Archive for the ‘Geek’ Category
« Older Entries |Unlock your iPhone 4 (or any other) under 5 minutes
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Since I posted a picture of my iPhone unlocked running T-mobile I keep getting DMs, texts and calls on how to do it.
The procedure takes less than 5 minutes. You don’t need a computer. Just your phone and a data connection (wifi strongly suggested).
Open Safari and go to www.jailbreakme.com, unlock the slider and leave the magic take place.
Follow the on-screen instructions. Once rebooted, your device should show a new icon Cydia.
Open Cydia – choose “user settings” when prompted, wait for the refresh
Search for Ultrasn (search icon is on the lower right of the screen).Ultrasn0w should appear. Select the app, install it and let your iPhone reboot.
That’s it. Done. Your iPhone is now unlocked.
Tags: devteam, iPhone, jailbreak, sim unlock, tmobile, unlock, unlocker
Posted in Apple, Geek, Technology, Telecom, iPhone, itunes | 3 Comments »
iPad is to newspapers what iPod is to Music.
Monday, May 31st, 2010
A lot has been written about the iPad and the printing industry. Recently Fred Wilson wrote a post explaining why he doesn’t like the idea of a mobile application but would rather read content on Safari.
His demonstration has some strong point for a power-user but certainly not for the masses. The whole conversation reminds me of the controversy about iPod and music.
Yes, I would basically agree that reading content on a browser is more convenient for me. But reality proves that monetization of digital content via web is complicated.
Apple has created a value added chain of services from publishing to distribution. It’s easy to buy and use.
Newspapers over the world are facing their worse crisis ever. It’s the end of an era. And however we look at it, printing news on paper in 2010 makes no sense.
So will the iPad save the newspaper industry? I think it will. Web content will be limited to headlines, forums, past editions, but premium content will be distributed via apps.
The basic recurring argument saying people won’t pay for content because they can find fresher news freely on the web is just ridiculous. No one buys a newspaper for fresh news. Newspapers are here to bring a deeper, better understanding of the raw information. I don’t think Fred Wilson buys The New York Times to find anything new. He cares about the analysis, the vision brought by journalists and experts.
iPad distribution of newspaper solves many problems:
- production cost [printing]
- distribution
- reachability
- interactivity
- loyalty
- spontaneity
When it comes to market ipad/iphone study I turn to my mother. She discovered emails 2 years ago and never wrote a letter since. Same for the iPhone, which never leaves her sight. iPad has dramatically change the way she reads news and this is just the beginning. I bet newer devices will upgrade the digital experience to unprecedented levels.
Apple brought to the masses what the web failed to provide. SECURITY. My mother feels more secure buying an app online than walking to the newsstand down the road. And that, my friends, is the reason why I believe app stores will succeed.
The ability to pay for your digital content in ONE place, all in one click of a button is magic. Until the web can fix compatibility problem, offline reading, payment options, reminders, push notifications and much more, mobile applications will rule.
Tags: app store, fred wilson, ipad, itunes, mobile apps, new york times, Newspapers
Posted in Apple, Content, Geek, Labotec, Newspapers, Technology, ebook, iPhone | 29 Comments »
Twitter K.O. system
Sunday, April 11th, 2010
It all started with a blog post by Fred Wilson about 3rd party apps temporarily filling holes for Twitter followed by a series of announcement that sparked the Twitt-o-sphere on fire. The young growing social network officially released their first mobile application for Blackberry and announced the acquisition of Tweetie (leading iPhone client).
What does it mean for other 3rd party applications offering competing products on BlackBerry and iPhone? Well it doesn’t look too good to be honest- terrible news for Socialscope, Ubertwitter and Seesmic who devoted thousand of hours building a Twitter client for Blackberry and ultimately hoped to be acquired by Twitter…
The official application uses non-public APIs, offers no request limitation (recently Twitter raised their limitation to 150 requests per hour) and can be easily promoted virally by Twitter as a featured application. So many reasons for developers to spoof a revolt and to call for a broken Twitter eco-system…I call it bullsh*t.
Because frankly – this is what they were all looking for. To beat the watch and build a good enough client so Twitter will buy them out. It didn’t happen although Twitter had initiated contact with those companies. Obviously the price range to acquire a Blackberry client didn’t make any sense to Twitter’s investors (Fred Wilson at least) so they decided to go build their own. If one of the apps had been bought out – the feedback would have been very different.
When I hear stories about Twitter eco-system it reminds me of a quote from Louis C.K. “it’s funny how quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only ten seconds ago”.
About 15 months ago I wrote this post discussing about Twitter’s options to drive revenue. The main threat to revenue stream was obviously the existence of 3rd party applications making money on the back of the social network. Not many developers were too concerned about it and kept raising money to bite the hand that feeds them.
This is why Ev Williams promptly announced the acquisition of Tweetie, confusing everyone on Twitter’s real intentions for future growth. Will they buy or will they develop?
In the meantime, many Twitter clients will disappear from the radar until developers can focus on producing genuine ideas and not just filling holes.
Tags: developers, eco system, seemsic, socialscope, tweetie, Twitter, ubertwitter
Posted in Blackberry, Entrepreneur, Geek, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, android, iPhone | 1 Comment »
5 days with the iPad
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
Here are my thoughts after 5 days of regular usage of an iPad.
- The device has an autonomy of >10 hours which is really amazing considering it’s running on Wifi most of the time.
- iPad’s screen quickly becomes covered with finger prints obscuring the image. I’ll be waiting for a screen protector like this one.
- Wifi is flaky. Not sure if it’s a hardware problem but shutting wifi off and then back on again solves the problem on my unit. Hoping for a firmware update to solve it permanently.
- Lack of a native clock application is unacceptable. Apple has it on the iphone and ipod. It’s the #2 feature of any computing device. How did they miss it?
- No native calculator is also a big fail in my opinion. Why should I pay $4 for a basic 30ko application that should be built-in?
- Apostrophe key is not present on main keyboard. You need to go one layer down. Very annoying. Hopefully another bug easily fixable via a firmware update. For the apostrophe shortcut, just hold the coma via @madamelolo
- I didn’t know the iPad had a microphone. Nice tip from Andy Abramson. Works great when using Skype (BTW Skype app is not yet iPad friendly).
- Seamless video playback. I watched 2 movies so far with great brightness, perfect picture, almost no pixelization.
- Picture frame feature will make any hotel room look like home. Simply launch it from the lock screen (not obvious at first) and enjoy your family pictures full-screen with a bunch of possible slideshow effects.
- Unless I missed something, Safari can’t remember your passwords. Don’t feel like buying 1password application to fill the blank. Will wait for an update. Go to setting–>safari–>autofill to save login/password via @madamelolo
- Keyboard is pleasant, efficient and precise despite what some tech journos wrote. I type most of my emails on the tablet and I find it extremely accurate.
Most people I met that haven’t bought one yet are saying to be waiting for a newer version. Although a newer version is always coming 
there is supposedly somewhere between 400.000 to 700.000 units sold so far. If I was into hardware I would build a line of accessories based on this iPad case with integrated webcam, solar panel, or extra-battery. The iPad case is the perfect extension to add functionality to an already powerful device.
Last point after a few days showing off the tablet around is the sociability of the object. Andy also mentioned it to me. As soon as I pull it out my backpack, it brings immediate attention from strangers asking millions of questions. Becomes annoying after a while to be honest.
Tags: apps, cose, covers, finger prints, ipad, wifi
Posted in Apple, Geek, Technology, iPhone, itunes | 9 Comments »
iPad – the Wow Effect
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
No need to do another unboxing of the iPad. Twitter has thousands of them. Instead I will give my take on this incredible piece of hardware. It goes far beyond being a big iPhone. The iPad is the ultimate all-in-one-killer. It kills the iPhone but more generally smartphones, ebook readers (sorry Amazon, Sony and all the others), netbooks, multimedia players, and to some extent laptops in general.
Two years after changing the face of Telecom, Apple is leading the path to a new era of computing. Forget those huge carton boxes for a laptop, 4 cd-roms, the heavy-duty wall charger, the Targus roller case and the 40 20 min set-up.
iPad is ready to use out of the box– in fact Apple has redefined what we called plug and play.
I can’t imagine the storm of desperation building up at HP, Dell, Sony and all the others. What have those guys been doing all that time? What the heck happened to their expensive R&D department?
Apple did a fantastic job creating a device that has no competition out there. They clearly invented something we didn’t have. Not just an enhanced version of the iPhone.
There are some drawbacks such as lack of Flash support, frontal camera, memory card slot, usb ports. But the device is so exceptional that none of the above should stop you from buying an iPad.
I overheard some voices stating they would rather wait for the 3G version. Well don’t! You can tether the iPad with your phone via WiFi or Bluetooth and it works.
So no need to pay another $200 and wait any longer. Plus you have the option to pick a faster network such as Verizon or Sprint 4G.
On a side note, Gmail offers a brand new layout on the iPad which leads me to think they didn’t specifically did it for Apple but for new tablets running Android OS supposed to be out later this year. Google will have to strike high to compete with Apple’s iPad. Very high.
Tags: abc app, ipad, iPhone, ipod, kayak, kindle, tablet
Posted in Apple, Geek, Gmail, Sony, Technology, Telecom, ebook, iPhone, itunes | 3 Comments »
Hands on Sony PRS-900BC
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Last month I posted a quick comparison between Sony PRS-600 and Kindle 2 where was mentioned the upcoming new Sony.
New wireless Sony eReader PRS-900BC won’t be available for another couple of months but earlier today I got a call from a Sony rep who just received a demo unit.
I played with the device for half an hour. Enough to say I love it but not enough to give an in-depth review.
Size is probably the best asset of this ebook. Somewhere between a Nook and a Kindle DX. A nice 7′ display using E Ink Vizplex technology. A lot has been said on the Sony vs Kindle screen. Personally I like Sony screen better as it provides a natural, high-contrast picture without provoking any eyestrain.
Wireless capabilities add daily papers delivery right to the device, real time RSS feed reader and of course the ability to buy a book on the fly.
Epub open format, 2 weeks battery life, gigantic 1.6gb internal memory expendable to 33.6gb with an SD card and matte black finish makes the PRS-900BC most appealing reader for now. One major drawback is the $400 price tag. Sony must launch around $250/$280. Over $300 will keep sales marginal.
Below pics of PRS-900BC in action.
Tags: E ink, epub, ereader, kindle, nook, prs-600, PRS-900Bc, reader store, Sony
Posted in Books, Content, Geek, Newspapers, Sony, ebook | No Comments »
True mess, wrong phone.
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Jeremie Berrebi wanted me to read Getting Real by 37Signals. I highly recommend it to anyone planning to launch a startup. Their caveats, disclaimers, and other preemptive strikes says it all:
“… the ideas in this book won’t apply to every project under
the sun. If you are building a weapons system, a nuclear control
plant, a banking system for millions of customers, or some other
life/finance-critical system, you’re going to balk at some of our
laissez-faire attitude.
Don’t get huffy if you read some of our advice and it reminds
you of something you read about already on so and so’s weblog
or in some book published 20 years ago. It’s definitely possible.”
Some precious advice found in the book came back to me after reading Truphone’s blog earlier today. Truphone is a VOIP – Voice Over Internet- provider. Their mission is to offer “free and low-cost international calls”. Every attempt to bring down price of telecommunication is a good one as long as you remember to Keep It Simple Stupid – KISS.
Here is basically what Truphone came up with: get a Truphone account online, buy an iPod Touch, get a contract with a carrier for an always-on portable device (MiFi type), add a 24 months contract, buy a headset with microphone built-in, add funds to your Truphone account and you are good to go for low cost telecommunication of the 21st century.
This is the most ridiculous telecom offer I’ve ever seem.
Subscribers are ready to pay additional dollars for convenience i.e. they are not ready to sacrifice simplicity to save 2 cts on a telephone call.
“Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors you need to one-up them. If they have four features, you need five (or 15, or 25). If they’re spending x, you need to spend xx. If they have 20, you need 30.
This sort of one-upping Cold War mentality is a dead-end. It’s an expensive, defensive, and paranoid way of building products.
Defensive, paranoid companies can’t think ahead,
they can only think behind. They don’t lead, they follow.
So what to do then? The answer is less. Do less than your
competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems
and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to
everyone else. Instead of one-upping, try one-downing.
Instead of outdoing, try underdoing.”
There will be 3 kinds of comments after this post, some saying I don’t understand nothing about innovation, some saying I’m an ass for trashing a competitor and certainly a bunch of comments for Viagra and male enhancement. So here comes the natural disclaimer: I have a lot of respect for competition and doers. Truphone does great things and I have used their service several times. They are not a competitor of my core business Global Roaming. Never was. At Global Roaming we do one thing and one only: providing a hassle-free SIM card for travelers.
There is an ongoing temptation to start ‘innovating’ in a wrong way by adding a bunch of useless features just to prove we can do it. Think market adoption, simplicity, sales pitch and PR before you sign off on a R&D project.
“The secret to building half a product instead of a half-ass
product is saying no.
