E@zyVG’s Vichar::World Connected

Last year, the TouchFLO interface proved to be the most prominent feature of all found in the Touch handset by HTC. Being quite ordinary on the hardware side, the model offers a totally revamped application launcher serving as a perfect compromise between the complexity of the Microsoft platform and the simplicity of those who don’t want go too far in exploring its capabilities, as well as serving as an easy introduction to Windows Mobile to the users who have previously had no clear notion about the peculiarities of the Microsoft interface at all. As a result of the innovative approach, mass users ready to embrace WM 6.1 emerge in thousands, no longer confused by the complexity of the default interface. Moreover, the TouchFLO bears the ‘3D’ label, standing for an extremely easy-to-use and friendly user interface only requiring a few taps of the finger to reach the goal.

HTC’s TouchFLO 3D features a new Start-screen which includes a clock, information about missed calls and about the next appointments. Furthermore it includes a smart-dial list which is customizable and where you can add you favorite contacts. Next is a SMS and MMS overview followed by an E-Mail overview. Photos and Videos is the next screen and finally, TouchFLO 3D is also able to play videos without opening Microsoft’s Windows Media Player. Next to it is the Music screen which shows all your available tracks with cover-art followed by a shortcut to the Internet which either starts Opera Mobile or predefined favorites. Next is the Weather information which now shows a forecast of up to 10 selectable cities, followed by Settings and the Programs menu which is also partly customizable as well as gives a direct link to all available applications without using the Pocket PC typical Windows Mobile flag anymore.

Horace Luke, Chief Innovation Officer for HTC, presents their new Touch Flow 3D User Interface:

And here is a complete walk through of the UI on HTC Diamond by pocketnow.com:

This is definitely a killer UI for Windows Mobile phones, and I find it better than that of on iPhone (I consider iPhone the best multimedia phone on market). Most will appreciate the TouchFLO’s user friendliness compared to the default Win Mobile, as it is much better than looking at a Windows desktop on your cell phone, and even more productive.

I’d really like to own the HTC Touch Pro “Raphael”, as it will be a major update from my HTC Artemis (running WM 6.1 Pro ROM), skipping the Kaiser, which I found expensive and very bulky for me.

HTC Touch Pro comes packed with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, 512 MB flash, 288 MB RAM memory, SD 2.0 compatible microSD memory card expansion slot, and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g which provides HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA wireless connectivity. Like any other modern handset, the PRO includes Bluetooth connectivity (2.0 with EDR) and an interface with HTC ExtUSB (audio jack, 11-pin mini-USB 2.0, and TV out in-one.) When it comes to business productivity, power users can find HTC Touch Pro built-in TV-out functionality useful to deliver PowerPoint presentations directly from their handset.

I hope that the pricing will be good on this device, as paying $1000 for phone is just too much.

…. Not The Dream But Still Excellent Results

Unfortunately the 4.0 mark remained unreachable ……

Few days ago I ordered parts to assemble a new computer for myself. After receiving them all, first thing was to check if all was working fine in default mode, i.e. just plug everything and press the power button and after that install the OS. OS, well, at first I installed Linux (trust it more at this than Windows), the openSUSE distribution and after that the all necessary Windows, in my case the Vista x64, for doing all the overclocking. Once through the installing of OSs, came a time to squeeze maximum out of newly built computer. Here is how it looks from inside:

all the wires nicely tucked for better airflow

the blue aura

I was able to reach easily 3.6Ghz out of my Q6600 G0 processor. Next was 3.8Ghz, and that is where I reached the maximum stability, though 4.0Ghz was in reach. What I mean to say is from the tests the Asus P5K-E can handle around 490-500Mhz, meaning that when i tried to go for 4.0Ghz (500×9 or 450×8), the system was very-very unstable, even with the Vcore set @1.65, which of course is damn to high, unless you have some excellent watercooling. I could reach Windows log-in screen, but most of the time it just crashed. Have to say that when it came to runnig Linux, it did much better. All this meant that this particular silicon die was not planning playing nice @4Ghz. After this I decided to go for sweet spot 3.8Ghz, knowing that 3.9Ghz will also require high voltage.

Notice: All voltages mentioned here are that of in BIOS readings, same as what you see in CPU-Z, Asus Probe, etc. And temperatures what I saw in Core Temp 0.97.1.

