blog.mrpsycho.co.uk

1st 2 hours with: Firefox 4

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 02:13:00 +0000

Well the time at the start of typing this post is 01:30am 24/03/2011 GMT. Which means that I have spent around 2 hours with Mozilla’s Latest and Greatest Browser, Firefox 4. Now I had read quite a bit about it on the BBC news site and things like that, but hadn’t really payed much attention to it, until tonight, where I was a little bored of Uni assignments and decided to progress with the update.

Installation

First things first, I went onto Mozilla and downloaded the installer. Now I remember when Firefox 3 came out, and how it ended up erasing all of my bookmarks, passwords and things like that, so I was a little cautious when it came to upgrading this time, and I created a backup of my bookmarks and things to make sure I was covered. I double clicked the installer and it loaded up andit seemed the same as if I was using installing firefox for the first time, which in my opinion is always a good thing.

Went through the installer, and it even came up with the word ‘Upgrade’ a couple of times. And sure enough Mozilla have worked hard to make a seemless install, because all of my bookmarks and things were still there. It even popped up with a message saying that some of my add-ons weren’t compatible, would I like to search to see if there is a compatible version. This it did, with some success and managed to keep my Gorillaz style Persona for the styling of the new browser: Result.

First Thoughts

Now like anything new, human beings tend to hate it. And Firefox 4 was no exception. I found myself puzzled by the new style user interface, but after taking the tour had found it reasonable straight forward. The main things that stand out at first are the placing of tabs and the Firefox button. The tabs, unlike previous versions are at the top, similar to Google Chrome. This may seem an odd place to place these, but seems to make a fair bit of sense for two reasons. 1) It makes the address bar, etc. seem part of that tab, and probably most importantly 2) Saves space. I mean I have a large 23” monitor with a 1920 x 1080 resolution so space is rarely a consern for me, especially with the fact that the title area probably only took up around 200px of the 1080 height, leaving around 700 (after taking into consideration the windows stuff) for web pages. But having the tabs at the top has made much more space, its like having someone opening a curtain on the top and bottom of the screen, using probably around 100px of space at the top. The firefox button does strike as odd at first. But again its something that seems logical as there is now no need for the menu buttons at the top of the browser, again using up room. Inside the Firefox button is everything that you would ever need to access, held in one easy to find place.

The Nitty Gritty

There are several new features in this new version of firefox, some of which I have yet to come across, so for this section I will go over the new features I have used, rather than the whole list which can be viewed on Mozilla’s Website.

As well as tabs being placed at the top of the browser, Mozilla have also brought in a new type of tab. The App Tab. This tab is designed for those times when you have a particular website that stays open 24/7 (in my case Facebook and Twitter). The idea is that you pin the tab containing the website you keep open, and it converts the tab into the size of the websites Favicon, and removes the title and close button. This means that you can keep those website open the whole time you have the browser open without having to worry about them taking up the space for the tabs you currently need. This is also great on little screens on netbooks and things as they take up very little room.

Another feature that I have used is Firefox Sync. The first thing that became obvious to me when I saw there was Firefox Sync, was that Firefox was available for Android. And as you all know I have a Dell Streak, and so I installed Firefox to replace my current Dolphin HD Browser. I haven’t really used this much, but the sync feature is very nifty. You basically select what you would like to sync with other Firefox browsers on your other machines, and Firefox handles the rest. Simple. It even works on my Android version. So this means I can get the full web history from my phone, on my desktop. Enabling me to continue going through those bits and bobs that I was searching through during the odd lecture or on the train.

Conclusion

As I say I have used Firefox 4 for little over 2 hours, but I feel that it will build on v3’s successes and introduce key features, like app tabs and syncing that we wonder, just how did we live without it.

The Dell Streak - My Experience

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 22:23:46 +0000

This is something that I have wanted to write for a long time, but just never seemed to have time, with uni work and various other activities that I have been doing in my spare time.

Its basically now 6 months since I upgraded my mobile phone contract to the most powerful and amazing piece of kit in the world. The Dell Streak. Now I know what your thinking, and that’s probably Dell and Mobile Phone should never appear in the same paragraph. But its a marriage that Dell have worked very hard on and I feel the effort has payed off.

The Dell Streak, called the Mini 5 before release, is a 5” touchscreen

phone originally released in June 2010 in the UK exclusive to O2. I upgraded my phone contract, which was originally an iPhone 3G 16GB, a few days before iPhone 4 release to get the Dell, and I would never go back to an iPhone, even if Steve Jobs payed me his life salary. This is because I have completely fallen in love with Dell’s powerful piece of kit and Google’s Android Platform.

As a tech blogger, lets get the important bit out of the way and thats the Tech Spec of the Dell Streak. So the version I am running is the O2 locked Dell Streak 16GB. The phone itself has a 5” Touchscreen, a 1GHZ Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor, 512mb RAM, 512mb ROM, 2GB of non-accessible storage for the Android System and a 16GB Micro SDHC memory card inserted. It also has a 5MP camera with Dual LED flash and a front-facing VGA camera for video calling. Connectivity includes Wifi, HSPA, Quad Band GSM and Bluetooth. In terms of physical connectors the Streak makes use of the PDMI (Portable Digital Media Interface) and a 3.5mm Headphone Jack.

