Friday, May 23, 2008
UMPCs And The Race To The Bottom - Or how much more does a Flash SSD weights, when it's full with data?
Our last Macadamian Barcamp session focused on Ultra Mobiles and Netbook PCs. The whole race to the bottom seem to have started when the One Laptop Per Child project took the initiative of creating an affordable ultra-mobile PC aimed at developing countries school children. Asus followed shortly and its Eee PC grabbed most of our attention with its slim size and crispy screen.
On top of portability, we found that most UMPCs offer the following advantages:
There's always the power versus battery life aspect, which is generally slim compared to smartphones. The One Laptop Per Child PC battery lasts longer but its intentional Fisher-Price looks and ruggedness make it only valuable for either elementary-aged children or front line military soldiers.
The Nokia Internet Tablets looks very promising since they seem to have a good balance between battery life, available applications and horsepower.
Now that most computer vendors have embraced the idea of making Asus Eee-like PCs, we can only expect UMPCs will follow the same fast-paced evolution as cellphones and competition should keep their costs low. Both Eee PC and OLPC can now run WindowsXP. This doesn't make them gain an extra gram, they might even cost cheaper but personally, I feel using them without their native OSes just ain't Kosher.
On top of portability, we found that most UMPCs offer the following advantages:
- Bigger screens compared to smartphones, Wi-Fi and now WiMAX support (some Phillips devices already support WiMAX, and Nokia tablets will have WiMAX this summer).
- Most can be used as a car GPS, most have GPS built-in, others can use a Bluetooth or USB GPS receiver.
- They're good for note taking, Web browsing, email writing - They're great for common tasks and while most don't handle Vista very well, they have enough horsepower to run most applications written for desktop PCs.
There's always the power versus battery life aspect, which is generally slim compared to smartphones. The One Laptop Per Child PC battery lasts longer but its intentional Fisher-Price looks and ruggedness make it only valuable for either elementary-aged children or front line military soldiers.The Nokia Internet Tablets looks very promising since they seem to have a good balance between battery life, available applications and horsepower.
Now that most computer vendors have embraced the idea of making Asus Eee-like PCs, we can only expect UMPCs will follow the same fast-paced evolution as cellphones and competition should keep their costs low. Both Eee PC and OLPC can now run WindowsXP. This doesn't make them gain an extra gram, they might even cost cheaper but personally, I feel using them without their native OSes just ain't Kosher.
Labels: Barcamp, Netbooks, UMPC
Monday, April 21, 2008
A quick look at Apple's iPhone SDK - Barcamp style!
The latest Macadamian Barcamp session focused on Apple's iPhone SDK. We found that the iPhone SDK shined by the quality of the tools it bundled. Instruments, the included profiler was rather impressive. This seems to be one of the framework's strong points. Templates to start building applications out of the box are also provided in Xcode.
We agreed that since the iPhone framework requires the use of Objective-C, it will have a fairly extensive learning curve for any person not used to native OSX development. In comparison, Google's Android is based on technologies we are more familiar with, but still has some rough edges. It will be nice to see how the two SDKs stack up, once the Android platform becomes more mature.
Below's a Barcamp style comparison chart of the smartphone SDKs we looked at:
We agreed that since the iPhone framework requires the use of Objective-C, it will have a fairly extensive learning curve for any person not used to native OSX development. In comparison, Google's Android is based on technologies we are more familiar with, but still has some rough edges. It will be nice to see how the two SDKs stack up, once the Android platform becomes more mature.
Below's a Barcamp style comparison chart of the smartphone SDKs we looked at:
Contributors - Aaron, JCB, Tony H, Dan M, Mark K, NOT Oren.
Labels: Android, Barcamp, iPhone, Smartphones
Thursday, April 10, 2008
BarCamps or: How I Learned To Let Go, And Love The Self Organizing Workshop
Macadamian is made up of many different people with a very large space of interests. Any given trip across the office can net one a variety of lessons, covering anything from how extremely large microwave dishes work and where not to point them, to car operating systems, and how to tie gmail into an extremely effective and professional GTD setup with a couple of greasemonkey scripts. It is to capitalize on this aggregation of knowledge that I have decided to start organizing Barcamps at our Ottawa office. What better way to work through ideas, practical or "what if?", than to lure a bunch of engineers together in a room and change some lightbulbs.
