Category Archives: Technology

Samsung Galaxy Note II (GT-N7100) Impressions, Mods and Essential Apps

Posted by on November 15, 2012 No comments

I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy Note II for about three weeks now. There are lots of reviews talking through the entire pros/cons list for the phone so I’ll focus on my specific observations rather than attempting to review the phone. As with most Android devices, XDA-Developers is an awesome forum and should be your go-to source for information if you want to dig into the guts of the system.

The questions that come up over and over:

  1. Does it fit in a pocket? Unless you wear skinny jeans, absolutely.
  2. Is it too big? With my small mitts, I need to use it two-handed most of the time, although this has not been an issue other than while trying to dial the phone while participating in another activity like carrying bags or driving. Now that I’ve said this, I love the larger screen.
  3. Has it replaced anything? The Short answer is Yes, it has replaced my 7” tablet + phone combination. For general use, I now only carry the Note II exclusively. If I’m going to read for an amount of time or am idle at home I’ll often pickup the Nexus 7 for a bigger screen. If you told me today I either had the choice to ditch the tablet or had to move back to a <5” phone to keep the tablet I would ditch the tablet and call it good. The screen is a perfectly usable size and I would have no fear reading entire books on it, which has never been something I would commit to with a phone in the past.
  4. Is Android ready for my parents? The Nexus 7 and Note II have proven to me that Android can be a reliable, daily-driver operating system. With these newest devices I would trust giving an Android phone to my (stereotypical, not real – the real one is more tech-savvy) mother, which is something I never would have endorsed in the past.
  5. Is the Stylus actually useful? Absolutely, especially when taking quick notes. For the first week it was a toy but I was still reaching for real paper when jotting down an address or other information. Not anymore, now I auto-pilot to my stylus and take the note, then go on my way. The only time this is a problem is if I’m creating a reminder, which you would typically stick in a place where it was apparent – it would be nice on the Note II to have small thumbnails of say, your last three notes so that you see that reminder each time you turn-on the phone.
  6. Is there a feature most people don’t know exist but is super cool? There are a TON of cool features hiding in the phone, shake the phone to do this, turn over to do that, eye detection (don’t turn off the screen if I’m looking at it) but the one feature I haven’t seen highlighted is the wireless charging capability, which I’ll talk about in the mods section below. The one other item that kicks ass is multi-window mode, which I’ll talk about in the mods section.

Apps built for phones running on the Note II:

I think it was on one of The Verge Podcasts where I heard them talk about the difference between Android Apps and Apple Apps. With Android apps, the apps are primarily built for phones and then scaled to tablets. With Apple, there is an entire ecosystem just for iPad apps.

Android needs this focus on two different types of apps and the Note II should have an option to use the tablet category (it might not fit all apps but will fit the majority.) Some of the fonts in apps are comically huge, which is great for people who have a hard time reading small fonts but it is pretty humorous. With this said, I’ll talk below about one of the mods I’ve performed to provide a little more screen real-estate. I should also note that Samsung has done a good job of adapting some apps, such as the phone dialer and default keyboard for single-hand use but those changes are largely a college try rather than a real solution in my book.

Now that I’ve thrown stones at Android Apps, I should mention that on my prior phones if I was going to read for any amount of time I moved to a tablet, whereas on the Note II I often forget that I have another tablet handy – it is that easy to read and view text.

Artificially Black Areas or Black Crush:

There is a forum post on XDA-Developers focused to issues with “black crush” or black issues on the Note II, which also haunted the original Note. I have one spot on my screen – a bit like a marker mark half-an-inch long, which is a little up from the middle of the screen. You can only see it when the screen is a dark grey; in those circumstances the spot is black when the rest of the screen is grey. I only see it once every few days, usually while in an app with a pretty dark, but not black background. It is a minor irritant, nothing to get worked-up about. It sounds like most of the owners have some sort of issue with their AMOLED screen whether or not they ever see it so I’m not worried about it. It is part of the risk associated with using a young technology in a production device.