3.8Ghz - not bad, but I didn’t want to have my system running hot with high Vcore. 3.8Ghz came as Vcore @1.525 initially and FSB @423×9 with NB @ 1.40V and memory runnig @1016Mhz 2.10V with 5-5-5-18 timings (memory was able to reach a max of only 30-40Mhz over its’ rated speed). At these settings computer was stable running several 32M SuperPi, several runs of 3DMark06 and several hours with OCCT at mix mode, but not with Prime95 (but with 3.7Ghz was stable). Being frank, I am not that bothered with Prime95, as am not planning to run some high FPU intensive simulations where minor mathematical error ruins whole deal. Next step was to see what P5K Pencil Vdroop (voltage fluctuation problem) Mod would give me. As this is not the first time I was doing mod, I checked few forums for instructions and went ahead. Wow … this mod came as surprise. Voltage fluctuation vanished 99.5%. Before if I wanted a real Vcore 1.525, I had to set Vcore 1.56 in BIOS, and it fluctuated quite a lot when in IDLE and LOAD. With this mod, I set 1.525 in BIOS and it was same in CPU-Z, and barely fluctuated between IDLE and LOAD, and even Prime95 runs became much more stable. What came to me as a very nice surprise, is that with this mod done, I could run the same settings not @1.52 but rather Vcore @1.4875. At this Vcore, apart from Prime95, all runs very nicely and mainly temperatures have dropped (even 1.4725 is working but not as quite stable as I would like).

Here is link to CPU-Z Validation Database

BTW, apart from lowering the Vcore, I also decided to changed the fan on Scythe Mugen cooler, which had 1200 RPM, to a little more powerful one, i.e. Zalman ZM-F3 set at around 1650-1700 RPM. With this I lowered temps another 2-4C. The following is what I get @IDLE with room temperature around 22C.

surely not the best result, perhaps AS5 in future will help

13.618secs is what I get from 1M on SuperPi/mod1.5 XS:

ah, I was hoping for 12.xxxs :-p

Now it was to overclocking the video card, which is MSI’s 8800GT, the OC version. The official specs for 8800GT are 600Mhz/1800Mhz/1500Mhz (Core Speed/Memory Speed/Shader Clock), while MSI 8800GT-OC came as 660Mhz/1900Mhz/1650Mhz. Surely, it is nice to get a pre-o/ced card, but then we enthusiasts want more. The max stable I could get from this card was 730Mhz/2050Mhz/1700Mhz, but then I decided to slow down and go with 701Mhz/2001Mhz/1701Mhz, so to keep the card cooler, as extra 30Mhz on core and 50Mhz on memeory wont give me much, besides I want my case to run little cooler so that all are in their sweet spot.

With Q6600 @3.8Ghz, Memory @1016Mhz and 8800GT @700/2000/1700 I get 15036 on 3DMark06. Compare this to around 3000 (as I remeber) I got from my previous rig.

Final O/C setup:

• Q6600 GO @3.8Ghz
  • Vista x64 Stable @1.48
  • Linux x86-64 Stable @1.46
    
• ASUS P5K-E @423×9 (BIOS 1012)
  
• OCZ Platinum XTC 2×2048MB @1016Mhz 5-5-5-18-4-60-8-4-4-2T
• MSI 8800GT 512MB @701/2001/1701Mhz

For a complete specs of my computer check out the following link.

Conclusion: Am I happy with the results … surely I am. A quad core @3.8Ghz is no joke and with 8800GT @700/2000, I can play current and near future releases at high resolutions with latest graphics effects and settings set at high. And think of all that blazing performance in Linux … hahaha :-p

On 4.0 Mark: I tried playing with different settings, including with CPU PLL Voltage, FSB Term. Voltage, SB/NB Voltage … but to no avail. If you think you can help me to reach the magic 4.0, please let me know, and if it will work, expect a donation from me.

Linux Test: I will soon have latest benchmarks done on Linux posted on my Linux and Open Source blog.

