One catch is the need to have a Windows OS enabled device.
The creators have nicely created a couple of different versions – ranging from PDA / phones with Windows Mobile, as well as the ability to have it on any GPS device with a Windows CE Core.

Having purchased a Windows CE based GPS unit from Aldi, I found a few guides which would allow me to modify it so as to bypass the default ‘interface’ and to interact with the core OS.
Here’s a concise guide how to do it – and should only take you about 20 minutes.
Credit: I discovered the specific chipset used on the device from here.
There was another guide dealing with a similar device that outlines how to do this ‘hack’ here.
Warning: I provide this guide ‘as is’ with no warranties or guarantees. This worked for me – but there can be things that change in models, or other glitches that can happen along the way. If you happen to kill your device in the process, that is your fault – and have only yourself to blame.

You’ll need:

Step One
Having installed ActiveSync / Mobile Device Center, connect the PDA/GPS to the computer
Next, browse to the files / folders on it.

The manual actually tells you to backup the GPS software (Found under ResidentFlash\NNG). Do this if you want, but it’s not necessary for this hack.

Step Two
Fire up CE Reg Editor. Connect to your device, and you should be able to see the registry of it, just like you would on your own PC.
Note: For Windows 7, I had to put it into ‘compatability mode: XP SP 3′, and “Run as Administrator”.

Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder. You’ll have to do a few modifications.
Note: The guide tells us to remap the My Documents, Application Data, Desktop & Programs. I’m fairly confident this isn’t important – but remap to the SD card if you’d like (means you have more space to work with).
The real key is the first change. IF you’re going to change the others as well, might as well do it all now.
To Change the value of the registry key, simply select the key on the right hand panel (eg. Launch50), and then change the text in the “Value name” field:

List of values to change:

1- HKEY_Local_Machine\init\Launch50
Old value: launch.exe
New value: explorer.exe

2- HKey_Local_Machine\System\Explorer\ShellFolders\Desktop
Old value: \Windows\Desktop
New value: \SDMMC\Desktop

3- Hkey_Local_Machine\System\Explorer\Shell Folders\Programs
Old value: \windows\programs
New value: \SDMMC\Programs

4- Hkey_Local_Machine\System\Explorer\Shell\My Documents
Old value: \My Documents
New value: \SDMMC\My Documents

5- Hkey_Local_Machine\System\Explorer\Shell\Application Data
Old value: \Application Data
New value: \SDMMC\Application Data
Note: There doesn’t seem to be an “Application Data” folder created in the \ root directory (where as there is the “My Documents” / “Desktop” / Programs”). I created one on the SDMMC just for good measure (in case “Application Data” is a hidden directory).

Once you’ve modified the registry, copy the folders from where they were originally ( \ root directory) to your SD Card.
Also, whilst you’re at it: Create a folder on the SD Card called “Ozi Explorer”. Copy the contents of the ZIP File into there.

At this point, we’ve updated the registry, and copied over the the Ozi Explorer program. Next, restart the system. You can either goto “Tools | Reset Device” within CeReg Editor, or you can just turn the device off and on again.
If all has gone well, you’ll be greeted with the warm, familiar Windows Explorer Interface:

From now on, every time you start up the device, it’ll boot into Windows CE.
This only presents a small problem with accessing the navigation programs: So, we’ll create some shortcuts to these programs on the desktop.
Remembering, we have no mouse or keyboard, so we have to improvise with a touch screen. There’s an ‘onscreen keyboard’ we will be using – accessed via the little keyboard icon in the bottom right of the screen.

On the top left corner is an icon called “My Device” – this is basically the equivalent of “My Computer”, the file explorer for Windows.
Double tapping that opens up the main screen:

Browse to the ResidentFlash drive – which is the system reserved partition for the GPS software.
Open NNG, and you’ll see the files pertaining to the GPS software:

Select NNGNAVI (with the blue ‘iGo’ icon).
Go to EDIT – COPY. Then EDIT – PASTE AS SHORTCUT.
Select the “Shortcut to NNGNAVI” file and go EDIT – CUT.
Close that Window, and when on the desktop, go to the onscreen keyboard, tapping first CTL and then V (Ctrl-V, universal shortcut for ‘paste’):

Similarly for Ozi Explorer; Go to My Device, Browse to the SDMMC drive.

