The Royal Wedding Phone

A few years ago I used to work in an establishment that served Italian coffee. Quite often, I would serve older customers who I referred to as "Grumbly Crumblies". These customers would often sit down, look at the hot beverages menu and start grumbling. 
"Why can't they just do a simple black coffee...?", "Fancy coffees? All I want is a plain white with two sugars!" and "£1.50 for a coffee? They must be having a laugh,  I remember when you could get a coffee for 10p!" were all grumbles the majority of the crumblies engaged in.
When this sort of customer is choosing a mobile phone I'm pretty sure they have a similar attitudes. In my opinion Alcatel and the Carphone Warehouse have a great mobile phone for the "Grumbly Crumblies"... Yes, it's the Royal Wedding Phone!
The Royal Wedding Phone
On sale at the Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy in the UK for just one pound sterling, provided you purchase a £10 top-up, you get one of the best value for money mobile phones ever (sim-lock-free)! Considering that in the classy box you get a mini-USB charger, a mono mini-USB wired handsfree and a one-sheet instruction manual you can be sure you won't break the bank. I find this amusing because the value of the charger (which can be used as a replacement charger for older Motorola/Blackberry/mp3 player devices) is more than the whole package itself.
The box of The Royal Wedding Phone
The phone itself is a very-few-frills device which has a colour backlit screen, an unevenly backlit keyboard and the facility to make calls and send text messages. It also comes with some java games installed, an FM radio and an LED torch.

Aesthetics are a subjective thing, so the design which has a Union Jack motif going on on the front and a silver CW 29-04-2011 on the red back may or may not rock your grumbly tastes... You also get a picture of the happy couple at their engagement as a wallpaper and a midi version of God Save The Queen as a ringtone. This is truly the white coffee with two sugars of mobile phones.
Front

Back

Sadly you don't get a camera, a web browser or any form of internet access on the device. This means you won't be able to visit http://www.aretheymarriedyet.com/ just to make sure.

Best of luck to the couple who are getting married tomorrow, and I hope they remember to have their mobile phones switched off during the ceremony, no matter how appropriate the ringtone is...

Three MiFi - Freedom Is Easy

Last week I travelled from Edinburgh to Prestwick Airport by means of public transport. Along the way I took my trusty Asus EEE PC 900A netbook a Three UK MiFi as well as the rest of the luggage I was taking to Italy for my spring holiday.
On a train, using my netbbok and MiFi
My netbook is currently running a beta release of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. This version of Ubuntu has drivers built in to use all the most popular mobile broadband dongles and usually there is no need to load additional software to use them. I have tested my netbook with my Three UK mobile broadband dongle and with my T-Mobile one (both are made by ZTE but run on different chipsets).

For this trip, I was not going to be taking any dongles to connect to mobile broadband though. Recently I won a competition organised by Three UK and was sent a Three MiFi device. The MiFi is a portable WiFi hotspot, that lets up to five WiFi devices connect to mobile broadband through it.

The MiFi is great if you are travelling and using a netbook on the go. Rather than have a dongle sticking out of the side of your netbook, you can have the MiFi in a pocket and use WiFi to connect to the internet through it. I can think of three main advantages of this:

