Chippy's Hiblue Lab

Unplanned, I’ve spent the last two months without a tablet and the last month without a modern smartphone. My Galaxy Tab bit the dust in an overnight charging fit at the beginning of March and my phone is still the Nokia N8 – nothing compared to todays smartphones! I briefly used a Sony Xperia Arc, and I enjoyed it, but it got passed on to my wife who needs a solid smartphone more than I do. I’m able to chop and change devices far quicker than my wife is and when her original Xperia started going wonky, it was easier to hand-over the newer model rather than try and fix the issues.

Not many tech reporters will have done what I’ve done so it’s worth thinking about where the 7”  tablet really did fit into my life. Was I kidding myself that I needed a tablet? To be honest, I miss my tablet and have tried to resurrect it on many occasion but of course, I can live without it. It turns out it was more of a social device rather than anything I really needed for business but it did mean that I didn’t have to use a Swiss Army Knife to build a house. There are hundreds of tasks for which a 7” tablet is better than anything else.

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You might have heard me having a moan about my Galaxy Tab 7 (original) recently. It’s been a bit stuttery and slow for the last 4 or 5 months and despite firmware upgrades and a recent factory reset, it still wasn’t performing. I was considering buying a Galaxy 7 Plus to replace it.

A reboot would smooth things out but after a few hours of use it would occasionally hang for a second or two, progressively getting worse. Turning off background sync and reducing the number of running programs helped but never totally fixed the issues which would progressively get worse over 48 hours and then result in total lock-up needing a hard reset.

I think I may have fixed the issue now though and if it remains as good as it is now, I won’t need to upgrade my Tab.

A few days ago I upgraded the firmware using the ODIN flash tool to a new generic ROM built on 2.3.5. I cleared and reset the internal flash too. After re-installing just the bare minimum of apps, the problem was back after a short while.
Yesterday I tested a Galaxy Note side-by-side with the Tab and was embarrassed to see my Tab coughing and sputtering its way through tests. Something was definitely wrong. I searched and searched for news of others with the same issue but found nothing concrete.

In the end I did two things and one of these has fixed my Tab and made it buttery smooth again.

1 – Data settings changed. I used to let the Wifi switch off when the screen was off in order to save power because at home, I always run in aircraft mode. You can do this under advanced settings in the Wifi setup screen. (press menu key.) I’ve changed that now. I leave the phone on, turn off background data and configure the Wifi to stay on all the time. This is likely to shorten my battery life. I’ll be keeping an eye on it. I want to go back to ‘phone off’ mode if possible as my Tab is not my primary phone.

2 – I unmounted my microSD card. I think this was the changed that fixed my issues.

Obviously I need to do more testing to find out which change was really responsible and I need to use the Tab for a few more days to be sure but I know my Tab so well that I can already sense it’s working way, way better now. I event seen any stuttering since I did the change 12 hours ago.

My theory is that my microSD card either has an error, is too slow or too fragmented. It’s an 8GB no-brand class 2 card. Maybe the media scanner was getting tripped up. Mabe some other process was getting tripped up? Right now I don’t care. Having cleaned my system for the firmware upgrade I have 12GB free for my media and that will be enough. The MicroSD card stays out of the system for the time being. It could be that the microSD card reduces performance even if it’s a good one.

Try unmounting your microSD card to see if it speeds up your Galaxy Tab.

I’ll keep you updated on progress here.

This is a demo video and demo blog.

Video recorded, produced, uploaded from the Nokia N8. Embed code grabbed by ‘share’ing the embed code from the YouTube app. to the WordPress app on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Photo sent from N8 to Tab via Bluetooth and then embedded in the post.It’s a simple, quick process.

Total tIme to record, edit, upload and write post is under 10 minutes [correction. Its was closer to 15 minutes] which is fast for a single-man setup of 570gms and about €650. All-day battery life too! Let me know what you think about the quality of the video. Is it good enough for a first hands-on demo?

My masterful plan to use the Nokia N8 and the Galaxy Tab for some photoblogging for Carrypad and UMPCportal via the wordpress application failed at CES in Las Vegas. Internet connectivity was terrible (despite having a Sprint MIFI) and so I abandoned it quickly. Barcelona should, if last year is anything to go by, be a lot better so stay tuned for a lot more posts. I’m going to be trying hard no to post photo after photo without any information. That would be boring.

