Instant Heart Rate monitor for Android

Instant heart rate is a heart rate monitor for Android smartphones that uses the phones built in camera to measure your heart rate.

This application measures oxygen saturation changes in your blood. On every heart beat your blood becomes more oxygen rich which causes a slight change in the color of your skin; the camera in your phone tracks that change and calculates your heart rate. It works similar to a medical pulse oximeter but without a dedicated light source.

Press your left index finger gently over the camera. Hold it steady for at least 6 seconds. Your current heart rate will be shown on the display.

It's important that you use this application with good lightning. For best results turn the back of your mobile towards the sun or a lamp.

To try it go to Androd Market on you mobile and search for "Instant Heart Rate"

This application is been made as a part of a study of using sensors built into mobile phones for measuring biological signals.  Check it out... it's FREE!

Links that were once!!!

Just searching Google for some tech toys... the top links
all to cnet pages that have moved or don't exist
CBS has invaded C-Net... and the decline is on.


Tom Merritt moved on to the cottage, and I think
the info from there is a little bit cleaner too.

AND totally unrelated

New to the Android App Market

Vlingo: Words to Action App

recently announced Voice Actions for Android 2.2+ phones which allow you to control actions like sending text and email's, navigation and finding businesses, call contacts, plus search all by speaking to your phone.

Vlingo: Words to Action does almost the same.

Feeling trumped by Google, Vlingo immediately cut the price on their once $10 app to FREE.  For free why wait for Manufacturers and Carriers to update.
Search for Vlingo in the Android Market.

Running out of Ink!

Got this funny picture in an email:

How Panda Bears came into being...

 


all due to the astronomical costs of INK!



 

Windows Desktop Gadget

	Speed Test (Monitor CPU, RAM, Internet...)
	Price: Free
	With Speed Test you can monitor CPU (over 8 cores) and RAM usage by itself and it has the ability to test; - Maximum bandwidth speed (Internet Speed Test) - Your own website download speed, response time and errors - Hard drive space and activity - Ping response times - WI-FI Signal strength - Battery Charge status - LAN bandwidth - Upload and download data transfers - Single process memory usage 19 Skins and 73 Backgrounds. Very easy and intuitive interface.
	http://speedtestpro.net

WatchDog Task Manager

WatchDog Task Manager

An alternate root to the usual "Task Killer".  I've used a task killer since I got my phone; but this sounds like a better solution.

Watchdog replaces task killers. Task killers blindly kill all apps on the phone, causing increased load times when they're accessed again, or even loss of functionality if it kills something important. Android takes care of starting and stopping apps on demand. Watchdog will find the out of control ones.

What Android doesn't do is alert on processes that aren't behaving well. They will eventually get killed if something needs the memory, but in the meantime, it can consume CPU and thus battery. Task killers address this in a heavy-handed way, and hurt Android's lifecycle management. They won't even work in Froyo due to changes in the API that prevent the kill feature.

GSM, 3G, 4G

Everyone keeps asking if my phone is 3G or 4G.

G.G.G.... It's a HTC Legend on Virgin Mobile Canada;
GSM, WCDMA, HSDPA OR in G's; it's a 3.5G

Problem is like computer technology, we have 3G and 4G phones
everywhere but the networks aren't so readily available.  Like multi-core
computing, you may have 4, 8 or 16 cores; but where do you find multi-core software.  Technology is getting better and farther apart at the same time.
As far as cell phones networks, here's a brief simple history (BTW the "G" stands for "generation"):

GSM: 2G European standard and the first digital mobile system. It offers only circuit-switched traffic (i.e voice calls, SMS...etc) and data transfer at very low bitrates 9.6kbps.

GPRS: also reffered to as phase 2+. It offered packet-switched traffic with new network components integrated over the existant GSM core network. This allowed data bitrates to increase to 171kbps. It is also considered as the first step towards 3G networks.


EDGE: It was made to cover the delay of delivery of 3G/UMTS network. It supported data rates upto 384kbps.


UMTS: the first 3G European standard network. It is the optimal solution for GSM operators to support 3G services. The Air interface technique used for this network is WCDMA. This technique allowed data rates to reach 2Mbps.


