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Saturday, January 9, 2010

The Backflip: Motorola's Innovative Android Phone

Posted: 08 Jan 2010 06:05 PM PST

Motorola just launched its third Android-powered smartphone with a name that describes its unique characteristic. --The Backflip, a phone with a physical keyboard that opens up in the reverse direction. That feature is no gimmick however as it allowed Motorola to add a bigger keyboard than would otherwise be possible. In addition, it gives the phone the ability to fold up and sit on a tabletop transforming it into a bedside clock.

The Backflip will try to surpass or at least equal the success of Cliq (Dext) and Droid with its own good looks and innovative features. The two previously released Android smatphones have really revitalized Motorola's struggling handset business and they hope that Backflip will ride the momentum.

This latest Android smartphone has the right goodies to make us drool. Aside from its back-flipping, well-spaced QWERTY physical keyboard, it also has a 3.1-inch touchscreen and a 1-inch touchpad behind the screen. The trackpad is sensitive to gestures like tapping and swiping making it useful for web browsing or even gaming without the user's fingers obstructing information displayed on the screen. Motorola has been planning to release APIs that will allow developers to use this touchpad in creative ways.


Using Android 1.6, the Backflip's user interface is similar to that of the Cliq. It also has a custom-made skin by Motorola called MotoBlur that aggregates social networking information, e-mail contacts and the phone address book. It is worth noting that the OS is upgradable to version 2.1, which is currently being used by Google Nexus One.

Other important hardware features of the Backflip that we know of include a 5-Megapizel camera (capable of video recording) with digital zoom and LED flash, WiFi, Micro USB slot and Bluetooth among others. We currently have no information regarding the processor that powers the handset.

Motorola hasn't announced the price and availability of the Backflip just yet. But there are reports that it would cost the same as Cliq and it will be available to consumers this first quarter of 2010.

All things considered, I think the Backflip will defy expectations and will help further increase the popularity of Android-powered smartphones this year.

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Posted by z0ltrix at 11:17 AM 0 comments

Thursday, January 7, 2010

How to Install Windows 7 on Ubuntu Using VirtualBox

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 01:22 AM PST

Do you want to install Windows 7 inside Ubuntu? If your answer is yes, then you will need virtualization software like VMWare Workstation or Sun Virtualbox to setup an operating system (guest OS) inside an operating system (host OS). The process sounds more complicated than it really is so don't worry.

If you are ready, here's a step-by-step instruction on how to install Windows 7 (guest) inside Ubuntu (host). But first, some requirements:

Ubuntu (9.10 preferred)
VirtualBox 3.1
Windows 7 Installer
1024 MB of RAM (at least)

Now let's get started:

1. Download the latest version of VirtualBox from HERE, and then install it.

2. Navigate to Applications --> System Tools and open VirtualBox.

3. Create a new virtual machine by clicking on the "New" button to start the setup wizard.


4. Create the name of your virtual machine (VM), in this case "Windows7", and then select the Operating System and its version (see below).


5. Specify the amount of memory (RAM) to be allocated to the VM. I've got 2048 MB of RAM so I decided to use half of it to make Windows 7 run a bit snappier.


6. Now create a new virtual hard disk and just click on "Next" to start the Create New Virtual Disk Wizard.


7. For the disk storage type, I use "Dynamically expanding storage" as I always do.


8. For the virtual disk storage size, make sure to allocate more than 5 GB for you to successfully install Windows 7. Click on "Next" and finish it up.


9. Windows 7 now appears on my list of virtual machines. Double-clicking Windows 7 will open the First Run Wizard. Click on "Next".


10. You will have to select the installation media for the guest OS so make sure the Windows 7 DVD installer is loaded.


11. Finish it up, and then a prompt will appear (see below). Just ignore it and click "OK".


12. Windows 7 installer will now be running in a moment. Just install Windows 7 like you normally would, and see the finished product :-)


Here are a couple of screenshots of Windows 7 running inside my Ubuntu desktop:



If you want to find out which do I think is better between Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10, watch out for my follow-up post (coming soon) from this article: Ubuntu 9.10 vs. Mac OS X Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7.

