Android is moving away from USB Mass Storage. You will no longer be able to plug in a USB cable and have your Android show up as a USB disk. There are some good technical reasons for this, but it is a pain if you want to copy some files to your phone. The new system – MTP – isn’t automagically detected in Ubuntu. This is something which is likely to be fixed in later versions of Ubuntu – but for now you’ll have to hack around it.

The crazy cats at omgUbuntu have a tutorial which I have adapted for the Samasung Galaxy S (running ICS from teamhacksung).

First, install the MTP tools.

sudo apt-get install mtp-tools mtpfs

Connect the phone to the computer using USB.

To check that MTP is installed and working, run the command

mtp-detect

You should see a spool of text as MTP detects the phone.

To create the rules which allow Ubuntu to detect the phone, create a new rule file like so:

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

Add in this line of text

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04e8", ATTR{idProduct}=="6860", MODE="0666"

If you’re using a different device, run this command to get the correct idVendor and idProduct:

mtp-detect | grep idVendor
mtp-detect | grep idProduct

We’ll need to restart udev so it can pick up the new rule.

sudo service udev restart

Then create a directory in your filesystem which you can use to access your phone.

sudo mkdir /media/GalaxyS
sudo chmod a+rwx /media/GalaxyS

Now we need to add ourselves to fuse.

sudo adduser YOURUSERNAME fuse
sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf

The last line probably reads

#user_allow_other

Remove the “#” so you’re left with:

user_allow_other

Save the file.

We’re going to create two commands “android-connect” and “android-disconnect”. When run, these will allow you to connect to your phone, then safely disconnect.

echo "alias android-connect=\"mtpfs -o allow_other /media/GalaxyS\"" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "alias android-disconnect=\"fusermount -u /media/GalaxyS\"" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Restart the computer. Make sure the phone is connected via USB. Open a terminal and run

android-connect

Open your file manager and go to “/media/GalaxyS”

Once you’re done, disconnect the device by running

android-disconnect

Using Florian Diesch’s tutorial at Ask Ubuntu, I’ve come up with this simple guide to get your keyboard working.

1. Open a terminal. Sorry, this is all going to be command prompt based!
2. Install the program evtest

   sudo apt-get install evtest

3. You will need to find which input “event” corresponds to your keyboard. Run the following command

   sudo evtest /dev/input/event5

   When you press the scroll key on your keyboard, you should see an output like

   Event: time 1325072953.278713, type 4 (Misc), code 4 (ScanCode), value c022e
   Event: time 1325072953.278729, type 1 (Key), code 109 (PageDown), value 1
   Event: time 1325072953.278752, -------------- Report Sync ------------
   

   If you don’t, cancel (using CTRL+C) and try another event number. Start at event0 and work your way up.

4. Let’s see what the keys are currently mapped to. Type the command

   sudo /lib/udev/keymap -i input/event5

   (or whatever “event” number you need). You should see an output like

   scan code: 0xC022D   key code: zoomin
   scan code: 0xC022E   key code: zoomout

5. We need to create a file which contains the new keymapping. To do this, type

   sudo nano /lib/udev/keymaps/microsoft-4000

6. Insert the following two lines into the file

   0xC022D pageup
   0xC022E pagedown

   If you would rather scroll line-by-line, you can use

   0xC022D up
   0xC022E down

   Save the file by pressing CTRL+X.

7. Now, let’s implement the remapped keys. Type

   sudo /lib/udev/keymap input/event5 /lib/udev/keymaps/microsoft-4000

8. Your scroll buttons should now be working! If not… errr… try again?
9. Assuming it is working, we need to make this permanent so that we don’t have to type in a command every time we reboot. To open the keymapping file, type

   sudo nano /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keymap.rules

10. Scroll through the file until you see

    #
    # The following are external USB keyboards
    #
    
    LABEL="keyboard_usbcheck"
    

    Past in the following line

    ENV{ID_VENDOR_ID}=="045e", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="00db", RUN+="keymap $name microsoft-4000"

    The line needs to be above

    GOTO="keyboard_end"

    Save the file (CTRL+X).

11. Reboot.

Hey presto! Your keys will now obey your commands.

These notes show (which are mostly for my benefit) show you how to install it and configure your multimedia keyboard so the play/pause key controls the music on Spotify.

Download Spotify for Linux. It’s available in 32bit or 64bit.

