June 2014
Sneakers von Zalando
by Volker Weber
'Sneakers von Zalando?' musste ich bei diesem Bild von Detlef Borchers (@dborch) für heise online denken. Auch sehr schön:
#De-Mail wird in Sachsen Dämel ausgesprochen...
— Detlef Borchers (@dborch) June 30, 2014Kontakt mit Samsung
by Volker Weber
Samsung war für mich immer ein schwieriger Kommunikationspartner. Das hat sich heute geändert. Ich war auf dem ersten Business Discovery Day und habe ein paar Menschen kennen gelernt, die meine Sprache sprechen. Vielen Dank für die offenen Gespräche. Und ich habe alte Bekannte wieder getroffen. Da geht jetzt was.
NotePro 12.2 ist übrigens ein Hammer. Trotz der Lederoptik.
SensorCore :: Fitness tracking with an affordable smartphone
by Volker Weber
The iPhone 5S has an M7 Motion Coprocessor which collects data from the motion sensor, and there are quite a few apps that can make use of this data. Nokia has introduced a similar technology called SensorCore in its newest devices. Both the M7 and SensorCore use very little battery juice, so they can collect data at all times.
Health & Fitness is the first app that makes use of SensorCore on Windows Phone 8.1 Lumias. The required hardware is included in Lumia 630 and 930, and I believe also in 1520. Which means you can buy a Lumia 630 for less than a Jawbone UP24 and you are not only getting the motion sensing but a great smartphone with enough money left to buy another case for it.
Green
by Volker Weber
It's very hard to shoot the Nokia 630 while keeping the green as vibrant as it is in the real world. The trick here was to add a touch of red and some black. And still, it only comes close. It's by far my favorite color of the five available. The phone is only 136 € on Amazon.de. If you bought the wrong color, the cover itself is 15 € or less.
Adobe Photoshop Express on Windows Phone
by Volker Weber
Adobe Photoshop Express is now available on Windows Phone. It's basically the same app you have seen on iPhone for a while, minus the capability to work on landscape photos in landscape. On Lumia I recommend Nokia Creative Studio.
Mixed Tape 57 is out
by Volker Weber
01 GOD’S WHISPER | RAURY | 4:03
02 KOMETA | TINAVIE | 3:57
03 IF I COULD TELL A STORY | ANDREW WHITE | 3:11
04 WE WERE | BEAM DELIGHT | 3:28
05 CHRYSALIS FEAT. KRISSY TWIGGE (RADIO EDIT) | SONDER | 4:27
06 EYES CLOSED FEAT. KHAT | ZEPPY ZEP | 3:36
07 SILLAGE | SEE THROUGH SKIN | 3:39
08 MACHINES | SUN UP | 4:21
09 ADDICTION | STEAL A TAXI | 3:30
10 LUCY (SONG ABOUT HER) | NEW WIVES | 4:18
[Danke, Hansjürgen]
Living UP
by Volker Weber
This would not have been possible two months ago, when I started using UP. The average step count for a male of my age is 5500/day, the average for all males is 8000. I initially set my goal to 5500, but I did not make it every day. Now I have set my goal to 10k, and I do make it every day. Yesterday I had to sit still for a long time, and I still made it. My average over seven days is 15000 to 19000. I would not be able to walk long distances without my coach. So it's not UP alone.
The other thing that has changed is that I sleep longer now, by going to bed earlier.
Playing Soundcloud on your Sonos
by Volker Weber
Soundcloud is not yet supported on Sonos. But it's pretty easy to setup anyway. Follow the instructions here.
Once you have done that, select Soundcloud from your list of services and search for "Gelka", then select Playlists, select "Gelka Mixtapes". Recommended stuff. If you want the files as MP3, download them here.
WLAN ganz simpel erweitern
by Volker Weber
Belkin bringt einen einfachen Range Extender auf den Markt, der nicht aufträgt und nicht teuer ist. Er funkt nur im 2.4 GHz Band, aber dafür ist er so klein wie eine einzelne Steckdose.
Das Setup ist supersimpel. Man verbindet sich mit dem WLAN Belkin.setup und ruft den Browser auf. Dann wird man auf Belkin.range umgeleitet und wählt dort das zu verlängernde WLAN. Das Setup fragt das Password ab und das war's. Belkin.setup verschwindet und es gibt einen weiteren Access Point mit gleicher SSID und Password.
Super simpel.