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Posted by z0ltrix at 11:24 AM 0 comments

[HowtoForge] Newsletter 01/07/2010

HowtoForge Newsletter 01/07/2010
================================

New HOWTOs:
===========

* Ubuntu 9.10 Samba Standalone Server With tdbsam Backend
* How To Modify Your Gnu/Linux Box To Serve As A USB Over IP Server
* Installing Cherokee With PHP5 And MySQL Support On Fedora 12
* Installing Lighttpd With PHP5 And MySQL Support On CentOS 5.3
* Installing Lighttpd With PHP5 And MySQL Support On OpenSUSE 11.1

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ubuntu 9.10 Samba Standalone Server With tdbsam Backend
=======================================================

This tutorial explains the installation of a Samba fileserver on Ubuntu 9.10 and how to configure it to share files over the SMB protocol as well as how to add users. Samba is configured as a standalone server, not as a domain controller. In the resulting setup, every user has his own home directory accessible via the SMB protocol and all users have a shared directory with read-/write access.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu-9.10-samba-standalone-server-with-tdbsam-backend


How To Modify Your Gnu/Linux Box To Serve As A USB Over IP Server
=================================================================

There was a long time that I was looking for a way to put away my old co CRM server! But why? Because I had installed a virtualization environment with Xen and all my servers are turned to small VPS on a nice pretty infrastructure. The base point was that the CRM had a USB/Lock and there was no way to take the lock under a virtualized VPS.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-modify-your-gnu-linux-box-to-serve-as-a-usb-over-ip-server


Installing Cherokee With PHP5 And MySQL Support On Fedora 12
============================================================

Cherokee is a very fast, flexible and easy to configure Web Server. It supports the widespread technologies nowadays: FastCGI, SCGI, PHP, CGI, TLS and SSL encrypted connections, virtual hosts, authentication, on the fly encoding, load balancing, Apache compatible log files, and much more. This tutorial shows how you can install Cherokee on a Fedora 12 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/installing-cherokee-with-php5-and-mysql-support-on-fedora-12


Installing Lighttpd With PHP5 And MySQL Support On CentOS 5.3
=============================================================

Lighttpd is a secure, fast, standards-compliant web server designed for speed-critical environments. This tutorial shows how you can install Lighttpd on a CentOS 5.3 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/installing-lighttpd-with-php5-and-mysql-support-on-centos-5.3


Installing Lighttpd With PHP5 And MySQL Support On OpenSUSE 11.1
================================================================

Lighttpd is a secure, fast, standards-compliant web server designed for speed-critical environments. This tutorial shows how you can install Lighttpd on an OpenSUSE 11.1 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support.

You can find the document here:
-------------------------------
http://www.howtoforge.com/installing-lighttpd-with-php5-and-mysql-support-on-opensuse-11.1


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You can now support HowtoForge by becoming a subscriber:

HowtoForge Subscription
=======================

For a monthly fee of 5 EUR or 25 EUR for half a year, you can become a HowtoForge supporter and help us cover our costs (servers, bandwidth, etc.) and support ISPConfig development. In return, you receive the following benefits:

1. Access the whole HowtoForge web site without any ads.
2. Download the results of our tutorials as VMware images (where available) (a list of downloadable VMware images is available here: http://www.howtoforge.com/list-of-downloadable-vmware-images).
3. Download our tutorials as PDF files.
4. View our tutorials as printer-friendly pages.
5. You will be marked as a "HowtoForge Supporter" in your forum posts.

If you have the free VMware Server or Player installed, you can import our VMware images and start playing around with the results of our tutorials immediately. It's a great way to track down problems with your own setup or simply to save time. ;-)

More details can be found on http://www.howtoforge.com/subscription.

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Best Regards,

Your HowtoForge Team
Email: info@howtoforge.com
URL: http://www.howtoforge.com

To unsubscribe or update your records, click here: http://newsletter.howtoforge.com/howtoforge/user/update.php?email=matrixunix.ubuntu@blogger.com&code=d8531959c7da2982ec3a7f8f82a13961

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Posted by z0ltrix at 5:47 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The Google Phone (Nexus One) is Finally Here

Posted: 06 Jan 2010 02:34 AM PST

The highly anticipated smart phone from Google has arrived. The Nexus One was officially released several hours ago and is now available for consumers in selected countries. The device serves as Google's debut into the hardware market. Does Nexus One have what it takes to succeed?

Though manufactured by HTC Corporation, Nexus One has a touch of Google's simplicity and a look that can beat the iPhone. It has a sleek body with a solid design. It weighs around 130g (about 4.6 oz.) and has size dimensions of 119x59.8x11.5mm. The Nexus One features a 3.7in AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display (800x480 resolution) with 100,000:1 contrast ratio and 1ms response rate. It has an illuminated trackball that can emit different colors of light based on the type of notification being received.

