Gadgetrix Report

Theft-proof your Laptop, Phone or Tablet PC

gadgetrix — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:15:10 +0000

Its surprising how many Laptops, smartphones and Tablet computers are being stolen these days.
Its usually pointless reporting this to the police, unless its insured and you wish to make a claim, then your insurance company will insist on a case number.

Even if the insurance pays out (which still leaves yu somewhat out of pocket), all your data is lost with the stolen device.

However, help is at hand to help you recover your stolen device.

Prey Project is a unique and quite effective free utility which you install on your valuable portable hardware.

When it is stolen, you log into their webpage control panel and mark your device as missing.

The hidden security software on the device constantly tries to make an internet connection (free Wi-Fi, 3G, Ethernet, etc). As soon as it does so, it will realise it has been stolen (because the server activates the stolen mode remotely), and starts sending you reports of the device’s location, images taken from the Webcam (hopefully with the thief in view), plus lots of other information to help you catch the thief and recover your stolen property. Or you may choose to hand this information over to the police and let them deal with it if you prefer.

This video is a short demo showing the main aspects of the Prey Project.

Download and use it for free, from: www.preyproject.com

IOS 5 announced

gadgetrix — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:29:27 +0000

On 6 June, Apple announced the release of IOS 5 for iPhone, iPad, etc to developers, expecting the new firmware to become available to users shortly.

Some fantastic new features added (200 new features according to Apple).

The irritating Notifications has been totally revised, a Newsstand added for magazines and periodicals, full Twitter integration into everything, Safari web browser totally revamped (with Tabs!), a reminders Apps (To Do list), revised CAMERA App (fast access from Locked screen, plus use the Volume button to trigger shutter), revised MAIL App, iMessage app (to rival BBM), Sync over Wi-fi, plus…. wait for it….. un-cuffing from iTunes!!!!!!!

Read details at:

http://gizmodo.com/5808982/ios-5-the-new-features

Apple’s answer to Blackberry Messenger, iMessage, promises to be a VERY popular App (but will probably not replace the cross-platform WhatsApp)

http://gizmodo.com/5809040/imessage-means-theres-no-valid-reason-to-own-a-blackberry-anymore

A Hands-on review of IOS5 at: http://gizmodo.com/5809277/ios-5-hands-on-it-really-is-a-nice-improvement

One of the most exciting new features is the iTunes Cloud, giving each person 5GB free storage and absolutely free access to his personal cloud (unlike other who charge for this).
Read about the iTunes Cloud at: http://gizmodo.com/5808952/icloud

If you own more than one Apple device (iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc), then you can already make use of Apple’s new iCloud announced yesterday, and its all free!

Any apps, music, books, etc you purchase on one device, will automatically be installed on all your devices. This is ALREADY available on IOS Firmware 4.3.3 and will be an integrated feature of the new IOS 5

Here are the instructions:
http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=15443

Apologies

gadgetrix — Mon, 30 May 2011 15:32:02 +0000

I wish to apologies for my post of yesterday which I have now deleted.
It was posted to the wrong blog and was not suitable for posting here.
Moving on…

Free Garmin GPS maps

gadgetrix — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:57:35 +0000

Going travelling and looking for GPS maps for your destination country?

Get free routable Garmin GPS maps from: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl

Facebook fix

gadgetrix — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:45:55 +0000

Facebook has made some changes (without informing its users), which most users find rather frustrating.

Here is one of the biggest problems, with a fix to remedy the situation…

The “New Facebook” has a newsfeed setting that by default is automatically set to show ONLY posts from people who you’ve recently interacted with or interacted the most with (which would be limited to the couple of weeks just before people started switching to the new profile). So in other words, for both business and personal pages, unless your friends/fans commented on one of your posts within those few weeks or vice versa – you are now invisible to them and they are invisible to you!!

HERE’S THE FIX: On the homepage click the “Most Recent” title on the right of the Newsfeed, then click on the drop down arrow beside it and select “Edit Options”, click on “Show Posts From” and change the setting to “All Of Your Friends and Pages” (you can also access the “Edit Options” link at the very bottom of the facebook homepage on the right) Note: Business pages do not have a newsfeed however page owners should adjust the settings on their personal accounts.

