It has been hard to miss the story of the Apple engineer who left a rumored prototype of 4G iPhone at a beer garden. Some time later Gizmodo got hold of that 4G iPhone and posted a report on it on-line (interesting stuff). Scott Adams, the man behind Dilbert comic has made a two comic strips on this incident to his blog. That Lost 4G Phone posting contains those first drafts of those comics. Note that there was no need to add anything to the story as it has been told in the media (media’s speculation of events) and it is funny. Brilliant!
Archive for the ‘Products’ Category
That Lost 4G Phone
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010Look inside iPad
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010The iPad The iPad is a tablet computer developed by Apple Inc. Since the announcement of it in January 2010 it has been one of the most talked about technology gadget. Understanding the iPad’s Industrial Design article tells that iPad is the culmination of Jon Ive’s quest for the ultimate industrial design, a search for the minimal minimalism, reducing an entire mobile computer to just a screen with no keyboard. What’s inside the iPad and what it can do article give you an idea what kind of computer hardware iPad has inside it. Inside the iPad: Apple’s new ‘A4′ chip article tells about the CPU used in iPad. iPad’s A4 CPU chip (souped-up ARM Cortex A-8 processor) runs iPhone OS at 1GHz, compared to the estimated 600MHz of the iPhone 3GS.
If you are a hardware hacker, you might want to see what is inside iPad and not just read about it. When looking for information on new mobile devices, the information on FCC site is usually has information about any new gadget, you just have to find it. The problem in finding the information is that the name used on FCC documents is often very different from the marketing name for the device. FCC ID ‘BCG-E2381A’ documents give you some detailed information on iPad hardware, including some inside hardware pictures and EMC test results. The iPad’s Not So Revolutionary Inside article contains an interesting video that point out some interesting design choices that Apple has made, and shows off all the insides.
Image sources: Apple iPad page and video
About THX certification
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010THX began life as part of LucasFilm. The initial goals for THX was to ensure that movie audiences in theaters heard the same audio that sound engineers heard in the listening booth after the final audio mix. Eventually, that goal has mutated.
The new THX idea was to ensure that home theater buffs heard the same quality and levels of audio as those sound engineers. Most people now about THX through logos on certified hardware. The implication of buying THX certified gear is that you get that sound mixing room environment. Any home theater enthusiast will know this simply isn’t the case. Simply buying THX certified equipment does not guarantee good sound, there are many other much much more important things that need to be right than the certification on equipment (for example room acoustics). THX certification brings to the table hardware that meets a consistent, minimum set of standards. To get good sound you need to use them in the right way and have good room acoustics.
According to AnandTech article THX Certified HDTVs – Useful or Just Marketing? the THX goal has mutated again. The article tells how the THX certification business works and what it means for TVs. THX tries to define a listening (or, in the case of HDTVs, viewing) experience, rather than just a set of hardware specs. The very act of doing that makes the company somewhat controversial. Since the logo program is a major part of THX’s revenue stream, obvious potential conflicts can occur. What does it mean when THX certifies an HDTV and does it matter anyway? What does the THX mode in an certified HDTV do? Read the article and make your own conclusions. The implications of a THX logo are perhaps stronger than the actual end result.
Look inside Logitech Squeezebox Boom
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010White paper: Logitech Squeezebox Boom audio design is an interesting in-depth look behind the design of an all-in-one network music player from one of its lead designers. This device includes amplifier and speakers and other music player electronics in one box. One of its lead designers tells the story.
Image source:
http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/product_matrix.html
LackRack
Thursday, February 11th, 2010This is a really neat trick I just read about. LackRack is the ultimate, low-cost, high shininess solution for your modular datacenter-in-the-living-room. Its low-cost and perfect fit are great for mounting up to 8 U of 19″ hardware, such as switches (see below), or perhaps other 19″ gear. Featuring the LACK (side table) from Ikea, the LackRack is an easy-to-implement, exact-fit datacenter building block. Installing hardware in your LackRack is easy! Screw all the screws that fit in the rack mount in the left and right leg. The table legs have just right dimensions for almost 9U of rack space for 19″ hardware.
Earlier some hifi people have built hi-fi stand made out of IKEA Lack side tables, but now the world is ready for 19″ networking equipment racks. Check LackRack home page for more information on how to build your own very cheap 19″ rack system. The page also tells that also Ikea LACK coffee table and Ikea ODDA night table have right dimensions and can be easily converted to cheap 19″ racks.
Image source: http://wiki.eth-0.nl/index.php/LackRack
High end vs. consumer electronics
Monday, February 8th, 2010All the good ideas have been gone in high end AV industry? Why work hard for something original when you can just license it and use your brand to warrant charging huge extra for the same electronics? Are high-end brands just becoming marketing and no real engineering or quality benefits…
In earlier blog post there was information that Ayre DX-5 bluray player was a modified Oppo BDP-83 blueray player. The repackaged device with new power supply changed the price from $500 to $10000.
Now there is another similar case. Now it looks there is even less modifications.