OneDrive storage upgraded
by Volker Weber
As an old time Live.com user, I was grandfathered in with 25 GB of free storage. New users received 7 GB of free storage. This will now be upgraded to 15 GB. Why 15? Well, that's what Google gives you. I have an additional 20 GB for being an Office 365 subscriber. That will go up to 1 TB this week. Guess I will have 1046.7 GB of free storage soon.
Microsoft could give me 100 TB of free storage. I would not know what to put there. Free and unused storage does not cost a thing.
Sehr feines Wochenende
by Volker Weber
Use Sparingly :: Business jargon you should avoid
by Volker Weber
Sonos Controller Evolution
by Volker Weber
Eric March pointed out a discussion on ask.sonos.com. Executive summary: people want their old Sonos controller back. My reply: ain't gonna happen.
To those not following the design change, the old controller used to be lists of things, where the new controller got a lot more visual. Lists work well, when you have tens of thousands of things, pictures work well, if you have tens or hundreds of things. It looked conceptually more like the Mac controller which has not been updated yet.
I would not be too focussed on the design of the app. There is a major shift happening underneath. You can see this on Android with Google Play Music, and I expect this change to spread into other services. With Google Play Music you can select your music and then transfer it to Sonos. You select and discover your music in the service app and it will tell the Sonos controller to play this music. The controller tells your players and the music plays directly from the Internet, bypassing your device. Imagine you could use the Spotify app on iOS to do the same.
Sonos is not going to roll back to the old controller, no matter how loud you scream. Save your breath, provide constructive feedback. I have a theory: start with any piece of software, then add all the features your users cannot live without, and you end up with Lotus Notes.
Windermere is the BlackBerry Passport
by Volker Weber
Here's a clearer shot of John Chen and the #BlackBerry Passport pic.twitter.com/LevDPCqFVu
— David Friend (@dj_friend) June 19, 2014Inter-Access point Handover
by Volker Weber
Our house is a nightmare environment for WiFi (or mobile networks). Tons of steel, aluminum shades. That's why I have access points on all floors. And they all share the same SSID and credentials. What happens when I move from one to the other? That depends very much on the device I am using.
BlackBerry has a setting that not many people know about: Inter-Access point Handover. If you check this option, the device will check for other access points with better signal and then switch over as appropriate. This does cost a bit of battery juice since it needs to scan often, but it also saves juice because it often talks to a better access point. How do you get to this setting? Simply tap and hold the entry in your WiFi settings and select the edit option. Scroll all the way down. It is a per access point setting.
If you do not have this activated, the device will scan for access points when it finally loses the connection.
Zeichen der Verzweiflung
by Volker Weber
Da bauen die Verlage Apps, und keiner nutzt sie. Und dann verjagen sie auch noch die restlichen Leser mit solchen Popups. Es gibt noch eine Variante:
Irgendjemand hat auch schon gemerkt, dass dieses Popup äußerst lästig ist. Und hat eine Checkbox eingebaut, damit es nicht noch mal kommt:
Aber wie das so ist bei diesen Basteleien, funktioniert das nicht richtig. Dabei ist die Konvention ganz einfach: m.echo-online.de für die mobile Site, www.echo-online.de für die "klassische". Und Werbung für die App, gar noch auf Plattformen, für die es die App gar nicht gibt? Dumme Idee.
Der Verlag denkt, der Fehler liegt bei mir:
@vowe Bitte wenden Sie sich doch an unser Servicecenter unter 06151 387431. Die Kollegen dort können das mit Ihnen durchgehen.
— Echo Online (@Echo_Online) June 18, 2014Samsung Evolution
by Volker Weber
I wasted a few hours today upgrading my TV. Why "wasted"? Because I rolled back and am a very happy bunny now.
I have a Samsung ES8090 Series SmartTV. When I bought it, I was still dreaming. I had known Sonos for many years and had seen how they constantly improved their products by adding new features. Samsung, not so much. There were a few updates to the horrible software and Samsung force fed me their apps over and over again, even if I deleted them purposefully.
But now I did want an upgrade. I wanted the TV to understand Miracast. That is not an upgrade you get in software. Samsung requires you to buy an Evolution Kit. I asked them to send me one. The 2013 one was good enough for that feature and I figured that most bugs in that kit had been ironed out by now. I you want 2014 features, you buy yet another kit. And so forth. It's a multiple hundred Euro investment.
Installing the kit was easy enough. Remove a sticker from the back, remove power, attach the box to the TV, power it back up. It will download a few software updates, install two dozen apps you don't necessarily want, and then it restarts. And restarts again after finding more updates. It also came with a new remote that it wants you to use, so I paired that as well.
