Testing testing. Galaxy Tab and Nokia n8 calling the Internet. Do not believe anything you read in this post.
Winter hit the suburbs of Vegas today as a hotel show went badly wrong. The Jagermaster hotel had to abort a simulation of ‘Winter Olympics’ as residents started complaining of reality distortion. As you can see in the images below, the normally colorful plastic houses were turned instantly into an almost real scene of German suburb life. One resident had this to say. ‘I can’t believe it. This stuff is really cold and dangerous. I will be contacting my lawyer.’
Free alcohol, entertainment and buffets for affected residents were being discussed by the local county council.
This is the 4th and last post in the CES moblogging equipment test. 4 posts in about one hour with the Nokia n8 and Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Lets assume I’ve just stumbled across a new product at CES. Here’s the microblog. . .
Yup! here it is! The new super UMPC from the ABBC company. We’ve just tripped up Joanna Stern of Engaget to get here first and should be able to hold her down with one foot while we blog this. Ill have to be quick though because here comes that JKK guy with his camera.
4.8″ screen which we think is uber-capacative. Price in the $100 range they say and availability is yesterday for any order over 1000 pieces.
It feels light in the hand and could be the break-through device everyone is looking for. No word on operating system but the Windows 8 sticker under the battery kind of gives it away.
Joanna starting to cry loudly now so we’ll let her get on with her 1080p video. JKK and Gizmodo now having a fight too. Video of that coming later.
This has been the 3rd of my simulated CES posts from a low-light room somewhere underground in Germany. Time for one more quickie. . .
These pics were not taken with the moblogging kit, itself but I am using them on the Galaxy Tab to write this post.
The image of the scales shows what I’m aiming for. That’s 1.3kg with four bits of kit and a bag!
Nokia n8 – To be used for photography and, possibly, video. Offline maps and of course, phone functionality is important here too. I won’t be letting the n8 use the wifi or 3g in order to preserve important phone functionality for later in the day.
Samsung Galaxy Tab – To be the mobile internet and text input device, location via Google latitude (for finding out where my friends are) and of course, Tweeting. II’ll be using the WordPress application for blogging, automatic comment notifications and comment spam control. Battery life should be good enough for all day (18hrs)
Battery pack and Mifi – Unfortunately I won’t have a local SIM to drop into the Tab so ill be strapping a Sprint Mifi to the battery pack to give me a roaming hotspot. My wife has the Mifi today so I’ve simulated it with a battery charger.
I won’t be relying 100% on this kit during CES as ill have my Netbook and camera in the hotel room but I do plan to at least go for one full day on this setup.
This has been the second of my CES test posts today with the n8 and Galaxy Tab. I’m standing and moving about my house. More coming up. . .
I’ve just started a one hour test of the mobile blogging gear I’m going to use at CES this year but just as I started to transfer the first photos (of my kit – 1.3kg!) I noticed the Google Maps was updated. This is an important update because it changes the way maps are rendered and introduces local caching. You’ll see in the image below that there’s not much you can control in terms of caching so only further testing will tell us how much of a map can be cached but the indications from Google were that a whole city is possible. This means that if you’re heading away and don’t want to use 3g or rely on Internet for the maps, you can cache them beforehand.
I’ll try and do some more testing on that while I’m at CES but for now, make sure you check your android phone for the Google Maps updates and let me know if you spot any major issues.
This has been the first of my CES kit test posts using only the N8 and Galaxy Tab.
People moan about WordPress on Android but for quick blog posts using the Tab, it’s working out well. Where all you need is a pic, a link and some text, I can’t thing of an easier process. Pic via Tab.
Once again, it looks like my trusty Gigabyte Touchnote, my Canon S2IS and my N82 will form the hub of my mobile computing gear at Computex this year. Despite great advances in technology, I’m the mobile-tech-blogger with the old kit and the reason is process.
I’ve been using these devices successfully as one process unit for so long that if I replace any of them I’ll break a delicate chain. If I change the camera I can’t hook it up to the the netbook and use the remote capture facility that allows me to drag images on-screen into Livewriter in live-blogging situations. I also won’t be able to record in the simple but high-quality MJPEG format that works with Movie Maker out of the box and allows me to edit without issues on my netbook. If I upgrade the netbook I’ll be using Windows 7 which doesn’t have Movie Maker and will probably be slower than my XP build. FInding a netbook with touch, a fast SSD and good 3G isn’t easy or cheap either. If I change the phone, I’ll be left with something that doesn’t have a Xenon flash, good low-light capability and free navigation without the need for an internet connection. As for the MiFi, well, it’s the MiFi and it’s worth taking everywhere!
Of course, there’s a lot of other bits and pieces that go in the kit bag. Tripod, cables, chargers, USB Mic, toolkit, spare battery etc etc etc. Necessary evils!
I am also thinking about two other bits of kit. The UMID BZ, a device I’ve been getting great use out of in the last 4 months. That could serve as a backup PC, pocket PC and bedside PC. I can get away without it though. The other device, and one I’m more likely to take is the Xperia X10. That will serve as a MID, backup camera, phone and comms device and I might use it for quick videos that are in the correct format to be able to instantly send to YouTube. It might become my primary phone too because I really only need the N82 for quick images and navigation.
