With Feedbin I can continue to use Reeder for iPhone and Press for Android. Reeder for iPad and OS X will get the support any time soon. There is also RSS readers available for Windows 8 and RT, so must of us should be covered. The service is not free, but available for $2 per month or $20 per year. I’ve signed up for a year. You can download your feed data from Google and easily import the feeds to Feedbin (XML file). Just have in mind that data about articles unread will not be exported/imported.

Feedbin also comes with a simple web interface. The color palette is simple: there’s grey, black and white. Great for the reading experience. Sadly, the performance of Feedbin is bad. Switching between feeds has a noticeable delay in the web app. Switching between the unread and all-article list takes about 2 seconds. This can be caused by all the Google Reader users switching service these days, and I am sure performance will be improved in the future. Of course, Reeder for iPhone is a better experience for reading with Feedbin but the article sync is still much slower than Google.

I come from the Apple world, having both Macbook Air and iPad Retina, so have me excused for using terms and examples from the Apple world. The display industry is changing. Rather than trying to make larger and larger monitors, manufacturers are pushing a newer technology — HiDPI displays. While these monitors are replacing their older, larger brothers, HiDPI displays contain many many more pixels than displays of the past (Apple’s 15″ MacBook Pro with Retina Display, for instance, ships with a resolution of 2880 by 1800 — much greater than the now deprecated 17″ MacBook Pro).

Windows 8 doesn’t have true HiDPI support, instead Microsoft has highlighted three general classes of display resolutions including standard, HD and quad-XGA (2560×1440) — as incorporated on Apple’s Thunderbolt Display and other similar 27-inch displays. They say that supporting displays at these resolutions would help to ensure that UI elements are not too blown up, or too small and difficult to touch.

For the standard resolution displays (1366×768) buttons and text will be displayed without automatic scaling. For HD displays (1920×1080), buttons and text will scale to 140 percent. For quad-XGA displays, they will scaled to 180 percent. While the new iPad display is resolution-independent (icons and apps scale at the same size as they did before), this is not supported in Windows 8. But that is perhaps changing in Windows 8.1?

It is worth noting that the 4G network in Norway are not yet well developed, but in Oslo a 4G network would most likely be available.

How to Upgrade

If you have a supported iOS device, you will get a push message from Apple with instructions to update. If you press Cancel, you will get a new notice in 14 days.

If you don’t want to wait for Apple, you can update manually by clicking Settings → General → About and follow the instructions to update. After the update, you can verify the new settings by going to Settings → General → Cellular. The Enable 3G setting is replaced with Enable LTE.

Know this

LTE will give you speeds between 20 – 80 Mbps, but the high speeds will also drain battery faster.

For more about LTE, please read my article Huawei E5776 4G LTE Cat4 Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot.

So what is Nordens Ark?

Nordens Ark isn’t a zoo as we are used to. It is a non-profit foundation that work for endangered animals future, and the park can best be described as a breeding conservation centre. The centre is situated in the heart of bohuslan on the Swedish west coast. Their operations include breeding, research, education (school and university level) and knowledge about biological diversity. Their activities are carried out in Sweden and abroad. Breeding take place in a separate part of the park called Lunden, which is not accessible to the public. This area includes areas for predators, birds, and ungulates.

Nordens Ark work on releasing animals back in to the wild and to improve the environments where the species live. Nordens Ark has both national and international responsibilities for rearing and reintroduction.

And they have been successful. Peregrine falcons have been reintroduced in Sweden, euroasian otters in Holland, european wild cat in Germany and euroasian lynx in Poland!

At Nordens Ark you will more or less only find animals that have their natural habitat in the same climate zone as Sweden. That is why you find Amur tiger, Amur leopards and Snow leopards next to wolves, wolverines and lynxes. These exotic animals can manage the Swedish winter very well. And as they are close to their natural surroundings, breeding gets easier!

Bigger projects

Since 2009 Nordens Ark has been taking part in a research project on the snow leopard’s situation in Mongolia. They are also leading a multi-year project in Russia to save the Amur tiger. The aim is to secure environmentally acceptable sustainable development in the Amur Tiger’s habitat by combating illegal hunting, developing prudent eco-tourism and creating sustainable exploitation of the area’s natural resources.

The Amur tigers got three beautiful cubs this year, but sadly they were to small to be running around when we visited the park. Amur tigers are also known as Siberian tigers. They are native to the far northeastern regions of Russia and are the largest of the six living tiger subspecies.  With only 400 individuals remaining in the wild, zoo-born animals like these three cubs are increasingly important to the survival of the species.

