All-in-one home entertainment (satellite TV + PVR, IP TV + apps, and Media Centre)

So I am still undecided on media-center / IP TV (Android, etc) and PVR combo .. I'd like an all-in-one am a little surprised why there isn't a clean one yet.

Bucket-list:

1. 2 satellite receivers
2. a couple of terrabytes of storage - for existing picture, music and movies + recorded stuff
3. a media browser and viewer
4. ability to run Internet apps either native or in browser such as Spotify, various On-demand sites, Youtube,  random web-sites etc

Given all that I could have an Android TV stick, a media centre and a PVR - but really? Each are developing at their own pace and the lines are blurring but still there seem big gaps. Surprising really .. Throwing asterisk in there to be able to make audio and video calls would be good too.

So this thread will be for experiments along this lines to see what works 

First cab off the rank (given I can take the PMD server offline for a bit) is GeexBox on my Raspberry Pi.

Nexus 7 - Office tablet - it's time to go paperless people

OK so after moving to Auckland to start a fledgling branch of the company I work for I'm thinking about operational readiness. And, next on my list is a printer/scanner/copier .. or is it? So I don't want toner cartridges or paper jams or manual duplex or whatever. Furthermore all the cool kids up here just take a tablet to meetings and with the features of Adobe Reader X (i.e. highlighting and freehand overlays) I'm thinking a tablet is a better first choice and aim to go paperless.

So having considered (and discarded .. for now) the Samsung Note 10 I have opted for a Nexus 7. So far so good - will update .. just opted for Wifi model to keep it cheap and simple but aside from tethering issues (easily getting documents on it before a meeting) we're up and running.

Samsung Vehicle Dock Kit for Galaxy Nexus

OK so I love car docks .. I bought a Google Nexus One and forked out for a custom Google car dock (shipped from Europe at no small expense). So now I have a Galaxy Nexus it was just a matter of time before I caved in and got a car dock. I found one discounted on MobiCity (parallel importer in Wellington) - not cheap but acceptable at the time.

So now it's arrive - time to unpack. 

OK so straight up this is a nice looking car dock. Time to put my phone in .. OK it is a very very tight fit - will be interesting to see how it goes in the car ..it's a 2 handed operation. All in all look an feel and operation is so far a Rating: 4/5

Not having yet plugged it in (and in doing so triggering the bogo pins into action) I start looking to download the google car dock app .. oddly it't not available for 4.x .. hmmm. Once usb is connected to the dock however - bingo the base home screen goes landscape and the view is quite tidy .. so I might be fine as is. What is particularly nice is the voice activation icon on the bottom left.

Just by fooling I'm finding the voice activation is quite cool but my results to date are well below 50/50 however:

• CALL call such as "call fred mobile" rarely if ever seems to work.. the more words you say the lest likely it is to succeed Rating: 1/5. Simplifying to call such as "call fred" can work well for simple names ... I don't hold out much hope that it'll replace typing / touch in the car but it can help to reduce typing by bringing up search results Rating: 2/5
• DRIVE drive such as "drive home" works well for simple preset destinations - the integration here with google maps online is pretty awesome. That said if I ever try "drive Quay street Auckland" the best I get is "drive key street waltham" .. not likely to work at any level of acceptability .. possibly my accent - enunciation is very definitely important  Rating: 3/5 (for the saved locations and maps integration)
• LISTEN listen to a-la "listen to the x x" .. so far only succeeds in starting my preferred music player (PowerAMP) with a failed search .. but a one touch from here to folders so Rating: 2/5. That said to be able to support 'start music' and 'stop music' simply activating/deactivating your preferred music player would be a 5/5 for me. How about "drive home" "start music " .. that would be cool.
• SEND send text to along the lines of "send text to matthew hello" .. this finally worked on about the fifth attempt after giving up on a couple of other names. Once I got it working I still needed to choose a matthew as I have a few in my contacts .. unlikely to use this with much success Rating: 0/5. Given sending a text was not super successful you can imagine how much success was in store for email .. send email quickly yields results .. but once you have a email editing dialogue .. well, good luck to you.

A complete list of valid actions can be found here http://www.google.co.nz/mobile/voice-actions/

Also note my voice settings are for 'English (UK)' and I have this downloaded to be able to work offline. Phone search is across People and Play Music.

