Our Man Inside

I have a Nokia Booklet 3G on loan from 1000 heads but was having issues with such a beautiful device running an operating system I’ve not touched for years.

In stepped @Computid Über geek, and in a couple of days he had installed Mac OSX.

The background story is linked here… http://su.pr/1hsIfN

How how did it is listed and the downloadable PDF is linked below.

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Introduction:
• We will first be installing OS X Snow Leopard onto the external drive using a Mac • We will then modify the installation to boot on the Booklet 3G • After we have booted OS X on the Booklet 3G we will proceed to add drivers/kexts for all the other hardware. • Once it is configured we will copy OSX to the internal HDD and from there finalise the installation Requirements for this hack:
•    Retail Snow Leopard Disc (10.6.0 or 10.6.1) or external HDD with the bootable installer on.
•    Apple Mac that can run/boot the SL DVD (Intel) •    External USB Flashdrive or HDD bigger then 15gb •    Nokia Booklet 3G
At this point, heres what is working correctly: •    Machine boots properly to Snow Leopard with simple push of power button. No manual keystrokes necessary during boot. •    Screen Resolution is auto-set to native 1280 x 720. For some reason, the display comes up at about 45% brightness each time, so you have to go into system preferences to bring it up to full (presuming you want too) •    WiFi comes on, quickly finds the network, but we still have the problem of having to type “sudo killall mDNSResponder” after each reboot. •    Bluetooth is defaulted to “ON”, but there is no option in the menubar to disable it. (Fn + F10 will toggle on/off all radios (GSM/BT/WiFi) •    Sound is NOT working, nor does the System Profiler show any internal sound device. I am working on this!
Creating the Snow Leopard Installation
1. Boot to the Snow Leopard Installer on the Mac
2. Plug in your external USB Disk
3. In OS X installer run Disk Utility from the tools menu
4. Reformat the External Drive as HFS+ (Mac OSX Journalled) (DO NOT FORMAT YOUR INTERNAL DRIVE!)
5. Continue with the Snow Leopard installation and customize the install to not install languages, at the same time you may want to install quicktime 7 and Rosetta, it will save you hassle later. (Removing the languages is optional, but it does cut down on space and install time)
6. Once the installer is finished reboot to the NEW Snow Leopard installation by holding down the “Option” key at boot, then select the USB Drive.
7. Download and install the 10.6.1 combo installer http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosxv1061up date.html
8. Download and install SuperDuper http://www.shirtpocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
9. Download the following Files/Applications 1. Download KextHelper. This application helps install KEXT files correctly.
http://cheetha.net/
2. Download KEXT (Kernal Extensions) vaiop20091014us.tar.bz2 from http://rapidshare.com/files/349547875/vaiop20091014us.tar.bz2
3. Download Chameleon 2 RC3 (DO NOT USE RC4, ONLY RC3). This is used to boot the
system.http://rapidshare.com/files/349330606/Chameleon_2_RC3.zip
10. Run the Chameleon 2 RC3 installer. Choose to install it to the USB Snow Leopard installation.

