Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Jailbreak the Internet Browser on your Sharp Aquos
Just got a new Sharp Aquos LC-52LE830U and I am really happy with it!
The only problem is that Sharp decided to lock you out of a full Internet browser experience, and only give you access to a very limited set of Widgets. Not to sure why but definitely not a very consumer friendly policy. I just hate this new trend where manufacturers arbitrarily limit the functionality of the products we spend top dollar on.
Geting out of the Sharp Aquos Net jail is easy enough and will not damage your TV in anyway. In reality you do not have to change anything on the TV it self but as usual do this at your own risk and responsibility.
The basic idea is to use the bookmark feature to add a Bookmark to Google or any other page of your liking, so it is always accesible. From there you can then access any site you like.
Unfortunately the TV browser does not support Flash so no Youtube…
You will need:
- DNS Server (this can be done on your Internet router, Mac/Linux or Windows computer)
- Web Server
Install webserver on your laptop. I used MAMP on MAC OSX
- Create the sharpaquos folder on the web server root (/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/sharpaquos in my case)
- Create the widget_split.php file in the sharpaquos folder with the following content
<html> <script language="JavaScript"> if (window != top) top.location.href = location.href; </script> <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a> </html>
Highjack one of the Aquos Net widgets by redirecting the DNS name resolution to your webserver
- We need to redirect special.accesshollywood.com to the webserver in my case 192.168.32.60
- I added a the accesshollywood.com DNS Zone to my Fortigate, and configured it as follows:
- Add the special.accesshollywood.com host and point it to the webserver
Press the Aquos Net button on your TV remote, and access the Access Holywood widget, mine was on page 4.- You should see the “Google” link inside the widget instead of the regular Access Hollywood widget content.
- Navigate to the Widget and Google should open on the full page, and not restricted to the inside of the widget.
- You can now bookmark the Google page by pressing the “D” button on the TV remote
“There’s no App for that” should be RIM’s catch phrase for the Playbook
Thanks to my beautiful wife and daughter I got a Blackberry Playbook for Father’s Day. We already have an iPad and they thought the sharing was becoming a burden on the family…
Knowing that I am a BlackBerry person she decided to buy a Playbook instead of another iPad.
The initial setup was easy, but the first signs of trouble came when it connected to RIM to check for new updates.
The Playbook determined that there was a new version on the server, and started downloading it. The file was over 300 MB and the Playbook lost Wifi signal several times, delaying the download considerably.
I noticed that when the Playbook was flat on my desk the signal went down by a couple of bars, not as bad as the iPhone 4 but noticeable, and enough to cause the connection losses. So there I stood with the Playbook in hand until it finally downloaded the update file. It stared installing it, and after did a reboot. At this point I unplugged the device and went out.
Like any other Black Berry the Playbook takes FOREVER to boot, and when it was finally done it wanted me to connect to Wifi network and would not do anything else, or give me any option to continue. I was basically locked out!
So there I was stuck with a fresh new device searching for any open wireless network I could connect to. When I did find one, all the Playbook did was to give me a message thanking me for the upgrade. Well done RIM. Strike 1 – First impression: not good!
The second nightmare was installing the Blackberry Bridge software on my phone. I’m told by the Playbook that I need to go to the App World on the phone and download it, it even gave me a convenient QR code which, once scanned, opened the App World app on the phone. Easy. I was beginning to feel happy again, I could see my self doing all my corporate email, using my BBM, you know all that we love about our Blackberry phones.
That was not to be. Unfortunately, and to my utter amazement, AT&T does not allow RIM to provide the Blackberry Bridge app to its subscribers, and all I got was message saying that I was SOL!
Strike 2.
Now lets think about this for a moment. AT&T does not let RIM use messaging, calendar, BBM, and all the applications and services we love the Blackberries for. Why do I need a Playbook for?
As a consolation prize the Playbook came with 2 pre-installed games Need for Speed and Tetris. The first time I ran the Blackberry world app it told me that these needed updating so I clicked the button. Big mistake! The NFS download was almost 300MB and the Playbook kept loosing Wifi connection, so it took over 2h and several failed attempts to get that update installed.
That brings me to my last point, THERE’S NO APP FOR THAT!