403 Google Play issues?

OK so these were driving me nuts .. seriously. Lots of online comments about deleting caches, removing Google accounts, etc, etc .. until I read this link

The solution - remove the proxy on your Mobile network APN .. WTF .. don't ask me why but it worked. I do a bit of mobile testing so I remembering adding it but how / why it makes google think there is a authentication issue is a bit beyond me.

Sandisk to the rescue

OK so I have a lovely Cubox that boots off a micro SD card and also have Android mobile phones in the house with similarly sized SD cards. But .. I can't find the Micro / SD card thingy that you can put one in side the other to read it ..

Since my mobile needs to be rebooted every time I extract the microSD card it was apparent a decent solution would probably be useful. I can happily recommend the usb adapter that I found at my local DSE store for $20.

http://www.sandisk.com/products/readers-accessories/mobilemate-duo

Also qudos to the DSE sales rep who recommended I check trademe.co.nz as I'd find one for $5 + shipping .. my student days are over .. I wanted one now.

Email voicemail from asterisk

Nothing too flash - simple stuff and existing capability in TrixBox. Only problem I had was not being able to listen to the wav format recording on my cell (Android) or some desktops - the problem turned out to be common and resolving was simply a matter of changing a line of config, e.g. http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+Voicemail+as+email+using+sendmail

voicemail.conf

[general]
; Formats for writing Voicemail. Note that when using IMAP storage for
; voicemail, only the first format specified will be used.
;format=g723sf|wav49|wav
format = wav49|gsm|wav

The only other setting I changed (from default as part of this) was to not store the recording on the server (just email) - basically it is good to pick up the message remotely but having listened to it there is really no need to keep it (IMHO messages age so either listen or delete).

So in review there is now some basic IVR to ask who the message is for and once recorded the recording is emailed to said user. Happy campers.

MaharaDroid v1.8 released

Minor changes - added Japanese support and fixed a few bugs.

Still working on OAuth and additional concepts, but no time for major work at the moment.

Android OAuth experimentation

In searching for some sample OAuth client implementations in Android I came across Implementing the OAuth Flow in Android.

Android 2.3.4 SIP stack disconnects?

Now that I've moved to NDSL and VOIP for calling I can (via Trixbox) route all inbound calls to a calling group including everyone connected (i.e. everyones Android mobile sip client + the analogue phone via a Linksys / Cisco SPA2102).

That said some I found the Android SIP stack very limiting in that calls drop sounds and then disconnect after a short period of time (maybe 30s - 1 minute). Hunting the Internet I find mention of similar problems with links to resolution [1]. Something to try in the next few days (will update if it resolves my problem).

[1] http://forum.sipsorcery.com/viewtopic.php?t=3029&p=18029#p18098

ZTE V9 (TNZ V9)

My review of the ZTE V9 tablet running Android 2.1-update1 ($399 with accessories bundle).

I'll be honest my initial thought when I bought it was: I'll play with it, out of the normal kinda financial validation process, then quietly forget about it when I run out of excuses to use it. But to date that's not the case - the v9 tablet has found it's place as a shared device hanging out in the lounge, kitchen or bedside table (more on the shared bit later).

It's pretty good for the money - lets face it even if it became a white elephant it's not awful money for a 7" wifi photo frame (though I haven't found a perfect flickr photoframe app yet - certainly not a free one that supports Flickr auth, etc). But for 5-10 kiwi pesos I'm sure I can find something adequate here.

Beyond that it is a functioning eBook reader and web browser - although for me the web browsing experience is a little 50/50.

• 800x480 is really too small (involves horizontal scroll)
• browser support for 'near', 'far' zoom settings is cool but the screen resolution is not really up to it
• confusion over default recognition as phone v desktop .. some sites mobile is better others desktop (browsers with easy toggle on toolbar win here).

Where the ZTE v9 really wins though, as a 7" tablet over a standard handset, is multimedia .. namely photos, video and gaming (you may laugh at this - but I'm more of a suduku gamer than anything 3D). youTube, Facebook and other social media sites with video and photos embedded or linked come to life on a tablet. Other wins include a bigger UI for more boring things like email, etc.

