Ultrabooks drop below $600

Just like what I predicted in my earlier articles, ultrabooks have dropped down below $600. My reasoning is very simple: if Apple can sell a similar thing for $1000 to $1300, there is no chance for other brands to sell for more than the half.

The Vizio was initially priced at $900, now $598 after only few weeks. The Folio is a great ultrabook and a great deal at $498. Both use the Intel secondary generation Sandy Bridge CPU. When you buy a portable computer, make sure an Intel i3, i5 or i7 2XXX CPU inside ("2" means 2nd generation). Older CPUs are not good enough and newer ones do not offer significant more benefits.

手机上的中文输入

目前手机上最好的中文输入法是Touchpal（触宝）和Baidu（百度）。后者是我的至爱，因为它让我随意修改皮肤，实现一键多用。用下面我一年前根据极限皮肤修改后的皮肤，基本上不需要在中、英、数字和符号之间切换来切换去的，在单一中文或英文模式下就可以输几乎所有的文字、数字和标点符号，这是目前任何其它输入法都做不到的，有时甚至比标准的电脑键盘都顺手。

如上图所示，白色部分是我加上去的。比如数字键“4”，向上划是输入“￥”，向下划则是输入英文"$"。依此类推。再比如往左划“b”键，光标就向左移一位，往右划“n”键，光标则向右移一位。“m”键往上划时原来是全部清除，太危险了，因为Android没有undo，你一旦不小心划了一下这个键，你刚才辛辛苦苦写的所有东西就永远消失再也找不回来了！所以我把它去掉了。

所有的英文字母键往下划的时候成为大写，敲回车键送上去。

英文模式下基本和上面差不多，我只是把“k”上划设置成了英文的单引号“ ' ”，这个非常有用。另外我把逗号和句号的上划设置为中文的逗号和句号，这个没有什么实际用途，只是我一贯追求逻辑上的完整和设计上的一致性。

安装时先下载和安装百度输入法。你可以在《电子市场》里找，也可以到百度的网站去找。或者你可以下载下面的两个版本，我都使用过。V2的Z键有问题，向下划的时候会Force Close，好处是不像V3那样总是提醒你更新字库。

V2: http://www.2shared.com/file/Oz6f4mUn/baiduinput_android_v21_1000e.html
V3: http://www.2shared.com/file/bDJvilIX/baiduinput_android_v31_1000e.html

安装好使用正常之后，下载下面我修改的极限皮肤（谢谢原作者！），把下载的bds（BaiDu Skin）文件放到SDCARD/baidu/ime/skins目录里面。然后进入百度输入的设置，选择皮肤，你会看到这个皮肤，选择它就成了。当然你还可以进行所有其它的常规设置，比如调节键盘的高度等等。

http://www.2shared.com/file/jG4-yCSf/TeranceV21__122_.html

如果你觉得我的修改还不完美，你可以自己干。把bds文件用7z解压，里面的文件任你捣鼓，相关的信息在网上都能找得到。

【后注】上面忘了介绍一个很重要的功能：往下划回删键（back space）等于隐藏键盘。这个非常有用。另外按住那个“abc”键（左下边第二个），可以切换英文输入时的T9；按一下是切换中、英。

手机上的中文支持

所有Android手机（包括平板）都已经内含对中文的支持，但是在北美买的手机的默认设置当然是英文。下面以目前价格、性能和大小等综合起来最佳的Samsung Galaxy S为例，介绍如何使用中文。

有些手机你可以在Settings，Locale and test下面直接选择中文作为你的语言。如果其中没有中文这个选项的话（大多数北美手机只有英文、西班牙文和法文），那么你就要安装一个叫MoreLocale2的app，它能让你选择更多的语种，其中包括中文。

选择好中文之后，所有内带中文支持的apps就都能以中文的面貌出台了，比如下面的“海豚浏览器”，在英文界面下它叫做“Dolphin HD”。

那些没有内带中文界面的apps，却还是英文，比如这个手机原生的拨号器（Phone），联系人（Contacts），短信（Messaging）和设置（Settings）等。

那么对于那些没有中文界面的apps，怎么办？有两个办法。一种办法是安装相应的支持中文的apps，比如拨号器，联系人，短信和设置都有许多可供选择，其中大部分都支持中文界面。另一种办法是就这么着，虽然界面不是中文的，但是并不会影响使用。比如Contacts，你可以毫无问题地加入中文人名：

