Image credits: Touch Book from Always Innovating (alwaysinnovating.com)Interest in iPad app development is waning, and the device just got here. Maybe that means it's time to explore more open options. Here are five.
Neofonie WePad
A bit bigger than the iPad with an 11.6", 1366x768 display, the WePad runs the Android OS. You can get apps from the Android Market or the WePad App Store. It also has a 1.3 megapixel webcam, which the iPad infamously did not include. What about the other iPad holes most often complained about? Flash? Yes. Multitasking? Yes. And the USB ports, modem, and 6-hour battery life won't hear many complaints either.Touch Book
Touch Book is sort of a netbook, sort of a tablet. It's made by a company called Always Innovating, and it has a feature that really appeals to me--a detachable keyboard dock. Their website shows its many with-or-without-dock configurations with titles like "Yoga: Downward dog," "Separation under way," and my favorite, "Fridge magnet." The hardware and software are fully open source--ready for you to do with what you like. It comes with a custom operating system, but you can install any mobile OS you like. Take a look at it at Gizmodo.iFreeTablet
A 2-pound tablet for 300-400€ with a Linux OS designed specifically for a touchscreen with usability in mind. That's the completely open source iFreeTablet developed at the University of Cordoba in Spain. And you get the Flash support and multitasking you can only dream of with that shiny iPad. It's biggest shortcoming is the mere 2.5 hour battery life.Tablets from Taiwan
According to PCWorld, Taiwanese gadget makers are ready to show off at least 10 iPad competitors. Here are two that were also shown at CES:
- MSI has a 10" Android tablet. They're still a little short on details, other than the fact that they use the new Tegra 2 chips.
- The Asustek Eee Pad also has a 10" touchscreen and the Tegra 2 chips. It's expected to come with the Chrome OS.
Google tablet
This one's cheating a bit--Google has no official plans to release a tablet. But there has been consideration of what the Chrome OS would look like on a tablet. And that gets the speculation started. ReadWriteWeb has explored the idea more in-depth.
Features comparison
WePad Touch Book iFreeTablet iPad Weight 1.75 pounds <2 pounds 2.27 pounds 1.5 pounds Display 11.6", 1366x768 8.9", 1024x600 10.2" 9.7", 1024x768 CPU Intem Atom N450, 1.6 Ghz OMAP2530, 600 MHz Atom N270, 1.6 GHz Apple A4, 1 GHz Battery 6 hours 3-5 hours tablet, 10-15 hours with keyboard, replaceable by user 2.5 hours (planning to improve) 10 hours Keyboard no yes no no Camera 1.3 MP no 1.3 MP no USB 2 3 external, 4 internal 3 none Storage 16 GB, extendable to 32 GB 8 GB removable SD card 160 GB 16, 32, or 64 GB RAM 2 GB 512 MB + 256 NAND ? 256 MB OS Android Linux, Android, soon Chrome, other options SIeSTA (based on Debian) iPhone OS Wi-fi 802.11 b/g/n 802.11 b/g/n 802.11 b/g 802.11 a/b/g/n Price not yet for sale $299 tablet, $399 with keyboard not yet for sale--estimated 300-400 Euro (~$400-$550) $499-$829 Ready to say no to the definitely closed iPad? Which of these alternatives sounds best to you?
4/6/10
Five open source alternatives to the iPad
via opensource.com
4/5/10
Google runs Quake in a browser using HTML5
By Brad Sams
In the near future, HTML5 compliance will become standard across many web pages. Up until now, many have wondered if HTML5 truly has the power to knock Adobe’s Flash off of its perch; Google has shown us that it does.
In an interesting twist, Google has shown off how HTML5 can run the first person shooter, Quake, in a browser. The reason this is an interesting twist is because Google announced that Chrome would come bundled with Flash.
According to TechCrunch, Google “started with the existing Jake2 Java port of the Quake II engine, then used the Google Web Toolkit (along with WebGL, WebSockets, and a lot of refactoring) to cross-compile it into Javascript. You can see the results in the video above — we were honestly a bit surprised when we saw it pushing over 30 frames per second on our laptops (your mileage may vary)! “.
You can try out the port by visiting the Google code page. As of right now, the only supported browsers are Safari and Chrome, but expect IE 9 and others to be compliant in the near future.
A few Ubuntu “power user” tips test it
I thought I would start off the month with a collection of “power user” tips I have collected over the years. Some of these are real gems, some of them are just “been there, done that”. But all of them are useful.
So, without further adieu, let’s get to the tippage!
Global keyboard shortcuts
We all know that keeping your fingers on the keyboard makes for much more efficient computing. But did you know you can create global keyboard shortcuts for GNOME? This is done with the help of the gconf-editor tool. Here’s how it’s done:
Remember your state
- Hit <Ctrl>F2
- Enter gconf-editor to start up the tool.
- Navigate to Apps > Metacity > keybinding_commands.
- Right-click in the pane that lists all of the entries.
- Scroll until you see a list of command_N Where N is a number from 1-10
- Double click on one of these entries (remember which number you double clicked on).
- In the Value section enter the command you want to use.
- Click OK.
- Navigate to Apps > Metacity > global_keybindings.
- In the Value field enter the key combination you want to use for that app (for example <Alt>f for firefox).
- Click OK.
- Test out your short cut.
Did you know you can have GNOME remember everything you have open when you next log in? This way you can resume working in the same state you were when you left. To do this navigate to System > Preferences > Startup Applications. In this new window click on the Options tab and check the box for “Automatically remember running applications when logging out”.
Now the next time you log out and log in, your apps will be there for you.
Speed up boot time with profiling
Ubuntu 10.4 has reached the 10 second mark for boot time. But what if yours isn’t quite reaching that goal? You can speed this up using the profile option. To do this follow these steps:
The firs time you boot with profile it will take a little longer. What this is doing is profiling your boot process so it knows what files are accessed and then sorts them according to how they are stored on your drive. Your next boot should be considerably faster.
- At your boot screen press “e” (for edit).
- Use your arrow key and move down to the entry beginning with “kernel”.
- Press “e” again.
- Add “profile” (no quotes) at the end of this line.
- Hit Enter.
- Click “b” (for boot).
Remove menu delay
If you are like me, you want menus to pop up instantly. By default there is a slight delay for menus. To change this follow these steps:
You should now notice no delay in your menu popup speed.
- Open up a terminal window.
- Enter nano ~/.gtkrc-2.0
- Add a single line gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0
- Save that file
- Log out and log in.
Speed it up with no effects
If you find your GNOME desktop to be a bit sluggish, you might gain some speed by disabling special effects. To do this navigate to System > Preferences > Appearance. In this new window click on the Visual Effects tab and select None. This will boost your dekstop performance.
Final thoughts
And there you have it. Starting out your April with some “power user” tips. I have tons of tips just like this so expect them to be scattered about. Next time we’ll take a look at some KDE power tips.
via ghacks.net
3/23/10
3/15/10
3/12/10
PC Repairing at 4 A.M
Remember the facebook fanpage, 'Everything seems funny at 4 in the morning'! Well some PCs do remember it. They certainly can't think of any more error messages to return. :) Take a look. http://ping.fm/qlsVv
Open source FeelHome provides simple, cross-platform remote access to your files http://ping.fm/wO27t
3/9/10
Hey,
Friends.....
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You should give it a try! Go to https://myvidoop.com to create an account.
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3/5/10
3/3/10
3/2/10
3/1/10
2/28/10
2/27/10
Wayne Bridge and John Terry Handshake, that didn't happen, Chelsea 2 - 4 ManCity. http://ping.fm/q9WJ0
11/12/09
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