Intel recently released its Ivy Bridge family of processors and anyone who likes gadgets should be asking the question -is it a good idea to upgrade? True, its always a good idea to upgrade but sometimes neither the purse, nor the bank manager (my wife hates me calling her that) will yield the necessary quid. In this case, unless your system is more than two or three years old, it might be worth waiting, especially if you are running a Sandy Bridge processor based desktop.

The marketing mavens at Intel have come up with describing processor updates as “tick” or “tock”, with a tick release being a smaller sized processor that are aimed at reducing heat and power and a tock release being changes in chip design where  faster speeds and processor throughput are the goals.  Ivy Bridge is a tick release that reduces the processor footprint to 22 nanometres from the 32 nanometres of the Sandy Bridge class chips. Other than reduced die size and better heat management, Ivy Bridge offers better onboard graphics but relatively little in the way of a desktop speed bump.

An interesting point for those who don’t mind getting into the guts of their desktops, the Ivy Bridge processor is pin compatible with Sandy Bridge motherboards, if you are keen to swap out the Sandy Bridge chip. Honestly, that is not a good idea, but if the desktop is a bit long in the tooth, its a good time to consider a motherboard swap.

The case is a bit different for laptop users. Intel’s “tri-gate”transistor technology according to Intel, “…uses three gates wrapped around the silicon channel in a 3-D structure, enabling an unprecedented combination of performance and energy efficiency.”   Sources claim that Ivy Bridge processors use half the power of prior processors, which translates into mobile battery savings. Further, Ivy Bridge supports native Direct X 11 and improved HD rendering. Not to say you will be happily running Crysis with the integrated graphics chip but, for most games and workaday tasks, its a definite step up.

So the question remains, should you wait for Ivy Bridge to hit your price point? Right now the systems out there are top end systems. If you were going to buy, the decision is definitively easier for a laptop upgrade, particularly for older machines. Another consideration is taking advantage of some of the sales out there by retailer who are shifting stock to make room for newer devices. You need to be careful but if you go that route you could well pick up quite a bargain without being very far behind the curve.

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What you need to know about Ivy Bridge-Is it worth waiting for?

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This article was originally posted on Mighty Gadget

Kindle Touch

The Kindle Fire may be absent from the UK but Amazon rewarded those who ordered the UK version of the Kindle Touch by besting its promised release date by a week from 27 April to the 20th. There are reports that those who electronically queued up to order on the first day got their Kindle Touch either on the 20th or the next day after. Early returns seem the mirror the American experience, except for a few forum posts claiming the touch screen is a bit laggy compared to the basic Kindle, confirming the recent review in the Telegraph. While that is true, it seems to be relative. Individuals who have never used a prior generation Kindle don’t seem to notice the lag.

The big difference between the basic Kindle and the Kindle Touch is the touch screen. THe touch screen not only makes navagation easier, but opens up the e-reader to additional roles, such as the possibility of acting as a notetaker for handwriting recognition in addition to the virtual keyboard, and the X-Ray advanced search feature that allows for many books to be searched based on the context of the word rather than the characters (lengthwise vs wise for example: X-ray is smart enough to know you wan the term “wise” rather than pulling up every match of the grouping of w-i-s-e) In my opinion, those two features are worth the extra twenty quid.

If you are new to the Kindle line, be sure to check out the “experimental features, which include a very basic browser, text to speech and an audio and mp3 player, although if you want to download podcast files you need to do so with a USB connection. In addition the the above features you can email and annotate personal texts and pdfs as well. In fact, the Kindle Touch or any of the keyboard enabled Kindles can serve as very rudimentary tablets in a pinch even to doing email for web based mail services such as Gmail. However, the situation needs to be truly dire as the web browser is quite slow compared to a LED screen.

The price of the wifi only Kindle Touch is £109 and the wifi plus 3G data version is £169.  The smart buy is the wifi only version, especially if you also have a smartphone that is capable of acting as a wifi hot spot.  Unless you have some sort of very odd situation, you should be able to either load content with a wifi connection,  or plan ahead for that trip to the Shetland Islands  by taking advantage of the Kindle Touch’s approximately 3,000 book capacity.

