my wall

trying out shozu for iphone

HP DV2000 with Mac OSX Leopard

My first post on PICOThoughts has been about my experience with my first hackintosh machine. Well, now it's time for my second hackintosh, my HP Pavillion DV2275. Firstly, lets list the hardware:

Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz















3GB DDR II Ram















Connexant High Definition Audio (Working with AppleAzalia Patch)















Intel GMA950 Graphic(Works OOB)















Built in Bluetooh(Works somewhat after editing IOBluetoothFamily.kext)















Built in Wifi - Intel 3945ABG (Doesn't Work)















DVD-RW















Card Reader  

This time round, i'm using iDeneb instead of Kalyway to get straight to 10.5.5 without the hassle of updating. After 7 failed install, manage to boot into Leopard after choosing the ACPI fix in iDeneb custom installation option.

After first successful boot i found that the wireless, LAN, DVD-RW and sound is not working. To get the sound working, i have to install appleazalia patch then repair permission and reboot. As for the wifi, Intel 3945 is not yet supported by the hackintosh community, so i decided to get a Dell 1490 with Broadcom 4311 Chipset on ebay for less than a tenner. To be able to use the DVD, i follow this tutorial to install driver for jmicron Drive.

After a while using the laptop i realize that my battery icon is not there and i can't use internet sharing (HTC Tytn II) though bluetooth with my laptop. I can't remember where the tutorial for fixing the battery status but it's just replacing ApplePowerManagement kext with a correct one.

As for bluetooth, i use this tutorial to edit IOBluetoothFamily.kext. After reboot, i can successfully share my HSDPA connection with my HackBook. The only problem is after each reboot, the bluetooth is automatically turn off. I have to go to Prefecences-->Mouse and Keyboard-->Bluetooth-->Set New Device. Then select turn on Bluetooth Connectivity and close the dialog box. A bit annoying but i don't use bluetooth that often so, it's alright for me. Don't do the hack if you want to use bluetooth keyboard or mouse. HID device works fine without the hack, i only did it for internet sharing.

Now i have dual boot HackBook / Vista using both Vista and Darwin BootLoader. Need to figure out how to fix that next. Here i'm listing essential software i use on my HackBook.

Logmein - Remote Desktop

Dropbox - Sync Backup

Mail Sync with Gmail

Ecto - Blogging

VLC - Media Player

Adium - Instant Messaging

Firefox - Browser

Address Book Sync with Google through GSync Address Book

ICal Sync with Google through CalDAV.

Cyberduck - FTP Client

CSSEdit - CSS Editor

GarageSale - Ebay

IPhoto - Photo Manager - Until google to release Picasa for Mac

Transmission - Torrent Client

ZImbra - Yahoo Email Client

Tired of waiting for my CarPC... Just buy this one...

Stealth Computer has announced a new mini-PC designed for in-vehicle, mobile and embedded applications



[From Stealth Announces In-Vehicle MiniPC]

Video Conversation from within Gmail

From viewing videos on YouTube to screening family events, people love being able to watch something exactly as it happened. And as webcams have become popular, more and more of us are realizing that video is the next best thing to an in-person conversation. Today we're introducing Gmail voice and video chat, which lets you have free voice and video conversations right from within Gmail.



Video chatting from Gmail is as easy as sending an instant message. With our team spread out across Google offices in Sweden and the U.S., it's been really handy in helping us work together. Just click on the new "Video & more" menu in a Gmail chat window and select "Start video chat" or "Start voice chat." You can switch to a full screen view or pop out the chat window and change the size and positioning as you wish. Of course, not everyone has a webcam, but even if you don't, you can still have voice conversations alongside your email and regular chat. Take a look at this short video to see more:







Gmail voice and video chat will be rolled out globally over the next day or so for Macs and PCs. The first time you use this feature, you'll be prompted to download and install a small plugin. To get started, visit http://www.gmail.com/videochat or click on the "Options" menu in a Gmail chat window and choose "Add voice/video chat." Find out more on our Gmail Blog.



Posted by Serge Lachapelle, Product Manager, Stockholm

[From Talk face-to-face right from within Gmail]

The Twitter Twit

I'm trying out twitter again after i saw Adam being the top 5 in Coventry. I don't quite understand what's the buzz is all about with twitter. I don't think it's famous among malaysian. I know that because i try to search for twiiter user within my emails but the only one that came up is Adam. No wonder he's top five twitter user in Coventry. I've sign up for twitter a few weeks ago but doesn't quite understand what it's all about until i watch the video tutorial on their website.

Basically it's a site where you update your current status, in the form of answering a question, "What are you doing?". SImilar to how you update your custom status on Yahoo messenger, Adium or MSN Messenger. Some might ask, why should i use twitter if i already have yahoo messenger for that. Well, twitter is all over the web now. You can sync your twitter message in Facebok or even yahoo messgener and adium. This make is easier for us. I can just update my status on twitter and it will show up on Adium, Yahoo Messenger and my Facebook. You can even send your blog to twitter using their add-on plugin.

For those interested in syncing their twitter with yahoo messenger, you can use twitter sync messegger. I personally haven't try this but i would say it's very straight forward. I have tried twitteradium to sync with Adium and it's working quite well.

For those interested to know more about twitter, head to their website and watch the video tutorial.

The Onion Takes a At Crack Comparing OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 [Humor]

Will [From The Onion Takes a At Crack Comparing OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 [Humor]]

Media Player Portable Hard Disk Drive

Just got this for a friend of mine. It's a 2.5" Portable Hard Disk Drive Media Player. It's essentially a 2.5" portable HDD casing with built in capability to play videos, picture and music on your TV or monitor. It even comes with a remote control.














This casing bought from Hong Kong through Ebay comes with a video cable, usb cable, power supply, manual, small scredriver, 4 screws and a remote control. The hard disk has to be bought separately but i'm sure there are some other people selling this on ebay complete with the harddisk.














Basically, with this portable player you don't need to burn your media on a CD to be able to play it on your TV screen or monitor. You can copy your media straight onto the disk (just like a normal removable drive) using the USB cable and play it directly on your tv screen using the RCA(yellow, red, white) cable. It supports many media format such as MPG, MPEG, MP4, AVI, MP3, and JPG. Being a media player, it doesn't mean you can only put media files on here, you can backup all your files on this portable hard disk just like you would on a normal portable HDD.















Here's the inside of the casing. As you can see it has a mini usb connector, 5V connector, VGA connector and two green connector which is the RCA and Audio connector. It also have a SD card slot if you want to play media straight from your SD card. If you want to play your movie using a monitor, it can be connected directly to a monitor without the tower. This is useful if you have LCD TV with VGA connector. As for audio, the audio connector can be use to connect to any standard speaker.















The only problem i have with the casing is pre-formatting the harddisk for use. When i first plug this harddisk, my PC doesn't even recognize it as a removable drive. I have to format the harddisk using another USB to IDE converter to be able to use it. It has to be formatted as FAT32 otherwise it won't be recognize by the software. Just in case somebody is wondering, yes there is a SATA version available.

I've tested it on both TV screen and Monitor and it works wonderfully well. Easy to navigate and very quick. Anybody interested can search for them on ebay.