Many of today’s mobile phones will break or crack almost immediately with a single drop. Nowadays, people tend to focus solely on the beauty of a phone’s design and how fast it can browse the internet, as opposed to picking a phone that has a strong foundation, perhaps is water resistant, and is built to work properly even in difficult situations.
The good news is that there are three rugged mobile phones that provide rich features and are extremely durable, such as the Casio G’Zone Commando, Sonim XP1300 Core, and the Motorola i886.
Casio G’Zone Commando
The Casio G’Zone Commando is an Android Smartphone that is truly meant for the outdoors. It was created to be water proof, resistant to harsh impacts (very difficult to crack), dust and heat damage. A lot of times phones may stop working if they are not in room temperature, but the Casio G’Zone Commando has such a tough exterior that heat or cold weather could not freeze or shorten the phone’s life span.
This mobile phone also has features like Gmail, Youtube, a web browser, Bluetooth, GPS, social network capabilities and more. The Commando also has a very nice exterior design as well. So not only is a great phone, but it also catches the eye.
Sonim XP1300 Core
This mobile phone, the Sonim XP1300 Core, was built a little different from the Casio G’Zone Commando. It’s has grips on the side, which makes it much easier to hold. One of the best things about the Sonim XP1300 Core is that it has such a strong foundation, that it can be dunked in antifreeze or thrown down a number of stairs and will not break.
The Sonim does have an internet browser, but it is pretty basic. Other features are ringtone and vibration alerts, if a person happens to be an entrepreneur, then they can have many conference calls, and the usage of the speakerphone is very convenient. There are a number of things this rugged mobile phone has that can be incredibly useful.
Motorola i886
The Motorola i886 is not an android smartphone, but is more like a Nextel mobile. It’s features consist of Bluetooth, calendar, GPS, a music player, memory slot, customer service number, corporate email support, a rugged and durable design, and much more. However, try not to be misleading into thinking this rugged mobile is an android smartphone, since it does have a similar interface that is almost identical to the Android.
So there you have it, all three of these mobile phones are incredibly useful for a long period of time. Not only can they withstand harsh conditions, have a wide range of features, but their beauty appeals to the public’s eye.
The early version if apple iOS launched back in 2007. In that time it was very inferior mobile operating system, yet could service due to the famous trade mark apple, smooth user interfaces and exceptional hardware like iPhone. There were lots of limitations in the operating system. Basically it could not handle two applications at the same time while basic version of Nokia OS could do it. Your Skype mobile client goes off when a call or SMS comes which was very annoying.
No matter what technology and creativity never end and fly through obstacles, especially Apple Inc. Down the time they manage to upgrade the iOS to compete with other available mobile operating system. In version 4.0, they manage to introduce many significant features including multitasking for 3rd party application, JAVA Scrip support and Wi-Fi multimedia streaming.
With those features iOS became a huge threat to other mobile operating system and sometimes it could dominate very old market empires. Symbian OS, HP WebOS (previously palm OS) and Windows Mobile OS like giant were moved with the improvement of Apple iOS. In 2011 June Apple announced the latest iOS 5.0 comes with lots of amazing features and it was launched in October. This OS initially came to the market with Apple iPhone 4S. It’s a good time to take a look in to effect that iOS 5.0 made to the mobile device world.
New Features
Notification Center
The notification canter is one of the main components in any Mobile OS not just in iOS. Previously the way it used to give the notification was not user-friendly and sometimes it was disturbing to the currently running application. In iOS 5 they have redesign it. The notifications come at the top of screen and disappear very quickly. In the case you need to see entire list of notification you can swipe the top edge of the screen. Further, when the screen is locked the list of notification displays and you can respond to them easily. You can configure the notification center to display the desired items the ways you want including news, weather etc.
iMessaging
This is a brand new messaging service only for iPhone and iPad users who are using iOS version 5. This is providing the facility for you to send text messages through 3G or Wi-Fi based data networks. The text messages are displayed in usual threaded design. You are free to send any type of content including text, images, video and many more. If you need group messaging it’s possible through this application. Its really cool that application keep the messaging history, so you can re join the conversation which you did maybe sometimes ago. To ensure the maximums security of your message which going to be transfer through a public network, the application uses advanced encryption algorithm.
