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Review of Reliance Broadband+ USB Modem

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:28:05 +0000

I bought a Reliance Broadband+ USB Modem a few weeks back. Before purchasing this, I tracked the Twitter for actual brand/product reviews by owners. People were talking pretty positively about this and that was a welcome change after their Wi-Max debacle.

Reliance Broadband+ USB Modem

The product (Huawei EC 168 C / EV-DO Modem) was delivered the next day of booking online – by paying Rs.3500/-. But the activation needed couple of days more for the mandatory ‘address verification’ and such. Overall the Service activation period was very satisfactory. The product literature indicated support for both Mac and Windows. But the one-time ‘Activation Option’ was not available on the Mac support software. I had to do it using the Windows XP through VMWare. After this, the device was readily usable natively on Mac.

Reliance Broadband+ Windows Dashboard

The device is easy to pocket and is very rugged. There is also an extended USB cable in-case you are using it with a USB-Hub. The device has it’s retractable USB connector which is very convenient. There is also a MicroSD-Card slot which makes it a pen drive too. There is a small opening with a latch on one side – of which I have no idea!. The device is plug n play on both Mac and Windows.

Reliance Broadband+ Mac Dashboard

Once the settings have been fed the right numbers, further connections are just one-click. To get connected it normally takes about 10 seconds. The device is capable of working in CDMA 1.x mode in low coverage areas & regular high speed HSD option in good coverage areas. The device is set to ‘Hybrid’ mode by default.

The speed of HSD connection varies between 800kbps to 2Mpbs (average) – sometimes spiking to even 2.3Mbps in good coverage areas with more than 3 signal bars. But DNS lookups fail when it switches from HSD to CDMA 1.x, making me unplug and reconnect again. Thankfully this is not a frequent problem. You can watch YouTube videos / Apple iPhone tutorials etc.. comfortably. Apart from HTTP, other protocols like IRC, SSH, FTP etc.. too worked well. But the upload speeds on all occasions has been dismal. The above picture shows some of the weakest download day scenario.

I opted for an in-city tariff plan, because Airtel EDGE/GPRS on the iPhone is enough to check emails on the move. The Broadband+ USB device’s HSD connections are expected to work in all major cities and CDMA 1.x will be available almost everywhere in India. You can check the bandwidth usage live on their website. Over there you can also opt for a simple e-Bill to save on paper and post. The broadband bill can be paid online using bank gateways / credit cards.

To conclude, I will recommend this Mobile Broadband device to users in Bangalore. But as a word of caution, please do ask the sales agent to come to your home area to do an actual performance & coverage demonstration. This will give you a first hand personal experience before the purchase.

How to deploy an iPhone application without an IDP Membership

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:37:18 +0000

An iPhone Developer Program (IDP) membership (costs $99 for Individuals) is required to officially deploy your application on the iPhone – even during the development and testing. Though I have applied for the IDP membership long ago, mine is yet to be approved. Perhaps India is not a listed country for IDP.

Not having an IDP membership will not affect your iPhone development and further testing on a real iPhone. But you would still require a Jailbroken iPhone. You will have to tweak your XCode (Version 3.1.2) and individual project settings – along with the iPhone (Firmware 2.2) – to get the Applications deployed on the phone. Here are the steps. These information were collated by the results of endless queries posted on different forums and by reading various material available on the Web. All the credits are due to their respective owners :)

Common Instructions to Install :-

• Jailbreaking the iPhone requires you to follow the clear instructions given by iClarified. This includes a Video demonstration also. There is no need to Unlock your iPhone. Just Jailbreak should suffice.

• Install the iPhoneTunnel and CyberDuck applications on the Mac

• Install OpenSSH, BossPrefs and Link-Identity-Editor applications using the Cydia application on the iPhone. After installation Reboot the iPhone

• Add source in Cydia (if you have not yet done so), please remember there is a slash (/) at the end of the url Code: http://www.iphone.org.hk/apt/ . Install MobileInstallation Patch version 2.2 in Section “Tweaks”

• Connect the iPhone using the USB Cable to the Mac

• Close the iTunes.

Setting up XCode to Compile and Build the iPhone Application

• Create a Signing Identify on your Mac by following this simple guide from Apple. I suggest you name the Certificate as “iPhone Developer”

• TextEdit the /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Info.plist file to look the respective portions like:-

NATIVE_ARCH
<string>armv6string>
PLIST_FILE_OUTPUT_FORMAT
<string>binarystring>
PROVISIONING_PROFILE_ALLOWED
<string>NOstring>
PROVISIONING_PROFILE_REQUIRED
<string>NOstring>
SDKROOT
<string>iphoneos2.2string>

• Change your own Project Settings by taking [Menu] Project->Edit Project Settings. In the Properties List, find the Code-Signing-Identity and Select the Certificate Name(iPhone Developer) you created earlier.

