Possibly one of the worst kept ‘launch’ secrets, Google announced the Nexus One back at the start of January, specifically the 5th.

Launched within the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong, customers were able to purchase a Nexus One. However, that left Australia and a plethora of other countries without access to the latest Google gadget.

More recently, there have been reports of a “2010 release date” for the Nexus One in Australia. Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) (Vodafone and Three networks) have said “Details relating to Vodafone’s Australian launch of Google Nexus One will be announced in due course.”

This due course may be confirmed by some photos taken during a ‘dissection’ of the Nexus One…

The picture may not seem to reveal much at first, however in the lower left corner appears the ‘A-tick’, a certification of ACMA’s “Telecommunications/Radiocommunications Labelling”.

Being certified by ACMA hopefully indicates and confirms future sales in Australia.

In the mean-time the temptation to import grows, with numerous sites now offering the phone along with warranty with a slightly inflated price…

My laptop (as most do these days), has a webcam integrated into the screen… On installation of the webcam’s drivers, prompted me with the following message:

Bewildered by this message (which wouldn’t go away until it was ‘unplugged’), prompted me to disable the device in Device Manager… that seemed to fix it…

With the release of Windows 7 Beta January 09 and the RC release in May, many hardware developers have actively been developing Windows 7 compatible drivers for their products.

The changes between Windows Vista drivers and Windows 7 drivers are not as involved as the changes between XP and Vista. This means that most hardware drivers written for Windows Vista, most likely work with Windows 7 without any hitches. However sometimes driver installations for Vista can not install correctly. Most ‘driver install problems’ on Windows 7 using drivers ‘made for Vista’, are merely a result of the company blocking installation if the OS is not equal to ’6.0′ or Vista in other words.

Intel Turbo Memory was affected by this. Intel provided Turbo Memory drivers which were downloadable for Windows Vista however compatible Windows 7 drivers were not to be found until the 17th of August 2009. Visiting the Intel download page for Turbo Memory now reveals a ‘Windows 7′ option in the operating system selection. I have installed these drivers and they appear to work without any hitches, and without any ‘computability’ issues.

The drivers can be found specifically on Intel’s website here.

Most operating systems, namely Windows and OS X, have a well known set of alert, error and message sounds that have become synonymous with the product…. especially the Windows XP Start-up sound on computers with their volume up to loud >_<

Some users take the time to remix these sounds. As the sounds in the mixes are heard from computers on a daily basis, the song has an odd sense of familiarity, while maintaining quite a unique and catchy tune. Below is a compilation of some good remixes people have posted on YouTube.

I have recently read a few posts on other blogs and forums, discussing an ‘annoyance’ of not being able to disable the ‘fade-out’ or time-out period of the keyboard back-lighting after one minute of no keyboard or mouse activity. However, what most don’t realise, is the option is available… just buried.

I am using Windows 7, so I would assume the following steps would be more applicable to Vista, but not so much Windows XP.
This is also based on a Dell Studio 15 and Dell Studio XPS 16 laptops so I can’t guarantee it applies to all Dell Laptops with back-lit keyboards/touchpads.

1. Open Windows Mobility Center (Just search it in the start menu, it only appears on portable devices such as laptops).
2. You should be presented with a screen like below. Notice as Quickset is installed, a few extra options have appeared at the bottom of the window.
   If you do not see the Customized section by Dell, download Quickset from the Support and Drivers section of the Dell website.

   

3. While the ‘Keyboard Brightness’ panel only shows a slider bar, notice the small Laptop & Keyboard icon just above the slider is pressable (focused in the screenshot above).
   Clicking this will open a new dialog box like the screenshot below, with more customization options for the keyboard back-lighting.

   

4. You can now adjust the time-out for the keyboard lighting in-activity fade out. Adjust the time interval by selecting it from the drop down menu, or specify “Never Off” to set an infinite timeout period.
5. Let us know if this works for your Dell laptop.

