yodude

More HTML...

Monday, 18. May 2009, 23:20:29

Another way locally stored web pages are useful on my N800 is as finger friendly link directories.

Bookmark management on the NIT's leaves a lot to be desired. I find it difficult to go to favorite sites quickly with out using the stylus. To help do this I made up template pages that I use to link to web sites and other locally stored HTML. This also includes locally stored Flash or SWF files as well as saved playlist files. Anything that the MicroB browser can open or view can be included on these link pages.

I categorize content per page and cross link to other pages. I store these pages on the tablets memory card and link to them using Personal Menu. By limiting the number of links per page to 8 or 10 and increasing the link font size, these pages become finger friendly.

The first four items under "web" point to link directories. For instance "Local" opens...

"Utilities" opens...

and "Travel" opens...

I usually make the last link on each page a cross link to another page.

When a I have to many items for one page I use the last link to open additional pages...

To see how this can be useful on your tablet I have attached a ZIP file. Unpack this file and place the "games" directory on your memory card. Open Games.html found in that directory with your tablets browser. Save that opened site as a "Favorite" and enjoy.

BTW, all the included games are free for personal use. They were not sold to you and you do not have the right to sell them to others. All work well on the NIT's.

Games.zip

HTML and You!

Sunday, 12. April 2009, 16:27:02

How the N800 has become useful for me.

I am just a hobbyist and am not a coder by trade. However, I do need to manage my day to day schedule like everyone else. What I do, how I do it, or who I direct to do it is often weather dependent. Having readily available, and current weather data at my disposal helps me make more effective decisions.

For this (as well as other data that I use)I put together some easy to navigate Browser pages that I store locally on the tablet. I overlay a transparent image map over an updated image. When I touch one of the pre-defined blocks on that transparent overlay, the browser navigates to where it is directed by the HTML code. The new page also contains code that can lead to another page or back to the original.

For instance I start by tapping an icon in Personal Launcher found on my "Home" screen:

This takes me to Doppler.htm that is stored on a memory card on my N800:

This image refreshes every 60 seconds and has a Transparent image map overlain. The map is divided into 3 vertical, side by side, equal sections with the middle section divided into an upper and lower half. These 4 image blocks navigate to 4 separate pages also found on the memory card. Touching the upper half of the middle section takes you to a zoomed view of the northern area of the original image:

Touching that image anywhere, navigates back to the updated original. Touching the right section of the original navigates to a zoomed view of the city:

Touching that image anywhere, navigates back to the updated original. Touching the lower half of the middle section takes you to a zoomed view of the southern area of the original image:

Touching that image anywhere, navigates back to the updated original. Touching the left section of the original navigates to a wider composite satalite view of an area resposible for future weather:

Touching that image anywhere, navigates to an even wider view of the USA. (Keep on eye on that image update time though. It looks like these guys took the week end off.

)

And finaly: Touching on that^ image anywhere brings you back to the original Doppler page.

Now this code is hardly clean. In fact it doesn't work on IE7. I did it on a simple text editor and may have left out some standard tags. However, it loads fast and runs very well on the NIT's. The border of the image map is visible when viewed in full screen mode. I don't know how to easily scale the transparent image map so touching outside that border does nothing.

<html 
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">

<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"><meta http-equiv=Refresh content=60>

<title>Philly Doppler</title>
</head>



<div>

<p>
<span style='mso-ignore:
vglayout;position:absolute;z-index:1;margin-left:0px;margin-top:0px;width:674px;
height:377px'><map name=YoDudeQuadMap0><area shape=Rect
coords="192, 0, 482, 187" href="DopplerN.htm"><area shape=Rect
coords="0, 0, 192, 375" href="DopplerWide.htm"><area shape=Rect
coords="482, 0, 674, 375" href="DopplerCity.htm"><area shape=Rect
coords="192, 187, 482, 375" href="DopplerS.htm"></map><img border=0 width=674
height=375 usemap="#YoDudeQuadMap0"
v:shapes="_x0000_s1033 _x0000_s1030 _x0000_s1032 _x0000_s1028 _x0000_s1029 _x0000_s1031"></span>
<img
width=100% height=100% id="_x0000_i1025"
src="http://a.abclocal.go.com/three/wpvi/weather/16_9/max8_frame1.jpg"
alt="A large JPEG Image"></p>

</div>

</body>

</html>

I have attached a zipped folder with these files in it to this post >>http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=279177#post279177

If you just want to see how this works, point your tablet's browser >>HERE<<

I also have Philly and NYC traffic cam directories that I can upload to this thread if anyone is interested.