Once running the Playbook is easy on the eyes, I liked the interface a lot, flash websites worked fine, but other than that there’s very few things to do with it. There are so few apps on the App World for the Playbook that the only parallel would be to compare it to the vast emptiness of the outer space. The claim that the Playbook runs Android apps had me excited, so I looked for a way to install the Android Market app so that I, at least could try those out, but no… no sir, RIM added one final hurdle to overcome. Developers need to submit their Apps to RIM so that they can approve, and add them to the Blackberry World.
Strike 3. The Playbook went back to the shelf at Best Buy.
Clearly this is a half-baked device, much like their recent phones, with a lot of limitations, installation problems, bugs (some pre-installed app for online video kept crashing) and above all no Bridge, ie, nothing Blackberry for AT&T subscribers.
The combination of very few consumer apps, and the inability to use the enterprise apps for which Blackberry is known for will kill this device faster than you can say Steve Jobs!
A Good Experience with Apple Support
Today I took my Macbook Air for repair at a local Apple store – broken hinge and antenna cover. Although the Air has been out of warranty for some time they said they would replace the whole top part – not jut the hinge – for free, because it was a known issue!
The Apple “Genius” guy told me that the Air would be ready in 3 to 5 days, but a couple of hours later I got a call from him saying that the computer had been fixed and was ready to be picked up.
The great service relieved a lot of the frustration of seeing the broken hinge. So if the same thing happens to you, don’t buy the hinges on eBay (some are selling for $300). Take your Macbook to an Apple store. They’ll do a professional repair and most likely it will be free.
Great job Apple!
Increase Battery Life on you Mac Book
After a HDD crash on my Macbook Air I decided to buy a solid state HD, for speed. I bought a RunDisk 128Gb, and the speed difference is astounding. The one down side was battery life.
I was expecting to have more speed and better battery by using the SSD, but that was not the case. I used to get about 4 hours out of my battery on the Air and after installing the SSD disk i now get about 2 hours. That was 50% drop!
The good news was that after playing with CoolBook and Undervolting to fix the overheating problem on the Air. I reduced the “on battery” voltage of the CPU and now I am back to having 4 hours of work time. Amazing!
101 Spy Gadgets for the Evil Genius
I bought this book and it has paid for itself many times over. The information on hacking video senders is right on the money, and for $20, I turned the VCR sender bought at a department store into the $150 spy transmitter that many websites are selling.
Oh, and the taser gun made from the disposible camera…. Yah, it hurts! I would never try the two battery model > at least not on myself 
Anywho, thanks to the author, I enjoyed the way the book lays out each project as it is being made so there is no confusion, and the underground feel of this book reminds me of the old anarchist cookbook files that used to be available on dialup BBS sites.
Gadgets you will be able to do from the book:
- Build and install a nanny cam for viewing and recording activity from afar
- Hear and record what’s said from great distances
- See and photograph in the dark
- Wire yourself for undetected recording
- Construct a hidden briefcase camera
- Tap and record telephone conversations
- Privately record every called number, with a time stamp, from any phone
- Build a secret time-lapse camera
- Build and install motion-activated spy cameras or listening devices
- Alter photographic evidence
- Digitally disguise your telephone voice
- Secretly install key-logging software to see what’s done on any computer
- Learn what Web sites others are surfing
- Recover deleted computer files
- View other peoples’ computer screens from your PC
- Control your spy equipment from afar
Check it out it is great I wonder if the author is on a no fly list now?!
The new Kindle 2 from Amazon
Kindle 2
Amazon released their new Kindle 2 and I just nought one. My initial impression was that the new device is much thiner that a regular paperback, and also light weight. I often grab a book with one hand only and I liked the fact that I can hold the device up for extended periods much more comfortably than a real book.
The beat thing about it is that I can read all my PDFs, listen to MP3 music and download new content immediately from anywhere without the use of the computer, or wireless fees!
Amazon offers tons of books and newspapers, free dictionary and wikipedia.com access, and makes it easy to download new content or even send content to your “Kindle e-mail”. I found this feature very cool. You’re friends can email you documents, and you can open them in your Kindle immediately without using a computer.
I think Amazon has got a winner on their hands, think of iTunes for books. The Kindle 2 is the new iPod!