DO NOT INSTALL THIS TO YOUR MACS HARDDISK, YOUR MAC WILL NOT BOOT IF YOU DO!
11.Go to the root level (Top Level) of the USB drive. There will now be a folder called “Extra”.
12.In the vaiop20091014us folder there should be a folder called “Extra”. Copy the contents of this folder to the “Extra” folder on the USB Snow Leopard install.
13.Open up a terminal window and type “sudo” then drag the file “extra.sh” in the “Extra” folder to the terminal window. You should have a command string that looks similar to this: sudo /Volumes/USBDRIVE/Extra/extra.sh
14.Hit return and type in your password
15.Next open up KextHelper
16.Drag the two kext files from vaiop20091014us/System/Library/Extensions into the application. Type in your password and hit Easy install.
17. Shut down your Mac 18.Congratulations, you should now be able to boot this drive on the Booklet!
Moving the Installation to the Booklet 3G:
1. Put the USB drive into the Booklet 3G
2. Power the booklet on and press F12 until the bios boot menu appears asking what device you want to boot from. You should see the internal hard drive and the USB drive. Select the USB drive.
3. At this point the chameleon bootloader should appear, Press any key to interrupt the count down. Use the arrow keys to highlight the USB drive then type “-v -f” and press return. This will boot the USB Snow Leopard volume in verbose mode and rebuild the kext cache’s
4. This may take a little while to boot depending on your USB drive. If everything went ok, you should now be sitting at a Snow Leopard desktop (in a bad Resolution, mind you.)
5. Fire up disk utility (Applications/Utilities)
6. This is when it become permanent, this will ERASE ALL DATA ON THE INTERNAL DISK.
7. Select the internal hard drive and go to the partitions tab. Select one partition from the pull down menu, name the partition whatever you like (I used Documentallys Hackbook), select MAC OS Extended Journaled. Go to options and select GUID.
8. Hit the apply button – This will erase all contents of the internal drive!
9. Close Disk Utility
10.Open SuperDuper. Set it up as follows: 1. Copy: (your external USB drive) to: Internal (the drive you just partitioned) 2. Using: Backup – all files 3. Options: select repair permissions on Booklet 4. During Copy: Erase <destination> then copy files from <source> 5. On successful – Restart from <Destination>
11.Hit OK and then press “Copy Now”
12.Wait unit it finishes, go make yourself a coffee, this will take a while.
13.Reboot with the external USB drive still connected to your Booklet.
14.Press F12 to select the USB drive again (last time!)
15.At the chameleon screen highlight the internal drive and type “-v -f” and hit return. You are now booting Snow Leopard from the internal drive.
16.It may take a while to boot, BE PATIENT.
17.You should now arrive at the desktop! Congratulations, you’ve installed OS X on your Booklet 3G!
18.Remove “Windows7 Starter” sticker from the lower left side of netbook palmrest if you haven’t already done so. (Optional)
19.Go take a break, Grab a drink or something, then continue.
Finishing up the installation:
1. Fire up terminal 1. Type: “sudo killall mDNSResponder”. This should ensure that your Wifi is
working properly. At present, you will need to re-enter this command each
time you reboot the booklet until I get around to writing a startup script. 2. Enter your password 3. Quit the Terminal.
2. Download the following files to your desktop: 1. Download the modified boot loader file which will, when installed, set your display to its correct native resolution of 1280 x 720 on your next reboot. 1. Download the file from here: http://rapidshare.com/files/349336710/boot.nokia-booklet-gma500-v2.gz 2. When the file appears on your desktop, double click on it and it will extract to “boot.nokia-booklet-gma500-v2″ 2. Download Aboutthismac.pkg: This will make the information in “About This Mac” Correct, This isn’t needed but it is nice.
http://rapidshare.com/files/349337197/AboutThisMac.pkg.zip
3. Re-install Chameleon 2 RC3 to the Internal Disk
4. Double check in the Extra’s folder that it still contains the Kexts
5. Install the modified boot loader file to correct the Resolution: 1. Back up your original boot loader file by firing up Terminal and typing the following command: “sudo mv /boot /boot.orig” 2. Hit enter, type your password and hit enter again. 3. On your desktop, rename the “boot.nokia-booklet-gma500-v2″ to simply
“boot” 4. Now copy over the modified bootloader to replace the old one by typing:
“sudo cp /users/YOURHOMEFILENAME/desktop/boot /boot” 5. Hit enter, type your password and hit enter again. 6. Quit Terminal
6. Eject the USB Disk.
7. Restart. You should get the Chameleon boot loader now when booted to the internal hard drive.
1. NOTE: if you have trouble booting you should interrupt the the bootloader by pressing any key and boot up using the -v -f flags.
8. Install the aboutthismac package to get the correct info in “about this mac”

