Google Android - T-Mobile G2?

It seems that the rumour mill has started and it's heading in a pretty predictable direction - Android is supposedly coming to the HTC Touch HD that I have previously mentioned.

Quite the bonus really - not only will it be coming to a piece of hardware far superior to the Apple iPhone but it will also be a later iteration of the Android OS which can only be a good thing. Staying away from early adoption is in many circumstances a good plan.

Aston Martin One-77 - £1million+ car.

This is the new Aston Martin One-77 car of which only 77 will be made.

The only stats that I have been able to find on it is that it will be a 700+BHP 7.3-litre V12 and will be sold at around £1.2Million.

It looks a little TVR-ish - similar to the Sagaris which is not a bad thing - insanity in a car is something that I always appreciate.


Images taken from EVO News Magazine.

Android vs iPhone OS - Is open source to be feared?

With the impending arrival of the T-Mobile Android G1 phone there has been plenty of discussion online regarding the merits of the open source nature of the Android OS versus the closed nature of the Apple iPhone OS.

There is an inherent fear in users of having their personal information stolen and used for nefarious means like emptying bank accounts and credit card fraud. As our mobile devices become more usable and gain functionality they also increase the amount of personal information stored and as such increase the number of ways that thieves can get at our personal details.

There appear to be lots of pros and cons being discussed however there is one that really caught my eye that being the idea that Googles open source approach to development has some inherent issues when it comes to information security and venerability to viruses. In a recent Cnet article there seemed to be a confusion bought about by a statement of comparison between the iPhones locked down nature and Googles Android wide open nature.

On the majority of these websites there is opportunity for readers to comment at the bottom and once you ferret through the usual fanboy rubbish you eventually hit some people who are voicing some perceived concerns. Things like:


"Let the viruses, trojans, spam, and porn begin! Has no one learned from Microsoft's example?"

and

"There is nothing wrong with 'openness'. However, Android frightens me a bit. The idea of leaving it open to developers for modifying the OS can lead to issues. For example, I wouldn't want a scenario where I find an app and download it to later find that it's malicious. And then, it will track or steal my personal data. To me, it's all about user security and privacy. Apple's approach, however, I'm in much favor of. Now, that's not to say that Google's approach is malicious or harmful to privacy. It's just more exposed and a bit more vulnerable. Whereas Apple's much more guarded yet, still retains it's 'openness' in a safe manner."


One of my old managers used to hit us with a line that has stuck in my head for a very long time and I try to remember it as often as is possible, "Perception is reality", meaning that regardless of actual fact, a persons perception is their reality.

Android touts its main selling point in that it's an open source OS, that anyone can develop and publish applications for it, and eventually it will be available for any piece of hardware. This is all well and good but it has left an opening to other vendors like Microsoft and Apple to point out that open source means a field day for hackers and thieves. A very brief search will quickly bring to light that this is not the case. Googleing "Android Security" takes you directly to this page which outlines the measures that Google has taken to protect their users from malicious elements.


"A central design point of the Android security architecture is that no application, by default, has permission to perform any operations that would adversely impact other applications, the operating system, or the user. This includes reading or writing the user's private data (such as contacts or e-mails), reading or writing another application's files, performing network access, keeping the device awake, etc."


This is a pretty clear statement and further reading of the structure of the Android approach to protecting their users leaves me feeling confident that I am going to be safe using it. However if we go back to the "Perception is Reality" idea then I personally can see an issue that Google should perhaps be highlighting in a more active manner, that being that open source does not mean an open field day on a users personal information.

Currently the thing that puts me off Apples iPhone, i.e. it's closed control freak nature, is the one of the main things that allow people to feel secure using it. If there is anything that Steve Jobs is a genius at it is altering and controlling end user perception and in my opinion Google should be taking a page out of his book and be working to remove any doubts instilled by their competition. Security in both their applications and on their devices should be something highlighted as a main feature not just mentioned in passing.

Egypt - Part 3

Three Days on the Felucca. By the time we had gotten to Aswan we were quite ready to relax a bit as Cairo was a continuous press of people, dirt and heat. We had seen a few photos of the boat we were to be spending the next 3 nights on so it was not a massive surprise when we got there but it was pleasant.

