This morning when I woke up, I noticed a message on the phone “There is a system update available”. I set it off to download, it restarted, installed the update and restarted again. I was left at the HTC Hero starting screen – I assumed that it might take a while before updating or something, so I left it plugged in and on while I went off to the Gym at 9am. I returned at 10:30am and the phone was in the same state -i.e. Not working. Maybe reboots, took sim out, tried the rom screen (Power & Back key while switching on) and nothing I did made it work.

Calling T-Mobile

Now on 4th April I will be calling T-Mobile anyhow to cancel my 18 month contract but this does not mean I should accept that a firmware update (or whatever it was) killed my phone for good, I may want to use a different sim or sell it etc. The told me the phone was in warranty till Nov 2011 and I should return it to a local store where thy will send it off for repair and give me a replacement loan phone.

Not so much a replacement phone

I did as instructed and they gave me a nokia 6400 I think it was, a basic phone with no internet or touch screen and such. I could not be bothered to argue my case to be honest as I have a work phone – I should get the phone back in two weeks time by which time I can call them and cancel my contract and wave goodbye to T-Mobile.

One of my past times is to sit and watch various shows on both Justin.TV and Ustream. A person who goes by the name of Ron Knights (from the USA) went on about how he wanted an iPad as he could sit on his couch with the ipad and watch the streams instead of sitting in front of the computer all the time. I tried to explain that streaming was not up to much on the iPad due to the fact there is no adobe flash installed – so it is with this, I made this quick video.

Options available

Justin.TV have a free application that is designed for the iPhone and this shows due to have the 2x in the corner and the blocky appearance. You can go look via category and even sign in and find the stream you want. The problem creeps in though when watching a stream, considering I am on Wireless N and the router is like behind me – there should be no dropping of any signal when trying to watch a stream but after a few minutes it starts to break up and given long enough (10 minutes at max) it will finally come to a stop. What is even more important here is how long it take to finally start the stream – just what is it doing we ask? If it is buffering – then why does it fail when watching the live stream?

Usteam also have an application (also free) which is once again an iPhone version and you have the 2x in the corner. Unlike the Justin Application, this is limited on how you are meant to find the stream you want and the search has proven to not find what I want 90% of the time. Once you do pick a stream though it does start it quickly and plays it without falling apart.

If the streaming is not part of those two, then you are plain out of luck I am afraid. You can go to the App store and buy Skyfire for example which will set you back $4.99 but having tested this already on the free Android version – I can tell you that BitGravity Streams does not work as planned – so save your money.

Is the Android any better?

Justin produce only a streaming App and not a viewer application which means you need to try and view them through Skyfire which works but the quality is not all that good. Ustream works just fine and as I already mentioned, any BitGravity type streams do not work either way. At least with the Android device I do not have to keep buying applications to try and watch streams.

Conclusion

As streaming is hard coded flash type thing, you are going to struggle to replace the desktop to sit and watch streams on an iPad, no matter how magical you think it is, this is one area that is not happening.

The HTC Hero (my current contract phone) comes with a 5 megapixel camera – what a large number that sounds, much better then say the 3 megapixel that the iPhone 3 comes with right? The problem comes when you want to take some pictures with it, if you have a lot of light, then this works great but the second it gets even a little dark, you might as well forget using it.

Daylight

This was taken out of a window during the day while I was on-site sorting out some air-conditioning unit, quality is not too bad but the colours look rather washed out.

Room Lighting

This is a bit better, blurry as you can tell as the HTC Hero seems to have a problem with re-focusing whilst trying to take the shot.

Night time

Whilst at my christmas party, inside a pub with ‘normal’ lighting in that I personally could see everyone just fine and the camera add’s a nice red pigment to the picture. I tried messing with the settings and still bad. The person next to me had an iPhone 3G and without even using the flash – it looked like it was in daylight.

Conclusion

The megapixel alone can not tell you how good something is and if your phone does not have a flash (a lot do not) then you can forget about pictures at night. The whole point of these smart phones I thought was to be out and about, take some picture, upload to facebook and so forth – with pictures like this I think you might as well carry a camera out with you.

No way am I buying on contract or otherwise a Android phone again, not only was I stuck at 1.6 for what seems like an age (now running 2.1) but too many issues. Maybe I might wait until the next iPhone comes out.

Ever want to just blow up enemies in fun physics puzzles? Look no further than Fragger. Clean, cartoony graphics mixed with gameplay reminiscent of Worms, it’s an excellent, if short, browser game. There are a few minor problems, but if you want to blow off some steam and test your brain at the same time, there’s no better way to blow a lunch break.

Fragger revolves around throwing grenades to kill enemies and manipulate the environment. If you are familiar with grenade throwing in Worms, you will instantly be comfortable with Fragger. Grenades have a several second timer, or explode shortly after coming to a full stop. You can aim in almost any direction, and determine the power through simple mouse movements. There’s no built-in level editor or player-designed levels, and the game has minimal re-playability, as well as a lack of full-scale mayhem, but it is certainly fun!