Camera and Photos
iOS 5 provide many new features to iPhone camera. Manly it has made the access easy. From the lock screen you can directly go to camera without unlocking it. So you will never miss an unforgettable moment. Additionally it provides grid lines, to align objects in your frame, tap focusing and zoom in and out gestures. Normally iPhone camera decides the optimum exposure to the frame. But if you are moving rapidly through areas with different light, it doesn’t work well enough. To solve that problem, iOS 5 provide exposure lock to iPhone camera, which is a feature comes in professional cameras. And you have a hardware button, which is volume up button to capture a frame which is way better than previous touch screen virtual button.
The photo viewer of iOS 5 provides on screen photo editing. You can do basic editing while you watch the photos like Auto enhancement which correct, exposure, blacks and color balance intelligently, cropping and red eye reduction. This is really helpful for frequently traveling people, especially for e journalists. They can capture the photos on sight, then edit them right there in iPhone and upload them to web site or social media applications.
PC Free
With previous versions of iOS it requires a computer which connected to internet to setup the device for the 1st time. In other words, if you want to own an iPhone, before that you must own a PC or a MAC. But with the iOS 5, it has made the iPhone and iPad independent. The device itself can connect to internet right out of the box and download latest updates of iOS through any data service. Same with the 3rd party applications, the device itself can connect to internet and download them. When it comes to your images, emails and contact like content, again you don’t need a PC or MAC since you have online storage, iCloud comes free with iOS 5.
iCloud
iCloud is one of the interesting feature that comes with iOS 5 and it’s totally free. It’s a online storage where you can sync all the data in your device. Hence you can use the same data in many devices after successful login. This service is integrated with multimedia contents like images and videos.
Ex: Once you take a photo you push that in to iCloud and you can access the same photo in another iOS 5 powered devices without extra effort.
With this service you will never miss any data if you are using many iOS powered devices. iOS comes with new email client that is also powered with iCloud, so you can access your mails with any iOS device. Same service could be used to sync and back up calendar entries and reminders too.
Other
To support the booming trend of social media iOS 5 has included the twitter application built in. Good news for twitter junkies! Gestures were introduced in previous version of iOS as well and iOS 5 has come up with more full hand gestures to make the device more usable. iOS is probably the most used mobile OS for gaming. So there is an upgraded gaming center in iOS 5. AirPlay was introduced in some previous version though this version iOS 5 support HD video mirroring through Apple TV. This will be a cool feature for professionals who planning to use iPhone and iPad for presentations. Location alert in reminders is another cool feature, which let you set a reminder which triggers not in specific time, but in specific place using GPS.
Other than visible features, there are various optimization of source code which of course no one knows for sure except Apple development team. The optimization are having the target of utilizing the battery power when heavy processes are going and utilize the processing power when multiple tasks are running.
All these features have extended the usability of iOS powered devices to initiate new trends and open whole lots of possibilities.
New Trends and Possibilities
Business Usage
Even in the early stage of iPhone some of the businessmen were using it to monitor and control their business through custom made applications. With the arrival of iPad this trend hit the roof due to the extended usage of iPad, specially its big touch screen. Introduction of iOS 5 has open more possibilities for the businessmen to use those devices more effectively. Mainly iCloud provide online platform to manage data and make them portable which comes handy for any professionals. You have your emails, calendar entries, to do list and other files wherever you go. With the improvement of mail clients, calendar application and new reminders, those made possible. With the performance optimization in core OS, they can trust the device for time critical online application like Stock trading. With new Notification center, you can easily configure it to display the status of stock market.
Communication
No matter what, the main purpose of any mobile device would be communication. I have mention many times before as well, conventional communication mediums like voice calls and SMS are less discussed subjects today, yet they are the most used. iOS 5 provide seamless integration of front camera to give excellent video conferencing experience to users. Further new iMessage general users can communicate through data service with much lesser cost. As always iMessage and SMS are having threaded discussion mode. And there is a new feature Newsstand let you manage your online subscription to various news sources.
Social Media
Social media is always made easy with iPhone and iPad. The increasing number of mobile social media users proves it today. Facebook applications came built in with previous version of iOS and now twitter application also comes with iOS 5. Using these applications provides more features that conventional web interface and let you utilize the full power of the device. With the new features in camera, we will be able to see more social photos uploaded to social media sites. And new image viewer provide on screen photo editing, color correction, cropping and red eye reduction. Users will be able to edit the photos, right in the device before they upload them to social media, without help of a PC or MAC.