Is the stock firmware good?

If you are new to the phone but do not want to dink with it, the stock firmware works great; no need to jump down the custom/modified firmware rabbit hole. There is a TON of useful functionality in the stock firmware. With this said, once you’ve decided to root, or do anything else, it is worth upgrading to the latest software before you start modding since many mods require newer firmware. When I acquired my phone it did not upgrade over the air but once I plugged it into the Kies software it had an update so for those who want to remain stock loading Kies is useful.

My Current Mod Status:

So far I’ve spent a significant amount of time dinking with the phone, although I’m still on Stock firmware to this day, which has proven solid and reliable. My phone originally shipped with an early version of the firmware, which I attempted to upgrade but Samsung detected that I had rooted the phone (primarily to get a solid backup using Titanium backup.) After reading about whether it was worth upgrading I decided to take the leap and rather than mess with going with the same country (Germany is where my phone was originally spec’ed for) I went straight to the newest Hong Kong firmware. I’ve noticed at least half a dozen refinements throughout the OS so it was worthwhile to make the leap before investing a ton of time into customizing the phone.

Below are the mods I have implemented and find useful:

  • Inductive/Wireless Charging – Taking off the back of the International version of the Note II you will notice two pin connections on the right side of the phone, which are unused. Those are the inductive charging pins. With a couple of ebay orders you can be wireless charging easily with no soldering or other hardware hacking. XDA has a few good posts discussing your options.
  • Root – At first I rooted to get Titanium Backup working, which is great if you upgrade/customize your phone. Now I’m using a few apps, which require root with the most important being the multi-window hacks and changing the LCD Density, which I’ll talk about below. It would be poor of me to not mention CWM Rom Manager/Recovery, which is important for any phone where you start hacking the firmware – sometimes when your phone isn’t booting, the easiest way to get it back is to restore your latest Nandroid backup.
  • Multiwindow Modification/Unlimited Apps – One of the coolest features of the Note II is multiwindow, it is also one of the most frustratingly limited since out of the box it is limited to <20 apps. With a fairly easy mod (assuming you are running the right firmware version and rooted) you can enable Multi-window for any app. I use this feature every day to bring up my password manager while browsing to websites or other applications.
  • DPI/LCD Density Change – By default the Note II doesn’t effectively use all of its resolution. If you prefer smaller fonts, notification bars and the like you can dink with the LCD Density setting, which will change how fonts and other graphics are handled on the screen for any DPI-aware apps, including the core OS. At this point it causes a bit of graphics oddness in apps such as the camera but that compromise has been completely worthwhile for me. At this moment I’m running a DPI/Density of 280 (about 13% more usable resolution), although I’ve been experimenting with 240 (25% more space) on and off also. Making the change is pretty simple, right now I’m using a tool called ROM Toolbox to make the change.
  • Launcher – Touchwiz, the default Samsung launcher, although lovely and tying beautifully to the stylus, is limited. Not being able to change the number of rows/columns on the screen means that there is an excessive amount of unused area on the screen. My go-to launcher for phones is ADW, which has been a good go-to for my device.

Overall, I would say the Note II is my favorite phone since the days when the iPhone 3Gs was cool. I’ve had three Android phones and three Android tablets so far and up until the Nexus 7 and Note II none of the devices felt put-together, there were always quirks, crashes, and other issues that caused what should be a reliable experience to occasionally become frustrating, even on stock devices.

The Note II and Nexus 7 have proven to me that Android software development is maturing and has the capability to do everything you need, every day. What is even better, is that Samsung’s add-on software to the Note II, although in a few places feels like bloat, is overall a huge value and completely worth the additional load. With this generation of Android devices I’m finally feeling good about trying to convince my wife that Android is her next-step (unlikely but I can try.)

The Skype Podcast

Posted by on July 19, 2012 No comments

My first few experiences recording a Podcast via Skype sucked. I had all sorts of cables, hardware, and other complications that in the end were not required.

Below is my setup for recording sessions over Skype while on the road. It is simple but still keeps the risk for issues as low as can be without having several computers and a super-sexy Internet connection.

