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Hacking the F1 Cheap Seats - Photographing the Singapore F1 Night Race

2011-09-24T19:01:00.003+08:00

It's the eve of the Formula One Marina Bay Grand Prix in Singapore, and if you are like many who got a ticket to see the race live, you may have picked up a walkabout ticket. Walkabout tickets are the most affordable way to see a live race, though the drawbacks are you do not get a seat, and your access is restricted to certain parts of the track. But for the F1 fan who is also a photography

Android Honeycomb Tablets (ASUS Eee Pad Transformer User Report)

2011-08-17T23:57:00.004+08:00

Eee Pads, Transform! It's now a common dilemma for buyers of devices for light computing: go for what's cool and get a tablet, or go for something practical and more useful like a netbook? With the Eee Pad Transformer and its keyboard dock combination, you can have both. The Transformer promises to be adaptable to both keyboard-and-mouse and touch-and-swipe uses, and form-wise it does deliver.

Google Earth for Android: Download It Here

2011-08-04T01:11:00.001+08:00

What's cooler than having a bird's eye view of your city with Google Maps? A God's eye view of the world with Google Earth! The Android App for phones and tablets lets you swipe, pinch-zoom and rotate your way to anywhere around the globe, with the same ease as the desktop version. If you're not in the US, you may not be able to download this from the Android Market. No worries, just grab it

Rock On With Google Music Beta: Android App Download

2011-08-02T22:04:00.009+08:00

Google Music Beta is awesome, and Google has just opened up invites to its users. It should be a US-only offering for now, but that hasn't stopped people in the US sending invites to their friends in other countries. Too bad Android users outside the US can't actually download the Music Beta Android App. Or can they? Follow the links below to start rocking like you live in the free world!

Android Market: Get An Update!

2011-07-14T22:57:00.003+08:00

Having trouble getting the latest Android Market update? Fret no more, find the latest Android Market here! The latest version has an all new interface besides some US-only Google Books and Movies rental options. It has not yet rolled out to all countries, but even if you can't enjoy book buying and HD movie downloading like the Americans, you can enjoy an even more organized Market that lets you

Google+ for Android: Not Available In Your Market? Get it here!

2011-07-04T11:29:00.003+08:00

Since day one of its initial beta, Google+ for Android, the native app for Google's new social networking feature, has been available on Android Market, unless you're in one of those countries where Google hasn't opened it up. Strangely, Google must have underestimated the geographical reach of the initial beta testers' social circles, as people with access to Google+ now do not have access to

Midrange Android Phones (HTC Desire S User Report)

2011-06-27T04:36:00.000+08:00

The New Midrange: Good Enough Just Got Better Android has come a long way since its debut. Dual-core processors, Nvidia graphics subsystems and 4.3-inch screens with qHD resolution, HD-resolution and 3D cameras now define the top end. While competition among Android device makers have pushed phone specs to exceed that of their rivals, it has also set the sights higher for the midrange. It was a

Nissin Di622 Mark II Camera Flash User Report

2011-06-01T00:46:00.006+08:00

As a long-time Nikon user switching to Canon, I knew I would have a hard time looking for an affordable flash for casual use. From the Canon catalog, I found few choices but the top end models for an enthusiast looking for a flash with optical slave capabilities. Fortunately, I did find that one only needs to look to third party brands for reasonably capable alternatives. The new Nissin Di622

Hidalgo Street: Pilgrimage to Photo Gear Heaven

2011-03-19T23:30:00.004+08:00

Note: This article was originally posted as "My Hidalgo Pilgrimage" on gerrysnaps.blogspot.com on 12/13/05, and now reproduced here on Gadget-Hack. You are not a certifiable photography nut in the Philippines until you have found your way to Hidalgo, a street in Quiapo that amateurs and pros speak of as if it was legend or mystery. This street of lore is home to bargain photography stores,

How To: Buy Paid Apps on Android Market outside the US, Canada and UK

2011-01-23T01:25:00.001+08:00

The App Store for Google, Android Market, allows Android users to see and purchase paid apps in 32 countries at the time of this writing (as per the official link), leaving out more than 160 other countries. Android users in other countries can only see free apps on the Android Market. Google is working to get Market out to other countries, but it has been slow progress getting into 32 countries

Entry-Level Android Phones (Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700 User Report)

2010-12-06T14:14:00.004+08:00

Android for Anybody? The affordable Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700. Open source. Often one thinks it's synonymous with free or cheap, especially for device makers who don't have to spend millions to develop the software that lets you do everything on your phone and more. So why are the most hyped Android phones, running open sourced software given away by Google, priced as expensive as the latest

How To Sync iCal and AddressBook with Unsupported SonyEricsson Phones

2010-08-09T14:12:00.002+08:00

For a time I was one of those normal mobile phone users, one of the great unwashed who refuses to pay premium for a phone that doesn't cut-and-paste. Back in the day I still used a 2008-era SonyEricsson mobile phone. It had just a little more than the basic feature set (WiFi and GPS) without the smarts of a real app-aware smartphone. But being no stranger to smartphones, I wanted more out of my

How-To: REALLY Get Around NTFS-3G Mount Errors

2009-08-27T01:42:00.004+08:00

Are you a Mac switcher? Do you still have/need drives formatted in Microsoft's NTFS filesystem? Are you using that NTFS-3G driver your friends helpfully pointed you to? And then after enjoying the best of both Mac and Windows worlds for a few days, have you ever had your NTFS-formatted drive work on a Windows PC one day and refuse to work on your Mac the next day?If you answered "yes" to all of