• Add the following snippet on to your projects info.plist using TextEdit

   1: SignerIdentity
   2: <string>Apple iPhone OS Application Signingstring>

Transferring the Application Binary to the iPhone over USB

• You may duplicate the following steps using an Ad-Hoc WiFi connection too, of which I am not so fond off!. I prefer the USB.

• Start the iPhoneTunnel Application on the Mac. You should see a respective icon on the Superior Bar at the top of the screen. Click on that Icon and select [Turn Tunnel ON]

• Again click on the same icon on top and select [Tools->SFTP]. The Cyberduck should start automatically. Enter the username as ‘root’ and password as ‘alpine’ in the cyberduck login window.

• Copy the TestApp.app (Your Own App) to the /Application folder of the iPhone using Cyberduck

• Click on the iPhoneTunnel icon and select [Tools->SSH(root)]. Enter the root/alpine credentials at the command prompt.

• At this command prompt enter the following two commands:-

ldid -S /Applications/TestApp.app/TestApp

chmod +x /Applications/TestApp.app/TestApp

• Open the BossPrefs application on the iPhone and choose the “ReSpring” option. This will restart the SpringBoard application to show your application on the Home Screen.

• Enjoy Your App!

If you have a proper Code signing Signature from Apple , you can follow these great instructions to deploy on to AppStore.

My Android Phone – HTC G1

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:28:21 +0000

Here is my (not-so) shiny new toy!. An HTC G1 – The official Google Android Developer Phone 1. She just arrived today via UPS international courier. I had some difficulty connecting to the Google Servers during the initial registration process. But after editing the Airtel APN settings manually and deleting other pre-installed APNs I could connect. I shall post a detailed review later. I am really interested to know about other Android Phone Owners/Developers in India/elsewhere. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments :)

Shameless self promotion: I have started another blog OpenMobileTips – dealing exclusively on Open Mobile Software and Hardware. You are welcome!

Broadband Reviews Website

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:37:22 +0000

Broadband and mobile broadband prices have been falling rapidly over the last years making these technologies affordable for the mass. The state of mainstream fixed broadband and mobile broadband is continually progressing. Mobile Broadband has started to make stirs in the mobile community as it provides seamless connectivity on-the-go.

BroadBand Experts is a UK based company who provides real expert reviews on how to choose the cheapest broadband connection for your fixed and mobile requirements. There are reviews for USB or PC-Card based mobile broadband connections and 3G based broadband connections. Interesting deals like a free Netbook along with a longtime mobile broadband connection is worth checking out. For the Fixed broadband comparisons you can select between major UK based cheap broadband providers. The website also offers a top-ranking list for mobile/fixed broadband providers.

Another interesting option over the website helps you switch your current broadband provider to another one based on a variety of criteria. If you are new to the broadband concept the website also offers detailed guide to the various broadband options.

If you are need of a broadband connection please keep in mind the following things:-

The cheapest is not always the best
Read the reviews of actual users over the blogs and comparison websites
Ask your best friends; but remember that the same connection’s quality of service levels may vary in your area.

Broadband Experts – UK gives you very specific localized best offers for your broadband requirements. I would suggest you give it a whirl.

Review of Reliance Broadband+ USB Modem

Recommended product releases and news items resource Site

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:54:37 +0000

I am taking this opportunity to recommend the services of a Product Releases and News Items Resources Site – Gadget Advisor.

Upon some quick browse over the site, I found interesting posts on some of the Best extensions for Firefox. Though most of which were the ones I’m already using, the Google Cache Checker Firefox extension was a new find!.

This extension helps you see if a particular web page is cached by Google in their servers or not. This might be useful to quickly lookup the Google Cache information, when you cannot find the original information that you were looking for in the actual webpage.

The promise of the site is to publish hand-picked items to be the "best of the best" resource for computer hardware, software (for e.g like the Blaze Media Pro review), gadgets, and technology news. So don’t forget to checkout this interesting new resource site yourself.

Google Store – Buy directly from Google

How to Sync Microsoft Outlook Tasks with iPhone and get Reminders

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:25:47 +0000

Apple conspicuously did not provide any Task Management application for the iPhone, even with the latest firmware updates. For some, the default ‘Notes’ application itself provided a simpler way to manage tasks. There was expectations of iPhone featuring a default Task Management application with the MobileMe launch. But that did not happen either. Fortunately, with the AppStore featuring plenty of native Task Management applications, the void has been filled perfectly. One specific Task Management Application which I bought was ToDo by AppiGo. Interestingly You can setup ToDo to Sync perfectly with the Microsoft Outlook too.

First download and install the ToDo app on your iPhone through AppStore. Setup synchronization with the ToodleDo Service. Download the ToodlDo Sync Application and run it along with Microsoft Outlook. Automatically all your tasks will be synced across the iPhone, Cloud and Outlook.

Getting Task Reminders on iPhone!

Presently, Apple iPhone SDK does not provide for running background notification services. Hence by default ToDo will not be able to give Tasks reminders. But there is a simple way out!. You can automatically sync the dated Outlook tasks as a Outlook Calendar Entry using TaskToCal ($19.95). Thereon You get timely reminders of your ToDo’s!