  1. Use your computer for Skype but nothing else. Shut-down all background applications. If you can arrange a hard-wired Internet connection, use it. Even if your Wifi shows 5 bars I’ve found wired connections to be more robust. If you still have issues, cut the video and perform an audio-only call.
  2. Use an external recorder. I use a Zoom H2n paired with either a pop filter or windscreen to cut the noise a bit. It does a great job of being able to record the podcast while also being able to handle the stereo output from a computer (an issue for many recorders, which were only built for line/mono-in).
  3. Don’t get overly concerned about how well the remote Skype participants hear you – Skype does a solid job of setting the gain on your signal to the appropriate level as long as you have a mic in the first place :^).
  4. Use a single cable between the recorder and the computer; I use the stereo-out audio jack on the computer connected to the line-in on the recorder.
  5. Don’t plug power into your recorder and computer at the same time. I know it is tempting; I think about it every time I connect my devices up. Due to potential noise issues, only connect one device to power if possible.
  6. Set your microphone (and beer/drink/bottle of wine) on a towel. This doesn’t sounds amazing in any special way but assists a great deal when the microphone stand shifts around, or you pickup your bottle of JD to take a swig. Yes, you can use a hotel towel, they won’t charge you.
  7. Plug your headphones into the recorder – this will assure that you hear the recorded signal rather than some artificial signal.

That is about it. If you check your microphone levels and assure that the room isn’t complete trash for recording it usually works out pretty well. The biggest tip with online audio recording is to remember that if the audio is not performing up to spec have the person repeat, and if necessary re-connect to the conference. If you can’t achieve reliable Internet access all-else becomes difficult.

Newbie Podcast Production according to a Podcasting Newbie

Posted by on July 6, 2012 1 comment

I’ll be the first to admit – I’m new at Podcast recording. We’ve only been doing it for about three months now. With this said, after the last three months I wanted to post a note regarding how we were doing production today. In later articles I’ll cover the details of how we manage the individual components, along with tweaks we make over time.

Today’s post will be high-level. In future articles we’ll dig into each aspect of recording and how to perform those specific tasks.

A High-Level Overview of how we Record/Produce:

  • Record your Podcast – On the road I use a Zoom H2n Recorder (line-in from my computer for the remote Skype participants – the H4n is also a popular model for Podcast recording) and at home I use a Korg D-888 mixer/recorder that I picked up from a pawn shop. You could use anything including your computer as long as it has good recording fidelity.  Anytime you google about music or podcast production you will find people stating that your microphone makes all the difference; I agree. Spend $40-$100 on a good microphone setup if you are going to keep it up. At the moment the two primary microphones we use in-house are an AKG Perception 120 and Audio-Technica AT2020, both <$100.
  • Import into Audio Editor/Digital Audio Workstation (Reaper in our case) – Import the WAV files into your audio editor on individual tracks. Setup reaper per the directions here for a podcast. The one other thing I do every time is turn off Grid Snapping in the Options menu.
    • Another thing I will note here is that whomever is editing should have a reasonable set of studio monitor headphones or speakers (I use headphones to keep it economical) for first-pass editing. Due to their frequency response you will hear issues on the track, which a normal set of speakers or headphones might not properly represent.
  • Normalize the Audio – Normalization modifies the volume of the track to a consistent level across the entire track. This will help you be able to hear things and keep the volume levels consistent. Reaper has a built-in Normalization function in the Item Properties dialog for each track.
  • Compress the audio – I use ReaComp, a supplied Reaper plug-in for this purpose. At the risk of an overly simplified description compression reduces the volume levels of audio after it reaches a certain point. It can do it slowly and smoothly or abruptly depending on how the compressor is configured. This helps to keep the audio pleasant to listen to, although it can also be used to add effects or specific distortion, which might be good in some circumstances.
  • Gate the Noise – For noise-removal I use the ReaGate Reaper Plug-in, although I’ve also been evaluating migrating to a gentler manner to remove noise from our tracks since some small level of noise is not a bad thing. In its most simple form with a gate you select a specific volume level and any audio that does not break that basic volume level is cut-out, removing the background noise. Today I tend to leave the quietest microphone un-gated so that there is some small amount of background noise.
    • Something to be aware of is that removal of all noise can be disconcerting to the listener, hence why on Voice over IP phone systems there is something called “Comfort Noise”, which provides a slight amount of background noise so that you know your phone handset is working. Use your personal judgment as to whether you leave any noise in your tracks.
  • Edit the Podcast– This is the longest portion of the entire process. You listen to the podcast and edit out long dead-air periods and depending on how refined you want it to be you remove excessive “ummms” and other over-used sounds/words. The Alt-P (Ripple Editing) hotkey and Command-Delete to remove highlighted sections (at least on Mac) are your friend. By editing multiple tracks at once and having Reaper automatically shift the sections where time was removed left you can save a lot of time.
    • If you are going to have a timeline/notes posted with your podcast this is also a great time to take those notes.
  • Export/Render to WAV – After editing in Reaper I export the podcast to a WAV file at full quality.
  • Pass through The Levelator - The WAV file is fed into The Levelator, which does a great job at making the audio levels consistent across the board, smoothing things out a bit more. The Levelator really is an amazing tool for getting quick results on a podcast, although if your audio levels are very different between people, you might find the really quiet ones disappear so you will want to check.
  • Convert to MP3 – Use whatever tool you would like to convert the file to MP3. I’m currently using Garageband (this is one area I should just spend an hour and setup another tool but I’m lazy and the to-do list is long :^) ) but you could keep it simple and use any random tool or throw the files back into Reaper and use LAME libraries to perform the export. The real tip here is to remember to balance audio quality and size. Currently I’m using 80kbps VBR (Variable Bit-Rate) Mono, which I find provides reasonable file sizes without inheriting the tinny sound that overly-compressed MP3s do.
  • Check – Check your podcast and make sure all people can be heard, and that the sound seems consistent from beginning to end. This is another point where listening with your studio monitors and one or two other sets of speakers/headphones is a great move. Not everyone will have studio monitors so you need to assure your podcast sounds good over other sets of speakers. I tend to listen to test-run samples via my notebook speakers, a good set of desktop speakers, and a set of $20 Sony headphones in addition to my studio monitors.
  • Upload – I’ll let you figure these bits out. Right now I’m using the blubrry.com statistics service and storing the files on my 1and1.com Internet account, although I’m always evaluating when it will be time to move to a service dedicated to fast downloads for podcasts. Most of the heavy lifting is done by plug-ins for wordpress.

I’ll leave it at that tonight. If you would like to know more or have advice/comments drop me at note at r.andom at this website.com or via a random social network.

Nest Thermostat Update 3

Posted by on July 5, 2012 No comments

After the last few updates I’m feeling much better about the Nest Thermostat. They have added statistics to the website and my Nest has not dropped off the network in months. If I were to do it again I would still evaluate the Ecobee as part of my options but at this time, for the price, I feel the Nest is a good value and I’m excited to see where they take it from here.

Update on Pentax WG-2 Capabilities and Features

Posted by on April 22, 2012 1 comment

After spending the five days on a trip with the Pentax WG-2 I have developed some additional thoughts:

