Category Archives: Gadgets

Why Aussie retail is dying (reason #8,831)

Posted on April 13, 2012 by OzDJ| Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, I visited Altronics to have a listen to their range of outdoor speakers. See, part of my plan for the new pergola includes a 5.1 audio setup for outdoor movies and entertaining. Weatherproof speakers added to renovations shopping list. Winking smile

I must have auditioned almost a dozen pairs of speakers before settling on the Opus One (aka Redback) C0911 (IP54-rated) 45W model. At $225.00 per pair, four speakers would have worked at at $464.90 including delivery and insurance. They had no new ones in stock and the salesperson was terrible at closing a sale. So, I decided to hold-off until a little closer to when I needed them in the hope they might have them on sale.

Fast forward to Wednesday last week. I was having a poke about on eBay and decide to have a look for a suitable centre channel speaker. Didn’t find one that I liked but I did stumble-upon this listing:

OUTDOOR SPEAKERS NEW COMMERCIAL & MARINE 2WAY 90W PAIR

The photo piqued my interest and then I read, in part:

These high power Redback® Monitor Series music speakers feature exceptional sound quality for professional sound reinforcement…

…sealed speaker with 5.25″ bass driver and mylar dome tweeter. Best suited to foreground music systems and PA music extension speakers in commercial applications….

Power Rating Each: 45W RMS, 90W MAX, 8 Ohms
SPL (1W @ 1m): 88dB
Freq. Response: 61Hz – 20kHz
Dimensions: 180W x 150D x 238H
Weight: 2.5kg/ speaker…”

Hang on. Major déjà vu moment. Where have I read that blurb and those specs before? Oh, that’s right – HERE! It’s almost word for word and number for number. No branding shown in the photos, but most certainly looks the part otherwise.

The seller, “Audio Australia” seemed to have a great reputation, and I knew I could always do a credit card chargeback if I got burned with a cheap and nasty rip-off item. So, I took my chances and ordered two pairs for $258.00 delivered (just under half the price quoted by Altronics).

Today – just two days later – a box arrived, with one particularly intriguing label on the front. “ALTRONIC DRIVER (0050)”. WHAAA?! I ripped the carton open. There were two boxes of Opus One C0911 speakers and, in between them, an Altronics box used for extra padding!

I have no idea what Altronics is playing at, but I know that I’ll never buy from their website or store again without checking eBay first. Smile

C0911 Outdoor Speakers

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

DOWNLOAD ALL

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Posted in Consumer, Gadgets, History, Renovations, Shopping

Tagged C0911, home, monitor, opus one, outdoor speakers, pergola, redback, renovations, speakers, weatherproof

Mini-review: Ai-Ball wireless camera.

Posted on January 29, 2012 by OzDJ| 8 Comments

I picked up one of these tiny Trek Ai-Ball wireless cameras from local electronics chain Jaycar yesterday afternoon, while visiting friends in Canberra. This impulse buy followed a heads-up from one of my Twitter friends, Jon. While I was there, I also purchased one of the cradle and adaptor accessory kits to go with it. The camera and accessory kit were AUD99.95 and AUD29.95 each, respectively.

The Trek Ai-Ball and accessories can also be purchased directly from Singapore-based Trek directly. See link here and here. Buying directly saves you ~30%, however you forfeit any support from a local retailer or distributor. Support that, as I learned, was quite valuable.

UPDATE: Complete flickr gallery for this post is here.

It was very clear to me that this was a new product for Jaycar. The young salesperson I dealt with on Saturday had next to no idea about what the product did and what was in the box. For example:

Me: “Does it include a rechargeable battery?”
Him: “I’m pretty sure it does… I sold one to another guy earlier.”
Me: “Can we just check? I don’t want to get home and find out that I need batteries for it, you know?”
Him: “Yeah, no worries” [opens box]
Me: “Ahh – that’s a CR2 lithium battery. Not rechargeable”.”
Him: “Oh yeah.”
Me: “It say’s I’ll get approximately one and a half hours per battery. Do you have any CR2 batteries in stock?”
Him: “I don’t think so, but let me check.” [walks over to battery section] “Here you go!”
Me: “No, that’s a CR123.”
Him: “Oh yeah.” [putting it back on the rack]
Me: “Here they are!” [pickups up an Energizer CR2 on a card] “$23?!…I think I’ll just get the unit for now. Sorry.”

Got back to my mate’s house and excitedly unboxed the loot. This is the wash-up of what I learned and experienced.