Optimization and Continuation
The development of iOS is always backed by its previous success and version 5.1 beta is already out for developers. It’s expected to be containing with many more cool features. In next releases of iOS I expect it to be more performance tuned and more importantly less battery power consuming, unlike the previous version. Most of the users were complaint about the battery drain in iOS versions when they work with many applications at the same time. At the same time developers will have to keep a track on memory foot print, which was not a huge problem in iOS so far, yet highly complained issue in Android Mobile OS. When they increase features in iOS and make it ready for 3rd party applications they might face the same problem. Looking forward to take a look at the iOS 5.1 and wishing all the best for Apple iOS developers.
Rumors are spreading about one of the famous consumer electronic product which is Apple’s iPhone. The next version is expected to be named as iPhone 5. Apple fans are looking forward for another technological surprise as previous launch of “The new iPad”.
However the situation is not as the same as few years ago. There are no much competition to Apple in Tablet world yes. But in Smartphone world Samsung is dominating and according to the latest statistics already surpass the popularity of Apple iPhone.
So this time Apple will face a tight solid competition and they must hit it hard to keep the spirit in the market. As usual they are not giving up. Instead they try to innovate and hold their crown as the best. Seems this time they are trying to uplift the standard of iPhone body. That’s where the “Liquid Metal” came to the picture.
What is Liquid Metal?
The subjected liquid metal is not really a liquid. It’s a metallic allow which you can mold like plastic, but still it’s having metallic characteristics. Back in 2010 Apple inc got the patent rights to use this in their commercial products.
Liquid metal could be used to manufacture fine structure due to its molding capability. After the construction it will be strong as any other metal. After 2010 Apple has used this liquid metal material to manufacture some parts of their products such as SIM removal tool in iPhone 3G.
Advantages of Using Liquid Metal for iPhone Body
Liquid metal marital is stronger and durable. Regardless of the strong behavior it could be molded like plastic. This makes ideal material to produce the iPhone body. With liquid metal it will be stronger, thinner and very fine construction like you never experienced.
Wrapping Up
Recently Apple purchased a massive amount of material which need to produce Liquid metal. That is the underlying reason for us to assume that it will be used in next iPhone. However there are no official records to prove this news.
If they actually decide to use Liquid metal for iPhone body it will solve lots of problems which current iPhone has. Even today iPhone is having solid build quality compared to plastic body of Samsung phones. The material used to build the body is Glass and metal. There is a glass layer on top of metal body to give a smooth finish.
If they will be using Liquid metal there is no requirement to use Glass to give it a smooth finish. Liquid metal could be molded to give same or better finish. Due to this body will be thinner and lighter.
So there is a high chance that Apple will use Liquid metal to construct the iPhone 5 body. This will be a breakthrough in Smartphone build quality. The expected release is around next September. Be prepare to enjoy a technological excitement and a war.
As a person who lives in information era you have no way to avoid internet. You may not be a techy person, but still it has already become a large part of your personal and professional life. One of the major question people ask every day is “How to transfer large files” via internet. In past few years worldwide broadband infrastructure improved impressively, yet there are very few services letting you to transfer “Gigabyte” sized files.
Previously I introduced many services with their own unique features. Depending on your requirement you can select any of those and most of them are comes for free.
Quick Catch-up
Today I’m going to introduce another service which is letting you to transfer large files online for free. This service is also coming with many of its unique features. DepositFiles is under NOG spotlight today.
How to Transfer Large Files DepositFiles?
Save the file which you need to transfer in known location in your hard drive. If the file is Giga sized you won’t be able to attach it in a email or upload to many of the file hosting services.
Go to DepositFiles home page.
Click on choose file, locate the file in your hard drive and click on Upload now.
It will show you the transfer rate and progress.
Once the upload it completed it will show you sharing options including URL, Forum link and Social media.
Pros and Cons of DepositFiles
You already noticed that DepositFiles is a very simple and user-friendly tool. It accepts files up to 10 GB, so you can transfer large files through this service. Once you upload the file, its life span is infinite. In other words it will be there in DepositFiles forever. If you want to delete it, you should do it manually. Even for that there is a very simple mechanism. In file sharing options, you can see the delete URL. Once you access it, the file will be automatically deleted.
If you want to transfer large file online, upload them through a web interface may not be the best options. Therefore DepositFiles giving you many upload options as below.
Desktop Client: You can upload files to DepositFiles through this piece of software. Highly reliable than web interface and you can download it here.
FTP Upload: After creating a DepositFiles FTP account, you can configure it with your FTP client. Then you can transfer files through FTP client. In this method transfer rate will be higher and reliable too.