Weather images are made available by:

http://abclocal.go.com/mediakit/index.html
http://www.accuweather.com/
http://images.intellicast.com/

Nokia sparrow??

Friday, 27. February 2009, 21:02:17

Nokia Sparrow multi-core computer running Linux
ARM’s multi-core Sparrow chip has just been announced last week, and Nokia is already working on it’s first compact mobile computer with some blow-out specs, running Linux OS on this CPU. But don’t get your hopes up – this Nokia device is slated only for 2011 release.

Eldar got to play some with the early prototype and found it mighty interesting.

The design of Nokia Sparrow device does not follow the current netbook trend, going more the MID way, with some passing resemblance to Nokia N800 internet tablet.

It will have multi-slide keyboard, with different layouts/keys revealed as you slide it in different directions. The display also slides in several directions for different functions – think Nokia N97 tilting display.

The new Nokia computer has a very interesting keyboard with diamond shaped, elevated keys inverted to each other. At first glance it seems very uncomfortable – the keys are pretty small (about half the size of normal key), actually the device itself is rather small. But when you start typing on it, it works very well. It is very difficult to hit multiple keys with a finger, even on purpose.

The Nokia Sparrow computer has a novel, transparent widget based interface. Each running application gets it’s own semi-transparent widget to put it’s content in. Multiple applications can be stored in memory “for months”. E.g. when you are writing a document or e-mail, just swipe the finger through the screen and semi-transparent panels with active or pre-set applications and their content pop-up. Select one and you can start working with it at once.

Well, that’s about it for now. I asked our Ilinca to draw up something from the musings above. What with all the things lost in translation, and not really very exhaustive visual description from Eldar, I’m sure it’s pretty far off the real thing. But one needs to start somewhere:

>> http://www.unwiredview.com/2009/02/25/secrets-mwc09-nokia-sparrow-android-30-luxury-android-from-motorola-and-more/

Argggg! That's CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow.

This is how I roll...

Thursday, 4. December 2008, 13:54:12

I like the quality of the icons available for the Iphone. With so many people using that dang thing some of the stock images are rapidly being absorbed into our visual lexicon associated with the function they represent. They pro'ly will soon start popping up on more common items like TV remotes and toaster ovens or suttin'...

Because Maemo uses the full 64 x 64 dimensions of an icon, I always felt that the ones used for the panel functions on the home screen gave that screen a crowded look. In the above image I kept the 64 x 64 icon canvas but reduced the image it contained to 40 x 40. This gives a transparent border around the image , reducing the cluter... IMHO

In personal Menu to cut down on clutter, I reduced the image to 48 x 48 within the 64 x 64 icon canvas.

The second panel that I use for utilities and such is good 'ol Command Navigator...

The third panel that I use is the stock Task Manager.

icons.rar

Motorola i776

Sunday, 30. November 2008, 18:24:52

(Guess who I got that^ image from?

)

I have been using an i776 for some awhile now and I thought I would jot down some of my impressions...

First, lets get the specs and features out of the way as reported in /\/\oto's press release:

Motorola i776 Specs

Network: iDEN® 800/900 MHz for Nextel Direct Connect, interconnect and data
Weight: 3.56 oz.
Dimensions: 3.39 x 1.80 x 0.80 inches
Internal Display: 65,536 colors, 128 x 160 pixels, TFT LCD
External Display: 65,536 colors, 128 x 32 pixels, TFT LCD
Talk Time: 3.40 hours
Phonebook Capacity: 600 numbers

Motorola i776 Features

Bluetooth
640x480 VGA camera, w/Self-timer, & night mode
WiDEN Data Capable (Carrier dependent)
Games
GPS
Headset Jack
Java
MMS Multimedia Messaging (Carrier dependent)
T9 Predictive Text
Push To Talk (iDEN only)
Ringer ID's
Speakerphone
Text Messaging
USB
Vibrate
Voice Dialing
Voice Memo
Wireless Internet (Carrier dependent)

Out of the box I was impressed with fit and finish. The front face plate appears as if it is aluminum as it sports fine engine turning around the central /\/\. It would not surprise me however, if it turns out to be painted plastic. Plastic finish technologies have advanced through the years in an effort to lower material costs. Mercedes Benz wheel covers in the 90's are a good example. Another good example is the "Rubberized" texture of the plastic battery door cover on the back of this phone. This texture gives the phone a more secure feel while handling it.