Corporate email trivia – Xobni

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:15:27 +0000

Xobni is just one heck of a utility!. It is helping me everyday on my corporate email communications. Xobni Organizes email by People. It provides you with excellent statistics and insights in to your Outlook inbox. There is a new update to the Xobni and during the installation process, it presented me with some very interesting Trivia about Corporate email communications. I have noted down a few to share with you.

Xobni Corporate email communication Trivia

Microsoft Exchange Server has 59% market share in Corporate email
46% of all Xobni users Outlook 2007 and 54% use Outlook 2003
Globally in the next 4 years enterprises will spend around $17 Billion on corporate email
Enterprise email costs an average of $435.85 per User per Year
By 2009 workers are expected to spend 41% of their time managing email
An average human brain is capable of maintaining 150 friendships
Xobni users communicate with about 1900 different people
The average Xobni user has around 30,000 emails in Outlook

If you have not tried Xobni yet, I would strongly recommend you to try it once.

Build your own dotMac (.mac) Service

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:53:08 +0000

.mac is an online storage and sync service offered by Apple. If you are an OS X user, .mac could be seen tightly integrated with the operating system. The service costs a slightly heap $99 annual fee. No more!.. with the DotMac opensource project, you can host your own .Mac service.

Currently DotMac supports:-

Data synchronization for any application that supports .mac (iCal, Address Book, notes, etc…)
iDisk/iDisk Sync
iWeb Publishing
Backup

This is a work in progress and expect to see a lot of improvements further.

How to use Google Docs as a Daily Journal

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:40:43 +0000

Google Docs can be easily transformed to a Daily Journal with the following easy steps:-

Create a “New Document” called “Daily Journal”
Insert a “Comment” or press Ctrl-M
Make your Journal entries above the Comment.
Do steps 2 & 3 – Everyday!

Since Google Docs can make use of Google Gears offline storage capabilities, you can even make journal entries without an Internet connection. All your entries will be saved and synced once you go online next time. Simple yet effective!

HOT backup your Outlook data securely and automatically with TrueCrypt

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:53:05 +0000

[Update: Here is a LifeHacker commentary on this article ]

The need

Here is a small tutorial on How you can safely backup your Outlook data on to a USB Drive. Most of us who work in corporate environment obviously have our years of communications and documents captured in .PST files. Microsoft Outlook’s PST file format is proprietary but serves as a portable archival data format. You can make backups of your old .PST files by simply dragging and dropping on to the target media. Or use a professional backup tool like SyncBackSE or Microsoft Personal folders backup .

The Issues

You cannot backup your .PST file while it is opened by Outlook. Most of the time this is the case as Outlook locks the respective .PST file. Your backup utilities will fail to backup your current Live Outlook data as long as Outlook is kept opened. This also does not allow us to further automatically schedule .PST backup too.

The Solution

The simplest solution is to instruct Outlook to simultaneously keep a copy of the incoming emails in a separate .PST file created in the external storage device. Even though you can password protect your .PST files , for additional security , you are better off creating a Secure & Encrypted Drive inside your external storage device.

Tools Required

TrueCrypt is my choice for a platform independent data security software. It is free, Open Source and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux with excellent speed and robustness. It has some of the performing yet strong encryption algorithm support. The user interface is very convenient too. It has the capability to make an entire drive encrypted or keep a huge encrypted file on any drive to be further treated as a virtual drive. I follow the later approach.

How-To

1) Create an encrypted volume within your USB Drive / External storage Device

2. Goto Volume->Save currently mounted volume as favourite menu item.

3. Goto Settings->Preferences->Check the [Start TrueCrypt] and [Mount Favourite Volume] items.

4. Create a .PST inside this volume using the Mail-Setup tools within Windows Control Panel.

5. Open this additional .PST file too in Outlook

6. Set an Outlook Rule to make a copy of the incoming email to this .PST file

Outlook – Tools->Rules and Alerts->New Rule->Rules Wizard->Start from a Blank Rule->Check Messages when they arrive->Check [On this Machine Only] , [Through the specified account = Select Exchange Server] -> Next -> Move a copy to the specified Folder( and select our new PST file’s folder).

Also make sure that this rule is the top of the other rules in the list.

7. Set an Outlook Rule to make a copy of the Outgoing email to this .PST file

Outlook – Tools->Rules and Alerts->New Rule->Rules Wizard->Start from a Blank Rule->Check Messages after it is sent->Check [On this Machine Only] , [Through the specified account = Select Exchange Server] -> Next -> Move a copy to the specified Folder( and select our new PST file’s folder).

Success :) Now you have all your incoming and outgoing emails backed up automatically and securely on the USB media. You have this backup copy of your email without you making any conscious effort.

Disadvantage

The only disadvantage with this method is that you will have to keep your USB drive connected all the time while you are working with Outlook. I think that is a reasonable tradeoff between convenience and security.