JDPFu.com 2010

$99 mini-netbook with an ARM processor

Buy It Today!

The device runs either WindowsCE or Android, but I imagine an Ubuntu-on-ARM or Maemo5 distro will work too. For $99, I’d buy one of these devices today, on a whim. If they were in Walmart or Target, then I’d buy 2 of them. Seriously, my neighbor could replace her $700 laptop with this for all the email and surfing she does AND be safer on the internet.

Add an 8GB class 6 SDHC and you’re ready for most home internet users.

Today, I was doing a little online shopping using my Nokia N800. Ikea has a few price cuts on bookcases and they looked interesting, so I wanted more information.

I visited ikea.com and clicked United States – crash. Not just a browser crash, but a forced reboot of the entire device. SWEET! The N800 uses a modified Mozilla browser running a version of Linux, BTW. This isn’t a normal cell phone or otherwise limited browser. I’m not running with any special permissions either. Crashes shouldn’t be possible.

Good job Ikea. My N800 is 3 yrs old and this is the first time it has crashed to a reboot. Impressive. May I suggest you review your web site for errors?

I’ve written more than a few Nokia N800 Articles and figured that a central location listing them might be appreciated.

On Saturday, I went GeoCaching with an expert Geocacher (over 1000 caches found and logged). We went to a trail that I’ve hiked twice before, so I knew the terrain and was prepared for the effort required. At least I thought I was prepared. It turned out, I was not.

Equipment

I have a Nokia N800 that gets tethered via Bluetooth to a GoPass GPT800 Bluetooth GPS Receiver SiRF Star III. At the time of purchase, this was a highly regarded GPS receiver chip.

My sister had a hiking-specific GPS unit from Garman with a big antenna. I don’t know the exact model, but think it is a metal grey color with black and white screen. No color, since that uses too much energy.

My brother-in-law uses a few applications and scripts that he wrote to grab GPS point data for any geocaches near where we are planning to be. His scripts also grab hints and comments from other enthusiasts.

The Issues

So, we’re hiking on the path and we both have waypoints/POIs entered into our units marking the cache locations. I keep walking on the path, then my sister heads off into the brush. Not just a few feet off the path, but out of voice yelling range. We both have whistles, which is good hiking practice. My GPS was still telling me to continue on the path. She found it. I didn’t realize the cache locations wouldn’t be fairly near a trail. Since I’d already hiked these trails with my GPS tracking enabled, I had that prior track loaded into my map and could see approximately where the best place to take off into the bush would be.

GPS units appear to be designed for movement, somewhere around 10mph or faster seems ideal. I can’t walk that fast. When we stopped to get readings, mine jumped around a lot – hundreds of yards. Further, if the GPS signal gets lost due to trees, hills, whatever, then mine takes you back to a previous location as an initial guess. With tracking enabled, the map gets really busy with a pseudo-star pattern of lines.

Cockpit Error – i.e. user error ;)

On about the 3rd cache, I realized that the built-in compass for the GPS software wasn’t really working the way I thought. Fortunately, the same tool that my whistle is on has a compass, signal mirror, magnifying lens, thermometer and an LED flashlight . It is a really handy little plastic tool for hikers to have. I don’t mind that it is cheap, it does work. The compass was more than accurate enough for my needs, but sadly, the GPS location was still off. My sister kept making a beeline to the caches and found almost all of them in this area.

Final Result

I’ve decided that geocaching with my current setup isn’t fun. I get frustrated when technology doesn’t work as expected. To resolve the issue, wiping the original OS2008 included with the N800 will be needed. I’ve been unable to update the GPS mapping tool software since it was loaded due to some underlying libraries that couldn’t be updated too. A fresh OS install with the newer release will be good and get me out of Application Manager hell. Maemo 5, here I come. Then I’ll re-visit the same location and see whether the new software helps with the accuracy of the GPS. Knowing where some of the caches are located, will be helpful.

If this doesn’t work, perhaps it is time for a new bluetooth GPS receiver. The current receiver is really good for driving – seriously, so that $35 was well spent.