The good news is: now you can now view all of your friends and fans again.

The bad news is: YOU ARE STILL INVISIBLE to a large portion of your list.

You must get the word out to ALL of your friends and fans by informing them to adjust their settings.
Send them a link to this blog post, or copy and paste the above to them in an email or instant message.

Alternative OS for Kindle

gadgetrix — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:21:52 +0000

Duokan is an easy to install, easy to use, alternative Operating System for the Kindle.

It allows you to install and read EPUB, CHM, DOC and djvu ebooks on the Kindle, without converting, and it has a far better renderer for PDF docs.
It offers a wider range of fonts and more control of the layout and margins.
It offers an option for MUCH faster page turning, which is absolutely instantanous, or the standard setting.
A really decent MP3 player is included.
Lots of shortcut keys are available.
Last but not least, you can use the long desired but missing feature of Folders organisation, i.e. create custom folders to drag and drop different books, for easy sorting and organisation.

It does not replace the original OS, it installs alongside the original, so you can choose which to run at any time.
It is just as easy to uninstall if you choose to do so.

Full info including links to the download, at:

http://flip.netzbeben.de/2010/11/duokan-available-with-english-gui-today

Voyager 1, mankind’s first intersteller craft?

gadgetrix — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:45:10 +0000

Do you remember when the space probe, Voyager 1 was launched in 1997? I do.

Its primary objective was to pass close by our solar system’s two gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn (After Pioneer 10 & 11 had been there, launched in 1972 & 1973 respectively).

After accomplishing that, it was directed away from the sun and has been going strong ever since…

Now, 33 years later, Voyager 1 is travelling at a speed of over 60 000kph and has already crossed 17.4 billion kilometers from the Sun.

Its 4 Watt radio transmitter is still being received on Earth.

In 2004, Voyager 1 crossed the Sun’s “Termination Shock”, a solar boundary where solar wind (charged particles emitted by the Sun), slows down from super-sonic to sub-sonic speeds, placing Voyager 1 in the Heliosheath. In August 2007, voyager 1 was experiencing solar-winds zipping past it at almost 210 000 kph, reducing by approx 72 000 kph each year as it travels further away from the origin, the Sun. In June this year, Voyager 1 reached the point where the solar-wind had reduced to zero speed.

Within 4 years, Voyager 1 will cross the Heliopause, the outer limit of our solar system, which will place Voyager 1 in true interstellar space, outside the influence of our sun or solar system. If it survives, it will be mankind’s first interstellar spacecraft.

Voyager 2 which was launched about a month before Voyager 1, took a longer route to pass Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Its slower speed places it closer to the sun, heading out of the solar system in an approximate opposite direction to its “sister”.

Both probes have a mini nuclear reactor onboard to provide the electricity required to keep them functioning until about 2025 when their nuclear fuel will run out.

One of the most famous photographs the world has ever known was taken by voyager 1 in 1991, where it turned its sensors back towards Earth and captured an image from 6 billion km away… where Earth is seen as a “Pale Blue Dot”, which became the title of a book by Cal Sagan. It makes us realise how utterly insignificant our home planet is in the grand scheme of things. (Click on the image to view some of Voyager 1′s best images)

Be outdoors after midnight 13/14 December 2010

gadgetrix — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:25:45 +0000

If the sky is relatively cloudless on the night of 13 December, you may wish to sleep outdoors to witness the awesome Geminids Meteor Shower. If its cloudy, then try the following night, the 14th which should be almost as good.

Pitch a camping tent on your back lawn, or just a blanket and sleeping bags if the weather is good. Or invite some friends over for a midnight braai… then turn the lights down shortly after midnight.

The Quarter Moon (half a disk as viewed from Earth) will set approx 17 minutes after Midnight in Cape Town (or 10 minutes earlier in Johannesburg), delivering perfect viewing conditions. The Meteor Count will peak between 11.30pm and 3.00am, expecting to reach approx 50 meteors per hour, however past experiences have often delivered more than Five per minute in cyclic bursts.

