Mobies, movies & music on Nokia N800

I just discovered jaaksi.blogspot.com , which is a blog by Ari Jaaksi who's the head of Nokia's Open Source projects. Most significant news from him is that an updated OS for the Nokia N800 with plenty of improvements, especially in video rendering, is near. OTOH, some of what they think of as great advances are mighty retarded; e.g., Ogg Vorbis support! Are you kidding -- you released a media player that doesn't already have that? I just now discovered that my HE-AAC files aren't recognized, and I still maintain that that is the codec best suited to devices like this.
I'm irritated by levels of complication getting software to run. I installed fbReader expecting I could use it with the many free Mobipocket books, but fbReader wants me to specify a startup directory in a directory structure that I cannot understand. I had the books placed on the SD card, but I do now recall that Microsoft Reader for Pocket PC didn't like having them there, also, and wanted them in the Documents area of main memory. And I still think Microsoft Reader is terrific and all others are also-rans. But, Nokia's PDF viewer is impressive, so, that might be satisfactory for some books.
I'm guessing that Nokia cannot directly collude with Videolan.org because of disputes over codec rights, but not having something as adaptable as was the BetaPlayer for Windows Mobile is a huge liability. I know that this N800 hardware could do a fine job on music and video because that BetaPlayer did so with far slower processors. I see corecodec.org has devolved into coreplayer.com, with descendants of BetaPlayer now sold for $20 for Win Mobile and Palm, and a Symbian version is said imminent.

Move from Livejournal

I'm now considering making this my home because I've been getting too many abusive comments at Livejournal (mostly relating to doubts I have about the way Ubuntu Linux installs to hard drive -- and most seemingly from illiterate teenagers!).
The fact that I could readily get a widescreen template is a major benefit in the new Blogger.

Yahoo Launchcast -- a threat to iPods & satellite radio?

I read a post in Hydrogenaudio forums in which somebody speculated that new WMA codecs in Windows Media Player 11 incorporate SBR (Spectral Band Resampling) and PNS (Parametrically Normalized Stereo). That would be hugely important because it would open the way for Microsoft together with Yahoo, its greatest ally in pushing WMA formats, to provide fine-sounding files at the 64 kbps-and-below bitrates that HE-AAC makes possible. This dawned on me as I finally got a Yahoo Messenger 7.5 build that allows me to listen to their Launchcast radio stations. [But, I've got to confess I don't like the regular commercials I'm getting between the fine selection of Chill music on that Yahoo genre station -- their way of nudging listeners to subscribe?] Supporting this line of reasoning is the fact that Yahoo and MSN Messengers are to become interoperable.
What I see here is the possibility of having WinMobile Smartphones continuously play streamed channels like the one I'm now listening to via the free metropolitan networks of Wi-Fi (and WiMax) that will blanket all major metropolises in years to come. Over 10 million will be within reach of the system to be set up in New York City -- a pretty good market!
One may suppose that the next afiiliation in this area would put Symbian OS supporters like Nokia in bed with AOL and Coding Technologies, probably along with the latter's licensee XM Satellite.
And still there's no peep out of Apple about how they'll preserve their portable music franchise.

Technorati Tags: WMA, HE-AAC, Launchcast, Apple

FLAC is for future-proofing

I had commented in an Opera-hosted blog where a University student reported his pleasure that his new cell phone plays HE-AAC. Ever the busy body, I offered a heads up on the new Nero encoder.

An emailed reply held surprises: 1) he favors using version 1 of HE-AAC and 2) he uses LAME MP3 for archiving music. That he preferred command line encoders to something like MediaCoder must be considered as being Opera user behavior. (Mind you, I've had occasion to wish to take up with Opera again, but the fact that many of the coolest Web 2.0 apps don't work with it prevents defection.)

That first is bizarre, but perhaps shows that people aren't all that fussy about how their music on mobile devices sounds. But, the real surprise is that someone technologically savvy would toss aside the future-proofing FLAC provides. No matter what audio codec may hold sway in some years time, I know that my FLAC files will be readily converted along with their tags.

technorati tags: FLAC, HE-AAC

AAC with MediaCoder and Rockbox

Stanley Huang in Shanghai has released a new version of MediaCoder which can directly transcode from tagged lossless formats like FLAC, using Nero's new AAC encoder, properly transferring the tags to new *.m4a files. This is a huge convenience for those diligent enough to have gone to the effort of converting old CDs into tagged lossless files -- just load in 500 or so files and when you awake you've got many hours of music for your shiny next-gen musicphone.