Again I’ll be dragging along my trusty old Canon S2IS with its simple video capability that allows me to edit on Windows Movie Maker and to connect via USB for live blogging. I still can’t find a combination that beats it. It should allow me to upload some videos fairly quickly too.

Total kit list goes something like this:
Nokia N8
Samsung Galaxy Tab
Gigabyte Touchnote netbook (with ssd and 2Gb upgrade)
Canon S2IS
Universal power pack (50wh)
USB cables
SD cards

Total weight is still going to be in the ‘backpack’ range unfortunately.

One extra service I want to try out this time is Audioboo. I’ve been testing it on the Galaxy Tab and I’m impressed. The audio quality is fine and it slots nicely into my Twitter stream. I won’t be including it on the website though as I want it to be something unique for my Twitter followers. If you haven’t heard of Audioboo,  check it out. It allows you to record a piece of audio, in my case through the Samsung Galaxy Tab built-in Mic, and send it to their servers in a single press. They then send it into your Twitter stream and make it available, with RSS, in your own channel. You can find a few segments I’ve done with the Galaxy Tab here

Join me over at Carrypad and UMPCPortal over the next week. It will he fun!

[This post written on the Galaxy Tab]

The sun is out, the Galaxy Tab is charged and I have a few things to do in town so its time to hit the road and go mobile today. I want to do some more Galaxy Tab photography too so stay tuned for that along with a few posts via WordPress. All this practice will help with my work at MWC next week.

What a perfect test it was to be away from home for 5 days. I took the Nokia N8, the Galaxy Tab and my Gigabyte netbook with me for Christmas in England and all three were needed. Convergence doesn’t exist.

The N8 makes a perfect phone. Voice calling is strong and reliable. It’s a perfect pocket, internet-connected camera too. In typical low-light, moving kids scenarios it beat my old N82 hands down. Video footage has been great too. I’m confident that there isn’t a better personal camera out there. Try having a compact camera ready for all the moments I captured! As for maps, well it wasn’t the best. I didn’t have to do much with turn-by-turn and when I searched for an address offline. I couldn’t find it. I had to go online to resolve that problem. Clearly I need to download the local map again but with Google maps supporting caching now, the advantages for OVI maps are fading. MP3 capabilities are good, the always-on clock is useful and timed profiles are a winner. Structurally I feel its going to last and although internet is relatively slow compared to my Galaxy Tab, it’s there if needed in an emergency. I used Gravity quite a few times.

The Gigabyte netbook came out twice in the last 2 days and I’m glad I had it because I had a server issue. Try ssh, server testing, ping, traceroute and submitting a ticket on the Tab. Under pressure, it’s no use in these scenarios at all. For admin work, there’s no way you can survive without windowing,  a full browser with mouse and keyboard. No way!

As for the Tab, it became my buddy. Used way more than the phone or netbook it was used for comment handling on my blogs, emails, chat, sms, Facebook, Twitter, maps, contacts, calendar, ebooks, casual web, RSS reading, games, photo presenting, pdf reading (stored itinerary) and this – blog writing. I even used it for remote access to my PC although that was more of a more webcam experiment than anything else.

I knew there was a space. Carrypads are here, are valuable and show just how much fits into the ‘tweener’ space. The Origami concept of 2006 was spot on.  Shame they didn’t have the technology to actually make it happen back then!

Anyone else out there, enjoying the three-device strategy?

My mobile reporting kit will change dramatically for CES 2011. I’ve just heard that ill be able to borrow an N8 to partner with my Galaxy Tab which, considering I’m doing a lot of mobile blogging on the Tab now, gives me the opportunity to try something very different indeed. How about a no-bag challenge? The would mean leaving the Netbook and main camera in the hotel during the day and doing everything on the N8 and Tab. Of course its possible but the question is, what is the quality going to be like and will it be efficient to try and write posts on the Tab.
Considering I just wrote this one in under 5 minutes using the wordpress app. on the Tab, while sitting on a sofa keeping an eye on my baby, I think it will be surprisingly good. Watch out for a detailed post on Carrypad soon.