Archive for the ‘Software’ category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

An Update from Motorola on the eFuse

July 16th, 2010

Holy cow, a third update in two days?!?  Yep!

Today Motorola responded to all of the eFuse nonsense with something that makes the situation a bit better.

Motorola’s primary focus is the security of our end users and protection of their data, while also meeting carrier, partner and legal requirements. The Droid X and a majority of Android consumer devices on the market today have a secured bootloader. In reference specifically to eFuse, the technology is not loaded with the purpose of preventing a consumer device from functioning, but rather ensuring for the user that the device only runs on updated and tested versions of software. If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed. Checking for a valid software configuration is a common practice within the industry to protect the user against potential malicious software threats. Motorola has been a long time advocate of open platforms and provides a number of resources to developers to foster the ecosystem including tools and access to devices via MOTODEV at http://developer.motorola.com.

This is very good compared to bricking the phone.  At least the phone can be recovered by the user instead of having to ship it to Motorola for a repair(not sure of the complete details and how warranty would work).  I’m also happy to see that Moto responded so quickly to the public.  However, this still does not sit well with me as Android was developed with developers and tinkering in mind.  If I want to mess around with my device, why can’t I?

(Thanks to Tom for pointing this out for me)

No comments »

Posted in Hardware, Rant, Software

Tags:

T-Mobile, Big Red, Samsung, and Moto dump on the Open Handset Alliance

July 16th, 2010

Let me set the stage up for those who don’t know much background. In 2005, Android, Inc. (a small company in Cali) was acquired by Google. Android, Inc. was a start-up whose business was in developing software for mobile phones. In 2007 Google helped fund the Open handset Alliance (OHA) which is a consortium of several technology companies whose purpose was to develop open standards for mobile devices. Motorola, Samsung, and T-Mobile and among these companies. These companies should all be first in line to make phones more open and free, right?

Well…

Yesterday’s post has already shown us that Motorola should really rework some of their business practices, but it also puts them in a precarious position in the OHA by going against what the OHA is exactly trying to stop, carrier and corporate lockdown of mobile devices. Some even think that because of the eFuse Moto should be asked to leave the OHA, and I’m not entirely sure that they’re wrong in asking this. If they are supposed to abide by the OHA terms, they should. No deviations.

Now for another punch in the OHA/Android face, T-Mobile and Verizon are now installing “junkware” in their new Android phones that cannot be removed in most circumstances. The LA Times blog is reporting that, “the Droid X comes loaded with several nonstandard applications for Google’s Android, most of which cannot be removed” and that T-Mobile’s new Samsung Vibrant is also loaded with some extra apps that cannot be removed. What kind of apps are installed? Here’s a few snips:

Among the [Droid X's] so-called junkware is a Blockbuster video app and a demo for an Electronic Arts game called Need for Speed: Shift….The EA racing game, which provides limited functionality and a large button on the introduction screen urging players to buy the full version, can be removed…

Skype, which is included with other Android handsets Verizon sells, is a permanent fixture, as is a utility called City ID. The latter program provides location information about phone numbers on the incoming call screen. But it works for only 15 days before asking users to pay $1.99 per month…

The T-Mobile Vibrant phone from Samsung, meanwhile, has four of these extra apps staring you in the face.

One is the movie “Avatar,” permanently loaded onto the device…Another is a live video channel called MobiTV — good for only 30 days. The third is a link to install an EA game called The Sims 3: Collector’s Edition. The last is an outdated version of Amazon’s Kindle app.

There’s also Slacker Radio, which cannot be used before providing an e-mail address, and a button leading to Gogo Inflight Internet’s website, which includes a one-month trial for Web surfing (only on plans that provide the service).

Try as you might, none of these apps can be uninstalled.

That is an awful lot of software to load onto a phone that runs an operating system that is supposed to be “free” and “open” for it’s users. The fact that most of them cannot be uninstalled is the most enraging part. I’m also sure that these apps take up a good deal of storage space.

Samsung, Motorola, Verizon, and T-Mobile are completely going against the principles of the OHA which they are all (with the exception of Verizon) a part of. But I’d probably blame the carries more because in the end, they are the one’s with final say on what is loaded on their devices.

