Sony SmartBand vs. Samsung Gear Fit

Here is a quick hands on with Sony SmartBand SWR10 and Samsung Gear Fit.

Sony Lifelog App is out!

The very anticipated Sony Lifelog App, which is a companion to Sony Smartband SWR10 was released yesterday and it is now availabe on Android Market.

I've been able to install the App on my Sony Xperia Z ultra, and Xperia Z2. For my Samsung Note 3 however, despite having the latest Android 4.4, the app is not available to download yet.

The Smartband itself is only available in a handful of online stores at the moment. Sony's website has pushed back the release date to the begining of May, although you can pre-order it right now. It is worth noting that when I placed my pre-order in March, it clearly stated the begining of April for the shipping rather than May.

Jon Philips at TechHive did a first-hand unboxing review of the product last week, though the App hadn't been released back then. Now that the App is availabe, I'm sure he'll be the first one to add more details on the Smartband functionality with thorough review of the Lifelog App soon.

For now, here are a few screen shots of the Sony Lifelog App taken on Sony Xperia Z Ultra.

And here's a screen shot taken in landscape mode 

Side by Side ...Real innovation for the iPad!

I have Just downloaded an app called 'Side-by-Side' from the App Store.

This App is amazing and defienitely is the one I've been looking for a long time.

It lets you open 4 differnet webpages, notes, dropbox, PDF files or a combination of those side by side.

Here comes the long-awaited Samsung Galaxy Note 2 !!

Today at this very moment, Samsung announced the most creative semi-tablet sized phone (or let's say Phablet)  the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Galaxy Note 2 ,like its predecessor Galaxy Note which was launched last year, integrates a stylus or what Samsung calls the 'SPEN'. SPEN is a great stylus to input handwriting as well as providing the ability to crop and paste pictures or texts amongst different applications. Note-taking is a great experience using the SPEN and that's what made the galaxy note a huge success.

It comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean,  massive 2GB Ram, 5.5' Display  and 1.6 GHz quad-core processor and operates on both 3G and 4G LTE.

Can't wait to get my hands on it!!

Retina Display MacBook Pro

Apple announced a couple of product upgrades yesterday and despite many rumours, there was neither a Mini 7inch iPad nor was any iPhone 5!!

The old version of MacBook Pro had been around for quite sometime and it was time to be re-decorated with some new features. Not that there was anything missing in the previous version, but users had been impatiently anticipating to see a possibly slimmer body and a better display with some sort of anti-glaring layer like the ones on MacBook Air.(that's what annoys me most)

On the first day of WWDC event in Moscone centre, Tim Cook unveiled a new version of MacBook Pro with the amazing Retina display with 2880x1800 resolution topping over 5 million pixles.

The Retina display makes MacBook Pro the highest resolution product in laptop market.

The other promising feature of Macbook Pro is the intel i5 and i7 "Ivy Bridge" CPU and the upgraded graphics.

Having all those features packed into the new MBP, Apple also managed to slimed down its thickness by almost half and only a few millimetres thicker than MacBook Air.

Having seen other MBPs overheating at some point under high loads, I was immediately alarmed about the heat dissipation in the new MBP, given how much thinner it's got resulting in less space for the airflow. however it seems Apple as always managed to keep the heat under control with even less fan noise through the vents.

Here are some details about the new Ivy Bridge and the Retina display from Engadget and PCMag.

IvyBridge vs Sandy Bridge

Retina Display vs old MacBook Display

Retina MacBook Pro runs cool

LoveFim Stream-Only Package is a Rip-off!!

I've recently signed up to LoveFilm and I thought I should be sharing my foul experience in case anyone is considering to do so.

To be frank I was quite fed up with annoying LoveFilm junk mail put in my letterbox every now and then. I wondered what's all the fuss about? I never knew they too offer streaming options and that is the only reason I'd never considered LoveFilm. Dealing with the hassle of posting films back and forth was simply not my cup of tea.

LoveFilm is owned by Amazon and I've been a big fan of Amazon's services and products for years( including audiobooks from Audible). My pleasant experience with Amazon made me think hmm why not give it a try! Plus it included a 30-day trial and only £4.99/month afterwards for the latest titles from the comfort of my iPad.