The Geminids should be the best meteor shower of 2010 as the Earth will pass directly through the center of the stream of debris that forms this usually impressive nighttime display.

What makes the Geminids unusual is not only their impressive display, but also the fact that they are caused not by the debris left behind by a comet, but by what is believed to be an errant asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon, knocked out of the usual asteroid belt into an orbit that intersected Earth’s orbit. Phaethon’s orbit is most strange for an asteroid, passing closer to the sun than any other, well inside Mercury’s orbit (the closest planet to the sun). In fact, it’s comet is similar to that of an comet, however it lacks all the usual aspects of a comet (no Coma, no gas jets, no dust-trail), hence the belief that it is most likely an errant asteroid.

The Geminids are so named as they appear in the sky in the constellation of Gemini (though obviously quite close by).
They will appear to radiate from a single point, unlike some other meteor showers that scatter randomly across the skies in all directions.
Those that first enter the atmosphere close to the central point will have short trails, as they are heading vertically towards the ground, while those that originate further away (but streaking away from the central point), will have longer, slower trails. The best will be approx 90 degrees away from the central point.

You will not need binoculars and the best way to view them will be with the naked eye.

These meteors are small fragments of debris, from dust particles to small pebble sizes, which are heated to glowing by the friction of their high velocity path into Earth’s atmosphere.

While they are glowing visibly and shooting across the sky, they are known as meteors (or shooting stars by some).
Most, if not all, will burn away to oblivion in the upper atmosphere.

Any that reach the Erath’s surface is known as a meteorite, though it is unlikely that any from the Geminids are likely to form meteorites.

They should be visible from late evening, lower in the Eastern sky, abut will increase in number, intensity and speed as they rise to almost overhead in the early hours of the morning.

Let’s hope for clear skies on the night of the 13th December, otherwise the 14th should still put on a good show.

By the way, 13th December also coincides with the Moon’s Apogee, its further point from Earth in its orbit.

Let us know in the COMMENTS below if you manage to get any good photographs of the Geminids.

Free Wi-fi internet

gadgetrix — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:45:20 +0000

In most of Europe, Asia and much of the USA, free Wi-Fi in major cities is the norm.
Many cities are blanketed with free Wi-Fi everywhere you go, including on the underground rail transport.

Alas, we here in Darkest Africa have a long way to go before this becomes a reality here.

However, things are slowly improving.

Many coffee shops now offer some sort of free Wi-Fi.

Mug & Bean offers 10 minutes free (why base this on time?)

News Cafe offer 10MB free per day (just ask for a Wi-Fi voucher).

One notable newcommer is HipZone who now offer 50MB per day per person, at a range of different venues,
Most notably Kuai, Vida e Caffe, Seattle Coffee, Osuma, and a few others.

You need to register (free) just once, then use the given credentials to log-in again in future.

For a list of venues, see: http://maps.hip-zone.co.za

If you know of any free wi-Fi vendors or indepenant venues, please post info in the Comments below.

Google still impresses

gadgetrix — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 06:55:34 +0000

I really love the way Google does things…
and I don’t mean just Google’s search engine, which is undoubtedly the world’s leading online search engine.

I mean everything they do… and they do almost everything for free for you and me, except of course advertising, which funds these awesome free services.

Think about the following FREE services delivered to us:

Google online web search
Google Earth
Google Maps
Google Mail or gMail
Google Chrome (my web-browser of choice)
Google Groups
Picassa (awesome image editing and so much more)
Google Translate (great for international commerce)
Google Wave (which I don’t quite get)
Google Video (incorporating YouTube)
Google Blogs
Google Books
Google News

And that is just a short list – see labs.google.com for other new projects coming from Google.

The amazing thing is that all these are provided to us for free. Think of the manpower and other resources it takes to develop these and keep them operating for many years.

Compare this to that other software giant, Microsoft, where nothing is for free. The price of the Windows operating system is built into your laptop or computer (buy one with Linux and see how much cheaper it is). Most computers are supplied with a 60 “free” trial of Microsoft Office. Sorry, but I prefer to use Open Office which is superior, despite its price tag of $0.00 (get it from www.openoffice.org) plus it is fully compatible with the M$ suite.