Motorola calls the phone's color "Deep Red" and closer examination finds it to be metallic. The sub body and antenna are a silver color that matches the face plate.
Overall the look is "business" and it would not look out of place in the hands of that executive guy who was on the cover of the old i90 box, LoL.

The internal display is the same aspect ratio of the i880 but at about 3/4 the size. Setting the font size to "compressed" yields the same amount of text per screen as the i880 at "standard". MIDP 2.0 JAVA apps developed for the i860 do work and display correctly. Only smaller. Unfortunately MIDP 1.0 apps like my favorite calculator (the one that uses the directional buttons as function keys) do not scale and have a clipped display. This is a function of the JAVA app and not a problem with the phone.

As far as included JAVA apps go, Nextel has abandoned their cheesy practice of removing the Motorola supplied "Calculator suite" in order to force you to use and purchase from their Download apps store. The "Calculator Suite" is now included along with the useful "Alarm Plus" and "Sprint Mobile Email" apps. Nascar and Telenav demo's are also factory preloaded.

The external display is the best thing about the i776, IMHO. It yields the date and time and all of the information icons as the i880 but without that dang "Nextel" banner or the poor quality caller ID pic. One annoyance some might have is that the external display never completely shuts down. It reduces to a faint dim state instead. This may have been the result of usability studies that found that although customers liked the "One Touch" PTT feature, their bosses or expectant girl friends didn't like to be chirped in the middle of the night every time they rolled over to check the time on their dang phone.

I also suspect that the energy consumed by the dimmed display is less than the energy used to fire up the full display over the number of times a user checks his phone during the day. Now all you have to do is look at the outside of the phone for the time, date and signal strength, no buttons to push, no short duration voltage hits to the battery. It pro'ly adds to the battery's expected service life too.

Added features to this phone as well as the i576 are two indicator lights on the outside face. An amber one can be set to silently announce the receipt of voice and text messages and a blue one to indicate blue tooth pairing. An undocumented feature is the inclusion of an Autopairing Exception List for the Motorola IHF 1000 car kit and the i.Tech BlueBAND stereo headphones. This may have something to do with Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) and Audio Video Remote Control Profiles (AVRCP)that are now supported. (BTW, for you HexHeads out there, these^ are about the only additions to the same 'ol gravy, "S" file, 0x006F CP.)

Because of the lack of the automagical, open flip button that was first introduced on the i860, the old i60/90/95 habit of opening the flip with your thumb must be used. And like the i60/90/95, this action is intuitive and natural. Not like the clumsiness of the the i730 or the i580. In fact, the solid feel of this phone reminds me often of the old i90... Perhaps the i776 is what the i730 should have been.

****

(The above pic is spliced from two shots to compare size and camera quality. The left side was taken with the i776's embedded VGA-quality camera and the right side was taken using an i880's 2 meg camera... A bit of a difference; don'tcha think?)

Motorola i776

Sunday, 30. November 2008, 18:24:50

(Guess who I got that^ image from?

)

I have been using an i776 for awhile now and I thought I would jot down some of my impressions...

First, lets get the specs and features out of the way as reported in /\/\oto's press release:

Motorola i776 Specs

Network: iDEN® 800/900 MHz for Nextel Direct Connect, interconnect and data
Weight: 3.56 oz.
Dimensions: 3.39 x 1.80 x 0.80 inches
Internal Display: 65,536 colors, 128 x 160 pixels, TFT LCD
External Display: 65,536 colors, 128 x 32 pixels, TFT LCD
Talk Time: 3.40 hours
Phonebook Capacity: 600 numbers

Motorola i776 Features

Bluetooth
640x480 VGA camera, w/Self-timer, & night mode
WiDEN Data Capable (Carrier dependent)
Games
GPS
Headset Jack
Java
MMS Multimedia Messaging (Carrier dependent)
T9 Predictive Text
Push To Talk (iDEN only)
Ringer ID's
Speakerphone
Text Messaging
USB
Vibrate
Voice Dialing
Voice Memo
Wireless Internet (Carrier dependent)

Out of the box I was impressed with fit and finish. The front face plate appears as if it is aluminum as it sports fine engine turning around the central /\/\. It would not surprise me however, if it turns out to be painted plastic. Plastic finish technologies have advanced through the years in an effort to lower material costs. Mercedes Benz wheel covers in the 90's are a good example. Another good example is the "Rubberized" texture of the plastic battery door cover on the back of this phone. This texture gives the phone a more secure feel while handling it.