  • Not having a dongle sticking out of the side of your netbook reduces the risk of accidentally damaging both your netbook and/or dongle. Think about it - if your netbook were to slip/fall or lean on the dongle, leverage could damage both the dongle and the netbook's usb port. (I have had this happen to me once... RIP Acer Aspire One ZG5)
  • Using a MiFi your netbook's bettery life should be better. This is because your netbook is not powering the USB device that is connecting to the mobile broadband, you are just using WiFi. The MiFi is powered by its own internal battery, and recharges using a standard Micro-USB connector. This is useful to me because both my mobile phones use the same charger format, so when away (as I am now) I only need to take one charger with me for three devices.
  • You can connect up to five devices to the MiFi at once. I did connect more than one device while sitting in the Costa coffee bar in Glasgow Central Station. Both my netbook and my HTC Desire were using the MiFi while I was using Gwibber and downloading a podcast to listen to on my flight. I didn't really perceive any slower network connection while doing so.
Having a hot chocolate, using the MiFi and netbook as well as my HTC Desire.
When I got my first broadband dongle and was using it on Linux (at the time Ubuntu 9.04 and Mint) I had to add drivers and go through a long set up process to make it work properly. This was usually quite a hassle, but was made  relatively easy for me thanks to posts by Liam Green-Hughes on his blog. Those days seem to be gone with Ubuntu 11.04 as dongle support is much better. To tell the truth I wish that back in the day I had had a MiFi. Messing around in terminal windows and adding repositories was fun, but a MiFi would have made life so much easier.
MiFi
I used the MiFi for most of the trip while I was in the UK (on buses, trains, in stations and airports) and had no problems with reception along the way.  I was happily able to use my netbook and still had enough battery life to watch a couple of episodes of Mostly Photo on the flight.


I'm currently in Italy enjoying the spring weather and time with my family.

Just a quick disclosure at the end of the post: I did not pay for my Three UK MiFi device or the mobile broadband sim card with 12 Gb of data on it. This was my competition prize and I was not remunerated by Three UK or any other entity for writing this post. Hopefully this disclaimer avoids any Mike Arrington incidents...

Please feel free to leave questions/comments. Any feedback is appreciated!

How To Get WiFi Working on a Dell 1120 in Linux Mint 10

I was setting up Linux Mint on my aunt's Dell 1120 earlier this evening and was amazed by how easy it is to get everything working even though it involves freedom hating (proprietary) drivers.


The reason I was setting up Linux Mint on this machine for my aunt is the ease of use of Linux Mint for people who are not too comfortable with computers. I dare say that it was so easy my auntie could have done it herself.

What You'll Need To Follow This Tutorial

  • A Dell Mini 1120 or similarly specified AMD Vision chipset machine.
  • Linux Mint 10 installed and updated on the above mentioned computer.
  • Access to a modem/router with a network cable.
  • A working internet connection on the above mentioned modem/router.
  • 10-20 minutes of time depending on the speed of your internet connection.


Step One

If your machine has Linux Mint 10 installed and updated, and your computer is plugged into the modem/router with a working internet connection, you should be seeing something like this:


Click on the Menu button in the bottom right left hand corner of the screen and then click in the search box in the menu pane that pops up. Start typing in "Additional Drivers". Before you have finished typing in "Additional Drivers" you should be given the option of a program called "Additional Drivers" above the search box. Go ahead and click on it. You should then get a window open up like this:

Step 2

Click on the first driver that is in the new window that is entitled Broadcom STA proprietary wireless driver and then click on the Activate button second last to bottom right of the same window. A new popup window should appear telling you that the driver is downloading and installing. Don't panic, that is what is supposed to happen.

Once the download and installation has finished, the driver at the top of the window should have a green light next to it. If it does, you have successfully installed the wireless driver on your Linux Mint machine.

Step Three

Click on the second driver called ATI/AMD proprietary FGLRX graphics driver. As with the wireless driver, click the Activate button. The driver will download and install. When the driver has been downloaded and installed, you will be prompted to restart your computer to activate the driver.

Step Four

Restart your computer and then everything should be working.

Feel free to post questions and/or comments and let me know how you get on.

Picc0110's Photo Posts - Edinburgh Ferris Wheel

Picc0110 is a twenty-something year old recent University graduate who is doing very little with life at the moment. [His words, not mine...]

To fill some time he recently decided to invest in a Canon DSLR camera (Digital Single Lense Reflex) - and is having lots of fun with it.


Here's his first post on Todoleo Tech Blog about a fantastic picture he took in December 2010.


Edinburgh Ferris Wheel by Picc0110. All Rights Reserved
I took this photograph in December 2010 at the Edinburgh Christmas Fair. I am going to explain some of the simple techniques I used to receive the desired effects.



