Life Tech

Kagu Music Player is now v1.08, sporting a new coolgreen look. It is still the only player that allows you to use your bluetooth stereo headphones like my favourite Motorola S9 with controls!

with new improvements to the scanning of songs and downloading of album covers. This software just keeps getting better!

Besides the usual software updates and know-hows. I thought I’ll just share how the n800 has become part of my life.

I usually set my n800 to charge over night like my mobile n73. So I actually start using my n800 straight off my bed when I wake up.

I know there is an alarm program for the n800, however I don’t have a use for it (as my trusty n73 and Sony Hifi does the job). However, I have thought it would be nice if the n800 can wake me up and starts playing a series of pictures/music to start the day… Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up to a picture of a sunrise on a beach? Or have some motivational picture to get you in the right frame of mind!

Anyways, when I awake and I do a quick check on my gmail –> gmail.google.com to see if there’s any emails I should read…
And check –> www.sbstransit.com.sg for the latest bus arrival timings using IRIS – Intelligent Route Information System.

Singapore Bus Services, just recently put in this system which I have to say, is really quite good. It gives you the estimated arrival times of the buses you wish to commute on, the one arriving and the one after. So you can plan your timing accordingly. They just need your bus stop number (which if you don’t know, you can use their location system to figure it out) and bus number.

It has become a habit for me to check if I have enough time to rush to the bus stop for my bus or have a quick skim through the morning Strait Times or not.

Sometimes, I would think I missed the bus, but checking the website on the myIRIS system, I find out that somehow the bus was delayed and I still have a chance to get my ride on it. MyIRIS needs you to register but once you have, you can store all the bus services you use and check on their timings.

This system is also available via SMS or GPRS on the mobile phone (though it costs you extra). I highly recommend all in Singapore to check it out if you take the public bus service. It really beats reaching the bus stop and not knowing if you just missed your bus and had to wait for 15-20mins for the next one, when you could have chilled at home, watch the extra segment on Channel News Asia or read the funnies from Strait Times’ Life section.

Before I step out of the house, I would load up 2 pages worth of RSS feeds to read on my way to work. As I can’t get any reliable signal from WirelessSG on my route, so this is the best way instead of spending money on GRPS/3G data charges.

Using –> https://readermini.com – which is a mobile version of Google’s Reader program, runs on the Nokia n800 Opera browser nicely. I usually pick the folder, so it displays as many entries as possible. I’ll open 2 windows in Opera to have 2 RSS feeds to read.

Then a final check on myIRIS for my bus timing’s and I’ll be on my way… or not…

On my walk to the bus stop, sometimes I would have stored an audio book the night before to listen on my n800. This is the time when I use the built-in Media player on the n800 to play my audio books.
Why I don’t use Kagu or UKMP or Canola, is simply because I really just need a simple player with a time line to know where I stopped or moving it forward/reverse. I don’t need the fancy album covers or playlists as usually my audio books last me all the way to work.

Using my Sony headphones MDR-KX70, I find this is the better way to listen to audio books then using my Motorola S9. I love my S9 paired with my N73 and frankly I think the quality is quite good even when I use the eAAC compression (which a normal 5mb mp3 files is now about 2mbs only!) codec!

I alternate some days with music and some days with the audio books on my journey. Sometimes I change mid way. Especially if I have a book I wish to read. I usually read my RSS feeds on the MRT train (because it’s hard to have an open book when you are squeezing with lots of other passengers! and flipping the pages with your fingers while holding the book, while your other hand struggles to get a grip on that silver cold pole).

Ok, I’ll share the rest of my day’s experiences in the next posting.

Nokia introduces yet another wonderful application to the N800. This time it’s called Video Center. I happen to do a routine ‘Check for Updates’ on my application manager and it then appeared part of the regular list.

It used for downloading, streaming, storing and playing video clips from different sources (e.g. RSS feeds)

So now you can get video casts, Internet TV videos on your n800 using this app!

Here’s the official application page.