So as you can see the Streak boasts a large amount of impressive Spec. And in the rest of this post I will talk over my experience with the device and the Android Mobile OS platform.

Unboxing

When you first open the Box, the main thing that hits you is the incredibly sexy styling of the Dell. Under the couple of leaflets, your instantly hit by the glossy black LCD touchscreen and complementing glossy black side panels. It just looks like a well engineered piece of kit. And I would say it has a more striking style to the phone than that of an iPhone or other android devices. When you first take the device out of the box you also notice how light this large touchscreen device is. Coming in at 220g, its not much more than Apples iPhone 4 at 137g. After putting my sim card, the battery into the device and then booting the device up, you are instantly hit by the crisp colours of the 5” screen. The phone itself is very responsive to use, even on the older 1.6 (Donut) version of Anroid, and you get that feeling that this is the device for you. And you are not mistaken.

Inital Findings

The Android system is incredibly easy to get to grips with. Email addresses are a doddle to set up, contacts are easy to backup onto the Google servers and communication just works, surey the way smartphones should work. But you’d be suprised how many people have problems getting smartphones to do simple things like send emails. The thing with the Android system, is that a lot of the phone is already set up, and that after adding in your login to google, it all just works. One account gives access to the Android Market, Contacts, Calendars, etc. syncing, forgotten pattern lock credentials and much more. But the Dell Streak itself had a few bits that made it very annoying for me to use. One being the incredibly buggy Android 1.6. Being an older version of Android it was less stable than the then current 2.1. And Dell’s modifications to this system were far from perfect, with the keyboard getting on your nerves from not being 100% accurate no matter how many screen calibrations you applied to the phone through its hidden boot menu. But these were things I was prepared to put up with because of the extremly usable (when it worked) Android, and the benifit of the large 5” screen.

Android 2.1

In September 2010 O2 locked Dell Streak users saw the release of Android 2.1 (Eclair) as the first Over the Air update. It boasted a range of new features to add to the Dell, such as 720p Video recording, a modified Keyboard and improvements to the standard google apps such as maps where you could now use the pinch and zoom technique similar to that on the iPhone. This all sounded well and good, but for the large majority of Dell Streak users (I think the official figure was around 40% - 45%) ended up not being able to use there device as the update magically bricked the devices so they wouldn’t boot past the O2 logo, finally leading to O2 pulling the update on the Streak until Dell had fixed the problems with the update. Fortunatly for me, Android 2.1 installed successfully, be it wiping the phone of apps and settings, as well as stoping it syncing with the Dell PC Sync software. The modified keyboard was great, as it made the qwerty keyboard fill the width of the screen even in landscape mode, which made thumb typing fully possible again. But this update was still as buggy as the 1.6 system that came with the Streak, and this made me question whether the phone was worth me changing or whether I should have kept with iPhones. But I stuck with it and after a little while I saw that the problem was with Android 2.1 not closing apps as well as 1.6 did, so a quick install of Advanced task killer free fixed the problems, and I then had the best phone on the market. Or so I thought.

Android 2.2

In December 2010, the Dell Streak got its long awaited update to the official Android 2.2 (FroYo) system. This update has now made the Dell Streak the most powerful, and totally user friendly device on the Market, and why I frequently recommend all Android handsets running 2.2 (Including others such as the Samsung Galaxy S and the HTC Desire) over iPhones and Blackberry devices. Along with the official 2.2 update came the highly anticipated features such as Flash Player 10.1 built into the phone and the Swype Keyboard, but for the Streak it also brought along a modified User Interface called Dell Stage. This is a UI similar to that of the HTC Sense UI on all HTC devices, and makes the Streak even more user friendly. For example the Dell Stage widgets now fill up a whole page with useful features like the recent apps, favourite contacts and music widgets spread across the usual sliding interface. This makes it quicker to get to the apps, contacts and music that you use most often. A little somthing that I did get for the Streak was Dolphin HD Browser from the Android market to replace the standard browser. The main reason for this, is that the Dolphin browser will allow you to save valuable battery life by making Flash content on demand rather than auto loading. This means if you are on a page with a flash video and some flash adverts on it, the phone doesn’t render and play all of them, just the one you want, which you select by tapping it.

Overall

As I said at the start of this longer than expected post, I have had the Streak for just over 6 months of my 18 Month contract. Since getting the update to Android 2.1 the phone became much more usable once I had the task killer to clear vital RAM on the phone. And since getting the Android 2.2 update the user interface is so much quicker. So overall, as I think its pretty clear anyway, the Dell Streak is the best phone on the market by a long shot, as long as you don’t go with the common view that the screen is too big (Which it isn’t as it fits comfortably in any pocket). If I had my upgrade to my contract tomorrow I would probably just down my tariff to a Sim Only deal, as there isn’t a phone on the Market at the minute that I would want to go for over top of the Dell. In a few words it is simple to use, extremly powerful, and importantly a great looking and well engineered phone.

