Tech Blog / Photos / Mac Tips

It all started with the  4.0 Iphone OS update … milions of 3G Iphone users got disappointed. The Iphone was slow, it took 3 seconds to answer a call and for some 10 seconds for “slide to unlock”.

A few days ago I got the HTC Hero (the so called european version of Google’s Nexus One). It’s almost the same phone and I really musta say this, Android is fasssst ! Really fast!

What you get ? Better camera, better Mail (and of course GMail), Google Maps integration, 1 GHZ processor 512 ROM and 576 RAM.

The 3.7 inch AmoLED display is way better compared to the Iphone’s LCD. Almost the same battery life for day by day use.

Still under review….but 8 people out of 10 (IT geeks of course) said the Android does worth the switch from iOS.

Mihai Tech stuff android phone, google nexus one, htc desire, ios vs andoid, iphone vs htc desire, telefoane android

I’m not a big Microsoft fan but I just couldn’t resist their  ”Ultimate Steal” of the year. Here is what it consists of:

• Ms Office 2010 Academic Suite for only £49
• Ms Windows 7 Professional 64 bit Upgrade (you must have a valid license of XP or Vista) for only £30

I took advantage of my @northumbria.ac.uk account and in 5 minutes using Digital River’s shop I had the product keys and download links. Office 2010 is about 586 MB and Windows 7 Pro is about 3.2GB.

Be aware you need to have a Win XP or Win Vista license prior to installing Windows 7 Professional , this is just the upgrade version. However the price is unbeatable. Upgrading from XP it’s a bit tricky but if you have minimum IT knowledge you’ll be fine.

If you had a Office Trial before you can use the same .exe file and just use the new product key since the executable is the same (name, version and size ) so you don’t have to download it again.

Those of you who are interested should visit the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/student/office/en-gb/default.aspx

Mihai Tech stuff microsoft office 2010 student, microsoft studenct license, office 2010 academic, ultimate steal microsoft, windows 7 for students

Tried to unlock a BlackBerry 8900 using their service (their website is http://www.foneszone.co.uk and it’s a SCAM) but I found out it’s a trick. I have entered their website, selected the phone and model, inserted the correct IMEI code and payed trough PayPal about 20 Pounds.

After 12h I have received an email from the website owner , Mr. Richard – the so called “code-director” (hahaha) telling me that he was unable to find a proper unlock code for my BB 8900 but I can choose another option from their website, and so on. Practically just bullshit …

Read more…

Mihai Social life, Tech stuff foneszone, foneszone.co.uk, review, scam, unlock, unlock blackberry, unlock codes, warning

While I’m currently using Microsoft Project 2007 here is a new name on the list , and that’s not all … it’s completely free and open source.

It’s called OpenProj and it’s an open source project management software intended as a complete desktop replacement for Microsoft Project.  This software is a serious alternative to Ms Project. OpenProj will do: control, tracking and management of projects.

OpenProj interface

OpenProj is ideal for desktop project management and is available on Linux, UNIX, Mac or Windows. It even opens existing Microsoft or Primavera files. OpenProj is an user interface and even opens existing MSProject files.

OpenProj shares scheduling engine with Project-ON-Demand and provides Gantt Charts, Network Diagrams (PERT Charts), WBS and RBS charts, Earned Value costing and more.
The OpenProj solution has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Galician, Persian, Russian, Korean and Chinese.

Features:

•     Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) used to order and control the tasks of the project for people who manages projects
•     Resources Breakdown Structure (RBS) used to define the structure of the resources, teams, providers, etc.
•    Task Usage and Resource Usage are used to control your project and provide a good track on it.
•    The Report tool provides information about the current status of your project.

Microsoft Project retails for $999.99, is installed on 7% of all Office desktops and drives over $1 billion in revenue for Microsoft. OpenProj fills an important gap in the desktop market, as a key component in the Office family of products now has a replacement available on Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows. OpenProj was also selected for inclusion with Star Office suite boxes in Europe. The OpenProj solution has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Galician, Persian, Russian, Korean and Chinese.