Everything looked fine, until I found a couple of things broken:
- The Sonos Playbar did not work anymore. Samsung had switched to internal speakers. That was easy to fix. Switch it back to external. After I did that, I could no longer change the volume. I quickly learned that the remote uses Bluetooth* instead of IR. The TV would tell me I need to change the volume externally since I was using external speakers.
- I went back to the trusted "old" remote and that changed the volume just nicely. Playbar has an IR receiver (and a repeater) that sees the TV remote. But now, the volume would change and the TV would display a modal dialog explaining that I would need to change the volume on my external speakers. Press OK or wait 5 seconds for it to go away. Every. Single. F&cking. Time.
- When I changed the channel I found out that all my favorites were gone. The kit had just erased them. That means I was going to rebuild them from scratch. Which I started to do.
- In the process of rebuilding the favorites I found out that the kit had completely screwed up my satellite setup and would only show Astra 19.2E and not Astra 28.2. Well, that was easy to fix. Just rescan all your channels and start working on those favorites again. Have you ever tried editing those lists in Samsung's software?
- The final straw was the DLNA player that lets me play videos from storage. Horrible, horrible, horrible UI changes.
I removed the Evolution Kit, did all of the steps up there again, and now I have my old TV back. Warts and all. And I can change the volume without being lectured on how to do it. Every. Single. F&cking. Time.
Executive summary: ignore Samsung software, as long as you can.
Telekom lernt nicht
by Volker Weber
Neulich hatten wir einen Internet-Ausfall, der es in die FAZ geschafft hat. Danke an den Kollegen Dr. Michael Spehr.
Gestern komme ich mit dem Hund an unserem VDSL-Outdoor-DSLAM vorbei. Davor steht ein Techniker. Ich pflaume ihn freundlich an: "Aber nicht kaputt machen. Wir hatten da letztens erst einen Ausfall." Er ist neugierig und fragt nach. Dann wird er plötzlich sichtlich vorsichtig. "Sind Sie der von der c't?" Er weiß, wer ich bin. Und es ist erkennbar, dass er nicht sprechen soll. Ich sage ihm: "Wenn irgendeiner ihrer Chefs oder Chefchefs Ihnen Ärger macht, dann bitten Sie ihn doch einfach, mich anzurufen."
Den Kunden anrufen, genau das hat keiner gemacht. Keine Entschuldigung, keine Erklärung, kein Ausgleich, nichts. Aber offensichtlich hat jemand die Techniker rund gemacht, die einzigen, die perfekt ihren Job gemacht haben.
Liebe Telekom-Manager, machen Sie mir bitte einen Vermerk in die Akte: "Diesem Kunden müssen wir nicht erzählen, dass er den Router resetten soll. Er muss auch nicht den Computer neu starten und Status-LEDs ablesen. Wenn dieser Kunde anruft, dann können wir sofort damit beginnen, den Fehler bei uns zu suchen. Bonuspunkte, wenn wir den Fehler beheben, bevor er ihn bemerkt."
Koste es was es wolle
by Volker Weber
Gestern habe ich einen Brief an das Hauptzollamt in den Briefkasten um die Ecke geworfen. Und ich habe zum ersten Mal vergessen, eine Briefmarke drauf zu kleben. Heute kommt der Brief ordentlich abgestempelt per Briefträger zurück. Die Empfängeradresse ist sauber mit diesem Sticker abgeklebt.
Nun werde ich eine Briefmarke drauf kleben und den Brief noch mal einwerfen. Das ist für alle Beteiligten die aufwändigste Lösung. Aber so hat alles seine Ordnung. Man stelle sich vor, jemand hätte den Brief einfach in das Postfach des Hauptzollamtes im Briefzentrum geworfen. Also da, wo der Brief schon war. Weil sowas ja mal passieren kann.
Ultimate Ears BOOM
by Volker Weber
From the first time I saw this design, I wanted to try one of those Ultimate Ears BOOM speakers. It oozes high quality, is very nice to the touch and you get a firm grip when holding it.
Last week I asked for a sample and here it is. Everything about this device is a bit out of the ordinary. Even the 2A USB charger and the flat ribbon cable are not your standard fare. It's a different design language from Apple but these items stand out in your electronics drawer just as well.
BOOM is a Bluetooth connected battery-powered device. It has an on/off switch and a button for the pairing mode on the top. You can also pair via NFC by touching the front of the speaker with your device. When not in use the speaker powers off after 15 minutes. The battery is rated for up to 15 hours of playback, depending on the volume it is playing at. The big plus and minus signs change the volume when pressed.