And from Morpheuz’s blog, here’s a quick video to show you how it works

and how to get MythTV to work on this new application software. Check it out here.

Please note, it’s still in beta, so some things may not work very well yet.

So far half my use for my Nokia N800 has been multimedia stuff. Seriously, though it was not build like the Archos with videos/music and photos as main purpose, I think the N800 works quite well with all the different media.

Thanks to the open source community that writes great programs for it, I enjoy my videos either converted or streamed from my desktop. Listen to music and audio books even via bluetooth A2dp and view photos taken from my Canon Ixus 700 camera.

Here’s PC Magazine’s review on the Archos 605 wifi. Read it before you decide to pay and spend even more money for the add ons..

Click here for the review.

I’m not much of a programming guy.. I did try my hand on it years back when I got my own PC.. played with BASIC then QuickBasic… and a little bit of Assembly.

Anyways, for those programmers out there, Vala is a new object oriented programming language that is suppose to be a high level language like BASIC or QuickBasic. It will convert your program to C.

The latest version 0.1.3 has built-in hildon support. In other words, you can start writing programs for our beloved n800 using this.

Check out this post.

To go straight to Vala to check out the software. Click here.

Just a quick update for all. There’s been some updates over the last few days.

1. Kagu Media Player – is now version 1.06
   • Ability to view album covers seperately (i.e. zoom in)
   • Editable playlist support: Enqueue whole album, individual song, and clear playlist buttons
   • Improved album seperation logic: Support compilation albums
   • Filename parser as a fallback to the ID3 parser
   • Initial OGG support (requires ogg support in the system, upstream ogg on n800 may be broken)
   • Fix installation/run problems on Nokia 770
   • On screen Volume button
   • Plenty of bugfixes
   • Performance and UI enhancements
   • Updated theme
2. FM Radio – version 1.4.6
   • The most visible new feature is to download all the radio stations inform(frequency and names) direct to your n800.
     [I tried for Singapore but wasn't successful... yet....]

Milhouse has done a great job simplifying the steps for getting A2dp working on the n800. I just copied his posting here for easy reference.

Thanks Milhouse! Great work!

–
Credits to MilHouse

Full instructions for downloading and installing A2DP software can be found here. The instructions listed here offer a simplified and largely automated installation methodology that should work every time.

Jump to step 5 if you have xterm and wget installed, root access and have already paired your Bluetooth headset.

Pre-requisites to be satisfied before installing A2DP

1. xterm must be installed

• Install xterm via the one-click install file on this page: http://maemo.org/downloads/product/osso-xterm-advanced

2. “Becomeroot” package must be installed or device in R&D mode

• Install the Becomeroot package by adding the following repository to application manager:

   

  Quote:

  Web Address: http://eko.one.pl/maemo Distribution: bora Components: user

• Alternatively see the maemo.org wiki for details on how to enable R&D mode.

3. wget installed for downloading web-based files from the command line

• Open xterm and execute the following commands in xterm (you must have satisfied pre-requisite #2 before continuing):

   

  Code:

  sudo gainroot
  apt-get install wget
  exit

4. Pair your Bluetooth headset with your N800

• Pairing instructions will vary from device to device. A pairing code of 0000 will typically allow the headset to pair automatically once set into pairing mode.

Once all of the above pre-requisites are satisfied continue at step 5.

Installing the A2DP software

5. Download and execute the A2DP software installation scripts

• The following commands will create a temporary working directory, download two shell scripts using wget then execute those two scripts in turn.

As user “user”

• The first script, btscan.sh, will attempt to identify the Bluetooth address for the Bluetooth headset paired with your N800.
• Execute the second script, install.sh, and pass the address of your Bluetooth headset (identified after running the first script, including colons) as a parameter. This step will download the A2DP software packages and generate configuration scripts specific to your Bluetooth headset.

   

  Code:

  mkdir ~/a2dp
  cd ~/a2dp
  wget http://www.nmacleod.com/a2dp/btscan.sh
  wget http://www.nmacleod.com/a2dp/install.sh
  chmod +x btscan.sh install.sh
  ./btscan.sh
  ./install.sh 00:11:22:33:44:55

  where 00:11:22:33:44:55 must be replaced by YOUR Bluetooth Headset address as identified by btscan.sh.