9. Set up your Atheros 9280 3G modem: 1. Go to: http://www.option.com/en/support/software-download/usb-modems/icon225/2. Download and install MAC Driver 2.17.0 3. Download and install the GlobeTrotter® Connect For Mac
4. In System Preferences>Network>GI40x, set up your carrier information for your 3G connection and it should begin working
5. (Optional) – Check the box at the bottom that says “Show modem status in menu bar”
10.Run the 3g modem to check the hardware initializes with the sim card installed.
Upgrading to 10.6.2:
1. Download the patched kernel from: http://rapidshare.com/files/349340631/mach_kernel_atom_with_pm_support.zip or here if you have an insanely mac account.
2. Before you update you need to backup your old kernel: 1. Open terminal and type: sudo cp -p /mach_kernel /mach_kernel.1061 2. Press return 3. enter your password 4. Press return 5. Quit terminal
3. Update your OS to 10.6.2: Apple Menu>Software Update>Update to 10.6.2
4. Upon completion of update to 10.6.2, your computer will reboot
5. During the reboot, MAKE SURE YOU INTERRUPT THE CHAMELEON BOOTLOADER by pressing any key.
6. Then, specify the kernel at chameleon’s screen by typing: mach_kernel.1061
7. Hit enter, and boot should continue until you’re in Snow Leopard.
8. Patch the kernel: 1. Expand the 106atom64.zip file you downloaded before updating. This will create a file called “patch” 2. Drag the two files (“binchg.rb” and “1062atom64.xml”) from “patch” into your root directory (Top level HDD Directory) 3. open Terminal once again and type: sudo /binchg.rb /mach_kernel /
1062atom64.xml 1. This will initiate a conversion process that takes about 20-30 minutes 2. During this time you should see:
0x000286c0 hit -> cpumodel is always 0x1e x86_64
0x005e6a83 hit-> cpumodel is always 0x0e i386 3. These messages are completely normal. Be patient, this takes a while.
When the process is completed, you will get a command prompt.
4. Now you need to replace the kernel: Run in terminal:
sudo mv /mach_kernel /mach_kernel.1062 sudo mv /mach_kernel.patched /mach_kernel sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
9. This should complete the upgrade. Reboot the booklet and enjoy Snow Leopard 10.6.2 on your new Hackbook!

@Computid has hosted a PDF you can download from here:

http://www.atechplace.co.uk/downloads/Nokia_Booket_3G_OSX_Guide.pdf

The dust has just about settled after the Vodafone 360 launch and after having no clue at all as to what I was going to see, I now have much more of an idea and am genuinely excited about what is in the pipeline for mobile users.
I’ve never really subscribed to the platforms spawned by the mobile giants, either from the carriers or the handset makers. I made a point of avoiding Vodafone Live as when I was ready for mobile web I wanted it to be on my terms. I didn’t want to be spoon fed sport and weather on a naff mobile browser. Wap or no Wap.

Then there was Nokia’s Ovi.. Well, being a Mac user there seemed little point.

Vodafone 360 may well change the way we look at mobile forever. (Or at least the foreseeable future). If you ever dabbled in ZYB you will have a rough idea of what’s in store.

I guess cloud mobile hints towards it too but this is way more than what you get with your dot mac account.

This is not just syncing this is a suite of internet services morphing your contacts, status updates and messaging all in ‘the cloud’. This will integrate all your social networks with your address book and provide a two way editable pipeline between you and your contacts.

The flexibility and configuration options are mind boggling and I haven’t even gone into the realtime location integration.

Of course there will be some people (normally me) screaming “What about our privacy?!” From what I could see this has been taken way more seriously than any other platform developer has bothered in the past. After a few wines were had this conversation on audioboo ended up on Kathryn Corrick’s blog and Terence Eden‘s comment on the bottom explains things better than I could.

I thought I was getting close to a cloud mobile experience with my Apple devices and some of the apps I use. But Apple is as Apple does and I’m fed up with the controls and restraints Apple put in place to guarantee ever increasing profits while it’s users are drip fed new tech. Always wanting and waiting for Apple to do the right thing. Jobs acting like a Wizard of Oz over his minions.

Vodafone is a massive faceless behemoth yes, but I’m thinking with this move so much is going to decide on the community making it happen. From macro to microcosm. From the coding community building the apps to the cross platform communities meeting in their hand held device.

360 is meant to work on all devices with all carriers. Obviously Vodafone are going to make sure they have the most suitable devices on offer and having got my hands on the Samsung H1 running the LiMo Platform, It’s feels like really decent handset.

Sturdy, well styled and feature packed. The camera really impressed me as did the fact that this wasn’t another phone trying to win the megapixel stakes. It’s not the number of pixels in a camera it’s how they are used and on a WVGA AMLED display it’s easy to see the quality of your image.

On first impressions low light images looked better than some of the compact cameras I use and the 720p video quality seemed good enough for me to leave my other devices at home.

The touch screen interface felt a little sluggish compared to the iPhone but I was assured this is still really early days and the interface with be honed and refined as the weeks go by.

With the €1,000,000 prize fund in place for coders to collect should they create new and innovative apps I feel we may see an app store that begins with quality over quantity and I really have to get my hands on the phone just to experiment with new apps as and when they begin appear.

The universal contact list called ‘Vodafone People’ clearly puts contacts and content at the forefront of the 360.com ethos a suite of services that apears to be dripping with social media potential.