Barcamps were traditionally intended as "hack-a-thons", or "open source workshops". It is the latter definition I have chosen to concentrate on. A workshop without a plan, also known as "winging it", will put fear in the hearts of anybody who has ever organized any presentation. But this is where the strength of the Barcamp lies. The organizer of Barcamp needs only to set the meeting in motion, and it takes on life of it's own. The immediate disadvantage would appear to be that without organization, the members will not stay on topic and the collective attention will wander off topic. In practice, however, the common interest of all attendees will steer the workshop on a relatively tangent topic. And this is the key: when the attendees walk away from a completed Barcamp, they have participated in an active, hands-on, discussion of the primary topic and relevant related topics.
What starts as a Barcamp to learn about Google Android's architecture, will also cover the history of open mobile platforms, wireless signaling, carrier business practices, and competitor behavior. This sort of many-to-many learning ensures that all questions are raised and answered. Compare that with a one-to-many presentation that might have to rush through certain topics that are not immediately relevant to the stated topic, and you start to see how
a Barcamp can become an extremely powerful tool. Instead of following the presenter's ideas, the workshop will follow at the pace set by its attendees.
So how does one organize such an ad-hoc workshop?
Step 1: One Foundation
Imagination sparks innovation. Not all attendees are going to be aware of Google Android in detail, or mobile platforms at all. Prepare to have several high level introductory items to get the discussion going. Google's original announcement of the Android SDK is a good start. It doesn't go into heavy detail and establishes context. More importantly, instead of showing code or
documentation, it shows practical uses and what is possible with their new platform.
Step 2: Punky Reggae Party
Discussion ensues. This is the event horizon of the Barcamp. What starts as a discussion about Google Android can cover any hundred different topics, from UI design, JVM design, hardware design, or even be a practical walkthrough installing eclipse, creating applications, and attempting to install them in the Android VM (which we never did get to work properly, for the record).
Step 3: Pass It On
A Barcamp should have some tangible output, if only notes. Attendees should be able to look at minutes or resulting code to review what was covered as a refresher, or a base for further research. What's more, those that couldn't attend would also have something to look at, and would be able to follow along on their own.
Barcamps were traditionally intended as "hack-a-thons", or "open source workshops". It is the latter definition I have chosen to concentrate on. A workshop without a plan, also known as "winging it", will put fear in the hearts of anybody who has ever organized any presentation. But this is where the strength of the Barcamp lies. The organizer of Barcamp needs only to set the meeting in motion, and it takes on life of it's own. The immediate disadvantage would appear to be that without organization, the members will not stay on topic and the collective attention will wander off topic. In practice, however, the common interest of all attendees will steer the workshop on a relatively tangent topic. And this is the key: when the attendees walk away from a completed Barcamp, they have participated in an active, hands-on, discussion of the primary topic and relevant related topics.What starts as a Barcamp to learn about Google Android's architecture, will also cover the history of open mobile platforms, wireless signaling, carrier business practices, and competitor behavior. This sort of many-to-many learning ensures that all questions are raised and answered. Compare that with a one-to-many presentation that might have to rush through certain topics that are not immediately relevant to the stated topic, and you start to see how
a Barcamp can become an extremely powerful tool. Instead of following the presenter's ideas, the workshop will follow at the pace set by its attendees.
So how does one organize such an ad-hoc workshop?
Step 1: One Foundation
Imagination sparks innovation. Not all attendees are going to be aware of Google Android in detail, or mobile platforms at all. Prepare to have several high level introductory items to get the discussion going. Google's original announcement of the Android SDK is a good start. It doesn't go into heavy detail and establishes context. More importantly, instead of showing code or
documentation, it shows practical uses and what is possible with their new platform.
Step 2: Punky Reggae Party
Discussion ensues. This is the event horizon of the Barcamp. What starts as a discussion about Google Android can cover any hundred different topics, from UI design, JVM design, hardware design, or even be a practical walkthrough installing eclipse, creating applications, and attempting to install them in the Android VM (which we never did get to work properly, for the record).
Step 3: Pass It On
A Barcamp should have some tangible output, if only notes. Attendees should be able to look at minutes or resulting code to review what was covered as a refresher, or a base for further research. What's more, those that couldn't attend would also have something to look at, and would be able to follow along on their own.
Labels: Android, Barcamp, Google, MacCamp