Out of box

From the packing through to the manual, instructions and camera itself screams “built to a price”. I’m sure the high gloss black plastic housing is functional, but it looks cheap and nasty. And that chintzy braided gold keychain/clip accessory? I was lost for words. My mate laughed his head off. Hey, at least they included a good quality brand-name battery.

First impression of the camera unit itself – wow, it’s VERY small. Of course there are “spycams” (et all) that are smaller but they are NOT packing a web server, DHCP server, wireless router et al:

VGA (0.3MP) video (claimed 2MP stills?!)
802.11b/g wifi networking (with WEP 64/128, WPA, WPA2)
microphone
internal antenna
30mm diameter and 35mm long
100g

The good

It just works. Simply insert the battery and switch it on. Within ~20 seconds a new (unsecure) wireless network becomes visible to nearby devices. We had an iPhone, three notebooks and an Android tablet connected to it simultaneously and it didn’t (appear to) drop a single frame.

Flick the switch down a notch and the device goes into admin/config mode. Simple, but effective, interface to set up and maintain passwords, wireless security and other preferences.

The audio quality is surprisingly good. The tiny internal microphone is very sensitive and, notwithstanding the artefacts from compression, the audio playback was quite acceptable for most applications.

It’s small. Again, I can’t overstate how powerful this little unit is for its size.

The bad

I wasn’t expecting NASA-grade imagery from a VGA (640 x 480) camera but nothing could prepare me for the craptardedness (trust me, it’s a word….or should be) of the video which it pumped out. The fixed-focus lens appeared to be trying to lock onto low-flying satellites and nothing in the room looked even vaguely sharp. Colour reproduction was hit and miss, heavily weighted towards the latter. The noisy, washed-out footage was not enhanced by tweaking contrast, brightness etc.

Sadly, Trek has skimped on sensor and optics quality to bring this to market for the current asking price. They shouldn’t have. I’d be prepared to pay USD100+ for one (or more!) of these *if* they could address the appalling image quality. They’ve ruined an otherwise stellar gadget by cutting corners on one of the most important elements.

The claimed 20 metres range for the wifi was not obtained. We could get 10-15 metres maximum – and that was only after switching off every other RF-emitting device in the house which worked in the 2.4GHz range… including the microwave oven and cordless phone Winking smile Clearly, this was NOT going to cut the mustard as a real time first-person video source for my radio control cars and aircraft.

A quick note on Jaycar

I thought that the initial salesperson might have been a bit eager to simply make the sale and get me out the door. However, it was like a completely different store when I returned today to seek a refund on the items.

The three staff today were genuinely attentive and asked lots of questions about my experience with the product. They acknowledged that it was a new product, and one of them made a series of notes for a monthly report of some description which they submit to head office regarding returns activity.

As a consumer affairs professional, I was impressed by the no-fuss, empathetic, and empowered customer service delivery.

Oh, Jaycar, feel free to add some/any/all of the thoughts here to that monthly report. Would love to see a version two of this device with some obvious tweaks to the optics and radio. And PLEASE continue sourcing innovative products for the Aussie market.

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Posted in Consumer, Gadgets

Tagged ai-ball, camera, gadgets, IP, refund, trek, wifi, wireless

Unboxing and installing the iCarte 420A for CommBank Kaching

Posted on December 19, 2011 by OzDJ| 21 Comments

Here it is – the highly-anticipated iCarte 420A case (note: link points to the 420 model, not 420A) for Commonwealth Bank of Australia Kaching iPhone application.

This add-on accessory, ordered in-app (billed via BPay) and delivered directly to the account owner, allows CBA NetBank customers to perform MasterCard PayPass transactions wherever this (increasingly popular) payment method is offered by merchants.

The slick retail packaging, quality out-of-box experience (OOBE), and simple installation screams Apple/iDevice. Indeed, the box would look quite at home on the shelf at the Apple Store here in Sydney CBD.

Questions? Please feel free to ask in the comments section, below.

DISCLOSURE: I am a CBA employee. Any of my thoughts and observations shared here are my personal opinions and not necessarily representative of my employer. The case shown in these images was supplied to me at no charge for use during the pilot/testing phase of the Kaching application development.

→ 21 Comments

Posted in Finance, Gadgets, Social Media, Technology

Tagged 420A, CommBank, Commonwealth Bank, iCarte, iCarte 420A, Kaching, mobile app

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet (3G) user review

Posted on October 16, 2011 by OzDJ| 3 Comments

It seemed like an eternity between the first rumours of the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet and the day that I finally got my grubby mitts on mine.