Nordens Ark is working closely with the Snow Leopard Trust with the goal of developing a comprehensive and sustainable field conservation program to help secure the future of snow leopards in Central Asian mountains. Their field research is done by Örjan Johansson in the South Gobi region of Mongolia, where they are GPS tracking snow leopards. They follow the movements these cats.

Educational activities

Nordens Ark has a ranger program and a Bachelor’s program in Ethology and Animal Protection. They also act as field station for students, researchers and doctoral students.

Nordens Ark arrange camp schools for young ones on the theme of animals and nature, so that children in a playful way can learn the basics of animals and nature conservation.

The water level in Danube is rising fast and will this evening peak at record high levels in Budapest. The dykes have been strengthened at critical points to protect the capital from flooding. According to information provided by the disaster management authority (OKF) so far 1,200 people have been evacuated from 28 settlements in 6 counties in Hungary, while 44 roads have been closed, due to the flooding Danube. But having said that, the Hungarian State has been doing well in handling the state of emergency!

So far, the Hungarian authorities and volunteers have managed to keep out the rising water level by building dikes. More then 10.000 people (of them 7000 soldiers) have placed several hundred thousands sandbags next to the dikes to protect cities and towns along the river.

- The flow approaching the heart of the country now. The next two days will be crucial, Prime Minister Viktor Orban at a news conference Sunday.

The Prime Minister praised flood defence efforts in the country and the fact that no human life had been lost due to flooding, which he had emphasised should be the most important aspect. On the request of the Prime Minister, the Parliament is scheduled to approve the extension of the state of emergency on Monday and the government will decide on Tuesday whether to call a state of emergency for the section of the river that runs through the capital.

Orban fears that flooding will cause the sewage system in Budapest to collapse and damages to the subway systems. The Danube is expected to peak at 8.95 metres (30 feet) in Budapest, above the 8.6-metre record in 2006 floods.

Orban said water levels were expected to recede only very slowly next week, and that he would ask parliament on Monday to approve an extension of the state of extreme danger that was announced last week.

Traffic news from Budapest

Motorists are advised to avoid the city centre. For both north- and southbound through traffic M0 motorway (ringroad) is recommended despite the significant detour involved, even between outer Budapest districts.

Please visit BKK for further information and to download a temporary map showing the traffic changes in Budapest.

Well, I got a small slap in the face again today when trying to install Google’s own keyboard app.

One thing is sure, next phone will have a stock Android image. No fancy-pancy!

The Vanguard Auctus 323CT is known to have an extreme stability and flexibility. It’s designed to go from a studio to an outdoor shoot in a snap, but well, I’m only planning to use it outdoor. For wildlife photography, and if you know me, mainly birdphotography. Luckily it comes with no camera head and I’ve ordered a Manfrotto 501HDV video head, for even better stability! Even though it’s made of carbon fiber, the weight is 3.65 kg and with a maximum loading capacity of amazing 18 kg!

Setup is as far as I can see it really quick, with one-twist-to-loosen locks. Unique All-terrain Feet convert from anti-rust spikes to angled, textured rubber for use on an array of terrains. It’s flexible, with legs that adjust to 25, 50 and 80-degree angles for use on uneven terrain and for low-angle photography. Other features include a large bubble level, anti-shock ring, leg scales for precise height adjustment, rubber foam grips and bonus snow shoes.

First of all, my thoughts go to all the people in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia that have lost family members and gotten their homes damaged. It is the worst flood in a decade and a state of emergency has been declared in the Czech Republic after 5 people died, while in Austria two people died and another two were missing. The Hungarian goverment are preparing sand bags along Danube, also in the Pest county. This is a region known to be the most vulnerable area. Several thousand bags are in place as flood defense, Erd has gotten a total of 40 thousand bags and Vac a 20 thousand sandbags.

Smaller places as Dunakeszi and Kisorosziba have gotten a 5-5 thousand, and 3-3 thousands bags are shipped to Tahiba and Leányfalu.

Further the Pest County Emergency Management has ordered first degree of flood preparedness for the six municipalities Kismaroson, Leányfalun, Pócsmegyeren, Szigetmonostoron, Sződligeten and Tahitótfaluban.

In Budapest, state media quoted György Bakondi, head of the national disaster authority, as saying that 400 people were working on flood defences. He added that the water levels in the river could reach or even exceed the height seen in the record flooding of 2002.

Flood preparations are also being done between Györ and Esztergom. The flood is expected to top in the Györ area Friday, and pass the flood record set in 2002. Goverment is therefor working day and night on making the dykes higher and stronger. A 5-6000 people will the next following days be working on a 1000 km of dykes along the river banks.