UPDATE (09.04.08): Super Pi result on Linux:

10.109 on Linux vs 13.618 on Windows

Yesssss ……. no, this is not April’s fool day joke

I was actually planning to upgrade my aging computer for some time now, and only now managed to sum up budget for new rig. Thanks to a project I’ll be working on, I got some advance payments, with which I am getting myself a new computer. You’ll notice that I ended up going with Intel Core 2 platform, rather than AMD Phenom that I was actually wanting, reason being that even with the latest Phenom X4 B3 stepping it doesn’t come close to what Core 2 has to offer, especially in the overclocking department. Also, this time it is nVidia video card, as ATI really does ruin mood when it comes to Linux desktops, ’cause of driver issues (do you know that in Vista’s case it is the other way around). So, here is what I ended up ordering, which should be delivered in next 2-4 days:

1. Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (Kentsfield 65nm) 2.40Ghz 8MB cache 1066Mhz [SLACR -> G0 Stepping]

The options were Q6600, E8400 and the latest Q9450. Went with Q6600 as I really wanted to make a jump straight to quad core, though of course the dual core E8400 would have overclocked better and would have ran cooler. Unfortunately the Q9450 is still not available, and those that have charge premium..

2. Scythe SCINF-1000 Mugen (Infinity)

I was always quite picky about cooling, hence went with one of the best the market has to offer.

3. ASUS P5K-E/WiFi AP (Intel P35+ICH9R chipsets)

4. OCZ Platinum XTC 2×2048MB DDR2 PC2-8000 OCZ2P10004GK 1000Mhz @5-5-5-18

Before I saw these sticks, I was going for Corsair Dominator TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF … boy I saved some $$.

5. MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC 8800GT 512MB

In this case I had 2 options, the latest 9600GT and the older 8800GT. Simply speaking, the 9600GT has nothing much new to offer and 8800GT is definitely faster, as well as, at least here in Moscow, the price on both the cards are similar. Aah, Linux + nVidia card, I am gonna enjoy it.

6. 2xWestern Digital 500GB WD5000AAKS 16MB SATA-II

You somehow always manage to run out of space … this drive comes to the rescue.

7. NEC/Optiarc DVD-RW AD-7203S Labelflash SATA

My first SATA based DVD-RW …. yups, it is too early for Blue Ray ReWriter.

8. Microsonic CR09 USB 2.0 57-in-1 3.5″ int. USB 2.0 Card Reader

Needed SDHC support, as my older one didn’t support it.

9. TRENDnet TBW-105UB USB 2.0, Class II Bluetooth v2.0 with EDR

10. Thermaltake PurePower RX 600W ATX 2.2 (W0142)

Initially I was going for 500W, but then the price difference was not big, and decided to get 600W. I’ll need it to run my overclocked computer stable 24/7.

11. Thermaltake M9 Mid-Tower ATX Case

At first I was going for Thermaltake Armor Jr., but then found this case, which though not as sexy as previous one, seems to be better when it comes to cooling factor … and saved some $$.

That’s about it. I already have descent monitor (though already dreaming of 24-27″), keyboard/mouse combo and a webcam. If you wanna know which ones I got, you can check’em up here.

Now it is time to assemble and then start doing tests and benchmarks to reach the highest possible overclock with processor, motherboard and memory and as well with video card. Once completed I’ll post my results.

I am gonna enjoy this weekend like I haven’t for some time …. knock wood :-p Expect my next post once this computer has been assembled and thoroughly tested.

BTW, it came out to US$1310 in total.

Intel Corp. unveiled its first central processing units designed for Internet-oriented small form-factor mobile computers. The new Intel Atom processors are likely to show Intel a way into handheld devices, a market that has been relatively untapped by the world’s largest maker of chips.

“This is our smallest processor built with the world’s smallest transistors. This small wonder is a fundamental new shift in design, small yet powerful enough to enable a big Internet experience on these new devices. We believe it will unleash new innovation across the industry,” said Intel executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer Sean Maloney.

Intel Atom processors, which were previously code-named Diamondville and Silverthorne, are based on Intel Core 2 micro-architecture, but are tailored for mobile operation and manufacturing cost-efficiency: e.g., they do not feature large caches and do not sport certain peculiarities.

These new chips will be manufactured on Intel’s 45nm process technology and will contain about 47 million of transistors. The chips have a thermal design power (TDP) specification in 0.6-2.5W range and scale to 1.8GHz speeds depending on customer need. By comparison, today’ mainstream mobile Core 2 Duo processors have a TDP in the 35W range and run at speeds of about 3.30GHz.

Typical Atom based computers will be ultra-portable notebooks or tabled PCs with small 7-10 inch displays. Devices will ship with either hard disks or solid-state drives that use flash memory and offer battery life ranging from three to five hours. The majority of models are most likely to come equipped with wired network controller or WiFi, and then later with WiMAX. Some will be really sleek and thin, some will be a bit more ruggedized. The manufacturers will provide their solutions with Linux or Windows XP operating system and the Atom based devices will be primarily positioned for internet-surfing and typical office work. The cost of  Atom notebooks will range from $250 to $300, which should appeal not only to small to midsize businesses with small IT staffs and more limited budgets, but also to emerging markets and consumers.