This is the equipment I used:
  • My camera is my pride and joy - it's an entry level Canon DSLR - EOS 450D
  • The lens I was using is a Canon 17-85mm USM lens - this lens is a middle of the road lens, I am convinced a more basic lens would've received the same desired effects.
  • I made use of a small compact Velbon tripod (CX-mini) I own which is easy to carry about when travelling lightly.
  • No SLR user should be without filters. My camera always has a 'HOYA HD Protector' which doesn't add any effect - it just protect my lens from scratches. For the shots I took above I also used a cheap ND filter - it cost a couple of UK pounds on eBay.


I shall begin by explaining the function of the ND8 filter - this filter is a dark tinted filter which makes the camera sensor see everything appear darker than it actually is to the human eye - similar to how we perceive things when we wear really dark tinted sunglasses. The benefit of having this effect on the camera is that we can keep the shutter of the camera open a lot longer without over-exposing the image - again think of yourself with those sunglasses - you can stare at a bright light longer without getting a headache.

The camera was set on “full manual mode”. This allows me to set my both my aperture and shutter speed. My aparture was turned down to f20.0 to create quite a long depth to the image - I needed the Ferris wheel to be in focus just as much as the foreground in front of it. My shutter speed is the other important part- it was set on 30 seconds - which is the longest it can be set on my camera without using a remote control. 30 second shutter speed simply implies that the lens is capturing the image for 30 seconds from the point I press the shutter release on the camera - this is how you create the light-trail in an image - as the ferris wheel, traffic and pedestrians are moving the camera sensor is recording their movement.

If it wasn't for the tripod allowing my camera to rest steadily there would have been a lot of blurriness. Imagine keeping the camera steady with your bare hands in Scottish weather in December for 30 seconds - simply impossible!

The ND filter allowed me to keep the shutter speed open for longer without blinding the camera with light, by doing so it allowed me to capture the ferris wheel’s rotation. If the shutter speed had been 10 seconds, for example, the ferris wheel would not have rotated as far and in turn would not have created the effect.
Edinburgh Ferris Wheel by Picc0110. All Rights Reserved
I hope the above information has been useful and educational, please do leave constructive comments, let us know what you think - and follow me on Flickr and Twitter.

Picc0110's Photo Posts

Picc0110 is a friend of mine and in future he will be writing posts on this blog about digital photography, cameras and web photo services.
A Self-Portrait of Picc0110
Picc0110 is a twenty-something year old recent University graduate who is doing very little with life at the moment. [His words, not mine...]


To fill some time he recently decided to invest in a Canon DSLR camera (Digital Single Lense Reflex) - and is having lots of fun with it. 

The majority of his photos are completely unedited - this is due to his lack of Photoshop or GIMP skills. As time goes by he will write a few posts about how he gets on, what he's doing with his camera and what new things he's learning.


Please feel free to post comments/questions either here or on his Flickr profile and let him know what you think.

This Is My Next Podcast. Yes It Is!

This morning I'm in a good mood. I woke up and listened to This Is My Next Podcast episode 1, a new podcast presented by Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel and Paul Miller (all three formerly of Engadget and the Engadget Podcast).
Is this sponsored by the Orange Mobile Network?
The tone, structure (what structure?) and 8-bit intro music are a seamless continuation of what the Engadget Podcast was with the Boss, the Attorney and the Pixel Density Enthusiast (and Trent Wolbe's production).

"It's not the end of the beginning. It's the beginning of the end of the beginning. Of the end. Of the beginning." TIMNP (2011)


Well done guys! Great show! Keep informing and entertaining us!

Freelish.us Having Problems? [Updated]

I've just tried to log onto Freelish.us and been redirected to Status.net where things are a bit naked lets say.
It feels a bit naked...
I hope the Status.net team fix it soon, I was looking forward to doing some bookmark reading this morning.


Update


Freelish.us is now up and running again. It is now time to do some reading of content recommended by others...