The guys over at XPS-Wiki have found a way to enable Stereo Mix on a Dell XPS M1730.

Originally, Dell reported that Stereo Mix was not enabled due to ‘hardware limitations’, however this mod provided by XPS-Wiki users (BatBoy & L33) has proved otherwise. The install process is simple too;

1. Download the original IDT audio drivers (R196492) from Dell.
2. Download the mod archive from here.
3. Run the original install from Dell to extract the files, but quit the installer prior to the real installation.
4. Locate  the extraction path.  The default is C:\Dell\drivers\R196492
5. Depending on your system configuration, copy the appropriate files from the mod archive (32-bit or 64-bit directory) and overwrite the ones in the extraction path.
6. Run setup.exe to perform the installation. (C:\Dell\drivers\R196492\setup.exe)
7. Finally, reboot when the installer is complete.

XPS Wiki reported that there is 100% compatibility, but some elements of the audio driver (such as Jack detection and surround sound) don’t seem to work on my system. However I am not overly fussed, more importantly, Stereo Mix functionality is now enabled on my XPS.

Thanks XPS-Wiki for the mod .

A PDA or Pocket PC screen is most infuriating when the alignment goes ‘out of whack’.

I own a Dell Axim x51 and found after its year of use, the screen started to become unresponsive to my clicks, or click something on the other side of the screen – it was not fun. I used the hardware controls to run the re-allignment program and managed to get the screen in working order however this only lasted about 5 taps before the original problem returned.

After searching and searching, I discovered a well hidden post describing how the touch screen worked and possible causes of screen misalignment. As I use my PDA everyday, it usually sits in my pocket. Over the year since I first purchased it, the tiny gap between the screen and the casing filled up with ‘pocket lint’. It was described on this post that this ‘lint’ can cause the ‘digitizer’ (the hardware that reads the taps) to misinterpret a tap and report it incorrectly to the Mobile OS.

There is a solution!

The post suggested getting a piece of paper, then place one of the corners into the gap between the screen and the case, to literally push out the ‘lint’ that had built up. I was careful not to get the paper caught as a loose piece of paper would just cause more problems. Once I had gone around the entire screen, I re-run the calibration program and it worked like a charm.

Its common these days to have old desktop pc’s (or even laptops) which are broken down or malfunctioning sitting in the corner… degrading… wait no, they can’t do that! But don’t despair! You can do something useful with them!

Big lists have been made up of possible things to do with old computers and these can be seen here: http://www.shadowlive.net/?p=15

Mind you, even that list is not exhaustive. You could even make it into a gaming server for garry’s mod that you can your friend can play on or just a small web developer server. I would eventually like to expand PortWiki to include guides on creating such servers.

As Mac OS X (unfortunately) becomes more and more popular, the amount of malware will increase for the operating system. This means that in the future, mac users will need to watch their single clicks to ensure they don’t download anything nasty of the Internet or from other sources such as email and removable media. Currently Mac users are lax about security – blindsighted by the supposed security of Mac OS X. This will need to change however, as they will need to learn the cautious security measures to ensure they are not infected by malware.

Personally I won’t be fussed when more malware, viruses, keyloggers and trojans are developed for Mac operating system - it will prove that OS X is after all, NOT as secure: bragged about on the Apple website.

“Cyber-criminals have begun to notice consumers’ growing attraction to Apple Macs during the past year… This trend has led to a number of viruses and malware created by hackers for the purpose of attacking consumers who purchase Mac computers… Mac users need to be aware that, while the threats that exist right now are few in number, they still need to take adequate measures to protect themselves.” http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2207808/criminal-hackers-turn-mac-users

Well not being an Apple fan you could complain that this article is not showing the ‘good side’ of the MacBook Air but frankly – there isn’t one worth writing about (if you beg to differ – add a comment).