The Nile Breeze The Nile Breeze is a 12m Felucca with births for 12 people however I think our 10 people was about the perfect number. The deck area was also where we slept and as such was covered in mattresses and on this we spent most of our days. As part of the Nile Breeze package it comes with a support boat that followed along out of sight for most of the journey up until the point when we were to be served up with our meals. It would then pull up next to us and we would jump on board for proper Egyptian cuisine. Stacks of really fresh food all really well prepared.

Our first stop on the our journey was the temple of the Crocodile God (Sobek) at Kom Ombo. As far as temples go, and as an introduction to the many temples along the Nile, this one was pretty awesome.



This was the first day that we really felt the heat and coming from 16C and going to 42-45C is something of a shock to the system. We were told to go through around 3 1.5ltr bottles of water or else we'd be risking heat stroke and once we moved away from the Nile the temperature raises very quickly. The temple is from around 180-145BC and as we were to discover it's quite a young temple.

As far as ways to see Egypt goes a felucca is possibly the best way. It gives you the opportunity to take a break from the constant onslaught of the locals trying to sell you something. I have nothing against them doing this as I understand that tourism is the main way that they are able to make some money and I would not for a moment begrudge them this however having the opportunity to sit back and watch the country go by at a leisurely pace is worth every bit you pay.

The days were pretty perfect and involved breakfast followed by a short sail to our next destination. We would then visit a temple or a village in the morning when the heat wasn't quite as intense and then spend the afternoon chilling out on the boat playing cards or sunbathing. The sun in Egypt, whilst intensely hot, is not like the sun either back home in NZ or here in the UK where you burn fairly quickly.

Speaking of the sun - sunrises and sunsets were spectacular.

Sunrise

Sunset

Back on the Android T-mobile G1

Browsing through the online WIRED magazine I came across an article on the G1 phone and Android - brief but it does echo my initial sentiments on the state of the OS and the hardware.

From: WIRED Magazine
On Android:- "Google's Android OS for the T-Mobile G1 is pretty freaking on-point for a first-gen software release. Sure, it has bugs — web pages don't automatically resize and the zoom feature blows — but it's also remarkably polished, bristling with nifty tricks."

On the HTC G1:- "The keys are useful, but their physical location is a problem that ties into the most noticeable G1 bugaboo: its size. This is a big annoyance for us — nearly a half-inch thick — and its problematic girth is made worse by an annoying button bank."

I would say that T-Mobile have pulled off a pretty solid coup in the mobile world if they can remain the soul provider of Android phones for an extended period of time. Android is an infinitely more applicable OS than the, albeit flashy and well laid out, Apple iPhone has to offer. I have a hacked/Jail Broken iPod touch and I love it however I dislike the feel that I am being pressured into conforming to what Steve Jobs believes my user experience should be. Android comes from the opposite direction and is an 'enabling' OS that allows the user to define their mobile experience. I believe that as it develops Android will only get more applicable and more user oriented. I think Mr Jobs would do well to consider this sooner rather than later.

Reaching for the stars.

Looking at the Bloodhound SSC team and their aim to far exceed their previous achievements it got me thinking about presentation that one of my fathers heroes Burt Rutan gave at TED.

It was based around human ambition to go further, higher and faster and the current climate in which things like the US space program has stagnated. i.e. NASA is still flying the Space Shuttle which is now 17 years old and are now considering retiring it and shifting their launch approach to the early space race days of multistage rockets. The Concorde has been scrapped and long distance air travel is still taking place at the same speed as it was in the 1950s. The SR71 Blackbird introduced in 1966 was flown through to 1998 and since then there has not been a military aircraft to even approach its performance.

His point is that the early days of 'reaching for the stars' by governments has gone and now it is down to private enterprise to push development, something that he led by example with his Ansari X-Prize entry - Spaceship One

If you have 20 minutes watch this video. Burt Rutan is one of these people that speaks from a perspective of practicing what he preaches. In my opinion it's worth the look.