If a beast like Vodafone has bitten the bullet and finally embraced social media this may be the confirmation all the early adopters have been waiting for. Why is it we have been hanging around this social media fad thing for so long.. Well maybe this is really it. With so much potential to expand and innovate with the mobile communication tools at our finger tips starting to do what we want them to do.. This is what we have been waiting for.

Of course in the not too distant future we will no doubt be excited about hardware breakthroughs as battery life, bandwidth and memory capacity going through the roof.. That doesn’t change what Vodafone may have done here right now for mobile communication. I would not have imagined them opening up elements of it’s network to third parties.. This is a different and hopefully leading a mindset. Once you let social networks and open source operating systems enhance your devices, you are placing an awful lot of power into the hands of the community. I am sure the control will stay with Vodafone. The lack of Google maps at this stage hints towards this and they seem to have invested a hell of a lot into this move to take too many risks.

Still, I am excited to see where this goes. And with this new level of connectivity bridging previously unconnected networks, I imagine it will be a magical mystery tour where everyone is on the bus.

For more interviews with the people in the know click on this atom feed

..Or here are some AudioBoo’s

Also you may want to listen to Nik Butler and Andy White’s thoughts on Vodafone 360 in the podcast Social Media White Noise (7 minutes into the podcast)

The other week while on assignment at Reuters with @sizemore, I was talking to @ilicco about how the more kit i try to juggle the more diluted the content can become.

I was sat at the front of an almost exciting talk from the FSA with laptop, iPhone, N95, Kodak Zi6 and a pocket camera. Back in my bag was a pro Nikon SLR, an audio recorder and yet another laptop.

This is the burden of the blogger. We tend to move faster than the tech can keep up and the convergence of our various gadgets still only gives us one device that does lots of things in a mediocre fashion.. and then only for as long as it’s over stretched battery holds out.

I joked about buying Shiva Media. I thought a multi-armed kit wielding blogger would make a great logo. Apart from the fact this may be insulting the top Hindu God of Gods.. the name has already been taken anyway.

Then I saw @ilicco link to a blog post from Adam Westbrook

Here’s a guy who looks like he has found a happy medium. Adam is a radio journalist dabbling in video. Using a compact camera, a HD video camera and an audio recorder he may have to juggle a little but by not choosing to live update through twitter, ping gps, and live stream he still has time to script his interviews and get the job done.

Maybe Multi Media does not have to be Multi-multi-media..

In an ideal world, if I were going back into a warzone, or tackling something I only had one shot at, I’d want to work in a team. Much as I prefer traveling alone, I do find a more superior batch of content comes from using a team, who like super heroes, all have their own individual strengths.

Along with Stills, HD video and audio, I also like to (where possible) live stream, micro blog (Twitter, Audioboo) and gps tag as i go. I find so much more value in logging the live progress as ‘news’ which preempts the final edit. This not only raises awareness of the project as it is happening but opens up all sorts of real time resources & conversations, as connections are made as you document.

At the moment to do a multimedia job well you’d need a snapper and a videographer, perhaps an audio guy too but you may be able to manage this between two at a stretch. Both people must also be able to live blog, capture, edit, archive and back up their own content and on top of this, write and do stuff to camera.

When I mean ‘do it well’, I mean suck up and absorb as much of the surrounding content/story/information in high quality for the later edit and lo-fi for live blogging.

As I have never been embedded, a team also offers a certain amount of safety and security. Depending on where you are, sometimes it can just draw attention. Although mainly traveling alone for ease, I’ve often worked with a friend. Someone I would trust with my life.

In Iraq I didn’t really know what I was going to do. There was little planning. I just went to see for myself and apart from moving fast and laying low, I was just taking photos and logging my GPS position, either pinging it back via sat phone or texting when there was GSM. The photos I took went to accompany a couple of news stories my friend was writing and finally to make my first real video podcast.

Not long after my good friend was kidnapped and later released.

On assignment in Jordan for the UNHCR I had more experience but limited time. I decided against video and just worked with stills and audio. Much of what I was going to do was arranged in advance by a friend who knew the area well and acted as a fixer. With a simple hand held Zoom H2 on the floor i could record the stories of the refugees and use my Nikon D300 to take pictures in the pauses, editing out the shutter sound later. During the live video blogging of the project I was contacted by Bill Cammack who ended up editing the final stills and interviews into a film.
I guess when there is less at stake.. Back in the UK, either covering a geek conference or on a job for a corporate client, you can experiment and test new methods of data capture and transmission. This is when we can get silly with our tech. Finding out what works and what is a waste of time and resources. What medium has the greatest reach for the least amount of effort.

