Blog of Ian Parr

I think the recent spat of patent infringment claims (Nokia -> Apple -> HTC) is a real indication of Apples concern about the challenges to the iPhone and forthcoming iPad.

Popular opinion is that Apple is trying to get at Google through HTC, perhaps perceived as a softer target. Part of me agrees with this but I also belve that Apple is concerned about the pace of HTC’s innovation in the smart phone marketplace. Who knows, but possibly there is concern about HTC’s innovation in the area of slate or tablet computing. With a plethora of tablet devices expected to be available in the markeplace by the end of 2010, there may not be time for Apple to get a foothold with its iPad to be released this month.

Went to see Joe Bonamassa at the Gibson Studios in London last night, courtesy of a couple of tickets won by my brother in a Planet Rock Radio competition. Fantastic night and I’m certain the other 100 or so winners were very happy with their prize.

Joe spent about an hour and half on stage, opening with the Ballad of John Henry (played on his Musicman – surprised Gibson didn’t persuade him around). Quality of the sound at this tiny venue was fantastic – Joe’s signature tone wonderfully apparent.

A great mix of songs from Joes nine album repertoire and some new stuff from the forthcoming album Black Rock – a real eye opener for more traditional blues genre fans as the songs had a real Led Zeppelin rock feel.

Managed to grab a couple of quick snaps. On that point the only downside of the gig being the constant use of video phones and compact cameras being held aloft by the YouTube generation – in some cases for the entire hour and a half.

Joe is touring the UK in the Summer – if you get the chance go and see him. He is one of the most talented, tone-filled musicians I have ever heard – I’ve heard loads.

As a courtesy to Planet Rock radio – here’s a link to their review together with his set list and comments from other attendees – oh there’s even a crappy YouTube video.

Planet Rock radio review

oops – guys !
Time to reboot the Atypon ERights servers

Quite a spectacular sunrise in London this morning – this is a video grab taken whilst walking on Tower Bridge this morning.

After looking at this video on the web I have realised the shot looks like some sort of nuclear explosion – especially with the rocking of the camera while I was walking – need to hone my movie making skills.

Still the Veho Muvi micro camcorder is great fun – just not on the move.

Got one of these weather stations for my birthday earlier this week:

Bought from Maplin (code N96FY) its known as the USB wireless weather forecaster. I believe its also sold by others under different names such the watson W8681 (or W-8681) but they all seem to be manufactured by Chinese company Fine Offset Electronics with a product id of WH1081.

System components
Unit consists of the outdoor sensor array (rainfall, pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction) and an indoor display unit that also measures temperature and humidity. The two are connected using an 868MHz wireless link (for the UK).

The indoor receiver unit has a touch screen LCD display of all the received parameters coupled with a little bit of forecasting display – predominantly based on the pressure readings.
The receiver also has a USB port so that you can download the data collected to a PC running Windows (seems MAC and Linux are not supported out of the box). The USB connectivity, for me at least, is a very useful feature and differentiates it from the other units sold by Maplin.

Build quality
The outdoor sensor array looks rather cheap and nasty, made from a grey plastic with RJ11 type plugs and cable to connect the sensors through to the array transmitter unit. The unit is quoted as being IPX3 (rain proof) – we’ll see what the current cold winter and snow does to it over the next few weeks.

The indoor unit is quite large and easy to read with a backlight that illuminates the screen when the touch screen is pressed. Screen contrast was initially a bit poor but I found out that if you touch the time portion of the screen once, you get presented with a range of 8 contrast levels – I have cranked it up to the full level 8 and its much easier to read now.

Setup
Once setup with initial dates and times, the system is ready to go – the whole build and setup process took no more than 20 minutes – without reading the manual.

Web connectivity
As I mentioned earlier, USB connectivity to a computer was the feature that made this unit stand out. The unit comes supplied with software on CD to allow you to download the data from the unit and display it with an impressive array of gauges. Personally I didn’t bother with any of that and shot straight over to sandaysoft to download his excellent piece of software called cumulus.
This software will download the data from the USB port of the receiver and then upload it to a choice of web destinations.

What do you think ?
In my case I chose to upload it to my own website using the predefined presentation template. You can see the results here.

Its early days but the unit seems to be reasonably accurate although wind direction is difficult as you can see the swirling effect probably caused by the sensor currently being located in the lawn of my enclosed suburban garden. The next weekend will have it hoisted up onto my shed roof.