Open up the ‘Ozi Explorer’ directory you created, and copied the files into. Select “OziExplorerCE”, EDIT – COPY, EDIT – PASTE AS SHORTCUT.
Select “Shortcut to OziExplorerCE” and EDIT – CUT; Go to the desktop, and paste (CTL then V).

You can do this with any program that you install onto the SDMMC card.
Note on installation of files
This particular Windows CE installation wipes any changes you make to the system – ignoring shortcuts on the desktop (remember how we moved the links to the desktop, etc. at the very beginning to the SD card? That’s so that the system wouldn’t wipe our hard work every time we shut the system down). This is because Windows CE is the same OS used on ‘Kiosk’ Terminal machines: Any changes attempted to be made to the system will be wiped / undone as soon as the system reboots (all the core OS files are stored on a ROM – Read Only Memory). Unless you’re logged in as ‘administrator mode’ which normally requiring a combination of key strokes to be pressed on boot – you can’t modify the core system settings or save it back to the ROM.
So make sure you install additional software to your SD card.

When you press the power button, the system will only go into hibernation mode; luckily, the system designers added a shutdown command on the desktop:

Double tape the icon marked “EXIT” and you’ll get a prompt saying “Shutdown?” with a big YES and NO to choose from.

There you have it – a more functional GPS unit, for only AU$129.

]]> http://equima.pfpfree.net/2010/aldi-go-cruise-4300-hack/feed/ 17 http://equima.pfpfree.net/2009/tablets-revisited/ http://equima.pfpfree.net/2009/tablets-revisited/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:41:22 +0000 sparky http://equima.pfpfree.net/?p=85 At the start of this year, I was introduced to a podcast called “TWiT” – This Week in Tech. It’s run by a famous American radio host Leo Laporte, and it involves him inviting various tech-celebs (people renowned in the tech industry) to talk about issues and news from the last week to do with technology.

One of the common panelists is John C Dvorak – and I generally like what he writes, he makes sense, and often is right – admittedly I relate to his cynical undertones.

However, recently he wrote an article on what would make the perfect tablet. I’m not too sure I agree.

My main reason is it all depends on what you want the tablet to do, or achieve.

John’s ‘list’ follows:

1. The machine should be about the thickness and size of a standard clipboard. It’s a size we are used to and a device this size would fit wherever a clipboard fits.
2. It should weigh about a pound. The weight of today’s Kindle e-book reader should be the same weight.

Agreed. The device does have to be relatively thinner than a notebook, and perhaps not as bulky. But until they find a better power source to batteries, I think this will remain a slight pipe dream. The truth is most notebooks are quite light – even with the battery inserted.

3. It should have a digital ink or MEMS display-technology screen. There are many versions of this so-called digital ink technology and there must be one that would be ideal for this application. This low-power technology does not have to be powered up to display. The image is permanent until it is powered up and erased. Most e-book readers will use this sort of technology since it has a high contrast ratio, thus increasing readability.

This one makes sense. You want a technology that is vivid and crisp enough to replicate print on paper, whilst ensuring longevity in battery life.

4. Multitouch screen. I do not think I have to explain why this is necessary. I’m sure Apple will feature this for sure.

I’m not entirely sure how this would be useful – maybe for that gimmicky ‘zoom in / zoom out’ trick with four fingers. Though, you don’t realistically need ‘multi-touch’.

Perhaps in some primary school applications, or medical fields it could be useful – but you can’t enforce this as a ‘standard’. So, back to my key argument: Depends on the application for which the tablet is being designed.

5. Massive I/O. As a PC user I like my machines to have a lot of I/O and connectivity options. This means Wi-Fi, WiMAX as well as all sorts of USB connectivity. If the machine is to be thin it may have to be done with a dongle, although I can see the device having a lip on one side with room for connectors. I hate losing dongles.

This one is a big wrong in my books. Excessive I/O may seem ‘cool’ and ‘handy’ – but how many people realistically need to have firewire, usb, audio in/out, external video, etc. on a device that has limited applications?
It makes designing a case complex, and makes designing the board even more complex- along with the additional cost factor for components to make the I/O work.

An alternative would be to have a narrow connector at one side of the device which ‘docks’ into a docking station. This docking station would allow for:
Charging, Connectivity (USB, FireWire, E-Sata,etc), External Video (HDMI, VGA / DVI), Gigabit LAN.
Though, that said, you might be able to get away with a mini-HDMI connector on the unit itself for presentations, or even an SDHC slot for storage of files.
Besides, with the way things are going, we may end up having a wireless ‘charging station’.