My Setup and Tech

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:11:53 +0100

As with most Tech based blogs people seem to put there entire setup of tech, so I’d thought I’d do a similar thing.

Desktop PC

My desktop is custom made through parts that I have bought over the years. First of all my tower runs an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHZ processor, 2GB Kingston RAM, MSI NVidia geforce 8800 graphics card with 1GB DDR5 GRAM, 2 NEC DVD-RW drives, Western Digital Veloci Raptor 10000 rpm HDD and Seagate Barracuda 400GB 7200rpm drive. It also runs Windows XP Pro SP3 and Fedora 13. Outside of the tower I have a Samsung Syncmaster P2350 23” monitor, Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, Labtec 2.1 Speaker System.

Laptop

For my Laptop I run a late 2009 edition Macbook Pro 13” with 2.23GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Upgraded 4GB RAM, 120GB Hitachi HDD which I will be upgrading to a 500GB Western Digital Scorpio Black soon. It runs Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.4).

Other Tech

The other tech I have include Xbox 360 Premium 60GB HDD, Playstation 3 120GB, Nintendo Wii, Canon Ixus 130 14.1 MP Stills Camera, Casio Exlim EX-Z40 4.0 MP Stills Camera for nights out, Panasonic HDC-SD9 Full 1080p HD Video Camera, Dell Streak 16GB Table Device / Mobile Phone and iPod Touch 2nd Generation 32GB.

Uni Preparation - A Tech Focused Post

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:45:48 +0100

Well soon after results day, the Uni preparation has started. I’m in full flow of prep now, with a selection of Saucepans, Frying Pans, Woks, Cutlery, Crockery and various other kitchen supplies, bedding and tons of other stuff.

The biggest problem I’ve had with preparation is my technology.Being a computer scientist, a gadget enthusiast and an out and out techno freak as some people like to call me, this is an important stage and cannot have corners cut. So to set the background I am taking my Desktop PC, My Macbook and my Xbox 360. As well as the extras like 2 Digital Cameras, my Video camera, my wireless access point, My Dell Streak and the zillions of cables needed to connect it all together.

So First things first. I have my Desktop consisting of the tower and its componants, my 23” Samsung Syncmaster P2350 monitor, my very old Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, my very old 2.1 speakers and the cables I have with it. I then have my year old Macbook Pro 13” with 2.23 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 120GB Hitachi Hard Drive and upgraded 4GB of RAM. And Lastly my Xbox 360 Premium with 60GB Hard Drive. Thats the tech described for all those interested.

At Uni I have the problem of connecting all this together for use with the monitor, speakers and keyboard and mouse. After a lot of searching I now have a solution. First of all I’ve decided to upgrade my speakers to a set of Logitech Z323’s as these make the connections a bit easier and after several years of having this current set of labtec speakers an upgrade is probably due. For my Xbox I already have a cable that outputs sound through RCA phono connections and then video out through HDMI. So I have the problem of connecting RCA from my Xbox, 3.5mm Jack from my pc and my macbook to the single pair of RCA phono connections on my speakers. So by using something like a 3 way RCA audio switch I sort out the problem of connecting the audio by using RCA to 3.5mm leads for the PC and macbook, and standard RCA leads for the Xbox.

For the video, my monitor has both a VGA and a DVI connector on it. For this one I am going to use a 3 way HDMI switch. An HDMI lead from the Xbox to the switch, a DVI to HDMI lead from the macbook to the switch, a DVI to HDMI adapter for the PC and then an HDMI lead from that to the switch and finally another DVI to HDMI lead from the switch to them monitor. Perfect.

Lastly I have my keyboard and mouse. This doesn’t need to switch to the xbox so a two way switch is required to switch between the PC and the Macbook. so I’m going to use a two way USB type B to 1 USB type A switch and a couple of USB A Male to USB B Male leads to plug the pc and the macbook into the switch and the wireless reciever for my keyboard and mouse will plug directly into the switch.

Sorted. A solution consisting of a hell of a lot of switches to plug everything in together. But once done it will be quite an elegant solution.

The last couple of things to do Tech side is to find an All in one Printer and upgrade my Macbook HDD to a Western Digital Scorpio Black 2.5” 7200 rpm drive.

"Carlsberg friends - probably the best friends in the world."

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:09:55 +0100

“Carlsberg friends - probably the best friends in the world.”

- Jonathon Bulbrook (via emmafilby)

Welcome

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:03:37 +0100

Just a quick post so that I can say my blog is officially up and running.

Welcome to my blog!! This will be the centre of all of my moans, groans, experiences and just plain thoughts while I’m at uni and beyond.

Over the next little while the blog will change around as I am experimenting with tumblr but I will be fully ready to start posting once my blog looks and feels the way I want it to.

Til then keep checking the twitter feed :)

~ Mr J