Mihai Tech stuff download OpenProj, free, microsoft project, open source project management, openproj, project management software, project management software for Mac, replacement Project 2007

After a little digging into Preview I stumbled across two options which allow you to shrink the size of a PDF. Most of the time these two methods may not produce useful result, they may be as tiny as possible. However if you have used a program which isn’t designed for PDF (Word for some reason springs to mind) this trick might be useful. There are two options which you can use, both offer different results.

Both of the compression options are found in the Save As menu. First find a large PDF file that you want to shrink, any will do for this example. Go to File > Save As. In the save box there will be two drop down items. The second one is what we are interested in, Quartz Filter. From the drop down menu select none. This may be counter intuitive at first, however it allows the PDF engine to run and reduce any parts that it can. It doesn’t run any other filters. For the most part on an uncompressed PDF this will produce pleasing results. The image below show the drop down box on the Save As menu.

how to compress PDF files on a Mac

The option of having no Quartz Filter for the most part is sufficient. This can reduce the file size. This option is known as loss less, so it wont remove anything at all and keep things in high quality. This is needed for PDF’s with images. However for PDF’s with only text or simple geometric shapes to may be better to reduce the file size even more.

To apply a reduction in quality (however it still stays pretty good) in the drop down select “Reduce File Size”, I never notice it at first. This option will crunch images and remove parts of the PDF that are not needed, in a similar method of a jpeg images. There are slight problems with this method. Images turn out horrible and lose all quality. However for text and simple bands of colour it is perfect, and the reduction in file size can be massive.

Hopefully these two option apply to you. The first one, for the most part, doesn’t produce any decent results (one files size was larger) if the original PDF is made in Preview. However the second option always reduces the files size, usually by half.

Mihai Tech stuff apple, compress PDF, compress pdf file, how to compress pdf, mac os x, pdf preview, pdf resize, reduce pdf file size, snow leopard

Just came back after some Siemens training in Birmingham – UK. Made some new friends (Allan @ ATS  / Laura @ G.Elliot Pub) and almost … 10 horrible pictures taken. Maybe next time… I’ll do better.

Mihai Photography, Social life, Tech stuff Birmingham, technology, training, UK

I’m watching relaxed a podcast using iTunes right now. I had the opportunity today to get the Windows 7 upgrade for only 30 GBP using my student membership with Northumbria University. For now I have to say no…my current Snow Leopard upgrade seems to be just fine and while I was sharing experiences today with one of my co-workers I decided to wait until my Lenovo X60 with running XP now will get the Win 7 upgrade. The price Microsoft offers to UK students (30 GBP) it’s great I can say, however I’m not sure about how great Windows 7 is. I’m still waiting for proper documented reviews to show up online, not just comments and firefighting between Apple and Microsoft users.

Rent a movie , download it , get some popcorn and adopt my position….I don’t give a f**k about all this SL vs W7 prizefight. If you do go here

Mihai Tech stuff apple, mac, microsoft, relax, snow leopard vs windows 7, windows 7

I was comparing the two versions  Leopard and the newly arrived Snow Leopard…. decided to upgrade this week or so, gotta take a walk to our small Apple shop. Here are some reasons to upgrade:

10. It’s Leopard Done Right
The release of Mac OS X Leopard was fraught with peril. It was late, it ran a bit slow, and it offered amazing new features — some of which weren’t fully ready for prime time. Snow Leopard is all about performance, optimizing features to deliver a great experience. It takes what you know today and makes it perfect.

9. It’s only $30
Recognizing that it has an evolution, not a revolution, on its hands, Apple’s keeping Snow Leopard incredibly cheap for existing Leopard users. At $30, it’s more than we paid to move from 10.0 to 10.1 (which was free), but it’s still one heck of a bargain. And it’s only $50 for a family pack.

8. You’ll add six gigs to your hard drive
This is a no-brainer. If you install Snow Leopard, your hard drive gets bigger — it takes up six or seven fewer gigabytes than Leopard. It’s less bloated in more ways than one.

7. Smarter Stacks and Expose
The OS X Finder already contains some of the most innovative UI elements ever. Snow Leopard makes them smarter. Stacks allows scrolling and advanced support for multiple folders now. And Expose allows you to just click on an app’s icon, thereby allowing you to select between that app’s windows.