The unit itself could have Wireless Networking (N-Standard should be more than enough for most people), as well as BlueTooth connectivity.

6. Built-in GPS so the whole thing can be used as a car navigation system.

Interesting thought: but maybe not. A 12 or 15 inch display is hard to mount adequately for using as a guidance system. Stick to the 3 or 5 inch navigators.

7. Built-in Apple TV and full screen video-processing capability. It could be used as a small hi-def television in the kitchen, perhaps.

That’s just silly. At some point we’re forgetting the purpose of tablets.

A tablet, I see, should be used much the same way as the ‘Data-Pads’ in Star Trek. Replacing pen & paper with a digital, more re-usable form.

Modern tablet computers are wasted on gimmicky solutions. Let’s start thinking of real useful applications where these devices can be used – such as hospital’s to replace patients charts, where the records are being stored on a local server, rather than fragile paper.

He made a single point that I thought relatively brilliant:

Where is the Microsoft personality?

In summary, he’s referring to how Apple has played the marketing game brilliantly. It’s never been afraid to push itself. They make snide (albeit true) comments about the PC and Windows systems in their I’m a Mac advertisments.

Steve Jobs is a passionate man. A little too passionate at times, if the rumours are to be believed. However, if you have a dream – a goal – and have no burning passion, the likelihood of reaching that dream is slim-to-none.
Whilst I’ve had my fair share of Apple related problems (From a hardware – and always a hardware level), they’ve always sold themselves as being ‘better’.

And, as basic psychology tells you – if you’re told something enough, you’ll start to believe it.

Sure there are forums, and groups out there that criticise Apple because their iPhone blew up, or because they wont replace the casing that seems to crack from normal use over time – but these people bought an Apple product – either to be different, or because they firmly believed that the product was superior in some way.

The other issue is that most other non-Apple companies marketing departments don’t know how to sell something with a subtle push. Microsoft has recently sent out advertising posters claiming “Windows Vista: Now Future Proofed“:

As you can see, it’s nothing more than offering a free upgrade to Windows 7 for computers bought between 22nd July 2009 and 31st January 2010.
A similar thing happend before Vista was  released with people who bought computer with windows XP (However, I’m sure many people went back to XP after they found their systems to be inadequate for Vista, or had issues with Vista’s performance and/or operation).

So, tell me Microsoft: Why are you ‘better’ than Apple? Is it because you’re cheaper? Because, if you sincerely believe that – you’re misguided. Apple at least has multi-System licenses for their operating system, because they realise many people have more than one computer.
Microsoft was clever in bringing out a 3-PC License for Microsoft Office Home and Student, but will they do a similar thing with Windows 7? And will it be just as cost effective?

The computer may be cheaper, but the software isn’t.
Apple operates in reverse: It’s software is cheaper, but the hardware isn’t.

So, if the old addage goes “You get what you pay for” – Which is the ‘better’ product?

And at this point in time, there’s a lot of speculation around the ‘hype’ of Windows 7′s ability to perform on older hardware.
Vista suffered from the ‘lets throw more hardware at it‘ syndrome – where you don’t ensure enough backward compatibility, and tried to bring about too much change in one hit.
Funnily enough, many users expect their computer of 5 years to be able to handle the next operating system – not being fully aware of the changes in technology. Which is fair enough – to a point; It’d be nice if users actually read the ‘minimum’ and ‘recommended’ requirements for the program they’re trying to install, and to then follow that thinking, investigate what they have, and then learn a bit along the way.

A lot of people don’t always want to upgrade their system. It’s a comfort thing. They know where their files are. They know how things look, and feel, and where to find elements of the system (control panel, programs, games, etc). Others are willing to throw away a computer that’s two years old (and was top of the line when they bought it) simply because it’s running slow.
What they might find is that they have some virus’s or malware – or just too many programs running, causing the slow down. More RAM and a clean up would help it – but they don’t care. Like many organisations, they just throw money at the problem, and that should fix it.
Right? Wrong.