In fact, it took so long for Lenovo to get the ThinkPad Tablet to market that I resorted to filling the void with an Asus Transformer and a HP TouchPad (yes, during that firesale) to calm my inner gadgeteer.

I’ve now been using the device for two weeks – 80% work and 20% leisure – and thought it might be sharing some thoughts as an owner who threw their hard-earned at it, rather than a journo with a one-week loan machine.

Without further ado, here what I consider to be the hits’n’misses …and stuff in between… of the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet (model 18382GM). I think this might be the first and only user review of this device done entirely ON the device itself.

Please click each image to open the full-size version….

Original images are from Lenovo Europe and have been inked with Writepad Stylus.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Gadgets

Tagged 18382GM, Lenovo, tablet, ThinkPad, Trig-N, WritePad

My DIY 16:9 outdoor projector screen

Posted on October 9, 2011 by OzDJ| 4 Comments

UPDATE: There is now a flickr gallery of *all* the snaps I took while shopping/building/testing. You can see it here.

I recently acquired an Acer H5360BD 3D projector for the primary (at least in the short term) purpose of backyard cinema. Of course, projecting a movie onto a green garage roller-door or cream-coloured fence doesn’t real cut it in the quality stakes. So, a dedicated screen of some sort was on the cards.

I considered a number of 16:9 format screen options including fixed hanging (example); manual pull-down (example); rigid support tripod (example); stretch screen to anchor points (example); and finally DIY.

‘Finally’ DIY? Yes, that was always going to be the last option because:

1. I am NOT a handyman by any stretch of the imagination, and

2. opening a box and just using stuff is usually more fun (for me) than attempting to make something (read: ruining all the bits’n’pieces I’ve just purchased)

These were the solution requirements which I factored into my decision-making:

1. Light/Simple – because, for 99% of each year, the screen will not be in use. It has be unobtrusive and easy to store. A rig that requires two or more people to hang/setup each time is just a pain

2. Economical – target price under $200

3. Portable – if I want to hang it inside or even in someone else’s yard, I want to be able to do so with minimum fuss

4. Quality image – good brightness, contrast and colour accuracy

5. Breeze-friendly – doesn’t have to be cyclone-proof, but a flapping surface whenever a light breeze passes through would be very annoying

6. Easy to clean/maintain if necessary – because, well, stuff happens

It was item #2 in my requirements list was proving to be something of a challenge. And then, finally, I stumbled-upon http://backyardtheater.com and it inspired me to have a go at building a 108inch (diagonal) outdoor projector screen. [deep breath taken]

The idea
Sketched while drinking coffee, using awesome (not) drawing abilities, on my Thinkpad Tablet:

Shopping list
With the exception of the fabric, all items were purchased from hardware chain Bunnings Warehouse on 8 October 2011. The fabric was picked up from a local, independent retailer, The Remnant Warehouse.

Tools/resources list

cordless drill with a Phillips screwdriver bit
adjustable corner clamp
staple gun
tape measure
hammer
scissors
a kind assistant to help you stretch the fabric
2-3 hours of time (depending on how handy you are)

Putting it together:

1. Notice the distinct absence of ‘handsaw’ in the shopping list? When you’re at the hardware store, ask them to cut TWO of the lengths of timber in half. That will give you three (plus one spare) of the verticals – ready to go. The horizontals don’t need any trimming.

2. Lay out the pieces of timber according to the dodgy sketch above. Measure the half-way mark on the horizontal so you know where to put the centre piece. Important note: to get the near-perfect 16:9 ratio, the shorter vertical pieces need to rest inside the longer horizontal lengths.

3. Use the quick-set epoxy glue to bring the four main corners together. Use an adjustable corner clamp to hold each corner as the epoxy sets (about 2-3mins).

4. You know have one huge rectangle which has been glued together (read: kind of flimsy and fragile). Now grab the corner plates and screw them into place. No need to be too precise – just make sure two screws are in the vertical and two in the horizontal for each plate. Not surprisingly, it’s pretty much the same story for the centre piece with the T plates (one top and one at the bottom)

5. The basic frame is pretty much done! Time to take it somewhere CLEAN (or cleaner than your garage floor) for the all-important attaching of the screen surface.

6. Roll out the fabric on the floor, with the off-white rubberised size facing UP.

7. Lay the frame over the fabric with the braces facing UP. Before you trim it with the scissors, make sure you have AT LEAST 50mm overlap on all sides! Now, you and your assistant have the tedious (but rewarding) job of stretching and stapling the fabric over the frame. There’s no real science to this, just be methodical and get the fabric as tight as possible before stapling. We found that starting in the middle working towards each corner gave the best result.