With personal computing increasingly going mobile and the computer industry rapidly developing new classes of products to connect the next billion people to the Internet, the Intel Atom processor offers customers the unique ability to innovate around the new low-power design. In addition to the mobile Internet device (MID) opportunity, Intel believes the demand for a new category of low-cost, Internet-centric mobile computing devices dubbed “netbooks” and basic Internet-centric desktop PCs dubbed “nettops”, will grow substantially over the next several years. The Intel Atom processor is perfectly suited to meet these new market segments.

By 2015 Intel expects to have CPUs with many smaller IA cores, each with very low power characteristics but with the entire chip being very high performance. Intel commissioned its Austin design team to work on one of the cores for this type of many-core CPU.

Anand Chandrasekher, Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group Senior Vice President presents the ATOM processor

Intel is effectively promising that in the coming years its Atom processor will enable you to, without sacrificing battery life, have significantly faster mobile devices and phones. We can’t help but be excited about that.

This has got to be the absolute best of “tech” videos I have ever seen. It was not only amazing but enough to get the juices flowing to want to get one ASAP!!

What is it all about? It is a video of a 3D head tracking system that Johnny Lee put together using a Wii system and trust me, it is SO amazingly cool!

Using the infrared camera in the Wii remote and a head mounted sensor bar (two IR LEDs), you can accurately track the location of your head and render view dependent images on the screen. This effectively transforms your display into a portal to a virtual environment. The display properly reacts to head and body movement as if it were a real window creating a realistic illusion of depth and space.

Check out his site for more information and software, as well as several other Wii based projects he is on: johnnylee.net

Maybe not cooler than the interactive mirror, but close. I can’t see this being used to view DVDs since I would much rather watch them on the big screen, but it would be really cool to just have one, with all that this multimedia system offers. For what its worth, this seems to be what I envisioned from one of Bill Gate’s speeches on Multimedia in the home 4-5 years ago.

Remember I discussed about the AMD’s Barcelona core back in March … well it has been now officially unveiled. Back then at the end of the post I mentioned - “What this architecture will bring to us, the desktop users … this remains to be seen”, seems like the performance I was expecting from this core, as a desktop user, is not there.
Last time AMD launched a new platform, its reception was lukewarm and AM2 socket/platform offered no performance advantage over S939 (which I am still using, though @2.9Ghz). There have been disappointments with Phenom release, too, such as delays, pricing factor and clock speeds, but, if AMD will come up with right price/performance combination, this time it can be a big winner … I really do believe so. Now, let’s see what we have got.

It’s finally here (horay), and it’s quite possibly the biggest launch ever. It also marks the official release of AMD’s Spider platform, and All AMD computing platform - AMD Phenom processors, ATI Radeon HD 3800 series discreet graphics and AMD 7-Series chipsets. The AMD Spider platform is a major milestone on the path to Accelerated Computing, AMD’s vision for platform-level acceleration through co-processing. AMD’s Spider platform advances enthusiast computing by delivering a sophisticated multi-GPU enthusiast platform with ATI CrossFireX technology.

The AMD 7-series chipset, which is AM2+ socket based, will be available in different variations - the high-end 790FX (RD790), the 790X (RD780), and 770 (RX780). All of the chipsets are being manufactured at 65nm and according to AMD they are twice as power efficient as the previous generation of AMD chipsets. In fact, the 790FX chipset has only a 10W TDP. All the flavours of the core-logic support HyperTransport 3.0 bus, up to 42 PCI Express 2.0 as well as a list of platform technologies by AMD. All initial motherboards based on the 7-series chipset will feature the ATI SB600 Southbridge chip. Sometime next year the SB700 is due to arrive, but initial offerings will use the mature SB600 only. Another feature common to all 7-series chipsets will be a new performance tuning application called AMD Overdrive. AMD Overdrive is similar to NVIDIA’s nTune System Utility and Intel’s Desktop Control Center in that it gives users access to numerous settings for overclocking and performance tweaking. Using Overdrive, users can alter the frequency of individual cores, memory timings, key voltages, etc. The combination of the 55nm ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series of graphics processors and the increased system bandwidth of PCI Express Generation 2.0 and HyperTransport 3.0 technology, provide optimal processing power for a scalable HD multi-GPU experience. I am not going to get into the HD 38xx graphics, as you can find a lot on this from the web, though can mention that from the reviews of HD 3870, it seems quite competitive with nVidia’s 8800GT GPU. Also, I have never been a fan of SLI and Crossfire. I don’t see any need in sticking two video cards in my case, instead preferring going for one faster card or even better a a dual GPU on one PCB.

