Turn your old iPod speakers into wireless speakers

Do you have one of these portable iPod speakers in your home. In this post I'll shared an idea that lets you play music straight from iPhone or Android device. You can pick up this $25 GTI Bluetooth Adapter from Frys. The device plugs into iPod connector on your portable speakers and receives music via Bluetooth A2DP. Similar Bluetooth receivers that connect to aux-in ports are also available.

The idea emerged while helping a friend re-design hotel rooms for tech savvy business travelers. Found these inexpensive Bluetooth A2DP receivers to reuse the existing iPod dockable clock speakers in the hotel rooms. Perhaps NFC is a better choice but right now there only few mobile phones with NFC support.

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Kinect-Powered Interactive New Media Installation

During the recent visit to Taipei, I visited the famed National Palace Museum. The Qian Long Chao new media art exhibition featured this Trees of colors interactive installation powered by Kinect. The installation detect the visitors dress color and decorates the Qianlong vase accordingly. You can view the video on Youtube.

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Arduino workshop in Hanoi (May 2012)

La 4uatrième: Arduino workshop 12th/13th May at la 4uatrieme//Hộ...: Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.



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Snapstick, watch internet content on TV

Just stumbled across Snapstick on Mozilla-based applications page on Mozilla.org .

Snapstick combines the ease of discovering content on your laptop, tablet, or smartphone with the viewing pleasure of a big screen TV.

Now that sounds really cool. But it still doesn't explain what's the technology behind all this. Digging through the Snapstick.com site, I found the Engadget.com Snapstick review that explained the full details. Perhaps someone at Snapstick is listening, you need to put up relevant content where we geeks can find it easily.


BTW did I mention that this product is powered by Ubuntu. :)

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CES 2011 Tablet Roundup

DigitalTrends.com compared 25 tablet computers at International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011. It sure seems like 2011 is the Year of the Tablet. I feel that the small android devices from Asian manufacturers are going to eat up the market share of the big players if they get their act right.

1. Motorola Xoom



2. Blackberry PlayBook



3. Toshiba Android Tablet


4. Dell Streak 7 and 10


5. Dell Inspiron Duo


6. Samsung 7 Series Sliding Windows PC


7. Lenovo LePad


8. Lenovo IdeaPad Slate


9. Asus Eee Pads and Eee Slate EP121


10. Acer Iconia Tab A500


11. Sharp Galapagos Tablet

Small Form Factor Tablets

1. NEC LT-W Cloud Communicator


2. Motion CL900 Windows Tablet


3. iStation Zood 3D tablet


4. Coby Kyros Internet Tablets


5. Gadmei Android Tablets


6. Ace NomadPAD 10 series


7. Archos 10 Internet Tablet


8. Rockchip Tablet RK29XX


9. SBNTech All in One Embedded IP Multimedia Communicator


10. Jinys Tablets


11. The Others: the Aluratek Cinepad, AOC Breeze, Gentouch Latte (Latte Grande, Expresso), Notion Ink Adam, Azpen Windows 7/Android tablet, Vizio tablet, and the eFun Nextbook Next 4 and Next 6.

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SIM Card Registration Failed Solution

Few days ago I sent a message on twitter "Anyone know the reason for Nokia's SIM Card Registration Failed problem?". Got quite a few solutions from my friends . It is the most common problem with Nokia mobile phones. Restarting the phone few times or removing SIM and cleaning the contacts also fixes the problem. Try some of the solutions that worked for me.

Solution 1: Blocked SIM or Faulty SIM

In countries like India, you need to register your SIM card. The cell phone company blocks the SIM if they don't receive the application within few weeks of activating the phone. Please check if this is case.

Take out the SIM and test it with a different phone, if the phone fails to read the SIM, get the SIM replaced. Few days ago this worked for a friend with a brand new Nokia handset here in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Solution 2: Clean SIM Contact Pins

Take out the battery and SIM card. Use a clean eraser to wipe the gold contacts of the phone and on back the SIM card. Replace the SIM and make sure its firmly held in place. Few phones tend to start to working when you bang them on your palm a few times due to this reason. Tighten the tiny screws on the back panel of the phone near the SIM card if they are loose.

Solution 3: Phone Software/Hardware Issues

Despite all your efforts, the phone refuses to work then try to the phone repaired or replaced. Some users found that the cellphone firmware upgrade tends to fix this issue. I got a Nokia phone firmware upgraded, it fixed the problem for few months. But the phone started to have the problem again.

Unfortunately there seems to be no sure fix for this problem. Most cell phone service centers including Nokia Authorized shops often fails fix this annoyance. They even charge you service fee just for checking the phone :( .

I would love to hear your experiences, have you had this problem? Did you manage to fix it. Thank you ajuonline, BasilKurian, geohacker for your suggestions.

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Google Nexus S

You heard about Google Nexus S and all the buzz right. Well, I asked a friend what he thought about his shinny new Nexus S. He said the he found the 4" Contour phone display screen little odd and the phone does seems to get hot.

What are your thoughts about Nexus S?

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Managing Creative ZEN Mozaic with mtp-tools

Using the Creative Zen Mozaic in Ubuntu 10.10 is a nuisance. The ubuntu standard Rhythmbox Music Player has problems with this MTP portable player. In previous version of Ubuntu Gnomad2 was used to manage these devices, but it is no longer available in latest verion.