Prior to my experience with LoveFilm, I had previously tried Netflix which turned out to be fantastic. In respect to content, Netflix isn't a good choice if you're seeking latest titles, but in terms of having a fairly popular collection of TV series and decent quality of streaming, I am absolutely fascinated by it. The iPhone and the iPad Apps are also very stable and snappy, letting you seamlessly AirPlay to AppleTV.

Back to the LoveFilm story, the iPad App is slow, buggy and never plays on AppleTV. (Choosing the AirPlay only streams the audio over to the TV) and the only option is mirroring from the iPad(which doesn't offer a good quality compared to the actual AirPlay).

Maybe having a buggy app and lack of support for AppleTV doesn't sound like a good reason for dismissing the whole service, but that is not the main reason for me.
Despite all the claims by LoveFilm, only a limited number of movies are available on stream-only package and almost every title I searched for turned out to be a DVD or Bluray Disc only and in order to watch them one needs to sign up for the postal package.Just to give you a taste of what you'll get, out of all Jason Statham movies, only less than a handful of which are available on streaming package.

 

The New IPad is Out!

Apple is just getting more and more innovative and the new IPad is amazingly powerful in terms of graphics and display to some extent almost incomparable to any of its competitors.

1. Retina Display (the same as the one on the iphone 4S) with 2048-by-1536 resolution.

2 . 5 MP isight camera
3 . A5X quad-core graphics chip
4 . LTE compatible
5. 1080p video recording


This is just amazing!!

Steve Jobs

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do

Here is a tribute to one of the most talented men who truly revolutionised the world by teaching people how to 'think different'.

As an outstanding entrepreneurial idol, he had constantly inspired me since my very early childhood.

He showed the world what real simplification in technology could do and profoundly demonstrated how art and technology can innovatively complement each other.

May he rest in peace

 

Java 7 is finally out!!

Last week I had an invitation into Java 7 release. Missed it since I was living at the other side of the Atlantic.

Obviously, it's always a pity to miss such an event, however Java's still holding up as the most crucial part of my tech life.

Almost a year from last year's JavaOne conference in San Francisco where I met crowds of professional Java developers discussing the next version of Java and how wonderful it would get.

It's absolutely amazing how Java's been evolving over the years and indeed quite thrilling to see it's still the top priority for folks in Oracle as it'd been for Sun guys.

As you could guess (or already know), performance wise, Java 7 is more responsive and amazingly fast.

Garbage Collector seems to be much more improved, especially in terms of concurrency.

Finally there is a major alteration in JDK which has always been my primary point of concern (modularity, abstraction and consistency)

Can't wait to get all coding again!!

Final Flight of the Shuttle Atlantis STS-135

Space shuttle Atlantis is set to liftoff today on the final flight of the shuttle program. It's a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. It will carry a crew of four and the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module containing supplies and spare parts for the space station. The STS-135 astronauts are: Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Weilham.

Atlantis will launch in 5 hours and 15 minutes.

Full Speed Ahead

Finally the effectivity/feasibility of my (belated!!) proposed stack protocol architecture based on top of Zigbee/IEEE 802.15.4 standards have proved conclusive.
Now all the theoretical stuff will enter into implementation stage.
Given 18 sensor nodes and plenty of testing, measurement, debugging and emulating tools, all my efforts will be focused on developing a unique middleware based on evolutionary concepts which will consequently revolutionise any modular-based embedded system.
Since the very beginning of my research, I've always believed in forming some sort of seamless compatibility between hardware and software.

The aforementioned compatibilty has finally come into effect utilising a generic concept which will allow interactivity amongst various platforms.

Eric Berlow: How complexity leads to simplicity | Video on TED.com

Eric Berlow: How complexity leads to simplicity Video on TED.com

Absolutely amazed by the IPAD

Steve Jobs has just unveiled the Apple's long-awaited product called the "IPAD". It very much resembles the Iphone and Ipod but with a much larger display and a fantastic design.

I've never been a fan of any Apple's products but this one is a definite revolution in the history of tablet PCs and E-book readers.

"Bricked" my HTC touch Diamond - HELP!!

A couple of weeks ago I was flicking through various cooked ROMs on XDAdevelopers and after trying out several windows mobile versions, I happened to turn my HTC Diamond into a luxury piece of furniture.

