PS Vita Teardown

I posted PS Vita Unboxing few weeks ago, and now to see what is inside of PS Vita, hence PS Vita Teardwon. This round of teardown is not from iFixIt, but from UBM TechInsights.

The teardown images (no detail like iFixIt, my comment in square brackets, click on the image to see in full size):

[unscrewing]

[more unscrewing]

[open with some forces?]

[battery attached on back cover?]

[more unscrewing to take out the PCB]

Okay, now the PCB boards:

[red: Sony's quad-core processors based on ARM Cortex-9]

Okay, that's it. :D

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source: http://www.ubmtechinsights.com/teardowns/sony-playstation-vita-teardown/

How to Fix Cannot Install Apps on Chrome Problem

Recently I wanted to install JoliCloud on Chrome, so I go to the JoliCloud page on Chrome Web Store, and click the "+ ADD TO CHROME" button, the button changed to "CHECKING..." and there is a pop-up asking for confirmation, I clicked on "Install" button to proceed. However nothing happen after I clicked the "Install" button. I keep on waiting and waiting and waiting for quite a while. So I quite the page and try again, and it showed that "+ ADD TO CHROME" again, meaning the apps was not being installed. How could this happen?

So I go to ask Google, and after some trial and error on a few solutions being offered by nice people out there, finally I found the solution and it is very easy.

The solution:
1. Go to My Documents.
2. Create a new folder or directory called "Downloads" (without the double quote).
3. Go back Chrome to install apps, you should able to install apps now. :-)

No restart PC/Windows is needed. I have confirmed this again by removing the "Downloads" directory and I cannot install apps on Chrome again.

This solution is for Windows (XP until 7) only, I am not yet confirm for Mac.

When the Downloads folder is missing from My Documents, it keep on waiting for the folder to be created. As soon as the folder being created, it can proceed. I checked on the folder during downloading the crx (Chrome apps file format), the crx has to be downloaded into the Downloads before being install into Chrome and the crx will be remove after installation completed.
Obviously this is something that Google Chrome engineers should fix it in seconds. 

If you have move to another PC, to check what apps you have added previously on Chrome (provided you login using google account on Chrome on older PC), you can do this on your Chrome on new PC:
1. Start a new tab
2. Switch the Apps if you always using "Most visited"
3. Click on Chrome Web Store
4. On top right, click on the setting button next to your google login name (usually an email).
5. Click "Your Apps"
I found out on old PC I installed some Chrome apps that I never use or just use once right after I installed them. :P

p/s: I removed that Downloads folder at first place during hard disk clean up, thinking that this folder have no use since I changed Chrome default download folder to somewhere else.


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source: I wrote this, found the solution at http://www.google.ms/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=66a6d85590718eb0&hl=en&fid=66a6d85590718eb00004b5c4b41c5dc8

Free Angry Birds Rio for Windows is back again! - expired

Intel AppUp is giving away Angry Birds Rio for Windows for free! Limited period only, until January 15 (or while supplies last). I am not sure what this mean, software is just a soft copied, it can be download unlimited time right? Probably they have limited number of downloads. Anyway, this is for new registration only. So this is too bad for me, because I already got my Angry Birds Rio for Windows for free back in September last year.

Intel AppUp also added Chicken Invaders 4 Christmas as the freebie for new registration. Meaning you get US$11.99 worth of games for free!

Intel AppUp recently have being revamped and it looks much better than old version. One of the reason is to make sure Ultrabooks users also have a good user experience with AppUp. The old version of AppUp was actually created for netbook segment, however other Windows based PC also can use it.

The red arrow in picture below showing I already have Angry Birds Rio installed.


The best part about Intel AppUp is I can retain the free software for very long time. Even though I changed to new laptop, I still can download and install the Angry Birds Rio from AppUp for free on new laptop, as long as I use the same user id on AppUp. Another good thing about AppUp is you can try the software for 24 hours before you decide to buy or not. This is very good because you don't need to go through all the process just to get refund in case you find out you don't like the software.

To get your free legal version of Angry Birds Rio and Chicken Invaders 4 Christmas, go to download Intel AppUp now:
http://www.appup.com

Find out how to avoid credit card info on Intel AppUp in this post:
Free Angry Birds Rio For Windows



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source: I wrote this!

What kind of Facebook Friends you have?

Friends on Facebook. There are really good friends, there are annoying friends who you wish you never accepted. See what kind of Facebook Friends you would have. I have 9 out of 10 listed here, sigh.

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source: http://dailyinfographic.com

Captcha.Trader for JDownloader and MiPony

File-server services always being linked to piracy. A lot of songs, video, apk (Android setup file), software, PDF that supposedly need to be pay first before download legally from the original or authorized websites, but they are being cracked and put in to file-server and share publicly and the link being distribute worldwide. File-server actually being serve as temporary storage to send huge files for research and development in many area, from universities to private sectors.

Some of us need to download homework or huge result files from file-server that being upload by a friend at another side of the planet. Of course it is convenient to download directly using web browser, it is good for small file, but for huge file like a few GB, there is no way we can wait for days for the download to complete. Furthermore, some web browsers will time out, so we have to start the download all over again.