Double click on the .deb that has been downloaded and it should install. Nice and easy!

To get the multimedia keys working, we need to follow the instructions in this tutorial and the codes described at lnxscene.

Install xbindkeys.

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys

Create the default configuration file for xbindkeys.

xbindkeys --defaults > /home/edent/.xbindkeysrc

Edit the configuration file for xbindkeys.

nano ~/.xbindkeysrc

Add these lines:

"dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.PlayPause"
XF86AudioPlay
"dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Stop"
XF86AudioStop

Run xbindkeys to see if it all works

xbindkeys

Now, when Spotify is running, pressing th eplay/pause key will make your music start or stop.

You will need to set xbindkeys to run automagically on startup.

On Ubuntu, System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications.

Done!

I’ve been very impressed with how well Ubuntu runs on the Lenovo ThinkPad X200. Everything worked out of the box – with the exception of the fingerprint reader (AuthenTec AES2810).

Now, I know that fingerprint readers can easily be defeated by jelly-babies, but it annoys me when something doesn’t work.

The manufacturer of the fingerprint reader has a great developer community, so I contacted them. Here’s their response:

Linux support for AES devices is not yet available.

But based on the increasing number of requests we are currently considering to release the technical specification to the Linux community to be able to integrate selected AES sensor devices to the Open Source projects.

We still need to finalize the related discussions with our legal team regarding NDA requirement for the particular developers and clarify all remaining concerns.

I will make a note to let you know once we come to a conclusion and will be ready to move forward.

Another plan is to extend our BSAPI SDK (currently supporting our TC devices under Windows/Linux/Mac) with AES devices support. The BSAPI is available for free download in it’s Lite version.

However, it’s not all good news:

since it is hard to predict how exactly and when we will decide to provide the support at the end I would suggest to be careful when blogging about it to avoid false expectations in the community.

I realise that Linux is currently a niche OS – but lack of open software support is a serious omission from any hardware manufacturer. I learned this to my cost when Creative stopped supporting the Hollywood DXR3 card – it was a cracking bit of hardware, but Creative decided that they didn’t care about pissing off customers who had Windows XP.

If a hardware manufacturer won’t allow you to use their hardware with any software you choose – guess what; it’s not your hardware. You may have thought you bought it from them, but you didn’t. You are only renting it until they decide they no longer want to support you.

Unhandled page fault on read access to 0x00000068 at address 0x7bc34e57

After lots of fruitless digging around, I discovered that the issue is with the Facebook integration!

The fix is simple. Visit the Facebook Applications Page, remove Spotify.

I’ve noted this error on the WINE Site.

If you’re a premium Spotify user, you can run their Linux Preview of Spotify

Let me explain…

“The two things you’ve got to spend your money on in life are your bed and your shoes; if you’re not in one, you’re in the other.”
Ancient proverb

I have been prone to RSI in my hands and wrists. Seeing as I make my living using my hands to make computers do magical things, I think it’s wise to spend money to protect my hands.

“The two peripherals you’ve got to spend your money on in life are your keyboard and your mouse; if your hands aren’t on one, they’re on the other.”
Terence Eden

I may detail my love of my keyboard – the Microsoft 4000 – in another post. For now, let’s talk mice!

Or, skip straight to the Linux install instructions.

Three Generations of Mice

I’m in love with the Evoluent Vertical Mouse. I got my first (the generation 2) in 2007. A few years later I got a 3rd generation so I could use one at home and one at work.
Enter the 4th generation – the VM4R. There’s a VM4L for those sinister south-paws, and a VM4S for those with smaller hands.

Here’s all three of my mice playing together.

The VM4R is similar in size and shape to the previous versions.

It has a wider base and a larger lip to stop your finger from dragging along the desk.

Unboxing

No tech review is complete without an unboxing. Here’s mine.

Impressively, Evoluent use “environmentally-responsible” packaging. Essentially a cardboard box and some bubble wrap. I was nervous that this wouldn’t be enough to protect it in transit – but the mouse is pretty tough.
The box contains some brief instructions and a mini-cd containing Windows drivers.

The Good

There’s just so much to love about this mouse! I’ll contain myself to a few points.

