Of course, one of the main advantages of smartphones is that they’re convenient. With a huge variety of makes, models and contracts available from providers such as O2 and AT&T, it’s little wonder that, these days, a huge number of people own a smartphone, and tend to have it with them wherever they go. For those who may not be professional photographers, but simply want to capture their favourite memories whilst on the go, the smartphone offers the advantage of always being close at hand. Using apps to link with sites such as Facebook can also mean that it’s much easier to upload photos quickly and easily – something which some may feel is more valuable that having pictures which are of a exceptionally high quality.

However, another factor which may influence those thinking about buying a camera is the price. The price of a smartphone can be far higher than that of a basic digital camera – especially if the phone camera is not particularly advanced. If the cost is a deciding factor, then then some people looking to take great photos may decide that they’re rather simple pay less and have a separate camera and phone.

Finally, it is worth remembering that despite the fact the the quality of smartphone cameras has greatly improved over recent years, they are still generally unable to match up to that of advanced digital camera alternatives. To those for whom picture quality is a priority, digital cameras are likely to remain the most popular choice.

1) iOS settings. I hate that iOS puts individual app settings in the main iOS settings app. For example, I changed my gmail password the other day, and then I fired up mail on my ipad, and it gave me a password error… but instead of just changing my settings right there in the mail app, I have to close it, and open settings.. and scroll to mail, and find my gmail account….

2) Uninstalling apps on Android. I like that iOS just lets you click hold and kill and app. Easy. Android, I have to go into market and then to downloads, and then uninstall.

3) I wish the Apple App Store showed “purchased” on apps that I have purchased. I bought Beejive IM on my iPod last year.. and I went to install it on my iPad.. and now there is an HD version as well.. is this the same app? Do I just need to get the iPod version? the app is $10, so not a mistake I want to make… its silly that AFTER you click install it tells you that you already bought it.

4) iOS does nothing with that HUGE amount of screen real estate on the iPad lock screen.

5) The Android SDK is still kind of lame. Sure, Java is nice to program in, but installing and configuring the SDK isn’t always easy… and for the life of me I still can’t get my windows 7 box to see my Moto Droid phone.

6) The iPhone SDK is easy to setup, and easy to use. But WHY are we stuck with Obj-C?? Its not much better than plain old C… meaning we have to deal with header files, and all that. Don’t get me wrong, C++ is still my fav all around utility language and its very powerful. But totally wrong for high level phone apps.

7) Why can’t you position icons anywhere in iOS? Android lets you move things where you want… why can;t I do that on my iWhatever?

Android needs something like iTunes. Syncing media or podcasting is so lame on Android. Also, iTunes lets you backup and restore your device, and lay out your icons, etc. This is great. DoubleTwist is a start, but its super slow and not full featured yet.

9) Podcasting on Android is lame. I have a lot of podcasts I listen to, and iTunes/iPod handles this so well. I have yet to find anything for Android to come close, so I always have my iPod/iPad around to listen to them. Google needs to develop something, or port Zune to Android or something.

10) iOS notifications are looking dated. I like how Android handles this much better.

Below details a simple solution to debounce and enforce a minimum reset hold time in your code.

——

I use Generics in my entity so I can set the sys clk rate and the minimum width for the reset pulse easily:

entity rst_detect is

generic(

clk_rate_mhz : integer := 20000000;

min_width_us : integer := 10000

);

port(

clk     : in std_logic;

rst_in  : in std_logic;

rst_out : out std_logic

);

end entity

architecture rtl of por_detect is

– to get the minimum ticks for a valid por,

– find the ticks per 1MHz (or 1us) and then

– multiply by the min us value

constant MIN_TICKS : integer := integer(ceil(real((clk_rate_mhz/1000000)*min_width_us)));

– min bit width of the counter for to count to min_ticks

constant COUNTER_WID : integer := integer(ceil(log2(real(MIN_TICKS))));

constant MAX_COUNT : integer := integer((2**COUNTER_WID) – 1);

signal count : std_logic_vector(COUNTER_WID – 1 downto 0) := (others => ’0′);