For 3G, I’ll be using the same service as last year. I picked up a local Taiwan Mobile 3G SIM at the airport. It was cheap and worked well. I doubt it’s still active so i’ll probably have to sign up again.
It’s a relatively old set of kit now and at some point in the next year I’ll be looking to upgrade. Battery life on my netbook needs to be improved (I only get about 8 hours total from the two batteries I have) and low-light capability on my main camera needs improving too. As for the mobile phone, I have a feeling that I’ll forever be carrying two devices. One MID-focused, the other a backup device.
If you’re going to Computex, i’d love to hear and write about your kit list. Let me know below (or in a blog post) and I’ll round up the information in a post here on UMPCPortal.
Mobile World Congress is going to call for a significant refinement of my ultra mobile reporting kit (see below for previous versions) which means leaving the netbook in the hotel safe and traveling as light as possible. I aim to be roaming with only a man-bag and with about 1KG/2.2lb of equipment which is quite a challenge. Quality and speed of reporting during the day may suffer but I’m prepared to take the hit in order to be mobile and quick. Here’s a detailed look at my MWC setup as it stands just a few days from travelling.
The initial kit list looks something like this:
Hardware (825gm / 1.8lb)
UMID BZ as PC and USB power source. Including mains charger cable.
Nokia N82 as camera and backup 3G tether. Including spare battery.
Oh the stress of choosing a bag. Right now I’m leaning towards the Jack Wolfskin one because it can be worn in on the back or front of the body and it looks, well, less man-baggy!
Here’s how I would use the kit to post images and videos with text.
Yup, problems occur but in previous and recent tests it looks like it will take about 5 minutes to do a 2-paragraph blog post around a photo. Video really depends on Internet bandwidth but with the mobile reporting kit I can close the lid of the UMID and leave it to continue posting to YouTube. You have to be careful of time-outs in this case because re-starting the uploads usually requires a full upload again. Here’s the image I took during the video. As you can see, quality is excellent (click to enlarge.)
Photo camera: Around $300 but get one with BT and Xenon flash.
Mifi: $250
Improvements and optimisations.
Could a Motorola Droid/Milestone do all this? Yes. Photo’s to Flickr and editing and re-posting from Flickr is easily possible. Video also possible. Live video using QIK also possible. Text entry with Droid keyboard also possible. Cost: Around $500 including an extra battery (or two!) It’s a great single-device option and way, way lighter than what I’ll be carrying.
The issue with using a Droid is that you don’t have a PC with you for ‘everything else.’ That includes basic video editing, 100% full web access, USB accessories support (printing, usb sticks, usb cam for example) high quality audio recording using USB mic/audacity, audio/video streaming using UStream, connectivity to LCD screen and full size keyboard and use of all the normal desktop client software such as Firefox, Tweetdeck, Paint Shop, LiveWriter, Skype and anything else that a PC would be flexible for. It’s basically a trade-off. Using the UMID is way more expensive but it gives that flexibility to use to a full desktop tool-set if required and that, to me, is worth it’s weight in gold. If either the N82 or UMID die, I’m left with one working device which is a nice backup strategy.
The N82 video quality (test video here) could be improved a lot. I’d love to see a photo camera with high-compression, 720p video recording and checking across the range of smartphones available today, the Omnia i8910 would make a better choice for video with it’s 720p capability. File sizes could be a problem though so HQ VGA at about 2mbps H.264 would be perfect. Anyone out there done extensive phone-cam testing?
Battery life is an issue and will require careful management. Fortunately the UMID BZ is proving excellent in that respect and just by closing the lid I can make it go into standby or hibernation. Returning for these standby modes is 5 and 20 seconds respectively. The UMID is returngin a regular 4.5-5hr in-use battery life. Despite that, I’ll carry a mains charger with me because I may have to charge the Mifi or the N82. Both can be charged via USB which is a huge bonus. The Mifi can even be used while it charges.
Update: In a 34 minute test I saw 17% battery drain indicating 200 minutes of battery life. About 3 hours! (Device closed with screen/touchscreen off)
Embedded 3G in the UMID. Yes, this would be great. No question. There’s no need for a Mifi if you’re only using one 3G-capable device but even in that scenario, i’d probably have the Mifi with me as a backup. The antenna on it is superb and it comes in really handy for a table of five net-less bloggers!
Your suggestions welcome.
Please feed-back in the comment section below. I love to hear how people are using their mobile kit. Are you mobile blogging at MWC? If so, lets meet and have a chat about the kit on video.
I’ll post a follow-up after MWC.
Previous versions of the ultra mobile reporting kit.
Thanks to UMID for the loan of the BZ. If I didn’t have the UMID here, I would have replaced it with the Fujitsu U820 as a second choice. The BZ really is the best choice out there right now.
This little baby is near perfect for moblogging. It’s lightweight and can handle most tasks well. Its your typical UMPC all-rounder but as always, there are some issues.
Screen brightness is at the top of the issues list. While the resolution is high and sharp, the brightness can be a problem. A glossy screen adds to the problem when you’re out and about. Secondly, the lack of 3G highlights that tethering over Bluetooth is never as easy as it should be. I had to re-configure the BT dial-up-netoworking connection twice before it worked and then I found out that you can’t connect internal applications on the N82 to the internet via 3G when the BT modem is in action. This isn’t a huge problem but it means that latitude updates stop working while I’m tethered.