Engadget Fragmentation Leads To SB Nation

During my usual news reading this morning I woke up to tweets and posts from Joanna Stern, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller and Joshua Topolsky speaking about their future.
From what I understand, the future of the motley crew is bright, much brighter than it would have been on the Engadget ship flying the Huffington Post Tech flag...


As Kara Swisher reports, Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller, Joanna Stern, Ross Miller, Chris Ziegler, Justin Glow and Dan Chilton will be joining a yet unnamed tech project at SB Nation (SportsBlog Nation).


I have been following Engadget for years and enjoyed these writers and reviewers' posts, as well as the brilliant Engadget podcast with Topolsky, Patel and Miller + guests. It was sad to see them leave Huffington Post Tech.


So, to take a meme from the Engadget Podcast, all this Engadget Fragmentation has lead to SB Nation.


I look forward to reading and listening (maybe even watching) content created, interpreted and relayed by the crew formerly at Engadget. I especially look forward to listening to the Podcast trio formed by Joshua, Nilay and Paul +guests.


All the best to all involved in the new venture!


Feel free to post comments/questions.

Freelish.us - Federated Soial Bookmarks

Yesterday I signed up to a service that I thought was Evan Prodromou's April Fool for 2011. From a link on Identi.ca I read Evan's blog post about a federated social bookmarking service he was launching called Freelish.us. Think of it as the Identi.ca of Digg.com/Delicio.us. 

In Evan's words:

"Today, we're launching a new site [...]. Freelish.us is a social bookmarking service, similar to dozens of other similar services. It lets users store URLs – bookmarks – with tags to make them easy to organize and share. You can subscribe to other users' bookmarks and get a stream of interesting things to read in your inbox."

The reason I thought Freelish.us was an April Fool was the look and feel of the site. The logo and UI are very lilac (very, very lilac...), and it was so similar to Identi.ca (apart from the lack of character limit in posts and the "bookmarklet tool")
Freelish.us is very, very lilac.

The Bookmarklet Tool is a bookmark which is java code that runs in your browser and gives you the possibility to pass the webpage you are browsing to Freelish.us. In Firefox 4 it is all good: you drag the link to the bookmark bar and you get your button to pass pages to Freelish.us. Sadly I use Chrome/Chromium on smaller screens (netbooks/laptop) so I don't have a bookmark bar. The bookmarklet tool doesn't work for me at the moment, but I'm hoping some enthusiastic individual makes a Chrome/Chromium extension for this soon. Once that is in place I'll be all in on Freelish.us.

At the time of writing this post Freelish.us is a bit like departure lounges at Edinburgh airport at 4 am: there are hardly any people there, who would like to get going but there are no flights, no shops or cafes open and almost no other people to speak to.

I believe this service could take off and be a great success, especially if the API is usable in clients like Seesmic on mobile devices and more people get on board. Having said that, I'll go and convince Candice to sign up now...

Todoleo.com Exclusive Interview With Bill Gates [Updated]

Bill Gates is currently the non-executive part-time Chairman of Microsoft, the American software company he co-founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked amongst the world's wealthiest people, and has also pursued a number of philanthropic endeavours, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.
To celebrate the move of the Todoleo Tech Blog to http://www.todoleo.com/ Bill has agreed to an exclusive interview in which we'll touch on subjects related to the technology and consumer electronics industry.

On Windows
Microsoft Windows is globally the most used operating system on personal computers. Since 1985, in its first incarnation as an add-on for MS-DOS, Microsoft has come to dominate the world's PC market. Microsoft now has versions of Windows that run on PCs, servers and smartphones.

Naturally the first subject I touched on was Windows, which Bill is still really enthusiastic about.

"When Microsoft first started out with Windows the market was totally different, computers were not connected through the internet and software was distributed  in boxes on tapes or disks. I remember playing Leisure Suit Larry and thinking man, look what we've achieved and what I could do if I left the office one night."

"Making computers easier and safer to use through the years, and kickstarting the PC revolution was great. Now Windows is the best way to run iTunes and sync an iPod. You can even install Chrome and Google things. The internet has really changed things. On Chrome I can even go into incognito mode and buy my wife a gift. By the way, Windows 7 was my idea."