I have a 60 Gb iAudio X5 player, now 93% full up with Ogg Vorbis files at q 6.16 -- nominal 197 kbps. There's lots of excitement in user forums at iAudiophile.net because Rockbox alternative firmware has been working on the player for a couple of months. Atypically, I'm not jumping at the opportunity to try new software. I really am a believer in the Ogg Vorbis format and I don't think any "lossy" format, including Nero AAC, can yet achieve transparency at barely above 200 kbps, which seems the case with latest Ogg Vorbis builds from Japan by people who call themselves aoyumi, lancer and blacksword -- the latter two optimizing for encoding speed while the first does the golden-eared tweaking. The major disadvantage of Ogg Vorbis is that it taps batteries more, and this is especially a problem in the iAudio x5 -- eight hours max with Ogg. I'm pretty sure that play time can be greater with LC-AAC on the iAudio x5 -- the official Cowon firmware didn't support it. But, talk in the threads is that battery efficiency with Rockbox is under what the original firmware offered, though improvements are deemed likely.

What clinches me on being a late adopter of Rockbox is that I really like BBE brilliance enhancing effects that the original firmware offers. Audiophiles dismiss BBE as artificial, but I think it a major plus for a mobile device that has to feed one its music while being carried through urban traffic and noise pollution.

But, it's nice to know that I have new options for expanding my music choices.

Did I mention that I have more than 7,000 files on my iAudio? Truth is, I don't have time to listen to all of it.

Technorati : AAC, HE-AAC, MediaCoder, Rockbox, iAudio
Del.icio.us : AAC, HE-AAC, MediaCoder, Rockbox, iAudio
Ice Rocket : AAC, HE-AAC, MediaCoder, Rockbox, iAudio

Nerotunes for musicphones

I notice in the discussion about the freeware Nero AAC encoder that's going on at Hydrogenaudio that the Nero guys are proposing to offer device/brand-specific settings for subsequent versions. That's directed more at musicphones than iPods and the like. And it's a major move to supplant iTunes as the Windows desktop music conversion software. Nero is offering their software in Linux, also, but not Mac OS.
We already knew that Apple had deliberately weakened the encoding algorithms for MP3 in iTunes, since they are so tied into the Low-Complexity Advanced Audio Coding format (LC-AAC). Since the Nero coder clearly surpasses the Apple codecs in LC-AAC (iPods play that and MP3, only) and doesn't even try to encode to High-Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC), Nero has a very good chance of dominating how we feed the coming generation of musicphones. It's a bit difficult to see Microsoft in this picture since their WMA format simply cannot compete at these low rates -- say, 30% of an iTunes store-bought song and at almost comparable quality.
We now await response from the Winamp/AOL/Coding Technologies alliance. Since AOL already collaborates with XM Satellite, another Coding Technolgies-type HE-AAC licensee, that is the obvious group to bet on. Honestly, it's a helluva lot of work doing one's own music file conversion and tagging (yikes!), so I really think pre-programmed channels like XM's (or even on-demand delivery to musicphones) will utterly alter the way people get their mobile music.
This really is disruptive technology at work! First Apple steals Microsoft's expected busines, then Coding Technologies and, maybe, Nero, muscle aside both Apple and Microsoft.Nero,

Technorati : AAC, AOL, CodingTechnologies, HE-AAC, Nero, iTunes
Del.icio.us : AAC, AOL, CodingTechnologies, HE-AAC, Nero, iTunes
Ice Rocket : AAC, AOL, CodingTechnologies, HE-AAC, Nero, iTunes

Now trying Zoundry

Now it's Zoundry I'm trying for Blogger.com . Something seems to be screwed up and prevents posts getting Technorati pinged.

Technorati : Technorati, Zoundry, blogging
Del.icio.us : Technorati, Zoundry, blogging
Ice Rocket : Technorati, Zoundry, blogging

How an 83-yr-old likes Flock

I was just at my father's -- he's 83 -- to update him
with the newest 0.7 branch Flock and add in some extensions. He
especially liked the CoolIris extension (gives BIG page preview when
one hovers over the linl line in Google search results) and the Flock
Faves / News multiline bookmark bars. He has a difficult time clearing
the URL bar and entering a new address.

Technorati Tags: Flock, CoolIris

Another stupid gecko trick

I just discovered that, when in Flock, I couldn't edit the colors in a zap annayances javascript bookmarklet from squarefree.com -- the zap white backgrounds one; I change the newly rendered background to wheat instead of tan.  But, I could open a Firefox browser and drag the bookmarklet from there to Flock.