So, should all of them be asked to leave the OHA? I’d say that if they continue this trend then yes. The OHA should give them an ultimatum to stop and they should take it or leave. If the OHA fails to even deliver on that then what is the point of the OHA? If you’re not going to stand by one of your most basic principles then you have failed.

While I don’t think this is worse than the eFuse in the Droid X, it certainly is something that needs to be resolved just as rapidly. Putting a few small applications on a phone specific to your company is not really a problem, not allowing your customers to remove them is.

3 comments »

Posted in Hardware, Rant, Software

Tags:

TUAW’s iPhone 4.0 Wish List has Some Stupid Wishes

January 12th, 2010

Yesterday I came across this post on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).  I read through it and couldn’t help but laugh at some of the requests; not just because some are silly but because some phones already do this and iPhone users used to ask, “Why do I need that?!” I felt I should write my opinions on these requests.  Mind you, I have never owned an iPhone, but I’ve witnessed countless people with them and have used them a good deal troubleshooting for people while at work, I also own an Android-powered DROID; just a disclaimer.

Before I even get into the list I come across this

This is the first of a series of letters to Apple on your behalf, telling the gang in Cupertino what would make their wonder-phone even more wondrous

And it even goes into a real letter to Apple.

Dear Apple,

While it’s clear the iPhone is the best smartphone on the market right now, you have a lot of competition creeping up. We want to help you blow them out of the water with the iPhone OS 4.0. Here are our suggestions:

Now, if you know Apple AT ALL you know that they really don’t listen to the user. TUAW certainly knows this since they write about Apple all the time.  Apple’s idea of market research is “Steve said this was good, so it’s good.”  This isn’t always the case of course; they brought back firewire to all of their laptops after omitting it on most for a time, but Apple really isn’t going to listen to you all that much.  They will look at the market and see what other phones have that they missed, and probably include some of those.  For instance, people use removable-media on their devices a lot, some people prefer it over internal media of course.  Will Apple ever put a microSD card in their iPhone or iPod? Probably not.  Why?  Probably because it’s something else that could break that they don’t want to have to worry about, but it’s probably because they don’t want people to add more space to their devices without buying a whole new device.

Now to the list (please read the article if you’re going to ask questions or complain or whatever, I will only be posting the main idea of each item, not the description of the idea)

1. The lock screen needs to change

This one is nothing too crazy.  The lock screen could change of course to show more information; a list of to-do’s, emails, whatever.  So this one I really don’t have an issue with.  Other phones do this a bit; on Android you get your notifications with an icon in the top menu bar as well as a different colored blinking LED on the front of the phone.

2. A new home screen. The iPhone is the smartest phone on the market. Make it smarter. Introduce a location-aware home screen.

This is another one that I really don’t have an issue with.  I actually like this idea and wonder why more phones/devices don’t have it.

3. That new home screen? Let us access it by vertically swiping.

This one confused me a little bit. I can see the desire to have all of your feeds and shit within a simple swipe, but why?  Do something like Android and use a drop down menu at the top.  You select the top menu and slide it out, this way you don’t accidentally swipe vertically while you’re reading something and open your home screen. The mock-up looks nice:

Mock-Up home screen for iPhone

Credit: Teehan+Lax

But it reminds me of the drop down in Android, just more refined.

4. Overhaul app navigation.

This is another one I really like.  Tape the home button when on your app menu and it shows all of your homescreens in a nice “exposé” style manner.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7soM07Y3qNI]

This should be standard too.  If hold my home button on my DROID it brings up my running programs and I can switch between them (more on multitasking later).

5. 85% of us want multitasking and 3rd party background apps

This is where I get a little annoyed with iPhone users.  Now, multitasking is something that the Palm Pre does with WebOS, as well as Android phones, but the iPhone falls short here.  It SHOULD have it, but iPhone users used to ask me “Who needs that?” or “Who cares about that?”  Well, apparently 85% of the people polled care about it enough to respond to TUAW.  This is a good demand…until I see the next line: “but not at the cost of battery life.” What? Really? You want to run multiple applications at once and not use battery life? What kind of engineering do you think Apple does?  Come on now, be realistic!