6. It’s fully 64-bit, so buy 17.2 billion gigs of RAM!
If you own a recent Mac (anything with a Core 2 Duo), you’ve got a 64-bit processor. And with a fully rewritten Finder and under-the-hood code, Snow Leopard will let you manipulate absolutely gigantic files, up to 17.2 billion gigabytes at a time. Basically, if you’re doing high-end photo or video work, this will be the best platform ever.

5. Killer Multiprocessing with Grand Central
Apple’s been pushing multiprocessing since at least 2000, but the promise has never really paid off for most users. Snow Leopard aims to change that with Grand Central Dispatch, a powerful API for creating multicore-optimized code. Some apps will run faster right away, and it will only get better over time as other developers get caught up. It will be the gift that keeps on giving.

4. Unleash the Power of Your GPU With OpenCL
Time was, Windows lovers could (justifiably) deride the 3-D graphics power being packed by Macs. Anyone who tried to run Quake III Arena on a first-gen iMac can remember the pain we all shared. That’s changed now. The integrated NVIDIA graphics in even Apple’s low-end machines are totally respectable, and the dedicated cards in the MacBook Pro and Mac Pro are downright brawny. Unfortunately, unless you’re a gamer, an architect or an industrial designer, that probably doesn’t matter much to you. That’s why OpenCL is so great — it’s a coding framework that allows ordinary applications to tap into the extra power in your graphics card for all tasks, from web browsing to iPhoto. Snow Leopard’s all about power, and OpenCL’s a big part of it.

3. Native Exchange Support
A lot of factors have kept Macs out of the office over the years, but none has been more significant than the lack of MS Exchange e-mail, address book and calendar support. Outlook is as close to a standard as a proprietary format ever comes, and Apple’s taking its experiments with Exchange on the iPhone to the desktop. From now on, anyone with a Mac can make appointments, view contacts, and send e-mail via Exchange. I don’t know if I’ll ever bring my work computer home again.

2. QuickTime X Restores What the Tech Was Meant to Be
One of the great disappointments of long-time Mac users has been watching the slow decline of QuickTime. Once a legendary consumer multimedia player and editor, it increasingly became over-shadowed by iLife and iMovie. Charging for the Pro version meant that most people steered clear of it entirely (I couldn’t tell you the last time I played a video in QuickTime Player). QuickTime X fixes all of that. A ground-up rewrite, X integrates all former Pro versions into a free version for the rest of us. It’s two-and-a-half times faster than previous versions, plus built-in authoring capabilities, including recording via iSight and microphone, YouTube and Mobile Me uploads, and export to iPhone. Basically, it’s finally Apple giving some love to the multimedia technology that started it all.

1. Because You, Like Me, Are a Gigantic Apple Fanboy or -girl
It’s OK. We have a cult for that. Think it’ll make it here by Saturday?

Some text copied from http://www.cultofmac.com/10-reasons-why-snow-leopard-is-an-essential-upgrade/15010

Mihai Tech stuff apple, macbook, snow leopard, upgrade

Recently I tought I was upgrading my wireless network at home by switching from my old Trendnet wireless router (bought 3 years ago) to a new D-Link DI-524 . Bad decision , even if 3 out of 4 persons confirm D-Link’s product quality and their competition with Linksys , this router is so bad that not I have to take it back to the store and buy something else.

If you’re using it as a standalone router without the wireless function it might be okay, but the wireless coverage is bad , 3m from the unit you get disconnected every 10 mins and you will not download with more than 1.9 MB/s . The download speed is random , I had moments when I was downloading with less than 1 KB/s.

The admin interface ( 192.168.0.1 in your webbrowser by default) is primitive, without any advanced options that today’s wrl routers come with. It’s needless to say that D-LINK DI 524 is a waste of money and time. Don’t buy this !

Mihai Tech stuff bad review, d-link, di-524, dlink, review, wireless router

Steve Jobs announced the new iPod nano a few days ago. A video camera, built-in microphone, and buffered FM radio make this iPod nano far more functional, flexible, and entertaining. It won’t replace your full-sized camcorder. It’s not Tivo for radio nor a field recorder. It’s a compelling upgrade to an already solid and affordable media player.

Mihai Tech stuff ipod nano camera, mac, nano, nano camera, new . ipod, new ipod nano

Kodak received a massive boost in sales following the release of the Vanity Kodak in 1928. Fast forward 76 years and Apple did similar with the release of the iPod Mini.