So all good - well almost, there are some serious gripes. Namely:

• Lack of decent video conferencing software (why else have a camera front + back .. oh just for photos .. bugger)
• With only 2.1 I can't install apps on SD card (there are a lot more apps I would use on a tablet than on my phone .. filled internal memory on day 1)
• No flash - sadly this cripples some websites (a good reason for youTube app not just mobile web or maybe just flame 2degrees for their top-up site not working on it ;)
• I haven't got multi-touch working on any apps (maybe try Dolphin browser?)
• Selecting the notification bar and 'pulling down' is not easy for some reason (no matter how many times I re-run the calibration).

Support for 2.2 and improved 3rd party apps would go a long way to fixing the majority of these.

In the end the biggest disappointment is actually found in the accessories bundle (itself actually reasonable value). The leather wallet simply does not work as supplied. As it is touch sensitive screen the holes for 'Home', 'Menu' and 'Back' are confused when you try and poke a finger through. You succeed only in closing whatever app you are in ... to the point where you have to remove the leather pouch and continue. Mine now sits gathering dust. Interestingly the resistive touch screen is actually working for me, it's easy to wipe down and feels robust exposed to the elements ;).

An accessory I would prefer is a leather folder with edge holders and simple velcro .. the proporta.com one I have for my Nokia n800 is gold ;) .. Another accessory for the tablet would be a car headrest pouch .. instance movie player, game console, navigation unit for the little / big people in the back of the car.

Getting back to the device itself and that 'shared device' notion - there is a catch. The way Android works, with Google's tie in, is that you hook the device up to a Google account. Changing the account wipes the device clean .. apps and all. Hmm - problem, I don't necessarily want to be signed in all the time especially if the device is used by multiple parties. I can see a strong need for multi-user OS support for tablets. With a standard desktop style authentication but better yet the ability to recognise different unlock patterns (thus making it even easier to hack .. hmm, anyway .. moving on) . Even if they are cheap in the era of cloud computing buying 5 of them when you really only need 1 in the house is not a valid work around IMHO. Although I'm sure that's what everyone thought about telephones in the good old days.

So in conclusion - an interesting first foray into the world of tablets for me. I must admit, I now see their place in the portable device spectrum. Furthermore, the ZTE V9 is a credible device for the money. The potential to upgrade it and the likely improvements to 3rd party software for tablets mean it could be a worthwhile punt if you're curious to see what all the fuss is about. My pick is you won't be left with a white elephant. This is supported by other online review - check the Optus ZTE V9 Pre-Paid Tablet Review ,  4-5 stars and highly recommended.

Useful Android test things

Using the emulator to use the camera required an SD card and I also need to push location details. Both were achieved by:

eos:~/android/sdk/tools$ ./mksdcard 1024M mySdCardFile.img
eos:~/android/sdk/tools$ ./emulator -port 5554 -avd My_AVD_1.5 -sdcard mySdCardFile.img &
eos:~/android/sdk/tools$ telnet localhost 5554
OK
geo fix -41.3 174.773233
OK

The only problem is that the Location getTime() and getAccuracy() calls were not as expected for a live phone so also implemented the following:

EMULATOR = ( Settings.Secure.getString(this.getContentResolver(),
android.provider.Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID) == null );

Kiritaki Koha

Been waiting to spend some time on Koha - it's a pretty big beasty requiring some hefty domain knowledge before you can really get your teeth into. So I tried to add value in a way I know - mobilising bits of it. Namely - wouldn't it be cool if you could scan a book and see if it's in your library .. if it is, place a hold on it and wander down and grab it. Now you can ...

kiritakikoha or kiritaki koha comes from:

kiritaki - (noun) client, customer, consumer.

koha - (noun) gift, present, offering, donation, contribution.

kiritakikoha is an Android client for Koha.

Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha's impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base.

MaharaDroid

MaharaDroid enables Android phones to share or upload content to a Mahara instance. Note: requires Mahara >= 1.4.

Got it in the market awhile back now. Borrows heavily from flickrfree - Cheers to Russel for letting me use his code. Useful experience getting that off the ground. Still plenty to learn but a fun little project

Phase 2 nearly underway

It's been some time since the first major push and we are looking to have some time soon to make a (long awaited) start on Phase II. We have some goals established for the project but also for the company (aka so there is some business sense in this R&D for the company I work for). All in all .. there should be some traction here shortly.

On the side I have just purchased myself an AT&T / Rogers Wireless Nexus One (which supports 850/2100 MHz UMTS so works on fastest mobile data network in NZ). Very happy with the device but also looking out for 2.2 update (the manual ERE release does not work for the AT&T built EPE variant).