At the bottom end there are three features: a 3.5 mm line-in, the MicroUSB port for charging and software updates, and a ring to suspend the speaker from a string. When you remove the ring you get access to a standard quarter inch thread which lets you mount the speaker to a stand.
Ultimate Ears has an app for both Android and iOS. It lets you change equalizer settings and set an alarm to wake you up in the morning. If your phone becomes unavailable when the alarm is supposed to play music, it will just play an alarm sound. My unit did not have the latest software and the app told me to connect the speaker via USB to my computer.
No special installation required. Just download, start the update, done.
So, another Bluetooth speaker, complete with NFC pairing, supporting the HFP profile to be used as a speaker phone. That is a crowded space. Just recently I tested the Nokia MD-12 speaker. For two years my goto device has been the Jawbone Jambox. Why get the BOOM?
First of all, there is a correlation between size, weight and sound. The bigger and heaver the device, the more likely it is to sound well. The MD-12 speaker is surprisingly powerful for its size. But it cannot hold a candle against the BOOM. The Noka Play 360 devices were similar in concept, because you could pair two of them just like you can with the BOOM. Both the Play 360 and the BOOM play mono sound in all directions. It does not really matter where you sit relative to the speaker. If you get two, you have a standard stereo setup, where both can play the same sound or each plays its own channel. The Jambox has been my favorite since it creates a wide stereo base from one device. If you place it in front of you on the table at a meter's distance, it's quite impressive. But it's not nearly as loud as the BOOM.
If you want to play music through a small speaker, you might as well ask yourself, if it needs to be battery-operated and mobile or if you want to just use it at home. In that case, the same kind of money will buy you Sonos PLAY:1 which has very different use cases. It will play independently from your phone, and it cannot be used as a line-in or Bluetooth connector speakers, but it sounds way better than all the other devices pictured here.
If however you want a speaker to just grab when you are leaving the house, the BOOM might be your best choice. It has earned an editor-refuses-to-give-it-back award in a matter of minutes.
heise online :: Ende-zu-Ende-Verschlüsselung für BlackBerry Messenger
by Volker Weber
Der BlackBerry Messenger erhält mit BBM Protected eine Ende-zu-Ende-Verschlüsselung, zunächst nur im verschärften Regulated-Modus ohne BlackBerry Balance oder Android- und iOS-Clients.
Windows Phone 8.1 Review
by Volker Weber
fter using Windows Phone 8.1 for the last two months, I do firmly believe that WP8.1 is a fantastic update to Microsoft’s mobile OS. But is it at par with Android and iOS? Well you’re going to have to read on for that.
This is a pretty good review I recommend for anyone who does not have a Windows phone.
BlackBerry Squared
by Volker Weber
BlackBerry does not give me any advance information. I know as much as you do about what may be coming up. But I can do some educated guesswork.
Let's look at the current line-up:
- BlackBerry Z10 and Porsche Design P'9982. That's the 4 inch all touch device that brought us BlackBerry 10, plus the luxury version. I like both of them, but they share the same weakness: the battery is a bit too small.
- BlackBerry Z30. This is hands down the best BlackBerry on the market. 5 inch, large battery, excellent build quality.
- BlackBerry Z3. Low cost version of the Z30 with minimum requirements for running BlackBerry 10.
- BlackBerry Q10. Qwerty full keyboard device with odd 720x720 square screen. This is as close as you can currently get to the Bold 9900 of old.
- BlackBerry Q5. Cheaper version of the Q10. Supposed to a cater to former Curve buyers, but is not cheap enough for that market.
BlackBerry is working on a few things to better target their existing business customer base. I expect a Z3 for Europe, which would require a change to the modem to enable LTE. Already pre-announced is the "Classic" which is a crossover of the Q10 and some elements of the BlackBerry Bold 9900. It is supposed to bring back the strip with make and break buttons as well as menu and back. And the trackpad, so that the old muscle memory still works. Die-hard Bold users are hanging on to their devices with outdated software. The Classic should look something like this:
Next up is a successor for the Bold 9900 based P'9981 . That sold very well in the Middle East. Its successor, the P'9982 could not differentiate enough from the Z10 and was less successful. A Q10-based P'9983 could look something like this.
It would give Porsche Design more stuff to work with and avoid the Achilles heel of the P'9981. While everything was extremely sturdy, the plastic strip underneath the screen came off too easily. Still, I am not sure this is what we are going to see, since it kind of contradicts the idea of the Classic.