1050mph - Wheels on the ground

October 15th 1997 Thrust SSC hit not only a record breaking speed of 763mph (1228km/h)at ground level but it also passed through the sound barrier in the process. It was powered by two afterburning Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines, as used in British F-4 Phantom II jet fighters. This was a simply astounding thing to accomplish and it answered a question about what would happen when a vehicle passed through the sound barrier when still in contact with the ground. There was some question as to whether the shock wave produced would disrupt the cars aerodynamics and cause it to lose contact with the ground. Clearly this was not an issue and they went on to take the world record.

The SSC team responsible for the Thrust vehicle has now set their sights even higher. Their new project is called Bloodhound SSC and the target this time is 1050mph. This time they are approaching the challenge with a different formula - one engine and a big rocket strapped to it's back. It's an age old approach that has repeatedly gotten great big spaceships into orbit so I guess it stands to reason that doing the same to a little pencil shaped car could have a positive effect.

The jet engine for the Bloodhound is taken from a Eurofighter (actually donated to the team as it was originally destined for a museum) which will take the car to 300mph and then a bespoke rocket engine will carry the car to the intended 1050mph. The car will once again be piloted by the Thrust SSC pilot Wing Commander Andy Green. The attempt is due to take place in 2011.

T-mobile G1 and the Samsung Omnia

As I have mentioned before I am looking for a new mobile phone. Not so much because I need one but more because my contract period is up and I'm a sucker for gadgets.


In my previous post regarding my options I looked at the up and coming Google Phone or the T-Mobile G1. I still stand by my call on this one, i.e. great OS, very average hardware but on the various tech forums and sites there is noise about a tentative release for the UK market - that being late November (I've heard the 30th but that is entirely unconfirmed). It is due for the US release on the 22nd of October however I don't see anyone over here (UK) going out and buying one online to be an 'early adopter'. From where I am sitting it just hasn't garnered the mass interest and, if we're being honest, the fanatical fan-ism that the Apple iPhone has no problems whipping up.

A big part of the excitement with the Android OS is that it is ultimately going to be cross platform, meaning that it can potentially be used on any hardware available. So far if it could be installed on the iPhone then I would have my ultimate mobile device but the shear force of the Apple legal team coming down on Google certainly makes this a less than likely event. Why Google Android went for the HTC hardware for their initial release I will never know but if there has been anything that I have learned over the years of being a gadget addict is never go for the first version, always wait for the early adopters to eek out the bugs and then get your mitts on the much more polished product.

I went into a mobile shop to have a play with the Samsung Omnia or the i900, as much to broaden my phone options as to just kill some time playing with a gadget.


It has some nice features like it's size, very much comparable to the iPhone, a very tidy layout and a very good camera. It also has the Opera mobile web browser which is just the dogs furries and makes using the interweb on the go a pleasure. For me the things that kills it are the Windows Mobile, an inability to display flash video (also something that puts me off the iPhone), very poor screen resolution (half that of the majority of new generation touch phones) and a significant lack of screen brightness/contrast. It is near unusable in direct sunlight however that may not be too much of an issue in the UK as there is rarely any to speak of. It also comes with a tacky stylus that attaches to the side loop on the phone - perhaps that would be more appropriately utilised with fluffy dice. For me the i900 Omnia is a no go, lots of good things going on with it but the Windows Mobile UI, the Stylus and the poor screen relegate it to a 'could do better' gadget.

EDIT: Just to tack a little on the end here - I have also discovered that the HTC Touch HD is due for release in November 6th - I'll be interested to see who will be carrying this one.

DSLR Video

There has been a fairly new trend starting in Digital DLR cameras, which has been around for a long time in Point and Shoot, that being video recording. Previously high definition quality video has been, for the everyday prosumer, the domain of expensive HD video cameras. With the advent of the Nikon D90 and the Canon EOS 5D MkII we now have the option of taking not only video but high definition (720p or 1280x720) video. If there is any question as to the quality coming out of a DSLR sensor I think the video below has to go some way toward removing that doubt.