Well, it turned out that I flashed a wrong version of ROM (intended for CDMAs) into my GSM phone.

My phone switches on normally, but it freezes on the Diamond logo and doesn't go any further (as above).

I tried all sorts of hard reset options and I hard-reset it many times by pressing different keys, however it still freezes on the Touch Diamond logo at the start-up after a brief vibration.

Simply put it, when connected to usb port, it only starts charging and the circular lighting starts flashing but obviously my pc doesn't detect anything being attached to it.

As the warranty is still valid for 5 months, I posted it to the HTC service centre and surprisingly enough they invoiced me for £280 as "the fault is caused by unauthorised software update".

Well obviously I gave up on the whole repair thing and my phone was returned to me intact.

I've been searching many places for a possible solution and so far the only reasonable idea is 'JTAG'ing the NAND chip which needs some soldering, a cable and some software to flash an original ROM directly onto it. I'll be grateful to anyone who can refer me to a possible solution.

New Books on my shelf

I'm so excited to read these fantastic books by the end of December.

HTC HD2 vs Apple IPhone

Gadget freaks are holding their breath for the launch of the most ground breaking Windows mobile phone, HTC HD2.
For those of you who are still very much in love with your IPhone, I don't recommend you to watch this video as you might end up betraying your loyalty to the Apple and opening your heart to a new lover.


Unless you are fully prepared for a long love affair, be warned that It will not be a one-off.

Behavioral Modelling & Human Cognition

Today I came across this fantastic source on behavioural modelling of embedded systems.
Although it's way pricey on a tight student budget, I believe the extensive definition of such complex topic is worth every penny. I got hold of it for a couple of hours only, but I'm still very much impressed by it.

Behavioral Modeling for Embedded Systems By Luis Gomes, Joao M. Fernandes Link to the book on Amazon

Also, I've been reading this book for a few weeks now. It is very exciting to see how human cognition works or in other words "philosophy of the mind" and it helps to utilize some of those concepts as abstracts into designing embedded systems.

Cognitive Systems and the Extended Mind By Robert D. Rupert Link to the book on Amazon

Books I've read recently

The first one is my favorite and is the most essential for those ambitious engineers who want to be project leaders and gain essential management skills.

Effective Team Leadership for Engineers By Pat Wellington and Niall Foster Link to the book on IET

A comprehensive and practical guide to the development of "hardware aware" software which meets the demanding constraints of applications based on ARM architecture.

ARM System Developer's Guide: Designing and Optimizing System Software By Andrew Sloss, Dominic Symes, Chris Wright Link to the book on Amazon

A fairly good guide on how to modularize your Java program in a fast and effective way by breaking it down into smaller, cohesive and more digestible pieces.

Modular Java: Creating Flexible Applications with OSGi and Spring By Craig Walls Link to the book on Amazon

My Recent Research Activities

A few weeks ago I could manage to deliver a surprisingly good presentation at BT labs in Ipswitch. OGC's standards which I explained in one of my posts much earlier are actually quite good in order to provide a generic way of communication for sensors in general. But the primary issue is how to integrate those standards into resource-constraint sensors.

Apart from the operating system that I personally think is meaningless when it comes to sensors, middlware has to be mainly in charge of all processing and activities within sensor platforms.

Now, what makes it more challenging is the fact that OGC's standards and middleware have to be combined together, with all those limitations in mind, regardless of the hardware specifications.

What I proposed was, instead of having all the standards together in one layer, they can be split into two categories.

This in fact sounds quite awkward and not doable, but with a bit of brain storming you'll be convinced of its feasibility.

let's get cracking:

There are seven types of encoding for the SWE standards.

1. O&M
2. SensorML
3. TML
4. SOS
5. SPS
6. SAS
7. WNS

The upper three are the descriptive XML-based encoding that deal with sensors or transducers directly. Since these three don't take much processing, they can be done within the framework of my proposed middleware. The lower four are standard web services and they make it very inconvenient for the middleware to deal with these concurrently.

Therefore the upper three are in one layer and the lower ones in another.

The abstract design of my middleware looks like the above figure.

JavaOne Conference-Day 2

Today is my lucky day

I got a t-shirt from James Gosling during the t-shirt shooting contest, PLUS I won a JavaFx mobile phone which came as a surprise to everyone.
Here's the video clip