8. How you hang the screen will depend on your intended location. Mine was to hang in front of our garage door. Conveniently, there is some upright metal capping around the door which could easily hold the weight of the screen. So, I dug out four of those Ikea (anti-topple) right-angle wall brackets and bent them into a suitable shape. Loose-screwed to the frame, they can be slid/swung out of the way while the screen is in storage.

9. Finally, screw the rubber door stops (ie bumpers) to each of the bottom corners. These are optional but will will help straighten the screen against the surface if the hanging point makes the screen tilt inwards towards the wall. They also reduce the risk of scratching/damaging your wall.

Result:

Well, I reckon it looks pretty good! With spare change from $80.00, I have a strong, portable, 108 inch 16:9 outdoor screen weighing just 8.9kg. What’s more, the bright white screen surface can be washed clean with soapy water and a hose if necessary.

And here is a quick video of the first test. Both the laptop and projector are sitting atop a wheelie-bin(!) about five metres from the screen. At the 33 second mark, the outside flood lights are switched on to attempt to show (badly) the setup.

Wh0o0o0o! Success!

→ 4 Comments

Posted in DIY, Gadgets

Tagged 16:9, DIY, Do It Yourself, home theatre, projector, projector screen, screen, video

Mancave. The story so far.

Posted on September 20, 2011 by OzDJ| 2 Comments

It started, early last month, when I went to the post office to buy some stamps.

I got distracted on the way there (damn you, homemaker centre) and bought a Sony 55″ LCD TV. So, we ended up with a ‘spare’ 46″ LCD that needed a home. So, part of the garage was commandeered, some shelving acquired from Bunnings and I added an antenna to feed it some signal.

Next, I stuck a media streamer there to feed the TV. Which then called for ethernet connectivity (all-metal Colorbond contructions don’t allow a lot of wifi signals through). So, 20 metres of CAT6 cable was run along the fence and hooked up to a new router to supply cabled and wireless coverage (incl a new WLAN) for the shed.

A leftover PC from the study went up to the garage next to feed off the LAN and run security cameras etc.

Then the (much) better half suggested the racing seat setup (which occupied half of our tiny lounge room) went with it. Good idea. Done. Which, of course, meant the second PS3 (dev) console followed it so the racing rig wasn’t just a comfy seat. Done.

And so *then* the garage a needed half-decent audio solution for the PS3. A 5.1 amp and speaker setup was installed yesterday.

…which led me to a thought late last night. With all that A/V and data capability now in the garage, I’d just need a projector for full outdoor 3D cinema and gaming in the backyard this summer. Today, a colleague at work put me onto a mob in Germany with excellent prices and superb customer service. I loaded-up my picked-up an awesome projector which should be delivered by the end of the week.

And all I needed were two bloody postage stamps. Surprised smile

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Posted in Consumer, Gadgets

Tagged gadgets, impulse buying, mancave

LG LSM-100 Mouse Scanner Review

Posted on September 10, 2011 by OzDJ| 9 Comments

WARNING: Contains rude works tweeted in anger; adult concepts and immature computer hardware. Sharing a few hours of my life that I’ll never get back in the hope that I’ll save someone else from enduring the same saga.

It was shortly after 6pm on Thursday night and I was about to leave the office. I checked my mobile and was excited to find a new gadget, that I hadn’t heard of before, was available at Officeworks, here in Australia. Wh0o0o0o!

I immediately went googling and quicky found a video of the LG LSM-100 in action. Naturally, I tweeted my excitement at what I’d found:

“

Officeworks has these in stock for $129 – #WANT (even if I don’t quite have a use for one 9 days out of 10) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt4LpLOx0j4

ozdj
September 8, 2011

15 minutes later, Officeworks did a top job of maintaining the emotional momentum:

“

@ozdj @cbibb3 @VeryZoe Perhaps not fair 4 us 2 say, but we reckon the scanmouse is amazing- everyone @ OW wants one! It even recognises text

Officeworks
September 8, 2011

“

@Officeworks As an early-adoption sucker for just about anything, I’ll see if I can grab one tonight on way home. cc @cbibb3 @VeryZoe

ozdj
September 8, 2011

As anyone who knows me will tell you, when my impulse-buy mode kicks in I can be pretty had to stop. So, not surprisingly, I had an LSM-100 in my hands shortly after – and then, of course, Officeworks had my hard-earned:

“

The LSM-100 can allegedly scan up to A3 size! Interesting. cc @limburger2001 @cpkharris @ozmlbplayers @lisrussell @me_in_sydney

ozdj
September 8, 2011

Unfortunately, all of the excitement (including that which I was responsible for generating) was for naught. I got home, settled in and got kicked in the guts over, and over, and over again. Let me talk you through the first 45 minutes or so.