If you are a smart phone user AND a Linux nerd, you WANT a Nokia N900.
Here’s a very detailed review, perhaps too detailed.

The highights are:

• CDMA (tri mode) and GSM (quad mode) cellular phone with 3G data speeds
• WiFi supported
• Linux – full multitasking; listen to music, surf the web, download files, and 5 other apps at the same time, no need to close apps to do something else* take that Apple lovers
• GPS and GeoCache-ready apps
• QWERTY Keyboard take that Apple lovers
• BlueTooth
• SDHC expansion memory, easily swapped, 32GB internal plus external slot
• 800×480 screen take that Apple lovers
• 3D graphic acceleration
• 5Mpix Camera with near HD-quality video
• User swappable battery take that Apple lovers
• Plays almost any video or audio media take that Apple lovers
• 1,000s of free Linux apps – lots of software is an understatement; xterm, PDF, RDP, VNC, games, Office/Productivity, IM, RSS
• Excellent VoIP and Skype support (Ovi, Google Talk, Jabber, and SIP) take that Apple lovers
• TV-Out
• Connects to your MS-Exchange server including Calendaring
• Mozilla-based browser with Flash 9.4 support and multiple window support (# only limited by memory). The reviewer didn’t fine any web pages that didn’t work regardless of javascript, flash, or AJAX.
• Oh, and all the things you expect from a PDA – contacts, calendars, email,

The review compared the keyboard to that of another Nokia phone, but I’d like a comparison with a Blackberry QWERTY keyboard, which I consider FANTASTIC for thumb typing. I’m curious about built-in security features too, though a lock code is standard.

The only downsides to this device are:

• Data plan needed (monthly cost)
• Unclear that any subsidy will be provided by any cellular provider.
• Unlocked price – $584 on Amazon. Ouch.
• Screen size reduced from 4.1" to 3.5" so it is about the size of an iPhone.
• No voice dialing?
• Java was not shipped with the device, but it is definitely available.

The Nokia N800/N810/N900 has limited CPU. It is a portable device with fairly long battery life, so this is understandable. However, playback of DVDs or other videos can use the battery beyond what is needed for the screen size. According to Nokia, the optimal playback for video is 400 pixels.

Below is a small script to convert a list of input videos into the “best” quality for our Nokia Internet Tablets. The output does not playback with the built-in Media Player, but plays nicely with mplayer – or gmplayer if you want a GUI.

This script was updated 7/2010 to force a reduced FPS so when multitasking, the N800 does become over committed for CPU. I chose 14.985 fps because it seemed to have acceptable playback and acceptable visuals. The fact that it is exactly half the original source frames makes the transcode happen quickly too.

#!/bin/sh
# This is for really simple XVID conversion to 400 x whatever, retaining aspect
# Input filenames with spaces are not supported due to the ability to have multiple input files. 
#     Remove the loop to support a single input file with spaces.
# This is a 1-pass solution, so quality could be improved using a 2-pass method
SCALE=",scale=400:-3"
XVIDENCOPTS="fixed_quant=4:max_key_interval=250:trellis:max_bframes=1:vhq=3"
FRAMES="-ofps 15000/1001"

for filename in $@ ; do
   IN=$filename
   nice /usr/bin/mencoder "$IN" $FRAMES -oac mp3lame -lameopts preset=128 -ovc xvid \
                -vf lavcdeint${SCALE} -noodml -forceidx -ffourcc XVID \
                -xvidencopts ${XVIDENCOPTS} -of avi -o "${IN}-n800.avi"
done

For me, this script works quickly and with about 90% of the input files. Basically, anything that mplayer can play (which is just about any non-DRM video files), then you can transcode. I bet other portable media devices like the iPhone, iTouch, and Android-based devices will like this format too.

I’ve used this with FLV, MPEG2 1280i HD, and everything in between to bring it to my N800 so I don’t get bored during workouts. Enjoy.

There’s a new competitor to Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Smartphones available, the Peek Pronto.