Remote Upload: If you file is already uploaded to a web server and if you want to transfer it to DepositFiles use this method.
In addition to those DepositFiles is giving you mobile interface and embeddable flash interface as well. In order to access advanced features you should register with DepositFiles or you can sign in with supported services.
However, DepositFiles is not giving you direct links to files. If you want to download files you must go to their Download files and then only you can access the file. For free accounts there is a download limits and you can get rid of it by purchasing Gold account.
Deposit Files will give solid answer to your question “How to transfer large files online?”. It’s not only about transferring. It’s about managing them and upload them efficiently. Try DepositFiles and share your experience with us.
In the early time of Smartphone competition there were only two major players, Apple and HTC. At that time Apple managed to lead the game with their iPhone while HTC also held a significant market share. For a long time iPhone was the major attraction in the Smartphone world and everyone were talking about the amazing features they offer, specially the smooth touch screen. But after sometime HTC also started moving fast ahead with the power of Android mobile OS while many other companies came in to the show with lots of competitive Smartphones.
In the year 2011, lots of attractive Smartphones came to the market mainly HTC’s Desire, LG’s Optimus 2X and 3D, Apples iPhone 4S and Samsung’s Galaxy S 2. If you take a closer look in to these phones you will see that early market leaders like Apple and HTC are going to be defeated by the new comers like LG and Samsung with the amazing features they offer. Out of all these competitors Samsung Galaxy S 2 stands tall due to very sharp features that it comes with.
Why It Became The Best?
Design
The major attraction of the Samsung Galaxy S 2 is its amazing design. It’s simple and usable single block. The rear panel gives good grip to the device while smooth front panel give you amazing touch screen experience. The built is pretty solid and appears to be durable. When it comes to dimension, it’s very thinner (only 8.5mm) than many other competitors, yet larger in width and height of course to accommodate huge display. Even if you consider the weight, its way lighter (Only 116g) than most of other same level competitors. In front panel every component is placed in scientific manner, well proportionately. Touch buttons are highlighted by a backlight which is very smooth design. Proximity sensor and the front camera are also carefully integrated with the design. If you take a look at the rear panel, camera and LED flash is seamlessly integrated with design in much protective way.
Operating System
Another major contributing factor the Galaxy S 2 to become the best is its Android Mobile OS. It comes with the version 2.3, Gingerbread. Since its open source, Samsung has developed its own version to go with the device and its features. The popular Samsung TouchWiz UI comes with this device as well. Android has recently developed another version named ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ which is also going to come for Samsung Galaxy S 2, though the time frame for that is not yet specified.
TouchWiz UI
Hardware
The hardware that comes with Galaxy S 2 is totally unbeatable, by any Smartphone available. It’s having Cortex A9 1.2 GHz dual core processor, 1 GB RAM, 16/32 GB internal memory which turns it in to a super fast mobile device. This enables fast internet browsing, data connectivity and gaming as well. Built in Accelerometer, Gyroscope and proximity sensor enhance the gaming experience even more. As a standard feature of any Smartphone it comes with a built in compass and GPS-A device. There is a 3.5 mm audio out and micro USB device which also could act as HDMI out. Phone comes with plenty of storage, yet if you need more storage there is a microSD slot card which support up to 32GB.
Display
Galaxy S 2 is having 480 X 800 pixels 4.3 inch display with pixel density of 217 pixels per inch which is pretty much standard. But it’s a Super AMOLED display which gives you contrasting colors with 16 million colors. This display is good enough for general operations, web browsing and gaming as well. It’s coming with multi touch sensitivity again pretty much standard for any Smartphone. Display is covered with a denser glass called Gorilla glass to protect the display from scratches.
If you take a look at the battery usage of Samsung Galaxy S 2, talk time, standby time etc, you will be amazed by those figures compared to other Smartphones. The major contributing factor for this is its display which is specially designed to save battery life while delivering an excellent user experience.
Camera
The image quality of Samsung Smartphones was always good and it’s going to be the same with Galaxy S 2 since it’s coming with 8 Mega pixels camera. The camera is accompanied with a LED flash which allows you to take photographs in low light. However single LED flash is way not enough for dark photography. The camera provides you touch to focus auto focusing system, face recognition and image stabilization. Other than still imaging it support 1080p full HD videos at 30 fps which turn your Smartphone in to a professional quality camcorder.
If you consider the front facing camera, which is there for video conferencing, is also having 2 Mega pixels. It’s a way good figure compared to other phones and of course you can use this camera as a digital mirror as well.
