Samsung Galaxy MTP keeps repeating “Initializing” when connected to USB

I have been using a Samsung Galaxy for a few weeks now and it has been the best phone ever. I think Samsung has really got a phone which can blow away the iPhone (4) without any problems. After installing the voodoo fix for the lag issue, it has been extremely fast. Just now waiting for the Froyo (Android 2.2) release and my life will be complete :)

Anyway, today I connected my Galaxy to my PC, and for the first time something strange happened. The MTP application for KIES on the phone kept initializing. It tries to initialize but for some reason it dies and then the whole process starts all over again, actually funny to see. However this meant I was unable to access my phone from my PC. I needed some Google-fu. After a while I found the solution, it seems that if you have any files with an extension longer then 16 characters, the MTP application just looses it.

For me the solution was to start up my favorite file manager (ES File Explorer) and remove the TunnyBrowser folder. This folder is used by the Dolphin browser I have been using for a while now. If the issue still exists and you are using Soundhound try also removing the SoundHound cache folder. If this does not help, get your SD card out and search for files with long extensions.

Hope this helps if you have the similar issue

FFMpeg and WMV conversion

Just a quick blog entry. When converting video files (avi, mpg, etc) to WMV to play on Windows or XBOX, you will need to make sure that the correct audio encoding (wmav2) is used. If not the video file will not play and you will probably get an error.

 

You can use the –acodec wmav2 switch in ffmpeg command parameter to enforce to correct audio encoding for WMV files.

Creating animated gifs from movies

There are a lot of guides on explaining how to creating animated gifs by either creating them using various tools or by directly converting them from a movie. If you want to create an animated gif from scratch you can use Adobe Fireworks or Beneton Movie Gif. If you want to convert movie files (like WMV or FLV) to an animated gif, the best tool to use is ffmpeg.

The quick way

The easiest way to convert a  movie (in this example I will use a wmv, but it can also be any movie type) is using the internal function of ffmpeg. You can convert it by issuing the following command (which will create output.gif):

ffmpeg –i movie.wmv –r 5 –pix_fmt rgb24 –loop_output 0 –s 320x240 output.gif

Explanation of the switches (see also ffmpeg documentation):

-i	determines the input file name (movie.wmv) (put your filename between “ s if it contains spaces)
-r 5	tells ffmpeg to use a framerate of 5, which is a good setting when creating animated gif files (can be omitted if you want to use the original framereate)
-pix_fmt rgb24	required when converting to gif (due to the max colors in a gif file)
-loop_output 0	Makes sure the gif animated forever, omit if this is not required
-s 320x240	Set the gif size to 320 by 240 to make the size of the animated gif smaller. Omit this if you don’t want this

This works perfect, however personally I am not so fond of how ffmpeg chooses the GIF color palette. I have not found anyway to improve this.

The better results way

As mentioned above, depending on your movie, the converted gif does not have an optimal color palette and you will see a lot dithering. The method I use most which gives the best results is exporting the frames using ffmpeg and importing them to your favorite animate gif tool (in my case Fireworks)

To export the frames of a movie using ffmpeg use:

ffmpeg –i movie.wmv –an –r 5 –y capture%d.png

Quick explanation: -an stands for no audio, –r specifies the framerate (change accordingly) and –y just tells ffmpeg to overwrite if files are existing. You export to any image format. I use PNG because this gives the best results.

The next step is to import your files in your favorite animator app. In Fireworks, select File – Open and select multiple the files you have generated with ffmpeg. Before pressing the Open button, make sure that the you check the “Open as animation” checkbox

Now Fireworks will create all the frames for you based on the image you have selected. Do your usual stuff and export it to animated gif.

Hope that this was useful and happy animating!

 
Souces: ahfr.org, noeckel,

New Flickr Interface

Just encountered the new interface of Flickr. I really love how they are introducing it, especially the last step: have fun.

Besides this cool presentation, a few new features have been implemented:

• Lightbox zoom
  
  
  
• A fresher user interface with Improved tooltips and navigation
  
  
  
• Enhanced map (like show pictures nearby)
  
  

Wielmaten voor kinderfietsen

Voor de keuze van de juiste wielmaat kunt u onderstaand schema aanhouden:

Jaar	Wielmaat (inch)	Kleding maat
2 tot 4	12,5	92 - 104
4 tot 6	16	104 - 116
4 tot 8	20	116 - 122
5 tot 9	22	122 – 128
8 tot 10	24	> 128

Zoekt u een fiets voor uw kind van 11 jaar of ouder, dan kunt u dit opzoeken bij de gewone fietsen en zoeken naar een model met een klein frame en 26 inch wielen.

Samsung Galaxy versus Apple iPhone 4

I believe currently the Samsung Galaxy is the only real competitor of the new iPhone.As I am interested in both of them I want to visualize both machines and see which one is better.

As you can see, on the size level the iPhone looks like a winner, however we also need to keep in mind the that the size of the Galaxy is 4 inch where as the iPhone as 3.5 inch. Personally I find the screen size in combination with the weight more important and here the galaxy excels. As you can see below the ratio of the screen versus the weight is much much better on the Galaxy. Which means actually, you carry less weight and get a bigger screen.

If you want the see the ratio of the screen regarding to the dimension (in this case the volume) we get the following chart.

The volume of the iPhone is less, but again if we put this in respect with the screen size, Galaxy wins.

Let’s have a look at the battery now.

  If you focus on the talk time, the iPhone wins but the Galaxy is not far behind. I am not much a talker, so the standby is more interesting for me and here the Galaxy wins without a doubt (which makes sense because of the higher mAh value).

The last comparison which is interesting for me is the support for media files. I think the chart below says enough.

 

The Galaxy plays almost anything (mp3, xvid, etc) while the iPhone is restricted to it’s own format (except the mp3). Another big disadvantage is iTunes on the iPhone. I just want to drag and drop my media files.

Finally lets have a look at some comparison screenshots:

Video Player

 Camera

Browser

As you might have guessed, I will go for the Samsung myself, but at the end it is a personal preference. My final suggestion is to go to a shop and physically hold both machines, look at their screens and play with them. All the specs and charts have no real meaning, as a wise colleague of mine always says: Figures lie and Liars figure.

Source for the chart data: gsmarena.

Google contact image not synching in Picasa

I have been using google mail for a long time now and have always been impressed on how well it does what it needs to do. The recent update has also been a great improvement, especially the (new) functionality in the contacts (especially the merging of contact after importing from other sources). I have started to put my contacts in gmail and have been updating the images too.

Another google application I use often is Picasa. The people functionality in Picasa (with the face recognition) a great tool and is one of the reasons why I am so fond of Picasa.

After I had updated and reorganized my contacts (in gmail), I assumed that they will also available in Picasa. My assumption was correct, with one disappointment: the contact image did not show up. I also realized that I had now duplicate contacts: the ones in Picasa I created during face recognition and the contacts from gmail. Unluckily I could not find any way to merge them.

So my feature request for Picasa is right now: 

1. Extend the “central” contact list (used by gmail) with all the properties (including contact image, etc), with the ability still to check whether a contact in Picasa should be synchronized, which also seems to be the second most requested feature in Picasa :)
2. Ability to merge an existing Picasa portrait/contact with the “central” contact list, meaning that when the Picasa contact has an image and the “central” contact doesn’t, it would copy it and (also the nickname), without loosing all the photos where the contact has been spotted.

Hope this will get implemented soon.