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Author Archives: Ahmed Eltawil

Monday, July 4th 2011

04 Jul

I never understood why HP called their tablet TouchPad. Don’t they realize that a lot of manufacturers are just appending the word ‘Pad’ to their crappy tablets to lure in unfortunate customers? This is simply bad marketing which isn’t a surprise since HP is now the owner.

What pissed me off the most after reading the first reviews of the TouchPad is the negative feedback about the device’s physical hardware. The bulky heavy plasticy smudge-magnet they call a TouchPad. This is all HP’s non-creative dirty work. I am sure Palm’s team had absolutely no hand in the design of the tablet. This has HP’s crappy design signs that we’re all used to seeing all over it.

Haven’t they even compared the size and weight of their TouchPad to whatever is leading in the market (iPad, Galaxy Tab, etc) while the TouchPad was just a blue print? Who ever managed the hardware team should be fired cause he’s dramatically affecting TouchPad sales.

This is really sad news for WebOS. The operating system, as everyone including me always said, has great potential but the hardware has always been pulling it back.

 
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Posted by on July 4, 2011 in Rants, WebOS

 

Sunday, June 26th 2011

27 Jun

Windows Phones are great devices and they run on a wonderfully unique platform that seems to simply make sense right out of the box. But of course nothing is perfect and no matter how great the operating system is it also comes with its own quirks.

Hardware wise, since I am using a Samsung Focus, my main disappointment is the touch buttons that I keep mistakenly hit whenever I try to rotate the device to landscape mode to view a video for instance or whenever I try to take a picture.

The other hardware issue I am facing is due to the locations of both the power button and the volume control buttons on either side of the device. They are located exactly opposite to one another which causes me to hit them both accidentally when I try to hit the power button to wake up the device. That usually confuses the device or me personally.

On the software side, I can’t complain much since it’s in its first stages of maturity, so there is still a long road ahead before I could state my criticism. Maybe I could start complaining after Mango is released, if there is anything to complain about.

In general, I do like (maybe even love) the user experience and the concept behind combining similar activities in hubs, it just makes sense instead of jumping from one app to another.

I am certain that Mango is gonna make things even better for Windows Phones, not to mention Nokia’s adoption for the platform over MeeGo.

 
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Posted by on June 27, 2011 in Microsoft, Windows Phone

 

Blog post titles should be optional

24 Jun

I always find it hard to come up with a blog title. It’s easy to come up with any content to fill the post, but a title is a bit more tricky. As a matter of fact, I am more than happy for my blog to automatically set the title to the post date.

It’s not like I am managing a company or a tech blog. This is a personal blog where a title is just as less important as the content itself. Plus, if you really think about it, ‘logs’ usually don’t have titles, just dates and descriptions.

You can take this rant as one of the excuses for not blogging a lot lately.

Cheers!

 
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Posted by on June 24, 2011 in Rants

 

What’s New With Microsoft Zune?

13 Mar

Ever since Microsoft shifted focus to Windows Phone 7 there has been nothing new in the Zune department. It’s like Microsoft completely switched all its resources and dedication to marketing and pushing the Windows Phone 7 platform, and I don’t blame them. Windows Phone 7 is the new kid in town when it comes to mobile operating systems and Microsoft needs to prove themselves to phone manufacturers and wireless carriers. But that doesn’t mean they should forget about Zune players completely.

There are still thousands (if not millions) of owners of the original Zune and Zune HD and I believe they would like to know “what’s next” when it comes to Zune. Microsoft seems to release an app in the Zune Marketplace not very often and it has to come from them and not from any third party developer which raises concerns on how will it continue to evolve and gain market share like that.

I believe Microsoft is trying to (and will) build an ecosystem that encompasses Zune players, Windows Phones and Windows 7. Doing so might take time and money to get there. All I am saying is that recently it feels like there is no one working in the Zune department and I am sure lots of people are interested in knowing where Zune sits in Microsoft’s roadmap.

 
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Posted by on March 13, 2011 in Microsoft, Windows Phone

 

My Compaq Presario Got a New Battery

13 Mar

Finally, my old Compaq Presario got a new lease on life with a new 12-cell battery which I bought off eBay recently. My laptop has been suffering for a good year now with the old 6-cell battery which gave me almost 15 minutes of power. The new battery seems to give me a good day of work which is great considering the age of my laptop and the overall shelf age of any new battery I get for it.

My Compaq Presario (V2650CA) still runs Windows XP which I am considering to upgrade to Windows 7 when I give it more RAM. Currently it only has 1GB of RAM and that cause the system to crawl if it ran Windows 7. The RAM type is a bit old (DDR) so it wont be cheap to upgrade.