As ISP’s provide faster bandwidth speeds, webcams get higher resolution and computers get faster and more core’s – it begs the question – can you now stream in full HD resolution to offer the best video possible as well do it on a free service? I recently watched what was claimed to be full blown HD Stream but after making this full screen and seeing ‘jaggies’ on the diagonal lines (such as the nose for example) – I questioned if this was really HD and what was at fault.

Bandwidth requirements

• 720p60: 1280×720 gives 0,92 megapixels per frame. If we take a 24-bit color value per pixel (RGB), this means 2,76 MB data per frame, which multiplied with the 60fps gives 1,3 Gbps or 165 MB/s.
• 1080i60: 1920×1080 means a 2 megapixel frame which translates into 6,2MB per frame. The interlacing cuts the bitrate in half: 6,2MB x 60 / 2 = 1,49 Gbps or 186 MB/s.
• 1080p60 is obviously double the throughput of 1080i: 2,98 Gbps or 373 MB/s

Hardware

I am using the Logitech 9000 Pro and going from the spec’s page:

• High-definition video (up to 1600 X 1200*) – * Enhanced from native 2-MP sensor.
• 720p widescreen mode with recommended system

Now when I tested this HD mode – I need to add that it was dark and only had one light on – that means the camera had to work harder and probably make the image worse that it could have been.

The testing enviroment

Using the Core i7 machine armed with Flash media encoder 3.1 – I set the input and output to 1280×720 at 25fps, the bandwidth to 950 for video and the total bandwidth needed was 1014kbps. In theory I have 1500kbps – so I should have some headroom.  I also recreated the same settings on Wirecast and go to work recording some content and taking some pictures.

The first thing I noticed on Wirecast broadcasting was it was not as crisp even on preview and if you click the picture above to get the full resolution you can see that there is jaggy lines on the cup, the laptop and the words are not that clear.

Now let is turn to Flash Media Encoder 3.1 – straight away you should notice the much sharper picture, the lack of jaggies on the laptop, how easy it is to read the text. The lines you can see running through the picture is the camera trying hard to compensate for low light.

Thoughts

Wirecast will probably get better in Version 4 – as of now it downgrades the quality of either a webcam or a screen capture (a game for example). FME on it’s own of course cannot do camera swtiching live or capture the desktop but armed with the right programs, you could go so way to get them features.

The bottom line is just because you *think* you are broadcasting in HD does not mean the end result is true HD Quality. The stream above for example is still worse in Quality than a proper 720P Movie – streaming has a long way to go yet.

I thought I would revisit the age old Ustream.TV vs. Justin.TV debate and look at how they have changed, problems encountered and write something from the end-users point of view – after all without people visiting and interacting with the chat, you might as well be talking to yourself. The quick background is that these sites along with others allow anyone with a webcam and a microphone to stream a live show, anything from pointing the webcam at some kittens to a full blow show with lower 3rds and transitions.

Ustream.TV

The first thing your going to notice if your not using an AdBlocker is the large number of adverts all over the place, both on the page itself and inside the video. The adverts come in and last for 30 seconds, this is even before you get to see the content on offer. They have a chosen streamer on the front page, this used to be the little guys before but now it features the larger stars. Along the top we have the sections but this is not all of the sections, you will not see ‘Tech’ Listed on there – for this we need to look at ‘All Live’ and drill down to the correct section.

A Look down the Tech Section will normally not bring you anything computer related as such but should you find a show you want to see – this is were it started to fall apart. You can be logged in but as soon as you type, the chat tell’s you that you need to log in and provides a login box. With some luck, you may get around to actually typing something but even though Ustream provide a IRC Server (of sorts) – most Tech people seem to have there own IRC Server and for you to venture off onto this new site of you want to chat. Before I go on about a separate IRC Server, there is more bugs – the chat does not scroll as people type (sometimes it does) and this is very annoying indeed having to keep scrolling down to see what is been said.

My Feeling on this IRC Server thing is of course two fold, I can fire up an IRC Client and chat away with the video listed (even on a separate computer) but I would only do this if I knew the person already. What I suspect will happen is people will stay on the Ustream page and not chat but just watch until they get bored (will not take long) thus you have now lost some visitors.

The other aspect of Ustream is the person streaming has to press record to save the show for later viewing but most do not it seems and unless you are there at the time, there is no way to go back over what is been watched or to watch later in the case of people with different time zones. If you do not feel part of the cast, you probably will not come back.

Justin.TV

This is much like Ustream, adverts coming at you thick and fast – the most annoying is the one played inside the video and a lot of times it will display an advert over the lower 3rds and even worse, a full screen popout for Poker, advised you go in with Firefox and adblock to get a better experience (Chrome and adblock does not block them it seems).

The Video part offers all of the controls inside the video so when you mouse over, you can mute, full screen and so forth. The chat for most part works, its not great but it scrolls down and if you are logged in, it works. They do run a sort of IRC server but make it next to impossible to connect to (White lists and such). Once again we see a lot of people diverting the chat to an IRC Server of choice – this means leaving the site of course.

