Good idea... upright, vertical portrait mode tablet holder case with keyboard, USB and battery

Innuevo DOCKr: You want a protective case, additional battery, USB ports and a real keyboard (small wireless Apple) for your tablet? There are a lot of gadget suppliers which cover 2 out of these 4 features, but all 4?

The option to put your tablet in portrait / horizontal mode? I don't know of any product, which does offer that, apart from the early keyboard adapters by Apple for the iPad 1 and Samsung for the first Galaxy Tab, the 7 inch one - both of them did not work on any other device, not even other tablets by those same manufacturers. The same is true for all tablet / notebook hybrids - they are not modular and standardised.

Watching movies on a 16:9 or even a applesque 4:3 screen is fine, typing the occasional text with the onscreen keyboard is ok, but typing longer texts in landscape mode with an external keyboard? Come on. The smaller the font, the more ridiculous it gets. So why do hardware manufacturers promote their fancy notebook / tablet hybrid formats resembling the classic notebooks?

1. Technical logic: both devices fit best as a horizontal design. Especially with a mechanism linking keyboard as a cover to the tablet.
2. Safer stand (tipping point / fall over)
3. We are used to that form factor in notebooks and laptops for nearly 2 decades 

BUT these reasons are producer driven designs, not user driven logic.

I want a portrait mode tablet holder for typing and I sincerely hope that this project succeeds and others follow - for all types and variants of phablets and tablets.

You wait for the "yes, but" regarding DOCKr? Well, it'll be for the Apple iPads first. That's unfortunate for me. If I had an iPad, I'd support that project on Kickstarter immediately. And I wouldn't mind that slightly cheap plastic look on those first photos at all - my only only concern is the slightly elevated keyboard.

The whole product combined with an Apple wireless keyboard, the combined weight would reach 1.95kg. Weight distribution is roughly

• 1/3 case & battery
• 1/3 iPad
• 1/3 Apple wireless keyboard

Too heavy? It seems so at first, but myself and many others carry those type of keyboards anyway. On longer trips, I tend to pack an Apple keyboard, because i don't like the keyboard on my notebook and I like to put a few books under my notebook to raise the screen to a more ergonomic position!

The advantage of DOCKr is, that in many cases it allows to actually replace your notebook when on the move. That is at least 1.5kg saved. And you enjoy a portrait mode screen resolution that is far better than on your average widescreen notebook.

(via mobiflip)

Three Simply Beautiful Timers For Android

iPhone users may be restricted, but they live in their iCage in style. Android apps are often great, but really lack visual appeal. As I upgraded my Defy from MIUI to a CyanmogenMod Jelly Bean customROM, the MIUI timer disappeared as well.
I wanted a simple easy to use timer. And I found 3 simply beautiful ones.

1. OVO Timer
2. Doomsday Timer
3. Measured Timer

All three use the circular motion gesture to set the timer and incredibly are even ad-free. I would happily pay for each of them. As beauty lays upon the eyes of the beholder, here is a short review of the intuitivity of each timer app.

OVO offers the simplest interface

It is very ease to set the time. Once set, the timer automatically starts. If you want to interrupt the timer, simply tap in the middle of the countdown timer. The designers really have thought long and deep how to use as few interactions as possible to operate OVO. Clever is also the option for Google speech recognition as an additional interface to set the timer. By simply saying "3 minutes 10 seconds" it even overcomes the otherwise clever simplification of 30 second jumps when setting the timer. OVO also offers a widget.

Congrats to the OVO team for the simplest timer ever.

Doomsday Timer is a close second. 

The Doomsday team opted for an additional button. Unlike OVO setting the time and starting the timer are two separate steps. Whereas OVI chose to limit the timer to 60 minutes, Doomsday Timer can be set to a maximum of 12 hours, and therefore could even be used as a "normal" alarm clock. The vibrating feedback when setting the timer is excellent.

Third is Measured Timer. 

Like OVO, the timer starts immediately after setting the time. Measured Timer then adds a CANCEL button similarly to the Doomsday Timer. I would prefer a pause / stop the timer active touch area within the timer like OVO. Also the touch area for setting the timer is narrower, therefore you need to initially aim more precisely than for both OVO and Doomsday.

The Measured developers opted for a digital look, making it a bit harder to read the countdown. Good idea is to display the current time in the middle of the knob-like timer.