This from Vincent Laforet - Reverie - Shot with the Canon EOS 5D MKII

Tilt Shift

Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

From: http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2008/10/we-are-lilliputians-in-bathtub.html

This was done using a technique called 'Tilt Shift'. The basic theory behind it is that rather than the lens being parallel to the subject, the front element (piece of glass) is tilted to cause the focal point in the image to be very narrow but also wide. The end result is what you might expect to see from macro photography and when used in a landscape situation it looks like a diorama. I love the effect but not enough to dish out the £900 - £1000 asking price for the Nikkor lens.

Image from: http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/18145/pce-nikkor-24mm-lens/

Take the time to check out Chase Javis website. I think he's a very talented photographer.

Egypt Part 2

Our visit to the Pyramids was ultimately a pretty fulfilling experience. It met with all of my expectations apart from maybe the near vicinity to the city and also my own imagining that there was desert all around. The area is getting built up at a very rapid rate and if it weren't for the governments realisation that the Pyramids are a major source of tourism income they would long ago have stuck some TV aerials on the top of the tallest one. From talking to our later tour guide, who was also an avid Egyptologist and archaeologist, it seems that the Egyptian government does not put any money into either the preservation or continued archaeological work and all the funding has to come from the universities. I find this quite saddening as it's a very narrow minded way to look at what is not only your countries history (arguably the richest in the world), but ultimately it's future.

The other major tourist attraction in the Giza complex is possibly one of the most famous monuments in the world, the great Sphinx. This was cool but when compared to the Pyramids it seemed smaller than I expected. The area was rammed and the whole experience was similar to that of how I might imagine sushi might feel going past on a sushi train. I think the thing that wryly amused me the most was that the Sphinx looks directly at a KFC which also has a Pizza Hutt next to it.

Something that is entirely synonymous to the Sphinx is it's lack of a nose. There are many different stories around how the Sphinx lost his nose, among them Napoleon's troops shooting a cannon at it, but there is no historical proof. My favorite story comes from an Asterix and Obelix book in which Obelix is blamed when he climbs up the face and subsequently knocks the nose off. All the vendors around the Sphinx who had replica statues go into a mad rush with hammer and chisel and alter them to match. Having been there and had countless statues waved under my nose made this all the more amusing.


This is an aerial photo taken from Google Maps of the Pyramids Site.

We headed back to the hotel for a swim to cool off a bit. Coming from London and around 19C (if we were lucky) and ending up in 38C we were all sweating buckets and drinking around 3-4ltrs of water each. I had the forsight to invest in a Camel Pack which holds 2ltrs of water inside your backpack and somehow stays cold the whole time - brilliant! Bags were packed and we headed off to the Cairo train station to wait for my next first experience, an overnight sleeper train. Stacks of trains went by, all filled to the brim with hot and sweaty Egyptians and from what I could see there was no aircon in any of them. Thankfully when our train finally arrived it did have this small blessing.

The sleeper train was a pretty old thing which upon inspection early in the morning appeared to have been made by the World War 2 German aircraft maker Messerschmitt. The train honestly felt about that old however it was fairly comfortable and if it weren't for the onset of Deli Belly I would've spent more time in the bed and less in the toilet! A few blocker/stopper pills and many miles (610miles or 982km) later we arrived in Aswan where we were to board our Felucca and float blissfully down the Nile for 3 nights.

Sleeper Train - Cairo to Aswan

Egypt - Part 1

If there is anywhere in the world where I have felt intense culture shock; Cairo has to be the greatest. Cairo Airport is quite old and many parts of it have not been refurbished for quite some time - since around 1986. Walking off the plane it was immediately obvious that this was not a wealthy country. Duty Free consisted of some old CRT TVs(tube TVs as opposed to LCD or Plasma) and some ovens, fridges and washing machines. Suffice to say there were not many people heading into it nor walking out with their newly purchased fridge in their Duty Free bags.