Mihai Photography, Tech stuff apple, ipod, ipod mini, kodak, kodak vs ipod

With more than double the memory throughput of an eight-core, 3GHz Xserve, the massively parallel Nehalem-based Mac Pro is built to rock your world

new mac pro from apple

Since 2006, Apple has been doing Intel the favor of building desktops, workstations, and notebooks that make Intel x86 processors look like works of genius. It seems only fair that Intel has returned the gift by custom-engineering an x86 architecture with RISC-like attributes just for Apple’s most demanding customers.

Intel completely rearchitected its x86 CPU beyond the core. Most PC users won’t notice, but the Nehalem Xeon processor really lets OS X Leopard off its leash. With all 16 logical processors (two CPUs with four cores each and two thread contexts per core) overcommitted with burn-in compute and memory workloads, the “Nehalem” Mac Pro has the headroom to run a full plate of Mac GUI applications with the accustomed responsiveness. The Mac Pro feels like a new machine.

Mihai Tech stuff apple, apple mac pro, intel mac, mac pro, nehalem

Personas are free, easy-to-install “skins” for Firefox that make changing the look of the browser as easy as changing your shirt. With Personas, you can individualize your browser with hundreds of artist-created designs or create your own design to share with a worldwide audience of millions.

Check the Firefox website https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10900

Mihai Social life, Tech stuff browser, firefox personas add-on, personas firefox, skins for firefox

nikon 18 135 mm compact lens

The first thing you notice about the 18-135mm DX lens is that it’s rather compact. Where the heck is the 135mm stuffed in? After all, this is a lens that’s smaller and lighter than most previous mid-range zooms Nikon has made. On the flip side, it’s not that much smaller than the also compact 18-200mm, though it is significantly lighter.

The 18-135mm focal range gives you angle of views from ~10 to 66 degrees across the horizontal axis on a DSLR; it’s effectively the same as using an 28-200mm lens on a 35mm body. For some users, that’s a stay-on-camera range. There’s no denying that this is a much-asked-for focal length range. Indeed, even I find it interesting to walk around with this lens, the 10.5mm, plus a small extension tube–that makes for a very compact, light kit that covers a pretty incredible focal length and focusing range.

This is a two ring design; like most recent consumer Nikkors, the zoom ring is the front most ring and the focusing ring is closer to the camera. Yuck. The lens does not have a distance scale, and no depth of field or infrared markings.

The lens does not have VR (vibration reduction), a big disappointment to many potential purchasers. At 135mm and f/5.6, this lens really could use VR.

Mihai Photography, Tech stuff 18 135 mm, nikkor lens, nikon, review

Here is a piece of software that you may need in case you’re using Apple’s Mighty Mouse on a MacBook – I’m talking here about the bluetooth (wireless called by Apple) version. You may have observed if you switch from a Logitech mouse that tracking speed is slow and acceleration is almost useless. If you’re not a geek that will edit the /Library/Preferences files then I recommend you this software : SteerMouse available at http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/steermouse.html

Otherwise if you’re looking for a zero cost solution the easiest way is to open the Terminal and type:

open ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist

Once you’ve got the file open, changing the setting for com.apple.trackpad.scaling to something higher will make the trackpad more responsive. For example, a setting of 5 is noticeably faster than the fastest setting available in System Preferences, and a setting of 20 would be uncontrollably fast. You can also change com.apple.mouse.scaling to alter the speed of mouse tracking. 

apple's mighty mouse wireless version

The simplest way I knew of to commit these settings once I had altered and saved .GlobalPreferences.plist was to log out and log back in.

Mihai Tech stuff apple, bluetooth mouse, howto, improove speed, leopard, macbook, mighty mouse, steermouse, trackpad scaling, wireless mouse apple

I’m currently involved in a web project that I try to develop from scratch. Somebody recommended me the Open source – Joomla  CMS for this … and now I’m stucked in it … in order to have it running you need to read hundred of pages with docs & tips plus you’ll have to figure it out on your own what extensions to install (from almost 4000 available … yes I know more than 3500 are useless ) , how to build your own theme because even the commercial ones are fuckin’ ugly, and all kind of crap like that. It really pisses me off….so in a few minutes it’s going to be long gone !