And finally, there is the big one, that currently goes by the name of Windermere which may look similar to this rendering.
There are specs floating around that say it has a 1440x1440 pixel square 4.7" screen. This is the one I am really curious about. It's a very odd shape and I have no idea how you hold it when typing. And there needs to be some keyboard augmentation on the screen. Can't wait to see that one. And be able to talk about it.
Great world cup themed ads
by Volker Weber
Name five apps you are missing on Windows Phone
by Volker Weber
Please name five apps you are missing on Windows Phone. Not five apps that you think should be there, but five you are personally missing.
Mine are, and I am aware there are alternatives for some of those apps:
I'd appreciate your comments and will make sure that Microsoft reads them.
Von Microsoft bestochen
by Volker Weber
Bin heute von Microsoft mit Süßigkeiten bestochen worden, damit ich Euch erzähle, was es für tolle Apps für Windows Phone gibt. Bringen wir es hinter uns: Onefootball Brasil, Fußball WM Quiz , FIFA 2014, adidas MyCoach, Gesundheit und Fitness, 7 Minute Workout.
Fällt einem was auf? Kosten alle nix. Und ich habe jetzt ein Glas voll ungesunder Sachen. So wie Thomas, Blasius, Caschy und viele andere.
Austauschprogramm für das europäische 5W-USB-Netzteil von Apple
by Volker Weber
Apple hat festgestellt, dass das europäische 5W-USB-Netzteil von Apple in seltenen Fällen überhitzen und ein Sicherheitsrisiko darstellen kann. Dieses Netzteil wurde mit allen iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 und iPhone 4s Modellen zwischen Oktober 2009 und September 2012 in den unten aufgelisteten Ländern ausgeliefert. Es wurde auch als separates Zubehörteil verkauft. ... Wir ermutigen unsere Kunden, ihre betroffenen Netzteile sobald wie möglich über das unten beschriebene Programm gegen ein neues Netzteil auszutauschen.
Empfehlungen
by Volker Weber
Ich werde oft um Rat gefragt, wenn es um die Anschaffung eines neuen Smartphones geht. Die erste Frage, die ich stelle, ist wieviel Geld man denn anzulegen gedenkt. Die zweite Frage dreht sich um die gewünschte Größe.
Beim iPhone ist der beste Kompromiss zwischen Preis und Leistung das 5C mit 32GB. Das gibt es schon für knapp 500 Euro, deutlich unter dem Listenpreis des 8GB-Modells.
Das Lumia 1520 ist übrigens mittlerweile noch billiger. Wer ein Phablet mit exzellenter Kamera sucht, bekommt sehr viel Leistung für's Geld. Speziell ältere Herrschaften mit wenig Interesse an hippen Apps liegen hier genau richtig. Und wenn es etwas weniger sein darf, ist auch das Lumia 925 eine tolle Wahl.
BlackBerry ist für den Privatanwender nicht attraktiv und bei Android ist die Wahl einfach: wenn Android, dann Nexus.
How secure is BBM? Not very.
by Volker Weber
Time for a bit of b/s detection around BBM. First, the party line.
BBM lets you chat and share with a speed, control and privacy you can’t get on other instant messenger apps.
How is this privacy enabled? There are two layers of encryption:
- The smartphone communicates with the BlackBerry infrastructure via TLS.
- Messages are scrambled with a Triple DES 168-bit key.
TLS ensures transport security. However, when the message comes out at the server end, it becomes readable. Notice the word scramble instead of encrypt. All BBM messages are scrambled with the same key. Yes, you read this correctly. The same key. As a BES administrator you can create a different key, by which you create an island, where all your users can communicate with each other, but not with anyone else outside your organization*.
This is where BBM Protected comes into play. It offers a third level of encryption:
Messages between BBM Protected users are encrypted using a PGP like model. The sender and recipient have unique public / private encryption and signing keys. These keys are generated on the device, by the FIPS 140-2 certified cryptographic library, and are controlled by the enterprise. BBM and BlackBerry are not involved in brokering the key exchanges so at no time are they stored within the BlackBerry infrastructure. Plus, each message uses a new random symmetric key for message encryption. Even if one message in a conversation were somehow compromised, the remaining messages would remain protected.
Translated into plain engineering terms: BBM Protected uses a public key infrastructure. For each message a new symmetric cipher key is created and encrypted with the public key of the receiver. The message itself is encrypted with the symmetric cipher key. Then both the keys and the cipher text are transmitted over the existing two security layers of the BBM infrastructure. Assuming your BES is secure, this will protect the privacy of your messages.