Google have been in the forefront of web development behind the scenes, not only creating these new services, but also developing the technologies that make them possible.

Do yourself a favour and take 15 minutes to explore this enlightening interactive document, once again provided for free from Google:
www.20thingsilearned.com

Its a worthwhile read to bring you up to date with the latest state of the internet and the web, in layman’s language that everyone can understand.

Do it, today…

Kindle 3

gadgetrix — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:59:32 +0000

The new Kindle 3

I bought the new Kindle 3 which has the same size screen as the Kindle 2, however the device is smaller, lighter, faster, has more memory, and has a higher screen contrast which makes it easier to read in lower light (the charcoal colour instead of white also helps).

It has Wi-Fi instead of 3G, so the web-browser is not crippled in SA, which is great. For an extra $50 you can get both Wi-Fi and 3G.
Loading all my books onto the Kindle using Calibre Ebook Manager, I found a really great feature offered by Calibre, the ability to download newsfeeds to read on the Kindle (it works for any other device too).

There are 276 English newspapers, newsletters, news blogs and more to read regular updates. One can schedule Calibre to download each one daily, weekly, or any number of days apart, at set times. I prefer to download each one manually though.

This gives my Kindle a whole new purpose, to read the latest news about various topics that I choose, including some general news updates.

To quote from the Calibre website:

Calibre can automatically fetch news from websites or RSS feeds, format the news into a ebook and upload to a connected device. The ebooks include the full versions of the articles, not just the summaries. Examples of supported news sites include:

The New York Times

The Wall Street Journal

The Economist

Time

Newsweek

The Guardian

ESPN

and many, many more…

calibre has over three hundred news sources and the news system is plugin based, allowing users to easily create and contribute new sources to calibre. As a result the collection of news sources keeps on growing!

You can use this for any ebook reader, including your iPhone and iPad (use the free iBooks to read them).

Google’s Street view impresses SA

gadgetrix — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:13:55 +0000

Google launched its Street View of South Africa with little fanfare just over a month ago…

Since then the news has been gradually spreading as more and more people discover its many uses and are impressed with the coverage detail.

In Google Earth. In the left sidebar, switch on Street View in the Layers Tab. Zoom into any area of interest, then click on an orange Camera Icon.
Using Google Maps. Zoom to the street you are interested in, or just type in an address in the search bar near the top, such as 36 Long Street, Cape Town, South Africa (Click to view).
Then drag the yellow man, aka “Pegman” (on the Zoom tool) to the location you wish to view.
Use www.vpike.com. Just type in an address (remember to add South Africa at the end.
If you have Mapsource installed (supplied with many Garmin GPS units), mark some waypoints, then click on VIEW, then on VIEW IN GOOGLE EARTH. This will launch Google Earth, zoom to the same view you had open in Mapsource, and transfer any waypoints, tracklogs or routes into Google Earth.

To see which areas are covered by Street View, see this map at:
http://gmaps-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/streetview_landing/streetview-map.html

To start playing with Streetview right away, try this:
(Note: Give it a few minutes to load fully before it becomes interactive)

View Larger Map

If you find any really interesting scenes, or any other useful ways of accessing Google’s Street View, please post in the Comments section here.

Free Skype to Landline international calls!

gadgetrix — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:55:49 +0000

As a promotion related to the Soccer World Cup, Skype are offering users one free month of Skype to Landline calls to most countries that are participating in the FIFA SWC event.

Also 120 free minutes to South African landlines!

If you have friends or family abroad who are not on Skype, you can now call them on their landlines at home or work, for free, for one month from when you start.

There is a small catch… you must remember to cancel this subscription at the end of your month, as it is essentially a free “trial” month for unlimited calls at a few dollars per month after the trial month expires.

Kindle free upgrade 2.5

gadgetrix — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 13:01:56 +0000

Amazon has finally provided the update that allows us to sort our books into “collections”… however, these are not folders as was expected. The process of sorting your books into collections can be done only on the device itself, which is a painfully slow and frustrating process. Its actually nothing more than fancy metatags, as the books are NOT moved out of your main list!