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Kindle Touch arrives early to UK

Tags: Amazon, e-reader, Kindle, Touch, Touchscreen, X-ray

This article was originally posted on Mighty Gadget

Nokia’s new hero phone, the Lumia 900 is up for pre-order in the UK and will be released April 27th . The new Windows Phone has been available for a little over a week in the United States and has hit a bump or two in the road over data problems with its LTE data system.  Of course, UK users need not be concerned about any LTE issues, thanks to Ofcom and the squabbling  wireless carriers we arn’t likely to see the new data standard in this green and pleasant land till 2014. Instead Nokia offers the 900 with the well used DC-HSPA data .  Other than that, the phones have identical specifications Indications are the Lumia 900 will debut at least initially on the O2, Orange and Vodaphone networks and O2 and Orange are offering the phone free as either an upgrade on its £36 and up plans or signing up for twenty four months. The phone can be had SIM free for £486 (inc.VAT).

Early US reviews have been positive for the Lumia 900. Nokia got special notice for aggressively responding to the LTE data glitch by issuing a $100.00 USD credit for all current and future purchasers, effectively making the phone free on contract. The Lumia 900 launched with a $99.99 USD  price with a two year contract with American wireless carrier AT&T. The Nokia largess was not only a shrewd bit of damage control but necessary as the Nokia brand was all but forgotten by the USA cell phone users. The 900 is Nokia’s first major foray into the American market in several years. Even so, the company , along with Microsoft seem to be making similar investments in the UK to gain market share.

The specifications of the Lumia 900 are not spectacular by any means. However, apparently they get the job done, and the industrial design is outstanding according to the review of the leading American tech site, The Verge.

In the US buyers had a choice of blue or blue. The UK has been blessed with a the additional color white as well

The Verge review author,  Joshua Topolsky was one of the few reviewers to call out the phone on its most glaring shortcoming, the lack of Windows Phone apps. The situation with the Windows Phone app ecosystem is the thing that anyone who is considering a jump to the Lumia 900 from another platform should consider long and hard before you leap.  If you have already gone to the new os, the phone is an excellent upgrade from the first generation Windows Phone handsets. New users should consider carefully however.

Whenever you consider changing to a new smartphone operating system, first look at how you use your existing phone. What are your apps that you can not live without? What are the apps you use the most? Then see if those apps are on offer in the Windows Phone app store. If the exact app is not represented, is their an easy work around? The tech media constantly reports that Microsoft is spending a lot of quid to jump-start developers, but the proof is what you see in the store, not what is coming soon. For example, there is currently no Audible audio book app for Windows Phone. Rumors and a YouTube video claim that it is beta and will be released “soon”. However, it has been a month since the video and there is no firm release date.

Is it time to put a wager on the Windows Phone operating system? What do you think?

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Will the Lumia 900 light the way for Nokia and Windows Phone?

Tags: Microsoft, Nokia, Smartphone, Windows Phone

This article was originally posted on Mighty Gadget

Google released Android 4.0 , also known as Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS  in mid November to the world at large. Assuming that was the earliest date that carriers, mobile makers and developers got their respective hands on it (which is not likely as at least handset OEMs were probably getting release candidate  builds at least) then why has over four months gone by and ICS is at best dripping onto new phones? Just in the last few days are seeing Samsung releasing the Android 4.0 update on the Galaxy S2  on O2, and there are some  Nexus S devices out there reportedly getting the update. Galaxy S users are however high and dry for which you can apparently thank Touch Wiz. While the Nexus S and Galaxy S are essentially identical under the bonnet, the presence of Samsung’s Touch Wiz features means there is not enough memory for Ice Cream Sandwich. HTC is claiming several of its phones will be getting the Android update, only the HTC Sensation on Vodaphone is actually seeing an update at present.

And  it is not just phones. Supposedly the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 was to release in the UK in March, but the release was pushed back to April because of problems with adapting TouchWiz. Motorola rolled out  OTA for ICS for the Xoom tablets starting in late January. Some would say that tablets can release updates far faster because the maker does not have to get the blessings of the respective wireless carriers. First, since many tablets come with wireless data options, that is not really true. Second, as owners of unlocked Galaxy S2s can tell you, not being tied to carrier approval apparently means nothing as they will be the very last group of  phones to get a taste of ICS.