1. Open box. Cut through a label instructing you to read the instructions about HOW TO UNBOX the item. WHAAA?

2. Yes, you need instructions to unbox the mouse without damaging it. A matrix of layered cardboard templates surround the device and must be removed in a specific order.

3. Discover an *80 page* Quick Reference Guide and 14 page User Manual. Oh dear. I should have stopped there.

4. In the box is a CDROM for the drivers. Not uncommon, but to then fail to put the software package on your website FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE PCs WITHOUT AN OPTICAL DRIVE is downright stupid. Also, so many products have updated apps/drivers since the product went into manufacture and shipped to retailers. Anyway, I headed upstairs and grabbed an external USB optical drive.

5. Run installer application from CD. Presented with three options: “Install”; “Manual Link”; “Movie Clip”. Figured “Manual Link” must be for a custom install, so I clicked it. Crash. Restart installer application – lesson learned – click on “Install” instead.

6. Installer confirms my CPU, RAM, VRAM, USB, OpenGL and GPU are OK for the product to perform. Good-o! Product appears and a picture of a mouse appears on the screen.

7. Out of nowhere, the application tells me “A new version of LG Smart Scan is available!” Wow! Thanks LG – so fscking helpful now. Seems like an important update too, “Improved: Memory usage optimization in editmode [sic]“

8. Of course, I click on the install now option. Windows downloads the update from mystery undisclosed location on the interweb. Close the main app and run the updater. BZZT! “ExiMsiLauncher Error: Failed to run program patch.exe2” [OK]

9. Blamed myself. Rebooted PC. Re-run updater again. FAILED AGAIN.

10. Decide to give it a run with the out-of-box software. While the mouse was being tracked, and the cursor moved about the screen, there was nothing happening when I pushed the SCAN button on the gargantuan mouse.

I tweeted thusly:

“

Attempting to install the LG LSM-100 “Mouse Scanner”. Possibly THE WORST out-of-box experience *ever* for a basic gadget. cc @Officeworks

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

FFffffffuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Serious, LG, did you even ponder testing this software before you shipped it?!

ozdj
September 8, 2011

Well, a number of people who I chat with were still awake and these poor souls asked a few questions – got a few answers – and, well, endured my babbling tirade of frustration. I’ll let the tweets tell the story:

“

@the_lunatix If it was that easy, seriously, I could almost live with it. 96mins *AND COUNTING* to install a fsking mouse!

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

@CPKHarris LMAO! At least Samsung let you DL drivers from their website. LG don’t offer it for this device. So, when you start it, it…

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

To ANYONE that’s prepared to listen to an early-adopter, give that LG LSM-100 mouse scanner a VERY wide berth. #PieceOfCrap cc @Officeworks

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

@the_lunatix Honestly, I am a VERY patient person. But this has been a horror. Absolutely amazed.

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

@OhCrap One of these http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/products/Technology/Peripherals/Desktop-Mice/SYLSM100 – I don’t have the ninja-like IT skills you do, but I reckon you might even struggle with it.

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

@Me_in_Sydney I simply cannot recommend this product. It is NOT ready for mainstream, I’m disappointed to say

cc @Officeworks

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

@the_lunatix About to throw it into WinXP compatibility mode to see if I can make it work.

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

The LSM-100 software, now running in XP Compatibility mode under Win7, is consuming almost 350MB of RAM – haven’t attempted a scan yet!

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

I’m lost for words. Managed to get the LG LSM-100 into scan mode. Lights! Scanner! Action!…. CRASH! This is almost comical, I tell you.

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

Micro-review of the LG-LSM100 Mouse Scanner. Highlights: Included mouse pad & cleaning cloth. Lowlights: Everything else. cc @Officeworks

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

@The_Bigfella This piece of shit is so bad, I could put the transcribing job up for tender, go through quotes etc FASTER than a single scan.

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

I want to stap this LG LSM-100 Mouse Scanner with the kitchen knife I used to open the fsking box. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrdszfkjdshkhdskf

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

No, LG, really. This is just BRILLIANT! A mouse that is so fricking WIDE that you need Hulk hands to grip it? What gimp designed that?

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

But at least I’ve managed to acquire SOMETHING of an image now. Sure it looks like papier-mâché done by a drunk seagull but it did acquire.

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

Oh, yeah, yeah… that’s tops. In attempting to scan the front (A5-sized) page of the LSM-100 user guide, the app gobbles 1.2GB of RAM(!)

