Hardware

Getting Android to be as Stallman-friendly as possible

Posted by Cirrus on November 5, 2012
Posted in: Hardware. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

The BusyBox slash forked Linux-based Android operating system is more popular than ever nowadays. Even though large parts of it are released under the Apache license, Android is far from completely free software.

Those who know me, will know about my skeptical opinion about proprietary binary blobs. I simply do not trust proprietary software to be safe, so I try as hard as I can to live a completely proprietary software-free life. I simply refuse to believe that proprietary software vendors do not have any bad intentions, and would not hurt my privacy if they could make bigger profits by doing so. You can call me paranoid; I just call it realistic.

On my computers, I am almost there. I primarily run Debian, and the only non-free parts I have installed are the Adobe Flash Player and unrar. Flash alternatives like Gnash and Lightspark just aren’t up to par with the “real” Flash Player, and the adoption of HTML5 video isn’t going as fast as I’d like it to go. Also, the last time I checked the open source edition of unrar, it wasn’t able to properly open many archives, although I haven’t looked into it recently; so things might have changed. Either way, in both cases I want to get rid of (the need for) the programs, so I really hope that it will become possible to do so in the near future.

Android, however, clearly shows a different mentality than ‘regular’ GNU/Linux. Even though the Android project itself is completely open source and released under the Apache license; many (if not all) Android developers could not care less about freedom. 90% of the Play Store is proprietary software, and after all those years, it still doesn’t offer an option to filter applications by license.

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Say hi to the pi ..

Posted by Cirrus on July 7, 2012
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Ive had a couple of the Raspberry pi‘s in my posession for a few weeks , i started out using the debian squeeze image which was really good , then i put on the wheezy beta image which again is super , but lets face it a raspberry pi wont replace your home desktop PC , it wasnt designed to , but using both of these distros u can do most things you would normaly do on your desktop , albeit a tad slower , however i dont really want my pi to be “just another” linux OS so i have delved into have a look at some of the innovation behind this little device and i gotta admit , its kinda awesome.

First id like to show the Android Transporter which allows you to easily share and display content wirelessly via a Apple Airplay like technology.
With the latest version it supports the Raspberry Pi which allows you to easily share the display content of your Android smartphone or tablet wirelessly with a television set or a beamer. Just watch the amazing demo video.

That is definitely something i could use ,  my boy would enjoy gaming on big TV whilst using the 10″ tablet as a steering wheel (driving games obviously)

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Hackintosh Dell GX620

Posted by Cirrus on March 10, 2012
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I recently took a trip into the world of OSX , after being a windows user for over a decade and being a linux user for maybe only 1 year i wanted to see what OSX would serve me up , simply so i could make an informed decision when asked about my OS preferences opposed to going by what blogs and friends say about OSX i wanted to see for myself …

To install OSX was a breeze using Kalyway 10.5.2 generic install , i tried later builds 10.5.6 from ideneb and iatkos but the installs would hang or bootloop , so i found kalyway 10.5.2 to be best for the older hardware in the GX620 , after install i had dual screens full res 1920×1080 off the bat and i had audio too  from usb and speakers ( i had to use onboard AC97 as the kext for my audigy2 soundcard just wouldnt play ball)  Audio was however a tad flaky , on occasion it would sound tinny and if i was say dragging a window or opening an app the audio would stutter and pause and sometimes drop out alltogether. But for the most part it worked reasonably well.

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Archos Arnova 10G2 Review

Posted by Cirrus on January 30, 2012
Posted in: Hardware. Tagged: , , , , , . 4 comments

Now that i have owned the 10G2 for a few weeks i figured its time to write a review on the experience,now the specs are by no means the best out there although as ive mentioned before the  Rockchip RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 processor that can run at up to 1.2Ghz. Is more powerful than the Apple A4 in the iPad1 and iPhone4, it’s more powerful than the Samsung Hummingbird processor in the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Samsung Galaxy S. so its no slouch.   Some benchmarks here 

RK2918 was the first chip to decode Google WebM VP8 in hardware. It uses a dynamically configurable companion core to process various codecs. It encodes and decodes h.264 at 1080p, and can decode many standard video formats including Xvid, H263, AVS, MPEG4, RV, and WMV. The Vivante GC800 GPU is compatible with OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG. The RK2918 is compatible with Android Froyo (2.2), Gingerbread(2.3.x), HoneyComb (3.x) and Ice CreamSandwich (4.x).[7]

The Rockchip 29xx is a family of SoCs based on the Cortex A8 CPU. They were presented for the first time at CES 2011.

