Pretty Universal Keyboard

I did have a long search after a solution to how I could write emails and my personal journal while travelling "on the go". My old Psion Revo had became a bit limited in features and also a bit unreliable so there was a need for a new tool. The limiting factor was that I did not want to buy a PDA, as my work at Nokia provides me a S60 smartphone(s) which I was going to use anyway.

I ended up buying the Stowaway Bluetooth Portable Keyboard after reading couple of good reviews and the impressive compatibility list. As the keyboard works with Symbian phones, Palms and some Windows CE PDA:s, and also with WinXP and OSX not too much is left to be desired in that front. I have had some experience with companys folding keyboards for Palms, so I expected something similar. To be honest I was positively surprised.

The mechanics and size of the product are impressive. The metallic finish pleases the eye and feels good at hand. When the keyboard is closed the package is not completely "sealed" so dirt and dust can get into the mechanics from the sides. Therefore I have used the cover bag which was shipped with the product without complaints.

So far, I have only used the keyboard with couple of Nokia S60 phones (3660, 7610, 6670 and 6630) and have yet to try it with Mac and Windows. So, the experiences here are just from the mobile phone usage.

As S60 phones do not yet support BT HID profile, a driver and control application has to be installed on the phone. The SIS package installation went without problems, no reboot needed etc. The pairing of the keyboard is straightforward: When user presses ctrl+lfn+rfn combination on the keyboard, it breaks the present pairing and is open for new connections. The utility app then discovers the keyboard (shows the list with MAC addresses if there happens to be many of them present) and does the normal BT pairing, by asking the passcode etc. The keyboard utility application allows the user to change the Key repeat delay and -rate, and bluetooth security setting, in addition to actual pairing procedure with the keyboard. The same stowaway application seems to be used also with the IR keyboards made by same company.

It seems that you are able to pair with the Keyboard also from the S60 Bluetooth application, even the password confirmation works the same way as with the Stowaway utility. However, this method cannot be used to get the keyboard to work - the kb driver itself does not recognice the device paired outside its own application. I did found this as I tried the keyboard with Nokia 6630 which is not yet officially supported by the driver. I managed to get it work in the end by turning off the Bluetooth security (not recommended).

Immediately after pairing the keyboard, it is in use. When the keyboard is set as authorised, the connection is made immediately after the first keypress after the keyboard is opened. In practice there is about one second delay.

The very first usability bug emerged on the first sentence I tried to write: The S60 pen menu popped up every time I pressed either of the shift keys. After some practice I found out that when you press the shift long enough, you are able to type capital letters without the pen menu. This was a nuisance and really affected the usability of the keyboard with S60 phones before it was fixed.

Also the couple first times I used the keyboard I was unable to find out how to use the softkeys - there was no mention of that on the user guide! Thankfully the tech support was quick enough to reply my short e-mail: The softkeys are used by pressing left FN and either left or right section of the spacebar. The other keymappings to S60 keys were sraightforward enough: Applications, OK, etc were found on keyboard. Copy and Paste even worked with familiar Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V (!)

There is now a new driver available which fixes the Shift-pen menu -bug. With the fixed version the usage of the keyboard is as it is ment to be. The last time I checked the website it stated there are no PalmOS support at the moment, but I have been left under impression that alpha/beta versions of Palm drivers are in the circulation already (not confirmed).

Battery life with two AAA batteries seems to be good. I bought the keyboard at end of October and now, after one and half months I'm still using the same batteries. During that time I have used the keyboard couple times a day almost every day.

The final verdict is that Stowaway Bluetooth Portable Keyboard is a solid product and I am very pleased with it. With the keyboard I have been able to write long emails, journal entries and other texts with ease. Recommended!

Good points:
+ Solid, good mechanics
+ Ease of use, and take into use
+ Full size keyboard
+ Detatchable stand for mobile
+ Literally universal, works/will work with almost anything
+ Support responds in finite time

Minus sides:
- Symbian drivers still buggy. (The pen menu pop -bug solved now, though)
- Complete key mapping not in the user guide
- No separate number keys

Bought keyhole..

Despite saying just couple of days ago that the Keyhole application is mostly eye candy, I ended up buying the one year subscription.. The amount of material available from the tool is just amazing. E.g. checking out the places in the world you have been is good fun.

Of course, more detailed images from Europe would make this app a real killer! If e.g. Finland and UK would be covered in detail I would pay even more..