Vertical = Less Pain

Pain and comfort are subjective. But since using the Vertical Mouse range, my wrists have been free of pain.
There are a vast number of reviews on the Evoluent website, including this one:

“The vertical mouse received very good feedback from the product testing. Our product testing team of physical therapists, ergonomists, MD’s and administrators found the mouse to be comfortable, easily adaptable and promoted a neutral wrist/forearm postures.”
Greg Ryan, University Health Services, University of California at Berkeley

I can’t say that this will fix your health problems – and you should certainly see a doctor immediately if you’re experiencing RSI – but this device has bought back the joy of computing for me.

Thumb Buttons

My index finger is near worn out from 3 decades of clicking crappy mice. I’m now able to map the buttons so that my thumb can click. A lifesaver for me. As a bonus – anyone who sits at my desk finds themselves unable to fiddle with anything because they can’t work out how to click!

The VM4R now comes with two thumb buttons. I’m not sure what use I’ll put the other one to yet!

The Need For Speed

The VM4R comes with a dedicated button for switching the speed of the mouse pointer.

A simple click sets the speed which can easily be seen via the LEDs.

This is a vast improvement on the 3rd gen model where the button was underneath the device.

The advantage is that you can use a high-speed mouse so you don’t have to move your wrist or arm very far as you go from one end of the screen to the other. It also means you can rapidly change to a lower sensitivity when you’re working on something which needs very fine grained control – like pushing pixels in Photoshop. I imagine this mouse is great for gamers who require a fast reacting device.

The Bad

There’s very little that I would change with this mouse. I note three minor quibbles.

Scroll Wheel Clicking

Scrolling with the wheel makes a really loud clicking sound. With the 2nd generation mouse there was no clicking. The third generation lightly clicks as you scroll. The clicking on the VM4R is loud and, to my fingers, slightly stiff.

Personally, I prefer a free-spinning wheel. But it’s not the end of the world.

Suitability of Chrome

Fingers sweat. It’s not pretty, but there it is. Human skin leaks all kinds of gunk – some of which is corrosive. I found the surface of my 2nd generation mouse was gently worn away over time.

The 3rd gen mouse is made from a different material which doesn’t seem to suffer from this problem.

The chrome on the VM4R looks lovely – but I wonder how long it will remain pristine. It’s already picking up fingerprints.

LED

There’s no way to turn off the glowing Evoluent LED. I doubt it’s much of a power drain, but it’s the sort of thing that might get a bit annoying in the dark.

…and The Beautiful

It looks like a spaceship!

This is a gorgeous mouse. The lights, the chrome, the shape, all conspire to make it an eye-catcher. Expect to get lots of questions about it if you’re in a busy office.

Buy It Now

I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending the Evoluent line of pointing devices.
You can buy the Evoluent VM4R from Amazon (affiliate link) or directly from Evoluent (although international shipping is expensive).
The upgrades in VM4R are impressive – but if you don’t often need to change pointer speed, or use thumb buttons, buy the VM3.

Linux Geekyness

The basic mouse functions work automagically in Linux (tested on Ubuntu 9.10 and higher). The buttons are responsive, the wheel scrolls, changing the pointer speed works, etc. A point to note is that the the wheel click does not paste – to get that, you’ll need to remap the buttons.

Remapping the buttons is slightly trickier, however. Not least because of Ubuntu’s seemingly random changes to how it handles pointing devices. If you’re happy with the buttons just as they are, you’ll be fine. If you need to remap the buttons due to mobility issues, read on….

A quick “xinput list” gives us the device name.

"Evoluent VerticalMouse 4"	id=8	[XExtensionPointer]
	Type is MOUSE
	Num_buttons is 14
	Num_axes is 2
	Mode is Relative
	Motion_buffer is 256

Despite reporting 14 buttons, there are only 6 physical buttons available.
Running

xinput query-state "Evoluent VerticalMouse 4"

tells us which buttons are being pressed down. Here are the results (the brackets signify the action, if any, that happens when you click the button).

1. Index Finger (Left click)
2. Ring Finger (Middle click)
3. Little Finger (Right click)
4. Scroll Up
5. Scroll Down
6. -
7. -
8. Top Thumb
9. Wheel Click
10. Bottom Thumb
11. -
12. -
13. -
14. -

Remapping The Buttons

There are two ways of remapping buttons. The lazy way and the correct way.