Phenom is the brand name given to processors based on the Agena core, which is virtually identical to the Barcelona core used in the recently released AMD quad-core Opterons. At first Phenom was going to launch at either 2.8GHz or 2.6GHz (wish it was true); then we got word that it would be either 2.6GHz or 2.4GHz. At the end we got the final launch frequencies: 2.2GHz for Phenom X4 9500 and 2.3GHz for Penom X4 9600, while pricing set at 251$ and 283$ respectively. Do you see the problem with pricing … I do. Here it is why: Phenom isn’t faster than Intel’s Core 2 Quad clock for clock, i.e. a 2.3GHz Phenom 9600 will set you back at least $283 and it’s slower than a 2.4Ghz Core 2 Quad Q6600 !!! Two more quad-core Phenoms will come out in Q1′08: the 9900 and 9700, clocked at 2.6GHz and 2.4GHz respectively. The Phenom 9900 will be priced below $350 while the 9700 will be a sub-$300 part. Ok, let us forget about this for a moment and concentrate on what Phenom CPU actually is.

On the surface, AMD’s new Phenom processors look just like current Athlons. The processors use the same packaging and have the same pin configuration. Underneath that unassuming heat-spreader, however, lays a quad-core die based on the Agena core. The new AMD Phenom processors are made using 65nm process technology. Among the highlights of AMD’s new chips the manufacturer lists shared 2MB L3 cache, 128-bit floating point units (FPU), SSE4A instructions, support for dual-channel PC2-8500 (DDR2 1066MHz) memory.

Each quad-core die is comprised of approximately 463M transistors (about 357M less than Intel’s quad-core Yorkfield) and is about 285mm2 in size. In a quad-core Phenom processor, each of the four cores is outfitted with 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache, for a total of 512K of L1 cache per CPU. The L2 cache compliment of each core is 512K, for a total of 2MB. New to the Barcelona and Agena cores is 2MB of dynamically shared L3 cache. Unlike L1 and L2 caches, which are exclusive to each execution core (data in Core 1’s L2 cache cannot be accessed by Core 3, for example), the L3 cache is shared among all the cores. Also new to Barcelona and Agena is a 128-bit wide memory controller that can be configured as dual independent 64-bit channels to allow for simultaneous read and write memory operations. Phenom processors support dynamic clock gating on a per-core basis. Though core voltages won’t be managed independently, the clock speed of each core can throttle back when idle, which could in turn provide significant power savings. And AMD’s “CoolCore” technology allows for functional blocks of each core to be shut off when not in use, further improving power efficiency. Apart from revamped considerably for efficiency and performance, here are a few of the key salient points of Phenom’s new core micro-engines:

• A new floating point scheduler now supports 36 128-bit operations
• Support for 128-bit SSE operations, an upgrade from the previous 64-bit architecture
• Two SSE operations and one SSE move can be processed per cycle
• Processor instruction fetch has been increased from 16 to 32 bytes
• Advanced branch prediction with built in a 512-entry indirect branch predictor
• Data cache bandwidth has increased from 1 x 64-bit loads per cycle to 1 x 128-bit loads per cycle
• L2 cache / memory controller bandwidth has been increased from 64-bits per clock to 128-bits per clock
• HyperTransport 3.0 Support for up to 20.8GB/s of raw bandwidth

From what I understand, the new Phenoms will not have the SSE4, those 47 new instructions, that Intel’s upcoming 45nm Wolfdale (such as E8400) will feature …. I mean now that there’s more and more companies promise that will publish applications that supports SSE4. Programs including DivX, TMPGEnc, Adobe Premiere already support the new instructions set and Sony Vegas, Pinnacle Studio Plus and MainConcept H.264 encoder will add SSE 4 support in 2008. So why not implementing them …. licensing issue … or future revisions will have them !!!

