iPhone, Android and their likes have definitely changed the way we define a smartphone, so quickly that most of the competitors are still struggling to catch up.

Although I consider myself a techno-fan, and I use to act as a first adopter with most consumer technologies, this time I’m sticking with my 3-years-old Nokia E71.

I guess we can call it a smartphone, even though its screen is non-touch… and quite small on current standards. In fact the following points still make it a very good companion:

- comfortable QWERTY keyboard (say what you want, touch-screen-addicted readers, but I bet I can text faster than you!)

- still up-to-date hardware equipment, including wi-fi, 3G, bluetooth and GPS

- embedded Mail-for-Exchange client

- availability of free applications for those features most of us use the most: Gmail, Google Maps, Ovi Maps, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, Nimbuzz (a multi-service chat client)…

Not enough? You’re right.

The final, critical ingredient is Joikuspot. This smart program connects to the Internet in 3G and shares that connection via wi-fi, turning the E71 (and many other phones) into a wi-fi hotspot in a snap.

Only recently added in some smartphones natively, this feature is usually defined “wi-fi tethering”.

Think about the possibilities. I mainly enjoy the latest apps on my iPod Touch and download new content from everywhere on my e-book reader… but one could even surf the Internet with two notebooks at the same time from a beach…

Just get a 3G flat data tariff before!

Linux was initially one of the main ingredients of the “netbook” successful recipe, consistently with its smart and low-cost concept.

In 2008, about 24% of netbooks was shipped with a Linux operating system. But that percentage is expected to plunge to a poor 4% this year, according to the market research company IDC. One could imagine that a revolutionary new OS has entered the market and caused such a change! Completely wrong: the netbook market is currently led by the 8-years-old Windows XP.

Why?

Win XP is neither more complete nor faster than Linux, especially on these low-power devices.

The point is that users look for compatibility with the constantly growing number of electronic devices they own: mp3 players, portable hard drives, smartphones… and of course with a series of well-known software products they’re already used to…

I’m a loyal user of Linux Ubuntu, which I installed on a couple of computers including my Dell Mini (some tips about it here). But I’ve never felt indifferent with the issues described above: I wish I could have on my netbook at least iTunes, Slingbox Player and a full compatibility with every external memory. Anyway, I didn’t consider Win XP as an option.

Then I bumped into this article from Uneasy Silence, describing a simple method to install Apple OS X “Leopard” on the little guy. Of course I spent a few hours surfing the web about this, so I found out that different methods have been built and are very well explained by the smart guys at the Dell Mini forum. This post from Gizmodo has been an interesting reading too.

Well… I couldn’t resist from tryin’ it out. And it worked!

I’ve been testing this solution for a few days now. Needless to say, having some of the Apple incomparable experience on my netbook has been amazing. But on a deeper analysis… I believe it’s just not worth it.

Let’s highlight three main reasons.

1) A netbook is primarily meant for surfing the web. While Ubuntu’s Firefox let me scroll every page just smoothly, by sliding the touchpad edge with my right finger, I couldn’t replicate the same behavior on Mac OS (nor, least of all, have the famous two-finger Mac experience: that’s not supported by the Dell hardware).

2) Yes, I could successfully install Slingbox Player and iTunes on the hackintoshed Dell Mini. But the latter couldn’t manage my Win-formatted iPod Nano.

3) Ethernet was not recognized on Leopard, which wasn’t so bad at first, because the wi-fi connection worked perfectly instead. Then I went out for a week-end and I realized that this somehow affected every chance to make my HSPA dongle work.

Therefore, I peacefully switched back to the latest Ubuntu Netbook Remix version.

Now I know that I would immediately buy an Apple Netbook. But I also learned why in Cupertino they’re so obsessed by selling the Mac OS with their own hardware only: full control of the user experience, resulting in an unchallenged cutting-edge product line.

A recent video from the smart guys at Cnet explains how to share an Internet connection, from your computer to other wi-fi devices, whether you’re powered by XP, Vista or Mac.

The process is quite simple and doesn’t require any additional hardware or software, but it can reveal very powerful by allowing multiple use cases.

I’m wondering for instance if someone could use a VPN connection, set on the PC, to make a (wi-fi enabled) set-top-box access video rental services with geographical restrictions.

Any other idea?

The correct answer to this post title should be: no, it officially doesn’t.

Nevertheless, even if your device doesn’t belong the the “supported sources” category, you’ll still be able to stream its video flow through a Slingbox. You’ll only miss the chance to remotely control it via a virtual remote control… which can represent a significant limitation!

Before giving up with an italian MySky HD receiver, I made some googling and visited a few forums. It worked.

Here’s a simple recipe in two steps…

1) After installing Slingbox Player on your computer, locate the folder which contains the included files for IR configuration. It should be:

C:\Program Files\Slingmedia\SlingPlayer\SBAV\ in Windows;
/Applications/SlingPlayer/Contents/Slingbox Setup Assistant/Contents/Resources/SBAV/ on a Mac.

