Most know I am a mac convert and I have been impressed with their line of products. As is known in the mac rumor community, 3 or 4 times a year, lots of rumors start spreading on the next product that apple will release. It heats up a few weeks before their scheduled product launch timeline and the persistent rumors are currently in relation to Apple working on a touch enabled handheld (a la tablet) that is being called the iSlate.

Well that speculation is for professional rumor generators. I am interested instead on the directions that Apple might take on convergence via software.

Here is one.

Apple has a couple of product lines that do not get very much air time. The Mac Mini which is a compact desktop computer that runs Mac OSX and the other mysterious product being Apple TV.For all the amount pur on developing and marketing the AppleTV, it is intriguing that the box is simply a console to stream content (from your iTunes or Audio / Video streamed through the internet. You can also watch You Tube content, but really, who the hell wants to watch silly YouTube videos on their living room TV. The idea of Integrating YouTube is simply a way of saying, “there, we can do it too”. So I am thinking, what is possible to do with AppleTV, something that will turn into a straightforward revenue stream for Apple instead of a protracted negotiation with Broadcasters on TV rights and a piecemeal bite into the home entertainment pie.

Firstly, AppleTV is a console. A console that has a capable CPU, memory, storage and GPU that can push HD content to your TV. It is a sizable box that, with the help of hardware engineers can be easily upgraded to a mid-high end computing machine. Note, the software is ready to access your iTunes account and make purchases (even without using a PC or Mac). It works wirelessly (adding bluetooth is a matter of 5$ hardware upgrade). Now the controller for this console is a simplistic Apple Remote that is (almost too simplistic). However the Apple TV can also be controlled via your iPhone or iPod Touch.

That is the second part of the puzzle. The iPhone (and iPodTouch) can control your AppleTV. The iPhone is an absolutely stunning device that has brilliant controls with its neat touch screen and accelerometers. Tons of extremely innovative games and control schemes have been developed in the last couple of years that has shown the ingenuity of game developers and the platform.

It seems logical in my mind that it is time for AppleTV to take centre stage. Not as a movie streaming box but, you heard it first here, as a Gaming console. Imagine the possibilities. The apple TV takes centre stage in the Living room plugged to a large screen TV with tons of CPU resources. Now, if game developers start developing games that can play on the AppleTV, all we need is good game controllers. There is the iPhone in your pocket. Whip it out, connect with the AppleTV, start the specific game ‘map’ and the controls magically appear on the phone, joysticks, tilt controls, multi touch controls, all in the palm of your hand. It gets better, sync 2 or more iPhones and you have multi player gaming in your living room. Even better, the in thing in gaming is online games and Apple need not be left out of this either. The AppleTV is always online. Hah, I might have cracked a long standing enigma that is AppleTV and potentially, cracked open a new revenue stream and industry for Apple to butt their nose into and make billions in revenue (remember iTunes music sales crossed a Billion $ mark in its first year).

It gets even better, you need not have to purchase the controller ‘map’, AppleTV can stream the game controls to your iPhone when you are connected and the controls disappear when you log out. Just run over to your friends house to play a game you do not own but the controls are beamed by the Local console and you need not be left out of the gaming fun during the next party.

Sell the games via iTunes / app store and the circle is complete. Apple being Apple, will keep the games playable on AppleTV alone and not on all macs (including Mini). Well that means Mini has a different product strategy planned out. And that is ok in my book.

Now, whip out your wallets and be ready for picking up the Next Gen souped up AppleTV when it comes out.

Well if anyone in apple wants more ideas, there is lots more where this comes from, I would gladly be an advisor for product development

Now, that is fresh speculation! he heh.

My long wait is over. Street view is live in Singapore now. Unfortunately, I am missing

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Recall I mentioned I spotted the Google Street view Car a while back. Well it was fairly late in the evening and I guess unless they bring in features for day time / night time view, I will not appear. Unless, I track down the Trike or the car next time they are out and about scanning the streets.

Well we cannot have it all, but the street view is still worth it even without me featuring in it. Heh.

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I wonder where my “friend at Google” is…

I also realize that the street view has gotten a lot more features in the recent months. The Navigation is absolutely brilliant and now they even have images shot nearby. Neat.