Web Browsing
Another major usage of Smartphone is web browsing on the go. Samsung Galaxy S 2 provide excellent platform for you to browse web with the power of Android Platform and high speed data connectivity. Galaxy S 2 supports up to 42.2 mbps HSDPA connectivity. Additionally it comes with built in Wi-Fi to connect to internet in hotspots. Therefore you can surf through the fastest possible way on this earth. Other than that controller in the browser is very user-friendly, especially when it comes to scrolling down, Zooming in/out and open another browser window.
Apple iPhone never had a browser that supports Adobe Flash player which was a major disadvantage of that device. Further it never supported JAVA applications as well. Samsung Galaxy S 2 is having both these advantages which give more flexibility to the users.
Conclusion
Samsung Galaxy S 2 Smartphone has most of the advanced features among all the Smartphones that came in year 2011. If I think about what I wish to be there is, more sharp screen with high resolution and greater pixel per inch like iPhone 4S. Other than that I wish it comes with 3D display like HTC Evo 3D or LG Optimus 3D. Apart from that in other aspects it tops the list. Especially the processing power, huge RAM and storage, super bright display, thinner design, excellent battery life and multimedia capabilities obviously make Samsung Galaxy S 2 the best Smartphone that was introduced to market in year 2011.
Microsoft OneNote is very useful and special software that comes with the Microsoft Office package. However as it appears most of the Microsoft office users are not aware of the capabilities of these valuable software. The software OneNote could replace your paper note book in the digital world with much more value added features including audio and video recording, sharing notes, screen capture, optical character recognition and many more. This will be useful tool busy professionals to organize their notes in a well organized manner with much more detail with the support of multimedia notes. Further it’s specially designed to work with tablet PC. Hence it will enhance its usefulness in a professional environment.
Getting Started
Microsoft OneNote is a default package content of Microsoft Office. Initially it came with Microsoft office 2003 but gained popularity with the release came with Office 2007. If you can’t find OneNote in your start menu with other office package software, you might have excluded it when you install Office package. If that be the case you can go to control panel and change the office package and that might require installation CD. After you successfully install OneNote it will appear in your start menu with other office software. By clicking on it you can launch the application and that will place a icon in your system tray by default.
Features
Notebook Management
OneNote Provides very user friendly way to manage your note books. In the left hand side you can see your note books and at the top you can see separate section inside a specific notebook. Inside a section you can find your notes. Using the all note book list icon you can see the organized structure of your entire notebooks. Inside a section you can create a sub section to make your note further organized if it’s required. You can always drag and drop your notes between sections to organize them dynamically. In the case you have no clear idea to put a note in a specific section, you can use unfilled note and place it in a suitable section later.
Note Editor
Note editor would not be new to any Microsoft word user. It provides almost same functionality as word and much more. By clicking on any space in your note you can start writing. It provides set of tools to format your notes in an easy manner. In addition to that that it provides set of drawing tools and that will be useful if you are using a tablet PC with OneNote. As usual you can add tables, images and various type of content in your note. If you copy past some content from a web site, it will display the original URL under the content and that will be useful, in the case you need to refer original. If you are using a light pen with your tablet PC you can take notes by writing, without typing. To make the notes more readable you can apply a theme for each note from the provided theme collection. Another special feature in note editor is it supports calculation like in Microsoft Excel. When you place the ‘=’ sign after a calculation OneNote will do it automatically for you once you hit the space bar. (Ex 2+5=)
Tasks and Tags
Task is a one of the most important feature comes with OneNote. If you are a Microsoft Outlook user, you already know how tasks works like. You can create an Outlook task inside OneNote and it will appear in Outlook task list. Same as in Outlook you can set time duration for the task and mark it done. Entire activities will be synchronized with Outlook, real-time. In addition to that it provides wide sets of tags to make it easy to search the content in your notes. You can enable tag tool bar by right click on empty tool bar area. After selecting a desired text or content, you can tag by clicking on a tag from toolbar. After tagging you will be able to search the content based in type of tag the content has. Further, some tags will have different stages and you will be able to use them to manage to do list to make your work more organized.