2) Then search the Internet for a binary file built-up for your device, copy it into the folder above and insert the code included within the filename (e.g. 2012 for MySky HD) into the Slingplayer wizard when asked. The MySky HD file is available right here, within a large directory that will make you reach many others.

That’s it. Just warn any people you share the TV set with, because now you’re able to switch channel from everywhere in the world!

The preceding post has summarized the essential steps I followed for pimping my Dell Mini, by replacing the original operating system (customized by Canonical for Dell) with a standard full-featured Ubuntu Linux OS, in its Netbook Remix version.

What follows is instead a series of subsequent improvements I gradually brought in. Though they’re not a must-have, they actually helped me obtain the best from my netbook.

1) Following an advice from the Ubuntu Mini blog, I installed Medibuntu: a repository of packages which allows quite important multimedia operations, from mpeg encoding to Skype calls. I also installed the unfailing VLC Media Player. Of course you know that getting a new program in Ubuntu is as easy as going to Programs -> Add/Remove, looking for it and clicking Install… right? 

2) Since Netbook Remix hides the topbar of maximized windows, I found very useful to set up a few keyboard shortcuts. Ubuntu makes it really easy, through a tool you can find in System -> Preferences. My convenient choices have been: Alt-Z to maximize the selected window, Alt-X to unmaximize and Alt-C to close.

3) A few settings, suggested by an Ubuntu Mini article again, have allowed me to customize Firefox. Their purpose is keeping in consideration the limited screen size and CPU speed of a netbook. Just for this reason, I preferred not to install most of the mentioned add-ons.

4) One more technical touch up: since the Dell Mini comes with a SSD memory, I wanted to lenghten its life by disabling the Tracker from loading at start-up (just uncheck it from the list you find in System -> Preferences -> Sessions) and stop content indexing on my netbook (step-by-step guide here).

5) Last but not least, something more recreational. These guys at System 76 offer free Ubuntu stickers if you send them a self addressed stamped envelope! Their achievement is just allowing people to show their pride for being powered by Ubuntu. Enjoy!

The most exciting present I received last Christmas is undoubtedly a Dell Mini 9.

A few months later, though it’s been surpassed by more performant and same-priced netbooks, my small Dell is still an outstanding device for me: some supposed limits, like the 8Gb only built-in memory, turn into valuable features when you notice (for instance) how silent this computer is.

To be honest, I somehow influenced the way this present has been picked out. I thought it brings two significant benefits respect to some similar products: embedded Bluetooth 2.0, and Linux Ubuntu operating system. I knew Dell had involved Canonical for the second point, so I expected my Dell Mini to come with the just-released Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Instead, when I switched it on for the first time, I saw something similar to this screenshot.

Yes, pretty nice. But strongly managed by Dell, starting from the strictly selected updates; and based on Ubuntu 8.04, which misses the very good Connection Manager released within the 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. I resisted for one week, because worried about warranty issues, then I decided to pimp my Dell Mini.

The open-source community provided good support as usual, but I especially leveraged the advices from a very good blog named Ubuntu Mini. Here’s the few steps I followed.

1) First, I downloaded the latest Ubuntu release from the official site, and I created a live USB key. It was Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex in my case, but at the moment I’m writing Ubuntu 9.04 is about to be released.

2) Installation on the Dell Mini was quite easy, thanks to an excellent wizard. The only tricky part is perhaps the partition management, whose settings should depend even on the way you’re going to use your netbook. You can find here a very detailed step-by-step guide, which includes an important advice to fixing a common sound problem with the Dell Mini.

3) Ubuntu Linux is an amazing operating system, but I think the Netbook Remix makes it even more enjoyable, particularly on a 9 inches screen. Installing the Netbook Remix over Ubuntu 9.04 promises to be as easy as typing sudo apt-get install ubuntu-netbook-remix, but for its 8.10 version I needed a couple of additional expedients from this guide.

Here’s how my Dell Mini desktop appeared at the end of this whole process, which I could perform in about one hour.

These were the must-have steps to get a Netbook-Remix-powered Dell Mini. In my experience, it’s really worth it. One example? The already mentioned built-in Connection Manager, besides easily managing wireline and wi-fi connections, allowed me to plug-&-play multiple devices: HSDPA dongles from different manufacturers, shared connection from a Windows Mobile smartphone…

The next part of this article (post 2 of 2) will include a few optional settings and tools for further improving your installation and subsequent experience.

RSS feeds have definitely changed the way we keep ourselves updated, so much that talking about a press review may actually appear anachronistic.