Mihai Tech stuff CMS, content management system, joomla, mysql, open source, opinion, php scripts

Yesterday…. fuzzy day… nothing to to so I went for shopping. I’ve spent the money on a Black MacBook that pleases me now while posting this on the blog. The old X60 it’s on the left side now… successfully replaced by Steve Job’s MacBook. 2 GB RAM/250 GB HDD /Inter Core 2 Duo 2,4GHz, Mac OS X Leopard and that’s it. I’m still getting used to the new keyboard shortcuts, however it’s stable and speedy… hopefully it will be like this more than 1 year . I will come up with something later.

Mihai Photography, Social life, Tech stuff apple, black macbook, first view, mac os x

Here is a way to improve the search results provided by Google:

Enjoy !

Mihai Social life, Tech stuff, Uncategorized google classic, google search, mihai spanoche, new way to search with google, post card

I have recently switched to BlackBerry from my (one year) old Nokia E71. Let’s just say that the Nokia Email app (still Beta) was not the perfect choice for mobile email. Besides that BlackBerry still has the wonderfull email push technology witch let’s you receive mails in real time. I have signed up with Orange Romania for a BlackBerry data plan (about 13 Euros per month) and the price for the device was somewhere around 230 Euros.

First impressions:

* The size is awesome — totally small enough to be pocketable, but not too small where sacrifices on the keyboard had to be made.
* Unlike the Bold where some people had trouble hitting the right convience key since it was too low, on the Curve 8900, it’s located perfectly.
* The screen, as we’re getting accustomed to now with RIM, is flawless! It’s smaller than the Bold as you know, and that’s an even denser, crisper, and sharper display in our books. Really a job well done.
* What about the keyboard? Even better than the first Curve. The keys feel more “fuller” and not hollow like the original 8300 did. They’re also decently spaced, and even after using a Bold for 5 months, the second we picked this up, we were off to the races. Another great execution by RIM.
* The fake chrome bezel around the 8900 actually seems like it’s more equipped to handle rough usage than the Bold is.

Specifications:

The specifications for the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 include:

• Quad-band GSM/EDGE:1900/1800/900/850 MHz
• BlackBerry OS 4.6
• 512 MHz processor
• 256MB ROM
• microSD card slot with SDHC support (256MB card included)
• QWERTY keyboard and trackball
• Integrated GPS/A-GPS receiver
• 802.11 b/g WiFi with support for T-Mobile UMA service
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support
• 2.44 inch 480×360 pixels 65k colors display
• 3.2 megapixel camera with flash light and auto focus
• 3.5 mm headset jack
• 1380 mAh battery

The camera takes some very nice photos that I found were better than the XPERIA X1 3.2 megapixel model. Video recording was also decent, but not as good as the still images.

I also made a couple of calls over WiFi using the UMA functionality on the Curve and that worked very well. The Curve is designed to automatically switch between WiFi and GSM and calls started on one wireless technology continue being billed at that rate even if the device switches to the other technology.

I tried GPS out with Google Maps and it performed as expected from a new device today.

Mihai Tech stuff blackberry 8900, blackberry curve, email, javelin, nokia e71, orange, push email, romania

It can’t be avoided: any new MP3 player is in direct competition with the Apple iPod, and device manufacturers are well aware of this fact. Some pack their players with boatloads of extras, while others create unique and purportedly useful design elements. Some simply make a product that’s just as easy to use, offers a similar array of features, and delivers great sound quality–but then charge less for it.

Such is the case with the Sony E-Series Walkman, a flash player positioned to square off against the iPod Nano.

Available in 4 , 8 and 16 GB versions depending on your pocked size , the Sony Walkman E series is a good competitor for Apple’s Ipod. The sound quality is excellent and you don’t need iTunes to upload your .mp3 files to your Walkman. The device is automatically recognized by WinXP and Vista , and all you have to do is copy/paste or drag&drop your favourite music , videos , photos to the specified folders with the same name.

Battery is awesome, you can keep it in standby for more than a week and while you’re listening to music be shure that 12hours you will not have any issues with it. The 4GB version costs in Romania about 100 US Dollars and the 16 GB version around 230 US Dollars.

Mihai Social life, Tech stuff apple, e series, e436f, ipod nano, mp3 player, review, sony, walkman