‘Cyclic Redundancy Check’ error; What does it mean?

There are plenty of technical resources on the Web that discuss cyclic redundancy checks (CRCs). Most times you won’t need to worry about this technobabble. That is, until one it day it suddenly appears and you think – what the hell does that mean? In simple terms, a CRC is bit of mathematics used to ensure that your data is OK when being transfered. It’s a checking procedure that quickly identifies when data has been damaged. If you get this message, it means that the file being read by your PC or software is corrupted. However, it does not mean all the data is lost forever. When data is transfered, it is usually in small blocks and each block is given a CRC value. If something goes wrong with the data between the time it leaves the source and arrives at its destination, the CRC sent at the source will no longer match the one that is calculated when the data arrives – this is when the cyclic redundancy check error will appear.
The most common time you will see the cyclic redundancy check error message is when trying to read data from a damaged CD or DVD. Just before it appears, your CD/DVD drive will probably grind and whirl away – your PC may also become a little slugglish.

Less frequent causes are the result of system crashes, and buggy software (hello Microsoft), incomplete downloads (often identified by the misleading message ‘This is not a valid Windows file’, ‘This is not a valid win32 application’ or ‘Corrupt Zip file’). If this problem happens frequently with downloads, try using a download manager.

For CDs and DVDs, the problem is a little different. Normally, when CD/DVD drives get a CRC message from a disc, they try to read the disc again – hence the grinding sound. After several failed attempts, they give up and display the redundancy check error. The problem can be hardware (loose cables, failing drive), software or damaged media. In most cases checking and cleaning the disc is the easiest way to overcome the problem. If different clean discs produce the same error, it is likely to be a hardware issue (check the discs in another drive). Another common cause of these errors is poorly burnt CDs and DVDs – especially those that had numerous or severe buffer underuns. USB burners suffer from this problem when the burn speed is too high (generally above 4X-8X)

If the discs are damaged, you’ll probably need a recovery tool to get back your data.

Book your iphone now!

When the iPhone 3G was announced, unlike Airtel, Vodafone made no formal announcement that it would be bringing the much awaited mobile phone to India.
Apple, though, confirmed this by mentioning that India would get the iPhone 3G through Airtel and Vodafone.

Now Vodafone has announced that people can pre-register for the iPhone with them, indicating that the iPhone will be available soon. The company is tight-lipped on the question ‘How soon?’. All they are willing to divulge is that the iPhone will be compatible only with the 2G networks and some of the iPhone 3G’s features may not work here.

Airtel too is inviting people to book their iPhone with them.

Alternatively, some online underground sites are also selling unlocked iPhone in India but these unofficial iPhone suppliers in India do not share their contact address so be careful in case you run into shipping problems. If you buy an unlocked iPhone, it will work with GSM networks here but but you cannot use the Visual Voicemail feature of iPhone. Also, iPhone is GSM based so it may not work with Tata Indicom or Reliance CDMA network.
Expected price range for Rs 10,000 – 12,000.

Now our search engines can search even flash files for us!

Heard that Google and Yahoo! improved their indexing algorithm with the help of Adobe to crawl flash sites. Adobe will now provide optimized flash player to Google and Yahoo! to index SWF file content.
All flash files, flash menus, banners and flash sites with textual content and links can be crawled and indexed now. This means any keyword in your flash files can be used to match the search query from search engines and will bring more traffic to your site.
Now flash content can be seen in search engine result pages with flash snippets enriching the user experience.
Though there are some limitations to index flash rich pages, like:
• If flash pages are loaded through JavaScript then search engine bots won’t index those flash files.
• Currently only content in English text is indexed from flash files.
• If there are images in flash files then the text in those images can not be indexed by search engines.
Google already implemented this algorithm and Yahoo! will be updating it in future update to Yahoo! search.
This is a big step from Adobe and search engines to show better search results. Win-win situation for Adobe, Google, Yahoo! and all flash content publishers!

Another iriver look-a-like from philips

Philips GoGear SA2825

My cousin has got this one last night, and the whole night was my experimentation on it!

Once again portability and size take centerstage for DAPs. Philips has always had small DAPs and PMPs in its GoGear range, and the SA2825 is no different. But as we all know size isn’t everything; it’s how you use it that matters. Yes, it’s the quality and functionality the device brings to the proverbial table that is significant, so let’s get to it.

Form Factor
The SA2825 is a squarish, neat-looking, “plump” player. If you’re wondering why I’ve used so many adjectives, take a look at the image. The player has a navigation system that’s similar to the Iriver’s S10. It has a clear 128 x 64 pixel resolution OLED display that can display four lines. The front panel has a silver mirrored finish, rather like the sort you see in those cool glares favored by American biker cops. The four sides have the keys for navigating the menus and music.

On the top is a Return key (that takes you back to the previous menu) and the power/selector/play key. The 3mm earphone socket is located on the same side. There’s a dedicated Record key on one side, where you’ll also find the mini-USB port. On the opposite side are the volume keys, with the Hold switch at the bottom. The front face may be a fingerprint magnet, but it’s not a bad-looking device at all.

Features and Performance

Philips has made sure that the SA2825 has plenty to offer music buffs. Aside from having an FM tuner that takes no more than 17 seconds to locate and save all available stations, it also has an FM recording option. That’s in addition to the inbuilt voice recorder. I was quite impressed during my daily commute. Although you’ll still get plenty of static in most areas, the pickup is pretty remarkable.

When it comes down to music quality, the SA2825 falls short of a high score, especially when you compare it with some of the other GoGear DAPs. It’s loud, I’ll give it that, but the highs are… well, simply put, too high. The dynamic range is not balanced correctly. With the help of the 5-band graphic EQ setting (aside from the presets available) I was able to cut down the piercingly bright mids and highs by actually going into the negative range.

