns off four hours after boot up, so I can do a thorough trial before deciding to buy. The free trial is necessary given how its functionality varies greatly with one's hardware, but the unlimited four-hour test periods are quite generous and consumer-friendly. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
Since my attempt to move my tablet's pagefile (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2008/04/pagefile-experiment-is-this-thing-on.html) to a flash memory card failed, I've decided to evolve the experiment into a test of a performance accelerating app called eBoostr (http://www.eboostr.com/).
It functions like ReadyBoost (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Boost) on Windows Vista, building a cache file on a flash drive from which the computer can pull data instead of pulling it from the pagefile. It is intended to boost performance on PCs with limited memory, but I'm primarily interested in seeing how well it lifts the load off the hard drive, which should cut heat and power consumption. A speed boost, if any, will be a bonus.
I'm also interested in seeing how quickly it will wear out a flash memory card. For that part of the experiment, I've selected a fresh, new Sandisk Ultra II 4GB SDHC card (http://www.sandisk.com/Products/ProductInfo.aspx?ID=2201). It was on sale at Best Buy to which I had a $10 gift card burning a hole in my pocket, so I spent about $26 of my birthday money on it.
That may seem wasteful for a product I intend to wear out, but there is extra space for backup data and PortableApps (http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable/test), which I'd been using for testing Firefox 3 (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2008/03/firefox-3-beta-4-fully-armed-and.html). And it's a high-speed card, so it upgrades my speed in those things. Finally, it came with a USB card reader, so I don't have to remove it to read other SD cards (useful once I replace my broken camera).
This is also my first SDHC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card#SDHC) card. My other cards are standard, low capacity SD. Toshiba is a champion of the SDHC format, and my tablet is a Toshiba, so I wasn't worried about compatibility... until I plugged it in.
When I first plugged in my new card, my computer failed to recognize it at all. No beep or failure notice. Just didn't do anything. Using the USB adapter worked perfectly, but the card reader did nothing. So I hit the web and found a patch (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934428) for Windows XP that enabled SDHC cards greater than 4GB to work. Yeah, I know, my card is not greater than 4GB, but I figured greater than or equal. In a welcome change of recent pace, it worked.
I just remembered how I found out about eBoostr (http://www.eboostr.com/). Member of the GottaBeMobile (http://www.gottabemobile.com/) forums, Loyukfai posted about it a few months back (http://www.gottabemobile.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4963). He updated the post last week when version 2.0 was released, but I didn't catch that until after I looked for the original. Anyway, that memory got triggered when I thought about moving the pagefile to flash, so shout-out to L oyukfai for planting the seed of the trial. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
So... my tablet is running as cool as it was with the pagefile turned off. The apps that need the pagefile turned on have worked fine. My virtual memory is set to put the pagefile on my flash drive. But the page file is still on the hard drive.
Yeah, silly me, I changed the pagefile settings (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2008/04/putting-pagefile-on-sd-card.html), but didn't look to see if the pagefile actually moved. So did I imagine the heat difference? That would be the simplest answer, but when I switch it back to normal, it runs hotter again. Another factor is at work, and process of elimination points to the smaller pagefile size.
Referring back to the settings, I did a custom size of 960 MB for the pagefile because of the limits of my SD card. That setting was holding true as I monitored the pagefile activity in the task manager. So there was a pagefile adjustment, just not the one I was attempting.
Oh well. Running cooler is still a win. and since I stated tinkering, I haven't run into a standby/hibernate insomnia problem that occurred occasionally. It's also interesting that the restricted size is doing better than the system managed size.
So does that end the experiment? Not quite. I'm going to continue using this tighter pagefile setting, though that's not very exciting. Also, I already bought A new 4GB Sandisk Ultra II SD card, which I intend to wear out, so I'm accelerating the testing of eBoostr (http://www.eboostr.com/), a ReadyBoost (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Boost) alternative for XP.
Yes, more RAM would be a better way to boost speed (and I may do that too), but this isn't about performance; it's about heat reduction. Shifting work off the hard drive should lead to cooler running. Any boost in speed is secondary, though more than welcomed. I'll let you know how it works. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
I've been getting increasingly annoyed by the amount of heat my tablet puts out and the increased fan cooling that accompanies it. For heavy computing, it's unavoidable, but I feel it's excessive for casual use, like web surfing, so I'm striking at the source: the pagefile.
The pagefile or paging file (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paging) is an element of a computer's virtual memory, which stores data on the hard drive in order to augment the RAM. This means using the pagefile means more hard drive activity, even for simple tasks, which means more heat.
I proved this to myself by turning off the pagefile system. Ran cooler, but there were performance issues. Processor worked harder to manage the memory. Drivers crashed when it came out of hibernation. And some programs, like Acronis TrueImage (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/), won't work without the pagefile.
Keeping the pagefile on the hard drive leads to heat. Disabling it causes problems. The only option left is to move it to a flash drive.
I'm testing it now with a 1 GB SD card with good results. The card capacity is lower than what is recommended, but it's running without bugs and still eliminating the heat. And it's not even a high-speed card.
There are, of course, drawbacks to the system. First, I can't remove the SD card unless I shut down. Not much of a problem since my camera is broken and I have no other SD card devices in active use. I've also never ejected the card accidentally (knock on wood).
Second, flash memory wears out. It can handle tens of thousands of erase cycles, but eventually it wears out and becomes useless. On the other hand, 1-4 GB SD cards are pretty cheap, and it would be interesting to see how long it takes to wear out a flash card.
I think I'll test this out for a bit and even spring for a new SD card, bigger and faster, to do an even evaluation of it. And then maybe I'll give the card a real workout and test out eBooster (http://www.eboostr.com/), a ReadyBoost (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Boost) alternative for Windows XP. I'll keep you posted. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
Yep, it's been two years since I cut aquatic animals from my diet (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/search/label/fish%20boycott) in order to save up my Karma points for retirement when I will eat all the seafood I want. (It's like a 401k for eating fish.) Been easy going until, ironically, this week when I received a bunch of goodies my mom picked up in Japan. Pretty sure I tasted bonito (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonito) in that wasabi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasabi)furikake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furikake). Can't read the label to be sure, but I'm adding a few minutes to the boycott for balance (unless it ends early due to the advent of sustainable, non-polluting, open water aquaculture -- I support high tech solutions). [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
The digital camera we found (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2005/11/found-digital-camera.html) on the side of the road in November 2005 decided to crap out on me this weekend. Didn't drop it or anything. Just got jammed up when I tried to turn it off. I've gotten too reliant on this compact but powerful camera to consider going without one, but I'm torn between a replacement or an upgrade.
The benefits of an upgrade are obvious, but a straight replacement would mean I'd have a spare battery and cradle. I should also be able to find a good deal since it's an older model, so there's a cost savings too. Yep, sounds like a replacement is the way to go. I'll keep an eye on eBay and keep you posted. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
No, not the real Superman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman) (Superman's not real), but a guy at work who's nicknamed "Superman" because of a passing resemblance to Brandon Routh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Routh). Originally the nickname was "Clark Kent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Kent)", but the guy doesn't wear glasses, which is the only difference between Supes and Kent, so I made a point to explain that distinction. Anyway, he's getting an HP tx2000 (http://tinyurl.com/4bcaut), primarily as a laptop, but he's interested in learning more about the tablet side of it too. He's going to bring it in after it arrives. I can't wait! And, yes, I do consider this further proof for my prophecy (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2008/04/hp-tx2000-really-is-tablet-pc-to-watch.html). [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