So far from what I have read, I mean reviews of Phenom X4 9700/9900 and those o/ced to 3.0Ghz, as well the Spider platform, I am quite satisfied with the performance, and believe that once more driver optimizations occur the performance will probably increase by even a bit more.

At this juncture AMD is in a tough spot. Their Radeon HD 3800 series graphics cards are looking very strong and also think that the 7-series chipset is in good shape. But the company badly needs to ramp up frequencies with their Phenom processors. Looking back at the performance, it’s clear that the architecture performs relatively well and is an improvement over the previous generation clock for clock. I really would like to see “my” Phenom X4 hitting an overclock of 3.0-3.4Ghz (preferably a X4 9700 or the Black Edition), by the time I decide to get one, as from what I have read, they are able to hit only 2.7-3.0Ghz speeds, not competitive to Core 2 Quads which can hit 3.4-3.6Ghz. For me this is going to play a major part in whether I will get myself a Phenom or will go for Core 2 Quad. Also, as stated previously, price/performance factor will play a crucial role. And then there is another factor - you don’t know where will Intel’s offering be at that point? Looking into the future with the Spider platform, AMD seems to be the less expensive than Intel, since the chip giant has already announced that its current high-end platform X38 will be incompatible to the next generation of high-end CPUs at the beginning of next year. Overall, I am all GOGOGO for AMD platform (well perhaps with the exception of the Radeon HD cards, unless I’ll start seeing some really good drivers with AIGLX support for Linux).

Apart from this, AMD has also announced a lineup of Triple-Core Phenom X3 processors, and the estimated launch date is around March’08, which I am interested in and will follow the news.

Being frank to my new readers, considering older ones are quite aware, I’ve been a huge AMD fan, especially since the Athlon days (first AMD CPU being the 486DX), and I totally want to see them get back to where they were in the Clawhammer days.

BTW, you heard about the recent investments made in AMD for 8.1% ……..

Here are links to some reviews:

• AnandTech
• ExtremeTech
• FiringSquad
• [H]ard|OCP (Phenom X4 vs. Intel C2E QX9770)
• Hardware Canucks (9600 only)
• Hardware.fr (French/Français, 9600 only)
• Hexus (9600 only)
• Legit Reviews (9900 only)
• OCWorkbench
• PC Perspective (9600 and 9900 only)
• Real World Labs
• The Tech Report (790FX only)
• Tom’s Hardware (9700 only)

UPDATE on Pricing: According to sources close to AMD distribution channels, there is information on new volume pricing for these processors:

• Phenom X4 9700 / 2400MHz / 4MB Cache / 2000MHz HT / 125W - $279
• Phenom X4 9600 / 2300MHz / 4MB Cache / 1800MHz HT / 95W - $269
• Phenom X4 9500 / 2200MHz / 4MB Cache / 1800MHz HT / 95W - $239

If such pricing scheme is indeed implemented, the Phenom would be undercutting similar Intel “Penryn” quad core processors. Earlier this month a different report pointed to prices that were a bit steeper, hopefully they will go with this one. Here are few comparisons of Phenom processors:

Is your next brand new system going to run Phenom X4 … or X2 …. or maybe even X3?

I was waiting for this feature for a very-very long time, as many users did, and at last Googleannounced the rollout of free IMAP4 over SSL access for GMail. POP is nice, but IMAP is a much better option. Among the advantages, you’re always connected to the server, more clients can connect to the same account, you can obtain the text from a message without the attachments and the state information is synchronized (you can add labels from the client, read or delete a message and Gmail will synchronize). “As some of you know, IMAP is the best way to access your email from multiple devices allowing you to keep your Gmail message state information such as whether or not a message has been read, replied to, or deleted synchronized across any IMAP4 client on desktop or mobile devices, since these flags are stored on the server unlike POP3.

A brief review of why IMAP is better than POP

Gmail added IMAP support, but you’ll have to enable it by going to Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Because the new feature is slowly rolled-out, you may not see it, but rest assured it will be available in the next days. Here are a few resources to setup and configure IMAP4 over SSL for a multitude of desktop and mobile clients:

• Nokia S60
• Sony Ericsson UIQ3. This tutorial points to a help guide from Synchronica. Just substitute Synchronica’s server names with Google GMail’s IMAP server.
• Blackberry
• Apple iPhone
• Motorola Razr (Note: External guide, similiar to Sony Ericsson above)
• Windows Mobile
• Outlook 2003
• Outlook 2007
• Thunderbird
• Windows Mail Desktop
• Outlook Express
• Mac Apple Mail

I am a user of KMail on my Linux box, and for KMail to work with IMAP you only have to change your Host server from pop.gmail.com to imap.gmail.com and change port to 995, with SSL Encryption enabled. The rest stays the same.