用Messaging收发中文短信也不是问题（当然你的移动服务商也必须支持中文短信，大多数美国移动公司都不支持）：

到这里，你马上就要问了：那我怎么输中文呢？目前最好的两种输入法是Touchpal（触宝）和Baidu（百度）。我个人喜欢百度，因为它让你随意修改皮肤和键值，输入时几乎不需要在中、英、数字和符号之间切换，用单一键盘模式就全部都搞定。复制、黏贴、上下左右移动等也都能在单一键盘模式下操作，非常的顺手。我将专门介绍我自己一年前制作的百度皮肤，我认为是目前最完美的输入，就算你只输入英文。

我看《中国好声音》

有一点我非常非常的欣赏，那就是它所展示的对成功与失败，竞争与合作的态度。这些方面是传统的中国人掌握得最不好的。这要感谢那些背后的西方节目制作人。这会给中国人带来长远和良好的影响。相比之下，歌声本身几乎毫无意义，只是给大家带来一番娱乐。

从技术上来说，音响很好，这也得感谢背后的那些西方节目制作人。西方的电视节目很少有声音很差的。中国的电视台，包括央视的春晚，音响都实在是太烂了。不是说不太好，而是非常非常的烂，不要说音乐了，连普通的说话，我的耳朵都很难接受。

要么声音小得听不见，要么爆棚破裂，几乎每换一个台，都必须同时调音量。同一个台，转换节目的时候，音量时常也会忽家伙变得大得不得了。地方台不用说了，就说去年《春晚》，也就张明敏唱《我的中国心》那一段的音响还不错，别的比如一开头的《龙的传人》，不堪入耳。

希望这个节目能提起各电视台对声音（别说音响了）的最最起码的尊重。那些吃音响这口饭的，请稍微用一点点心，能把声音调的差不多，不太响，不太弱（比如江苏卫视），俺就给你们磕头了，俺不奢求你们能把音响调到最佳。

Full System Backup and Restore

You've spent hours to set up your new computer, you don't want to do it again in case of system corruption. So, once you have everything going well, it is time to do a full system backup before it's too late. Or, you like to try the new Windows 8, you should do this first so you can go fully back in case things go wrong.

It is very easy and simple to do, all you need is a USB thumb drive, or a SD card in a card reader (see my other article for a good one for few dollars). For WinXP, 4GB is enough and 16GB for Win8, if you have not installed many large applications.

Plug in the USB drive into your PC, assuming it appears as "D:". If you run out of USB slots, you may use an USB hub as showing above. Download the clonezilla.zip file and extract it to D:

http://www.2shared.com/file/pGtbIJn4/Clonezilla.html

Then open D:\utils\win32, double click on "makeboot.bat" to make the USB drive bootable. Don't worry, there won't be any damage to your USB drive and the files on it.

Now turn your PC off. Turn it on, and go into boot menu. For most PCs, press F12; others use Esc, Del, F2 or F1. Make sure the USB drive is selected as the very 1st boot device. If you did it right, you'll see the Clonzilla screen:

Press enter for all selections to accept the defaults, except two. One is this:

Select the bottom one, i.e., "skip", this will put the backup files on the same USB drive. If your bootable USB drive does not have enough space, then you can plug in another large drive and select the default (local_dev). This is the most confusing part for newbies.

The second one is self explaining:

If you are backing up, then select the default "savedisk"; if you are restoring from an earlier backup, then select the 3rd option "restoredisk".

Once the process started, it'll take from 10 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how many files to save and how fast your PC and the USB drive are:

Once done, you may save the backup, found in D:\home\partimag, to somewhere else.

Why I use this method? Because it does not damage the USB drive and its files while making it bootable; so I can use the drive or SD card not just for this purpose but anything else as well such as digital cameras. Furthermore, it has not failed on me yet for years. Very handy.

If your PC has an AMD CPU or very old 486, above downloaded ZIP file won't work. You need to find the correct version on Clonezilla website. The procedure is exactly the same as described above.

My next article will be how to back up data.

VO3G - Voice Over 3G

[update 03/19/2014] This article is obsolete, for the latest VO3G technology, please visit: http://kot.voip.com

Now you have a smartphone with a 3G connection. Would it be nice to make and receive free calls over 3G?

Or, you have a fantastic 7" 3G tab, but stupid carriers crippled its voice function.

Get a Google Voice account

This is a must, even if you are not interested in VO3G. Everyone, repeat, everyone, needs a GV #, period.