  • For indoor photography and general photos the quality is acceptable but nothing spectacular. Don’t expect it to out-perform your $100 Canon Powershot, as a matter of fact it will probably be a bit worse. On the positive, this thing can go places cheap cameras never will.
  • The crazy number of modes are great. I’m using the heck out of the wide, panoramic, self-image, macro and other  modes. With this said, don’t trust the automatic mode selection, it is not reliable, spend a moment to set the right mode.
  • Auto White Balance is not that great. Sometimes it detects the proper white balance correctly, sometimes it does not. Be prepared to manually set it for your environment.
  • The carabiner clip is an excellent substitute for a tripod on hikes and the like. Two days ago on a forest hike I was able to hang it from branches to get shots of us. Having a tripod would be nice but is not completely necessary for forest excursions. 
  • Bring a wrist lanyard when using it under-water. I’ll be rigging up a wrist attachment so that when snorkeling I’m not apt to lose it or distracted by keeping a tight grip on the camera. The carabiner is tight enough that when latched onto my shorts I never worried about losing it, but once it was in my hand I had to keep a couple fingers through the carabiner to assure it was not lost.
  • I’ve never had an underwater camera before. It is great. Being able to document what I see is wonderful and the under-water modes seem to work well.
Overall, after toting the thing on a hike, all around a couple cities, and snorkeling with it I’m very happy about the purchase. Understanding its quirks (such as the auto mode making poor choices and the auto white balance being unreliable) will greatly reduce the frustration it is apt to cause a “fire and forget” photographer. 

Pentax WG-2 – Impressions on Day 4

Posted by on March 27, 2012 Comments Off

The thoughts below came from a review I wrote for B&H Photo website after receiving my Pentax WG-2. I decided to re-post it here with the formatting cleaned up and a couple of tweaks. Onto the first impressions….

I added this camera to my birthday gift wish-list after reviewing the current line-up of waterproof cameras. My goal was to have a camera that I could take on trips, snorkeling, or out hiking/biking without worrying about getting it wet, dropping it in the dirt or otherwise abusing it. I’ve had it for 4 days now and used it for 4+ hours.

Something to consider about environment-proof cameras is that there is almost always a sacrifice over a regular point-and-shoot. Since there is a mineral glass or other cover in front of the lens and it is usually contained within the main body you are giving up some wide-angle shots and are going to be more apt to pickup lens flare. With this said, I think it is a great compromise solution for someone liable to carry the camera when it might get wet or dropped.

Things I like about the WG-2:

  • Modes/features for everything – Regular photos, face/blink detection, regular video with audio, Slow motion video (15s stretched to 1m), macro photography, panoramic shots, etc.. You can keep the camera on Auto-mode most of the time, or dig in and play with a dozen+ pre-defined modes.
  • Eye-Fi Support – Since I put in the memory card I haven’t removed it.
  • GPS Support with time sync. I’ve only played with it it a little since most of my shooting so far has been indoors so I don’t have a developed opinion yet.
  • I love how it looks and feels in the hand. I haven’t had any usability issues after the first 15 minutes of use. The number of modes for shooting is crazy.
  • Macro Mode – The 6 lights coupled with the Macro stand is a great combination. Fun to play with.
  • Macro Stand – The Macro stand also has a 46mm thread on it. I picked up a UV/Polarizer filter set and cheapie fish-eye lens to play with. I’m keeping the Macro stand on pretty much all the time to protect the mineral glass as a just-in-case.
  • Macro Lights – 6 of them around the lens.
  • Lanyard strap – If the strap comes off of this camera you have much bigger things to worry about.
  • Look and Feel – Some people say it is ugly, I love it. One of my friends said it reminds him of a sports car. It feels durable with solid components.
  • LCD Display is large and bright, with four small pegs around the corners to keep it from being the first thing to hit a flat surface when dropped. I cut down a screen protector and threw it on there since it would get scratched up over time.
  • IR remote control support and timer modes. This is one of the features you do not expect to see in most P&S cameras.

Things that could be improved:

  • Battery Life – Especially with Eye-Fi and GPS enabled. Buy extra batteries.
  • I wish there was a way to attach the macro-stand permanently, which also has a 46mm thread. I keep it and a lens cap on most of the time to provide some protection to the glass while it is banging around in my pocket.
  • Jpeg + Mov Only – No RAW or other export formats, not a huge negative but for $400 retail the prices are approaching that territory.
  • I don’t know about the optical qualities of mineral glass vs. artificial sapphire or other harder materials but it would be nice if the main lens cover was harder. I am concerned about the long-term durability after my experiences with watches that use mineral glass. This might be unfounded.
  • Plastic tripod mount.
  • I still have questions about the image quality. For the function of the camera I would call it acceptable but I’m not gushing over images produced. Several of the advanced modes limit your image resolution significantly, such as some panoramic and macro modes. It is still great fun, with many features, but some might be disappointed by the limits imposed.