6. Almost 80% of us want Flash, even if it’s a bad idea.

Again, a pretty good request.  I want it on my DROID too.  Apparently it’ll be out for Android before the iPhone though.  Also, running Flash on anything MacOS related is a death sentence.  They realize this in the post, but I’m just throwing it in there also.

7. We love that you introduced landscape mode across virtually all apps in iPhone OS 3.0, but 70% of us want the ability to selectively turn it off.

Okay, this really isn’t built into the phone?  Android has it built in already…why didn’t Apple?  I don’t know. But it’s actually a legit request also.

8. When we leave an app, we want it to remember where we were.

This one is part of the whole multitasking thing. When multitasking comes, this better be in it, or you’re doing it wrong! (Yes, Android for the most part has this, and I believe WebOS does as well.)

9. 65% of us want the ability to remove Apple-branded apps.

This next one is a fair request, but it just won’t happen. Apple doesn’t care…really.  They don’t want you to remove their apps on the iPhone because, well, it’s their apps.  There are ways apparently to hid the app from your screen, but not to remove them. These apps are so small what should it matter? This is what you’re getting with a brand; the device and the apps to come with it.  Same on most devices.

10. 60% of us want a universal “documents” folder.

Okay, fair again, but a question is why doesn’t it do this anyway? “We realize this breaks the sandboxing model that prevents one app from blowing away data belonging to another one, but we have every confidence you can make it work.” Yeah, and when an app comes out that removes all of your pictures and documents who are you going to blame for allowing this? Thought so.

11. Better Support for Codecs and Add-ons.

This one is basically asking to allow WMV and AVI stuff to run. I suppose this is another valid request. Next!

12. The iPhone is a hard drive with a screen, so….[Give us Disk mode in the OS. 50% of us want to use our iPhone as an external USB/Wi-Fi hard drive.]

One of my favorites. I wonder why Apple doesn’t allow this.  Maybe it’s because they don’t want people to be able to remove their apps so easily, or copy some over, or maybe it’s because they want their users to use iTunes.  You know, one of their most popular pieces of software.  It’s all about controlling the environment the phone runs with.  You can use other programs to add songs, and documents and pictures, but adding apps is all iTunes.  There is really no third party app vendor, is there? You’re stuck with iTunes, like it or not.

So that’s really my $.02 on this blog entry.  It’s probably biased, but it’s me being honest.  I like the iPhone.  I think it’s a great device, but it does have some stupid flaws that can easily be fixed (as well as being a shitty phone).  Unfortunately these requests might fall on deaf ears,  Steve Jobs is not going to listen much, he’s going to make you listen.

Fixing or adding any of these features to the iPhone will still not help if you’re sitting on a shitty network. I’ll keep m DROID and use an iPod Touch (or my 6th Gen iPod Classic).  I’ll at least be able to do everything I can on an iPhone while actually being able to make phone calls.
There will most likely be a part 2 from this article, so I may just have to wager in on that one as well.

1 comment »

Posted in Rant, Reviews, Software

Tags:

Issues with WiFi and Vista

September 18th, 2009

In my lab I keep a wireless access point active; mainly for students and profs using it to connect computer together for whatever. I used to use a WPA password for the system. WPA worked fine except that many people who were not supposed to be on the network were on there. Students would give the password out, and this annoyed me. That network is supposed to be for DM staff and students only, that’s why I have it separate from the schools wireless.

Over the summer I made a lot of changes to the network, mainly I changed it over to use WPA2 Enterprise with our RADIUS server. The logins are taken from our Open Directory LDAP (the ones people use to log into our machines, website, wiki, etc.) and thats how people connect. Works great in MacOS, I select the network, put my user and pass in and voila! Windows was another story.