–start and stop counter vals

signal s_count : std_logic_vector(COUNTER_WID – 1 downto 0);

type   por_state_t is (POR_IDLE, POR_WAIT, POR_OUTPUT);

signal por_state : por_state_t := POR_IDLE;

begin

counter : process(clk) begin

if(rising_edge(clk)) then

count <= count + 1;

end if;

end process;

por_det : process(clk) begin

if(rising_edge(clk)) then

case por_state is

when POR_IDLE =>

por_out <= ’0′;

if(por_in = ’1′) then

s_count   <= count;

por_state <= POR_WAIT;

else

por_state <= POR_IDLE;

end if;

when POR_WAIT =>

if(por_in = ’0′) then

por_state <= POR_IDLE;

else

if(count > s_count) then

if(count – s_count >= MIN_TICKS) then

por_out   <= ’1′;

por_state <= POR_OUTPUT;

else

por_state <= POR_WAIT;

end if;

else

if((MAX_COUNT – s_count) + count >= MIN_TICKS) then

por_out   <= ’1′;

por_state <= POR_OUTPUT;

else

por_state <= POR_WAIT;

end if;

end if;

end if;

when POR_OUTPUT =>

if(por_in = ’0′) then

por_out <= ’0′;

por_state <= POR_IDLE;

else

por_state <= POR_OUTPUT;

end if;

when others =>

por_out   <= ’0′;

por_state <= POR_IDLE;

end case;

end if;
end process;

end architecture rtl

- Sometimes I really want to listen to a specific song. Maybe I heard it on a commercial or from a movie or something. Or just in the mood for music from one particular artist. Pandora doesn’t give you this level of control. You could buy the song from iTunes or Amazon. But half the time I have songs I really like for a short period of time, and then sort of move on.

- There are still cases where you can’t stream. Even with near ubiquitous 3G, and lots of WiFi hot spots. On a plane for example, or at some ski areas here, there is no cell service. Or camping, backpacking, etc. Also, I don’t mind my iPod getting a bit beat up if im biking, or whatever. Or running down the batt with music. I’m much more careful of my phone, so that limits my use as my iPod only has WiFi.

So I have rhapsody as it solves both problems, sort of. I can listen to whatever I want on my computer or ipod or ipad, streaming. Or I can fill certain devices with offline downloads. So I have a little cheap MP3 player for that situation. Not the best solution.

Enter the new Rhapsody mobile apps. You can DOWNLOAD to your device now, over the air. No plug in syncing. Just select whatever paylist(s) you want and hit download. Boom, offline listening! This is so great. I can load up my iPad with whatever music I feel like that day and can listen on a flight or wherever without having to find WiFi.

The apps are free, and you just need a $10 a month subscription (for 1 device) or $15 a month (for 3 devices). Doing the math, if I bought 15 $1 songs each month, I would need about 40 months to buy just what I have on my iPad right now. Thats almost 4 years. I think its  pretty good deal.

The only bummer is the Android app doesn’t support this yet, just the iDevice apps.

However, the last few weeks I have been trying to solve a technology problem and an coming to realize the iPad just might fit the bill. I switched companies a couple weeks ago and the IT setup is very different. My old company had an external WiFi network that was outside the corporate LAN, and streaming, video watching, etc, was fine. So, I took my laptop to my office and had access to Pandora, Rhapsody, Hulu, etc. My new company’s IT policy is much more strict and prohibits streaming via the company network and there is no public WiFi.

Like most people I need to be entertained while I write code, so I have been trying to come up with a better solution. Aside from streaming music, I listen to podcasts. So I have been using Pandora/Rhapsody on my Android and then have my iPod for podcasts and other media that I own. But this isn’t all that great… I dont like running music on my phone all day as it seriously hurts the battery, and I’m still using 2 devices.

Side note on why 2 devices – lets face it, iTunes is still king of media programs. The podcasting setup is great… and movie purchase/rental is nice as well. The Zune desktop app comes close, but Zune isn’t an option for my current situation as there is no 3G (yet). And Android podcasting is pretty basic.. with no good desktop app for syncing.

So, I went the netbook route and looked at 3G cards. ATT and VZ offer a 5GB/mo plan for $60, with hefty fees if you go over. Cricket offers a no contract “unlimited” plan for $40 a month. Unlimited in that you can go over 5GB, but they will throttle your bandwidth.

With a 2 year contract I can get a netbook from either ATT or VZ for $50-$200 depending on specs. This works out to be (60*24)+200 = $1640 for the two years. Cricket would be less per month, but you have to buy a netbook at full price, so its about a wash.