“You could hear the collective sigh from the crowd” (Forbes, Jobs Fails To Wow At Macworld). The MacBook Air dosen’t set any standards, instead has been descibed as a “anorexic fashion model, [the] MacBook Air has made too many compromises for the sake of being skinny” (apc, MacBook Air: 10 Things Wrong With It). And so true that is. Below I have extracted from the above linked article 10 reasons why MacBook Air isn’t anything special:

1. 80GB iPod hard drive being used as a system drive. It’s 4200 RPM slow and after years of encouraging people to amass a horde of digital media, how can Apple really expect people to fit their iTunes library, digital videos and so on onto 80GB? With notebook hard drive capacities topping 500GB in a single 2.5″ drive, surely Apple’s customers would have preferred a slightly thicker form factor with a beefier drive?

2. Non-expandable memory: 2GB of RAM soldered onto the motherboard… sure, that’s a lot of RAM today, but if I were buying a notebook worth between $2500 and $4300 (AUD), I’d sure as hell want the ability to add some extra RAM in later to cater for future Mac OS X upgrades, virtualisation and memory hungry apps like the Adobe suite. (To be fair, other subnotebooks also have soldered RAM, and sometimes have only 1GB, but still… looking at this from the perspective of someone looking for a thinner, lighter MacBook Pro, this is a significant limitation.)

3. 64GB flash-memory as an option in place of the hard drive is nice, but for $1400 (AUD)more, it seems unlikely many people will take it up.

4. One USB port: not only is the MacBook Air expansion-limited on the inside, it can’t connect to many things at once on the outside, unless, of course, you carry a USB hub with you, which kinda defeats the purpose of having an ultraportable notebook to begin with. And since it’s a recessed design (a flap on the side of the notebook has to pop open for you to access the port), quite a few USB accessories aren’t going to be able to plug in there without the use of a USB extension cord.

5. No wireless broadband: if anyone’s going to buy this notebook, it’s the regular traveller who is tired of toting 3KG of extra cabin baggage everywhere. These people are also exactly the same people who find wireless broadband really, really useful. But despite the fact that HSDPA modules can be manufactured as small as a postage stamp, Apple didn’t include one. Guess what you’ll be using that one USB port for? A soap-on-a-rope style wireless broadband dongle, or a fat broadband stick. It’s not a very elegant accompaniment to the world’s thinnest notebook.

6. Underpowered, last-gen processor: despite Apple claiming the MacBook Air has the ‘latest’ processor in it, it’s actually a slow old 65nm version of the Core 2 Duo, topping out at 1.8GHz. Presumably Apple’s legal eagles would argue that since Intel made a special version of the processor that has a smaller chip casing than others, it is literally using the “latest” release from Intel. But in this case, “latest” certainly doesn’t mean “better”.

7. No microphone port: sure, it’s not the most essential feature given the proliferation of USB microphones, but again, I’ll point out: one … USB … port.

8. Non-replaceable battery: you have to send the entire notebook back to Apple for replacement of the battery. Which will have attrocious battery life within about two years. Note to Steve Jobs: this is not an iPod.

9. Thin but not that thin: Steve Jobs says the MacBook Air is thinner at its thickest point than competing notebooks. But the Fujitsu Q2010 is only 19.9mm thick at its thickest point, and that’s 0.5mm — yes half a millimetre — thicker. However, in the Lifebook, you get integrated HSDPA/3G/GPRS, an ExpressCard slot (34/54), SD card slot, two USB ports, inbuilt VGA out, Ethernet, Firewire, fingerprint sensor. I’d say that functionality is worth an extra half millimetre.

10. Oh, and no Ethernet port: yeah, OK, you can order the optional USB Ethernet adaptor, but that one time your router stops working wirelessly and you really need to log in via Ethernet to fix the configuration… hope you’ve got that USB adaptor with you.

 Now you have to agree too, this latest Apple product definitely is not worth the price tag.

As I mentioned above, if you find this article ‘offensive’ or ‘biased’ as your a Steve Jobs fan you can comment below and correct my (and others) points on what is wrong with the MacBook Air…