Multimedia Support
This is the most significant feature in OneNote to make to lead ahead from a traditional note book. It can keep notes using various multimedia formats including audio and video. If you are in a conference you can easily record the whole conversations instead of write down. In addition to that if you have a web cam in your lap top you can record a video and keep it in a note. These are value added featured in OneNote. In addition to that in provides facility to screen capture in an easy way. All you have to do is press window key + S, and then the whole screen will be alpha masked. After that you can select the area that need to be captured. The captured image will be automatically placed in an unfilled note or copied to clipboard according to the pre configuration done using OneNote icon on the system tray. In the case you need to extract text from an image you pasted in a note, OneNote provide sophisticated optical character recognition engine. All you have to do is right click on the desired image, click copy test from picture and past the test where ever you want. It’s easy as that.
Mobile Integration
If you are using a smart phone with Widows mobile operation system, you can synchronize your entire notes with your mobile device. Further, you can write notes in your mobile device and synchronize it will your PC as well. In order to do that you can go to the menu time Tools -> options -> OneNote mobile after plugging your mobile device to your PC. This will make it easy for you to use your mobile phone to record video, audio and capture images, especially business cards.
Sharing, Import and Publishing
Unlike in a traditional note book in OneNote you can share notes with your friends or Colleagues. In that case one note will be edited by various individuals at the same time which enable highly interactive collaborative environment. In the case you need to send your notes to third party you can easily convert your note into many formats including .docx, pdf and send it via email. Another interesting feature in OneNote is you can import any document to one note as a printout. All you have to do is print the desired document and select OneNote as the printer in the printing window. Once you click the print button the document will be automatically exported to OneNote. In addition to that you can drag and drop any file you need be added to the note.
Usage Tips
As it seems OneNote will be highly effective way to keep notes for professionals and students. Since they can use audio and video recording the notes will be detailed than ever before. In addition to that if a student is doing an academic research he can keep his entire note in OneNote. In the case he copy past some content from a web site, the original URL under the pasted content will be useful to further reference. OneNote could be used as a business card directory for professionals. After you configure your windows mobile smart phone with OneNote you can capture any business card and extract the text from it for make the searching even easier. In addition to that the collaborative editing of notes will improve the efficiency of communication.
Android the most popular mobile operating system is trying to expand its capabilities in collaboration with Ubuntu. But your next concern would be that Ubuntu is a desktop OS and android is a mobile OS. How are they going to work together in an expansion?
The idea is far beyond my craziest tech dreams. It’s almost like carrying a CPU in your pants pocket. And of course, today’s Smartphones are having almost same hardware configuration as a laptop computer. Using that, they are going to install Ubuntu as an android application on your Smartphone. Once you connect your phone in to a desktop monitor and a keyboard using a dock, the whole system will turn in to an Ubuntu powered desktop.
The concept is magical. This setup let you to use your Smartphone as Desktop Computer and use Android apps as well as Ubuntu apps in the same station.
How it Works?
As the first step you will have to install Ubuntu on your Android Smartphone. They will release the application once everything is prepared. Then you will be able to load Ubuntu on your Smartphone screen. Of course the integration will be seamless since both the OS are using the same kernel. Although Ubuntu is running on your Smartphone it won’t be able to give you the real desktop experience. Therefore you will have to expand it to a desktop using few hardware components.
Dock: This will stream the video from smartphone to desktop monitor
Monitor: This will display video coming from Smartphone via dock
Keyboard and Mouse: Take your hand off the tiny display in Smartphone
After that it’s all set. You have a Smartphone which is always ready to be converted to a desktop. When you are working on your desk at your office, dock the Smartphone and let it turn in to your desktop workstation. Use the monitor, keyboard and mouse to interact with it. Forget that it’s a Smartphone. When you leave you desk un-dock and turn it back to your Smartphone. This is how you are going to work in your office in near future.
Minimum Hardware Requirement
However there has to be a minimum hardware muscle to give you the real desktop experience. Below is the currently published minimum hardware requirement for this setup on official Ubuntu website.
Dual-core1GHz CPU
Video acceleration: shared kernel driver with associated X driver; Open GL, ES/EGL
Storage: 2GB for OS disk image
HDMI: video out with secondary frame buffer device
USB host mode
512 MB RAM
This is pretty much standard for any Smartphone in today’s market. So, almost all Android Smartphones are ready to run Ubuntu on it.
Features
Applications
The Android-Ubuntu friendship allows you to run both Android applications as well as Ubuntu applications. There will be the entire set of standard application such as photo viewer and editor, Google Calendar, email client, Google docs, Music player etc.
Especially it comes with Ubuntu photo gallery which let you to view photos, edit them on desktop and save them back in Smartphone. Further there will be an application for you to connect to social networks like you always did in Android phones.