Once we purchased our Egyptian Visas we passed on through the Passport check and on to the baggage carousels. There were about 4 carousels of which one of them was just heaving with locals, climbing all over them, waiting for their bags. I half expected some sheep or other livestock to start coming through on the conveyor belt. At around midnight after a 4.5 hour flight it was all quite a surreal experience. Thankfully we had our travel organiser to meet us there and take us to our hotel on the west bank. The drive was interesting to say the least. Driving across the city on a 3 lane motorway where 50% of the cars didn't have their headlights on and the remaining had masses of flashing party lights was a slightly harrowing experience to say the least and when combined with dodging families of Egyptians crossing the road in the dark... well - there it was - Welcome to Egypt!

Our first day in Egypt was gainfully taken up by sitting by the pool and soaking in some sun. After a less than brilliant summer in the UK we had quite the craving and there are few better ways to start a holiday! Later on we headed into Cairo city on the east bank of the Nile. We had heard of a good spot to watch the sun go down, that being the Windows of the World restaurant at the top of the Ramses Hilton. The Bottom photo of the sunset on the previous post was the view we got and also the photo immediately below.

From the Windows of the World - Ramses Hilton

We then went for a wander and found a brilliant restaurant called Falfale. I am officially a great fan of Egyptian food, every meal that we had in Egypt was delicious and always well prepared. The service was also great but they were a bit cheeky and asked for Baksheesh over and above the service charge. We were certainly going to learn that this is pretty common practice and they will try it on every chance they get.

After a reasonable nights sleep we set off for our first bit of tourist activity - Giza and the Great Pyramids. Since our entry into Cairo was by night we did not get to see much of what the city looked like. The drive from the hotel to Giza was short but interesting. Our guide pointed out that the state of the city was due to moves from the government to redevelop Cairo and from what we could see that means building large apartment blocks (similar to council buildings) and relocating the communities into them. The main problem appears to be that none of this work is even close to being finished and the resulting buildings are generally empty and incomplete. The surrounding area hasn't been developed at all and is rapidly filling with rubbish. Later on, driving along the motorway through the city, we would see piles of rubbish dumped on the road burning.

Very typical Cairo housing along the side of the motorway.

The pyramids were every bit as amazing as I had expected and quite rightly I went a bit snap happy. We had a very good guide who was very knowledgeable and did a great job of showing us around. After seeing the Great Pyramid and the large lines to get into the tomb our guide suggested that we have a look at a smaller tomb around the side. I don't think I have ever been in a more claustrophobic situation in my entire life and didn't enjoy the experience at all. Only by the time we got to the bottom of around 20-30m of tunnel could we stand up and strangely there was no ventilation. It really was a get in then get out feeling for me and I think I may have done it in record time and took no photos!

Khafre's Pyramid - Myself and Kim in front.

Menkaure's Pyramid - the smallest of the Great Pyramids.

Following our mole impressions we managed to get around the rest of the Pyramids at Giza, snapped off a stack of photos and then headed to Saqqara (also spelt Sakkara and Sakkarah). This is the site of not only the oldest Pyramid in the world but also the oldest stone construction ever made. It really was a very special place and for someone to build a Pyramid 2700 years BC that reaches a hight of 62 Metres is just amazing. The Pyramid is called the Pyramid of Djoser.

Saqqara - Pyramid of Djoser.

Egypt and Back!

The Great PyramidsI'm back and Egypt has turned out to be everything that I hoped for and more. It is one of those places that as a child I always wished to visit and had an avid interest in. It has also left me with me with some sadness as it is the shadows of the grandeur from a past age that we all go to see.

Great Pyramid of Khufu

It does not take much to see how mindbogglingly epic Ancient Egypt was and even just as a shadow it's still incomparable with anything I have ever seen before.

I will give a more complete rundown on our trip and what we saw and did later on. I ended up taking around 1200 photos over the 10 days we were there however if my usual trend with travel photography holds true only about 20-30 of those will be to my liking. I will post them as I go along.

Saqqara - obliging guard with camel
We traveled from Cairo to Aswan, from Aswan to Edfu then to Luxor. We met many wonderful people and were looked after extraordinarily well. It was a brilliant trip and hopefully my photos will convey as much.

Sony eReader - PRS-700 release announced

One last post before I'm off.