AV Rant #163: Bacon Wrapped Vegan blog posting says that Lexicon BD-30 looks like Oppo. Audioholics article Oppo on the Inside, Lexicon on the Outside shows that inside Lexicon BD-30’s beautiful chassis there is Oppo BDP-83. The article says that according to the reps at the show, Lexicon had merely taken components of that player and tweaked them to make it their own – adding technology and making improvements to what was a good basic building block. What a load of hogwash. The article claims that Lexicon actually put a full Oppo BDP-83 INSIDE of a chassis, slapped a label on it and is shipping it for $3000 more. Don’t take our word for it, however, check out these pics. Where they went wrong, however, was when they simply lifted the Oppo BDP-83 player and threw it into their own chassis without making any performance enhancing modifications – despite claims to have done just that. What they’ve done doesn’t seem to even begin to justify the exorbitant price markup
We live in a world where everyone is building products with other peoples parts. It is just not possible to design and manufacture many electronics devices (even very possible) from “ground up”.
For most companies it’s simply not cost effective to produce their own DVD / BD players or other very complicated digital audio/video device. So the high-end manufacturers that make this kind of devices need to take some shortcuts and use ready made components. What they are now doing on those examples doesn’t seem to even begin to justify the exorbitant price markup. Has high end industry become to state where High End is just repackaged consumer electronics with huge price markup?
Open Source Symbian
Friday, February 5th, 2010When Nokia bought Symbian in 2008, nobody had any reason to believe their thoughts were anywhere near Open Source. Parts of the Symbian platform have been Open Source for quite some time and other portions have slowly been released.
Symbian, maker of the the world’s most popular mobile operating system, has just completed the transition to a completely open platform months ahead of schedule. While the kernel was opened up last year, the entire platform is now open source, primarily under the Eclipse Public License. By putting Symbian fully in the public domain, the Symbian Foundation is pitting it against Google’s Android.
Sources:
Symbian Opens Up
Symbian Completes Transition To Open Source
Symbian.org
Text message ripoff
Friday, February 5th, 2010Everyone knows that movie popcorn is one of the biggest ripoffs, right? It turns out that movie popcorn carries a 600 percent markup. The biggest ripoff: text message beats movie popcorn article tells that the text messaging has a much bigger markup. Text messages themselves, are just tiny blips of data being transferred to and from mobile devices and don’t even cost the carriers a full penny to process. So with text message an operator gets a 6,500 percent markup from 20-cent message. This number only considered the text message delivery cost. It could be possible (and very probable) that charging for text message service costs considerably more than the service itself.
But don’t expect anything to change anytime soon because operators are making good money on this as people are buying the product well at the current pricing. Those of us who pay for flat-rate, all-you-can-text plans don’t worry about cost of single text message.
DIY fiber optic microscope
Monday, January 18th, 2010Fiber optic microscopes are used to inspect connectors to check the quality of the termination procedure and diagnose problems. A well made connector will have a clean, smooth, polished and scratch free finish. There is not be any signs ofcracks, chips or fiber not even with the ferrule front. The magnification for viewing connectors can be 30 to 400 power but it is best to use a medium magnification. Dealextreme sells cheap Illuminated Pocket 60X to 100X Zoom Microscope that can be used for this if you make yourself a simple adapter that hold the fiber optic connector nicely in place when you want to look at it. It is hard to keep it steady while holding it at hand. You need to work out some kind of universal adapter for 2.5mm ferrules (works with FC/SC/ST connectors) and maybe another for 1.25 mm ferrules (LC and MU connectors) to keep the fiber well in place when you look at it.
A lot of “bad” fibers can be traced back to dirty connectors. You can see the dirt with microscope. But usually it is always easiest just to clean the connector every time you suspect it could be dirty. So always clean the fiber before plugging it into an interface. Cisco document Inspection and Cleaning Procedures for Fiber-Optic Connections gives you a lot of information on fiber connector cleaning.
WARNING: Remember to check that no power is present in the cable before you look at it in a microscope to protect your eyes! The microscope will concentrate any power in the fiber and focus it into your eye with potentially hazardous results. Some commercial fiver microscopes have laser safety filter in them but this DIY model does not have it.
Smartphone component costs
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010How much does the components that make a smartphone cost? iSuppli has analyzed over the years the cost of the components to make several cellular phones and other electronics gadgets. Interesting reading always when you get your hand to this material.
Nexus One is the new HTC Phone, with a Goggle name on it, with the newest Android Software, and powerful hardware inside. Nexus One’s hardware estimated to cost $175 article tells that Google’s forthcoming Nexus One smartphone is composed of components worth about $175, according to a tear-down conducted by iSuppli. That price is just for components, it does not include other expenses such as manufacturing, packaging, and software. The cost of the raw ingredients of a phone does not take into account the R&D, design and testing that must happen. And there is always the marking costs.
One very interesting part of the article is the table that lists the complete list of hardware in the Nexus One, including the prices for different components. This is interesting reading for everybody interested in what is inside this gadget. The most expensive component is Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor ($30.50). It runs the Google’s Android 2.1 operating system.
So it looks like the cost of making the phone is about the same as the iPhone 3G S ($178.96 BOM). Nexus pricing is not so different from the iPhone, so margins for the phone as Apple is famous for high margins.Those are the normal industry margins for high end smartphones when they are new. When the models get older, the prices tend to drop and margins fall unless the manufacturing is optimized. Just for reference check this Nokia N79 Eco Mobile Phone terdowns.
Image source: Nexus One: “Web meets phone” video