Cortex A8 processor, clocked at up to 1.2 GHz.
NEON SIMD support.
Vivante GC800 GPU
DDR, DDR2, DDR3 support.
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 / 10.3

(Unofficial support for Ubuntu and other Linux-flavours exists)

Now i basically wanted a tablet for generic stuff,irc and light browsing nothin major but this £150 tablet has exceeded my expectations, first +1 is that im able to stream all media from my linux desktop (using samba) to the tablet which for me is a BIG +1 as the NAND is only 4 GB , although i do have a 16 GB SDHC the fact i can stream makes a big difference, now the device is NOT wireless N although my router is , so i get wireless G speeds on device around 65 Mbps which is sufficient in this small 2 bedroom house.

This tablet does not ship with Android Market, it ships with appslib which is just another market app, getting the market on it was a breeze no rooting involved, as soon as i got the latest app market on there 3.4.4  i deleted the appslib thing (which paypal disabled from my account i dont know if they been using underhand tactics, but paypal seem to not like appslib) so now it is same as any other gingerbread device, with NO bundled software. (except google’s of course)

Another big +1 is i can control my desktop/media player from tablet while laying in bed which i wasnt aware i could do when i purchased,im getting on in years and getting out of bed to adjust volume ect was murder.

I installed the latest skype from market and seems it would only do audio, after doing some research i found that only an older build of skype would work on the Arnova , so promptly installed the older build and i was good 2 go with both audio & video, I also installed the google plus app from market and the hangout feature worked well (altho the camera seemed a lot darker than it does on skype) the camera supposedly can record in 720p but i havent tried it as yet.

which brings me onto media playback , i have found the speakers to be decent however the video playback is real nice i recently tried to play a video at 1080p and in the mx video player it was found wanting, but in the stock video player it played flawless. I have noticed that not all  of my .avi  files play but all the DVD rips do , i guess thats down to the encoding used , i wont be converting all the files maybe one or two of my favourites, i also noticed when streaming flash video it attempts to download the full file before playing. but all in all its a decent experience sites like justin &  ustream , you tube ect all play well, (as long as user agent is set to desktop, if set to android or ipad it will not open flash video in browsers but ask to play in an external player, so stick to desktop user agent) the 1024×600 screen res allows you to view webpages in full width so i find desktop user agent to work best.

I havent experienced anything out of the ordinary as yet, ive had 3 or 4 apps force close on me but in hindsight those were apps that i could live without, when i had first gotten tablet it would take 2 or 3 mins to boot,  since installing an app to disable startup items (android assistant) the boot time increased dramaticaly.  I havent many cons on the device , except maybe the lack of HDMI out and the camera isnt great but its not a deal breaker for me. Also there is no GPS and no bluetooth (although bluetooth is available on a custom rom using a usb dongle) these things arent a must have for me.

To summarise ,  i am well happy with the £150 tablet its very responsive, it has 2x USB ,

1 x Hi-Speed USB – 5 pin Micro-USB Type B,
1 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A

and the micro SDHC port , so storage is no big problem , I have bought a USB keyboard / case for it so it kinda serves as a netbook as well as a tablet.

I would recommend this tablet,  for the price i paid it has been well worth the money, im seriously trying to think of some more cons so u guys dont think im a total fan boy , but honestly im at a loss to think of anything. Obviously there are many better spec tablets out there that might well perform better but for £150 you cant go wrong with the Arnova 10 G2.

Block Ad’s On Android Unrooted Device

Posted by Cirrus on January 22, 2012
Posted in: Hardware. Tagged: , , . 1 comment

For Unrooted Devices: Browser-Based Ad Blockers 

                                                                                                                    

Opera Mobile browser is the  choice. i discovered that you can create your own adblock filter for Opera with a simple text file. First, create a file called

urlfilter.ini

somewhere on your SD card (I put mine in Opera’s folder),  copy the text from  Here

paste text into a text file and save as “urlfilter.ini”

move file to your SD card. It’s usually easiest to do this from your computer, after plugging in your device and enabling USB mode.