According to recent surveys, less than five percent of Android users are currently running Ice Cream Sandwich  and the vast majority are running Gingerbread or lower. True, if you want the latest and greatest you can root your phone, but not everyone is a power user who fearlessly voids warranties. Further, one must consider the cost of incurring the wrath of the IT gods. Hacking your company issued device is risky at best and may be impossible in any case. Even if you bring your own phone or tablet to work, many corporate systems will not allow access to e-mail and the like with rooted devices by either technical means or threat of being sacked if discovered. So the vast majority is at the mercy of the phone and tablet makers for “official” upgrades. Those upgrades seem to come about as often as Henry VIII paid alimony.

What do you think?

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It’s Spring: where is my Ice Cream Sandwich?

Tags: Android, Android Tablet, ICS, smar

This article was originally posted on Mighty Gadget

She is used to being one of the most-photographed people in the world, but the
Duchess of Cambridge (formerly known as Kate Middleton) has expressed an
interest in putting on an exhibition of her own photography in the next few years.

Photography is said to have been a great passion of hers for some time. In fact,
her university dissertation was on the photography of Lewis Carroll, author of Alice
in Wonderland. She is at present said to be working on her portfolio of snaps with
a view to exhibiting them in a public show, possibly to raise money for the several
charities she has recently become patron of.

In her short time as a member of the Royal family, the Duchess has travelled a lot
with her husband, Prince William, so it would come as no surprise if a few ‘holiday’
snaps work their way into her collection!

It’s not known if she favours any particular brand or type of camera, or whether she
prefers analogue or digital cameras, but other budding photographers looking for a
camera to take away on their own travels should see what Panasonic has to offer.

When you’re travelling, you really want to carry as little as possible, so that lugging
around bulky items doesn’t get in the way of your enjoyment of the sunshine or
sights. Whatever model of Panasonic digital camera you opt for, they’re all sleek
and compact in design, so they’ll fit easily into your handbag or rucksack.

In terms of features, an impressive resolution of 14 megapixels is the starting point
for their current range of cameras, with some stretching past 16. All models have a
host of features to make finding the right settings for your surroundings easy – and in
some cases automatic, in models that include the Intelligent Scene Selector feature.
Plus, image stabilising technology means that a shaky hand won’t spoil spur-of-the-
moment snaps!

Once you’re back from your holiday, why not take a leaf out of the Duchess’ book
and put on an exhibition of your own? By plugging either the camera or its memory
card directly into your television or PC, you can showcase your snaps with ease.

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Duchess of Cambridge to stage photography exhibition?

Tags: Panasonic

This article was originally posted on Mighty Gadget

Researchers Jan Torgersen and Peter Gruber at Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) have successfully printed intricately detailed models of various objects at the nanometer scale using a process called “two-photon lithography”. In the process, they also managed to speed things up a bit and have gone from printing in millimeters per second to meters per second.

With such a fine print resolution, the group hopes to develop bio-compatible resin capable of generating scaffolds for medical use. [via geek.com]

This article was originally posted on Make

The 27" monitor opens to expose user-serviceable components designed for no-tools swapping.

The Z1 isn’t even supposed to ship until April, so it’s all just hype right now. But it’s working on me. Will be curious to hear what the early adopters report. [Thanks, Phil!]

HP Z1 Workstation

This article was originally posted on Make

The new version of OSX that Apple recently released to developer, Mountain Lion,  has many new additions to the operating system. One thing it wion’t have is “Mac” as part of its name. According to Niliay Patel at the Verge, the official name of the release is OSX Mountain Lion.

This move by Apple is a boost to those who subscribe to the idea that Apple is moving to one OS to rule them all, a blending of iOS and OSX that would allow for developers to write for one OS that spanned across smartphones, tablets, and lorries, I mean Mac desktops and laptops. While its unlikely that  Final Cut Pro will be running on an iPhone any version soon, it is by no means out of the realm of possibility that Final Cut Express won’t show up on the iPhone or more likely the iPad.

Apple and its developers would gain some great economies by being able to develop in a unified environment. (Not that Apple needs any more advantages) A developer could effectively scale a program limited only by the capabilities of the hardware. Of course it does raise the pricing question,  bu considering the past practice I would think users would expect tp pay for every platform. A smart developer might offer an option that if you purchased the MacBook version, you had the iPhone and iPad apps thrown in for free.

Oh wait, Apple and free. Silly me. In any case, it will be interesting to see what Apple has on tap for the rest of the year.