Was looking at a tabloid this morning and posted all over was the article on Google Street view trike. A friend of mine was nice enough to share the article in the evening and translated a bit here and there.

I am wondering with my contacts in places high up, how did I miss this opportunity! You know, ride the bike around town, geek out on the trike setup, take pictures while on the job and and bring more useful information to the rest of the world. Hmmm, I should keep my ears more open

Some more information here.

I have been contemplating some upgrades for the bike (part of it is lust for shiny new stuff and mostly things I think can improve my commute and beyond). There are 2 bikes that I am focussing on upgrades, firstly, it is my Long Haul Trucker and the second one id some upgrades to my New World Tourist. Lets focus on the simpler upgrade, my Long Haul trucker.

The focus is on setting up a power plant on the bike to generate electricity. Recently (2009 / 2010) many companies are working on products that focus on harnessing energy from the bike to charge electronics (phone, GPS etc…). Some good products coming on line are from pedal power +, B&M and Dahon. I have invested in checking out Pedal Power + and will be testing out their product in the coming weeks. The missing component in my bike is a good electricity generator.

Dynamos on bikes are very old technology and have been around for a long time now and the technology is very mature. Generally, there are 2 classes of products, side wall dynamos (good ones are from B&M) and the hub dynamos (good ones are made by SON, Shimano and SRAM). Pros and cons exist for both versions and I have decided on going along the Hub route. It is expensive option (generally) but if you get a good deal on a hub, it is a very fuss free option.

As I was procuring some components I chanced on a great deal for a Shimano DH-3N72 hub (< 60 USD) and pounced on it. I dont know much about the quality of dynamos but Peter White says that the Shimano Hubs (especially the 7x and 8x) are very good bang for the buck and a very good long term value. I received the package and the hub looks very delicious in appearance and it came with a skewer too. The electric attachment also looks pretty robust I do think it is a good value. I will have to wait for the built wheel and some riding to see if things are going to be smooth sailing.

So, the project essentially involves building a new wheel around the Shimano dynamo hub. I also found good deals on a nice head light (Spanninga Luceo) at velo orange and the entire package does not blow a hole in the wallet. I contemplated re-lacing my current front wheel with the hub but when I thought about it, I needed to get rid of the current rim tape, undo the spokes, get new spokes or try to re-tap the current ones to be used with the larger hub, build the wheels again and replace the rim tape. On the other hand, if I just got a new rim, I need not strip the current wheel and keep it as a backup or sell it to someone who needs it. That’s what I decided and I am going to get a new rim and build a new wheel around the hub. Some pictures in the blog show the new stuff and I will post pictures once I get the wheel built.

The wheels are being built by TR bikes who have built my earlier wheels too and do a great job about it. They recently have tied up with a new wheel builder and I am expecting the build to be the best one can get.

Enjoy the component porn while I wait for the wheel (should be in within the week) and I will be posting more of my experiments with the lights and pedal power + charger in the weeks to come.

Update: I realized it is not easy to find the sub 60$ deal on the hub. It is actually sold by Niagara Cycle Works and they have an amazon shopfront. A direct link to the product is here. It says DH-3N71, but they shipped a DH-3N72. According to Peter White, there is no difference between the models (except the 8x which has an aluminum axle). If you are still waiting on a hub, run there to score the deal.

Apple IPod event came and it went. Usually, this part of the year has been very exciting over the past several years due to the tremendous innovations that came from apple with regard to their iPods.

Better form factors, newer hardware, smaller iPods, better iTunes, more features… You name it.

This time, the expectation was high but apple decided to show off better marketing instead of technology. Duh… What we have is a high capacity iPod and more features in iTunes, I am sure no one really cares about. Music is all about songs, giving off liner notes is not going to sell an album. Apple taught us that, now they are buckling under music label pressure.

So we get souped up iPod Nano. Well, the features are nice, video recording, fm radio (what took them so long?) and audio recording. But none of it for the iPod touch. No tech breakthroughs here. But a more clearer market seggregation.

iPhones have video rec, why not iPod? Well it is because iPod touch is already eating into the traditional iPod product line and nano struggles to live between the shuffle and the iPod touch. Well, marketing comes into play and attaches features to spur nano sales and makes sure the touch does not get the features to compete.