My MBP has Windows 7 Ultimate; I was able to connect to the network after changing some WIndows defaults. It does ask for a login, which is better than what XP did, but it still had some issues. I had to disable the “Check server certificate against blah blah”, because it’s a self-signed cert it wouldn’t work. I also need to disable “Use windows login password to login to this network.” I understand most people using “enterprise” networks all use AD or whatever to login to their computer, but why make that default? Not to mention, to change both of these options it’s 5 levels down or so buried deep in the wireless preferences. It’s impossible to change if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Windows 7 connects fine now. No issues, it’s actually very stable. Issues arise when Vista users connect. Now, when I add the network for a Vista user it comes up as WPA2 Enterprise (good), AES (great), it even prompts for a user and password (excellent). No connection. I change those settings above again, because it’s by default, still nothing. I go into even more advances prefs by changing the authentication method to MSCHAPv2 or TTLS, PEAP, whatever works. Nothing works. I check all of the Vista prefs with my working Windows 7 prefs, they are identical. What is the issue then?

After a good Google search, and more and more searches, and stops to Apple discussions, and everything else I can think if, I see similar results. Apparently Windows Vista HOME does not work with WPA2 Enterprise. It just doesn’t work. It’s “broken” as some would put it, or “disabled.” Whatever the reason, my question is “Why??” Why do you put WPA2 Enterprise network prefs and even allow me to add said network to my computer when I can’t fucking connect to it? Explain that one, please! If you don’t want Home users to connect to enterprise networks, take the fucking thing out, don’t just make it act like it works and then not let it. How do I know it’s a client issue and not a server issue? Logs.

My server logs all RADIUS connections and attempts to authenticate. My server issues the challenge to the machine, but the machine apparently ignores it, or throws it away, or wipes its ass with it. It does NOTHING.

Now, I was having this issue with some other computers as well, Windows XP users. Their main issue was that they didn’t have updated drivers or settings were screwed up, but they eventually worked most of the time. I’ve also tried with some Vista Pro computers, and yes it works most of the time. The times it doesn’t usually work, I tell the people to get the software from their card manufacturer and use it, and then it seems to magically work.

What is wrong with WIndows wireless? You got me, but I finally told those people who couldn’t connect to either upgrade or deal with it and connect to a poly network. Hell, Poly’s putting N-Wireless in, I might just use it from now on also!

4 comments »

Posted in Hardware, Rant, Software

Tags:

Choosing the Right Programs for a Lab

August 3rd, 2009

Sometimes it’s tough to stock a lab full of computers with software. You want to get the best software of course but that usually means the most expensive. Sometimes the expensive programs aren’t even the best either.

The lab is primarily used for video editing and 2D/3D graphic design. These are three very expensive fields when it comes to software. For video editing we use Final Cut Studio 2. We have a lab license which allows us to run 5 copies at any single time; this license costs us a one-time upgrade fee of around $2000. Of course we had to have Final Cut Studio before that so you need to factor that cost into it also. I’m not sure how much it was originally, but I’m guessing between 2 and 5k. Now, we don’t pay a yearly fee or anything, it’s installed, and it works. No fuss. Is there anything else out there we could use, something free? Maybe cheaper?

In short, no.

There really is nothing like Final Cut Pro out on the market. (And don’t tell me Adobe Premiere Pro because I’ll just have to punch you in the face) Avid is around, it’s been around, it will probably always be around; but it’s not FCP. Avid is a whiny little pain in the ass that doesn’t work if it doesn’t get it’s way, not to mention it’s about $2000/license. No thanks. So FCP is something we’re stuck with it looks like, no big loss. (I know there are open source editors out there, but they’re just not as good and intuitive as FCP is at all, so don’t bring that up.) With respect to Adobe, we do have 1 license of After Effects. It hardly gets used, but it’s really a good program from what I’m told.

Next is 2D graphic design. This one is a bit simpler. We use Adobe Creative Suite 3 (no, we didn’t upgrade to CS4) which comes with Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Acrobat Pro. We’ll ignore Flash for now because we really can’t use anything else that I know of. Photoshop is the standard graphics/photo editing software, the weapon of choice for graphic designers if you will. Without this piece of software your digital media lab (or in this case, my lab) is a laughing stock of the DM world. However, there are freebies out there, although they might not be as good they sure as hell will do the job well. GiMP and GiMPShop are around and have been for a long time. This Linux counterpart to Photoshop gives users who cannot afford the price tag from Adobe the ability to make beautiful graphics like the pros. It’s tools are almost 100% similar, and it’s interface can also be with the help of GiMPShop. I would show screen shots comparing the two, but I can’t seem to get GiMPShop to run on my laptop. (BTW, the two run with X11, not natively.)