On XBOX


I'm personally an XBOX 360 owner and spend far too much time playing games on it. Microsoft has a great product and the media capabilities are useful in the living room, even for non gamers. So I asked Bill what this living room computer is to him.

"The XBOX is a wonderful educational tool. I would recommend it for the character formation of every individual on the planet. There is so much you can learn. If you are getting ready to move to a big city, just play GTA IV for a while and you'll gain all the social skills you'll need. One of the best ways to do your history homework is on the XBOX: play Red Dead Redeption, Assassin's Creed or Command & Conquer Red Alert and you'll know what history was all about."

"At Microsoft we still have a lot of work to do on the XBOX though. I've been buying some games like Gran Turismo and Little Big Planet and still can't get them to work."

"When my wife is not at home I can even use the XBOX as  a media centre and play back some specialist movies I downloaded using Chrome in incognito mode. Man, that is so awesome!"


On The UK
Bill Gates was Gates was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005. He is often in the UK, as he is today, so I asked him what his favourite thing is over here.

"To tell the truth, I really come here for the Tesco Finest Heather Honey & Stem Ginger Yogurt. It's really tasty and it has lots of bits of Honeycomb in it. Mmmm, honeycomb...!"

On Mobile
Bill's mention of Honeycomb brought us nicely onto the subject of mobile:

"The future of communication and computers is Mobile. I recently got this amazing phone called a Nexus One. It has a really good touchscreen, I can check my email, Google stuff and even download podcasts on the go. I really like the Outlaws Podcast where they have a segment about Microsoft called Microwatch. The German guy and the Liverpudlian are so informative and entertaining!"
"Anyway, I had better get going. I have to submit a bug in Launchpad on an OS project my friend in London called Mark is working on. It's something to do with DirectX not working properly."


Thanks to Bill for taking time to help launch Todoleo.com. You can carry on following the Todoleo Tech Blog at its new address: http://www.todoleo.com/


Update


Yes, this was an April's Fools thing. I see Bill's search engine, Bing took it well though.


Thanks for all the feedback on this!

Feel free to leave comments/questions!

Launcher 7 For Android

One of the great things about Google's Android operating system for smartphones is that it is an open platform. To explain this simply, if you don't like anything or you just feel like it, you can change it. This applies from the simple appearance to core functionality and applications.
One of the components of Android is an application called "Launcher" that deals with the main user interface and look and feel of the homescreen and application drawer. The most common launcher layout is usually a horizontal homescreen you can scroll through where shortcuts and widgets can be added and a vertical scrolling application drawer. This is the user interface that has been in use since the first Android device released to the general public in 2008, the G1.
A Classic Android Homescreen

An Android Application Drawer
When Android smartphone manufacturers personalise the Android operating system, they often change the launcher or replace it with a new one, usually with added functionality and sometimes changing the user interface. Most manufacturers only change things slightly and add extra functionality (such as HTC with their Sense user interface, Motorola with MotoBlur and Samsung with TouchWiz). This helps them differentiate and brand their products.
HTC Sense Homescreen
Samsung's TouchWiz Homescreen


Motorola's MotoBlur Homescreen
The Android developer community has also developed many different launcher applications that replace the ones that come preloaded on phones. Often they are variations on the same user interface offering easier theming (changing colours, backgrounds, icons), less usage of memory and processor power (my favourite is Zeam Launcher), or completely different user interface and functionality (such as SlideScreen).
Zeam Launcher's Homescreen
Slidescreen's Homescreen
For the last few days I have been using a new launcher that imitates the Windows Phone 7 operating system's user interface called Launcher 7. At launch, Windows Phone 7 was not customisable in any way by manufacturers as far as the user interface was concerned. It has a tiled, minimalistic but functional user interface. Launcher 7 is easy to download from the Android Market and install on your device. Once it is installed just hit the Home button and you are usually given an option to choose which launcher to use: the one that was in use up until now or Launcher 7.
Launcher 7 Homescreen

Launcher 7 Application Drawer
I enjoy the sense of humor of the author of this launcher because he has replaced icons on tiles such as the Internet Explorer one with a Google Chrome one, and the Windows Marketplace with the Android Market. Launcher 7 is extremely functional (as is the UI of Windows Phone 7), and runs very, very smoothly on my HTC Desire. It does get easier to operate once you are used to it, and it is fun to confuse other phone geeks with by making them think you are running Windows Phone 7 on your Android device.