Remeber to enable IMAP in your GMail account, goto your Settings, Forwarding and POP/IMAP and select Enable IMAP. Check Gmail IMAP Access help center for more information.

For the purpose of using Internet Sharing over WiFi I am using my HTC P3300 connected to internet over EDGE, acting as an Access Point and a notebook connected to it.

Do the following:
1) Open Settings->Internet Sharing. Enable IS for Bluetooth PAN.
2) Change HKLM\Comm\ConnectionSharing\PrivateInterface to “TIACXWLN1″ (it should currently be “BTPAN1″).
3) Open Settings-> Connections -> Wi-Fi. Select Network Adapters tab. Click IEEE 802.11b/g Compatible Wi-Fi.
4) Enter IP address 192.168.1.1 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0. Click OK.
5) Select Wireless tab. Add New.. to add the Network name for your ad-hoc network (I prefer “adhoc”
6) Set the client computer to use the same ad-hoc network. Client will receive an IP address from the device (don’t need to manually set the IP).

And it works!

Interestingly, while IS was enabled, wifi stayed on and connected when the phone went to standby mode. Normally WiFi turns off to save battery during standby. So that’s a good thing, although I imagine this will drain your battery in a hot minute, so bring your charger.

UPDATE: Attached is a beta release of a patched intshare.dll, which uses TIACXWLN1 when Bluetooth PAN is selected. I.e., if you use this, you will not need to make the registry changes above. Now, unfortunately you cant just overwrite the original in \Windows, as it resides in ROM. So, you have two choices:
1) Replace the original intshare.dll with this version during the cooking stage.
2) Use the extracted IS files here and place them in a directory under \Program Files. Overwrite the original intshare.dll with the patched version attached. Change your Internet Sharing shortcut to use this new \Program Files\ICS\IntShrUI.exe.

This will handle the registry part, but of course you’ll still need to set the ad-hoc network up on your own.

Download file: intshare.zip

- Tnx to fluxist from xda-developers network.

Put your old PC to work as an experimental learning lab for the aspiring PC technician in you.

Most desktop components are easy to remove and install. Hard drives, graphics cards, optical drives, and memory are the parts that most commonly need replacing over time, and they can make a huge difference in your system’s performance when brought up to date. Most parts come with installation instructions, but if you want some hands-on experience, start by removing and reinstalling the innards of that old PC sitting in the corner.Before you know it, you’ll be ready to soup up your system and eventually move on to building your own rig.

1. If you’ve always wanted to give Linux a try but are reluctant to abandon Windows, here’s your chance to put that old PC to work for you; Linux runs quite well on older platforms. After backing up whatever data you’d like to retain, simply download and install one of the many free variations of Linux (called distributions or distros), grab a handful of free Linux applications off the Web, and discover the world of open-source computing. Even easier to use are the many versions of Linux that come on “live CDs,” meaning disks that will boot you directly into a Linux environment without installing anything on your hard drive.

2. Even though you’ve got Windows firewall turned on and your router supplies NAT (Network Address Translation) and SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) protection, you are still vulnerable to virus attacks, spyware infiltration, and identity theft every time you connect to the Internet.

There are several Linux-based firewall distros available as free downloads, including SmoothWall Express (www.smoothwall.org), which requires a minimum configuration of a Pentium-class processor, 64MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, a CD drive, and two network connections. The nice thing about SmoothWall is that you don’t have to know anything about Linux; simply download the installation files, create a bootable CD, and install the application, which also contains the OS. A series of easy-to-follow instructional menus will guide you through the process and help you configure the box for your network. Just like that, you’ve built a “Smoothie,” which gives you, in addition to NAT and SPI, the ability to block specific IP addresses, enable port forwarding, set up a VPN, and sync up with a Network Time Protocol server.

3. Other than that you can always donate it to some organisation or give it to someone who is not in position to buy one, better with Linux pre-installed. Finally, if your old PC just isn’t worth donating or is too far gone to be reused, recycle it. Whether you decide to donate or recycle, make sure you completely remove all of your personal data.

For more on Linux and Open Source head (to my other blog).