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Apple to Phase out Mac OSX

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This article was originally posted on Mighty Gadget

I truly believe open source hardware is here to stay, It has established itself as a great community, a great effort, and for many, a great business. I spend most of my days working on open source hardware in some way, and I wanted to talk about some of the {unspoken} rules we all, well, many, seem to follow. Why? Because the core group of people who’ve been doing what we’ve collectively called “open source hardware” know each other — we’re friends, we overlap and compete in some ways, but we all work towards a common goal: sharing our work to make the world a better place and to stand on each others shoulders and not each others toes : ) I’m sure there will be some folks who agree strongly with what I’ve outlined as “unspoken rules,” others, I hope will completely disagree with many points too. That’s great, it’s time we start this conversation.

OK, let’s go!

We pay each other royalties, even though we don’t need to.

As odd as it sounds, we pay each other. I can be really specific. I introduced Mitch Altman, inventor of the TV-B-Gone, to Limor Fried. I wanted to convince him to work with her on an open source hardware kit version. That was almost five years ago and it’s worked out great. Mitch travels the world doing workshops while MAKE, Adafruit, and many others sell his kit, and he gets paid a royalty that he came up with that makes sense. Behind the scenes, most/all open source hardware designers pay a royalty to each other when they make and design together. Do they need to? Technically no, but we all do. When kit makers talk to me about how we can work together, I tell them this story and encourage them to ask Mitch what it’s like working with Limor, getting royalties, and how it all works. Actions speak the loudest for the unspoken rule : )

We credit each other, a lot.

What does the open source maker usually want? Just to be credited properly. This usually isn’t an issue since the community generally looks out for each other, but there are examples that pop up from time to time of it just being unclear who made what. It’s not malice, it usually just forgetfulness. There are a lot of giant companies taking open source ideas and making them commercial products (that’s always going to happen), but the open source hardware community is a community. We credit each other. Even if you don’t like someone, it’s easy and actually fun to credit each other. “Hey, I used this code/hardware, improved it, here it is and here’s who originally made it.” When we get general ideas, we usually say things like “This was inspired by.” Giant companies don’t or can’t do this, but the open source hardware world can. A big example is how you’d never see Samsung say they were “inspired” by anything Apple does, but it’s pretty clear they were. In open source, you’ll see makers gladly say where they first saw an idea.

Naming: be different. It’s better to be unique.

In general, we try to avoid naming our projects in a confusing way. Trademarks are one of the few ways we can “intellectually protect” hardware (schematics are not copyrightable) so we focus on branding things and building a product that people know comes from a specific company or person. Here’s an example: I think there was a period where many people and companies made Arduino-like boards and stuck “-uino” at the end or even just called it Arduino, but I see that as ending soon, or at least we won’t see it as much. The “Boarduino” for example was ok’ed by the Arduino team. This was before a million *uinos came out later. More and more makers are creating new and unique Arduino-compatibles and calling them something completely non-”uino” named. We’ll say things like Arduino-compatible, but we won’t call them Arduino. Arduino, the name, belongs to the Arduino team. From their USB vendor ID to the name and logo on the board, it’s theirs. If you’re trying to fool people by using someone else’s name, stop it. There are some examples of this well-known actual rule (trademark law) and unspoken rule getting broken. I think that will go away over time as companies and people see there’s more value in creating your own name for your own products. I’ll have a bigger article about trademarks and USB vendor IDs in the future, but this is a start.

We actually do open source hardware.

This is an easy one. If you’re calling it open source hardware, release the files: schematic, source, BOM, and code. All under an open license. Don’t hide it. Don’t say you need to sign an NDA and attempt to obfuscate. Don’t be difficult. If you’re trying to be tricky, just don’t do open source hardware. A new thing I’ve seen, and I don’t think meets the spirit of openness: don’t use open source hardware or software as a “prize” if your Kickstarter gets funded. It doesn’t work like that. Open source hardware isn’t a marketing term — it means something specific. We’re doing open source hardware because we want to, not because we want to trick people. The only issue that usually comes up for us is time, as we managing hundreds of projects all the time, so not every file is updated instantly. I know for a fact that I haven’t had time to instantly upload every single Eagle file for breakout boards to GitHub. Those are not complex so no one cares, but I care, so I’m going to try my best to make sure they’re all up. I’m moving everything to GitHub to make this easier on me (and everyone).