Motorola calls the phone's color "Deep Red" and closer examination finds it to be metallic. The sub body and antenna are a silver color that matches the face plate.
Overall the look is "business" and it would not look out of place in the hands of that executive guy who was on the cover of the old i90 box, LoL.

The internal display is the same aspect ratio of the i880 but at about 3/4 the size. Setting the font size to "compressed" yields the same amount of text per screen as the i880 at "standard". MIDP 2.0 JAVA apps developed for the i860 do work and display correctly. Only smaller. Unfortunately MIDP 1.0 apps like my favorite calculator (the one that uses the directional buttons as function keys) do not scale and have a clipped display. This is a function of the JAVA app and not a problem with the phone.

As far as included JAVA apps go, Nextel has abandoned their cheesy practice of removing the Motorola supplied "Calculator suite" in order to force you to use and purchase from their Download apps store. The "Calculator Suite" is now included along with the useful "Alarm Plus" and "Sprint Mobile Email" apps. Nascar and Telenav demo's are also factory preloaded.

The external display is the best thing about the i776, IMHO. It yields the date and time and all of the information icons as the i880 but without that dang "Nextel" banner or the poor quality caller ID pic. One annoyance some might have is that the external display never completely shuts down. It reduces to a faint dim state instead. This may have been the result of usability studies that found that although customers liked the "One Touch" PTT feature, their bosses or expectant girl friends didn't like to be chirped in the middle of the night every time they rolled over to check the time on their dang phone.

I also suspect that the energy consumed by the dimmed display is less than the energy used to fire up the full display over the number of times a user checks his phone during the day. Now all you have to do is look at the outside of the phone for the time, date and signal strength, no buttons to push, no short duration voltage hits to the battery. It pro'ly adds to the battery's expected service life too.

Added features to this phone as well as the i576 are two indicator lights on the outside face. An amber one can be set to silently announce the receipt of voice and text messages and a blue one to indicate blue tooth pairing. An undocumented feature is the inclusion of an Autopairing Exception List for the Motorola IHF 1000 car kit and the i.Tech BlueBAND stereo headphones. This may have something to do with Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) and Audio Video Remote Control Profiles (AVRCP)that are now supported. (BTW, for you HexHeads out there, these^ are about the only additions to the same 'ol gravy, "S" file, 0x006F CP.)

Because of the lack of the automagical, open flip button that was first introduced on the i860, the old i60/90/95 habit of opening the flip with your thumb must be used. And like the i60/90/95, this action is intuitive and natural. Not like the clumsiness of the the i730 or the i580. In fact, the solid feel and robust sound quality of this phone reminds me often of the old i90... Perhaps the i776 is what the i730 should have been.

****

Titan theme for N800

Thursday, 27. November 2008, 17:52:42

First off the 3d buttons in this theme rock!

The opacity of home screen apps is perfect, I wouldn't change a thing in that regard. If I wanted transparency I would use another theme like nuvoClear or somesuch. Keep up the good work.

Regarding text sizing I found a way with which I can change sizes to those of a stock theme...

With a text editor @root, if you go to /usr/share/themes/titan/gtk-2.0/gtkrc and open the file and find:

#############################
#
# Font definitions
#
#############################

style "osso-SystemFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans 14.75"
}

style "osso-EmpSystemFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans Bold 11.75"
}

style "osso-TitleFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans 16.75"
}

style "osso-ButtonFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans 16.75"
}

style "osso-SmallFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans 11.625"
}

style "osso-LargeFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans 16.75"
}

style "osso-HWRFont1"
{
  font_name = "Nokia Sans 52"
}

style "osso-HWRFont2"
{
  font_name = "Nokia Sans 38"
}

######################################

... and change them to the values found in a stock theme:

##############################
#
# Font definitions
#
##############################

style "osso-SystemFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans 16.75"
}

style "osso-EmpSystemFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans Bold 16.75"
}

style "osso-TitleFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans 16.75"
}

style "osso-ButtonFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans 16.75"
}

style "osso-SmallFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans 11.625"
}

style "osso-LargeFont" {
font_name = "Nokia Sans 29.5"
}

style "osso-HWRFont1"
{
  font_name = "Nokia Sans 52"
}

style "osso-HWRFont2"
{
  font_name = "Nokia Sans 38"
}

######################################

You would be rockin'...