Very clever but ultimately sneaky. Not good for the consumer. If you want games, get the touch. If you want video/radio, get the nano. If you want both, go F@&$ yourself.

I wish the technologists get out of their plateau soon…

I am in the process of building a SON based wheelset and was hunting to find more use for the Hub than lighting. In the short term, I am not interested in using the dynamo power for lights and have been lookout for some solution that can allow me to store the energy to charge other electronics, specifically the iPhone and some AA batteries.

I came across the site for PedalPower+ and since I could not find much info online on the product or about the company, I called them to clear some of the q’s I had. I spoke with the son (Nicholas Kidd Jnr) of the Inventor / boss (Nicholas Kidd Snr) and it was a pleasant. I liked the fact that he was able to answer all my q’s technical and otherwise and after debating with myself, I decided to get the Universal AC cable and a set of adapters. they also sell batteries and the V4 seems like a good one to have especially with its 5600 mAh capacity. I have a Solio and so decided against the battery purchase for now.

I will state some initial impressions here and once I have an opportunity to use the product for an extended period, I will do a follow up to this review.

1. First off, what impressed me was the fact the the product is not built as a proprietary solution, the output from the Universal AC cable can be fed to any device directly. This includes batteries like the Solio. Though pedal power sells batteries too, they do not force the sale on to you. Which is neat in my book. Additionally, since each of the product can be purchased separately, it makes for a slightly higher pricing. I paid 92 AUD for the AC cable and an additional 16 AUD for the additional set of adapters. They are a bit steep in my book but I have nothing to compare the price with. B+M is expected to sell a similar product called E-Werk which has a posted price of 140 Euros, which seems to be the same price as the Pedalpower’s universal cable + the V4 battery. Given that E-Werk is not available yet and the flexibility offered by PedalPower+, I decided to try the Ac cable option.
2. Dealing with Pedalpower was very pleasant. I called, then we discussed, made payment through paypal and received the product in 2 days. I would have preferred a cheaper shipping option, but I suppose it is something you can discuss with them.
3. The packaging is simple, though they took the effort to make sure it arrives safe and bubble wrapped.
4. The AC cable seems waterproof because the electronics are held in a moulded case and the input and output cables are also mounded into the sides. However, the ends where you are expected to connect the Hub and your device do not have any shielding from the elements. It would have been nice to provide a silicone or rubber enclosure at the ends to protect from accidental splashing. If it can be made waterproof, that would be perfect.
5. The finish does not seem to be of the highest quality and not sure how it will endure persistent rain and sun. The cable shielding are plasticky and I would have preferred a smoother overall finish.
6. The best part of the AC cable is the fact that the connection to 3rd party system is very flexible. The end hat connects to the dynamo is simply 2 wires. I will have to get the proper cable that connects to the SON (or any other dynamo). This is a good idea since they do not force you to buy their dynamo. The output from the AC cable (I presume the electronics do the job of converting AC to DC, high voltage cutoff etc…) is also pretty much open ended. They provide a standard (properly polarized, I presume) jack that connects to all their mini adapters. At first glance, the pin looks to be the same one as in the Solio’s Output,  I will have to check to confirm though. But the quality of the Output pin is something I might be concerned about. Extended use is the only way to find out if it indeed is robust.
7. The adapter set supports a variety of devices and I found ones that I might need, one for the iPod, a Mini USB, A Female USB etc… The problem is that they still do not support the latest iPhones (which require a cable with embedded electronics), but I was assured that they are working on a solution for that too.
8. The Input cable for the Universal AC is about 60 cm and probably long enough to fix it permanently in the fork. The output cable is a coiled wire  (like in old telephones) and seems to have reasonable reach. The idea seems to keep the V4 or your devices on your handlebar to charge. I might not use it this way and may need to find a better solution to install on the bike and keep it safe from elements.

Overall, I believe the product has great promise. The openness in the connectivity and the ability to pick up the product in smaller chunks makes this very appealing for people who might already have some of the products (in my case, the SON and Solio). On the flip side, I believe the cost of the AC universal cable can be lower and the build quality higher with more protection from the elements. I suppose I will have to use it over an extended period before making a call on the real life issues.

I have yet to use it, am still waiting for the SON to show up and my wheels built. As I write this, the inventor Nicholas Kidd Snr, is showcasing the product in Eurobike 2009. I have not seen any reviews for the PedalPower+ products and I hope anyone interested will benefit from these observations.