As user “root”

• Switch to the root superuser and again execute the second script install.sh. This step will install the A2DP packages and finalise the configuration. Reboot.

   

  Code:

  sudo gainroot
  ./install.sh
  reboot

• Optionally remove the temporary directory ~/a2dp with the following command as the directory and it’s contents are no longer required:

   

  Code:

  rm -fr ~/a2dp

• Enjoy A2DP audio when using the Kagu audio player.

EDIT:

18 August 2007: Updated install.sh script to support repository based installation of the latest mplayer (currently 1.0rc1-maemo.18.n800)

Over the last 2 weeks or so, much as happened… things can only get better!

Mozilla Browser on n800

There has been a new update for the MicroB (based on the Mozilla platform) browser. Basically, once you install this, Opera can be switched to use the Mozilla rendering engine instead.

Below are some of the updates I feel are more important..

• Change code to only trigger vkb/fkb for hardware select key up instead of any key up (from any source, including bluetooth, random hardware keys, terminals in emulators, …) when focus ends on an text input. Also make sure not to randomly close the vkb if you press a key on a bluetooth keyboard pressing any key will trigger vkb if at keyup the focus is a text input
• Fix browser ui to allow the vkb to remain open if the toolbars are hidden vkb Keyboard will not stay open/up with toolbar hidden
• Fixed CSS3 opacity spreadsheets.google.com
• Improved support for zooming out
• Fixed Authentication dialog to stored password corrections. EmbedPasswordMgr::AddUser didn’t call WritePasswords
• Fixed bug with complicated links with no width (<a><div>…)
• Fixed Scroll and setup first focus
• Resuming paused downloads should now work
• Fixed Crashes

Here’s the complete list.

To update,

1. Goto Tools/Applications Manager
2. Click “Check for updates” Button
3. If nothing happens, goto the menu and select Tools/Refresh Application list

Kagu Media Player (The only player with Bluetooth A2dp support now)

Since I last mentioned Kagu, it has gone on to release, not just the version 1.0 but as of a couple of hours ago, version 1.05!

Now you can install it easily with this link! http://maemo.org/downloads/product/kagu/

And it keeps getting faster and better! Here are some of the new fixes for version 1.04 and 1.05.

* Many performance enhancements (including faster AVRCP commands!)
* New theme
* Playback modes (repeat/repeat one/shuffle/normal)
* SongPositionView for seeking in songs and audio books.
* No more OK button in Album/Song/NowPlaying views.
* Fix postinst script permission problems
* Support exec loops back and forth between kagu and kagu-scanner
* NowPlayingButton not visible if the playlist is empty
* Faster scrolling
* Performance enhancements

Hey.. I apologise for the lack of updates. I have been under the weather and finally saw the doctor. Down with a “cold with secondary viral infection” … whatever that means…

Anyways, here’s an update for the n800 users.

miniSync™ is the single cable that will simultaneously charge and synchronize your Nokia N800, all in an ultra-portable form factor! It is designed with a charging dongle that allows you to charge a wireless Bluetooth headset or another device at the same time!

Basically, this allows you to charge the n800 using your computer or if you have a USB car charger, you can plug this into it.

Though this is useful, however, I personally feel, that since there are so many Nokia users out there (I use an n73 myself), you can just plug in those chargers to fill up the battery for your n800. Less 1 more charger/cable to carry.

Thanks Nokia for deciding NOT to have another special charger connector the n800!

Singapore has been getting ready to offer WiMax to the public since 2005 with base stations already set up over the Orchard Road / CBD area.

And of course the lack of devices has held back some of the testings.

Well, it seems the n800 is on its way to be WiMaxed with this news.

NEWS: WiMax on n800

In the report, they mentioned something about interference from bluetooth and Wifi on the WiMax.. is that why the technology is moving slowly now? Hmmm…