Example image:

Apple Store London grand opening

Apple Store London was opened Saturday 20th. Of course we were there! 8) OK, we were not so HC to queue from early in the morning (in the rain). But, in 5pm getting in was easy. Couple of piccies follow.

(Boy, I WANT that 2x30"-display & 2x2.5GHz G5 -setup.. and and and...)





Link to official photos from Apple website

Keyhole - a view to the world

Tried out the Keyhole 2 LT. It is an application which combines satellite imagery, mapping, address/GIS information and renders the result to 3D. User is able to literally zoom around the Earth, while the application loads and processes the satellite images related to current 3d view in the background. If the accurate information is available on your area, you can zoom to the level where you can clearly see your house!

The graphics rendering is very impressive delivering WOW effect. If a comprehensive international map and image information would be offered this could be the killer mapping application. Now the accurate imagery is offerd only in the urban areas of north America and only some selected locations in Europe.

Most of what the app delivers is just an eye candy if the user is just after a map information. If you are just after map of certain area go for MultiMap or similar, free and fast. However, if you want to combine the map inforamtion with other images, e.g. statistical data, weather maps/radars, POI:s, etc. there might be some real value here. The real target for the company is clearly the enterprise usage: newspapers, TV and internet publishers can use the 2D/3D images or animations in their news stories. (The enterprise version of the product has much richer feature set, and much bigger price tag..)

For me this is a good technology demonstrator where the mapping and GIS systems might be heading. Make this information available to the mobile devices, combine it with GPS or other location information.. It could really help you finding youself around if you can see the accurate satellite map overlay of the area around you combined with the direction information.

Picoblogger 1.0

This is small review of PicoBlogger 1.0, moblogging software for the Series 60 mobile phones made by the PicoStation Inc.



PicoBlogger is much more finished product than some others in the market. The user interface is rather consistent and usable. The application also concentrates on what is important before adding other finesse: snapping the pic and posting it. When everything goes right doing that is really straightforward and easy.

One has to concentrate on the phrase "when everything goes right". There seems to be some trouble ahead when there is anything exceptional you want to do, or if the phase of the moon is just not right.

I might be a bit biased on this as I use only blogger.com -service. Some of the problems might be because of the implementation of the blogger service itself, not the way how picoblogger handles the protocol.

The good things:

• It works! 8)
  
• UI is clean and intuitive (with some reservations)
  
• Photoblogging is easy and straightforward: Launch app, snap picture, write title and body text and post.
  
• Setup is easy with blogger.com, the software can fetch the information of your blgos from the account.
  

The gripes:

• Instability in posting or saving the draft post: Sometimes the software goes to deadlock and the image and posting is lost
  
• The images posted to blogger.com blogs are stored in picostations own server, not the server defined in blogger.com account. (The image upload works with the other supported blog services)
  
• If the posting fails because of the server end error, you cannot edit (or export) the unsuccesful post, you can just try to re-send
  
• Strict copy protection system, perhaps over the limit of usability.
  
• To use and register the product you have to create an account to the picostation service. IMO this is unecessary step when the usual case is to use this with own blog service anyway. It raises also concerns of some unecessary call-home functionality.
  
• Non-existent image manipulation options.
  
• The HTML source of the blogger.com posts seem to have some incompatibilities with blogger.com templates.
  

The wishlist for the future additions is long. One has to remember these are not shortcomings of picoblogger, it is good to start from few features that really work, compared to buckets of buggy features. Also, I have a strong vision what a moblogging application should be like to Really Work (tm):

• Enable the use existing images for posting.
  
• Enable the saving of the images taken with picoblogger.
  
• Enable the usage of digital zoom in the viewfinder.
  
• Add basic image manipulation: Crop, rotate, resize (It is to be noted I have yet to find a single S60 application that does these functions well..)
  
• Add the support of proper image upload in combination of the blogger.com service
  
• Add the support for posting a thumbnail with a link to bigger image
  
• Add the possibility to move the unsuccesfull posts to drafts (= enables editing them)
  
• Add the possibility to upload also other objects: Voice and video clips, text files and perhaps also other documents.
  

PicoBlogger is a good product, and I would say it is the best moblogging software there is for Series 60 phones today. The potential of it is even bigger, if the main gripes are corrected in next versions. I would not wholeheartedly recommend it to the blogger.com users but it is definitely worth to give it a try!

