I switched to Ubuntu for a few reasons.  First, most of the software I use exists in Linux form and often runs better under Linux than Windows. Google Chrome is a great example. It is screaming fast in Linux and clearly performs better than it does in Windows. Second, the only products I couldn’t adequately replace were high end Adobe products. (Office 2007 runs in Ubuntu with some tweaking, if that’s your preferred office suite.) In order to run these products, I run a Linux version of VirtualBox with Windows 7 inside of Linux or I boot up the computer into my Windows 7 partition (which I preserved from before… better safe than sorry). Second, Ubuntu has a one click “update everything on this computer” service. Windows updates the OS only and each program must be updated individually. In my opinion, this is a huge advantage to Ubuntu. Third, Ubuntu is more secure and doesn’t require virus checkers and spyware software bogging down the system. Fourth, Ubuntu is much more configurable than Windows. It’s somewhat analogous to what I wrote about the whole iPhone vs. Android debate. Configurable systems are not inherently better than less configurable systems. It depends on whether you prefer to tweak a system to your liking or prefer simplicity. Fifth, I really believe that Linux is the future and Windows is the past. Android is Linux and Google’s Chrome OS is Linux. I expect widespread adoption of both. Sixth, Ubuntu comes bundled with good, powerful software like OpenOffice, Rythm Box and many more goodies but it doesn’t come bundled with commercial bloatware.  Seventh, Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions are absolutely free. You won’t have to pay for upgrades either.

There are some drawbacks to moving to Ubuntu. As I mentioned above, not all software is available in a Linux flavor. Linux isn’t backed by a single, unified entity like Microsoft. Documentation and discussion boards are scattered throughout the internet (hint: Google is your friend when you have an issue). Additionally, the kid down the street who solves all your computer problems might not be well versed in Linux.

If you’re interested in trying out Ubuntu without making a permanent decision to move to it, I recommend that you choose from the following options:

• Create a “Live CD” or USB stick which can boot up Ubuntu. By doing this, you can check your hardware for Ubuntu compatibility. You can download the ISO for Ubuntu from Ubuntu.com.
• Download wubi.exe from http://wubi-installer.org. This installer is interesting because it doesn’t even partition your hard drive. It basically creates one large file in Windows that serves as the hard drive. It creates a dual bootup option for loading Windows or Ubuntu upon powering up. If you decide you don’t like Ubuntu, run wubi.exe again and it will clean everything up for you.
• If you have a reasonably powerful computer (dual core or better with > 2  gigs of RAM), you can virtualize Ubuntu within Windows following these instructions.
• You can partition your drive and install Ubuntu into a partition by burning the ISO to a CD and booting from the CD. This is a somewhat more permanent install than the methods above and I discourage this method for computer beginners or people who don’t know whether Ubuntu will play nice with their hardware.

Check out this impressive video of Ubuntu. This shows off Compiz which is a set of eye candy visual effects that are possible in Ubuntu.  I also like this video because it shows Windows XP and Adobe software virtualized in Ubuntu.

You might also enjoy:

--What does Ubuntu Linux look like? [Videos] --Linux Netbook Showdown: Ubuntu Netbook Remix vs. Jolicloud Pre-Beta --Windows Phone 7 Series [Intriguing] --How to try out Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx without screwing up your computer --Google Chrome Browser for Linux and Mac [Betas] Now Available…

• The Android Last.fm player will also play your own mp3s.
• Last.fm uses “Scrobbling” to build your custom radio stations. Many mp3 players can report to Last.fm the tunes you like.
• Unlimited skips. Can’t beat that! This is a big advantage over the free versions of Pandora and Slacker.
• Ability to completely ban a song from ever playing again.
• Ability to network with friends and share music interests. My Last.fm name is jonmallin. Feel free to send me a friend request.

This is where Last.fm can improve:

• Larger music library. While Last.fm does have a vast library of music, it does repeat some songs including some you may not want to hear again.
• Last.fm tends to overemphasize groups that are currently on tour. While this is a good way to monetize the app, it can be annoying.
• Better music preference prediction. Pandora uses the Music Genome Project which seems to predict my music tastes somewhat more accurately.