To make it it easier I have attached an edited and archived file that can be simply unpacked and copied over your original one.

gtkrc.rar

I also took the liberty of removing the redundant "HOME" label from the screen by following qwerty12's most excellent advice found here >> http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=178573#post178573

Sometimes old and low tech is good...

Sunday, 20. July 2008, 12:38:22

Originally posted by chris5h:

Hate to say it but +1

iDEN Devices are big, expensive, low-tech, and as Qchat is made more efficient (it's been out all of what, a month?) and Sprint rolls out more Rev-A covered markets, iDEN subscribers are going to be moved off.

iDEN is one of the few, if not the only, remaining technologies that still use a kind of CDPD that runs along side of the normal voice and PTT channels. If I'm not mistaken, iDEN uses this ability for voice-mail and some text messages. That may be why we can receive these messages while in a phone call. However, it's limitations have always been with the handset.

That is, although you could receive the message, you could not view or respond to the message easily while still in call. To me, this was the promise of PTX that never quite got off the ground.
I imagined a time when someone could push a picture or text specs. to you in call, you could view it on your handset while still in call, respond verbally or by even pushing your own image or text back to the other handset... all while still in the original voice call.

That didn't happen in part because of lack of handset development, lack of imagination, lack of network infrastructure, and in general, lack of direction on Sprint/Nextel's part.

Enter Bluetooth...

Back when the i605 first dropped, at a HoFo meet up in NYC Ruben86 and I successfully paired his OQO device to my phone...

Bingo! For the first time it was possible to use a second device to access iDEN's old, low tech, and slow technology.

The problem at the time was 3 fold, the freakin' OQO cost almost 2 grand, it only ran WINXP, and the connection was slow as all hell.

Enter the Nokia N800...

The N800 was considerably cheaper (now about $250), it ran a smaller OS and web browser, and could store web pages directly on the device that only needed data updates from the net to be useful.

However, in the first year technical problems prevented my N800 from connecting to iDEN. This has since been resolved and I now use the N800 daily paired to my i880.

I don't power surf with the dang thing mind you but, all of the above sites (with the exception of YouTube and the last 5 in the third column)I access daily to make more quick and correct decisions than if I didn't have connectivity. (I run the excepted sites when I have a WiFi connection.)

What this means in the real world...

I hop in the truck in the morning and go to various job sites, as soon as my N800 sees and pairs with my i580 it connects automagically and updates my E-Mail, Weather, and Traffic apps. I continue to receive phone calls, text, and DC while it does this in the background. Meanwhile, I more or less have access to instant data when one of those calls requires relevant info.

My wife, uses a TomTom device in her car. When she gets in with her i880, TomTom connects and updates her route based on traffic information, gives her access to current gas prices along the way, and will even report her position to other TomTom's or a Desktop running TomTom software...

... Ya know, I'm kinda old too, but my day to day use of "old" technology seems light years ahead of some of my younger contemporaries.

For Laughing Man on Internet Tablet Talk

Wednesday, 16. July 2008, 01:57:56

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=203371#post203371

Originally posted by Laughing Man;202885:

Hmm I wound up editting all my id3 tags and it still doesn't show up properly as artist > album. Even though the only remaining tags are artist, album, year, and track # ( killed the other tags).

Now download a jpg of the artist, resize it to 300 x 300, rename it cover.jpg, then put it in the correct directory. Media Box will read the jpg in each directory.

If they don't show up or your old art does instead...
type

rm /home/user/.thumbnails/mediabox/*

in xterm @ root to clear the cache and you will be good to go.

Here's how it looks in MediaBox...

Mediabox.png

This is the image I use for all my recordings taken from the "B" side of old or rare 45's...

Artist art.png

The directory structure...

directories.png

The cover.jpg file that I put in each artist's sub directory...

coverfile.png

... and finaly a shot of some actual cover art @ 300 x 300 that I downloaded using google. This one is for a group of songs by various artist's that I only want 1 or 2 songs from. I searched Google images for "1 hit wonders" and ot a bunch of decent images so I picked the one that looked the best.

actaul art.png

I used Google image search for most of the artist's and picked the image that I thought I would recognize the easiest in MediaBox. For instance for the 50 some odd Beatles tunes I wasn't going to use the White album image.