So some nice people out there wrote some nice softwares for us to manage these download, example MiPony and JDownloader. We can put all the links to the files we want to download and let the software manage them. However the captcha still has to be key-in manually by human (a.k.a. us). If your counterpart at Brazil uploaded 100 files, then you have to key-in 100 times the captcha and not once, but every time before the download begin on each file. We should be focusing on our the real work, not on downloading. So Captcha.Trader come to the picture.

I can download the Captcha.Trader plugins and then add into JDownloader and MiPony, so that Captcha.Trader will solve the captcha for me. You can either buy some credits or start resolve some captcha and earn credits before you want to use it for download purpose.

Captcha.Trader also works for Android (CaptchaDroid), WP7 (CaptchaToGo), and iOS (MobiCaptcha).

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source: I wrote this

Google Chinese Input - offline English to Chinese

Google knows that China is a huge market. If add in Chinese population outside of China, that is even huge. There is saying you can find China Town in every major city around the globe, well, not all, but most of them. I can even find Chinese Restaurant at somewhere of nowhere in Utah, believe it or not, I did stop by to have dinner in that restaurant, since my friends insisted. :P

Okay, enough of non-sense. I have been using Google Chinese Input as alternative for default Chinese Input from Microsoft. As a known fact, MS's stuffs simply okay only, if you want something better, you have to find another software, hence Google Chinese Input. Since I was grown up in China's PinYin system (Malaysia Chinese Education system uses PinYin system, so as Singapore), I am too used to PinYin system. Google Chinese Input is actually Google PinYin Input System.

To understand PinYin System, read this wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

The most important feature of Google PinYin Input System is that I can key-in only first character of PinYin of the Chinese phrase (usually from 2 to 4 Chinese characters, sometimes more than that), it will show me the right Chinese phrase. This is super fast compare to MS Chinese input.

Google Chinese Input has been there for few years, recently I noticed that Google Chinese Input have released version 3. Actually the latest version was on Jan 2011, boy, I am really outdated. :P Even though the software is not updated so frequent, the dictionary is being updated weekly, if not daily.

What so special about version 3? It included an offline English to Chinese dictionary. That is the dictionary that I mentioned in paragraph above. This is very useful for English educated people that start to learn Chinese or people like me which has been away from Chinese for too long. When you switch on Google Chinese Input, if you press "shift" key once, it will allow you to type in English directly, press "shift" again, it will go back to detect PinYin input. While writing English, it will start translate the English to Chinese.

Even I have problem spell an English word, it will try to suggest the correct answer.

It will also suggests synonym of the English word.

More synonym can be find in another tab.

You can turn this feature off in setting if you find it annoying or no use for you.

Set your preference on how many characters you key-in before Google Chinese Input start to suggest.

To download Google Chinese Input version 3 with English to Chinese Translation:
http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ime/english/

To download Google Chinese Input version 2, the classic:
http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ime/pinyin/

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picture source: google [I don't need to recreate the wheel :P ]

Replace PhotoShop with PhotoCap

I would think PhotoCap can replace PhotoShop for personal usage and/or family usage. Normally we don't need super special features that being use by professional. Features that we usually use are layers and filters, lighting or exposure, or maybe just red eye remover.

PhotoCap is like the primary level of PhotoShop, all basic functions of PhotoShop are available on PhotoCap. I did try PhotoShop on my computer last year, but at the end it just waste the time to download, install and use it. I go back to GIMP, or most of the time I just use Irfanview if no fancy editing is required.

PhotoCap also can use for:

1. Print large image to multiple pages [I wrote this similar tutorial before, but now I can use PhotoCap to deal with it]
   
2. Double sided printing: help you to align the pictures/images, for double sided name card or poker cards
3. Create collage: collection of photos
4. Add frame
5. Create your own frames.
6. Create puzzles
7. Create texture from photos
8. Create template, and use it
9. Create photobook
10. Create poker cards: import 52 pictures and you have your new set of poker cards.
11. Create name card, including double sided name card
12. Create greeting cards

etc etc......

PhotoCap also can do tasks in bulk:

1. resize photos
2. rename photos
3. change date on photos' exif [I had a similar post, but using other software]
4. convert to another file type
5. add frame in bulk

etc etc....

PhotoCap is free for personal use or for educational usage. It will cost 1000 Taiwan Dollars or about US$33 (at exchange rate on Jan 1, 2012) for commercial usage. It still consider super cheap compare to Photoshop CS5 that selling at US$650 on Amazon.

Supported Windows version: Windows XP to Windows 7 (including 64 bits), not supporting Windows 98/ME

To download full version, go to link below for different languages (multiple link available, choose either one will do:

Traditional Chinese [正體中文版]	下載點1	下載點2	下載點3	下載點4	下載點5	進入 PC Home 下載
Simplify Chinese [简体中文版]	下载点1	下载点2	下载点3	下载点4	下载点5	进入 PC Home 下载
English	Download1	Donwload2	Download3	Download4	Download5	Download from PC Home

The setup file is 13.6MB, but main execution file is 1.9MB only, the rest are plug-ins or add-ons.

Consider donate to help the development of PhotoCap:
http://www.photocap.com.tw/donate/donate.htm

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source: I wrote and also translate some from PhotoCap website.