Konfabulator for Windows!

Hihii! Konfabulator for Windows has arrived after a long wait! I have waited this eagerly even before the Windows version was hinted to be under development. Somehow the alternatives like DesktopX have been bit too intrusive to the system in a way I disliked - they changed the overall look and feel of the rest of the system. (Here I must confess I did not give them really big look. Also I haven't really checked Kapsules)

OK, its mostly eye candy, but I have already some small widgeds in my mind which I have to find or code myself..

Now, only if somebody would bring Exposé equivalent to Windows. ..or bring me the G5 PowerBook. 8-)

Interactive walls

A project started as a thesis project of italian Dario Buzzini has ended as an commercial product of interactive wallpaper. From the images and description from his site it seems that one can change the patterns of the wallpaper by touching it. Moving your hands leaves a trail to the wall.

The scoop does not give further details what technology is used to display the pattern on the wall, nor how the "wallpaper" is controlled. Whichever way this is made commercially available I would like to see it in real life!

Anyway I am very tempted to think that intelligent materials which allow the user to change the color and pattern electronically without repainting, will be THE thing in the not so far future.

New books to reading list

Amazon.co.uk kindly delivered the books on the image today. So, the next on my reading list are "Microserfs" and "Generation X - Tales for an Accelerated Culture". Being an repsetentative of both nerds and GenX (kinda), I think these books should be interesting read.

The last book I have read was Uhrilento by Ilkka Remes. It was the first Remes book I've read and while not perfect it was well good enough for me to give some other of his book a try..

Security by.. fake cameras?

Found this from the local Morrisons supermarket: Three "realistically moving" "security cameras". I do not know what to say.. Who is fooling who with these? 8)

iPod Photo to the shopping list

I am perfect candidate for Apple marketing. Almost a Apple fanboy, I think. The reason behind these thoughts is the urge that was awaken within me to buy one of these new iPod Photos.

I have been waiting for the 60G iPod to come to market as it would accomodate our 30G (and growing) music collection and still work as a portable harddrive for large transfers. The photo functionality and colour screen raise only mixed feelings and some questions - Photo synching through iTunes? Why not any kind of video?

Anyway, at least there is something on shopping list for the first visit to first european Apple Store next month.. 8)

At the same time as Photo iPod, iTunes music store expanded also to Finland. This was a surprise! I wonder whether there will be any problems to start using the Finnish store after

Bruce Schneier's weblog

Here is a blog to follow. Bruce Schneier has converted his Crypto-Gram in blog format. More information about the blog from its the first blog entry.

I have enjoyed reading the monthly Crypto-Gram posts already for a some time. In email form it has been sometimes a bit hard to digest, I think the blog format (including RSS feeds) suits the information much better.

Symbian expo at London

Symbian expo took place at London Excel conference centre. It was very refreshing to see what is going on in Symbian front in a view outside Nokia. Also it gave the feeling how Scandinavia-centric the Symbian expertice really is. The gut feeling was that the half of the people on the showfloor were finnish! 8) Of course among those were couple of ex-colleagues and other friends. I confess, this was the other real reason to attend.

I won't comment further the actual things found from the exhibition, in any case it was very interesting to test all the available competititors hardware. 8P

I'm slowly warming to the new iMac

The new Apple iMac G5 was introduced already a while ago. Among with many others I was a bit underwhelmed by the design and specs of the thing. However, as some time has passed I have started to find the thing actually quite smart. Especially when ordered "fully loaded" with WLAN, Bluetooth, Airport Express, wireless keyboard and mouse (nor necessarily made by Apple..) it would make very smart looking and usable home computer. It could be a real desk estate saver too when installed with wall mount.

There are two personal thoughts behind this pondering:

1) Compact design: The flat we're living here at UK does not offer the very optimal space for the computer equipment - therefore we've been using laptops only for quite a while now. New iMac could be a good compromise for a "fixed" home computer - a role which is now handled by old G3 iBook with dead battery. 8)

2) Secuirty and Usability: The next time I'll buy a computer to computer illiterate it will be OSX-based. I've seen so much hassle in many cases updating/checking/advicing/worrying about a windows PC box somewhere without no nerd living next door.

Oh well, the number of computers at home is at its sensible limit (= 2) so I'm not upgrading anything until something happens to iBook. More probable is that I cannot resist the 40 Gig iPod when the London Apple Store opens November..