The Sony eBook Readers were one of the few bits of technology that I chose to become an early adopter with. I bought the PRS-500 which was the first of their reader line. I absolutely love the thing and will never go back to a paperback unless I have no choice in the matter.


There were some fundamental issues with the design of the PRS-500 unit that were subsequently addressed in the more recent PRS-505 however it was not enough of an improvement for me to be interested in buying it to replace the 500. It was just a reshuffling of buttons and a slightly lighter coloured/higher contrast Screen. No touch screen, no backlight and the worst failing, no PDF reflow (where a PDF document 'reflows' it's content to work with a smaller format screem). The lack of reflow prevented the unit from having any use as a reference book reader.

Now Sony have just announced what could well be a viable replacement for the 500. The PRS-700.

The PRS-700 has touch screen, annotating, search function and a reading light. Best of all it has PDF reflow so you can load PDFs into the reader and use it as a searchable reference tool. This is going to come into serious consideration for purchase I think. Current expected price is $400 which seems fairly reasonable.

Other specs:
- 6 inch display
- internal storage for around 350 books
- SD memory card storage and Memory Stick Duo
- 5 preset text sizes
- Supported formats: PDF, .DOC, BBeB, RTF, TXT and a few others.
- Plays MP3s - great for audio books
- Comes with a stylus
- Seemingly no cup holders...

Sony Press Release

Egypt!

Photo nicked from National Geographic

Off to the land of Camels and Pyramids! Be back next Sunday hopefully with something to show for it whether it be photos, a sun tan or a large number of camels obtained through selling my Fiance. Ok that's not true, I'll be wearing sun screen, so no tan.

Lamborghini Hybrid?

Being something of a car fan, especially those that I will never have the money to get my hands on, I fairly religiously watch shows like 5th Gear and Top Gear. Stemming from that I love all things ridiculously looking and ridiculously fast like the Pagani Zonda, the Koenigsegg CCXR and my personal favorite, the Lamborghini Murcielago. There is just something about the look and the noise that comes from a Lambo. Browsing through some car related sites I have come across this, and I'm not sure whether I like it or not, and I'm currently leaning toward not. It isn't because of the way it looks, but more that turning a Lambo into a 4 seater GT tourer hybrid is not what you expect from the insanity of Lamborghini.

There is to be several options for this car as far as engines go, one of them being the 520BHP engine from the Murcielago. There is an alternative - a TDI (Turbo Diesel) V8 electric hybrid. It just doesn't seem right. Now an all electric monstor with the acceleration and handling of the Wrightspeed X1 and I'd be all over it like a cheap... well you know...

There is precident for diesel sports with the V12 TDi R8 shown by AUDI at the Detroit motor show - another car that I really do like the look of. There is also a precident for 4 door sports cars with the Aston Rapide and the Porche Panamera neither of which, I'm forced to admit, are entirely ugly cars. Still, Lamborghini was the last I would've penned in for a 4 door supercar sedan. It must be said though that it's a step in the right direction for a gas guzzling genre of motoring. Still a hybrid Lambo...

And a few more...

Venice - Grand Canal
The Gormleys - Waterloo Bridge, London

Helicopter View - New York, Manhattan

Venice Canal - Venice, Italy

Ladybird

The Coliseum - Rome, Italy

Kim drinking a Cafe Latte - Rome, Italy

Venice from the bell tower in St Marks Sqaure - Venice, Italy

Photography

Some of my photography again. These are some of my favorites from my Flickr site not including the ones I've already posted. I'd like to think that my yield for great photos vs the ones I discard as 'snaps' is going up but I think perhaps that my personal standards for my shots have gone up which means that the good photos are getting better but I'm still discarding so many. This is a good thing but it still means that I am shooting several hundred photos and only posting around 4-6 as ones I really like. You're always your own worst critic.

Kim in Lake Taupo - Taupo, New Zealand

China Town - Bangkok, Thailand

Heythrop Park early morning - Oxfordshire, UK

Mt Ruapehu shrouded in cloud, Desert Road, New Zealand

Running fireworks festival - Javea/Xabia, Spain

Empire State Building at night - Manhattan, New York

Dead Fly - My windowsill, London, UK