All in all, this Last.fm is my favorite personal radio player. Check it out at www.last.fm.

You might also enjoy:

--Switching from Pandora to Slacker (available for Blackberry, iPhone and Android)

Wicked; Bad/Good, depending on your vernacular; Sweet; Awesome.  Pick your favorite superlative. You get the point.

Watch the video and do it in full screen mode. Crank it up to HD resolution if your bandwidth and monitor can support it.

Told ya so.

[via MobileWack]

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He also has an entertaining blog.

[via UrlEsque]

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• Price. Ubuntu and many other Linux variants are free.
• Security. Linux tends to be more secure and requires fewer patches to remain secure.
• Personal Preference. Linux can be heavily customized, much moreso than I’ve ever seen Windows customized.

Some drawbacks to running Linux include:

• Compatibility with Older Hardware. You could run into problems finding the right drivers for your hardware, particularly if own old hardware. Almost all manufacturers now provide Linux drivers on their websites for newer hardware and Ubuntu and other Linux variants come bundled with many of them, much like Windows does.
• Compatibility with Software. With some trickery, Linux can run Microsoft Office 2007 properly using WINE, a free Windows emulator than runs seamlessly within Linux. WINE comes bundled with many Linux variants. Alternatively, one might consider running OpenOffice.Org’s free Windows replacement suite. Some other software packages are incompatible with Linux even with WINE, but generally free Linux alternatives exist for virtually any application. Most of the programs I use come in a Linux flavor, including Google’s Chrome browser and TweetDeck.

If you’re curious what Linux looks like, you should watch the videos below which show off the UI.

The first video shows off the latest features of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx:

The next video shows off a heavily customized install:

This video demos the Gnome Shell 3.0 interface which comes bundled with Ubuntu 10.04 (to activate for one session: load terminal and type “gnome-shell –replace”):

This is what the Ubuntu Netbook Remix UI looks like:

For more information about Ubuntu, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/

You might also enjoy:

--Ubuntu 10.04 instead of Windows 7? [Linux] --Linux Netbook Showdown: Ubuntu Netbook Remix vs. Jolicloud Pre-Beta --How Google Works [Videos] --How to try out Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx without screwing up your computer --Google Chrome Browser for Linux and Mac [Betas] Now Available…

The video is 5:33 long but worth watching because it’ll save you a trip to the Apple store and you won’t have to poke around on one yourself. Kudos to PC Magazine for putting out the comprehensive review in lightning speed.

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--The iPad “Lock-Down” is Bad for Consumers --iPad Jailbreak happens in under 24 hours; more appealing now? --Android alternative to iPad, the Neofonie WePad [Specs] --Apple iPad vs. Adobe — what’s going on and why Adobe is playing the porn card… --HTC Incredible Full Review [Verizon/Android]

Android-x86 Project is a website dedicated to running Android OS on a PC. There are a number of ways of installing Android OS on a computer but I prefer VirtualBox because you do not have to replace your current OS or partition your drive. If you decided you no longer want Android OS on your computer, you can simply delete the virtual Android machine.

Android-x86 Project’s Wiki contains instructions for installing Android 1.6 in VirtualBox. You also need to download the ISO. Sound and internet connectivity work fine if you follow the instructions. The system even comes pre-installed with a few apps.

Obviously, you don’t get a really good feel for Android on a computer screen but you can form a preliminary opinion. I also found the virtual Android helpful in testing this blog’s mobile version for Android, iPhone, Blackberry Storms and WebOS using the WP-Touch plugin.

Thanks to Bill and TopDNBass on Phandroid’s forums for responding to my post about virtualizing Android.