As of the time of this writing the universe is in-between major models of solid underwater-capable cameras. Canon’s D20 should be out in a few months, which might change the landscape and other manufacturers are due for a refresh.

With this said, I’m quite happy with my purchase. I think it will have a long life as my knock-around/take everywhere camera.

Nest Thermostat – Report after Two Months

Posted by on March 15, 2012 2 comments

As of this writing our Nest thermostat has been installed for about two months. The experience I would rate as “mixed but promising,” like my first iPod, which is appropriate since some of the engineers came from Apple.

The positive:

  1. Installation is as simple as you could expect for a home device. I had one extra white wire for controlling the humidifier, which I spliced into the white wire controlling the furnace and we were ready to roll.
  2. The Nest is crazy easy to setup. They put every dollar necessary into simplicity. You provide a minimum temperature, along with a few other details and it handles the rest.
  3. Once configured, it just works. You twist the bezel, or click buttons in the iPhone or Android app and the temperature changes, that is it. Adjusting the temperature from the couch or bed has spoiled me.
  4. For the geek, you can check out the schedule and see what types of changes it has made. The device tells you when it has went into auto-away, providing reassurance that it is always on-guard for new opportunities to save energy.
  5. When you adjust the temperature it tells you how long it will take to reach the goal. In addition, it takes into account the outside temperature when calculating those numbers.
  6. After the Nest has learned your schedule and knows the heating and cooling times for your abode it predicts when to warm the house. The result is that the temperature is correct when you wake up, come home, and go to sleep. Very cool.

The negative:

  1. Simplicity, one of the biggest advantages of the Nest is also a serious downfall. Want reports? Minimal, and none through the web – where you would expect them. Want additional controls or to understand what the box is thinking? Nope, none of that. This is the iPod + iTunes of home temperature control – the job it does is effective but not highly informative.
  2. Quirky. The technology they use is sexy as all get-up and the UI is refined. At the same time I’ve experienced a few major quirks, one of which has been painful to recover from. The issues so far include:
    1. Sometimes wireless connectivity is lost and the device does not automatically re-establish the connection. I’ve had to reconfigure the wireless at least twice in the last month and a half to get it online. This is not a showstopper if you are controlling the device from the panel but removes the ability for remote control until you correct the problem.
    2. Once the device has factory reset without any interaction, requiring re-configuration and re-addition to the Nest website. Rather than recognize it as the same device and downloading the latest schedule/configurations, it reverted to a early configuration of the device showing a schedule I programmed immediately after installation. If the device is communicating with the website it should also backup all settings and schedules so that if the same device is re-added to your account it recovers all the latest information. This has been a major disappointment; I’m not sure if it performed a firmware upgrade without notice or what but whatever it was I feel like I’ve lost something.

Overall I would say that the Nest is a neat device requiring more refinement before it is ready for the mainstream. I love the user interface and website but at the same time it doesn’t communicate to me how it is changing my energy consumption for the better over the long-term and after the issues I’ve experienced I’m not so sure I trust it to heat my home every day. The one time it factory reset I found it set to 50 degrees; it didn’t even retain our low-temp setting, which is worrisome since there is a large fishtank and small dogs in the house, which rely on the temperature being over 60F.

Would I buy it again? Perhaps. I would also consider the Ecobee products before I dropped the cash. Nest needs time to refine the product. In this case I’m okay being an early adopter but due to issues I’ve experienced I can’t say I’m super excited since the unreliability has caused me concern.

Once the wireless disconnection and reset issues are ironed out, and they are producing useful reports on the website it would be a great device for both the gadget lover and for my parents, which is a high compliment for any device. I’m looking forward to the day when they deliver on the promise so that I can recommend it whole heartedly to anyone who asks.