Why is the symmetric key necessary? Two reasons: first, BBM can send large volumes of data, where the asymmetric encryption is too slow. And second, you can encrypt the message for multiple recipients once and then just encrypt the cipher key for all recipients individually. This will also provide an audit trail, if you encrypt the cipher key for your audit archive.
Management summary: BBM Protected may be secure. BBM probably is not.
ad *) There is a requirement in regulated industries such as finance to provide an audit trail for all communications. Easy for email on your own servers, not so easy for messaging provided by a vendor. Therefore there is an option to provide that audit trail for BBM. The BES administrator can log all BBM messages to log file or send to an email address.
Sonos Controller on BlackBerry
by Volker Weber
Now look at this! The Android Sonos controller is finally working on BlackBerry 10. Ralph reports it running on 10.2.1.2941 but my BlackBerry is still on the older 10.2.1.2102. I have no idea when this happened but I am glad it did.
And it does come with notification support. Yay.
How do you get the Sonos Controller onto your BlackBerry? There are many ways to side load Android Apps. The easiest may be to create the download link right on your BlackBerry.
Nokia MD-12
by Volker Weber
Let's start with the good news. It's practically impossible to misplace the Nokia MD-12 speaker. I have no idea how Nokia makes a bright plastic material that does not glow in the dark. In the photo above the speaker sits on a white surface. And I had to nail down the white balance since the camera had no idea how to calibrate.
This is a small speaker you just throw in your bag as you leave the house. At 84 mm by 38 mm it is small enough to fit anywhere. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and if you have NFC, you can skip the pairing step. Turn it on and just touch it with your phone and it's playing. It will play for up to 15 hours depending on how far you crank it up. You recharge it via a MicroUSB port, so you can use your regular Nokia charger.
You have to place the speaker on a hard surface that is used as a resonator for bass frequencies. This is where it fails me. I find it is too light for a good coupling; 180 g is about the same weight as a Lumia 920. Depending on the surface I hear the vibrations between the speaker and the surface. It's also mono and not particularly loud at 95 db from half a meter. Without a hard surface it has no bass at all.
On the upside, this is probably a good compromise between weight and size for a portable speaker that lives in your bag all of the time. And with its bright color, you won't leave it behind in your hotel room when you depart. It may not be loud enough for a party, but certainly loud enough to annoy the person in the next room.
This made me play that
by Volker Weber
Primus inter pares
by Volker Weber
Ich benutze so ziemlich alles, was es an Smartphones gibt. Vom iPhone über BlackBerry und Windows Phone bis zu Android. Darunter sind Flaggschiffe wie das Lumia 1520 oder das BlackBerry Z30, aber auch Einsteiger wie das exzellente Lumia 630. Nach meiner Erfahrung gibt es keine schlechten Geräte mehr, sieht man von den Schrott-Androids zum Dumpingpreis ab.
Für jedes Feature gibt es herausragende Geräte, etwa das Lumia 1020 bei den Kameras. Sehr schön auch die Abschottung von privaten und geschäftlichen Daten beim BlackBerry Z30; außerdem kommt man ohne Adapter-Gefummel per HDMI oder Miracast auf den großen Screen. Jedes Smartphone hat leichte Schwächen (etwa Kamera und Akku beim Nexus 5), aber es gibt überall Fortschritte. Die BlackBerrys werden immer besser beim Umgang mit Android Apps, bei den Lumias gibt es immer mehr Apps.
Und dennoch, wenn Geld keine Rolle spielt, gibt es nur einen Sieger.
Ungelesene Nachrichten im BlackBerry Hub
by Volker Weber
Projecting your screen
by Volker Weber
Public speaking often requires a presentation to be projected on a large screen. And believe it or not, we are still using ancient VGA adapters. HDMI would be a logical choice but I rarely ever see it used. I have seen it often in small conference rooms where you just throw a cable to the TV on the wall, but not in large venues.
If cable length is an issue, the obvious thing to do is to move the HDMI hardware close to the projector. For Apple devices this could be an Apple TV. However, as it stands, you need to have Wifi access from your computer and your Apple TV to an existing network. You cannot just connect to it directly. (This is about to change with iOS 8, I believe.)
As I was visiting a Microsoft briefing last week, one of the speakers showed his Windows Phone screen through a USB connection and his PC. We got to talk later about my inability to use Windows Phone, Surface or Lumia 2520 in real world large scenarios and I learned about the Netgear Push2TV PTV3000 Miracast adapter. I asked Netgear to send me one and it arrived today.