Update - Ubuntu 12.10 & 12.04: Play Film / Movie DVDs

Check out one of the following pages
for Ubuntu 12.10 https://help.ubuntu.com/12.10/ubuntu-help/video-dvd-restricted.html
for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS  https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/ubuntu-help/video-dvd-restricted.html

According to those pages, in some countries, the use of the below unlicensed decryption software is not permitted by law. Verify that you are within your rights to use it.

1. Install libdvdnav4, libdvdread4, gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad, and gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly. Or if you prefer use the same links on the original pages (see links on top).
2. If you would like to play encrypted DVDs (see the legal note above), open the Dash and launch a Terminal.
3. Type the following into the screen which appears, then press Enter:sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.shAlternatively - if you are a bit lazy like myself - rather than typing this command, you can also copy (normal ctrl-c) and paste it (using ctrl-shift-v) directly into the terminal console!
4. Enter your password to complete the installation.
5. Reboot (without a reboot my computers still would produce an error code)

Unfortunately Ubuntu doesn't feature encrypted DVD playing for copyright reasons. Blame the film industry for that. 

This post serves as a bookmark to myself, because I tend to forget these steps every time I install Ubuntu. 

Update - since Ubuntu 12.04 and now 12.10 Quantal Quetzal, I now use these spring and autumn Ubuntu upgrades as an opportunity to start from scratch. Helps to keep the backups fresh...

And honestly, I think 12.04 (Precise Pengolin) is a bit less update friendly than previous versions. All my Ubuntu installations had a few hiccups after updating to 12.04. Mainly video playing, and Flash seemed jerky and crashed frequently. Since I made fresh complete re-installs with 64bit 12.04, these annoying bugs seem gone...

I also used that occasion to install the 64-bit version on my Lenovo Thinkpad Edge. Overall impression, much smoother, better video, sound, no crashes, no trouble with Flash... I haven't speed-tested my previous installation, so I can't run benchmark comparisons, but the 64-bit feels faster.

Another reminder to myself: the great Ubuntu Multimedia overview page by the German Ubuntuusers.de http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Multimedia

App Wonders

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shake.charge&feature=trending-apps

How about sharing battery life with others, sending energy via email or HOCCER? ;-)

Blackberry exits consumer market - to where?

Another famous electronic giant declared arrogantly to follow a similar focus on business phones a couple of years ago... remember? Yes, Siemens used to produce phones. Technically ok, OS-wise pretty rubbish. But they had business customers. And being big business themselves, Siemens told everyone what features a business phone does not need besides a clever OS: cameras. Manager just want phones that work as phones. Cameras are for spies.

But surprisingly, business people are people and they like phones that other people like. Siemens mobile phone division was sold off and became benqrupt - I couldn't resist poking my finger into that wound. Coincidentally isn't the RIM CEO a Siemens Alumnus?

Meanwhile Blackberry, the former corporate toy, got a sibling called Playbook. But nobody wanted to play with that boring kiddo. The playbook really worked as a RIM device only when coupled with a Blackberry! "Hey, I have got this new great device, but you can only really use it when you buy my other, more boring stuff as well..."

The black fruits descended from must have status symbols to old fashioned telltale in warp speed. "I have got this new iPhone, not great for typing, but otherwise really nice. Do you want my old Blackberry? I loved it, really, I carry it around as well, but I have not used it anymore for quite some time, can't remember the last time actually... You sure, you don't want it? Great for typing you know?"

RIMs' problem is, that currently corporations just buy black fruit stuff to temporary replace old devices for some, but that is just short term. No business invests in RIM infrastructure any longer. RIM lost the game for app development, because the touchscreen mobile devices are taking over the business world in a storm - especially iPhones and iPads. RIMs' world is not offering the economies of scale and network effects that app developers need.

RIM is not just abandoning the consumer market, they are on their way out - full stop.

3 Tips for Samsung Kies

Samsung KIES is an irritating technology from the past.... Back when devices needed to be connected to computers to sync and update them. Remember Hotsync for Palm Pilots?
Unfortunately, for official updates of Android Samsung devices, KIES is the only way to go. And of course KIES is only available for Windows and Mac.
Under Windows, KIES is a bit of a diva. Sometimes works, sometimes the device just won't connect.

I don't sync with KIES. Gmail, Contacts & co are synced anyway. I use Dropbox and Ubuntu One for files and photos. And as backup tool, Titanium is great. The only reason for KIES's existence is the update functionality. This means using KIES is a rare because updates are rare. Not that Samsungs' Androids are stable and smooth. No, Samsung doesn't really care about updating and upgrading devices of their customers (see Institutional Altzheimer and the Tale of Poor Pity-Tab). And KIES is hugely annoying, because I have to use other peoples' Windows PCs for that procedure and connecting KIES to the Samsung devices doesn't always work out of the box.