Web Browsing
Browsing on Smartphones is a great experience, yes. But since it’s having a tiny screen you will get fed up so easily. With Android-Ubuntu integration you can have desktop web experience with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browser forgetting you are using a Smartphone. These super fast browsers give you same amazing features such as security and tabbed browsing in this platform as well.
Call and SMS
This is the best part in this set up. You can make calls and send SMS using your Ubuntu desktop. This was never possible in conventional Ubuntu desktops. Since you are using your Smartphone as the hardware to run Ubuntu, nothing stops you by using its feature “Phone”. This is one of the most ignored features in today’s Smartphones.
Here you can easily type a SMS and send it to any of your contact saved on your phone, receive phone calls, make calls and direct them to voice mail the way you want.
Get in Touch
If you want to get latest updates of this trend setting project, click here to go to Ubuntu website. There you have to enter your details and then they will send you the latest news about the progress of this project.
Augmented Reality (AR) is a field of computer research, which deals with the combination of real world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects is blended into real footage in real time. At present, most AR research is concerned with the use of live video imagery, which is digitally processed and “augmented” by the addition of computer-generated graphics. Advanced research includes the use of motion-tracking data, fiducial markers recognition using machine vision, and the construction of controlled environments containing any number of sensors and actuators.
Augmented reality changed the way the users see the world. Augmented Reality enhances a user’s perception of and interaction with the real world. The virtual objects display information that the user cannot directly detect with their own senses. The information conveyed by the virtual objects helps a user perform real-world tasks. The base of the augmented reality is on computer graphics. Next-generation augmented-reality systems will display graphics for each viewer’s perspective. Augmented reality (AR) works on the same principles as virtual reality. Augmented reality overlays virtual objects and information over the real world, unlike VR (Virtual Reality) where the user is immersed in a completely virtual environment. This is usually achieved by the use of see-through head mounted displays and tracking devices.
Applications
iPhone
There are augmented reality iPhone and Smart Phone applications released in to the market. iPhone’s Layar application is a nice example for augmented reality. The Layar augmented reality browser looks at an environment through the phone’s camera and overlays data on top of points of interest such as restaurants, shops and tourist attractions. The app retrieves information from third-party developers who contribute their “layers” to the Layar platform. For example, there is a layer called iMetro, and when that’s selected and you’re standing outside, Layar will display digital overlays of nearby bus stops and the time the next bus is arriving.
There is an augmented reality feature which can be accessible through Easter egg in iPhone 3GS, which is activated by shaking the handset three times. A message will appear reading, “The Monocle has been activated,” and then a Monocle button will appear in the upper-right corner. Tapping that button will launch your iPhone camera, and digital overlays of business listings, accompanied by star ratings, appear on screen. The app presumably draws its geo-aware powers from the iPhone 3GS’ digital compass and GPS.
SmartPhone
There’s a smartphone app named Recognizr uses recognition software to create a 3-D model of a person’s mug. Then it transmits the model to a server, which matches it with an image stored in the database. An online server performs facial recognition, shoots back a name of the subject, and links to his social networking profiles.
Medical
In Medical, Augmented Reality technology could provide an internal view of the human body to 3-D digital dataset in real time. This can be reduced the need for larger incisions.
Military
In military, aircraft and helicopters have used Head-Up Displays (HUDs) and Helmet-Mounted Sights (HMS) to superimpose vector graphics upon the pilot’s view of the real world. Besides providing basic navigation and flight information, these graphics are sometimes registered with targets in the environment, providing a way to aim the aircraft’s weapons.
Transportation
Transportation navigation is one of the main achievements of Augmented Reality. Modern GPS navigation systems using street views which contain augmented reality technologies.
Business and Marketing
In the business world, Augmented Reality could be a really good marketing tool among businesses. Best Buy is a good example for AR advertisement.
In Future It Can Be Used To
Entertainments, where real world people can be interact with virtual objects. This can be used in gaming environments perfectly.
Transportation signs and signals, where the roadside signs can be created virtually and placed
Road vehicles’ navigation system can be replaced with AR technology. Where the driver can interact with the real world virtually.
Without leave the house, people can do the shopping. Find, match, and change products with a single touch.
Documents can be created in real world by virtual objects such as virtual AR word processing software.