Technorati Tags: Firefox, Flock, bookmarklets

Stylish extension; Netvibes abuilding

I'm again building a profile, this time for Flock 0.7 builds -- the Slim Down GUI style from the Stylish extension-enabling usercripts.org site is essential, IMO. It's really gratifying to see how many new CSS styles are being added, and the easy install option in Stylish ver. 0.3.2 is a major convenience over prior. I saw a couple of new scripts for the Netvibes portal were added in the past week.  That's a sure sign that Netvibes is gaining critical mass; I'm already using a Greasemonkey script to enable simple RSS feed adding to my Netvibes page. Of course, as so often happens, Greasemonkey's userscripts.org is down.  Another thing I like about Netvibes is that I can have a Yahoo mail POP account than current browser default displayed on my Netvibes page.


Technorati Tags: Stylish, Flock, Netvibes

Museum of Modern Beta (republish from LJ)

The Museum of Modern Betas is such a great site. I forgot the name of the online spreadsheet I registered in just two days ago, had failed to save password info locally, couldn't find it in history, and Google searches went unavailing. Searching for "spreadsheet" at MOMB immediately identified it as Editgrid; obviously Editgrid is doing a poor job in search engine optimization and PR. Investigating the others will be today's task. This could be interesting since I don't have others' preconceptions. I'd like something that teaches me math analysis the way my HP-41C once did.


This is one area where oh-so-web1.0 Yahoo really could be a factor. I'm no accountant and the internal logic of Excel and kin isn't how my mind works. But I occasionally use a spreadsheet as a calculator to create weightings for stocks in an industry I'll call "Au," for instance, and then set some date as index base 100. Making it a "Portfolio" in Yahoo Finance, one then has a great view of how one particular industry is doing. With Opera and Firefoxen under 1.6, one can display the Yahoo portfolios in a sidebar. I should make a screen capture to show how cool that is. I sent a note to one Flock person about how cool it would be to integrate auto-refreshed Yahoo stock quotes in a sidebar since they're close with Yahoo. Lamentably, sidebar functionality is pretty much gone in Flock 0.7+.


Technorati Tags: MOMB, editgrid, spreadsheets, Yahoo, Flock

NeroTunes (republish from LJ)

Ahead/Nero, of CD burning fame, released a free to all but closed source AAC encoder on May 4. I spent hours today with it and I would be immensely excited if I used an iPod, but I don't.  Still and all, there's no doubt that it produces files in iTunes-store format that are higher in quality, at the same size, than what Apple's codecs produce. That's to say that Nero's encoder produces nominal 160 kbps LC-AAC files that sound significantly better.  It's obvious that Nero's chief codec engineer Ivan Dimkovic really has figured out how to use Variable Bit Rate encoding to give iPod users the same type of benefits users of Ogg Vorbis (and MP3, to a lesser degree) have been enjoying for years. To date, Apple has produced only a wishy-washy Average Bit Rate encoder that doesn't drift more than 5kbps or so in a nominal 160 kbps audio file.  With Nero's new encoder set for q (quality) 0.5 (evidently well calibrated to 160 kbps nominal), I saw my test file, Tommy Flanagan's Oh, Lady Be Good! show rates as high as 196 kbps when played in the latest foobar2000. 
For the time being, until Stanley Huang (aka optimus in the Hydrogenaudio forums) releases his next version of MediaCoder, we have to make do with foobar2000 for encoding from untaggable WAV to MP4.  Getting the tags in the output files is a PITA, but I'd use MP3Tag.  If one goes about this right, one creates tagged FLAC files at the initial ripping stage for archiving.  One way or another one can get the WAV files and from thence the Nero-AAC-encoded MP4s; then it's just a bit of drudgery to transfer the tags from the FLACs to the MP4s, using MP3Tag.
FWIW, I transcoded with a new "NeroTunes" profile in the foobar2000 preferences of -q 0.5 -if %s -of %d . There's also an output filename parameter which I changed to %_filename% .
I don't think the benefits for low-bitrate encoding with Nero's HE-AAC were as obvious as the differences between Apple and Nero LC-AAC.  Despite Nero's insistence that  a q value is best (.225 seemed closest to producing nominal 48 kbps, which has become a sort of standard), I prefer having tighter control of file size. I'm inclined to go with an Average Bit Rate of 48 kbps using encoder parameters -br 46594 -2pass -hev2 -if %s -of %d . 
I've been preparing for the new Smartphones that play these files by encoding with whatever seemed the best at the time I ripped to FLAC.  That's been Coding Technologies versions -- called AAC+ by them and licensee Winamp -- except for about three months after Nero Burns 7.0 was released. Helping move me to the Coding Technologies version from Winamp was the slowness of Nero's earlier encoder.  Now Nero offers an SSE2-optimized executable which is lots faster. But I'm dubious about Nero's scrapping the Parametric Stereo setting for channel enhancement except down at rates in low 30s and under.
But, hell, let's give Ivan Dimkovic a nice round of applause.  After years of trying, he definitely has beaten Apple.