Then, disconnect your device and open up Opera. Type

opera:config

in the URL bar.      Do a quick find for filter.ini   You should see an option to tell Opera where your  filter file is. Tap that box, then hit the back button until you’re at the root of your phone (which it recognizes as a simple  ./ )

you just created adblock filter . After a reboot, you should find that Opera is ad-free.

Sadly, there aren’t more methods to block ads on Android, but these should help get most of you by. Got any of your own ad-blocking solutions we didn’t mention? Be sure to share them in the comments. in laymans terms , create a file named “urlfilter.ini” paste text into it and save as urlfilter.ini , move to sd card ,  in opera browser type opera:config  in address bar, then quick find for  filter.ini  point it to the newly created file on sd card (do not modify any other settings in “opera:config”). i like it because u can add wildcards to the .ini file and block those annoying ads once and for all, if anyone needs help leave a comment.Laugh

Market Version 3.4.4 on Archos Arnova 10 G2 without root or flashing

Posted by Cirrus on January 15, 2012
Posted in: Hardware. Tagged: , , , , , , . 6 comments

 

 

  • follow steps to install-android-market-without-root-on-latest-firmware
  • connect tablet to pc
  • extract files using winzip on pc
  • transfer files to the sd card portion of internal storage on tablet
  • put all files in a folder ie apps or downloaded
  • unmount tablet from pc
  • using the pre installed file browser (files green icon) on tablet  if not use es file manager from appslib
  • browse to folder where u downloaded the .apk compressed files
  • install files in the order below

Download the files from here   http://www.mediafire.com/?aalj0j7y4bdhuyy

If you have an older market installed, just install the vending 3.4.4.apk & current will be updated.

Extract the files, transfer the files and then install the apks using file manager in this order:

-1.Google Services Framework -2.OneTime Initializer -3.Setup Wizard -4.Talk -5.Gmail -6.Vending -7.Maps

1) After installing all the G Market files go try to login to Gmail. You will get an error.
2) Now go into settings and manage apps. Click on Google framework. Clear the cache files.(if no cache files delete data files)
3) Do the same thing for Gmail and clear the cache.
4) Power down and back up.
5) DONT launch the market but launch Gmail and login. It should work.
6) Now you can launch the Market.

ps. u may need to reconfig the wi-fi settings of device.

ARCHOS/ARNOVA 10 G2 4GB

Posted by Cirrus on January 11, 2012
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Over the last few weeks i have been looking for a budget tablet device, My first consideration was the blackberry playbook 16 gig (£170) or 32 gig (£200). As luck would have it there was none to be found in my city nearest place where they was in stock was Dundee which is 30+ miles away , i say luck because my good friend @liquidtv had purchased one of the playbooks and he found it wanting so that kinda put me off the idea of the playbook as i trust @liquidtv ‘s judgement (he has been in I.T for many years so he knows the script).  Anyways yesterday my friend @seanbarr1988 came with me to get some “stuff”.  I got another 22″ LG TV / Monitor  to twin with current one  (LG Flatron M2262D)  new one is (LG Flatron M2262D P ). i have always wanted my dual monitors to be same size & same res (desktop mode in VLC is tremendous).

While in the store for TV i asked the assistant about budget tablet devices ,  he said they have the Archos Arnova 10 for like £140 , i asked him to let me see it so i could  get an idea of response ect , to my suprise he said no , was not shops policy, (apparently it was the only boxed model left in store , there was none of these on display)  my partner in crime @seanbarr1988 works with electronics and has came across these tablets on many occasions , he told me they was decent for that price , i trust his judgement too , so  i bought it , after a quick trip to subway for some well needed grub it was back to the base to see  how my purchases measured up.