It looks like the RIM 957 with color. No phone or web browser, just email and texting. This is great for companies that want their people connected, but not with a cell phone ripe for abuse.

I’m concerned when an email-only device doesn’t clearly state the security features. A lack of network and data encryption and remote wiping is discouraging. At a minimum, HTTPS and IMAPS and POP3S need to be clearly supported. A device password lock with encrypted file system would be easy to add, IME. In that way, even if the device were lost, the data on it would be protected provided the password wasn’t hacked. Of course, real security goes beyond a “password” and complex passwords, autolocking, mandatory change periods, no password reuse, etc. are needed too.

But keeping it simple is a good thing. The Pronto seems to do this.

• email (5 acnts),
• texting,
• view images,
• view DOCs and PDFs.
• No web.
• No cell phone.

4/2009

• $80 for the device.
• $20/month for nationwide GSM service

There is an older device that is cheaper, has the same monthly plan costs, but doesn’t support text or anything other than email.

Blackberry Still Wins

Blackberry security still beats all the hand held devices, that hasn’t changed. Windows Mobile devices win on flexibility. Both cost significantly more than the Peek-Pronto.

Netbooks are becoming more and more viable to replace all these devices for those who need to get work done while on the road, not just check email.

Nokia Internet Tablets

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love the Nokia N800/N810 Internet Tablets. These devices should be on any list that a Peek Pronto is on and any list that an iTouch, WM6, Blackberry or Netbook is on too. Both the N800 and iTouch use WiFi and Bluetooth for connectivity – no data plan is required, therefore, no monthly data plan is required. This is a major plus.

Summary

The Peek Pronto is a low end email device that requires a monthly data plan to be useful. Security may or may not meet your requirements. We can’t tell based on the advertising.

This page was written without actually touching or seeing the device ourselves. It is based on what the getpeek website says (and doesn’t say). Without touching the device, it is impossible to determine whether the keyboard feel is good or not. That can be a critical decision factor for hand held devices.

How to GPS Tag photos with your Nokia N800 and GPSbabel … The instructions here are not really specific to a Nokia N800, so other GPS units should use very similar steps. Only the GPSBabel part will probably change options based on your GPS device.

I’ve been taking my N800 and bluetooth GPS receiver on my hikes. Really just as a way to track approximate mileage. After doing that a few months, it seemed there had to be a way to put the GPS lat/lon into my photos. There is. A few other uses for GPS data, beyond the obvious:

1. Retain your track data
2. Estimate distance covered
3. GPS tag your photos
4. Share your track as a route for other hikers
5. Post a track on Google Maps for others – nice visualization with all the zoom and pan that you expect from google.
6. Mark the actual location of a landmark – waterfall, lookout point, or geocache

So far I’ve retained many of my tracks, but not been able to view them except on the N800. That’s useful, to a point. I’d really like to record them and create a database of visual tracks that is viewable on google maps for my friends to view. The real idea is to create a database of local hikes with trailheads, distances and difficulty ratings to help select future hikes.

Enter gpsbabel

Gpsbabel is a tool converts GPS data between many, many different devices and formats that runs on any platform – win32, unix, linux, N800. It supports conversion between … I guess about 50 different formats. My need is to convert N800/Maemo-Mapper GPX data into something GoogleMaps can use, KML. Originally, I thought gmaps supported GPX too, but that never worked well enough and had limited waypoint support. Yes, KML is the best answer for this.

Conversion steps for maemo-mapper gpx files into kml files that google-maps can display.

1. Get the GPX file off your N800 … somehow (scp, ftp, pull the memory card and copy the data, whatever)
2. Use gpsbabel to convert the file to KML.

   gpsbabel -t -i gpx -f “$1” -o kml,points=0 -F “$1.kml”

   points=0 option drops some data, so the resulting track isn’t exact.
3. Move the .KML file to a web server that googlemaps can access, anywhere really, on your desktop probably isn’t gonna work.
4. Have google maps display the data – a sample Laughing Falls, NC by fashioning a URL like the link here. Basically, you use http://maps.google.com/maps?q={full-URL-to-file.kml} The file can be waypoints, traces or routes as far as I can tell.