If I had a tech lab at my disposal, something similar to what Ironman or Batman had in their gargantuan basements.. I would not hesitate to create the ultimate journalists tool. Some single device that once and for all did everything a blogger/journalist needed.

It only exists in my head right now but would have the video capture qualities of RED.. A 15-200mm f1.4 lens with an integral Binaural auto zooming microphone. High definition stills could be extracted from the film and edited in camera. All the GPS and audio to text tagged footage could be separated into audio, video and stills onto solid state cards or streamed via wifi, wimax, or compressed for GSM, or satellite enabling it to be sent all over the world but also to a sister pod situated within the same city retrieving the footage and archiving live.

Oh.. and it tweets.

Failing that.. I’d be happy for the iPhone to have a decent battery, shoot 5 mega pixel photos even in low light and shoot reasonable video from two decent front and back cameras.

This I feel would be far easier to achieve and may even be with us next year. In the meantime I, along with many bloggers and tech lovers will be carting around small to medium backpacks clanking with lensed gadgets. Always on the look out for an unused plug socket so we can recharge and ultimately.. reconnect.

You can add me as a friend on twitter here.. Twitter.com/Documentally

Video has finally arrived for the un-cracked iphone! Well.. video in the shape of a video slideshow, which as far as I am concerned is a bloody miracle judging by the way Apple seems to be restricting development of video based apps. Or is it AT&T and O2 not wanting people to stream with their ‘unlimited’ data?

I have to say I am so happy that it is 12seconds.tv that has started to build this bridge across the video void.. It’s a long time coming and for a start up with little to no cash, this is like building home made space suits and heading off to the moon.

They are top guys too..

The next thing I need to do is invite them over here to the UK so they realise although we are a little island we have big gobs and could have started spreading the word way before the US woke up.. This would have eased the world into 12Seconds and been a great way of flushing out the inevitable bugs before everybody rushed in..

The US could then have woken up with a massive 12Second alarm call..� Here in England it is now the end of the day and I have had the app sitting dormant and broken on my iPhone until only a short while ago.. All day out and about i have been checking it like it was a pacemaker and my life depended on it.. I won’t go into how frustrating that is. I initially thought the app had been launched broken.

I think my frustration stems only from my anticipation and the fact I knew it was a really important release as far as iPhone apps go.

Of course.. if i had taken a proper look at the text on the app store it would have told me I would have the app before it was going to work, but you know me.. Ever so slightly impatient when it comes to the release of new tech.

Still.. it has now sprung to life and I can actually talk about it. I dropped a tweet out yesterday mentioning it by accident but managed to delete it before I caused too much trouble. (Sorry Guys)..

So what are you waiting for?! The application cost a dollar (59p) it’s a bargain.

It is so straight forward. If you don’t have a 12Seconds account get one and then get the app.. Hell, why not get the app first! You can sign up through the app on the phone.

Once you have it.. Log in.. take three photos, add 12 seconds of audio and click to share it on the 12seconds site. It really is that easy you could do it drunk.. you no doubt will..

So if you are reading this as a noob and don’t know about 12Seconds.. get on it. Be it through the app or through the site..� I’ll see you there.

If you do download the app.. please review it and help the guys get the respect they deserve.

I have made some good friends through 12Seconds and I’m looking forward to making more. As soon as you are ready to go.. come let me know.. It may come as little surprise that I am on there as Documentally.

On the way.. down. on 12seconds.tv

Anyone with an iPhone loves it’s ability to carry around various flavours of multimedia whilst enjoying it’s syncability with everything Mac. Occasionally we even find ourselves drawn to play with app after app, be it some GPS twitter tool we ca’t now live without, or a game we’ve bought for a few coins.

We can’t do it for long though. The iPhone battery is rubbish. Especially if you are a blogger and have a tendency to tweet, tag, snap pix and roam for more than an hour or two.

All this may be about to change. No Apple haven’t got their act together, third party companies are designing some pretty cool bolt-on’s.

This last week my iPhone has almost been behaving like a normal handset. I can now get through the day without planning my outings from power source to power source. Trips in the car no longer start with mirror-phonecharger-signal-maneuver and I am now not even thinking about whether or not I should have wifi enabled or not.