It is free and you get a local phone #. No need for me to repeat all the details and benefits, only three things I should point out here:

1) Always use a new gmail account for your GV account, never use your primary email address for it. Because, soon or later, you'll need to give out these credentials to some third parties.
2) Add your cell phone # to your GV forward phone list. Then when someone calls your GV #, your cellphone will ring.
3) From now on, never give your cellphone # to anyone; instead, always and feel free to give out your GV #. With GV, you have full control on your #, spam and telemarketing is a thing of past.

Get a CallCentric free DID

Set up a new CallCentric account, the free one. Then log into your account and add a free DID, assuming it's 516-926-1234. Actually, you can add more DIDs if you need. Then go to preferences, DID forwarding, make sure it's set to SIP device (default).

When you apply for the DID, don't say you'll use it within USA, or you'll be charged for the non-sense 911 fee.

Set up pbxes.org

Go to pbxes.org and open a new free account.

Click Extensions, Add Extension, SIP. Assume you give this extension a number as 200 and password as 12345. Other fields can be anything, but make sure audio bypass is yes. Then click Submit. The username for this extension will be your_pbxes_username-200, e.g., johnsmith-200. Your devices (Acrobits in this case) connect to these extensions.

Click Trunks, Add a Trunk, Add SIP Trunk, Trunk Name: CC, audio bypass: yes, sendrpid: yes, username: 1777xxxxxxx (found in your CC dashboard as "Callcentric #", see photo below), password: your CC password, SIP server or proxy: callcentric.com, register: yes. Then click Submit Changes. These trunks connect to SIP providers, CC in this case.

Click Incoming Route, Add incoming Route, Trunk: CC (the same name you gave above), select Extension: 200 for both regular and after hours. Submit. Obviously, these route rules tell pbxes how to handle an incoming call from a trunk. In this case we let a CC call to ring a single extension.

Now, time to click on the red bar "You have made changes - when finished, click here to APPLY them". If you have done everything right, click on Status and you should see a green balloon before trunk CC. If you check your CC dashboard, it should say "Your phone is registered".

Get Acrobits 1.94 with G.729

Don't waste your time and money to buy Acrobits 3, because it keeps your phone awake - drain battery fast. Other such apps such as CSipSimple and Bria do not offer good enough call quality.

Click Settings, SIP accounts, Add new provider, Title: pbxes, username: johnsmith-200, password: 12345 (the one for the extension), domain: pbxes.org, incoming calls: On. This tells Acrobits to register to the pbxes extension you created earlier.

Advanced Settings, Codecs for WiFi, Enabled Codecs: GSM, G.729a, all others are disabled, Packet Time: 30ms, Force Packet Time: unchecked, Honor Remote Codecs: unchecked, OK. Do the same for Codecs For 3G.

STUN Server: stun.pbxes.org, Transport Protocol: tcp, Expires: 1600 (default 600), Send keepalives: unchecked, OK. OK.

If you did everything correctly, the Acrobits icon, see above photos at the top left corner, should turn into green and Acrobits is ready for incoming calls.

Receive a test call

Use any phone to call 516-926-1234 (the CC DID), Acrobits should ring. Congratulations, you've done the most difficult part and now you can receive calls!

Add CC CID to GV

Log into you GV account, click Settings, Phones, Add another phone. Name: CC, Number: 5169261234 (the CC DID), Phone Type: Work or Home. Save. Then it'll ask for verification; let it call, Acrobits should ring, pick up the call and press the verification code.

Now you can receive calls from GV!

Place a test call from GV

Now log into your GV account: http://www.google.com/voice/m, either on your phone or on your computer. Click on Settings, My Mobile Number, select 516-926-1234 (the CC DID).

Then put a #, say, 800-847-8929 (NY traffic line), into the box and click Call. Acrobits should ring, pick it up and you should hear a female voice from NY!

Finally, we can receive and make calls, all free.

Install a GV dialer

You may just use above method to initiate a call, but not so convenient. So install an app:
Voice+ (Google Voice callback) by Szilárd Kovács. Google account: your GV account, Calback numbers: 516-926-1234 (the CC DID).

That's it. Now make phone calls just like you do normally, but you'll be prompted to use "CC callback: +15169261234". Select it, and Acrobits will ring. Pick it up and call is connected.

Some additional notes

Some of above steps might sound redundant; no, all necessary, but you can use alternative routes to fit your situation.

Grove IP cannot use low-bandwidth codecs, therefore it is not for VO3G. CallCentric does not support TCP, so we have to use pbxes.org to use TCP for the sake of battery life and reliable receiving calls. If you are OK with UDP, then you can bypass pbxes entirely and let Acrobits register directly to CC.