Basing your project/product off open source? Open source it.

This is another one we all generally follow. Let’s say you make something based on an Arduino, which is under an open license — yeah, you need to do the same. Once in awhile I’ll see an Arduino clone that someone has made and they’ve put under a non-commercial license. When I ask why, it’s usually something like, “Well, I don’t want to be cloned — like the Arduino is all the time.” Sometimes the maker changes the license after the project makes the rounds to an open one. It’s my opinion that if you do an Arduino shield it should be open source hardware too. However, I don’t think everyone agrees with this point.

Code and designs: add value.

It’s not valuable for the community to fork code and just change a name or something and call it your own. You need to add more value than a logo or naming change. Many open source hardware companies have really expensive teams making and sharing open source code and hardware. Just changing a couple of things so you can ship your own thing is really frowned upon. It happens, but it’s pretty rare. However, this is one of the unspoken rules that will likely need to be talked about openly. It’s one thing to copy and improve, it’s another to just copy and sell. I’m a big fan of copy, improve, and republish, but it’s rarely done because it’s hard work. When people fork just so they can change one comment or make it sound like they are the original authors, and they don’t add any value, it’s a support burden for the original makers too. Non-customers are confused — things aren’t synced up. It can be a mess.

For open source hardware to work, we all need to support the original authors when we can and we all need to talk about the rules of copying and republishing changes. We want to avoid people or companies building their products/projects off the open source software/hardware communities and then closing it off. Sharing needs to go both ways, always.

Cloning ain’t cool.

I’m going to continue to use Arduino as an example since it’s the poster child of open source hardware. If your goal is just to make Arduino clones and not add code or hardware improvements, please go do something else instead. I see a few companies just make straight-up clones, make confusing names, and think it’s socially acceptable. It’s not. The beginners get confused as to what’s a real Arduino with the quality, service, and support, and most of the time the clones are crappy. I have a box of “Arduino killers” from all over the world. They’re not adding value in any way — it’s just someone being selfish. I get a dozen emails a week from parents or kids who bought a fake Arduino, and they’re upset it doesn’t work and that the eBay seller or fly-by-night store won’t help them. Most of all, get cloned enough and any reasonable person might just stop doing open software and hardware due to the support burden.

Support your customers.

If you’re doing open source hardware because you want to make an “Arduino clone” thinking you can just pass the hard work of customer support over to the community, that’s not fair to anyone. Spend the time and resources to create tutorials, forums, and support your customers. I’m using Arduino again as an example since I see customers purchasing “cloned” Arduinos but expecting support from the Arduino support team because it says Arduino. Open source is a way to make things better, not to just outsource support to someone else. Join in, support your customers, and they’ll reward you!

Build your business around open source hardware.

If you’re going to require that someone does open source for your newly venture-funded online open source hardware social network or whatever, you gotta do some open source yourself. If you’re celebrating open source and attempting to make money around it, you gotta put value back in too. I’ll give you a good example: let’s say you want to make the “Dropbox” of open source hardware. Cool! However, if part of your product design is requiring customers to have all their files under an open source hardware license, you need to do that too and open up your own stuff. Otherwise, what’s the point? Obviously there’s marketing value in the word “open,” and for small startups we’ve seen that many want to take advantage of that. Want your new company to be part of the open ecosystem? It’s worth something, so you need to do the same. I’m not saying you need to give it ALL away, but you need to do something to show you value open source enough to do it yourself.

Respect the designer’s wishes.

We can email each other and talk when needed. Sometimes the maker of an open source hardware project might have a request if you’re going to clone their hardware; for example, “Hey, don’t use this to kill puppies, OK?” Now, while open source really doesn’t stop anyone from making an puppy grinder from your open source CNC, I think it’s totally fair for the designer to ask you not to do that if you start to go down that path. There’s been a few times I’ve seen open source hardware projects get hijacked a little, and the author was concerned about its direction. A simple polite request actually works: “Hey, I know you can do anything with my stuff, but I just don’t want to see a puppy grinder.” This is a tricky one because the hardcore licensing people hate to hear this. They think it means the license was weak or something — it’s not, it’s a strength that we’re a community who can talk to each other when needed. And 100 years from now, anyone reading this today will likely be departed, so I think it’s important that we try as a community to respect the designer who gave their work to the world. It’s also helpful for the designer to include a bit of text in a Readme for the license or on a project page that lists some ideal uses. Of course it won’t always be followed, but at least there’s some framework and intentions spelled out. Despite what we all think, we are humans that get emotional about our works, it’s not a weakness, this too is a strength.