Technorati Tags: Nero, iTunes, AAC, AAC+, codecs, foobar2000, mp3tag, mediacoder

Kiko (republished from LJ)

I just read what the guys developing the  Kiko Calendar/PIM app have accomplished in the past month: http://kiko.infogami.com/blog/
I think it remarkable, above all because they're really doing a lot of lateral thinking about how people interact with contacts and info.  I just wish the private ICS file format was already implemented.  I've now established that Spongecell works with the iCal viewer in Netvibes, but Spongecell is rustic in comparison with Kiko and Google Calendar is Neanderthal.
This area of calendar-PIMs also looks exciting because it's one of the few where there's a real chance of getting money via add-ins and add-ons.  For example, think of calendar and contact sharing by the Smartphone-equipped in a disco or concert hall -- who's going for pizza or is up for a rave?
Isn't it odd how Google is falling behind?  The google.com/ig portal now looks so old, their page creator is retarded and their chat system is no worldbeater.



Technorati Tags: Kiko, Google

Zohowriter -- social Web 2.0 PIMs (republish of LJ)

     This is my first effort creating a blog post using Zohowriter with the intent of exporting directly into Livejournal.  We shall see ...
     I was in the Village at a rather dull meeting and thought back to when every girl in Manhattan had a Palm Pilot with her friends, contacts and to-the-minute schedule in it. As an aside, I loved the anal retentive Olsen twin in New York Minute who had even her bathroom trips scheduled in her Day Runner.
     That train of though also had me remembering when there were Palm Pilot syncing stations at most Greenwich Village sidewalk phones -- the notion was to get local info, maps, happenings, etc. Wi-Fi now and Wi-Max later make that seem retarded.  I also recall the Manhattan launch party for Mozilla 1.0, held in a bar patterned on Parisian meeting spots of the 1890s where people would phone other tables in an attempt to get something on.  That launch party bar added TV cameras you could swivel to view patrons in further reaches of the club. Lamentably, we initially had oodles of Chinatown cuties who'd come in for reasons unknown, decided we were too geeky, and were all gone by 10:00 P.M.
     I believe that Web 2.0 PIMs can be an organizing theme for entertainment event info and dating/matchmaking services.  With cellies also offering cameras, I can also imagine something akin to that experience in the Mozilla launch club.

[5 Minutes later: OK, Zohowriter worked very nicely for this post. But what really surprised me is that Technorati immediately picked up that there is new material here. Dunno if that was Zoho or LJ's doing, but it's pretty damn slick!]

Sites galore (reposted from LJ)

These Web 2.0 happenings so much remind me of the exciting days between IE and Netscape versions 3 and 4 when everybody was desperate to get their site deemed a new standard. I think the Web 2.0 app that is most needed is an expedited sign-up system for what is possibly cool (but right for me?) so one could have a one-week trial without the endless rigamarole each time. That's an idea not so different from what used to be offered for investment newsletters and tip sheets -- back in the day when snail mail ruled (and postage was cheap).
Such quick tryouts are another reason that I'm finding the Places feature in my Bon Echo April 27 build utterly invaluable. Looking back in where I explored is so easy, and even more needed since so many sites have names that really aren't memorable. I am utterly and angrily opposed to Goodger's decision to remove it from the 2.0 milestone. Yes, I absolutely agree that it is false advertising to bill the next Firefox as 2.0 unless it finally brings interface and features up a level from IE and Netscape 3 and 4.
Java is so 20th Century, and that's how I dismiss Thinkfree. I'm not trying it out now since it's approaching Saturday evening (party!), but the export to blog function in Zohowriter seemed really cool; my quick take is that it is more useful to me than AjaxWrite or (eegad!) Thinkfree. I've a hunch a .NET app could beat Thinkfree Java. I think .NET is great!
I liked Spongecell better than Google Calendar, and Kiko better still, but the last doesn't yet offer iCal export. I've yet to check if Spongecell can be imported into Netvibes without times getting borked as happens with Google Calendar. I think PIM/calendar functions are a great Web 2.0/AJAX opportunity that may change our lives.
Other sites quickly visited included gabbr.com, which I thought a nice news delivery system
Two search engines that grabbed me were gigablast.com and golexa.net .
I need this blog as a backup to remember what I explored!





Technorati Tags: Goodger, Zohowriter, Spongecell, Kiko, iCal, gabbr, gigablast, golexa

Goodbye LJ, hello Blogspot

I've spent 36 hours trying to get LiveJournal working properly, or at least with Technorati ping facilities. It ain't gonna happen. I really think that LJ is just being malicious in its efforts to extort money. Too bad that other free alternatives look like crap or are down while they ward of denial of service and spam accounts.


Technorati Tags: livejournal, blogger

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