Of course pbxes.org offers much more features, for example, you can add voipdiscount as a trunk and make cheap international calls. You may add more extensions for your friends and relatives so they can call each other for free. You may add more trunks for more DIDs. You can add ring groups to ring all selected phones. The possibilities are seamless.

SipSorcery is better than pbxes.org for this purpose, but it is no longer free and its dialplan scripting scares most people away. The downside is pbxes does not support G.729 for the free account (iLABC is available!), so we force it to use GSM without transcoding by selecting "audio bypass" and "sendrpid". Transcoding is always a very bad thing.

Nimbuzz uses socket instead of push, so it still drains more battery than I like. The good part is it supports both G.729 and iLBC. So, if you can sacrifice battery life a little bit, you can use Nimbuzz instead of Acrobits and enjoy the great voice quality that iLBC offers. Somehow Nimbuzz cannot connect to CC directly, so you still need pbxes.

If Acrobits can fix the keep-phone-awake problem, then V3 is the ideal one. V3 can turn off the screen automatically during a call, very nice and the latest versions support iLBC. With V1.94, you have to go to the Main page, then you can turn the screen off manually. BTW, if you're tired of the HTC power button like I am, the Tap Tap App (Screen On-Off ) by Pedro Maicasby is the solution. With this great app, you can slide down to turn the screen off and use volume keys to turn screen on, ideal for this purpose.

Now you have free voice, what about free SMS? Easy and simple, just install the Google Voice app by Google.

Saw VIZIO Ultrabook in Walmart

I don't like the style: corners are over rounded and keyboard keys are huge. Steve Jobs won't have allowed such a design to go into production. It does have a very good thing though: no cheap-looking glossy plastics that are almost in each and every laptop in the past 10 years, even though almost each and every user have been complaining about that since the very first day. Another disgusting stuff that took 10 years to get rid of is Macromedia/Adobe Flash that ruined WWW entirely. For two things, I thank Steve Jobs, the other is touchscreen done right.

The Acer Timeline U looks more attractive to me. For the last three years, my son has been using an initial Timeline. If this U is anything like that, it is the one for students. Note it has lit keyboard!

Nimbuzz now supports G.729!

I don't know since when, but now Nimbuzz supports G.729! Finally, there is an acceptable VO3G - Voice Over 3G, my terminology. Next to it is Acrobits 2.00 and old, offering quite acceptable VO3G.

Interestingly, G.729 is still not listed in the Nimbuzz app, only three options are there: auto, G711 and iLBC. iLBC is the very best codec for VO3G, but few VOIP providers support this great codec. The trick is to chose "auto", then Nimbuzz will use G.729 when iLBC is not available. Nimbuzz won't use G711 when it sees the current connection is 3G.

It is a little tricky to show your phone's contacts in Nimbuzz. You have to check "load phone numbers" in settings and give a phone # to Nimuzz, a fake one will be accepted. Then, go to the contacts tag, display group, select all contacts or phone numbers only.

Skype uses iLBC, but it drains battery too quickly and there is no free DID. Acrobits 3.10 and later also support iLBC and has battery-drain problem too: it keeps phone awake all the time, draining out battery within several hours. Strange, 2.00 and older do not have this problem.

Nimbuzz connects to SipSorcery and SipGate fine, but CallCentric won't allow apps like this and Fring to connect. This is too bad, because CC now offers free DID (see my other article). There are some NAT handling issues between SipSorcery and Nimbuzz: when you use WiFi, i.e., behind NAT; the other end won't hear you although you can still hear him/her. No problem between SipGate and Nimbuzz, and SG does support iLBC!

So, the best VO3G solution is Nimbuzz + SipGate. Second to that is Acrobits + CallCentric. As always, for flexibility, you should integrate them with GoogleVoice and SipSorcery or freeSWITCH. I'll write an article about how to set them up.

To download Nimbuzz, open your phone's browser to:

http://m.nimbuzz.com

Firefox - the only full desktop browser for Android

I have not found a single website that it cannot do, including google blogger and boostmobile.

I have tried all Android browsers including Opera, Dolphin, Skyfire and many other unknown ones, none of them can log into boostmobile account.

It supports add-on like Adblock+.

This article is done entirely with Firefox on Samsung Galaxy Tab 7, incliding screen captured photo inserting/uploading. But for everyday browsing, Opera is still the one - this firefox is too bulky and buggy, taking up at least 20MB space.