This is a pretty useless feature and still does not address the overwhelming need for organising huge collections of books on the Kindle.

other nice new features

PDF docs can now be zoomed up to 300% and panned, to see more detail of small text, graphics and charts.
Two more fonts have been added, including larger and crisper text for those with vision problems.
Facebook and Twitter integration has been added, to share your highlighted passages with the world. You can now also view popular highlights that others have made in the books you have installed.
Password protection of the Kindle has been added.

The update 2.5.2 will be installed automatically on all Kindle 2 and Kindle DX that have Wireless enabled and decent 3G coverage.

If you prefer to update manually, follow these instructions to download the file to your PC and install to the Kindle via USB: www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200324680

iPhone OS4 free upgrade is finally here!

gadgetrix — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:48:58 +0000

The long awaited new operating system for the iPhone, OS4, is now available as a free upgrade for all iPhone owners.

Get all these great new features on your iPhone, for free!

There are two ways to do your upgrade…. the easy way via iTunes (buggy and unreliable), and the more reliable way which I shall detail below.

OK, first the easy way…. though I don’t recommend this way:

Plug your iPhone into your PC.
Launch iTunes.
Under DEVICES (in the left-hand margin), click on your iPhone.
On the page that opens, select the TAB titled SUMMARY (if its not already selected).
Under VERSION, click on UPDATE (or CHECK FOR UPDATES).

If you do not already have iTunes version 9.2, it will first want to download the latest iTunes for you.
You cannot sync your OS4 iPhone with older versions of iTunes, so this is a required step.

Then it will download the OS4 and install it to your iPhone.

Here is the problem with the easy way:
Unfortunately, with South Africa’s very slow and unrelaible internet, you might download most of the file then it crashes, which requires that you start off all over again.

The iTunes V9.2 is 92MB and the iPhone OS4 is 377MB.
It is most frustrating when one of these files is partially downloaded then crashes just before completing, so here is the more reliable way:

I recomend this method of upgrading your iPhone:

Use a Download Manager that allows you to RESUME a crashed download or partially completed download.
I use DAP (Download Accelerator Plus), but any one will do, including any of the free ones.
Find some great download managers at:
www.tucows.com/search.html?search_terms=”Download+Manager”

Then download the iTunes update from:
appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iTunes9/061-7656.20100616.ZTns2/iTunesSetup.exe

Run that file after downloading it to upgrade your iTunes.

Then download the OS4 upgrade from:
http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/content.info.apple.com/iPhone4/061-7437.20100621.5urG8/iPhone2,1_4.0_8A293_Restore.ipsw

Save the file where you can find it easily.

Then:
Plug your iPhone into your PC.
Launch iTunes.
Under DEVICES (left-hand margin), click on your iPhone.
On the page that opens, select the TAB titled SUMMARY (if its not already selected).
Instead of just clicking on RESTORE, press the SHIFT key while clicking RESTORE.
This allows you to update from a file stored on your local hard drive (which you have just downloaded).
Find the OS4 file you downloaded and simply follow the instructions on screen.

OK, so what do you get with this free upgrade?
There are over 100 new features… among them, the following stand out:

The ability to Multi-task, which has been missing on earlier versions.

The ability to create Folders to sort and store your applications on the iPhone.

These two features alone are worth the upgrade, but there is more!

Enhanced Mail, iBooks (previously on iPad only), Enterprise Features, Game Center (a social gaming network, like PSN or Xbox offers) and more!

5x Digital Zoom on the camera!

SMS Character count (To keep you withing the 160 character limit to save costs)

Web and Wikipedia search from the Global Search Screen

borderless Document view.

Spell-checker!

Resize photos while sending.

Drawbacks:
The 3G model will not get multitasking, only the 3GS model!
Multitasking is available only with apps that have been developed to work with iOS 4, so we now wait for upgraded apps.

Lots of information on the new OS4 upgrade available at:
www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate

More info on new features at:

gizmodo.com/5512635/iphone-os-40-the-best-new-features

gizmodo.com/5513121/the-hidden-secrets-of-iphone-os-4

Please feel free to forward this to anyone who owns an iPhone.