InDesign and Illustrator are programs I am not so sure about replacing, I’ve never tried alternatives to them. I know there are a few out there though. Inkscape is one that looks like a promising Illustrator replacement, it’s free too! For InDesign we have Quark of course; although Quark is rapidly getting replaced my InDesign, and one called Scribus, another open source replacement. I’ve never used any of these so I cannot speak for them, but if you’re looking, try them out!

Dreamweaver is for web-development. It’s more of a helper for most new developers. It’s gotten a lot better over the years, but it’s still nothing that cannot be replaced by good ol’ hand coding with TextMate or whatever editor you prefer. These are all wonderful, some are free, some are not. However, for true web editing I have to give props to Coda by Panic. I’ve mentioned before that I love this program. I do. I really think this is probably one of the best code/web/css editing programs on the market, ever. It’s beautiful, and it’s functional. It’s also $99. Does this bother me? No. Each penny of that $99 is worth it. If you’re just doing web stuff, don’t go near Dreamweaver, get Coda, as a matter of fact, get multiple copies of Coda to give to friends. That’s how much I love it.

Look at this beautiful CSS editor! I can also edit the code of the CSS and ANY OTHER CODE WITH CODE HINTING!

Look at this beautiful CSS editor! I can also edit the code of the CSS and ANY OTHER CODE WITH CODE HINTING!

Now we come to 3D graphics. Our choice program in the lab is Autodesk Maya 2008 Unlimited. Maya is the “industry standard” for 3D graphics, right with 3D Studio Max; both of which are now owned by Autodesk…weird huh? Maya comes with so much stuff that it’s very hard to find a comparable program. Some difficulties come up with licensing (you need to be running a license server if you have a set number of licenses, and you need to make sre you get Unlimited or Complete. The difference is just what kind of fluids or fur you get, whatever. I like Maya to a certain extent. it’s powerful and fairly easy, but it’s licensing is annoying, and it costs a good amount for upkeep. We need to constantly upgrade if we want the bugs to go away (because lord knows you don’t want to keep fixing your software after the first service pack which we paid a few thousand dollars for in the first place) and if we want service for the license we bought, that’s also more money.

Maya's starting interface.

Maya's starting interface.

To replace Maya many people opt for Blender; Maya’s open-source cousin from the Dutch. Blender is completely free, and it does a lot of the things Maya does. It really is an excellent replacement for Maya; however, it’s got a steeper learning curve than Maya. While Maya may still be considered difficult to grasp anyway, Bender is like a nightmare to some 3D artists I’ve known. So if you can learn Blender (which by the way has all documentation online free as all good programs should) you will probably be very happy with the results.

A random screenshot from Blender 2.4 from Wikipedia.

A random screenshot from Blender 2.4 from Wikipedia.

Besides these main programs I have taken liberties to find free versions of other programs for my lab machines as replacements to troublesome or other non-free programs. Adobe Acrobat 9 has a nasty issue with network users on Mac OS, it crashes…all the time. I’ve taken Acrobat off and replaced it with a PDF plugin for Safari and Firefox. If someone wants to use Acrobat Pro, which is VERY rare here, then they can ask me to install it for them, for now Preview works just as well. AppFresh is a free program that checks all of your programs for updates and allows you to install them at once. very handy for updating the lab machines. And I can’t forget my favorite free buddies Carbon Copy Cloner and DeployStudio, without these FREE tools I would have be dead trying to deploy the lab and backup systems.

So, if you’re on a tight budget and you’re looking for cheaper alternatives, try out some of these. They might end up being better for you in the long run. If you have any other programs to suggest, drop a comment, I’d love to try some new programs out. Just remember, sometimes you don’t get what you pay for.

No comments »

Posted in Software

Tags: