Insert clever tagline here

As you probably didn’t know, my new wife (Skirt On The Sideline) and I recently traveled to New York City for our honeymoon. In preparation for our trip we made flight and hotel arrangements, and booked tickets for one broadway show. Our plan was to basically play it by ear while in the city and wander around to see what we could get into. The first day we arrived, I came up with the idea of trying to use only our Android powered smartphones as research and navagation while in NYC. A number of free applicaitons were used by both my wife and I to take us all around the city while we were there.

Google Maps with Navigation.

The first, and quite possiblally the most important application we used was Google Maps with Navagation. As part of the Android operating system, Google Maps was able to pin point our location regardless what part of the city we were located in. The best feature of the application was its abllitiy to use the turn by turn directions to instruct us how to get from place to place. The program lets you select your mode of transportation, either by foot, by car, by public transportation, or by bike. The public transportation option included NYC buses and subway trains with any necessary walking (to or from stations) and any necessary train transfers. Also, as you search for businesses, Google Maps will integrate reviews and feedback.

Basically we were able to use the GPS to locate our starting point, search google for our desired destination, and Google Maps would locate the cloesest train and tell use step by step how to get there. Each search was complete with three different options of travel, and aprox travel time. The only negative that I saw with this application was that it required data to update the maps. So once we were actually underground on the subway platfom, we were not able to update the map or route. However, we found a solution to that problem.

NYC Mate

NYC Mate was discovered in the Android market by my wife. It is an electronic copy of the NYC subway map complete with train schedules and maps of the vacinity around each station. The best part about this application is that all the map data is stored locally on your SD card. So if you are in a train, or on a platform, you are still able to view the map and check the schedules. The only downside was the fact that it does not utilize any GPS data, nor will it map out your route for you. But if used in conjunction with Google Maps the two applications compliment eachother very well. The best part about having NYC Mate was that we did not appear as obvious tourists when we wanted to check the rail map, it is much more descrete than a large fold out paper map.

Yelp

My wife and I only made one dinner reservation for the 5 days we were in NYC. Seeing as I have never been to the city and she had only been once before, we were somewhat lost when it came to eating meals. The easest way out would have been looking for fast food or other chain restaurants that we reconized from home. However, while in NYC we wanted to enjoy the many different food options that the city had to offer. Yelp was very helpful when trying to select a place to eat. Yelp, which is free in the Android market, is GPS enabled and alows you to locate resturants (and other service type businesses) near you and sort them by price and by user review. Yelp also integrates well with Google Maps, which made it very simple to search for a resturant and then map the route to get there. One feature that I also expermineted with was called “Monicle”. Monicle uses the phone’s camera and GPS data to let you visably search for locations in the area by holding your phone in the direction you want to travel. We used this feature to locate a Mexican resturant (which was closed for a private party) near Grand Central Station while standing on the street corner, and also a Chineese resturant (where we ultimately had lunch). Monicle is fun, but not quite as accurate as maping the location out with Google Maps. Your mileage may vary.

Urban Spoon

In addition to Yelp, we also used Urban Spoon to find ideas for meals in the various parts of town. Urban Spoon allows you to pick the location, style, and budget for your meal and with a quick shake of the phone it suggests a location. The listings weren’t as extensive as those provided by Yelp, but we were able to get some great suggestions for food using this application. Urban Spoon is also free in the Android Market.

I’ve been helping my fiancee, Ashley, set up her own blog for the NBA playoffs. Check her out over on Skirt on the Sideline. I also talked her into a twitter page, @skirtonsideline so you can follow her updates and comments.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is almost here. I plan to upgrade a couple of my machines and write my review here. Stay tuned.

I Laughed.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you have heard that Apple planned a huge announcement today (1/27/10) of a revolutionary new piece of technology. Rumours have been all over the Internet about the release of an Apple tablet PC. A device that would blend the grey area between a mobile phone and a full blown PC. Tablet PCs aren’t anything new, many companies over the years have had tablet PCs that were basically fancy laptops with a stylus used for on screen input. They were clumsy, and came off more as a novelty than anything else. Would this new product from Apple be as revolutionary and mind blowing as everyone thinks?

Tech blog, Engadget was at the Apple event today and broadcast the event live. All photos are property of their website.

Right off the bat, I can’t get past the horrible name they chose for the device. iPad. There were rumors of iTablet and iSlate, which sound much better than iPad. It sounds like Apple has released a product for women only, if you catch my drift…

Apple makes it clear that they are going after the Netbook segment with this new device. Netbooks have been out for a while now, and are basically low powered small laptops that are very portable and can be used for lightweight and cloud-based (internet) applications.

However, Steve’s statements aren’t completely correct. While most netbooks are slower processors than full blown laptops, they are adequate enough to be used for web surfing and email. Which seems to be this segment they’re going after with the iPad. However, I am intrigued to see what they can do with this device.

As the demo goes on, it gets more and more clear that what we’re looking at here is a giant iPhone/iPod touch. There isn’t really anything significant here, especially when they show this little titbit of information…

It appears that the iPad suffers from the same limitation its smaller iPhone and iPod touch cousins do. The inability to display flash media!! This is a huge draw back that even those “Slow, Low quality Display” Netbooks can easily do. To its credit, the iPad does look like it has a nice and easy to use email client, iTunes store, and its own version of mobile safari.

The hardware specs are somewhat impressive, however what concerns me is Apples own propitiatory processor. Instead of going the way of the netbooks with an x86 capable processor, such as the Intel Atom or any of the Intel Core Solo/Duo series, they’ve made their own. What do I think this means? The ability to port applications from Snow Leopard to the iPad will be about as easy as porting them to the iPhone. The 10 hour battery life claim is impressive, but like all Apple products the batter doesn’t look to be removable. Heavy users aren’t able to throw a spare in their bag like they can with their laptop/netbook.

