July 18, 2010
I know that the Motorola Milestone (and other Android phones) do not have an FM radio. However being interested in the Milestone due to it's inclusion of a physical keypad I have been searching the Internet to see if there is an third application for it. The reason this could be possible is that because feature phones have had FM radio for nearly a decade and with the reduction in components (and thus component cost) of a feature phone, many features are always bundled on a chip. It turns out that all these Android phones use chipsets that include an FM tuner, however none have FM tuner applications.
This could be for several reasons including Google concentrating on other areas of Android before developing the software components of an FM radio. This is quite important because often a reduction in component list will involve moving components from hardware land to software land. I believe that by this token mobile phones use a software FM radio (thus why they instantly tunes between channels).
Moving back to the Android land, there are two phones which are actually one phone, the HTC Desire, and the Google Nexus One. So while they have the same internal components, the HTC Desire has an FM radio application while the Google Nexus One does not. This must mean that google have so far not allocated resources to developing an FM radio application, requiring third parties (like HTC) to supply their own, with many not (I'm looking at you Motorola).
The Android platform is not the only platform to be guilty of skimping on the features as the iOS platform does not include FM radio (yet the iPhone supposedly has the hardware to do so, I guess that it would negatively compete with the iPhone store).
So why did I say terrestrial Radio is not an epic fail? Every thread I have read on an Android or the Motorola forums asking if Motorola will provide and FM tuner application the first reply inevitably says "just use XYZ internet streaming application" and "FM Radio = Epic Fail!". This kind of posting is far from mature and smells of North American arrogance, let alone being far from helpful.
There are four terrestrial radio bands worldwide, AM (Amplitude modulation), FM (frequency modulation), DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast), and DAB+. In Australia we have AM, FM, and DAB+, where DAB is used in parts of Europe. In addition to this radio is streamed via Satellite Radio thanks to Sirius in the USA, and via the Internet. It is of my opinion that in the USA due to the regionalised licensing of terrestrial TV and Radio broadcasting system that a lot of people find the content sub-par. In Australia we have radio networks, I frequently listen to the Triple J youth network, (and sometimes the DMG Nova network). Various posts to forums have hit the nail on the head, it's not always about the music and some people tune into specific programmes on the radio such as Hack on Triple J. Let me put it this way, many people still tune to AM broadcasts on the car radio, for the content despite the audio quality.
So what about internet radio? I know that a majority of terrestrial radio services in Australia offer an internet radio stream. However the quality of the FM feed often exceeds the quality of the online feed. Not only this unlike in North America where many mobile networks provide unlimited data on phone plans, in Australia many plans include no data with the highest caps providing a measly 1 GB of data. This equates to 17 hours of 128 kbps quality radio. Not only that, to maintain the stream you need to be in a good 3G reception area, stray into a 2G or EDGE zone and find your stream struggling. I know most internet streams are 64 or 96 kbps and not 128, but that does not improve the situation. You still only get two days of 9 to 5 radio enjoyment per month using the internet, unideal for something that would otherwise be free. On the other edge of the sword, go on an overseas holiday (let's say to New Zealand) and miss out on all the local radio programmes.
So this is a call out to smart phone manufacturers, you have a long way to go to produce phones that are as smart as many of the feature phones currently on offer. You have slowly implemented copy & paste (except Windows 7), multi-tasking and the like, now you need FM radio to truly be a replacement to a feature phone. Perhaps including DAB+ support would greatly help justify the extra cost of purchasing a smart phone.
March 22, 2008
Ever since Boston displayed their motor way in the 1900's as a model for new cities of the future, cities have been designed with the motor vehicle in mind. Australia was none too slow on picking up on this and building massive road infrastructure, neglecting rail services for more than 40 years.
Still we neglect rail giving only million dollar upgrades compared with $3 bn road tunnels. Encouraging road use by undoing a decade of work to try and influence the other way (in a half arsed manner) by removing bus lanes.
Talking to real people they agree, wouldn't it be great if Brisbane, or Sydney had an underground metro. But the thing is we could, but who would be prepared to give up their $3 bn toll road tunnel to pay for it. Our cities are designed for the motor vehicle, take the riverside expressway in Brisbane for example, for all it's need of a new coat of paint, it has that 60s futuristic look to it.
In the late 1900s we took the bold move to create the road network. It is about time we took the bold move in the early 2000s to create a world class metro. We have hit peak oil, and with petrol prices in Sydney about to hit $1.50 per litre (from $0.60 per litre 10 years ago), petrol is more expensive than it was in the 70s during the oil crisis when you factor in inflation.
Not only because we are running out of easy to pump oil fast, (anyone for digging up the tundra?), but because of the environmental damage caused by burning it. Not only the much touted carbon footprint, but the release of sulphates, and nitrates which cause acid rain. Gaia must be hurting really bad, where are you planeteers when we need you.
Then again this is all a pipe dream, we are all addicted to the convenience in our poorly planned cities that were all designed around every man and his dog owning and driving a motor car everywhere. The only problem is there is not enough road to hold all those cars anymore. We could always move to inner Melbourne, the envy of all cities who removed their trams systems in the late 1900s because of the motor vehicle.
January 13, 2006
In the never ending war against comment spam, who wins?
Well in my blog it's not the spammer. All links have rel="nofollow" and I personally approve each and every comment. That said not every comment that isn't spam gets published either.
So if you are a spammer, go away, you've already lost, you should just give up. You've wasted your time, you've wasted my time, and nothing has been achieved. They should really terminate you for your extra contribution to green house gasses due to the extra power required to processes your redundant bytes that were exchanged. Such a waste of natural resources which could have been used to better the planet, instead you try and promote ringtones and adult content, neither which are a necessity, nor appropriate.