My solution is to use the mtp-tools on command line. You can install the package by typing the following line on the terminal or use Ubuntu software center program.


sudo apt-get install mtp-tools

Next get rid of the Gnome Gphoto2 VFS program that will try to automount the device as a camera.

killall gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor

Now you are all set. Connect the device and lets see if we can detect the player with mpt-detect command.

$ mtp-detect
libmtp version: 1.0.3

Listing raw device(s)
Device 0 (VID=041e and PID=4161) is a Creative ZEN Mozaic.
   Found 1 device(s):
   Creative: ZEN Mozaic (041e:4161) @ bus 1, dev 6
Attempting to connect device(s)
USB low-level info:
   Using kernel interface "usbfs"
   bcdUSB: 512
   bDeviceClass: 255
   bDeviceSubClass: 0
   bDeviceProtocol: 0
   idVendor: 041e
   idProduct: 4161
   IN endpoint maxpacket: 512 bytes
   OUT endpoint maxpacket: 512 bytes
   Raw device info:
      Bus location: 1
      Device number: 6
      Device entry info:
         Vendor: Creative
         Vendor id: 0x041e
         Product: ZEN Mozaic
         Vendor id: 0x4161
         Device flags: 0x00000001

Now to get the list of folders on the device, use mtp-folders command.

To deleting a folder, type mtp-delfile -n <id> .

Lets create a new folder and copy all the mp3 files from the current folder to the device.




mtp-newfolder Classic_Hits Music 0


find -name *mp3 -exec mtp-sendfile {} <folderid> \;




If you have a similar MTP portable player, hope this short tutorial will get you started.

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Go Rock Portable Speakers

Love listening to music while hacking on my computer. The go-rock portable speakers are my prized possessions. I use the go-rock single portable speaker
to listen music on mp3 audio player. The battery lasts for few days, always carry this speaker when traveling or spending time outdoors.

Got a second go-rock portable stereo speakers for mostly watching DVDs on my laptop. This speakers are designed in shape of an over sized pill, they break up to form two left and right speakers. The USB and Line-in cables can be retractable easily, just pull the cable and spring action will retract the cable smoothly.

The audio quality of go-rock portable speakers is good. You can unscrew the top for BASS mode. They are small enough to fit into my laptop bag and can be recharged with USB. Never had any problems with these speakers, except once I broke the locking notch by applying to much pressure. If you are looking for great portable speakers, go for go-rock.

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Reset Philips GoGear MP3 player

Had a real bad panic attack today while charging my Philips GoGear Mp3 Player. The player freezed on 'Do not disconnect' screen. :)

After a quick google search I found that we do a soft reset by pressing the power button and volume up (+) button together. It didn't work. So I decided to do a hard reset by pressing the reset button (its a small hole next to usb connection socket) with a safety pin. It worked. Thankfully it didn't delete any of the content on the device either :)

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HK GO+ Portable iPod Sound Dock

Got a chance to use the Harman Kardon Go + Play Portable Speakers System with Dock for iPod this evening weekend party at a friends place. Its a great buy if you are looking for an inexpensive portable speakers with some great sound. The build is solid and sturdy, even on uneven, smooth surfaces like car roof for a outdoor party or a rock ledge, your ipod is in safe hands. The design is very minimal, there are only three buttons for power and volume control.

There are couple of downsides, I noticed bass sound was not great. Also you can't see the ipod screen when its docked. The large metal handle bar blocks the view and angle of the ipod faces upside. Its a major design flaw. Overall this is a great affordable ipod sound dock system. A Good buy!

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Pqi i810 : Worlds Smallest USB Flash Drive?

Pqi i810 series USB flash drives from Power Quotient are extremely tiny in size. They not much larger than your finger nail. But don't let that fool you they pack lots of storage space, the one that landed in lap was whopping 8GB. And they are cute and pink :) . The Power Quotient product page claims that these are world's smallest USB flash drives. However I didn't find any reference to this neither on Engadget nor anywhere else on the web.

At first glance its looks more like a MMC card than a USB slot. It really felt strange to plug it into my USB drive. Like most exotic hardware I thought it would be a pain to make it work with gnu/Linux OS. And Surprise, surprise it worked just fine on my Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 laptop.


The USB Id's of this device are given below.

Bus 002 Device 006: ID 3538:0059 Power Quotient International Co., Ltd

If you are planning to buy one, go ahead and indulge yourself.

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Computer Cleaning Solution With Isopropanol

Here is a tip that would make your gadgets sport that sparky clean just-out-factory look all year long. Well, here is trade secret(Yeah Duh!) that I was able to wean out of the computer service guys, they use a solution known as Isopropyl Alcohol (Isopropanol) to clean the components. The bottle in the picture can be brought from the chemists shops that supplies lab chemicals.

Alternatively you can use some rubbing alcohol which actually 70% Isopropyl mixed with some water. I think medical stores do stock rubbing alcohol, but be sure to double check the label. Also read this post mention Hexane is a good choice too.

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Snapshots from CES 2008

Its official now Gnu/Linux is making its presence felt in the consumer electronics like UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs) , Mobile phones and the newer MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). Doc Searls of Linux Journal hits the bulls-eye when he poses the question 'What will happen now that the consumer electronics tide is starting to turn toward Linux and its value system?' while covering CES 2008.

Take a look at the photos from the CES 2008 event and see if its for real.

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