Glo Networks Technical Blog (Glo Blog)

The worlds largest photo , taken upon a hill top in Budapest is viewable in all it’s glory here. Not only is the picture a stunner and unbelievably clear even at massive levels of zoom but it show cases what we consider to be some very impressive technology! For the photo enthusiasts out there, according to Engadget, the image was created using two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras fitted with 400mm Minolta lenses and 1.4X teleconverters and a robotic camera mount.

Not only is the camera tech impressive but the way the photo is viewable (and pan-able, and zoom-able!) in a streaming like manner on the site must have involved some several man hours (and some rather clever men!).

While the site is in Hungarian you don’t need to read the page to enjoy the epic image, and bear in mind the image is around 200GB and as such may take a while to load, though nowhere near as long as we’d expect! We believe it’s well worth the wait.

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Posted by James in Cool Stuff, General | 1 Comment »

Since the release of the iPhone 4 Glo Networks have been impressed by the functionality of the video calling app, called FaceTime. FaceTime allows video calling between two iPhone 4′s via the internet (requires both device to be connected to WiFi).

Utilising either of the devices cameras (the iPhone 4 has a  camera on the front and the back) you can either switch from an existing voice call to video with a tap of an onscreen button or you can initiate a video call from the contacts list. As you can use either camera it’s possible to choose between showing your own image via the front camera, or showing whatever you point the back camera at (and still see the person you’re chatting to).

Apple seem to have been marketing the video calling capabilities of the new iPhone for leisure use, with adverts showing things like a couple sharing their baby’s smile or friends helping each other decide what to wear, however, we, here at Glo, are beginning to see  potential in the app for business purposes (particuarly in our line of work!).

Here’s an example: Imagine a situation where a cable has become unplugged in a server room. The person who discovers this may not know where the cable should be plugged in, and as such phones their IT support provider. Now from experience we can tell you it’s not always simple to describe cables, or the sockets they should be plugged into over the phone. However if both of the people in the call were able to use FaceTime they could simply point the rear camera at the cable in question and the support engineer will instantly be able to see what they’re dealing with!

Although FaceTime is only available on the iPhone 4 at present, and only with a WiFi connection,  Apple has pledged to release it as an open standard, allowing other companies to develop around it. This means you could soon be seeing FaceTime appearing on other devices, and possibly (with support from phone service providers) over 3g!

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Posted by James in Mobile | 2 Comments »

Today Microsoft support ends for Windows 2000 (Professional and Server) and Windows XP Service Pack 2. Why do you care? This means no more support calls, no more patches – of any kind.

If you’re still running Windows 2000 in any shape, or form, you’ve long past the time you should’ve upgraded, and you’re now in the “danger zone” (if that doesn’t make you think of Kenny Loggins I don’t know what will).

If you’ve got XP machines in your network you should already be on Service Pack 3. If you’ve got a managed update infrastructure (WSUS, for example) and not yet approved the installation then today is the time to make sure that you’ve done it. Just prepare your users for the possible interruptions. It can take a while!

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Posted by Karl in General | 2 Comments »

Windows Mobiles, and before it Pocket PCs, have been around for years. And I’ve been an advocate of them since 2001 when I started with my Compaq Aero. Obviously things have changed with Symbian, Android and iOS (iPhones) but I’ve always headed back to the Windows Mobile Devices in the end, that is until now ..

Having had an iPhone 3G  since it’s launch I’ve been a reluctant fan. I say reluctant fan as it’s GPS was very flaky (moving me to a motorway slip lane at it’s whim), screen resolution is ‘low’, none-upgradable storage and battery is plain daft, not having access to the Gbs of space on the device and lastly not being able to carry out any form of customisation all mounted to a less than perfect experience.So I tried out the Motorola Droid (Milestone) with Android and the HTC HD2 with Windows Mobile 6.

Even though the Motorola had a physical slide out keyboard I couldn’t use it. My manly thumbs just couldn’t press the one key I wanted at a time and resulted in me spending ages correcting myself. Androids App Store, marketplace wasn’t as easy to use as the (Apple) App Store and I really couldn’t find a nice text file reader that did exactly what I want (AirShare on iOS). Android seemed nice and I can see the potential but it just wasn’t polished enough for me and so the device went back within 5 days.

The HTC HD2 was another fun experience but lasted nearly 5 months. A fantastic bit of hardware with a gem of a screen. Everything looked amazing on it with it’s high resolution. In the end though a number of niggles got to me, the on-screen keyboard just didn’t cut the mustard and, though it was a good attempt, it just didn’t have the same responsiveness that the iPhone offers.

All this makes me wonder how good the HTC EVO is. Combining the lovely HTC hardware with the new ( hopefully polished?) Android OS, sounds like it could be the ideal match!

So now the iPhone 4 is here, and looks like it could well be the answer to my wants and needs. Although one of my colleagues here at Glo did brave the queues and pick up an iPhone4 on release day, we’ve yet to have an opportunity to give it a thorough testing, however with a bit of luck the GPS will actually work correctly off the bat and I wont need a car cradle for it to fo it’s job properly! With Skype no longer working or supported on Windows Mobile devices and no sign of it ever coming to Windows Phone 7 and a similar situation in the case of a decent Spotify client coming, I doubt I’ll be heading down the MS phone route again. Pitty as I have had a lot of love for that platform, it just looks very aged now.

Having said all that the Samsung Galaxy S running Android looks is very interesting indeed !

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Posted by James in Mobile | No Comments »

Here at Glo Networks we’ve recently taken delivery of our first iPad. Having had some hands on time with the device we thought we’d offer our opinions on the current must-have gadget.

The first thing likely to cross your mind when using an iPad for the first time is how alien it is to hold and how strange it feels to use. This does not last long though as, much like the iPhone before it, after a short while with an iPad in your hands it seems perfectly natural and a joy to use. The onscreen keyboard is a decent size which makes text entry quick and simple.

The display on the device is crystal clear and a pleasure to use. The apps that were designed for the iPad all look fantastic (The email application in landscape mode is a particular joy!) however the older apps, designed for the iPhone, while useable and upscaled on the iPad are much less nice to look at. As more time passes we would expect to see iPad versions released for the majority of the most popular iPhone apps!

One App that has a Glo recommendation is Jump Desktop. This allows you to control remote PC’s via RDP. This is a very useful tool for those who may wish to use their iPad as a kind of replacement for a laptop, as it can allow access to all the programs, files etc. on your PC from your iPad. Using this app to connect to your PC you also have access to websites with Flash (we tested on Youtube, video was laggy and audio not perfect but compared to a complete lack of Flash it’s a definite improvement!).

Our major gripe with the iPad is, and has always been (since announcement) the lack of multi-tasking capabilities. As with the iPhone, to switch between apps means one closing to allow the other to open. While this is not such an issue on a phone (though annoying) on a tablet PC this becomes a major drawback! However it seems Apple are very aware of this, and have promised multitasking added in an update soon!

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Posted by James in General | No Comments »