from Chips to Chips

strange issue came up for me recently, my notebook running Windows 7, stopped to be able to connect to CIFS shares. I keep getting that the “network is not reacheable” error from Windows. Networking wise, it’s incorrect as I can ping the device and I can access the web services on the device.

Some research pointed me to the proliferation of the 6to4 adapters in Windows. These adapters help to route IPv6 over IPv4, and for some reason, I’ve got hundreds of these adapters in my system.

All I had to do is to remove them by disabling IPv6, and the problem got resolved. No root cause here yet, but at least there’s the fix.

So, go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852 and apply Fix #50409 & #50412. Both will need a reboot each time, and then my problem was resolved.

iPad Split Keyboard

one of the best improvement to the onscreen keyboard for the iPad is that it’s now movable and also thumb friendly.

The standard keyboard still exists, and you can easily switch between the new layout and the old. The special enabling key for this is the button on the bottom right of the keyboard. This used to be for hiding the keyboard. Now, in addition to hide, if you tap on the key and drag it upwards, the keyboard will transform to the split mode. This has 2 big benefits, both sides of the keyboard are now thumb friendly. I can comfortably hold the iPad and type away with both thumbs. And this is true for both portrait and landscape orientation for the iPad.

Second benefit, is that you can move the keyboard any location vertically!!

To get back the original keyboard layout, just drag the keyboard back to the bottom of the screen.

Way cool!

This works for both the original iPad and iPad 2.

So, one of the first problems I have with iOS5 is voice dialing with my trusty Blueant V1. It works, but it dials the wrong entry in my favorites list!

I tried to reset the V1 and re-initiate pairing with the iPhone, but didn’t help at all.

I realized what the problem was, and it feels like an iOS5 bug!

I have contacts, in my favorites list, which have multiple phone numbers. e.g. my wife has 2 entries, one for her office number and one to her mobile number. And I’ve got this setup since pre OS3.0 days. So, this is not a new configuration for me. When I do the voice dial, it will not dial the number I’ve set as the favorite, but the first number listed in the contact view. But, if I manually touch the favorites entry, the phone will dial the correct number. So, the portion which allows bluetooth integrated dialing is broken some where.

The workaround is to split the contact into a few contacts. Each with the unique phone number you want to dial. So, for my wife, I have to create 2 new entries, one for office and one for mobile.

This is a really bizarre problem. Hope a fix appears soon.

The first question I had was, where’s the app for iMessage? I was thinking that there could be a dedicated app, and it’ll probably function like having another “whatsapp” like function. I was wrong. In face, iMessage is integrated into the orignal “Message” app. Yes, the one you use for SMS and MMS.

So, how to start using it? There are 2 parts to it. Part 1 is to setup your iOS device, and part 2 is how to send an iMessage.

Part 1 – go to settings, messages, then look at addresses. These are what your friends and contacts will use to send iMessage to you, as a form of identification (like a userid). By default, your mobile number will be one of them, and the other is the iTunes or iCloud account you used when your first setup iOS5. You can add or change more contact information. e.g. your work email address. Add all the form of “identification” you want and save it.

Part 2 – just launch messages, and here’s the cool bit. Just add the contact you like to send a text to. The app will then do a check if the recipient is already registered with iMessages. Remember what you did in Part 1? The recipient’s contact information in your phone book will be used to check for iMessage “compatibility”. If yes, your “send” button will turn blue, and the text box will have a faint “iMessage” word, otherwise it will have a faint “text message”, and the “send” button will be green.

It’s that simple!

Now, I’m just a little curious about the warning that popped up once or twice to warn of carrier charges for sms sent to activate iMessage. I wonder how many messages will that consume.

My earlier post was basically highlighting that if you are purchasing a Sun Cellular prepaid SIM for internet usage, you’ll have to get it activated before trying to apply and SBW load. Otherwise the load will be wasted, which was what happened to me.

The follow up experience to that was that I did get my GPRS (data) access activated within the 48hrs as mentioned by the call center help agent. There was no automated notification, I just had to keep trying to send “activate” to 2300. When it works, it will reply with the activation message.

Then I applied the SBW50 load and I was immediately online. The next thing I tried was tethering with my iPhone 3GS. The tethering didn’t work. In fact, the tethering option disappeared from the iPhone menu.

So what I did for the rest of the trip was to just use my E5830 to provide Internet access to my laptop and phone over WIFI.