To my  (wont say dissapointment)  new gadgets detrament i had forgotten all about the fact i had promised my boy and my young niece a trip to the irn bru carnival at Glasgow SECC so my honeymoon period came to an abrupt end.  I left the tablet charging and we all set off for a great night at the SECC, i got home around 11 pm  and was time to get down to buisiness and find out how this cheap tablet performed, i found it to be very responsive and fluid and i could watch any page with flash content ,  to my suprise though it has no Android market, it has its own market named applib  it does have 30.000 apps in there so i was sure i could find what i needed therein , TBH i only want the tablet for irc and generic browsing so i wasnt looking for much,  i quickly found androirc in the applib market and logged into my irc channel , (i had to change the sleep settings from 30 seconds to 10 minutes because screen would dim frquently , on changing the device settings it was fine.  now i know this device has only 4 gig native storage BUT it can take a 32 gig sdhcmicro (already purchased last night on ebay)  it also has a usb to go 2.0 port AND a usb micro port, so the storage factor should not be a problem,  screen res is 1024 x 600 pixels  its enough to view webpages in full width, it connected to my wi-fi off the bat,i have been using it for only a short time and so far it has done what i have asked , (which aint too much) for the price id say its decent. for full specs click the image above.

the new Rockchip RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 processor that can run at up to 1.2Ghz. It’s more powerful than the Apple A4 in the iPad1 and iPhone4, it’s more powerful than the Samsung Hummingbird processor in the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Samsung Galaxy S.

Logitech M510 Mouse

Posted by Cirrus on January 7, 2012
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Superb mouse. Excellent build quality and very comfortable to use and with great tracking resolution. The nano receiver is very small and unobtrusive. I paired this mouse with the k340 wireless keyboard and the package is a huge improvement over my previous microsoft multimedia set-up. The logitech unifying software (which you download seperatley) works very easily to help install , another plus is u can add up to 4 logitech products onto the one nano receiver. Very happy with this purchase. It performs perfectly on a variety of surfaces, important when you are using it with a laptop.
Very positive left/right button action with two well placed additional thumb buttons, for forward/backward control – excellent for flipping between web pages.
Centre mouse wheel also pushes sideways left/right for moving around windowed screens & self centres.
Tiny wireless receiver plugs into a USB port on your PC & automatically connects the mouse every time you boot up. Works fine even at 10 foot range!. Compared to my old wireless mouse which had me changing the 2 AA batteries every week or so , battery life on this is advertised as 2 years WOW !!

Mobile Malware , Fact or Fiction ?

Posted by Cirrus on November 22, 2011
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As twilight approaches for 2011, security vendors have set their gaze on the rise of Android malware during the year and what is ahead. Last week, Juniper Networks entered the fray, declaring the number of malware samples it observed targeting devices running Google Android had shot up nearly 500 percent since July. Today, McAfee released its threats report for the third quarter of the year, which found that the amount of malware targeting Android devices jumped 37 percent since the second quarter. While there is no doubt the amount of malicious programs with Windows in their bull’s eye dwarfs the amount of threats to mobile devices, the focus on Android malware have left some wondering how to separate fact from hype.”

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Siri Can Work On Any Device?

Posted by Cirrus on November 15, 2011
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After the release of Siri, hacker have been after it and tried to implement it in any possible working device. First it was iPhone 4S who had the facility then came iPhone 4 followed by iPhone 3GS to which Siri was ported to. Now a group of individuals from Applidium have posted a story that explains how the group was able to crack Siri so that they could run the virtual assistant on any device.

Amazing isn’t it? They explain that they were able to analyze those voice inputs even that are never spoken through an iPhone. This is what the technically did:

Basically, the group was able to get Siri to analyze voice inputs that were never spoken through an iPhone. It turns out Siri uses TCP to speak to a server at 17.174.4.4 using port 443. Applidium then logged on to a desktop computer, entered in that IP address, and realized that Apple was returning a server named “guzzoni.apple.com” and that Siri was using HTTPS as its protocol. Putting it simply, the group then created a fake guzzoni.apple.com address and tricked Siri into sending commands there instead of to Apple’s own server. Applidium discovered that Siri sends Apple a time stamp for each word spoken, as well as a reply confidence score, and described the software as “very, very chatty.”

This means that we can have Siri on our Androids as well. Hackers have also brought us a set of tools that anyone can use to create Siri-enabled applications and hackers are encouraging people to test them out and bring out new and interesting stuff. “And let’s see how long it’ll take Apple to change their security scheme,” the group jested.