I visited the Bike Friday Website today and was shocked. They changed their site. It was a good idea to change their site, since the old one was nearly a mess and difficult to navigate. But it was a bad idea to change it to what it is now. it is really a mess now.

Starting with the color and the background graphics, it looks pretty silly to have a silhouetted imagery. Everyone knows their bikes. If some one does not know, the graphics does nothing to educate them on their products. FAIL.

There are 3 Menu systems on the front page. Count 3. I think it is totally unnecessary. I prefer their original One menu system. Colors are selection is outrageous. white fonts on light green? Who chose that? FAIL.

Menus respond to Mouse over. in an eagerness to embrace Web 2.0, there is way too much javascript enabled automation. I don’t care for fancy graphics, I need the ability to know where to find things. Menus overlap, I am lost. FAIL.

Some sections in the front page are collapsed – By Default. Why put it up if you want to save space I ask? Some sections cannot be collapsed. Why? Inconsistency is the cornerstone of bad user Interface. Please take a leaf from Apple. FAIL.

Menu Hides under Images. FAIL.

I thought I was out of the era of Flickering Graphics. What do I get on the Front page? A rotating set of customer images. I preferred the previous version showcasing one image in the front page. It is easy to randomly show images whenever the page refreshes like RBW. This flashing images is making me disoriented. FAIL.

The cloud on Top right is silly. Please remove it. If you want to highlight some dealers, put it in a more structured location. FAIL.

I understand what BF was trying to do. I suspect maintaining their website was very manual and laborious and decided to jump to a database driven platform to ease their process. But what they have ended up with is a mish-mash of badly implemented ideas with no sense of design.

BF is an engineering company and I do not expect their website design to be aesthetically pleasing. At the least they should strive for usability. The old site was a bitch to navigate but I suddenly miss it now.

Please do something.

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, update its OS to 3.0. The spotlight feature for ‘desktop’ search is revolutionary. it is such an ye opener to me, and I love it to search for contacts rather than opening the contact app, looking for the search bar and typing it.

The best part is, when you switch to spotlight, the app opens instantly, the cursor is in the search box and the keyboard is ready. So it reduces a 5 step operation to 1. Insane!

Additionally, I use it to search for music. looking for a specific artist or a song was painful (even though the iPod app interface is very cool and effective). Spotlight pushes the usability with a 1 step operation (2 if you have to scroll).

Really, you got to try it to realize how cool it is.

Another Deep zoom composition. As you can see, the technology is not only useful to show off panoramas but one can shoot images at different resolutions and layer them to bring out more details. Microsoft site does a better job of showing off this technology, but here is my attempt.

I should have carried my tripod to get the best possible sharpnedd but unfortunately I did not. High ISO, hand held shots in extremely low light are not the ideal combination. But Still I like this…

The insets are amazing pieces of art and a dying one at that. My dad managed to find working artists practicing the art-form and commissioned these images. Good collection to have.

Technical Details:
Shot with 35mm f/2.0 and the insets are shot with 105mm f/2.5 AIS lenses. All handheld on a D200.

If you are reading via a rss reader, please visit the site for the deep-zoom content.

I love deepzoom. I posted an earlier image out of my window to try out the technology. It is pretty addictive

So when I went to Coonoor recently, I shot a bunch of panoramic images hoping to stitch them and share. Here is one of them…

I don’t have equipment to shoot a technically perfect panorama but flaws aside, I think the technology allows to share extremely large images with exceptional details. Enjoy exploring the nice vista and have fun finding all the flaws…

To those interested, the panorama is made of 21 raw files and stitched together in photoshop elements. Each image was shot on a Nikon D200, with a 35mm f/2 AIS manual Nikkor lens. I shot them in a sequence by standing in approximately the same place and turning a bit for each shot. Shot hand held and approximately the same exposure settings. Had to adjust exposure to match the brightness of each shot. Some minor exposure adjustments (eye balling) were made in Photoshop Lightroom. The stitched image it a 500MB Photoshop (psd) file and when saved as a high quality jpeg, is about 70MB. Converted using the deepzoom composer and hosted on this site.

If you are reading via a rss reader, please visit the site for the deep-zoom content.