There are a large number of settings that are personalisable, such as adding tiles, changing the tiles colours and how icons appear on the tiles. You can also choose to hide the Android status bar to have a full screen experience.
Launcher 7 Settings Menu
Launcher 7 is available to download from the Android Market, and is fun to play around with. Try it out and see how you like it. You may decide to stick with it, or maybe even change your mobile device for a Windows Phone 7 one... I'm definitely not going to do that unless someone gives me one for free! (wink, wink, nudge, nudge Nokia!)


Feel free to post comments/questions!

Orange San Francisco/ZTE Blade - Budget Android Rocks!

I recently purchased an Orange San Francisco (ZTE Blade) to prepare for someone who wanted to have a simple Android smartphone set up and ready to use.


The Orange San Francisco is a UK network branded version of the Chinese manufacturer ZTE's Blade Android smartphone. (As is the Dell XCD35 in other parts of the world)

The best source of information for rooting/unlocking and installing custom versions of Android on the Orange San Francisco is the MoDaCo Forum related specifically to the device: Blade.MoDaCo.com
A screenshot of the MoDaCo Forums
Another simpler and more "I'm afraid of computers" resource for customising the device is orangesanfrancisco.co.uk
A screenshot of orangesanfrancisco.co.uk
Using the resource on the MoDaCo Forums as soon as I had unboxed the device, I network unlocked it, rooted it and installed ROM Manager. It was then time to say goodbye to Orange's horrible Android 2.1 ROM and apps and hello to a  newer version of Android by Fibblesan called FLB (Faster Lighter Better). I've been a fan of Fibblesan's since he was putting together FLB Mods for the T-Mobile Pulse and would recommend his Android Mods to whoever would like the most stock version of Android possible on a non Google Experience device.

After the FLB Mod was up and running, I installed a few of my favourite apps to make the user experience a little more pleasant. First off it was the Zeam Launcher which is my favourite because of its dock and lightness on system requirements. Then I installed the MIUI Digital Weather Clock. After that was done I installed a theme from the Unified Theme Thread on the MoDaCo forums.

Currently FLB Mod is based on Android 2.2 FroYo, which means it is faster, more responsive and you have the facility to use the WiFi hotspot feature.

For a sub £100 device this is excellent value for money. If you would like a powerful smartphone but don't want to dish out too much cash, I would definitely recommend it. It is easy (and free...) to network unclock and use with any sim card, it has a decent camera and is easily upgradeable and customisable. 

I would like to thank Fibblesan, Frankish and everyone else involved with MoDaCo forums as well as the author of orangesanfrancisco.co.uk for making the personalisation of this device so relatively easy.

Feel free to post comments/questions. I'll reply asap.

Virgin Media Email: Rebadged Gmail

Here's something you may not know: if you have a Virgin Media email address (ending @virginmedia.com) you actually have a rebadged Gmail address.

The user interface looked very Googly...

I found this out because I subscribe to Virgin Media's excellent cable broadband service and recently started using one of the email accounts that come with my subscription. The user interface of the webmail service looked/felt very familiar (Googly...). There was also the tell-tale "Copyright Google 2011" bit at the bottom of the page.

Just to confirm it all, I tried adding my @virginmedia.com email address to my Gmail client on one of my Android smartphones. It works perfectly and also synchronizes my contacts with the account.

You can add your @virginmedia.com email account to the Android Gmail client.