HSDPA: It is actually a software upgrade to the UMTS network using the same air interface technique used in UMTS (WCDMA) and supporting data rates upto 10Mbps.

Vulnerability in Windows Shell

Microsoft Security Advisory: Vulnerability in Windows Shell could allow remote code execution

Apparently 10 years of Windows are vulnerable.  XP through to Windows 7.

I tried the fix on the site, it works, but it makes my system harder to use, waiting for text bubble to see what I'm doing in the task bar.

 

Burning a copy of Ubuntu as a worst case but I'm uninstalling this Microsoft "Fix"... not much of a fix if the system doesn't get used because of it.

 

Also getting a copy of Wubi to install inside of Windows 7 64 bit; see how that goes.

 Hope the 2nd week of August brings a better solution to this problem from Microsoft.

UPDATE:

Temporary fix from Sophos

Android App - Call Confirm

Installed this a couple of days ago... great app.  Seems about 40% of my calls in the first month of having a cell phone were pocket calls.  This eliminates that (profound statement!). 

No more accidental calls. Raises up a call confirmation dialog on all calls. Number, photo and contact name let you decide to "Call" or "Hang Up".
v1.2.1 new features:
*disable contact lookup to improve response (option).
*bug fix: support numbers including #.

Call Confirm was developed for Android by 7bit

Package name : net.nanabit.callconfirm

Technology & Security

So you go to all the trouble to lock down your system
and look at the security you get from your providers lines!

Android Apps that I uninstalled.

WiFi Analyzer







Tried this out and really like it. So why uninstall? The program runs ads and a paid ad free version according to site is never coming. You can shut off the ads a week at a time. Not even sure on the real cost of the running ads but it's $0.05 a kb for data here. I would rather pay for the app without ads than have to try and remember to shut off ads all the time.



I also tried out Picasa Tool Pro

After several attempts at logging in I finally gave up and uninstalled.  The option of logging in through there 3rd party sign in method didn't give me a good feeling.  Google has a Mobile version of Picasa anyways.
The app does look really nice though, but not for me.

Android 2.2 FroYo for HTC Legend

HTC has confirmed that it's HTC Legend will get the FroYo upgrade.

The upgrade will be done anytime in the 3rd quarter of the on-going year,

which is September to you and me.

Android 2.2 will offer greatly increased speed for applications and web browsing due to a brand new “virtual machine” for apps and Javascript engine for the web browser. Apps will run 2 to 5 times faster than with Android 2.1, and the web browser’s Javascript support will be 2 to 3 times faster as well. Adobe Flash 10.1 (and Air) support will be included in the update.

Click the quote above for full story.

I can't wait for audible searching and the interface looks much nicer, 

including drop down menus.

Should be sweet, too bad my phones so new or I would root it!

Try FroYo on your desktop.

Calculating your real bandwidth speed.

As a rule of thumb:
Given a broadband line speed, dividing by 5 and taking off 25% is a reasonable estimate of the maximum likely data download speeds (in bytes of data).
My connection: Rate from ISP 10 mb/s = (10/5)-25% = 1.75 mb/s

TCP has an overhead in transmission that can be about 5-10%, but ATM overhead has a 15% overhead. So you can expect to lose up to 25% of your purchased speed at when counting application data transfer rate.
There are additional factors affecting the throughput results. There are applications running that usually take up a small amount of bandwidth to communicate with their servers, therefore only the remaining bandwidth is available for your downloads.

The Operating System TCP settings will also affect the results because it is usually not optimized. Visit http://www.dslreports.com for further information on optimizing your TCP settings.

Another recommended security add-on

AVG LinkScanner

Download (Direct)
Download (from Download.com)

Free
Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows XP
* Additional Requirements:
Firefox or Internet Explorer

Publisher's description of AVG LinkScanner
From AVG Technologies USA:

There are millions of poisoned web pages out there. Let AVG LinkScanner check them out first. AVG LinkScanner looks for threats on every link you click in real time, before you get there. If a link is dangerous, you'll be protected. And it runs alongside other security software.

SkyDrive… Microsoft’s “FREE” storage in the cloud!