The “Lazy Way” – xinput

We can use xinput to set which buttons do what. The command is pretty simple

xinput set-button-map "Evoluent VerticalMouse 4" 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
                                      Button 1---| | |
                                        Button 2---| |
                                          Button 3---|

So the first number is what you want Button 1 to do. So, if you want your index finger to be the wheel-click, and all other buttons to stay the same, the command is

xinput set-button-map "Evoluent VerticalMouse 4" 9 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I like to have my thumb be the clicker, the wheel click paste, my ring finger right click, the index finger and little finger do nothing. So I use

xinput set-button-map "Evoluent VerticalMouse 4" 0 3 0 4 5 6 7 1 2

You can get that command to ruin at start-up. Different versions of Linux will do it differently – I’ve detailed some of the ways you can do this in Ubuntu in the forums.

The “Correct Way” – Xorg.conf.d

Ubuntu has an annoying habit of switching around how you configure the mouse – and no easy way to configure it graphically! This method should work on Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04.

Running lsusb tells us that the USB ID is

1a7c:0191

Create a new conf file

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-evoluent.conf

Use the following as a template

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier      "Evoluent"
        MatchUSBID      "1a7c:0191"
        Option "ButtonMapping" "0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 10 11"
EndSection

Substitute your own USB ID and preferred button mapping.

Hey presto! Your buttons are mapped.

This is a sponsored post from ebuzzing

I love my little Dell Laptop – it's served me well over the years. And it has become a magnet for stickers – some for companies who have long since gone bust! Recently, I've upgraded the hard disk to a pure solid state drive. The speed increase is incredible. Coupled with adding an extra GB of RAM, the machine is now faster than ever. It's just a pity that Dell limited the machine to 2GB of RAM. But, there's no denying it's getting a little long in the tooth. Video playback is only possible at fairly low resolutions, editing is a nightmare, there's no built in camera, and I think the headphone port is on the way out.

I Hate Tablets

Tablets are great if all you want to do is watch a movie or do some idle scrolling. That's no good for me – I need to work on my machine. I hate using touchscreen keybaords – either my fingers are too fat, or the screens are innaccurate. Even the best oleophobic screen gathers fingerprints and scratches if used for a sustained period of time. That said, I do like tablet's portability. I like the ease of use if I am just surfing. But unless I can plug in a keyboard and mouse – or any USB peripheral – a tablet is functionally useless to me.

Enter The Duo

Is the Duo the best of both worlds?

Dell's Inspiron Duo laptop is an intuitive machine, hailed as “the new convertible” thanks to its innovative flip-hinge design. Switching effortlessly from tablet to laptop, it’s perfect for both work and play.

I wouldn't call it intuitive – but it is innovative. It's only £450 for the base model – which is cheaper than an iPad 2. The tech-specs are fairly good – but not dramatically so. For a device which is going to be moved around a lot, I would have expected an SSD as standard. As it is, it's not even one of the customisable options. Some enterprising people have cracked the case open and added their own SSD. But it's not for the faint-hearted. There is, however, a rather odd "AudioStation". Essentailly, it's a dock for the Duo. Quite why it needs it when you can stand it up using the keyboard, I don't know. At £99 for a charging station with built in speakers, it's not high up my list of must-haves. There are only two USB slots available on the regular chassis and – bizarrely – no HDMI or VGA output for connecting to an external screen. In keeping with the "seamless" ideals, there's not ethernet port – this is a WiFi only device. There's no 3G support – so you'll need a USB dongle or to tether to your phone. The battery – which doesn't look to be easily upgradeable is good for 4 hours. Again, it's ok, but it's not astounding. The Duo also comes with Windows 7. I suggest you reject the Windows EULA and ask Dell for a refund of the Windows License.

Ubuntu Support

Despite Dell's much vaunted support for Linux, it appears that support for the Duo is incomplete. The touchscreen mostly works – but there's no multi-touch yet. Similarly accelerometers don't detect that the screen orientation has changed. There's a long running thread on Ubuntu Forums which should step you through the rather easy set up of Ubuntu. There are a few manual files to edit – but the basic hardware is well supported. Other Linux distros should work just as well.

The Competition

Want to win one of two Dell Duos? Of course you do!

Eligible contributors (18+ and UK resident) will be in with a chance of winning 1 of 2 Inspiron Duos, and 10 runner-up prizes of We7 premium memberships (3 month), just for letting sharing with us your favourite work and play tracks through the work, play, love application. The closing date for the competition is 21st April 2011.