The Lazy Hacker's Guide To Upgrading Your Macbook Hard Drive

2009-01-03T08:28:00.033+08:00

It's a whole new year, and, surprise, you're suddenly staring at less than 100MB free on your Generation 1 MacBook's 60GB hard drive. It was inevitable as over the year it's filled up with snapshots from 2008 that you haven't printed or backed up, countless copies of Ubuntu Desktop edition that you never got around to installing, and indiscriminately downloaded episodes of every American TV

Sony VAIO C1-MSX Driver Guide

2008-12-13T02:16:00.010+08:00

My old C1-MSX Picturebook is long gone, traded and adopted by a new owner, but as a service to those loyal Picturebook users who still have these things humming along, here is a rundown of the drivers for all of the built-in devices, for when you end up having to reformat to a fresh installation of Windows XP. Take note of the order. It's actually important that you follow a sequence for some of

English for VAIOs 101: Make Your Japanese VAIO Type In English

2008-09-10T02:28:00.006+08:00

So you netted yourself a gem of Japanese technology after a stroll through Akihabara, ignoring the fact that your command of Nihongo (that's Japanese, friend) is, at best, worse than a four-year-old's reading level. Now, you can either succumb to buyer's remorse, or you can take these steps to hack your Japanese laptop to work in English.These instructions are applicable to Windows XP,

Media Center On A Picturebook (Almost)

2008-04-23T19:27:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I've posted any updates on the Picturebook Media Center experiments, and if you're still tuned in, the reason, dear readers, is because I've basically hit a wall.My last attempt, a year ago, follows as it transpired:1. Make sure you have a second hard drive partition on your Picturebook. Copy the entire contents of the Windows Media Center 2005 installation CDs to your

Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro AF Lens User Report

2006-06-28T18:00:00.002+08:00

A Better Kit Lens? [ Our "User Reports" are observations by the user of an actual production unit in what can be considered normal use by a "serious user". We avoid the term "review", since the product is not put through the rigorous repeatable test systems and conditions of a product review. We do make pains to ensure, by offering as detailed a report as possible, that these are no less

Nikon 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor User Report

2006-05-31T00:00:00.002+08:00

Serious Flower Power [ Our "User Reports" are observations by the user of an actual production unit in what can be considered normal use by a "serious user". We avoid the term "review", since the product is not put through the rigorous repeatable test systems and conditions of a product review. We do make pains to ensure, by offering as detailed a report as possible, that these are no less

CompactDrive PD70X User Report

2006-05-21T00:00:00.000+08:00

Backing Up On The Cheap. Way Cheap.If you are a serious digital shutterbug, you will no doubt be familiar with the problem: you are away from home or on a long trip, and however discriminatory you are with the photos that you keep on your cards, you eventually run out of flash memory.If you can, you carry a laptop around and download your photos to its hard drive. But in some cases you may find

Nikon D50 DSLR User Report

2006-04-18T01:16:00.002+08:00

A DSLR For EveryoneThe Nikon D50 arrived on the increasingly crowded 'budget' DSLR scene at a price point undercutting all the competition from Canon and Olympus, with Nikon pitching the camera as a DSLR for the family. It did provoke some controversy and confusion with Nikon users, as its features were so close to the D70, yet was priced lower, with some attributing the price difference to less

Nikon 50mm f/1.4 D AF Lens User Report

2006-04-13T08:40:00.004+08:00

Razor Sharp, Razor Thin The Nikon 50mm f/1.4 is a fixed focal length, large aperture lens whose role in a photographer's bag has changed with the move from 35mm film to digital APS-C. At 50mm on film, it was designed to provide a 'normal' view. On APS-C sensors of Nikon DSLRs, the 1.5x crop factor kicks in and transforms this normal lens into a mild telephoto lens with potential to be used as

Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC AF Lens User Report

2006-04-12T13:57:00.002+08:00

For The Non-Conformist Sigma's 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC is a wide, constant aperture autofocus zoom lens for use only with digital SLR cameras using APS-C sized sensors. The zoom range is ideal for covering events, going from wide enough to cover a scene or a table of guests, to a 'mild' telephoto good enough for portraits, so it is currently my most used lens. In the studio, it can find use for

How Not To: Upgrade Windows XP Pro to MCE 2005

2005-02-17T21:29:00.000+08:00

Well here I was trying to install Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 on my Sony VAIO for the How-To on turning a Picturebook into a mini media center. Naturally one of the options for this is XP MCE, no brainer eh? Only thing is MCE supports a specific list of TV tuner cards, so slim chance it will work with the built in TV Tuner/MPEG2 encoder, right? But hey, I like slim odds!I decided to

Sony VAIO How-To #1: Upgrade Your C1 Picturebook Hard Drive -- Part 3/2

2005-01-31T08:29:00.000+08:00

In this How-To we showed you how to get into a Sony VAIO C1 M-series Picturebook. But what if you have an older model VAIO, what is one to do? No need to whimper in a corner until you're reduced to a simpering shadow of your former self! Dry those tears, we'll show you how to get in on some hacking fun in this Extra Stage. If you missed the other parts of this how to: Stage One: Cloning Is