Three tips to troubleshoot KIES connections:

1. BEFORE connecting the USB cable, check the USB settings of your Samsung Android device if KIES is selected (for Android 2.x Froyo and Gingerbread: General Settings - Wireless Network - USB settings)
2. THEN connect device to the PC. When the KIES connect screen appears on the device, leave it be)
3. AFTER connecting the device, start KIES. For whatever reason, KIES seems to prefer to be launched when the device is connected. When you try to connect your Android while KIES is already running, KIES may try to initiate the connection with the device forever without success. 

The Tale Of Poor Pity-Tab - A Customer Disservice Drama Featuring Samsung, Vodafone and Google And The Abandoned Galaxy Tab 10.1v GT-P7100

It's a shame. A family family drama full of fights, intrigues and tears. The tale of an early-born, unwanted child with a beautiful sister, ignored by all family members, given up for adoption, erring in the streets, because even the foster homes don't want to do anything with it. The case of the Pity-Tab stands out; tragic, but hardly unique.

The characters in this drama:

• Pity-Tab, full name Vodafone Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v GT-P7100 - the early-born tabby kid, had a promising birth, some fixable soft birth-defects named Honeycomb 3.01, but quickly became the family's black sheep
• Samsung - Galaxy the unloving single mum, very attractive, a bit of a diva, many lovers, too many beautiful kids, has a short attention span, always battling with a fruity friend of hers (a expensive but deep running love-hate relationship)
• Vodafone - Vaderfone, the father. Wanted a quickie and got a kid. As soon as the troubles started, he ran away and doesn't want to pay allowances. Claims that he can't remember the night.
• Google - the Uncle, who played a great role in the conception and birth of this poor kid. But Uncle Google is a bit helpless, because no member of the Android family listens to him properly. They all love sex, produce many babies, but are not into long-term relationships. They suffer from institutional Altzheimer and show symptoms of postpartum depression. In order to set an example, Uncle Google succeeded to get guardianship of Auntie Motorola and will hopefully try to look after her offspring. But that doesn't help poor Pity-Tab.
• The Phone Warehouse - one of many adoption agencies which sold these poor Tabby-Babies and then didn't want to have to do anything with the Pity-Tabs anymore.

5 Reasons to combine Blogs and Mailing Lists / Groups

1. Because you can & it is fun
2. To create an easy to read web location to publish a mailing list communication
3. To spread information outside your group, to use the blog as a communication multiplier
4. easy contribution per email without a login
5. anonymous contribution (over comment field on the blog, sent to mailing list and pushed back as a new post to the blog

The Limits and Risks of Combining Blogs and Mailing Lists / Groups

This is the second post of the series "combinations of blogging and mailng lists". The 2008 post "Blogger posting using Google Groups" is one of the most popular Blogger posts on qompute. In this new series we will look into ways to combine blogging and mailing lists, the opportunities, limits and risks:

1. Combining Blogs and Mailing Lists - Publishing on Blogger using Google Groups (previous article)
2. Limits and Risks of Combining Blogs and Mailing Lists (Yahoo Groups / Google Groups etc) (This article)
3. 5 Reasons for Combining Blogs and Mailing Lists / Groups (next article)

The feedback by blog readers
In order to properly offer blog readers to join the conversation, they should either
subscribe to the group or use a public email address. Or you need to enable to send comments as an email to the mailing list or group.

Side effects
There would be a minor side effect, because the comment is then sent to the group, which sends it back to the blog as a new post. Readers and commenters should be warned of this doubling effect.

Combining Blogs and Mailing Lists - Publishing on Blogger using Google Groups

This new series explores the combinations of blogging and mailing lists. The 2008 post "Blogger posting using Google Groups" is one of the most popular Blogger posts on qompute. In this new series we will look at the opportunities, limits and risks:

1. Combining Blogs and Mailing Lists - Publishing on Blogger using Google Groups (This artice)
2. Limits and Risks of Combining Blogs and Mailing Lists (Yahoo Groups / Google Groups etc)
3. 5 Reasons for Combining Blogs and Mailing Lists / Groups 

The first question is, does it work? Yes of course. Here is how..

Blogger.com allows posting over email using an address convention like
googleaccountname1."secretwords"@blogger.com

Then...