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

The LG-SM100 is labelled “SMART SCAN”, which is an anagram of “RUSHED TO MARKET JUNK” (well maybe not, but it should be).

ozdj
September 8, 2011

“

Update: Repacking LG LSM-100 Mouse Scanner back into its the box for a refund. Hey @Officeworks, you have my permission to slap the LG rep.

ozdj
September 8, 2011

….and so, I went to bed:

“

Going to bed. Stabby as hell. Good night. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz [plink]

ozdj
September 8, 2011

Friday! Yay! What better way to kick off the end of your week than with a walk, in the rain, back to Officeworks with a crap product for return? Again, I’ll let my tweetstream tell the story:

“

For anyone who “missed” my thoughts on the LG LSM-100 Mouse Scanner last night, an executive summary: Horrible. Ghastly. Rage-inducing meh.

ozdj
September 8, 2011

And, well, that’s pretty much where the story ends. The $129.00 as refunded and I trundled back off into the rain.

Which makes me wonder…. have you (or anyone you know you) bought one of these devices and really loved it? Colour me curious. Please leave a comment.

→ 9 Comments

Posted in Consumer, Gadgets, Social Media, Uncategorized

Tagged LG, LSM-100, Officeworks, Scanner Mouse

HP TouchPad: purchase and tweaks.

Posted on August 25, 2011 by OzDJ| 9 Comments

Madhouse Monday

As I stepped out of the office for lunch on Monday, I spotted a news article proclaiming that Australian retailer Harvey Norman would be joining-in the global funeral for recently-released HP TouchPad. The article went live at 12.46pm and I tweeted the link at 1.21pm as I strolled up to the local Harvey Norman for a look-see.

Walking into the pokey, dark den which is their Martin Place (Sydney) store, I was intrigued by the noise coming from inside this normally-quiet shop space. A lively queue, of around 80 people, was already standing at the main cash register. I spotted a mate of mine, JP, who was towards the head of the line and he confirmed that it was the TouchPad sale queue.

JP had arrived shortly after 1pm and witnessed Harvey Norman staff scramble to respond as the email from their head office arrived – well after news outlets started publishing details. JP said the first sale-priced units (16GB at AUD98.00 and 32GB at 148.00) went into the hands of customers at around 1.15pm….well ahead of the 2.00pm sale start time.

To collapse the next 40mins for you – there was a rush of blood; I joined the queue; I bought a 32GB TouchPad. Of course, I tweeted a few updates – with photos – as I went Winking smile :

1.35pm http://twitter.com/#!/ozdj/status/105483183239340032
1.42pm http://twitter.com/#!/ozdj/status/105484928845754368
1.52pm http://twitter.com/#!/ozdj/status/105488099886374912
1.56pm http://twitter.com/#!/ozdj/status/105488558051168256
2.03pm http://twitter.com/#!/ozdj/status/105490263249657856
2.04pm http://twitter.com/#!/ozdj/status/105490451599073280

By mid-afternoon, news of the complete sell-out of TouchPads in Australia was widespread. For my 15 seconds of ‘fame’, a few of my photos and a video appeared (with permission) in one article and one of my tweets appeared at the bottom of another. Oh – that was my first YouTube video to crack 10,000 views.

I unboxed the unit on Monday night and, of course, the obligatory unboxing photos have been uploaded to flickr. You can take a look at them HERE.

Step-by-step, absolute beginners’ guide to performance-tweaking the HP TouchPad

Of course, a common complaint of the TouchPad is the responsiveness (or rather, the lack thereof) of the user interface. WebOS is super-sexy, but the dual-core CPU seemingly has to work – hard – to deliver the natty ‘cards’ and rich multi-tasking capability WebOS offers. Of course people (people far more clever than I am) have found ways to address HP’s fubar. After experimenting – winning – failing – and experimenting some more, here are the steps which I took to make my HP TouchPad perform at its best with the resources currently available.

(Note: Most steps, here, are based on this informative but annoyingly-narrated and super-shakey YouTube video)

1. Fire up your Windows machine (I’m using Win7 64bit) and download WebOS Quick Install 4.2.3 – this desktop application (Java executable) allows the TouchPad to be seen by Windows when connected by USB (read: installs drivers) and is the quickest way to get third party apps , themes, patches homebrew etc across to the TouchPad. YAY! (Note: first time you run it, it will prompt to automatically download and install Novacom – make sure you do that bit!) Once running, it will sit there waiting for a WebOS device to be connected.

