E65, alarm and blocked navigation buttons
By Michael Stepanov | October 2, 2008
When I got Nokia E65 last year I faced with strange problem. After alarm was triggered the navigation buttons (including Own key were disabled). To make them work the phone should be restarted. Recently I found solution to solve that (thanks to forum on allnokia.ru). Using Tracker - advanced and fully customizable desktop application we reassign navigation buttons to the same actions. After that all buttons work correctly till Tracker is run.
Sure it isn’t a perfect solution but at least it works 
Topics: E65, mobile, nokia, software | No Comments »
Nokia announced Qt Extended mobile platform
By Michael Stepanov | October 2, 2008
It seems that Nokia is going to produce a competitor of Android platform:
Nokia announced today the launch of Qt Extended 4.4, a complete mobile and embedded development platform based on the open source Qt toolkit. It is designed with a modular architecture that provides building blocks for assembling a Linux-based software stack for various embedded devices ranging from phones to set-top boxes.
Nokia already has a good experience with open software - see its Internet Tables family. Not sure who will be a winner - Android or Qt Extended. But any competition is definitely good for growth of mobile devices industry.
Topics: Linux, mobile, nokia, platform, Qt | No Comments »
Google Chrome: hot or not?
By Michael Stepanov | September 4, 2008
Today Google is not just the best search engine in the world. It provides hosting for domain mail, on-line office, web mail service, RSS reader and much more. That’s why nobody was surprised when Google announced its web browser Chrome. Taking into account the quality of existing services people expect Chrome will be faster, more stable and more user friendly then Firefox or Opera. And it seems that their expectations come true:
I would say the greatest advantage of Chrome over Firefox is its ability to handle tabs in independent processes which means a browser or plugin bug, or an incorrectly coded web page can’t take down the whole browser, but just that tab or plugin alone.
and more:
It scores a 79/100 in the Acid 3 test (ahead of Firefox 3 (75/100) and behind Firefox 3.1 nightlies (85/100)). In the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark, it clearly beats Firefox 3.0.1: 3700ms vs 5100ms in my Dell Inspiron 6400 (2GHz Centrino Duo, 2GB RAM).
I was a bit disappointed Chrome’s licence agreements:
11. Content licence from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.
I don’t write something special. But I’d like to grant all right to Google for all my content. I don’t know why but Google fixed the agreements:
11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.
P. S. I think that it’d be much better to release Chrome for Linux first and use invitation for beta testers. In that case Google would receive more professional feedback.
Topics: browser, Chrome, google | No Comments »
Maemo CTags package
By Michael Stepanov | August 29, 2008
VIM and Ctags
Recently I built Exuberant Ctags package for OS2008. It might be useful for all who develop directly under Scratchbox using VIM. Ctags offers a possibility to explore methods from the opened files similar way as IDE (see screen-shot).
The CTag package can be found on the download page under section Packages for Nokia770/N800/N810. The config file for VIM with supporting of CTags can be downloaded there as well.
Topics: ctags, development, maemo | No Comments »
WinXP theme for Nokia Internet Tablet
By Michael Stepanov | August 22, 2008
For all who miss WinXP on their Nokia 770, N800 or N810 the new WinXP theme can be interesting. The development just started. But you already can get a debian package here.
Topics: maemo, Nokia810, theme | No Comments »
Lian Li BZ-U02 I/O port bezel
By Michael Stepanov | August 8, 2008
If your PC (as mine) doesn’t have additional ports on the front panel the Lian Li BZ-U02 I/O port bezel can solve that problem. Actually it’s a standard 5.25″ bay with special dust cover which includes four USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, eSATA, head phone and microphone jacks. You should pay just 30 bucks for that luxuriance
[via Ubergizmo]
Topics: 5.25", hardware, USB | No Comments »
Wireless Router with NAS option
By Michael Stepanov | July 21, 2008
Belkin recently announced its new N+ Wireless Router with very interesting feature. It allows to connect external USB drive to use it as NAS. The router supports draft 802.11n 2.0 which increase wireless data transfer significantly. Additionally it’s equiped with gigabit Ethernet ports for reliable high speed wired connections and download Speedometer bar for measurement of the download speed of your network.
The Belkin’s N+ Wireless Router will be available next month at just $119.99! Good price for such kind of devices.
Topics: Belkin, NAS, router, USB, wifi, Wishlist | 2 Comments »
Create a new VMWare Appliance from existing one
By Michael Stepanov | July 21, 2008
I use VMware player to run Maemo SDK environment. Recently Maemo released the latest version of its SDK - Diablo. So, I decided to upgrade Chinook VMware Appliance to Diablo. I copied maemo-sdk.vmdk (virtual disk) and maemo-sdk.vmx (definitions) to the new directory, modified title in the definition and run VMware player. But after booting I found that there is no eth0. Just lo.
To solve that problem the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules should be deleted. It contains the virtual MAC address of Ethernet card. After reboot everything should be ok.
Topics: hacks, VMWare | No Comments »