Dell have set up a Facebook page which has their new Work and Play application. To enter, simply select your 10 favourite tracks for Work and Play. So, think of the tracks you use to inspire you in work and play – tell Dell – win a laptop. Nifty!

Conclusion

I'm certainly leaning towards the Duo as my next laptop. If Dell were to include a working version of Ubuntu – and perhaps an SSD as an upgrade option – it would be a no brainer. As it is, I'll see how Ubuntu develops as the community hacks away at it. I've already proved to myself that I can easily upgrade a laptop's hardware – but I'm not that keen to go poking in the guts of another machine. The Duo certainly represents value for money – especially if you're a Windows user – but I'd be prepared to pay a little more if they offered some more flexible options. As will all my sponsored posts, your feedback is important to me. Vote in the poll or let me know in the comments what you think.

Partage propulse par ebuzzing

The two big contenders I could find are Ubuntu One and Dropbox.

Both allow me to map a drive and seamlessly sync my files just by copying them in there. I don’t need to worry about regularly running a “sync” command. Just drag, drop, done.

Quick Comparison

There Can Be Only One

I really really wanted to go with Ubuntu One. It’s cheaper and the money I pay for it would support my favourite Linux distribution. For US$90 I could get 60GB and feel good about paying for Linux.

But it’s not to be. Dropbox wins on three counts.

Mobile

Firstly, Dropbox Mobile is supported on a wide range of phones. Sure, I only use Android now, but I may move back to BlackBerry. Bizarrely, Ubuntu One Mobile only works for syncing music and contacts. So, no pictures, documents, movies. Far too limited for me.

Command Line

Secondly, command line options. I run a headless server at home which is primarily used for storing the household’s music, movies, and photos. It runs Xebian – a Debian variant. Yet it seems that Ubuntu One only works on Ubuntu machines. While I kind of understand the logic behind that – it’s a business limiting decision.
By contrast, Dropbox works fine on the command line of just about any Linux distro.

I never run Windows or Mac. But, I’m sure one day a job will mandate that I do – so it makes sense to go with the one with wider support.

Security

Both services use SSL to encrypt during transmission – but Dropbox uses Amazon S3 to keep the contents of the files secure.
While I’m sure Amazon has its problems, Ubuntu One doesn’t keep its files encrypted and makes no mention of physical security.

Other Options

I’m aware that I could buy several gigs of space via a cloud server somewhere and treat my filesystem as a giant SVN. But this has an easy to use front end, paid support, and apps for my mobiles.

That said, if you can convince me there’s a better option – please let me know!

You can sign up to Dropbox using my referral link – that way, we both get extra space.

The good news is that Sam from Humm is actively working on making the Adobe Air upload application work under Linux. So, how does the process of uploading your data to the service work?

All in one

The Application is a real “one click” experience. It autodetects your SD card, sees which files are there, and sends them straight to the server after you click the button.

Here we go...

So, after waiting a few hours for the data to process – what do the graphs look like.

Monthly Electricity Usage (click for bigger)

Well, they’re a little underwhelming and a bit of a mess. Now, in fairness, I’ve only uploaded a few weeks’ of data – no doubt the graphs will be richer when I’ve uploaded more data. This is a beta service and it’s clear that there are a lot of improvements being made.

Weekly Comparison (Click for bigger)

Annoyingly, you can’t compare two different Plug Bugs – so I’ve no way of knowing if my computer is more energy efficient than my laptop.

There doesn’t seem to be a way to go into historic data

There’s no graph to show my gas usage. I’ve questioned the wisdom of a gas monitor – it only looks at hot water so doesn’t measure cooking or hot air systems.

Overall, this is a pretty good start. I can see my hourly, weekly and monthly usage and compare how I’m doing.  It could do with some spit and polish to make the graphs more intuitive and useful.  I wonder if there’s any way to get the data into Pachube or something similar.

In order to visualise the data, I have to manually upload the files to the Green Energy Options MyEnergy site.  Rather than a simple web based uploader – GEO have decided to go with Adobe Air as their platform for uploading and viewing the data.

Here are the steps I had to take to get the service working – as you will see, it wasn’t easy and ultimately failed.