The result isn’t a nice track until you uncheck the Points on the resulting page. Also, I’ve tried to get gpsbabel to reduce the track to a radius around the importance locations, but that isn’t working. Loading gpsbabel was trivial on my Ubuntu laptop and desktop –

sudo apt-get install gpsbabel

, if memory serves.

No Google API key needed for this method either, which is nice.

Another helpful tool for geocaching and the N800 is gpsview. It connects to the GPS receiver and performs bearing math for you. It also helps calm the GPS data and average it out so you know where you are with a higher degree of accuracy after a few minutes, GPS data floats about 50 feet, IME. This tool is very helpful with some geocache hints. So, you have a location and need a bearing for the next cache location or you have a bearing and need a new lat/lon. gpsview does those calculations. I’d post a link, but I can’t find it now. Perhaps it was in the OS2008 depot and just loaded when I selected it.

Get out there and find some fun caches or just hike and know how close you are to roads and streams and where you’ve already been. There’s something fun about searching for a hidden location/waterfall, finding it, then taking an almost direct path back to your car.

Enter gpsPhoto.pl to tag your photos with GPS data

Tagging your photos with GPS coordinates:

gpsPhoto.pl —gpsfile HT-File.gpx \


	
Camera & GPS times match

            —timeoffset 0 \
	
Find closest GPS point (2 minutes)

            —maxtimediff 180 —dir ./ 

I came across a CSV list of waterfalls, converted it into KML and here’s the resulting googlemaps link. I know it is missing many water falls. I’ve been to some that are fairly large and they aren’t in the list. I have no idea how accurate any of these GPS points are either. YMMV.

Now that we have placed our GPS data into the photos, many of the photo hosting sites will display that either on a map or as part of the extra data. I’ve hacked together some GPS code for MyPhotoGallery that will link to google map locations for any photos that contain GPS data. Here’s an example of the EXIF data and Google Maps link that is added to every image displayed in the gallery.

Embedded EXIF data
Camera: SONY DSC-W55
Exposure: 1/160 sec.
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal length: 6.3 mm
ISO: 100
Flash: No
Date taken: Feb 21, 2009 at 3:17:21 PM
GPS: 34.135167,-84.704180

I’ve also hacked search into the perl and provided the search updates back to the original developer. He elected to remove search from his code many years ago. If you are interested in my changes photo gallery, they are hacks, let me know. If there is enough interest, I’ll post them for all.

Many of us have lots of music on our home network. I spent months converting my audio CD collection into MP3 and organizing the files.

Organization

At the time, I didn’t trust ID3 tags inside MP3 files.
My organization was/is directory based. /{genre}/{artist}/{album}/{track_no-title}.mp3

It was a lot of work to keep that since “genre” is often subjective. Is it lite rock or easy listening? OTOH, almost every player supports “random” and you’ll get only artists that you like since you’ll probably only convert music you like.

Streaming

I installed gnump3 on my Linux server. This is an-all-in one perl-based media streaming server. No external web server used – it has a built in streaming server. It supports simple authentication and blocking/allowing access by IP address. Of course, when you travel, allowing any IP access, but retaining the login is a good idea. Here’s 1 screen, there are many different skins available

This is really old news. Almost everyone who wants a streaming media server probably already has one setup. Why bother with this? Well, if you have a Nokia N800 (or similar), then perhaps you’d like to stream audio anywhere in your home. The browser-based interface is simple and will pull a M3U file that the N800 Media Player app works with. Other computers and media devices in your home can also listen to this music. Imaging, Sunday morning, when you’re reading the newspaper and listening to Bach. Nice.

Backups!

Obviously, if you spend the time to convert a large audio collection into digital formats, you’d like to never do it again. Definitely back up those files. I took an old IDE disk drive and copied all those media files over to it. Then that disk is placed on a shelf. This is the best backup method – better than burning DVDs, CDROMs, or even tape. Hard drives effectively have no end of life when they aren’t used. Realistically, the EOL happens when you no longer have a PC that can connect to the drive. As a simple example, can you read a 5.25" floppy drive today? Anyway, when you spend as much time and convert all your own music personally, you will want a backup, period.