25 GB of free storage on Windows Live

SkyDrive

Store and share your files and photos with almost anyone.

Wonder if Google will try to outshoot the competition again. Assuming the same leap they gave us in email storage, the “G Cloud” would have about 250GB.

Throttling - All Major Canadian ISPs Slow Down P2P Traffic

RE: All Major Canadian ISPs Slow Down P2P Traffic

FROM Shaw:

PowerBoost™ is a great feature from Shaw that allows you a 5 to 20 second burst of downloading speed by temporarily increasing your available bandwidth. Now you can download music, pictures, videos and small software updates even faster with Shaw’s PowerBoost.

PowerBoost also improves the page-loading process, so when you visit a media-intensive Web site the page opens faster, saving you even more time.

Below is a comparison of Shaw High-Speed and Shaw
Xtreme-I average download speeds* with and without PowerBoost.

File Size | Shaw High-Speed | Shaw High-Speed with PowerBoost
5 MB | 9.1 seconds | 2.6 seconds
10 MB | 27.3 seconds | 8 seconds
15 MB | 45.5 seconds | 21.2 seconds
100 MB | 2.7 minutes | 2.4 minutes
500 MB | 13.7 minutes | 13.3 minutes

File Size | Shaw Xtreme-I | Shaw Xtreme-I with PowerBoost
5 MB | 4.6 seconds | 2.6 seconds
10 MB | 13.7 seconds | 7 seconds
15 MB | 22.8 seconds | 12.8 seconds
100 MB | 1.4 minutes | 1.1 minutes
500 MB | 6.8 minutes | 6.6 minutes

PowerBoost is included with Xtreme-I service and is available to Shaw High-Speed Internet customers for $2.95 per month.

My $0.02:

It takes about 12 minutes for 700MB with Xtreme-I so there numbers are fairly accurate, but they tell you that you get better speed for up to 20 seconds [about 50MB] and then, since your speed drops dramatically they obviously throttle you. Without any throttling, the same 700MB would take about 70 seconds. Since Shaw lays out the speeds you get and they are alright, you can't really complain... and Telus speeds are depending on old phone lines for speed, so location is important in determining the speed you will get and it is unlikely you will get the same speed as with cable. Cable is more robust, the phone lines are already topping out baud rates and so they can't give you more speed.

Intel Core i7 CPU

Intel has introduced its latest Core i7 CPU that promises to deliver vastly superior performance compared to the previous generation of Intel processors. According to Intel, the Core i7 parts deliver 40% more performance in processing intensive applications compared to the previous generation of processors. The CPU features Turbo Boost Technology that accelerates performance to match a computer user’s needs and the workload of the system at the time.

The on-die power control unit uses power gate transistors to automatically adjust the clock speed of one or more of the cores inside the CPU depending on the needs of the system. The technology also allows sleep states that are normally common only on notebook systems. Available processors include the Core i7-965 Extreme Edition runs at 3.20 GHz at $999 and the i7-940 running 2.93 GHz for $562 and the i7-920 at 2.66 GHz for $284 [all prices in US dollars].

Nothing wrong with Vista

Top 10 browser-based vulnerabilities on XP:

And the top 10 browser-based vulnerabilities on Vista (click to enlarge):

The tale: RealPlayer, Apple QuickTime, various toolbars and other tag-along applications are vulnerable.

Aside from the heavy resources Vista needs, it seems pretty sweet.

Vista, Threatfire, Secunia PSI and NoScript & Perspectives = good clean security.

Get the whole Tech Report HERE

Microsoft AutoCollage 2008 (30 day free trial)

Pick a folder, press a button, and in a few minutes AutoCollage presents you with a unique memento to print or email to your family and friends.

Download AutoCollage 2008 and start creating your own collages within minutes.

Loading images

Carousel

Final
positioning

Collage display

Gmail or Yahoo! Mail as default e-mail

gAttach is a free program that integrates Gmail as your default e-mail service instead of a local client (eg Outlook) when you send e-mail or attach files from the desktop, the browser, or any local applications.

yAttach allows you to easily attach files to new messages in Yahoo! Mail. All the features available in Windows that were once only available to your desktop mail-using friends are now available to all Yahoo! Mail users.