You might also enjoy:

--How to try out Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx without screwing up your computer --Blackberry vs. Android --Android: Five of the Latest Stories --Android Gaming [Video] --Android Developers Complain

1. Begin by downloading VirtualBox (~70mb) and an ISO of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (~680mb). I recommend choosing the 32-bit version of Lucid Lynx (lucid-desktop-i386.iso) because it plays nicer with Adobe software (flashplayer and AIR).
2. Install VirtualBox. This requires no instructions.
3. Optional: Enable hardware virtualization in your computer’s BIOS. While this isn’t absolutely essential, it will help with 3D graphics, among other things. HP computers come with hardware virtualization disabled from the factory. Other manufacturers may ship with hardware  virtualization enabled. In any event, VirtualBox will show you a pop-up box if you have hardware virtualization disabled and proceed to the next step.
4. Create a “virtual machine” in VirtualBox:  Run VirtualBox. New -> Next -> Name the Machine anything you want -> Select Linux and Ubuntu (or Ubuntu 64 bit if you decided to download the 64 bit ISO) -> go with a base memory of 384 mb (you can change this later and allocate more RAM to the machine) -> Boot Hard Disk -> Create New Hard Disk (don’t worry.. this is simply a large file in Windows, it doesn’t partition your drive) -> Dynamically Expanding Storage -> leave Location alone ->  choose 8gb for storage (it expands when needed) -> Voila, you’re done.
5. Start the machine -> Next -> CD/DVD -> Select ISO.  Boom.. your machine boots up as if it were a computer starting with an Ubuntu DVD in the drive.
6. Follow on-screen prompts for time, time zone, username, password, etc. Note: The window will “capture” your mouse pointer. To move about the “host” OS (the non-virtualized OS), hit the right Ctrl key. To return to the “guest” OS (the virtualized OS), simply click the VirtualBox machine window.
7. It’ll take about 10 minutes to install Ubuntu but you should have a virtual computer up and running. But, you’re not done yet!
8. Install the “Guest Additions” ISO in the VirtualMachine. This will fix the graphics so you can expand the window or make it full size, Right Ctrl+F).  To install Guest Additions, Right Ctrl+D. This will mount the Guest Additions ISO for VirtualBox. Next, open terminal by clicking Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal.  Then type “cd /etc/mediaVBOXADDITIONS_3.1.6_59338″. Next type “sudo sh VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run” for 32 bit Ubuntu or “sudo sh VBoxLinuxAdditions-amd64.run” for 64 bit Ubuntu. Enter your password. After a few minutes you will be prompted to reboot.  You can reboot Ubuntu 10.04 by clicking the power button in the upper right corner.
9. You should be ready to go explore. If you want to install Google Chrome, simply point Firefox (which comes preinstalled) to http://google.com/chrome and select the DEB package for either 32 bit or 64 bit Linux.

Have fun. If you don’t like Ubuntu 10.04, just delete the virtual machine from within VirtualBox or uninstall VirtualBox.

You might also enjoy:

--Previewing Android OS on a Computer --Ubuntu 10.04 instead of Windows 7? [Linux] --What does Ubuntu Linux look like? [Videos] --Ubuntu Netbook Remix vs. Google Chrome OS [Netbooks] --Linux Netbook Showdown: Ubuntu Netbook Remix vs. Jolicloud Pre-Beta

Search is our core technology; ads are our central business proposition; and apps are the umbrella over our web-based software that you can access anywhere, any time. While each of these has a lot of technology under the hood, the basic tenets for Search, Ads and Apps are very simple.

Although the videos state the obvious, they are well produced and, quite simply, cute.

In the first video, Matt Cutts, a Google software engineer explains the basics of search. I recently became familiar with Matt through Google Buzz. He operates a blog entitled “Gadgets, Google and SEO.” If you want to know about SEO, his blog should be your starting point.

The next video is presented by Nudu Janakiram, a Google Product Manager, addresses search advertisements. It states that “Google search results are always ranked completely impartially by computer algorithm. Nobody can pay Google to improve their position on our results page.”  Perhaps this video will also serve as Exhibit A in Google’s response to the European Union’s informal inquiry into Google’s practices which was instituted, in part, based on complaints by a wholly-owned Microsoft subsidiary.

Completing the trio, in the next video Vivien Leung discusses Google Apps and cloud computing. This Google segment is fundamental to it diversifying its revenue stream.