This is all thanks to a very tidy and pocketable iPhone power booster I found online.� The ‘iPhone Power Station’.

This funky little device cost around a tenner and can be temporarily inserted into the base of your iPhone to either be charged simultaneously as the phone is being charged or when your phone battery is running low, inserted and activated to boost the power. On the occasions I have had to top my phone up from 20% empty warning this little 1000mAh lithium ion gizmo has replenished my battery to 100%. This has been enough to last out the day and I don’t mind having this little 48g device knocking about in a jacket pocket or my bag as it’s far more convenient than carrying a charger on the off chance I pass a plug socket.

As it only takes two hours to charge It’s also handy if you are off grid with a solar charger as now you can charge the booster in the sun independently of your phone.

Of course Ideally Apple will get it right third time with the third generation iPhone and actually produce a device that shoots video, has open architecture, bluetooth that works, is not tied to O2, allows memory expansion and has a battery capacity at least comparable to other phones on the market.

In the meantime.. we have the iPhone Power Station and all the other little bolt-ons that are required to satisfy our tech needs.

Just Google iPhone Power Station to see places online where you can buy.. If you need one that is..

On this very wet British morning my postman handed me a soggy jiffy bag from China. Inside was a black box containing my new iPhone Solar powered sheath (as they call it).

It was well packaged and only took a week to get here. If i remember rightly i payed around $50 including postage and packaging from a company in Hong Kong called Brando.

Here is a first look..

So far so good, the instructions are pretty easy to follow and at the moment the iPhone is sat on my office window quietly charging.

I will tell you more after a proper test.

UPDATE:

After a day of testing my solar powered case appears to have died. Do not buy one of these until I find out what exactly has happened. It appears that during heavy use whilst with the battery switched to charge, the unit over heats and the battery breaks. It got really hot during use and now the lights won’t work and it doesn’t charge the iPhone. More info when i have it.

Don’t forget you can support this blog and then i can by more juicy tech to try out.. Or you can just send me the tech.

If like me you were a little pissed off to see that many of the iPod and iPhone chargers would not work with the new iPhone 3G you may be pleased to know I have finally stumbled upon an in car charger that works with the new iPhone.

Apparently there are a few that work floating around and it is something to do with some using the firewire voltage and some using USB voltage that is the issue.

Up until now I have been using the Power Monkey Explorer and it’s iPod adapter when out and about. It only seemed to last a few minutes but it was enough to top up my iPhone till I got to a plug socket.

I have a solar panel set up I like to use when on a shoot or as I did at the Geeknbury Festival but up until now I have had to use the mains plug adapter with an inverter into the cigarette lighter socket.

Not any more though. Today whilst in Milton Keynes I managed to find something that actually works.

I had popped into town to go to the Apple store but it wasn’t there I found the working charger. When I asked them, they told me that due to the new iPhone 3G not working with any of their previous 3rd party car chargers, they had to discontinue all makes!

Sheesh.. You would think Apple would have thought of looking into supplying a mobile charger for their pride and joy prior to it’s release.

I left disheartened but just a few doors down in the O2 store they told me they had just taken delivery (2 in stock) of an new car charger called the XtremeMac Incharge Auto.

At the inflated price of �14.99 ($30) I still thought I would take a chance and after the other devices I have tried recently, this turned out to be third time lucky.

Although it works, the packaging has no mention of the iPhone 3G, just the iPhone and the iPod like all the others I have tried. Still i’m not complaining. I’m very gratefull in fact, as now I can feed my power hungry iPhone whilst on the move. And Lord know it needs it.

I have been loving the apps especially Life Cast by @SleepyDog but blogging on the move with all the GPS functionality is draining the battery before the day is out.

Forget the new plastic back.. they should have stuck some solar cells on it.

It’s been a real pain in the ass finding this basic accessory for my new phone. I hopes this will assist you if you are having similar issues and should you come across any other makes that work, please leave a note in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

Yesterday I picked up a little solar panel and charge regulator contained in a handy little flight case. I love it so far.

I have been testing it with the Mac Book Air and it all works splendidly. I am looking forward to testing it further at the Larmer Tree Festival and of course my own festival Geeknbury.

This is what technology should be doing, liberating us. Check out the Qik posts below embedded in the Phreadz widget to keep them together.

And here is a recent Seesmic conversation..