The site asks me to install some software in order to upload the files.  My Operating System is Ubuntu Linux – I was afraid this software would be Microsoft Windows only and I’d have to use WINE.

Let's go!

Then the site tells me I’ll need to install Adobe Air.  Luckily, this can be done through the browser.

Nice and Easy?

The installation through the browser was fairly swift and painless.

Installation of Air

The installer popped up some fairly scary warning messages.  If you’re going to be asking people to install your software, you need to make it as easy as possible to get.  Signing and certifying your software will reduce “error” messages like this and increase confidence in your product.  Without it, I’ve no way of knowing that your site isn’t compromised.

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON

True to the installer’s word, I ended up with an icon on my desktop.

Desktop Icon

So, I double click…

This looks hopefull...

The software has a think before popping up this helpful error message.

...DENIED!

I know what you’re thinking.  “The silly sod has forgotten to plug the SD card in.”  Ummm…. nope!

SD card inserted

The SD card is inserted – using the supplied reader – and my system has identified and mounted it correctly.

At this point, I’m stuck.  So I give up.

What’s so frustrating is that it doesn’t have to be this way.  I’ve no idea what the benefits are of Adobe Air – but asking your users to install something new is always problematic.  Plain old Flash – which has its fair share of problems under Linux – allows you to upload multiple files – take a look at the standard WordPress image uploader.

WordPress Multiple Select

As with everything – Keep It Simple and Stupid.  Do your users really want to install extra software for your product? Do they really need to? Is there another, simpler way which gets the same results?

I’m sure – uber-hacker that I am – that I’ll figure out a way to make it work. But the point is, I shouldn’t have to.

So, when I heard that some clever hackers had ported Google’s Android OS to the N810, I leapt at the chance to reinvigorate my sadly neglected Internet Tablet..

There are various tutorials on the web, but here’s my quick & pain free howto for people running Ubuntu. This is based on the instructions from the Nitdroid Homepage and the InternetTabletTalk forums.

You will need…

• A Nokia N810 (this should also work with the N800 and the N770)
• USB and Charging cables.
• A computer running Ubuntu (or most other flavours of Linux)
• A working Internet connection.
• NERVES OF STEEL! (Not really, it’s very simple to reflash the N810 if you do mess up.)

So here’s the HOWTO:

1. Back up any files you want to keep from your N810. We’re going to be wiping it clean.
2. Remove any SD cards you’ve got from the N810.
3. Make sure the battery is fully charged.
4. Create a folder on your computer called “Nitdroid”.
5. Download the following files (or newer if available)
6. The flasher – this allows you to flash the hardware (you may need a different version if you’re running 64bit or PPC).
7. The Android filesystem
8. The Andoid OS
9. Connect your N810 to your computer via USB, switch the N810 on.
10. If you haven’t got it already, install and run gparted.
11. You need to create 3 partitions, the first must be FAT32, the third must be ext3 with a minimum size of 128MB. See the picture for an example.
12. Take a note of the device name – in this example, it’s /dev/sdb
13. We need to mount the ext3 filesystem we’ve created – go to the command line and type
    

    sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb3 /android

    Remember to change /dev/sdb3 to whatever your device is actually called.

14. We now need to go to the “/android” directory and extract the filesystem to it. At the command line, type
    

    cd /android

    Then
    

    sudo tar -xjpvf /home/$USER/Desktop/nitdroid/rootfs-nitdroid.tar.bz

    Remember to change $USER to your username – or change the whole path to where you downloaded the nitdroid files.

15. Once complete, you unmount the filesystem by typing
    

    sudo umount /android

16. We’re ready to flash! Hurrah!
17. Turn off the N810, unplug it from the power and USB cables.
18. We need to make the flashing software executable so type
    

    chmod a+x flasher-3.0-static

19. Plug the N810 into the USB cable but leave it switched off.
20. Run the flashing software (yes, with the N810 turned off) by typing
    

    sudo ./flasher-3.0-static -f -k zImage-nitdroid-n8x0 –enable-rd-mode -R

21. You will see the following message
    

    flasher v0.9.0 (Jan 19 2007)
    Suitable USB device not found, waiting

    This means that the flashing software is looking for the N810.