***

From Monday, 3 June 2013 public transport boat lines D11 and D12 don’t serve the Szent Gellért tér pier due to the high water level of the Danube. Boat line D13 stopped going to the Óbudai-sziget pier Saturday. From Tuesday, 4 June 2013, all public transport boat lines will be out of service until further notice due to the high water level.

Should the water level rise significantly, service restrictions will apply on tram lines 2, 19 and 41 as well as on suburban railway line H5.

The flood is expected to reach Budapest on Wednesday, and in preparations for the flood. The city hall has closed the roads on the lower embankments, and motorists are recommended to take public transport.

For further information on public transportation in Budapest the next following days, please visit Budapesti Közlekedési Köspont – BKK (in English).

These hotspots are small devices that connect to the mobile network available, whether 2G, 3G or 4G, and forwards the connection via regular wireless networks (WiFi / WLAN).

Specifications

The Huawei Mobile WiFi E5776 is a one button operation and has a small display (1.45″) that shows the status of the connection, battery level, and how much data is used since the last time you turned on the mini router. The mini router supports the speeds 150 Mbps down and 50 Mbps up, and can handle up to ten devices simultaneously. The supported 4G (LTE) bands are LTE800, LTE900, LTE1800, LTE2100 and LTE 2600, and the device is backward compatible with DC-HSPA +, UMTS, GSM frequencies (850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz). The inbuilt Wi-Fi is MIMO 2×2 for better indoor coverage. You can also make the mini router less portable by adding an external antenna (socket TS-9).

Huawei E5776 router has a fixed battery of 3000 mAh that is said to provide a service life of up to 10 hours, but I found it to be 6-7 hours. There are apps for iOS and Android where you can see consumption, battery life, manage data on micro SD card and change the settings.

The Setup

I was struggling with the setup. I bought SIM card adapters from Noosy. To get started you need to connect the router to a PC using the USB cable. Ok, I have a Mac, so only a driver was installed. For Windows there is also an application that let you write in the SIM code. The drivers and the configuration program are stored in the flash memory of the router. The solution was to use the Huawei apps for iOS and Android. Only then was I able to unlock the SIM card.

This is also the my first device equipped with Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), a standard that attempts to allow easy establishment of a secure wireless home network. By holding down a WPS button on the mini router the Wi-Fi password is shown on its display.

Usage

The mobile net is a shared resource, the speed you get depends on how many users are connected to the same base station and how much they are using the net. So the speed you are getting can vary a lot through the day. And in the early days of 4G connections, not many have devices that can connect to these base stations.

Conclusions

Except for the starting problem with a Mac, I found the Huawei E5776 to be an excellent solution. It worked well for me in Oslo. Being able to use 4G is a great improvement in your online experience compared to 3G. But with 4G your data quota may soon be empty if you are an active user!

Speed has so far been awesome! Often faster then my broadband connection at home.

Some facts about LTE

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the global standard for the fourth generation of mobile broadband (4G), supported by all major players in the industry. It is the fastest developing system in the history of mobile communication. My supplier Netcom was the first to publicly open a LTE network in the world, but only had data services available for PCs and tablets. And that is a major difference from 3G, LTE is only a standard for wireless data communications technology.

The LTE specification provides downlink peak rates of 300 Mbit/s, uplink peak rates of 75 Mbit/s, with a transfer latency of less than 5 ms in the radio access network. Improved support for mobility, exemplified by support for terminals moving at up to 350 km/h (220 mph) or 500 km/h (310 mph) depending on the frequency band.

So what about voice calls? The LTE standard only supports packet switching with its all-IP network. Voice calls in GSM, UMTS and CDMA2000 are circuit switched, so with the adoption of LTE, carriers are re-engineering their voice call network. There are three approaches VoLTE (Voice Over LTE), CSFB (Circuit Switched Fallback) and SVLTE (Simultaneous Voice and LTE). The industry seems to have standardized on VoLTE. But the demand for voice calls today has led LTE carriers to introduce CSFB as a stopgap measure. When placing or receiving a voice call, LTE handsets will fall back to old 2G or 3G networks for the duration of the call. Some of these approaches are similar to using VoIP applications like Skype, Facebook Messenger and Google Hangouts to provide LTE voice service, so the way we are using mobile phones is about to change!

I had no problem setting up at as a printer and the small text editor app mounted as a USB pen and I only had to drag it over to the Applications folder. Sweeeeet!