Each time you say yes to a feature, you’re adopting a child. You
have to take your baby through a whole chain of events (e.g.
design, implementation, testing, etc.). And once that feature’s
out there, you’re stuck with it. Just try to take a released feature
away from customers and see how pissed off they get.”
Bottom line Truphone has used heavy dollars to develop a feature that has zero need. What’s next – turn my watch into a Truphone capable device?
Tags: complex, failure, global roaming, ipod, marketing, mifi, simcard, Telecom, truphone, voip
Posted in Apple, Geek, Technology, Telecom, iPhone | 3 Comments »
Is Square a sham or the next big thing?
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Seems everyone is falling for this but me. I had to look at the TechCrunch video presentation of Square few times and I still do not understand what Square is up to.
Is it a clearing house, a merchant provider, payment gateway, a mobile POS – read Point Of Sale , a technology platform or all the above? I don’t have the answer and my guess is Square is exploring all possibilities.
Whatever is shown on that short video presentation is not an easy form of payment process. It took a couple of minutes to pay for a coffee as it takes less than 10 seconds 
to do the same at any Starbucks. What happens during rush hour when 60 people need to pay for coffee? Expect a 120 minute wait to process payment!
What’s the point of a $200 iPhone PoS (Point of Sale – don’t want any confusion here) when you can process credit/debit payment on a virtual terminal at $0 additional cost?
I read somewhere it’s a huge opportunity for pop and mom kind of business, eBay sellers, Craigslists transactions, farmers and so on.
First I believe they could all accept credit cards today if they wanted to. There is a gazillion solution out there for them.
Second do you think those really want to be exposed to chargeback, fraud, IRS, sales tax and potential liability for identity theft?
Third – credit/debit card sales is not CASH in da pocket. Often I shop at Coconut Grove Organic Farmers Market and let me tell you – they don’t like/want your plastic. Cash allow them to live. They already struggle, take it away from them and they die.
So what am I missing? Should I buy the concept because Jack Dorsey – Twitter co-founder- is behind it? Enlighten me.
Tags: dorsey, iPhone, mobile payment, payment, square, transaction, virtual
Posted in Apple, Economy, Entrepreneur, Geek, Telecom, USA, iPhone | 10 Comments »
Droid Must Have Applications
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
It has been 2 weeks since Droid invaded my life. Let me be clear – it’s not a perfect device. Verizon and Motorola rushed to get this phone out and I think they did the right thing.
Verizon announced an update for December 11th. Google updated their official website for its mobile operating system. Going by history, Android.com has always been updated before an update is released for the Android operating system. This could mean that Android 2.1 is near, and might arrive on December 11th. To add fuel to the fire, Google recently updated their Android market terms of service which go into effect on Dec 11, 2009. According the rumors going around Dec 11 update should bring the following
- New Android Market with carrier billing support
- Android 2.1 update for select devices
- OTA updates for the Verizon Droid and Droid Eris
- Desktop client for Android Market
Nothing regarding much wanted features: pinch-to-zoom, Sense UI, Mobile Chrome Browser, screen capture and tethering.
Therefor I decided to put up a list of applications to make the Droid a much better device .
List of must have applications as of December 1st:
Better Keyboard – $2.99
Better Keyboard provides some options like three different keyboard layouts and slightly larger keys. You can type letters and numbers without having to swap keyboards. Improves overall typing experience.
Astro File Manager – FREE
Astro should be in all Android phones. It’s basically a file manager to browse SD card, system files but also a utility to kill running processes, optimize RAM and create/rename/edit folders.
DockRunner – FREE
Developed by Active Frequency this app will simulate Multimedia Dock mode. Very handy at night to keep your phone on a night table displaying time. Saves you $30 on an accessory you will barely use.
Dolphin Browser – FREE
Motorola Droid has some core features disabled such as Pinch To Zoom -certainly to avoid potential lawsuit with Apple. Dolphin Browser brings pinch-to-zoom to Droid. It’s fast and powerful. You can set Dolphin as a default browser and avoid the hassle of using built-in browser.
Beautiful Widgets – $1.50
Droid landing is kind of empty compared to HTC Sense UI. Beautiful Widgets adds weather and flip clock to your home page. Personally I love it and recommend it.
dXTop: Home Alternative – $2.99
I’m not a big fan of themes, backgrounds and ringtones but dXTop is more than just a cosmetic lift. It adds one more screen to the home, dual drawers and screen capture. Unfortunately screen capture feature is working for home page only 
but it proves its doable. I’m surprised we have no screenshot application for Droid so far. dXTop can run with Beautiful Widgets.