So, we’re hoping people are going to start appreciating what they have, and maybe take maintainance measures to draw out the life of their computers – Perhaps this is also part of the reason why windows 7 is ‘said’ to be able to work on a:

• 1 Ghz 32-Bit or 64-Bit Processor or higher
• 1 GB of system memory or more
• 16 GB of available disk space
• DVD-R/W Drive

Apart from the ’16 GB’ of disk space, that’s pretty much a standard PC. That’d almost work on my old 900 Mhz Duron – which is 9 years old!
If you have a 40 GB Drive – which many systems come with as a basic setup, especially in corporations- Then that might be starting to get too close. With half your drive spent on the Operating System, you’d be possibly dealing with a bit of a slow system. Possibly.

There are some people (Farseeker, of this site, and more notably – John C Dvorak) who think that the current state of Windows 7 (The beta of which runs quite happily on my EEE 701) is only a facade: That whilst it runs nicely, and efficiently now, the final product will be bogged down with ‘crap-ware’.
And, as John Dvorak happily notes – he feels that the success of Microsoft – indeed, the entire Windows line – is based on whether Windows 7 works – and works well.

I agree – in part – with this opinion. Vista was a bad move by Microsoft. Even they’ve admitted to that. However, whether people like it or not – They still hold the market in most corporate environments. But part of the key to Windows 7 is how it will be priced -  especially given the current ‘economic crisis’.
Windows XP, whilst great for its time – is buggy. More and more security holes / flaws are being discovered, and I don’t think that patching the Swiss-cheese like architecture that is XP is going to work forever.

The real ‘key’ to Microsoft’s success with Windows 7 is two fold.
1. Pricing. They need to price it in such a way that it wont be hideously expensive, but still represent a value for money. Both in terms of features and security. Corporations aren’t going to spend $400 per machine to upgrade. Especially in an environment consisting of 500+ desktops and laptops.
And the average Joey Bloggs isn’t going to upgrade his nicely working year old Vista machine – especially if he’s just layed out a pretty sum for it.

2. Upgrade path. At the time of writing, every indication has said that there’s no way of ‘upgrading’ from Windows XP. The architecture is just too different. However, you *could* go from XP – Vista. Hmm.
Win7 is based on Vista – but I wonder how much of the ‘base system’ they actually changed that you can’t go from XP – Win7.

Or is this another ‘push’ to customers to do a clean install? Those of us in the industry know the benefits and ‘psychology’ of a clean install. Things are fresh, and you don’t bring your old garbage to the new house. Microsoft tried the ‘push’ strategy with Vista by forcing people to upgrade their hardware. That went down like the Titanic.

It’ll be interesting to see how much the economy of current times will affect the release and adoption of Windows 7.

We’ve had the credit bubble go *pop*,  the subsequent mass hysteria of everyone pulling money out of investments so fast (thanks to the wonder of technology: High speed Internet and Internet banking) causing entire countries to become bankrupt, and generally society starting to panic and think “Is this the next Great Depression?”.
That question, I’m not in a position to answer – nor is it the purpose of this post. Rather, considering where consumerism has taken technology.

So, there was this lovely scene. Everyone was working for someone, making some money – and then you had these people in the financial sector willing to give out credit to the workers – it didn’t matter how much you earned, you could get a line of credit from as little as $2000, to as much as $20,000. Whether you could repay it or not they wouldn’t care.
Some people don’t really think about that. They just thought: “You beauty, quick money – I can get all those cool things I want” – but don’t really need.

That well suddenly dried up – and the horse drinking from it: no one’s seen him since.
The last 10 years has seen some dramatic growth and change in technology: I point it squarely at the consumer market.

Advertisers are always trying to get the everyday person (consumer) to feel that they need something to fill their otherwise boring life. That new 52 inch Plasma. That 10.2 surround sound system.The latest Mac Book pro. Anything they think will help them get on with everyday life in a more ‘interesting’ fashion.

The huge profits that this generated for the companies allowed them to push Research and Development, to make things better, & to find new technologies. Along the way, the additional hype of a growing energy crisis and shortfalls in resources has prompted certain companies to rethink what resources they are using. Never a bad thing – provided they could come up with a reason why they’re wasting it all on products that in 8 years are going to sit in a rubbish dump.

It’s always a ‘short lived’ focus.

People used to go out every 6 – 12 months and get the newest, greatest digital camera.  People will now stick to the one they’ve got. The number of mega pixels is irrelevant these days. They all do a fantastic job of capturing an image. That’s all it has to do.
People are no longer throwing out computers that are a year or two old because they’re “getting slower”. They’re putting more memory in it, running maintenance procedures, and trying to make it last a little bit longer. One has to wonder how long they’ll really last – but it’s reasonable to expect at least a 5 – 8 year life span.