2. Reboot the TouchPad.

3. Put the TouchPad into Developer Mode. At the JUST TYPE… (WebOS federated search) prompt, simply type webos20090606 and enter. You’ll be prompted to add a password. Just skip ahead.

4. Connect the TouchPad to the Windows machine running WebOS Quick Install (per step one) via a USB to Micro USB cable. Just dismiss the message (USB storage prompt) that appears on the TouchPad screen. Let Windows sing and dance and carry-on. Eventually, WebOS Quick Install will find the TouchPad and the prompt to connect one will disappear.

5. Go to the toilet. Make some coffee. Have a break. That’s all the boring stuff out of the way. The rest of the action kind of starts from this point on, and it all happens pretty quickly. Time to FOCUS. Smile

6. In WebOS Quick Install (on your Windows Desktop), click on the homebrew icon (globe with the two arrows). After it reads all the repository feeds, you’ll be presented with a long list of available stuff for you to install. Take a ChillPill 250,000mg. You ONLY want to select and install Preware. Find it in the list and press install. Once done, you can disconnect your PC.

7. Having got you all excited about what WebOS Quick Install can do, I’m going to ask you to now FORGET IT. In fact, you can delete it from your desktop if you like. That Preware app which is now on your TouchPad is nicer and just as feature-rich. But, first of all, you need to add a couple of application repositories (feeds) to its database. Fret not – while it is a little fiddly, it is straightforward and very difficult to screw up:

Open Preware (in your Downloads by default)
Click the Preware in-app menu (top LH corner) and click Manage Feeds
Scroll to the bottom of the feeds. You need to add two feeds with the following information (press Add Feed button after each entry):
NAME: webos-testing-all
URL: http://ipkg.preware.org/feeds/webos-internals/testing/all/
IS COMPRESSED: YES

NAME: webos-kernels-testing
URL: http://preware.is.awesome.com/
IS COMPRESSED: YES

8. Reboot your TouchPad. Don’t ask me why… but I got errors if I didn’t do so at this point. YMMV.

9. Install Govnah 1.0.3 (CPU speed controller, monitoring app and much more). You will need this, once your new kernel is loaded, to crank up the speed. Open the Preware application, find Govnah in the Available Packages or List of Everything list. Install. Easy!

10. Reboot your TouchPad. This is CRITICAL. You’re about to install a new kernel which, for safety reasons, makes sure everything is pristine and available to be molested.

11. Install F15C Eagle v3.0.2-40 (speed-optimised kernel). Say goodbye to your manufacturer warranty – you’re now entering Dodgyville, population unknown (but 100% geeks). Open the Preware application, find F15C Eagle in the Available Packages or List of Everything list. Install – carefully following any on-screen instructions re reboots etc!

12. It’s time to crank up the CPU speed!

Open Govnah
Tap on Profile
Tap on Advanced Settings
Tap CPU Frequency
Set the MIN FEQ to 192MHz and MAX FREQ to 1.728GHz
Tap Apply Settings
Tap Save As New Profile and give your settings a name (eg Grunter)
When you return to the Profiles screen, your new profile should be in bold, showing that it is active.
When you exit the Profiles screen you will be able to see that you have successfully cranked both cores of the CPU to 1.7GHz (YAY for you!)

13. You could stop here. I almost did as it IS noticeably faster! But then I did some more reading about the log file issue and decided to push on. Here’s what else I installed via Preware to squeeze out even more performance:

App – EOM Overlord Monitoring.
Patch – Muffle System Logging
Patch – Remove Dropped Packet Logging
Patch – Unthrottle Download Manager
Patch – Quiet Powered Messages
Patch – Faster Card Animations HYPER Version
Patch – Increase Touch Sensitivity And Smoothness 10

14. Load up apps galore – including resource-hungry Flash and YouTube stuff – and bask in the awesomeness of your handiwork. Use this time to tear up your warranty cards etc too Winking smile

I hope this guide helped you. If I’ve overlooked anything, or could have made something clearer, please let me know! Similarly, if you’ve found it helpful just leave me a comment, below. Of course, suggestions on further tweaks also appreciated.

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Posted in Gadgets, Shopping

Tagged F15C Eagle, Govnah, Harvey Norman, HP, kernel, modding, TouchPad, tweak, WebOS

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Ice Cream Sandwich stable on the HP TouchPad.

Posted on August 24, 2011 by OzDJ| 4 Comments

Yep – a world exclusive, right here! Australian retail HP TouchPad tablet running with a STABLE Ice Cream Sandwich build over WebOS.