It's quite tiny and I slapped it to the back of my TV screen. One connection to HDMI, one to USB, and BANG, it was working. Could not be simpler. When you switch the TV to the correct HDMI source, you can see the Netgear Connect screen where it instructs you how to connect.
First thing I tried was Android. Both the Samsung S4 running Android 4.4 and the Lenovo Yoga Tab on Android 4.2 connected without any issues. The device connects via Wifi without any further setup and mirrors the display.
Next thing I tried was Windows Phone. The Lumia 630 running Windows Phone 8.1 worked as well. You select Project My Screen from Settings, select the Miracast device and off you go. Works just as well as with Android. Both my 1020 and 1520 do not offer me a connection to a wireless display.
This may or may not get resolved when Microsoft issues the Nokia Cyan update, depending on the device since this feature has to be supported in hardware. My guess is that 1520 will work and 1020 will not.
Now things get tricky. Windows 8.1 is supposed to work with Miracast, but there is a chipset and drivers issue. Read all about it here. The Lumia 2520 would be able to connect, but it would drop the connection quickly after any real workload was applied. I could not watch a single video. My old Surface RT would not even see Netgear device.
BlackBerry Z30 also has Miracast support. Works out of the box with no issues.
This is a developing story.
Blitz und Donner
by Volker Weber
Das ist der Stecker, den Apple für alle mobilen Geräte verwendet. iPhone, iPad, iPod, in allen Spielarten. Ich finde ihn toll. Er lässt sich wenden, er geht leicht rein, er flutscht nicht raus, er hat keine Blechkanten oder Haken. Man kann alles daran anschließen, VGA-Adapter, HDMI-Adapter, SD-Leser, und natürlich USB. Wer partout ein Gerät mit hakeligem MicroUSB-Stecker nutzen will, dem kann geholfen werden:
Es gibt auch Leute, die finden den Stecker nicht so toll. Die sprechen von "proprietärem Quatsch". Jede Wette, die haben den Stecker gar nicht. Nun hat gerade ein Kollege in der FAZ wild spekuliert, dass man beim nächsten iPhone Kopfhörer nur noch über diesen Stecker anschließen kann. Warum? Weil Apple spezifiziert hat, wie das geht. Und weil er sich partout nicht erklären kann, warum Apple Beats sonst gekauft haben könnte.
So sieht übrigens der nicht-proprietäre Quatsch aus.
This is big: iOS 8 randomizes MAC address while scanning for WiFi networks
by Volker Weber
iOS 8 randomises the MAC address while scanning for WiFi networks. Hoping that this becomes an industry standard.
pic.twitter.com/oGsZMtydUo
— Frederic Jacobs (@FredericJacobs) June 8, 2014This is big. Currently you are being tracked because your mobile phone uses its unique MAC address to find Wifi networks.
The Decline and Fall of IBM - I, Cringely
by Volker Weber
The story of this book began in the summer of 2007 when I was shooting a TV documentary called The Transformation Age -- Surviving a Technology Revolution, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Rochester has two main employers, Mayo and IBM, and a reporter can’t spend several days in town without hearing a lot about both. What I heard about IBM was very disturbing. Huge layoffs were coming as IBM tried to transfer much of its U.S. services business directly to lower-cost countries like India and Argentina. It felt to me like a step down in customer service, and from what I heard the IBMers weren’t being treated well either. And yet there was nothing about it even in the local press.
Q.e.d.
by Volker Weber
Meine Personal Trainer
by Volker Weber
Mit dem iPhone aufgenommen, auf dem iPhone zusammengeschnitten und vom iPhone aus hochgeladen. Auf Vimeo gibt es das gleiche Video, auf Instagram ein anderes.
Dicke Jungs
by Volker Weber
Vor zwei Wochen haben wir den grauen Fatboy bekommen. Und mir wurde erstmals klar, dass die Dinger schlanker werden. Der rote war mittlerweile so dünn, dass man schnell auf dem Boden lag. Also habe ich 200 Liter Kugeln gekauft und heute mit Max zusammen nachgefüllt.
Das kann eine Riesensauerei werden, da die Kugeln sehr leicht sind und überall kleben. Wir haben das so gelöst, dass wir eine große Klebeband-Rolle als Füllöffnung an den Sack mit den neuen Kugeln geklebt haben und die Kugeln dann auf diesem Weg in den Fatboy geschleust haben. Fatboy ausleeren halte ich für unmöglich, es sei denn man sitzt hinten auf der Ladefläche eines LKWs und lässt es schneien.