Would you pay premium for helium?

Here's a premium rate phone number I have not stumbled before - "Helium call". It is supposed to transfer the voice of the caller (and also called) to hight pitch that you get when you have just inhaled helium. Quite a fun idea, at very steep price: the time I checked 1.50 euros per minute..

In principle this would not be that hard to code in to modern smartphone software, at least one using some flavour of push to talk, hmm... 8-)

Virtual Windows

I have always wondered how long it takes to somebody to come up with virtual windows. This guy hooked eight 15" LCD panels in fake window frames on his living room wall. Connected with multi-head display adapters he's now having room with virtual view!

I just found new moblngging software for S60: PicoBlogger. Let's see if it works..

Moblog with PicoBlogger.

Unbelieable little robot - Omnihead

This japanese little robot is unbelieable! Just check the videos! I bet all those moves have been preprogrammed and there is no AI whatsoever. Anyway the manouverability itself is good example how things are gradually advancing..

BBC NEWS | Health | Dementia has dictated our history

BBC news article about dementias effect in world history is an interesting read. Defineatly food for thought in these not very peaceful times around the world. The arcticle points to research results which speculate e.g. if the second world war could have been averted, if the late president of USA would not have been ill.

BT slashes broadband pricing! (finally)

According to a BBC news story BT is going to cut broadband prices by 25%. That is great news for us as we are using the (formerly rather expensive) 1Mb service from them. So, our montly 39 UKP payment will be reduced to 29 UKP!!

I haven't heard anything directly from BT yet but what concerns me is that they are going to introduce some traffic limitations for everybody. So far, their 1Mb conneaction has been without them..

Apple updates from WWDC 2004

As a user of Apple computer (ooold iBook serving as a music player) and OSX I usually follow very eagerly of the Apple product releases. On this years WWDC, the biggest thing was Tiger, the next release of OSX. Tiger will bring true 64bit OS and some serious video performance, system wide contextual searching, along with loads of trimmings.. Tiger was followed by announcement of up to 30" 2560 by 1600 pixel resolution displays (serious drool) and some tool developments.

I got my iBook by chance by winning a web competition. I wish I have similar luck early next year! 8)

Kablog troubles

For last couple of weeks I have been constantly trying to use Series 60 version of Kablog to post blog entries with images through blogger.com. The emphasis of my trials have been on images, and that is exaclty the thing that does not work.. Everything works as expected with the test blog of kablog, but with blogger.com and the blog hosted on own server, just odd error messages.

OK, I agree that Kablog is very early in development, especially the Symbian version. Additionally, the posting of images needs specific blog host related settings to work even with the blogger web interface. My present guess is that kablog cannot handle the sftp path setting that is specific to the server the blog is hosted at - I bet that kablog uses hardcoded value instead.

Kablog authors have a lot work to be done on the usability of the utility, too. It is kind of shame, as having very well thought and utility utility like this would be really a success. Anyway, it is the only possibility there is right now so I will continue trying..

First things to improve would be:

• Provide complete examples how to use the tool with different configurations of blogging systems, not just for the test blog.
  
• When resizing the image, provide a possibility to duplicate the image first - not to resize the original one!
  
• Lots of usability issues - Take a look at S60 style guide.. 8)
  

Any pointers for open source mobile blogging utility with possibility to post also images? (Hmm, maybe I should start one on the next momemt of Spare Time(tm) 8)

Bloglines - easy web-based way to follow your favourite blogs and rss feeds

Bloglines is as described on the site "Free, Web-Based News Aggregator". I have used it for couple of weeks now, and it has proven very useful site. It has actually changed a bit my web surfing habits: Now I first check the RSS feeds from the favourite sites first using bloglines, and only after that check the sites without feed, like finnish news sites. Before, the usual session was to launch dozen tabs from my links page and go through them.

NationMaster.com - Where Stats Come Alive!

NationMaster.com - Where Stats Come Alive!

nationmaster.com seems to be interesting stats site, with which you could compare different countries using unbelievably large number of attributes.

(Is reported to crash certain mozilla and firefox browser versions)

First post to personal blog

First post to my personal blog. Of course there is relation to Wokinkolo -blog which offers snapshots of our life in UK. However, there will be no overlap as in this blog I will concentrate more to my personal aspirations, interesting links and technology news. Also, this blog will be written in english.