I noticed for the E5830, in most places, there are good 3G signal, but for some reason the device will fall back to a slower speed. So I just forced the device to only use WCDMA to keep to the constant good speed. The drawback on this is when the 3G signal quality was bad, Internet access will be miserable.

I didn’t stay up to catch the Apple WWDC, but it’s the first thing I checked out when I woke up today. One of the new features which has got all my thumbs up is the ability for your devices to automatically download purchased content. More details is in this Mac Rumors posting.

I haven’t tested this yet, but what I believe it’s suppose to do is this; Say you have an iPhone and an iPad. If you’ve purchased  content, Music/App/Book, from the Apple Stores, it will automatically make it available on both devices. That sure takes the hassle out to trying to keep both devices in sync.

Without this, I’ve been maintaining synchronization using iTunes, or just manual re-download. Now it’s all automatic! That’s cool!

The best part, you don’t need to wait for IOS5, all you need is the currently available IOS 4.3!

GLWG! Came across this really fun turn based strategy game 2 days ago. The iPhone version was going for free, and the iPad (HD) version was $0.99. I bought both!

Did I say this is a War Game?

It’s turned base; you make your moves, then the AI moves. Each of your units get to move and attack (if in range) every turn. There are some advantages you gain from going on to high ground, or travel further by riding in a vehicle.

When you attack, the opponent automatically retaliates, if it survives.

Very addictive! Check it out!

I’ve been working on deploying several large VMware environment lately. What has been very helpful to me is my iPad equipped with PDF Expert [iTunes].

It was one of the first few apps I bought on my iPad, and it is one of my best investments.

It supports PDF (duh), docx, xlsx, and more. But I primarily use it to refer to PDF documents. What’s really good about it is beyond fundamental book reader (for that, iBooks will do just fine).

It’s the ability to be able to annotate the pdf document… e.g. highlight, underline, strikeout, notes, add text and more. I can make corrections to the document, so that when I get back to my PC, I have an easy reference. Bookmarks are automatically placed when I annotate, so it’s easy for me to search later on.

What’s also cool is the ability for the app to send out the corrected pdf with either the annotations all flattened on to the doc, or still kept separate.

This app to me allows me to completely replace PDF print outs and scribbling corrections.

To up the ante, a recent update (can’t remember when), there has been new integration which allows you to connect to multiple DropBox accounts to download, and even sync!

I do recommend it to anyone looking for a tool that does this.

I’ve recently discovered the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH. It’s a broadband router that is positioned in the high performance category. What got me started was the search for a wireless-N replacement to my long time favorite the Linksys WRT54GL.

I narrowed the search down to the Asus RT-N16 which I’ve tried and then this Buffalo unit. I now like the Buffalo a lot more, as the native firmware is feature packed and has a built in PPTP VPN server.

All the LAN & WAN ports are gigabit Ethernet, and can support Jumbo frames. Wireless is only single band 2.4GHz supporting b/g/n.

The router is nice and stable, and definitely has a good enough processor for all the current demands of home networking.

I haven’t done much performance testing for the wireless and wired throughput, but I can tell it’s much faster than my trusted old WRT54GL.

The other big advantage to me is that this router is supported by DD-WRT. in fact, in the US, there is even a Buffalo version of the DD-WRT for this unit. Probably still the only router out there with an OEM version of DD-WRT.

Price wise, it is very well priced. We can easily find it in the shops here in Singapore for about S$139. During the quarterly PC Shows here, I’ve seen the router to be available for a very good S$89.

I will definitely recommend this router to anyone looking to upgrade from an older wireless-G router. Performance is great and it is very nicely priced.

Song Exporter Pro showed up in my list of top free apps on the weekend of 30th April 2011. It’s a very neat tool which allows someone to share or “export” the music off the iPod library in the iPhone. (I think it will also work with iPod Touch and iPad, but haven’t tested it).

This is the answer a question I get frequently. How can we copy music from an iPhone to a computer. It used to be never, unless you use some specialized tools to do it. Now, it’s very easy, lauch Song Exporter Pro, select the songs you want to share, and connect to Wifi. Then, go to the computer you want to copy the music to, open the browser and point it to the IP address of the iPhone (it will be listed in the app). You’ll be presented with a nice web page that allows you to easily download the songs.

This is a nice handy tool which allows you to transfer your songs easily to your other computers direct from the iPhone.