The problem is, 5GB wont last long spread over a month with lots of music and some vid use. Plus, the majority of netbooks I tried were just blah. Screens weren’t that nice, etc. There is a Sony with a high res screen that is very nice, but it is about $550 and isn’t carried by ATT or VZ. So that puts you at close to $2000 for a two year contract. Thats a lot just to play pandora…

Enter the iPad. I have all my music and podcasts on one device. I can rent movies, I can play silly games.. and use not so silly apps. The battery should be pretty good… and the web surfing experience will be way better than any phone… and I would bet better than the netbooks (except for the lack of Flash). Add to this the $30 a month true unlimited ATT data plan with *NO* contract! You literally can sign up and cancel service at any time from the iPad itself. No need to go to an ATT store even. This is really.

So, the base 3G model with two years of data comes to (30*24) + 630 = 1350. So not only are we cheaper than a normal netbook (and much cheaper than a good netbook) setup, we aren’t limited to 5GB. Plus, I can turn off the data any month that I dont need it, or want to save some cash.

The bottom line is, while I still think some things about iPad are stupid (no flash, no multitasking), it really does solve my current problem quite well and for less money.

If you have some case statement, if then else, or switch, etc. Look carefully at signal assignments in each of the various cases. We were not always assigning to each signal in every case. This obviously follows from different cases doing different things.. but here is the tricky part. Clock gating and/or registering of signals is *inferred* for any signal that is not assigned to in all cases!

This can eat up logic fast, and if you are running near capacity of your target device, it can make it even worse, the added logic, clocking, and routing can cause the implementation to balloon. For example targeting an LX110-T, if we went above ~80% utilization, by the time we got through mapping and place&route we were close to 95%. The only way we could account for this was the extra logic used for the inferred control signals.

This may not matter in a lot of designs where you have plenty of room in the part, or maybe you don’t for some reason have a lot of case statements. We ended up refactoring and just assigning a signal to itself or some don’t care value in the other cases.

I downloaded this on my Droid and have been playing around with it for a few days. All I can say is that this is crazy. Take a picture of something and Google will (most of the time) find you some info on it. I’ve played around with some examples:

Took a pic of my Macbook Pro sitting on my desk… and Google new it was a Macbook.

I was across the street from the Fox Theater in Boulder and I took a pic of the front of the building. Google knew it was the Fox, and brought up info and links to a map.

I found a Hanna Montana pink tissue box at a local store and I took a pic.. Google knew it was Hanna…

Supposedly it will recognize wine labels too. This is some neat technology and could be useful. Sometimes its hard to search for something based on text, especially if you dont know exactly what you are looking at or it is in some foreign language.

Maybe eventually this will couple with Google’s really great translation tools and do things like translate street signs on the fly… it also reads barcodes and book covers, but its a bit slower than other Android apps for just that.

Interesting that most people assumed ATT was bad in some big cities like NYC and SF, but over 26 cities, that really says something. Also note that “voice” was the lowest ranked item for ATT, and data was generally mid-range. This fits what I have seen when using ATT, the data is usually ok, but voice is pathetic, with major call drop issues.

Also note that Verizon ranks #1 for all categories, and was at or near the highest rank possible in most categories. I wonder how bad things would get for ATT if Verizon get an iPhone….

EDIT: see original article.

This video posted via TechCrunch, kinda makes qwerty look archaic.  This technology is coming out for the Omnia II (which is a winmo phone) and is supposed to later come out for an unnamed android phone.  When it does, iPhone could have trouble.

[via http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/23/swype-iphone-leaked-video-android/]

There are several very nice improvements over the default:

- Skins. You can use an iPhone skin to get that iChat sms feel.

- Popup notification. If you choose, you can have an iPhone like popup when you get an SMS. However, unlike the iPhone, the popup window lets you do a quick response back without even opening the SMS app.

- Voice to Text!!!! This is awesome. Jsut hit Menu -> Voice when in an sms thread and the standard Google Voice box pops up, just speak your message and bam, the text is put in a message for you. This is killer because its way faster than using and on-screen or physical keyboard. And when you are driving, much safer

- Widget that launches SMS on click, and displays unread msg number.

All this and the app is free!