While we’re on the subject of applications, the iPad is able to run any iPhone/iPod touch application that is available today. However, it does it in a sort of “compatibility mode” to handle the difference in screen size. Not to worry though, the iPad is able to upscale the application to full screen.

This will work well for games, I guess, but for text heavy applications like Facebook its really awkward. Good luck keeping your neighbor from reading your status over your shoulder.

Another ability of the iPad is to go after products like the Kindle and the Nook, with their iBook store. I believe that the E Ink technology in the Kindle and the Nook will be easier on the eyes then using the iPad to read a novel.

Lastly, price and wireless connectivity. This was supposed to be the big Verizon announcement everyone was waiting for, and the lead in to a Verizon iPhone. Apple unholsters their pistol, takes aim, and promptly shoots themselves in the foot…

Yeah, a no contract, pay as you go, wireless plan is nice. But why further clog up the already hurting AT&T 3G network with all this new traffic. This further confirms that the iPad is just a giant iPhone, without a camera, or the ability to make/receive calls. How about pricing? Rumor was that the iPad was going to be $800 subsidised (with a wireless contract) and $1,000 unsubsidised (without). Clearly this isn’t the case, because of the pay-as-you-go nature of the AT&T plan.

Starting at $499 is decent. It puts the base model iPad close to the pricing of the popular Netbooks. I got my Dell mini9 with Ubuntu for $249. However, go get the full iPhone-like experience you will have to spend at least $649. At this point you can almost step up to a full blown MacBook and run real applications, instead of these watered down alternatives.

After all the anticipation and hype that the iPad generated for the last few weeks, I think that the newest Apple device is a bit of a disappointment. What we have is a mobile device, with many of the similar capability and limitations of the current iPhone. Features I would have expected from this device are things like a camera, multitasking, flash compatibility in the browser, with a more Snow Leopard experience than an iPhone experience. All of these things can be done with an inexpensive netbook, which have even been hacked to run OSX natively. I’m surprised that Apple wasn’t able to deliver a product that could do these things today.

UPDATE: Engadget has just posted some pictures from their hands-on. Holy crap the Facebook app is HUGE!

One of my favorite blogs, LifeHacker.com, reported today that there is a hidden item on Google’s homepage that displays a countdown of the seconds left in 2009. Just visit their page and click the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button with nothing in the search field and the countdown will appear! Pretty cool stuff.

Today, Ubuntu version 9.10 “Karmic Koala” was officially released. I have been running the beta, and the release client on my office workstation and my mini9 for some time now. In my opinion, this is the best version of Ubuntu to date. It is streamlined, and very easy to use. The operating system boots very fast, even on my Intel Atom powered mini9, and has been compatible with pretty much all my hardware out of the box. If you’ve never used Ubuntu Linux, I encourage you to download the CD (which is totally free) and give it a try. You can demo the software on you PC by simply rebooting your PC with the CD in the drive. Ubuntu can also be installed easily alongside Windows XP/Vista/7 so that you can experiment with the software. To get your CD image, head over to Get Ubuntu – Download . I recommend using the BitTorrent version if you have a BitTorrent client installed. The mirrors hosting .iso files may be a little overwhelmed today. Once you install it, OMG! UBUNTU! blog has a great write up about 10 useful things to do to further improve your experience. 10 Useful Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

For those already running the Beta/RC of 9.10. Just use apt-get or the package manager up bring all your packages up to date and you’re good to go.

The new blackberry messenger that was released last week has added the ability to decode QR codes using the phone’s camera. I’m about 98% sure there’s an app for the iPhone and for Android that’ll do the same thing. QR codes are 2 dimensional bar codes that can hold a variety of data, from URLs to phone numbers to plain text.

Here’s one for my website

I have a feeling these codes are going to start popping up on advertisements and other promotional things in the near future.

To generate your own QR Codes, head over to http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

So after some more discussion on MyDellMini about Ash’s damaged Dell A90, it was suggested that I finish the repair job by pouring more Rubbing Alcohol over the effected area and then put the entire motherboard in a bag of plain, dry, white rice so that it could pull any and all moisture that may be left in it. I gave Ash this task, since I was at work. When I got home, we removed the motherboard from the bag of rice and blew any dust off with a can of air. I carefully re-assembled the laptop, inserted the power cord, and pressed the power button…

::holds breath::

I was quickly greeted with the Dell BIOS logo, and then Ubuntu began its boot up sequence. The speakers sang the familiar start up sound and I was promptly at her desktop screen. Success!

The Mini ran last night on AC power for a few hours and today Ash is going to put it through its paces to make sure its stable.

However, the plot thickens.

Yesterday I was thinking about the situation, and realized that I purchases the Minis with my American Express Gold Card. The AmEx has a 90 Day Accidental Damage replacement policy for any purchase made with the card. The Minis are covered in that policy, and so I started a claim. If hers isn’t stable after a few days I’m going to get my money back for the computer and I’ll just order her a new one. Its a Win Win situation.

For those who are comfortable enough to build the GNOME Do application from source, it is definitely worthwhile. Building from source adds additional plugins and a very cool Gmail Docklet.

Images are property of OMG! UBUNTU

Check out the blog post at OMG! UBUNTU : Install Updated Gnome-Do – Now With Awesome GMail Docklet! for install details. I followed their example, after removing the version I installed via aptitude and it works great.