So next time you have to urge to SPAM me, either on my blog or through my e-mail. Think again because it doesn't work. There is a simillar activity which you can do which has the same effect. It's best done outside, and you need to get outside, get some sun, it's called "hitting your head against a brick wall".
Don't tell me you need the money, I hear McDonalds is always hiring.
July 29, 2005
Thats right zealots from all software alligience camps, shut the hell up!
Especially the wanna-be zealots illegally downloading Microsoft software Beta releases off of P2P and complaining about the interface of all things. I think that explains why only MSDN subscribers (which isn't cheap) get the betas. Because only MSDN subscribers are likely to have a clue. i.e. they are the Hardware and Software engineers who have a piece of paper to prove it and are employed in the industry, most other people cannot afford the thousands of dollars a subscription costs.
Those who says there aren't any significant improvements because the interface isn't 'revolutionary' shutup. Any feature that makes a developers life easy will eventually find their way down to the end-user and they will not even realise it and like the computer itself, take it forgranted and demand things which are most probably impossible at the current stage of computer developments, especially hardware wise.
If you are doubting Windows codename Longhorn, download the Avalon CTP, .net framework 2.0 beta and the Visual Studio codename Whidbey beta and learn how to use it to build XAML interfaces for applications, you will soon realise why it's so revolutionary.
Those who think the features in Longhorn aren't revolutionary go and take a good look at the point in time the feature list was announced, yes so many years ago. True some of the features have been included in 'competing' operating systems since then and some of them were only small improvements on existing features. However, Microsoft announced many of them well before any of their competitors, that includes Google's Desktop Search, as well as Apple's spotlight search.
Yes Microsoft were aiming high, and that takes guts, and thats why it's taken so long to get to fruition. It really wasn't so long ago that Longhorn pre-Alpha's would barely run at all, now the interface has been through probably at least half a dozen revisions since then, so it's likely that it's not the last time it'll be changed in the public Beta 1.
Though it's probably fairly likely the glass effect will stay as they had already named the high-end theme aero-glass, to what extent that will be in the final is probably still on the drawing board.
I have no insight into how Microsoft operates or anything like that, just like all you punters out there. Sure there are some conclusions that you can draw from the facts released from Redmond, but there is still alot to be answered for.
And finally to those illegally obtaining Betas. That is still piracy, it's still illegal and if you get caught I say one thing, SUFFER YUO. The beta wasn't made avaliable to it, which is no different to me not making all the thoughts in my mind avaliable to you, however I give you these ones for free with the value of 0.02AUD, not for re-sale.
This article is protected by Australian copyright law and you may print one copy for yourself for personal uses only, or reference a small portion of it (10%) as allowed in Australian copyright law. Yes if you live in Great Briton or the United States or America or wherever my law applies to you!
July 08, 2005
Back in the days of Windows 95, to play a new media format you would just have to download and install a new codec to play it with Windows Media Player 2. It was a great platform, we'd have one player which just play media files. Windows 95 even included a free game few people remember, Hover! And for those who didn't even know Windows 95 even had an AVI video clip of Weezer's song, Buddy Holly on the disc.
It was a great time in computing, where innovation seemed to be blossoming in the Y2k windup days. In many ways those days spoilt us very much so and we have become comfortable and lazy in the expectation for those days to continue at the same pace.
Then we had the days of Windows 98, and the days of affordable consumer internet access started to spoil us. We had windows media player 6.2. It had the same codec support as media player 2, and an improved interface. These were the hay days of the internet that everybody misses, but there is no way to get them back. We then had real player and winamp come onto the scene in a big way, neither had spyware, and a good reputation, and nullsoft wasn't owned by AOL, a small startup. Nobody cared that windows had a media player that couldn't rival any media players of other companies which were given away for free, even in those days.
I may have been in primary school in those days, but they were alot different. For one the term spyware hadn't even been coined. Redhat and Caldera (now SCO Unix) commanded the linux scene, and the world was relaxed in a state of peace post Cold War days of the 90s.
These were the days the video formats of choice were MPEG and MPEG2, and MP3 sharing was in it's days before all the lawsuits. Napster was large on the scene.
Then came 1999 and Windows Media Player 7, probably the best ever revolution made to the media player. Sporting the playlist features of other players of the time, it also included a skinned and unskinned mode that used XML to describe the skins. For those who think that XML is only just starting to get used, think again, XML made it into wide use long before you realise. The one big feature it had that changed everything was the media library. But it also supported the USB Mass storage Device transfer of songs to external devices. The common driver used by every USB Key (flash drive) and most media players out there today. These are the days before the iPod even existed.
Anyway, whats the point of all this rambling. Give us back our codecs. How are media players supposed to be interchangeable when apple will no longer make windows codec layer compatible codecs of quicktime. iTunes can easily make use of this layer which is present on every version of windows since windows 95. Probably even Windows XP reduced Media edition despite it lacking Windows Media Player. Windows Media Player is only an interface, it's heart and soul lies in drivers burried deep into windows.
And to finish the line of talking about the iPod. The first DAP's were flash based for a simple reason, this was supposed to be the solid state revolution. Thanks to IBM's pixie dust HDD technology the iPod was soon born (still before anyone knew about the iPod). This stiffled the progession of price cutting on flash media due to lack of demand, and has wasted so much extra power due to the need to spin up those power hungry discs in the iPod. The main reason flash continues to get cheaper is because of Digital Cameras.
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