I’d like to think hope that we’re going back to a different mindset. Sure, the ‘throw away’ society will remain to a degree, but maybe people will hold off on throwing away technology that still works for a little while longer.

No longer are we required to think innovatively to solve problems – we’ve become relient on machines to work it out for us. A classic example was in a historic show I watched a few years back.

Their goal was to try replicate how the Ancient Romans built a huge Dock that went out into a harbour. The difficulty was in creating a machine to place these huge pillars into the water, hammering them down somehow at the right angle, then building the supports and planks on top, move the machine out, rinse-repeat.
These days they’d just use cranes or something to that effect. But the historical team had to resort to innovation- using only materials found in that time period. They worked it out in the end, but it did demonstrate how much our thinking had changed, and our relience on machines became evident.

Things in the Techno World aren’t much different these days. It seems that ‘Hardware is cheap’ = ‘rough enough is good enough’. In a recent Security Now Podcast (185a) the presenters were talking about how in the early days of computing, memory was expensive. They’d constantly be trying to re-write their code to make it leaner and more effecient.
Window’s Vista is a good example of modern day thinking: Just throw more resources at it, it’ll be fine.

Another area that will be spurred on due to recent economic issues is the games industry. No longer can they just turn out ‘crap’, it seems they’ll be focussing on creating more ‘quality’ products, less in ‘quantity’.
I’ve not been much of a gamer in recent years, largely because I didnt feel any of the games looked or felt any different to what’s become the ‘norm’. Even Mirrors Edge was quite disappointing: A case of interesting idea, and good design, but limitations in gameplay, and a story line which weakens as the game continues, leaves you feeling “Why did I bother?”. They couldn’t do that 15- 20 years ago. They had to develop games that would generate continued interest for continued revenue.

Perhaps its nostalgic of me, but I really do believe that things were better in the past. Largely because people have just become lazy and, well, complacent.

We were discussing how stupid it was, the main reason being that the Mac’s are actually four or five times more expensive (depending on what model you get) than a standard PC varient.
I can testify to how silly it is, because a few years ago I actually took out a personal loan to purchase a powerbook (back when they used PPC processors).

One could argue you get what you pay for; However, in my personal experience, that is definatly not the case with a Mac.  Their smallest, and cheapest notebook starts at $1500.

I recently purchased an Asus for $786. This came with 2gb’s RAM, 160gb HDD, Vista Home Premium, Webcam, and 2 years manufacturers warranty, and I purchased an additional 2 years warranty (for a total of 4 years) for $189. Subtotal: $975

If I went with the cheapest option for the Macbook, the base system is $1,499. Add an additional 1 gb memory ($150), bring the hard drive up to 160gb ($80), Additional 2 years (for a total of 3 years) warranty $419. You’re now looking at $2148.

There’s only two key arguments to try justify this cost.
1. It’s a stylish unit. Yes, it is. Some *may* call it ‘sexy’ – I wouldn’t.
2. The system is responsive and flies. This is true. I’ve seen it. It’s scary. It’s even more embarrassing for Microsoft when Vista runs the best on a Mac. Battery life is also apparently up to 6 hours on these units. Mine does close to 4.5 these days.
3. They seem to use a 2.1 ghz Intel Core 2 duo, as opposed to the Asus 1.7 ghz.
They both use the same graphics card though (which I was a bit surprised at); Seems the macbookPro’s are the ones with the dedicated high-end cards (Nvidia GeForce 8600). Of course, these notebooks start at $2,699.

The reality is, Apple can’t really justify the cost of their products. Once upon a time, during the megahertz wars – they may have been able to. Unfortunately, it appears the fools and their money is parted all too easily these days- since people are still prepared to pay that price for the Apple products; many are under the illusion that they’re either ‘easier to use’ or ‘better’. Whenever I ask the people to explain “What exactly is ‘better’ about it?”, they stare blank-faced.

I give full credit to the marketeers at Apple for this. They’ve managed to create the perception that there’s a product that is ‘worth’ spending that much money on. I’ll let my own personal experience speak for itself.

At anyrate- if you buy a mac, at least try use the operating system / software that comes with it, and get your head out of the ‘windows’ mindset. It’s really not as cool as it was in 1995. I’m serious. Otherwise it’s like buying a Ferarri and replacing the enging with one from a Datsun 120Y.