For the last few years, we’ve all seen the iPhone, iTouch, WindowsMobile, and Blackberry options for portable computing. Each has there place, especially when you aren’t paying for them.

I have a few problems with them – the radio and that they aren’t general purpose computers with lots and lots of free software. Basically, I wanted a platform that could do the following things in a highly portable container, securely, with great battery life.

1. IMAPS email to my server
2. Browse the real web, not some mobile-limited sites only
3. wifi with WPA2 as the default network
4. Skype and SIP clients for voice calls (I use my cell phone tho)
5. MP3 playback (other formats supported too) OGG or other codecs you decide, not Apple
6. Occasional video playback – mp4 and many, many other formats via mplayer
7. rsync/ssh to servers
8. Mapping/GPS (with a tiny GPS Receiver added on)
9. Blogging and note taking device (with an iGo Bluetooth keyboard)
10. Nearly unlimited expansion via memory (SD cards)
11. disconnected from the cell network, so the connectivity can be upgraded outside this device. I use a cheap Motorola cell phone with a 3G data plan via Bluetooth when there’s no wifi available.
12. USB connectivity to pull photos from a camera during travels (yes, swapping memory would be better, but I sadly bought a Sony camera). External HD also support this way.
13. Youtube to kill some time. Other video formats are supported, but some are challenging for playback – it is only a 400MHz CPU after all. That doesn’t mean you can’t convert with a simple script into whatever format works best.
14. High res screen (800×480)

So there’s a bunch of bluetooth happening here. Why? Bluetooth connection mean the cell phone radio can be upgraded as desired – -fairly cheaply. It also stays in the backpack – same for the GPS receiver, and keyboard if you plan to type much.

My solution? Why, a Nokia N800. It runs Linux, so there are many, many free applications. It is backed by Nokia, so there’s a commercial GPS app. I use Maemo Mapper – completely free. Since it runs Linux, when I’m at home, I can ssh into the device and setup files, move music or other files over, and pull photos off it. The uses are nearly unlimited and completely under your control.

The best part? In Feb 2008, an N800 costs $219. That’s half the price of an iPhone – with no monthly data plan payment needed. AND I can load the apps I like, not just apps that Apple or Nokia think I should. Pick an audio file format, you can probabaly use it, provided the DRM works. If it doesn’t, convert it to any format you like – FLAC, OGG, MP3, MP4, whatever you need. Same for video.

The Nokia isn’t perfect. Typing without an external keyboard sucks. It is a read-only device then. That means replying to email isn’t something you’ll do very much. If that’s what you need – get a Blackberry. But when you are portable and on the move, read-only is generally what you need. Reading PDF docs, recording voice notes, using Skype for international calls, using the GPS to find a shortcut or simply listening to your favorite music for a few hours on an airplane. The N800 does all these things nicely, without the extra cost of the other alternatives or the weight of a full laptop. Even taking a keyboard, GPS receiver, and tiny router, we’re still way under the size and weight of most laptops.

Sometimes you just want a small cell phone and don’t want to carry more. How’s that iPhone then? Some more reasons
and a demo of an N770 you may like. That is an older model.

Comparison between the N800 and iTouch might be better? They cost about the same amount. Here’s the big differences, as I see them:

1. swap the memory or not?
2. General purpose browser (Mozilla) or specialized?
3. OSS Apps or Apple-only approved apps?
4. clunky UI or beautifully designed UI? – this could be important to some
5. Multitude of audio file formats supported like FLAC, OGG, MP3, whatever or just iTunes?
6. Multitude of video file formats supported (mp4, avi, mpg2, whatever or just iTunes?
7. IMAPS email or not?
8. GPS or not?
9. Skype or not?
10. Lots of peripherals or lots of expensive peripherals?
11. General purpose portable computer or specific Music player?

It’s your choice. How much is usability on a limited device worth?