Lenovo-CTO: Für manche ist es die Post-PC-, für andere die PC-Plus-Ära
by Volker Weber
Die Menschen werden Dinge erzwingen, wie sie sie haben wollen. Eine IT, die sich daran anpassen kann, der wird es gut gehen, und eine IT, die das nicht kann, wird wahrscheinlich Mitarbeiter austauschen. Das ist wie eine Kraft der Natur, die das erzwingen wird.
Pebble gets an update
by Volker Weber
Pebble received an update to 2.2. You can now reorder items on the menu, and the Music app lets you control the volume. Both actions are activated by holding the select key.
UP24 funktioniert bei mir
by Volker Weber
Ich war sehr skeptisch, weil ein Fitbit bei mir nicht funktioniert hat, aber beim UP24 ist das nun anders. Ich laufe deutlich mehr als vorher, und ich schaue abends immer, ob ich mein Ziel erreicht habe. Wenn nicht, hole ich den Hund ab und geh mit ihm eine Runde. Diese ca 4000 Schritte fehlen heute Abend sogar, weil ich das Band gerade aufgeladen und vergessen habe. Die Scheffin hat auch ein Band. Wenn sie im Büro ist, schafft sie nur die Hälfte von mir, am Wochenende mehr als das Doppelte. High Score ca 25k.
Was noch nicht funktioniert ist Schlafen. Und ich weiß, woran es liegt. Ich muss sehen, dass ich vor elf im Bett bin. Das kriege ich auch noch hin. Auch jetzt schon: mehr Nachtschlaf, weniger Mittagsbubu.
Warum ging das Fitbit nicht? Weil es nicht an meinem Handgelenk, sondern in der Hosentasche war. Theoretisch hätte ich es immer wieder umpacken können, aber dazu bin ich zu schusselig. Aus dem gleichen Grund hilft mir auch der Prozessor im Handy nicht. Zu viele Handys und oft liegen die auch nur rum.
Ich denke, noch ca. 3 bis 4 Monate, dann habe ich meine Gewohnheiten so umgestellt, dass ich das Band nicht mehr brauche.
Sonos PLAY:1 gewinnen
by Volker Weber
Bei ueberall-musik.de sind alle Mann in Urlaub. Deshalb können die jetzt eine Woche nicht liefern. Trotzdem sollte man vielleicht gerade jetzt bestellen:
Um aber zum einen Ihre Geduld nicht zu sehr auf die Probe zu stellen und uns zum anderen für die Unannehmlichkeiten zu entschuldigen, verlosen wir zwischen allen geduldigen Kunden, die zwischen dem 04. und 11. Juni eine Bestellung aufgeben, einen SONOS PLAY:1 in Wunschfarbe.
212,913 km/h. Im Schnitt. Auf dem Moped.
by Volker Weber
Top Speed über 300. Unfassbar.
Falsche Propheten
by Volker Weber
Ich habe einen Samsung-Fernseher und eine Menge Sonos-Player. Mein ältester Sonos-Player ist jetzt mehr als 8 Jahre alt. Und er ist mehr als 8 Jahre lang besser geworden. Die Software hat dazu gelernt, alle möglichen Services wurden integriert. Der Samsung-Fernseher hat immer noch ein tolles Bild. Und er ist noch genauso dumm, wie er war, als ich ihn vor zwei Jahren gekauft habe. Keine substantiellen Updates. Wollte ich Updates, müsste ich neue Hardware kaufen.
Apple hat gestern gezeigt, wie sie allen Kunden, etwa ab iPhone 4S, im Herbst neue Software liefern werden. Auf Macs und iPhone/iPad. Apple hat nur über Software gesprochen. Wer anderes erwartet oder gar vorher gesagt hat, betreibt Fan Fiction.
Apple wird neue Hardware ankündigen. Und zwar in Special Events, bei denen es immer genau eine Neuigkeit gibt. Wer schreibt, ein neues iPhone, nein zwei, und ein Retina iMac, und ein Retina Air, ein Apple TV und eine Smartwatch, gibt sich als Idiot zu erkennen.
Gadget Blogs brauchen immer neuen Plunder. Der Kunde nicht.
Signed up for OS X Yosemite beta
by Volker Weber
I would not wait too long to sign up for the Yosemite beta.
Developers, developers, developers
by Volker Weber
Excellent Apple keynote. Developers will be delighted, analysts disappointed, and gadget bloggers devastated. #wwdc
— Volker Weber (@vowe) June 2, 2014Will the gadgets bloggers ever learn and stop confusing fan fiction with predictions?