The best feature though is the ability for the last 24 hours worth of broadcast to be automatically recorded – this means as long as the producer does not disable this feature – you can catch up with the last few shows. What is even better with this method is I can skip through a 2 hour show with great speed once it has buffered up. This feature alone is what I feel is good about Justin and I get to watch a lot of shows from people on a much different time zone and keep up with what they have been doing.

Thoughts

As a viewer to shows, if the show is on too late for UK people such as a show starting at 8:30pm EST – then the chance of me tuning in even on a Saturday is slim to none. If there is a way for me to catch up easily (such as Justin recorded feature) then I will probably keep up to date with what that show is doing but if they only record the odd segment or none at all – I will probably never get to see this show ever. To give a analogy, imagine a TV Show you heard about was on TV at 2am, unless you really wanted to see this you would neither stay up for this or set something up to record that show but had you the chance to ‘catch up tv’ and watch the show at your convenience, you may love that show and stay up late for the next one and so forth.

Should the die hard Ustream people stick with there choice and the low numbers or jump ship (like the rest) and come to Justin? If somebody keeps visiting your streaming page even on a recorded segment (and NOT Streamed over and over like many do) – they will learn of your website and you shall have more followers.

Release Candidate of Flash Media Encoder 3.1 for the Mac – Grab it here…

Adobe® Flash® Media Live Encoder 3 live audio and video capture software is a media encoder that streams audio and video in real time to Flash Media Server software or Flash Video Streaming Service (FVSS). When high-quality streaming is your priority, Flash Media Live Encoder 3 can help you broadcast live events and around-the-clock broadcasting

On my trial to run Ubuntu 9.04 64bit for main use on my Laptop and reporting back on really how close it can come to a complete experience as a desktop machine and that I worked with Steve from The Tech Buzz to get Ubuntu netbook remix working a treat – read on to find out how it all went…

The General Purpose Laptop

The Laptop runs Compiz fast enough but I had to fix the CPU scaling so that it stopped running at 800Mhz instead of the 2Mhz, as this caused the fancy 3D Graphics to flicker like mad. XChat worked well enough but no better then the Windows Version I would say, the only good thing is that it is on it’s own screen (4 Desktops with Compiz). I just worked out that the Wireless refused to work, I tried some major Terminal mode typing, compiling drivers and sprinkling holy water over the whole lot but nope – this baby was as dead as any Hackintosh Wireless.

The Volume control jumps all over the place and in the end I use the Task bar to set the volume, the SD Card slot reader has zero chance of working it seems and firefox still sits there at 3.0.11 (3.5.1 is installed but it is not only called something else – Shiretoko but has none of my plug-ins from the other version.   

Adobe flash does whatever the hell it wants, sometimes I can open YouTube and it works, other times I get nothing in the place of the video. Streaming is a no-go, no matter what I have tried, no box comes up or it freezes after a few seconds (Justin.Tv). I blamed 64Bit for this but I checked n my Netbook which is 32bit and the same results, either I am doing something wrong or this is just not a good area for Linux. I have seen people stream from Linux so I know it is possible, I must ask them what they did.

If I swapped back to Windows 7, what would I miss or gain from this Linux Experience? I will not miss the Cube, the snow on the desktop, the mouse catching fire or any of that eye-candy stuff BUT I will miss the Multiple Desktops and the Zoom Feature. I would gain the ability to play games (woot), Stream, run Youtube or in fact ANY flash web site without a second thought.

The ASUS EEE 1005HAB Netbook

Steve from The Tech Buzz fancied a Netbook to mess about with and he got himself the new ASUS Eee 1005HAB, this features the Atheros 813 Network. The problem came about though is that when he installed Ubuntu, he had no Wired or Wireless actually working. After many hours of searching google, we finally found a link which explained what to do. The bottom line of this procedure is you downlaod the Source code of the driver (Wired), Build it and install it – all via command line plus add some extra packages THEN update the system (via wired) to get the wireless working. This would stop most people messing with Linux on that machine and even most Tech savvy users are going to get confused as to having to Build the files from the source code. 

The end result is we did get it going and it never went as smooth as it should, for example loosing the bar at the top and bottom, graphics breaking up and it going slow – Windows by the way Works 100% fine on this machine (it came with XP).

What do we know then?

I managed to learn a lot about Linux and the command line by having to support Linux Servers in a business environment, a case of repeating the same stuff over and over and finally it sank in on how to copy files from one server to another, add user, add groups, manage groups, editing via Vi and so forth.

While the Linux Users will stand there and say how amazing there Distro is and how bad windows is – they either know it inside out and can solve any problem or they are lying to themselves and letting the OS dictate what they can do (as in, cannot stream via 64Bit – oh well, I just wont stream then). I am not writing the OS off as a lost cause, it is good for many things – mainly server side I would say. I am not quite jumping back to windows yet and I can swap the HD’s around anyhow (one has Win 7, one has Ubuntu). I found this an interesting subject to tackle head on though.