I do not recommend listening to high-decibel music. The earphones were a little uncomfortable for me; they didn’t seem to stay put inside my ears. The sound quality was okay, but I found that a better pair of earphones offered a much-improved experience.

The SA2825 offers a volume limit setting so you can preset the volume to a particular level that it won’t exceed. I like the fact that it has a folder option for playing music directly form the folder you save your clips in. The DAP reads MP3, WAV, and WMA file formats, and songs can be simply copy-pasted into the device. With 2GB of space, you don’t need to be particularly choosy either!

Philips claims the SA2825 can provide up to 20 hours of music playback, but this may be a bit of an exaggeration. After making sure the battery was full and ready to go, I left it on and periodically checked on it. It trailed off after 13 hours and 25 minutes. But that’s not too bad.

The Bottomline
The 2GB Philips SA2825 is priced at Rs 2,999. That’s not too bad but not great either – especially if you have a problem with the earphones. The FM radio reception is decent, so that’s a plus, but the overall sound quality isn’t too impressive. It’s a great looking player – if you’re into appearances. In fact, women could wear this as a necklace and use it as a compact mirror whenever they wanted to fix their hair or reapply makeup. But that doesn’t thrill me much.

You can have a look at the images of this gadget in the RSS Feed in thr right.

Wi-Fi’s Advantage to Bluetooth

The popular wireless technology known as Bluetooth could get a lot faster in the coming years by taking advantage of Wi-Fi technology already built into many gadgets.

Linking Bluetooth and Wi-Fi may make it easier and faster to transfer large amounts of music between computer and cellphone, or send pictures from camera phone to printer, or video from camcorder to TV.

Some products, like laptops, already combine Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functions, but they work off separate chips. Most likely, manufacturers will use single chips still under development that combine Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities.

The combination devices might use the regular low-power Bluetooth radios to recognize each other and establish connections. If they need to transfer a large file, they will be able to turn on their Wi-Fi radios, and then turn them off to save power after finishing the transfer

The new technology doesn’t have a name, and it isn’t clear how consumers will be able to tell it apart from Bluetooth-UWB devices, which the industry group still supports.

While it started out as a specific radio technology, Bluetooth is turning into an umbrella standard for a variety of different radio technologies. Apart from the high-speed flavors, the SIG has incorporated an ultra-low-power wireless technology developed by Nokia Corp. and previously known as Wibree.

Products such as watches and pedometers that use the same technology are also expected to hit the market next year.

A Phone, Apart

Well, let me start off the gadget reviews with my very own mobile phone, Nokia N73 Music Edition. This is definitely a combo box. The main features include 3.15 Megapixel Carl Zeiss Optics Camera, Music Player (The phone is available with 2GB Memory card, by default) and 3G Ready.

I’ve been using this phone for about a year now. I bought this one for 16800 bucks in Hyderabad and it is about 12900/- now.

Boons:

The music player is splendid. The integrated audio chip is amazing and gives wonderful sound. The player supports MP3/AAC/eAAC/eAAC+/WMA formats with equalizer and playlist options as well. However, the earphones provided in the kit are just ‘Okay’, but better ones can be used with the help of 3.5mm connector jock. I use the plug-in-earphones of sony-ericsson and they’re really fantastic. Especially when you tune into some Trance Music with ‘Bass Booster’ equalizer preset using these earphones, you almost feel like listening a creative 2.1 home theatre. Other good earphone-combination would be Bose. The additional features like ‘Stereo Widening’ add an asset. However, the true experience of these additional features can be felt only through the 3-D stereo speakers in-built in the handset but not on earphones.

Now that’s pretty much about music, the second best thing is the camera. The front one is a VGA camera, an advantage for Video-Calls (Should be amazing one 3G is launched in India) and the rear one is a 3.15 Mega Pixel with Carl Zeiss Optics. Thanks to the symbian techies, there are a lot of applications like ‘WebCam’ available, which turn the camera into a webcam and this can be connected to a Bluetooth PC. In broad daylight, the camera clarity is too good! Motion Picture Capture, Steady Pictures, Landscape and all the other things are great. But the camera is absolutely horrible in Night Mode. Even a Sony Ericsson W810i/K700i with 2MP camera and comparatively better. The Video clarity is also not so good (even in day light).

The device is really fantastic in internet services. It uses the maximum bandwidth of the service provider when tried to browse. When used as a modem for a PC, it gives you amazing connectivity, to the max of the bandwidth. Moreover, the Nokia PC Suite 6.85 is more user-friendly that even a Kid can make use of the phone as a modem and set up the connections in seconds.

The voice clarity during the call is really good. I would say better than the N-Series versions S60 V 2 (Symbian OS 8.1)

Sleep Mode. No other N-Series devices designed before this one had it. Saves a lot of your battery. Also the battery is BP-6M and gives a standard talk time of more than 6 hours and stand-by of 3 days.

The data management is so easy; it can be backed-up on a PC as a encrypted “.nbu” file and can be re-used.

Troubles:

You feel completely irritated with the application management of the device. All application installations can be done only by the default ‘Application Manager’. The Symbian O.S 9.1 (Series 60 V 3) which the N73 uses is an utter failure in this area. There is a lot of crap when you try to install unsigned applications (even if you include certificates manually in ‘Settings’), also it will trouble you sometimes if the application is signed. All the private applications (applications other than the default ones) cannot be un-installed using this manager, especially themes. The user has to meddle with the system files manually and get rid of them.

There is no Wi-Fi in this device.

Camera in night-mode