I’ve been an early adopter of personal tools like iGoogle and Google Reader, but I never stuck to the social aspect of it: Digg, Delicious and so forth…

Well, today I eventually found a nice and different way to share selected content from my favorite on-line sources. You can enjoy my selection in the News page of my site, and find out how to do the same within your own Wordpress blog right here…

1) First of all, of course you need to regularly browse the content Google Reader aggregates for you. I also take for granted that you’ll progressively increase the number of feeds you get content from. Anyway, every time you find something interesting and relevant for your audience, just click on either the Share or Share with note link at the bottom of the article.

Your picks will be shown in your Wordpress page, as soon as you’ll have completed the following two steps.

2) Now, look at the URL in your web browser. Google Reader identifies you by a unique ID, inserted between user%2F and %2F, like in the picture below.

3) Final step. Download the Google Reader Shared tool from Wordpress Extend and install it into your blog (by unzipping the file and copying the resulting folder into the wp-content/plugins folder of your web server). Activate it from your Wordpress back-end, then go to Settings -> Rec. Reading and insert your Google Reader ID into the proper field.

That’s it. Now you can choose whether to show your selected content within a page, by writing the word recreading between two square parenthesis in your editor, or to use the dedicated widget you’ll find in Appearance -> Widgets. Further options allow to influence the aspect of your outcome, including some CSS editing for the most advanced users.

Happy publishing!

By the first moment I started working on it, I felt surprised about how powerful and flexible Joomla can be. This open-source marvel is a top level CMS, far superior to many commercial products.

Of course Joomla is not a ready-to-use tool (like, let’s say, Wordpress for blogging), but needs to be customized for the kind of site you’re going to deliver. The open-source community never leaves you alone in this, starting from the thousands of extensions available and fully supported on the official Joomla.org site. There’s plenty of features for almost any purpose, including even the launch of a full e-commerce solution.

What I’m going to do here is simply listing the few extensions I strongly suggest, regardless of which is your Joomla-based project.

- Xmap: a very effective component, which builds and keeps updated both an HTML and an XML site map, useful for your visitors and necessary for search engines friendliness.

- J15html: it allows to create basic modules containing the html code you wrote or pasted in. Essential for publishing every tool or badge from external sites in the blink of an eye.

- JX Wysiwyg: an advanced what-you-see-is-what-you-get publishing tool, which actually gives you more options respect to the built-in Tiny MCE editor.

- Flickr Slideshow: whether you want to show a few simple images or a large photoalbum from Flickr, this smart component makes it simple and generates attractive layouts.

- YV Comment: yes, this is not exactly a must-have for every site. But today comments are often allowed even in environments quite different from blogs. Alternatively, a good option for comments might be also Disqus, a complete platform which is easy to embed within Joomla through a dedicated extension.

Every software product I mentioned is distributed for free under the GPL license. You can search and download it from the Joomla Extensions web site, which also provides an outstanding support through its community.

Used to the flexible and advanced CMS Joomla, I found Wordpress an ideal tool for blogging in a quick and ready-to-go way. Just to mention one aspect, Joomla doesn’t natively support comments but requires the installation of a dedicated extension.

On the other side of the coin, Wordpress can be less supportive when you look for advanced features and settings.

I initially couldn’t view the true html code of my posts, and the built-in editor used to cut tags like <br/>. So I installed the plugin TinyMCE Advanced Editor, which gave me more flexibility and control. But I still couldn’t have a custom space between paragraphs…

Unsatisfied with some work-around solutions found out on the web, I started trying with my (improvable) CSS skills and I eventually succeeded.

Well, let’s go straight to the point. You just need to put the following lines into your Wordpress theme style.css file:

p{
padding-bottom:7px;
}

This simple instruction puts a padding of 7 pixels every time you close a paragraph with the tag </p> (which is exactly what happens when you press the enter button in the visual view). Of course 7 pixels has been my choice, but you can alter this value until satisfied.

Hope this can help!

I’ve been wondering about an effective wireless way to keep my calendars updated and synchronized: I wanted to look at my business + personal schedule on both my mobile phone (the basic one, besides of course the Blackberry) and a personal cookie-provided online environment such as the iGoogle.

I eventually found out a two-step method I’m quite satisfied with.

1. Microsoft Outlook to Google Calendar. Developers have released some interesting software products for this kind of synchronization, including the very good SyncMyCal. Then BigG itself launched Google Calendar Sync, which is completely free and includes traditionally-premium features like scheduled periodic syncs. Whatever your choice, be careful not to use more than one of them at a time, or you’ll get duplicated events and other trouble.

2. Google Calendar to mobile phone. This step has an unquestioned winner: GooSync, a shareware software with support for almost every cellphone. It works pretty well and offers good support. The interesting part is that calendar features are fully included in the free version, so you’ll need to purchase the premium one only if you’re interested in syncing contacts and tasks. And for contacts sync I’d rather suggest products such as Zyb.

Just one final advice: before running one of these programs on your mobile phone, verify your operator tariffs for mobile data!