miniDLNA (Ubuntu) with Samsung Galaxy S

I have been trying to play media files from my laptop running Ubuntu 10.04 through MediaTomb server from Samsung Galaxy S mobile. The mobile was able to read the CDS shared by the server. However, it was not able to playback the video from the server (I kept getting Sorry, the file could not be played). I started the server in debug mode (-D option) and found that galaxy was trying to request the file by sending the complete web server address., i.e., http://:/content/media/file/... . While other DLNA devices request the URL relative to the root folder in the server., i.e., /content/media/...

Even resolving the above issue by fixing the MediaTomb didn't help out. Still galaxy did not get the content for playback (a different issue than the above one). I happened to know that MediaTomb is not 100% DLNA compliant. Tried out miniDLNA and it worked out. miniDLNA seems to be a simple tool that will satisfy your media server needs. miniDLNA is available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/minidlna/

Youtube 3D

Youtube player supports Stereoscopy (3D) content. The player provides various options to deliver 3D content differently to your browser. There is an option “Cross-eyed” to watch 3D (with 3D) with your naked eye. But, you should strain your eyes to overlap two images. (I tried and couldn’t make it L). Other options should allow you to watch the video using the 3D special glasses. Currently, youtube doesn’t support Polarized 3D glasses.

Watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RFuRY7azgA. Notice the “3D” option in the player. Seems there are many 3D content available in youtube. Next thing, I am gonna do is buy a 3D glass J. No wonder if full 3D movies make into youtube in near future.

Copying text from the video:
>>

HOW DID I MAKE THIS?
I simply used 2 identical (very cheap) cameras and placed them in the same general direction (both level with the lenses separated about 2 1/2 inches from each other). Then I resized the videos in editing and placed them next to each other (like you see in the "cross-eyed" setting). Once it was uploaded I added a few tags to trigger YouTube's new 3D viewing feature. The tag "yt3d:enable=true yt3d:aspect=3.55:4" is a custom tag I made specifically for this video and may not work for your video if you use it but it wouldn't hurt to try I guess. So just put that code into your tags if your video looks like mine.

HOW TO ANIMATE IN 3D:
Unfortunately, I had to cross my eyes to edit in 3D. I don't have any big fancy programs or a team to animate for me like most 3D studios have. So I like to keep it simple. It was a pain in the arse making this but it worked and I'm happy for that.

Camera used:
2 Flipcams

<<

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/07/youtube-3d.html

Android on iPhone

Its really cool!!!

Android running on an iPhone. A member of iPhone development team called Planetbeing have ported Android to run on iPhone. iPhone can be configured to dual boot iPhone OS and Android phone. I even had a glimpse of Android running on iPhone in one of my friend's mobile. I would rate the experience is quiet better than the Samsung I5700 galaxy spica The graphics transition is quiet faster.

The port is currently available only in the first generation iPhones. Hope it would soon be available in iPhone 3G and 3GS models. The source code is available online here

Have a glimpse on this video.

HJSplit for Linux

If you are looking for an alternative method to join the splited files using HJSplit program, there is one for Linux users. The tool is used to split and join a big file. The splited files are named in the format file_name.avi.001, file_name.avi.002 and so on by the tool.

Linux users, just use the 'cat' command to merge the files. The syntax that I used is as below:

$ cat file_name.avi.* > filename.avi

This works because the cat command takes filenames in alphabetical order and merges the files.

- Have fun.

MeeGo 1.0 first look

Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo merged together to give birth to MeeGo mobile operating system. MeeGo is a Linux-based operating system with Qt support for UI. The OS currently support ARM and x86 architectures. As the OS has been released as open source (hosted by Linux Foundation), soon there will be support for various architectures. It is claimed that MeeGo is not based on any other Linux distros. But, the packages will use the existing Fedora's .rpm.

MeeGo can be downloaded here and developer resources are available here.

Look at the first preview of MeeGo running in Netbook.

Samsung I5700 galaxy spica

If you are looking for a cheaper and good Android based mobile, consider Samsung I5700 galaxy spica. Initial looks and feature of this phone looks promising. In fact, the main reason that I am considering this model is it comes with Qualcomm 800MHz processor, comparing to 200MHz processor in my current mobile. Listed below are the basic features of this model:

• 800 MHz Qualcomm processor.
• Android v1.5, you can upgrade to v2.1.
• 16M color, compared to 256k color in my current mobile.
• 3.5 mm audio jack. SE users will understand why this is a required feature :)
• 3.2" TFT capacitive touch screen display.
• wi-fi, gps
• The most appealing thing is you get a xVid/divX player application.

The big brother of this model is Samsung I7500 galaxy spica, which came with a slower processor. You will feel the difference with 800MHz processor speed.

With Android, you have a open box. You can write and use your own applications. Current market price is around Rs.12,000. No wonder, if I buy this as my other mobile soon :)