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Posted in Gadgets, Humour

Tagged android, HP, Ice Cream Sandwich, TouchPad, WebOS

My 101 of the Asus Transformer TF101.

Posted on June 13, 2011 by OzDJ| 3 Comments

Fire up Google. There are quite literally HUNDREDS of detailed reviews for the Asus Transformer TF101 about already. The web doesn’t need yet another long-winded, spec-by-spec analysis of this device. Here, I’m simply sharing my experiences as a purchaser and first-time Android tablet user (also an iPad 1 user). I’ve now been using the Transformer for two weeks.

Executive summary: I love it!

Why I chose the Transformer

Based on a few YouTube preview videos and tech show commentary, I bought a Transformer – sight unseen – on the following key promises:

powerful Tegra2 processor teamed up with the slick Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system
sweet hybrid design approach
screen specifications
expansion options , including USB host
battery life specifications (perfect for long-haul flights and multi-day conferences & workshops)

Buying a unicorn

Due largely to the botched Australian launch for the Transformer, I went down the DIY import path. I visited or telephoned more than a dozen local stores on or before the highly promoted 25 May 2011 release. None of these stores had any idea when they would see stock. Indeed, most store employees didn’t even know what I was talking about. Those that did were quoting prices almost 50% higher than overseas. Pass.

The ‘usual suspects’ in the USA and UK weren’t much help either. Amazon, Best Buy, Clove, B&H, J&R (and numerous others) we all accepting backorders only and most could not supply the keyboard dock accessory. WTF?! Why were these so hard to get hold of?

Finally, I learned (via Whirlpool) that Taiwanese web sales giant PCHome had them in stock – and for less than AUD600 for the 16GB model with keyboard dock and express delivery. Without hesitation, and with a LOT of help from Google Translate, I placed an order. This is how it panned out:

25May11 18:31 AEST – Order submitted
25May11 18:33 AEST – 收到的顺序 = “Order Received”
25May11 18:40 AEST – 訂單確認中 = “Order Confirmed” – (no errors/queries)
25May11 18:55 AEST – 訂單處理中= “Order Processing” – (sent invoice)
25May11 19:53 AEST – 訂單成立= “Order Shipped” – (status update)
25May11 19:59 AEST – Rec’d EMS no. & link to http://auspost.com.au/track
27May11 17:01 AEST – Rec’d AusPost tracking advice. “Item has left TW INT’L”
29May11 10:42 AEST – Rec’d AusPost tracking advice. “Received and awaiting clearance for delivery”
29May11 11:07 AEST – Rec’d AusPost tracking advice. “Scheduled for delivery”
30May11 03:37 AEST – Rec’d AusPost tracking advice. “Onboard with driver”
30May11 11.59 AEST – DELIVERED! w00t!

There’s a full gallery of the unboxing etc here on flickr. The only extra I needed to add was a $2.00 AU pin adaptor for the US-pinned mains charger. The sole downside of procurement from Taiwan was the small Chinese characters on some of the keys (hardly noticeable but may annoy hunt’n’peck typists). The Transformer is covered by Asus’ international parts and labour warranty meaning that any problems can be sorted out here in Australia.

My real-world experience with the Transformer

Pros:

hybrid design (laptop has barely been touched for last fortnight)
build quality and finish (solid construction, quality components, attention to detail like bevelled edges)
that amazing screen (eye-popping WXGA resolution IPS panel)
Honeycomb 3.0/3.1 performance (mind = blown! HD video is stunning)
runs Flash (currently version 10.3)
staggering battery life (8-9hrs with push-everything running, plus extra 9-10hrs via the keyboard dock)
heaps of expansion options (HDMI, SD, MicroSD, USB etc)
comprehensive included software (especially Polaris Office and Asus Cloud storage)
sturdy (zero flex) chicklet keyboard and trackpad with OS and app shortcuts
quality and pricing of apps/widgets in the Android Marketplace (especially love the console emulators now that I can use my PS3 controller!)
extraordinary value for money IMHO

Somewhere in the middle:

speakers (passable stereo, but nothing stellar)
default browser (thin on features, but sound performance. Replaced with Maxthon)
default media player (fast and user-friendly, but limited CODEC support. Replaced with Moboplayer)

Cons:

cameras (OK in a pinch, but they could do with an overhaul, especially the rear-facing camera which is a real disappointment)
fingerprint magnet (even worse than my iPad. Has been addressed with an anti-glare screen protector)
availability of Asus and 3rd party accessories (read: near impossible to get hold of)

My iPad was last seen at the side of the lounge looking somewhat sad and lonely Winking smile