22. On the N810, hold down the “Switch” button (The one which looks like two overlapping squares, just under the camera). With the button held down, push the power button.
23. You’ll see some messages on your PC’s screen indicating that the device is being flashed. Let go of the buttons.
24. Wait.
25. Wait a little while longer.
26. Have a biscuit to calm your nerves.
27. It should be over and done with in less than a minute.
28. Once it’s complete, unplug the N810. Power it off, then on again. You should see this screen.
29. It takes about 5 minutes for the first boot to complete. If it takes substantially longer than that, read the troubleshooting section.
30. TADA! You now have Android on your N810.WiFi works – as do the keyboard and touchscreen. At the moment, sound, BlueTooth & GPS don’t. There are a few random crashes, and the performance leaves a little to be desired. Much like the original Maemo software!

Troubleshooting.
If it all goes wrong, here’s how to get your N810 back to the latest official firmware.

• Download the latest official firmware from http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N810.php
• Plug the N810 into the USB cable but leave it switched off.
• Run the flashing software (yes, with the N810 turned off) by typing
  

  sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-44_DIABLO_5.2008.43-7_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

  Remember to replace “RX-44….” with the name of the latest software.

• You will see the following message
  

  flasher v0.9.0 (Jan 19 2007)
  Suitable USB device not found, waiting

  This means that the flashing software is looking for the N810.

• On the N810, hold down the “Switch” button (The one which looks like two overlapping squares, just under the camera). With the button held down, push the power button.
• Wait. You will have a factory fresh N810 in a matter of minutes.

Enjoy!

The first – and last – Apple product I owned was a blueberry iMac.

I think it may have had an early version of OS X on it. It was fun enough, but I eventually replaced the OS with YellowDog.

Now I find myself in possession of a 16GB iPhone 3G. Nice! Or so I thought.

For various dull reasons, the iPhone is an unlocked Portuguese model. It was simplicity itself to set it to UK English and add my APN details etc. That’s where the fun & simplicity stopped.

I thought I’d try the fabled AppStore. Download a few free apps and the like – and thus the nightmare of “The-One-True-Apple-Way” descended on me.

First of all, all the apps were priced in €. I would have thought me manually setting the phone to UK & having a UK SIM in there & being on a UK network would have convinced Apple to price things in £. Not so.

When I tried to download a *free* app I was told to enter my iTunes account information. This was problematic for two reasons
1) It was a free app. On every other device I’ve ever owned I can click on a free app and install it without giving away so much as an email address.
2) I don’t have an iTunes account. As far as I can determine, there’s no way to obtain one from the phone.

This is meant to be a super-duper converged smartphone but apparently it can’t even handle a simple sign up process.

It turns out that the only way to get an iTunes account is to install the iTunes software. Again, this is problematic.
1) Not everyone has – or wants – a computer. Apple has drastically cut its user base for no reason as far as I can see.
2) Not everyone who has a computer has sole use of it. You might not be able to install iTunes on your work computer. If you & your family share a computer, how does iTunes handle multiple accounts?
3) How do you get the software? There’s no CD in the box, the iPhone doesn’t show up as a USB hard disk, so the software can’t stored on there like the Huawei/Vodafone 810.

So, off to the website to download iTunes.
It’s nearly 70MB! How the 40% of people without broadband are meant to grab this I have no idea.

The installation process was another of Apple’s famed usability triumphs…

I can’t choose my native language – “English (British)”. I can’t even trust it not to break Outlook.

It spent ~20 minutes installing the software, agreeing to two separate EULAs, only to be greeted by this screen.

So much for my language preferences.

Oh well, let’s ignore that. Let’s sign up for an account.

Oh.

All the settings on my computer are set to UK, iTunes is set to English. My physical location is in the UK but I go through a proxy in Germany.

Would it be beyond the wit of Apple’s usability guru’s to add a “Choose Your Country” option? Apparently so.

It also turns out that Apple insist that their products look like OS X apps even when they run on Windows XP. Great, yet another interface language to learn. I’m sure that Apple’s products are the most amazing in the world – but this looks out of place on my system. Why should I have to mould myself to Apple? Shouldn’t they work for my needs? No, silly grasshopper, The-One-True-Apple-Way has one path that all must adhere to or face certain death.

At this point, I got bored. If was a paying customer, I’d be on the verge of returning the device.

I’m obviously missing the gene that makes me fall in love with Apple products. Or is the rabid Apple fanboism just an elaborate hoax? Come on guys, let me in on the joke…

May be I’ll try again tomorrow.