So if you are a Virgin Media subscriber and you are getting a new Android device and you don't have a Gmail account, there is no need to set one up. Your @virginmedia email address will be ideal for setting up and using your new Android device.

Feel free to leave comments/questions below!

Joli OS 1.2

During the last week Tariq Krim announced the changes happening with Jolicloud, the Ubuntu-based Linux operating system.


The Jolicloud OS has now been renamed Joli OS, and has been updated to version 1.2. Joli OS 1.2 has a newer user interface with various tweaks, the facility to create your own web application launchers and seamless Dropbox integration in the OS. You can read about the changes in Joli OS 1.2 in the blog post here.


I was prompted to update my system this morning and did so. The update ran in the background while I continued using my trusty Asus EEE PC 900A for my usual web browsing, social networking (using Seesmic Web) and news reading (using Google Reader).



After the update finished, I restarted my netbook and I was in Joli OS 1.2. The login page is slightly different, there are a few new wallpapers and it generally feels shinier.



Well done to Tariq and the rest of the Jolicloud / Joli OS team! I'm enjoying Joli OS 1.2!

You can download Joli OS 1.2 from here. Enjoy!

Please feel free to post comments/questions on this article.

How To Install SopCast Player on Ubuntu

SopCast is a simple, free way to broadcast video and audio or watch the video and listen to radio on the Internet.



If you would like to set up the SopCast Player in Ubuntu to watch live streams, the instructions on how to do so are as follows:

Step One

Make sure your Ubuntu machine is switched on, connected to the Internet and that you have the administrative password (and rights) to the computer. [This may sound stupid, but it always helps to avoid comments that get classed as spam on the post]

Open a Terminal window. This can usually be found in "Accessories"

Step Two

Copy and paste (or type) the following command into the terminal prompt, and then press enter.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jason-scheunemann/ppa

You will be prompted to enter your administrator password, do so and the repository will be added.

Step Three

Copy and paste (or type) the following command into the terminal prompt, and then press enter.

sudo apt-get update

This will update the source list. You may be prompted to enter your administrator password again, if so do it.


Step Four


Copy and paste (or type) the following command into the terminal prompt, and then press enter.


wget http://sopcast-player.googlecode.com/files/sp-auth_3.0.1_i386.deb


This will download sp-auth, a package the SopCast Player needs to work.


Step Five


Copy and paste (or type) the following command into the terminal prompt, and then press enter.


sudo dpkg -i sp-auth_3.0.1_i386.deb


This will install sp-auth, the package the SopCast Player needs to work. Again, if your are prompted for your administrator password, enter it.

Step Six

Copy and paste (or type) the following command into the terminal prompt, and then press enter.

sudo apt-get install sopcast-player

This should install the SopCast Player. If you are prompted to enter your administrator password do so. If you are prompted to confirm the download and install do so.

Step Seven

Reboot your computer and then look for the SopCast Player in the Multimedia menu. It all should be ready to use.






Thanks to SopCast, Jason Scheunemann and everyone using SopCast.


Please leave comments and let me know how you get on.

Blogging On The Move

I'm on my way to an appointment using public transport.

Using one of my older Android devices to post the entry using the Blogger app, I just want to point out how good the Nokia 5230 is as a portable media player.

The music player is fantastic. I'm listening to an episode of This Week in Tech (TWiT) which is quite long (2 hrs). Pausing, resuming and scrolling through the content is really easy. It's much easier than it is on my Android devices' media player software.

Just sayin'!


Todoleo Tech Blog App

I have just submitted my first application for approval!


Some of you may expect me to have prepared an Android application, a Linux one or maybe even a WebOS one. If you know me, you can remain certain that the application was definitely not for Apple's iOS, but strangely it was for the Nokia Ovi Store. That's right, the Nokia Ovi Store!




I've submitted an application called Todoleo Tech Blog. Users of the application will be able to keep up to date with this blog on their Nokia handsets.


Please keep your fingers crossed for me, I'm hoping to have the Todoleo Tech Blog application approved by the end of the week.