[via How Google Works via Google Operating System Blog]

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--What does Ubuntu Linux look like? [Videos] --Apple First?: RFID “Swiper” iPhones in the Works --Google testing allowing some users to login to multiple Google accounts; Thank You! --Google to Launch Facebook Killer, “Google Me” [Rumor] --Where Google is heading… Google Translation for Android

Click to visit GrooveShark.Com

GrooveShark is a cloud-based music service that works in two different ways. First, you can use it like a custom radio similar to Pandora and Slacker but with unlimited skips (yes, even in the free version). Second, you can upload your MP3s and maintain a cloud library of music that you can stream from any browser. There is a paid version of GrooveShark that eliminates visual ads on the web interface and includes apps for streaming your tunes to your smartphone.

There does not appear to be a quota on the size of a user’s library but I found the upload process which is entirely Java based to be very, very slow. (The uploader estimates my remaining 956 songs will take about 7 hours and 20 minutes to upload. Yikes!) If you choose to upload a song already in the collective GrooveShark library, it will appear in your personal library without actually uploading it. Also, uploaded songs augment the collective GrooveShark library.

Wikipedia speaks to copyright issues surrounding GrooveShark and points out that the EULA does not indemnify users from copyright violations. Nonetheless, many people feel comfortable using the service which streams 50 to 60 million songs per month and was growing at a rate of 2% to 3% per day as of April 2009.

Sound quality is very good over a cable internet connection. Not that I’m an audiophile but I couldn’t distinguish my streamed music from the original MP3s even on good speakers.

Although having cloud-hosted music is convenient, I wouldn’t use it as a substitute for a backup because music stored on GrooveShark can be streamed only, not downloaded. If you want to backup your music to a cloud, I recommend using Glide which offers 30 GB of free storage and can sync your music folders regularly. Files stored on Glide can be downloaded later.

[via Gerben van Erkelens on Google Buzz]

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The video is a compilation of various security cameras around Dubai that seem to have caught ten men and one woman carrying out the assassination of a high level Hamas member, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. It was posted by Wired.Com but I was unable to find it on YouTube (so you won’t be able to view the video in full screen mode).

You may be asking yourself, “What the heck does this have to do with technology?” For starters, many of the movements of the group were captured by hidden security cameras. The video also addresses, among other things, encrypted cellphone use, airport security and some type of very small, short-range handheld communication device. The assassination was carried out without any traces of evidence left in the hotel room and the victim was in his own hotel room with the door locked and chained when his body was found. No blood was found. You’ll have to watch the video to learn the apparent cause of death.

Here ya go…

[via Wired.Com]

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[via Alden Torres on Google Buzz]

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[via The Next Web]

You might also enjoy:

--Alleged Assassins in Dubai [Video] --Math Class April Fools [Video] --PC Mag’s Video Review of iPad #betterthanexpected --MIT Media Lab’s “SixthSense” Project [VIDEO] --Augmented Reality Baseball Cards by TOPPS [VIDEO]

Tired of your cell phone battery running low or conking out? RCA just unveiled a device which can charge a cell phone (or other MicroUSB device) from a Wifi signal. The Wifi “harvester,” pictured right, converts a Wifi 2.4 ghz signal to DC power. Power is stored in an internal battery when the harvester is in a hotspot. When you need juice for your cell phone, you simply connect it to the harvester (somewhat like the AA battery emergency power supplies for cell phones).

At CES 2010, a demonstration was done using a Blackberry Bold and the harvester. It took approximately 90 minutes to charge the Blackberry from 30% to 100%. Charging time varies based on strength of the Wifi signal. The device will be available Summer 2010 and retail for around $40.

In the future, RCA intends to reduce the size of the harvester and bake it into internal cell phone batteries. So, when the a phone equipped with a harvester battery is in Wifi range, it simply charges itself.

[via OhGizmo]

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What is the MagicJack “femtocell” home mini cell tower?

It is a small device that plugs into a computer’s USB port, receives a dialing signal from a cell phone located within 8 feet of the device, connects to a local cell tower and then switches the call from the local cell tower to a VOIP call transmitted on the MagicJack system, the same VOIP system as that the original MagicJack uses. After a call connects, the MagicJack femtocell would have a range of about 3,000 feet.  The MagicJack femtocell is being touted as a legal way to make air-time free calls from your cell phone. Like other femtocells, including those offered by cell carriers, someone with a weak cell signal in the home could experience better call quality or fewer dropped calls, if the VOIP transmission is better or more reliable than the cell transmission.