When we finally get an open source hardware foundation, we’ll all support it.

Eventually there will be an effort led by great people to make a foundation that may talk about many of the things I just went over. They’ll be there to serve us, the community! I’m not the right person to be on a foundation (in case you’re wondering, I want to actually run an open source hardware company). Also, I probably have too many opinions to be effective at this point.

We can all do a couple of things well with the time we have, but a foundation for something as important as open source hardware would be too much for me to take on. But here’s what I can do: I’ll financially support a foundation, and I’m sure many/all/most of the open source hardware companies will too. I make a living from open source hardware, so when a foundation comes along I’ll give them money. I’ll encourage others to do the same. I’ve donated to the Open Hardware Summit, so this is an easy one. Right now, I think I can get the people I work with at Adafruit to donate about $400 per employee x 25 people — that works out to $10,000 from my day job. This is something that’s important, so I’m going to try to make it happen. I’m hoping other companies can do this on an employee basis too, since that’s a really fair way for companies of all sizes to help — from the individual making 25 kits in their kitchen to the 100-person factory floor.

Those are the biggies, and I’m hoping there will be a lively discussion about all of this. I should also say these are just my opinions. I don’t speak for the open source hardware movement — that would be impossible. When I say “we,” I mean it as what I think is the general stuff the open source hardware community tends to do. I’ve also talked with many open source hardware makers over the years and for this specific article. I’m sure many of us have accidentally broken some of these unspoken rules before, and hopefully we fixed it quickly : ) I also realize when I write stuff like this I’ll be held to some tough scrutiny. We’ll see if these types of articles are helpful. Not everything I work on will be open source, but if it says open source I’ll always work hard to make sure it fits the technical and social norms we all expect. OK, post away in the comments!

This article was originally posted on Make

Krator is a relatively new player to the market and wants to shake things up with striking designs, decent quality at a reasonable price.

The Krator Neso 4 is a 2.0 channel speaker on the lower end of the Krator speakers and the features include:

• USB speakers deliver brilliant sound performance
• 5 watts R.M.S. output
• Easy-to-Go. Tiny size with wonderful sound
• Detachable Satellite Design
• An 3.5mm Stereo phone jack for audio output
• Adjustable Volume and Bass control provide maximum convenience
• Elegant design best fits for your living room and personal space
• Specifications:
• Power output: 5 Watts RMS output
• Frequency Response: 80~18Khz
• Connector: 3.5mm Stereo Audio Cable
• Controller: Volume, Bass controller
• Headphones Jack: Stereo 3.5mm Audio Jack
• Speaker Unit Driver: 2.75 inch paper dome unit driver
• Size of Satellite: W95 x H132 x D75 mm
• Power Requirement: USB Power

When we opened the box we were quite pleased with the looks of the Neso 4s which are based around a rain drop, though they are a tad light and plasticy. the rest of the contents were pretty basic, but lets face it the only thing you need are the speakers!

The speakers use USB for power and then a 3.5mm port for the sound, which is good or bad depending on how you look at it, you are restricted to a device with USB, but at the same time you didn’t have to faff around with another plug. Alternatively some speakers use USB for everything, which is convenient for a laptop but not so convenient if you want to use you iPod or whatever.

The sound quality of the sound quality of the speakers was a little tinny and certainly lacking base, they also didn’t go very loud. However for £15 you will always have questionable sound quality and for the price these speakers are a great upgrade for a laptop.

For occasional use, and mainly for laptops these are great speakers, however if you want some speakers for your desktop and have a bit more money we would suggest something with a little more oomph and possibly 2.1 for example the  Neso 4 Avante Garde 26Watt 2.1ch Speakers.

Thanks to Bitmore for providing the speakers to review.

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Krator Neso 4 5Watt 2.0ch ‘Droplet’ USB Speaker Review

Tags: Krator, Speakers, USB Speakers

This article was originally posted on Mighty Gadget