“Why even bother?” you ask? Good point. I mean it’s an old laptop and probably exceeded its end of life date but, nevertheless, it’s still running and can act as a good backup laptop if I ended up investing in a new system.

 
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Posted by on March 13, 2011 in Computers and Internet

 

Visual Studio 2010 Setup Project Warning

28 Feb

If you’re getting the following error:

The version of the .NET Framework launch condition ‘.NET Framework 4′ does not match the selected .NET Framework bootstrapper package.

..chances are your .NET Framework prerequisite under the setup project doesn’t match one or more of the projects added to the setup project.

Check which .NET Framework you have selected as a prerequisite and if it matches all projects added to the setup package. If that still doesn’t remove the warning, select the setup project, click on the “Launch Conditions Editor” button on the Solution Explorer toolbar, select the “.NET Framework” (probably underlined with a red squiggly line) and check the Properties window to see if the Framework selection in the dropdown also matches all projects.

See this blog post for more information on the Conditions Editor.

 
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Posted by on February 28, 2011 in Programming

 

BlackBerry WordPress App Glitch

22 Feb

The other day I decided to use the WordPress app on my old BlackBerry to write and submit a new post. As a result, there was a double post as well as my previous post’s category was removed. I couldn’t remove the double post from the BlackBerry WordPress app and when I tried to remove it from my iPad it gave me a weird error.

Something is horribly wrong with the app.

I had to go to the main WordPress website to manually remove the double post and fix my previous post. I don’t know what could have triggered such an error, nevertheless, I sent WordPress a message on twitter with the whole story.

 
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Posted by on February 22, 2011 in BlackBerry, Smartphones

 

Back on my Treadmill

17 Feb

I need to lose at least 10 to 20 pounds before the summer or else I won’t be enjoying the beaches much, and we all know how important the beach is in a country covered in snow for most of the year.

So I jumped on the treadmill yesterday for almost 1 hour and also today for 45 minutes. I am hoping I would use it everyday after work for at least 45 minutes. It’s definitely a good start. And they say 5 times makes a habit, so I only have 3 more to go to make this a daily routine and part of my life.

I definitely feel great after the workout, specially after having that big cup of cold water right after I step off the treadmill.

 
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Posted by on February 17, 2011 in Rants

 

Went Back to BlackBerry Bold

16 Feb

Yup, I switched back to my old trusty BlackBerry Bold 9000 last week. It’s not that I completely switched from my Android Nexus One phone or anything. I just like to switch to my old smartphones every once in a while. It either makes me appreciate the new smartphones more or regret buying them.

The BlackBerry Bold has always been the closest smartphone to my heart (after the Nokia E61, my truly first ever smartphone). The Bold’s keyboard is just unbeatable. There isn’t a smartphone keyboard out there than comes close to the Bold’s perfectly balanced and spaced out keys. It’s a true beauty.

I am sure I blogged about my love for my BlackBerry Bold so I won’t bore you with another post. I left my Nexus One in a drawer until Google decides to give us the new meaning of “next couple weeks/days” to release any update to Android. They’re starting to piss off many Nexus One and Nexus S owners.

 
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Posted by on February 16, 2011 in BlackBerry, Smartphones

 

HP Might Be On To Something

11 Feb

When HP revealed the Veer, I thought they were out of their minds. I thought they pulled another mistake out of the bull-shit bag. From the looks of it, the device is too small to be a smartphone. But then it hit me. HP might be seriously looking into the future of smartphones.

HP knows how important tablets are and with the release of the TouchPad, HP is positioning itself to be the top leader in the tablet market, or at least that’s the plan. The Veer is basically a way to veer people towards owning a TouchPad, hitting two birds with one stone. Genius.

The Veer is an excellent tool (or smartphone) for those who desire having a tablet that goes along with their phone. A companion. It’s a great idea and something I see happening to most smartphone owners eventually.

Having a smartphone alone these days isn’t enough, you need a companion. A tablet. Laptops are heavier, takes longer to load and requires some surface to place it on. A tablet is the next generation of PC portability that just requires your hands.

In my case, I would prefer the Pre 3 since I see myself relying heavily on both my smartphone and my tablet. And getting both devices to play nice together, like sharing links and files in a breeze, is a special and unique feature. You can even call it innovative.

In my opinion, HP has stepped with both feet into the smartphone and tablet markets with the help of WebOS. They owe it all to Palm.

 
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Posted by on February 11, 2011 in Smartphones, WebOS

 
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