Which cell phones work with the femtocell?

GSM phones only, according to most reports.  AT&T and T-Mobile phones would likely work but Verizon and Sprint CDMA phones would not work with the version of the MagicJack femtocell being demoed.

How much will it cost?

$40 for one year of service, which includes unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada.

When will it be available?

In about four months.

Analysis and Concerns…

1. Questionably legal.  The FCC is reviewing the legality of a 3rd party femtocell not provided by the cellular carrier (some cellular carriers sell their own femtocells which usually run around $200).  If the FCC gives its blessing on the MagicJack femtocell or concludes that it fits within the spectrum laws, then I predict that cell carriers will simply cook into their contracts provisions that prohibit the use of 3rd party femtocells (like prohibiting TetherBerry on Blackberry phones).

2. Unless it has improved markedly in the past two years, the MagicJack VOIP network is spotty. I received repeated bursts of static using a traditional MagicJack.

3. Consumers would only achieve cost savings under two scenarios. First, the consumer exceeds his/her minutes and thus is able to reduce the overage by VOIPing some calls. Second, the consumer VOIPs enough calls to reduce his/her monthly allotment of minutes and incurs a lower monthly cell phone charge.

4. According to some reports, the service requires a MagicJack SIM card inserted into the phone. While this isn’t a big drawback for users who don’t need to insert SIM cards for other reasons (international roaming or switching networks), it may detract from the appeal of the MagicJack femtocell.

5. The advantages are somewhat overstated by some bloggers and commenters. You can use a traditional MagicJack for unlimited VOIP at the same price. The primary advantages of the new scheme are using the same handset for your VOIP and cellular calls and consolidating your VOIP and cellular calls to one phone number (the latter of which you can do with Google Voice too, a free service).

6. Consumers with with friends-and-family plans or pick-any-10 or the like can effectively make unlimited cell calls for free by adding a Google Voice outdial number as a airtime free call.

7. Google acquired a VOIP company in Q4 2009. When it slaps that together with Google Voice and enables number porting, then many of the purported advantages of the MagicJack femtocell will be available through Google and, most likely, for free.

I suppose the good news is companies are getting creative about ways to reduce communications expenses, particularly cell phone bills. If Google Voice rolls out VOIP too, perhaps the bottom will fall out of the cell phone companies sooner rather than later.

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Pranav Mistry, a PhD candidate at MIT, is the inventor of SixthSense and is featured in the video… the technology isn’t bad for a 28 year old :) who received stand-up applause at TED when the video above was shown. According to Professor Pattie Maes, who oversees the project at MIT, the basic equipment used in SixthSense is a combination of off-the-shelf computer equipment (and ordinary marker caps for the fingers) that in total sell for about $350. As can be seen in the video, the two primary components are a webcam and a small video projector. SixthSense connects to the internet via a smartphone’s data connection. More about SixthSense project is available on ted.com and on the official blog.

[discovered via Bitly.Tv]

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If augmented reality is new to you, you may want to read my post which explains augmented reality and has five video examples. Three of the examples you can try yourself if you have a printer and webcam. The baseball card example above was in a Mashable post today that includes 10 augmented reality examples. It is Mashable’s most popular article of the day.

You might also enjoy:

--Microsoft Bing’s Amazing Augmented Reality Maps --Augmented Reality — Explained and Free Examples (Layar, GE, Papervision & BMW) --MIT Media Lab’s “SixthSense” Project [VIDEO] --Alleged Assassins in Dubai [Video] --Most Over the Top Wedding Save the Date [Video]

[via Sean Fallon @ Gizmodo]

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--If you missed Buzz this week… all the buzz is about… Buzz.

Next generation SYNC will have a USB inteface in the car console that will accept any mobile broadband USB modem. The internet connection will be broadcast throughout the car in the same fashion as a wireless router broadcasts an internet connection throughout a house. Ford released the video below demonstrating the system… the video also goes by the title “How Not to Talk with Dad in the Car”:

Note, that Ford obviously did not consult with Microsoft in preparing the video. One daughter is Googling (not Binging) on her Dell laptop.

