If your mobile phone is not Android or iPhone… or your gmail still does not have Google buzz folder, you still can get into buzz, albeit only mobile version. Use Firefox extension – UserAgentSwitcher. Choose iPhone3.0 profile, go to buzz.google.com.
You can also buzz from symbian (and I presume winmo, although I haven’t tested it) goole maps (v.4.0) which was updated yesterday on google servers. Works on Symbian s60v5.
Believe or not believe? I tend to believe, seeing that HTC HD2 is made to satisfy these specifications and that it was promised that HD2 will get upgrade to WM7. And just to put those specs into perspective, my Raon Everun UMPC ran Windows XP with just 6GB SSD and 600MHz CPU. Just asked Eldar if so high requirements may mean that Windows Mobile 7 is a some kind of light weight rehash of Windows XP, and he replied that it really looks so.
So will we get XP compatibility in new Windows Mobile 7 phones? Not 100% I think, but with some UI adjustments, recompiling existing XP code might be an option.
So, I got 2 80GB units from cartft.com (via ebay). Price was fair (194 EUR/piece) and shipping was only 16 EUR for UPS ground (4 days) delivery. I have to say that these babies delivered on all the hype that surrounds them, and that’s why their price still exceeds MSRP without any signs of decline.
Boot time in laptop (Windows 7, Core 2 Duo, 2.1GHz) went down from 40 seconds to 15. Desktop (Core 2 Quad 4GHz) boots in mere 6 seconds (without motherboard POST time, which begins to look too long at 5 sec). Overall, system responsiveness is butter smooth. Level loading (MW2, L4D) are a breeze at around 4-5 seconds. I am satisfied. Very satisfied.
Core i5, switchable graphics with Nvidia GT 330M, 128 GB SSD, VGA/HDMI out. Nice display and keayboard in the slick 1.4 kg package.
Congrats on removing modem and firewire. But what the heck, Sony? You still keep DVD in this “ultra-portable”? Please, its 2010, you can use this space for better battery and some port that can do 2560x1600, because frankly, this is the display resolution (with some 27-30” screen) that will be standing on the tables of prospective Z customers in the coming year.
That means, Dual DVI or Displayport. Unless that HDMI port that you put there is HDMI 1.3, huh? Anyway, Apple uses Displayport that can support 2560x1600, and others please take notice. So far, WQXGA support by PC/laptop manufacturers has a faint smell of failure, but I hope it will change in 2010.
Ordered Intel X-25M (80GB, 2nd generation) in Lithuania. Price is 180 EUR, which is better than in Latvia (205 EUR), and have to wait around 1 month for delivery.
Also, purchased the latest and the greatest from ATI. XFX HD5870. Had to upgrade PSU too.
Now, all my games have very friendly framerates (Core 2 Duo E7300 overclocked to 3.2GHz, 4GB RAM, XFX HD5870), and it became much easier to make headshots in 3d shooters (Left4Dead, TF2, Bioshock). Another strange, but pleasing side effect appeared in a racing game (GRID). It was very difficult to keep a car on the road while racing, but now motion is very smooth, and controlling the car is much easier. Probably, has something to do with the fact, that previously, with lower frame-rate, by the time when I saw car loosing traction, it was too late to react. Nice.
Google Maps 3.3 now supports syncing of Nokia Landmarks and Google Maps favourites between handset and the mighty google cloud. Looks like another nail into the coffin of Nokia Maps?
Opera Mobile 10 Beta 2 for symbian has got Opera Sync and Download manager, but the sweetest thing comes from the fixes to memory management and rendering speed. It was quick on Omnia HD i8910, and it is (subjectively) twice faster now.
It is easy to switch display modes through system/preferences/display, but I wanted to make it even faster with keyboard shortcuts. It also gives you ability to force resolutions and relative display positions when using both displays at the same time.
Use XRANDR in the command prompt to find out names of connected displays. In my case VGA1 = external monitor and LVDS1 = laptop LCD.
$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
1152x864 75.0
1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
832x624 74.6
800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
720x400 70.1
LVDS1 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1280x800 60.0 +
1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
832x624 74.6
800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
720x400 85.0
640x400 85.1
640x350 85.1
HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
go to System/Preferences/Keyboard shortcuts and add
WIN+F5 use only laptop LCD
xrandr --output VGA1 --off --output LVDS1 --auto
WIN+F6 use only external monitor
xrandr --output LVDS1 --off --output VGA1 --auto
WIN+F7 use both (laptop on the left)
xrandr --output LVDS1 --auto --left-of VGA1 --auto
WIN+F8 use both (laptop above)
xrandr --output LVDS1 --auto --above VGA1 --auto
This is important. This is hilarious if you have got fast symbian phone with lots of RAM. Opera Mobile 10 is here. Installed it on my Omnia HD i8910 and immediately tweaked RAM cache to some 50MB. Running well and not getting any “low memory” erros, like poor N97 guys. :)
It’s fast. It’s fucking Ajax compliant.
Gmail. It opened gmail in “standard view” and works fast.
Google Reader also opened in “standard ajaxy” mode. Wow.
Google Wave opened with errors. Not usable.
Youtube. Hmm, it doesn’t play youtube yet, but I have heard it from Opera some time ago, that Flash will be supported.
Friendfeed works, as does Facebook.
In Windows world, you can play any game for free, but it usually comes with some payload from virus writers. Having realized that, I made it a rule to only play games that I purchased legally. Then, yesterday, I found some of those old Windows games archives. Don’t know why I have not deleted those virus-ridden wares long time ago.
I have already seen that many games work in Linux under Wine, and then I thought, why not try these ones, because they can not infect my Ubuntu anyway. And, voila! Both franchises of Bejeweled (2 and Twist) work in HD/3D accelerated, and they are “free”. True, they try to propagate on the game exit, and (moment of glory) simply error out in wine. Seems, that I will never ever have to pay for Windows games that do not use intensive 3D graphics or online authorization.
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