Disadvantages
Even though Augmented Reality has a lot of advantages, it has some disadvantages as well. Currently, the cost for the technology is high. Therefore, not every people might able to take the advantage of the technology. The GPS on a mobile phone normally only gives a position within around 20 meters, while the iPhone’s compass orientation is only accurate to around 20 degrees. This can lead to problems in determining exactly what’s within the camera’s view.
Few weeks ago we discussed about the modified roles of Desktop and Laptop computers and we noticed that Desktops are replaced by Laptops and Laptops are almost replaced by Tablets. In this transition period Laptops have to sit on your desk and work as your Desktop at the same time Travel with you wherever you go.
Quick Catch-up
Can Your Laptop Replace Your Desktop?
Can Your Tablet Replace Your Laptop?
When you are taking your Laptop away from your desk, your main concern would be the battery life. There are several common things that you can do to save battery such as setting auto sleep time and reducing display brightness. In addition you might be using some piece of software that comes with the Laptop driver CD.
If you are using Windows 7 on your Laptop, there is a secret inbuilt tool to measure the power consumption and identify things that you can do to save battery life.
Steps to Follow
This is a MS DOC command. Most of the Windows users today hate Command Prompt, but no one can deny the fact that it’s way powerful than graphical tools we use. Here are the steps that you need to follow to optimize your power configuration.
Go to Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt
Run Command prompt as Administrator (right click on it and select “Run as Administrator”)
Here you have to use the command powercfg with some parameters to get the power consumption report.
For a start try this, powercfg -energy -output c:report.html -duration 300
This will analyze energy efficiency in your computer and give HTML report as output after observing your system behavior for duration of 300 seconds.
You are free to change the report file name and location.
If you need more accurate result let the tool to observe your Laptop for a longer period of time while you doing your regular work.
If you won’t use the switch duration, by default it will observe the system for 60 seconds.
Finally it will save a detailed report in given location.
In order to make the power consumption minimum closely follow the instruction given in the report, especially pay attention to Errors and Warnings.
If you are using latest Android phone with large high resolution screen with dual core processor, no doubt you must be having great user experience like never before. But of the main problem here is it won’t last much longer. The reason is battery power. Practically you will have to recharge your Smartphone at least once a day or may be couple of time.
Sometimes ago I was discussing about self sustaining Smartphone and technological effort that engineers have put to make it a reality. However still it’s far away from practical usage.
Quick Catch-up
Today I’m going to introduce you simple solutions which will give you couple of more hours of battyer life to your Android Smartphone. Solution comes as an app with the name Go Power Master. If you are using Go Launcher you already the development team. Lets take a closer look in to the app and see how it saves the battery life.
How to Install and Setup Go Power Master?
Go to Google Play Go Power Master page and install it on your Android Smartphone.
You can get an icon of app to your home screen from app menu.
App also comes with a widget as well. You may place it in your home screen to get easy access to functions.
By default it will give you a notification area widget as well. You can always disable it if you don’t like.
Now open the application and go to main screen.
How to Use Go Power Master?
Once you go to app main screen you can see several details about the battery power including remaining amount, voltage, temperature and available time to do various activities.
You can click on optimize button to kill background processes to save power consumption in processor core.
At the top you have four tabs. Go to mode there.
There you can see several presets and you can create your own as well configuring various power consuming activities such as GSM radio, Wi-Fi, mobile data, screen brightness and data synchronization.
You can easily switch modes in notification area or home screen widget.
Now move to smart. There you can see several options to change mode by time or remaining battery power.
Further you can switch off Wi-Fi and mobile data when screen off which is a good thing to do.
In the consumption section it will show you already running apps and their power consumption. You can kill the unwanted application there as well.
By pressing options button you can access settings.
There you can enable or disable notification area widget, reminder sound, low power prompt etc.
Go Power Master is a very simple tool which can be used by any average user. All you have to do is identify power consuming activities, create few modes of your own and switch them as appropriate. Once you create a mode of your own, it will show you the available time if you switch to that mode.
Go Power Master also will give you tips to improve battery life depending on remaining battery life. If none of that work you can simply go with standard presets and they also will show you some significant improvement. One thing for developers, once I create a mode of my own, tap on delete button is pretty difficult. You may work on creating better UI controller for that.
Never forget to go to smart tab and use smart controllers for Wi-Fi and mobile data. Switch mode by time and power is also a smart idea. Press the optimize button after major multitasking activity to clear up background processes.
This is a must try application for any Android Smartphone user and you will experience significant results for sure. Never forget to share your experience here with NOG community. Enjoy longer battery life in your Android Smartphone.