[via Nelson Ireson @ MotorAuthority]

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The primary operating system is referred to as a “host” and the virtualized computers are referred to as “guests.” Windows, Linux, Macs and OpenSolaris can host VirtualBox.  Guest operating systems include Windows, Linux and a variety of others unknown to me. Guest OSs can intergrate with USB ports, drives and even shared folders.

So, what’s the point?  Why run VirtualBox? Here are some reasons…

1. Before you upgrade to a new OS, you can try out a new OS with minimal effort. Just load up an ISO of the OS and you can check it out. Maybe you’re thinking of buying a netbook with Ubuntu Netbook Remix, try it out on your PC first.
2. You might want to run Windows apps but prefer to work in a Linux environment. For me, I can load up Photoshop, Blackberry Desktop Manager and Microsoft Office in Windows (on my host) but work in Google Chrome and other Linux apps in Ubuntu (on my guest).
3. No need to partition your drive to run two OSs. VirtualBox can create an OS on a virtual drive that exists within your existing drive and dynamically expands as needed.
4. Dual boot can be a real drag. If you need to restart your computer often, it can be very annoying. Also, with some virtualizations, you can cut and paste from one OS to another OS.
5. With reasonable computing power, the host and guest run at very good speeds.  I’m running on a dual core AMD Turion with 4 gigs of RAM… not state of the art by any means… and both host and guest are very responsive. With VirtualBox, you can allocate RAM and graphics memory between the two OSs and even adjust them after installing the guest. VirtualBox suggests the optimal settings for you.

If you’re thinking about taking VirtualBox for a spin, here are some tips:

1. Be sure to load the guest enhancements ISO on the guest. This will provide for better integration between the host and the guest. For example, it adds the ability to move your cursor seamlessly between the host and guest windows.
2. Learn keyboard shortcuts. Guests can be run in full screen mode (almost identical to running the OS as a primary OS). Right Control-F toggles between full screen and window modes.
3. Be patient. If you encounter a problem, there will likely be a solution. There’s tons of support out there for VirtualBox, just Google for solutions.

Highly recommended.  Check it out at http://www.virtualbox.org/.

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Wikipedia offers the following definition:  ”Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality.”  In other words, computer graphics are inserted into a view or image of the real world.

AR can best be understood by illustration.  Consider this scenario.  You are shopping for a home.  In the un-augmented world, you might look for For Sale signs, knock on doors, call brokers and browse the web.  With AR, however, you might just drive down the streets that interest you.  Next, you would snap your cellphone camera at a house.  It would process the image and report information back to you.  The information would be overlaid on the image you see of the neighborhood either on your phone’s screen or with a pair of special glasses.  You would know which houses are for sale.  You might see the asking price of the home, pictures of the interior and maybe even a video virtual tour of the home.  As you move down the street, you would learn about the next prospective house.

Maybe you are touring a city and you know nothing about the restaurants near your hotel.  You could simply walk down the street and pull up overlaid images of restaurant interiors, menus and even find out whether they are busy or not.

That is years away, right?  No.  There are AR tours being offered in some cities.  There are even smartphone apps that can do some of this already.  Layar is the most well known AR phone app and it is already available for the iPhone and Android devices.  Examples follow.

Below is a video that gives an example of how AR works in the Layar “reality browser”:

If you don’t have an iPhone or Android device, you can still try out AR examples with a webcam over the internet.  These examples are somewhat different but still quite interesting.  They require printing out a target and holding it up to your webcam.  It will produce an image on your screen with an animation added to your reality.

GE’s Plug Into the Smart Grid (web)

Papervision’s Little Monster (web)

BMW’s Virtual Z4 (requires download and install)

Below is an example of an AR business card:

If you know of any other web-based examples, please kindly post a comment with a link.

You might also enjoy:

--Microsoft Bing’s Amazing Augmented Reality Maps --Augmented Reality Baseball Cards by TOPPS [VIDEO] --Blackberry Messenger Code “Decoded” — QR Code Explained and Free Generator --Google Favorite Places QR Codes Explained… --AppBrain.com: My First 53 Free Android Apps on the Incredible…