Imagine Multi-Touch – $0.99
Droid does not offer multi-touch but it does work! Imagine Multi-Touch is an Android Image Gallery application that supports multi-touch on all Android handsets for $1. Combining Dolphin Browser with IMT makes the Droid so much better.
Market offers much more applications to suit your need. The above applications are specific to Droid in order to improve user experience. I’m taking the opportunity to show some respect to those developers who spend hours, days and weeks to develop an application for a particular need knowing next OS update might make their efforts obsolete. Thank you!
Posted in Geek, Telecom, android, google | 1 Comment »
Droid for Dummies
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
One thing I noticed while purchasing a Droid at my local BestBuy -was the lack of basic knowledge fro
m potential buyers.
Fortunately most will learn fast and adopt geeky habits but some will return their new phones very disappointed Droid did not meet their expectations.
So here is a little tutorial on how to make the best out of your new phone.
First steps to properly use the Droid:
- Remove gently protection sticker on the battery cover BEFORE inserting the battery. Failure to do so will make the battery door irremovable. Been there, done that.
- You need a Gmail or Google Mail App account to operate an Android phone. If you don’t have one you need to create one. Technically you can use an Android phone without a Gmail address but you’ll be missing 80% of core features. I suggest you sign up for a Gmail and add your other email accounts. Gmail account will just be used to sync your contacts, Latitude, Market, etc.
- To configure your phone, you will need to access “settings”. Unlike the iPhone, “settings” icon is not showing on home page. To access the “settings” press the central lower tray to pop up all applications. They are sorted from A to Z. Get to “settings” and start configuring.
- If – like me- you like to keep your phone protected you will need to set it up. By default Droid does not offer protection i.e. PIN code. Android 2.0 introduces a new form of screen lock called “pattern”. Press on central tray, scroll to “settings”, go to “location and security settings”, check mark “Require pattern”. The rest is very intuitive.
- Once your phone is protected from curious, very likely they will try to input pattern. After 5 attempts, phone is locked 30 seconds. Every wrong attempt after 30 seconds will re-lock your phone for 30 seconds. If you forgot your pattern, you can still log on to your phone using your Gmail username and password.
- Market is the application store for Android powered phones. To access Market you need to have a valid credit card on file via Google Check Out [Google Merchant account a la Paypal].
- Downloaded applications are assigned to your Gmail account. Whenever you change phone you simply need to logon using your Gmail credentials and all your apps will be available for download again at no cost.
- For now – Droid offers only 3 home screens. You can add shortcuts, widgets or folders by keeping your finger pressed on an empty spot. A menu will pop up offering several options.
- Background image format covers all 3 panels. Screen definition is a bit odd 960X854 pixels. Check Droid Forum Gallery for cool wallpapers.
- I strongly suggest you install “power control” widget on your central panel. You will be able to toggle Wifi on/off, Bluetooth on/off, GPS on/off, and brightness with a single touch. Very useful.
- To use the camera you need to press on the gold button located on the lower right side of the phone. You cannot use the camera without unlocking your screen first. Keep finger pressed a couple of seconds to launch camera. For now, camera is slow and auto-focus needs an urgent firmware update.
- On most applications you can use the search function. Easy access to search needs a single pressure on the magnifier icon located on the right inside of lower toolbar. Very handy to search applications in Market, contacts, emails, etc.
- To optimize battery I suggest, you set “screen time out” (located under Settings/Sounds and Display) to 15 seconds. By default it’s 1 minute. Also under Sounds and Display, adjust brightness to low. Also in Sounds and Display, set Animations Off. Do not keep Wifi on all the time, mostly on Verizon where network is faster than most Wifi connection. Remember to turn Bluetooth off if you don’t use it. No need to keep GPS on in the house J
- You cannot remove pre-installed applications. To uninstall applications you downloaded and no longer want to have go to “settings/applications/manage applications. A short way to remove an application is to keep your finger pressed on the application icon and use the pop up menu to uninstall it. Very smart.
Here I will stop as I believe further steps are not for beginners.
Let me know if you have additional tips or tricks and I will add it to the post.
Happy Droiding.
Tags: android, bestbuy, droid, dummies, eclair, power control, settings, tutorial, verizon, vzw
Posted in Geek, Technology, Telecom, android, google, iPhone | 23 Comments »
![Really proud of http://getap.ps/prompterous layout [biased] #labotec](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/4951472160_ea68687a9d_s.jpg)