The Nexus One features a 1GHz Qualcomm 8250 processor, 512 MB of RAM, 512 MB of internal Flash storage, and comes with microSD slot capable of handling up to 32 GB microSD card. It also has a 5 Megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash and digital zoom, GPS receiver, light and proximity sensors, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and 802.11b/g/n Wifi capabilities.


The operating system of Nexus One is Android 2.1 "Eclair". This latest version of the OS includes a few functions and aesthetic changes such as "Live Wallpapers". --The cool animated wallpapers run in the background and react to different user inputs. The "Application Drawer" is replaced with a simple button that can be pressed to access the list of applications installed on the phone. This thumbnail list can be scrolled up and down and as it is scrolled, the applications roll up into a 3D cube.


The Nexus One provides hardware decoding for H.263, H.264 and MPEG-4 video, and is able to play MP3, AAC+, Ogg Vorbis, WAV and MIDI audio, and can display the JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP image formats.

One of the things that I like most about Nexus One is that it's pretty much open for hacking and modifications. Users can root the device by unlocking its bootloader using the fastboot command "fastboot oem unlock". Unlocking the bootloader will let the user install other firmware images and even other bootloaders. Gaining root privileges enables a user to override protected operating system features, install arbitrary software and enable internet tethering to share the phone's 3G network connection over Wifi among other things. Upon running the fastboot command, you will be warned that unlocking the bootloader will void your warranty.

The Nexus One is priced at $529 (unlocked) and $179 if subsidized by T-Mobile with two-year contract. If you are from the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong, you can buy the phone from HERE.

With its gorgeous look, great features, and powerful OS, Google Nexus One has the right formula to be on top of the smart phone market. If I have the budget, I will definitely be getting Nexus One, and if it's really that good, it's time for me to sell my iPhone on eBay :-)

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Posted by z0ltrix at 11:15 AM 0 comments

Monday, January 4, 2010

Weekly Ten (1-04-2010)

Posted: 04 Jan 2010 12:14 AM PST

10 Latest News, Blogs, Tips, and Reviews that I find Interesting and Useful:


1. Complex Integrated Circuits Made of Carbon Nanotubes
The first three-dimensional carbon nanotube circuits, made by researchers at Stanford University, could be an important step in making nanotube computers that could be faster and use less power than today's silicon chips.
More @ TechnologyReview

2. Impact of 'iSlate' Could Rival iPhone
You don't need a crystal ball, seer stone, scrying pool or any other spooky stuff to guess what one of the most talked-about design projects of 2010 will be. The tech blogs have been buzzing about it for months. It's the iSlate, iTablet, iProd, Magic Slate, or whatever else Apple finally decides to call its new tablet computer.
More @ NYTimes

3. Abusing Copyrights to Silence Critics, Control Customers, and Crush Competition
Hardly a day goes by without yet another news story about creative uses of copyright, the DMCA, and generic attack lawyers to stifle free speech, criticism, and competition. It seems that money can buy all kinds of creative "justice."
More @ LinuxToday

4. FPGA keyboard synthesizer

More @ HackaDay

5. Tiny 'capsule' hotels house the homeless in Japan
For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin, one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo's decrepit "capsule" hotels.
More @ SeattleTimes

6. A decade's worth of IPv4 addresses
During the first decade of the 21st century we went through over 1.3 billion IPv4 addresses. eighty-one percent of the usable IPv4 addresses are now gone, leaving us with just a couple years' supply left.
More @ ArsTechnica

7. 2009: A breakthrough year for mobile Linux
In 2009, mobile consumer devices including netbooks, e-readers, tablets, MIDs, PMPs, and mobile phones were increasingly dominated by embedded Linux or the Linux-based Android.
More @ LinuxforDevices

8. Google Nexus One hands-on, video, and first impressions

More @ Engadget

9. MySQL creator launches campaign to 'save' database
The creator of MySQL has launched a Web-based campaign to "save" the open-source database from the "clutches" of Oracle, which is attempting to purchase its current owner, Sun Microsystems.
More @ Networkworld

10. Top 10 Defining Moments of the 2000s
Having reached the end of the first decade of the new millennium, it's time to look back at all the things that helped shape the cultural heritage of our ever globalizing society. It seems amazing that it was nearly ten years ago when the entire world rang inthe new millennium with style.
More @ Listverse

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Posted by z0ltrix at 11:23 AM 0 comments
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