Get your Macbook Pro working with Del U2711 Monitor Easy!

21 11 2011

 

Apple Macbook Pro and Dell U2711 working perfectly together!

Apple Macbook Pro and Dell U2711 working perfectly together!

Sorry to hijack the blog today but we like to mix it up here from time to time!

We’re Apple users here in the office, we love their kit but they do have a habit of locking things up a bit and when we proudly bought our new £600 Dell U2711 monitors here we thought we could just plug them in and enjoy the super high 2560 x 1440 resolution.  We thought wrong but there is a great solution.

The problem

Firstly the problem is about the connection you use.  Whilst DVI or VGA connected to the std cables that come with the monitor should in theory work (Not sure if VGA actually allows this resolution over it though), the std Mini Display Port to DVI adaptor does not give you the full resolution.  This gave 1600 x 1200 at best, and the HDMI equivalent of this connector was worse, only giving us 1080 lines down the monitor instead of 1200.

Dispaly adaptor to Mini Display adaptor cable saved the day!

Dispaly adaptor to Mini Display adaptor cable saved the day!

So the solution was to go and buy Apples Dual Mini display port to DVI connector but that’s near enough £100 here in the UK and not g’teed to work with new Macbooks and it also doesn’t work with the Mini’s we have too, all a bit complex, too expensive and locked in for our liking.  Also there’s a lot of buzz on the forums about this cable not working correctly right now.  However resigned to the fact we almost bought some of these until we suddenly saw another product.

The solution then was to use something called a Mini Display Port to Display Port adaptor.  The Dell U2711, along with a plethora of connectors the Dell U2711 has a new “Display” Port on it which you just connect this cable directly to, and the then into the mini display port of your Mac.  Bingo, everything works for £6!!

We just spent so much Saturday time on this here in the office that we thought we’d blog about it to help everyone else with the same problem!  The cable is avaiable everywhere, is about £6 and just Google for “Display adaptor to mini display adaptor cable” to find it.

Back to Rugged stuff tomorrow!

www.ruggedanmobile.com

 


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Mission Critical Mobile Solutions – Part 9 Rugged PDA OS and Application Extras

18 11 2011

Our Mission Critical Mobile Solutions series ends today with a final look at all the little extras you’ll get with a rugged PDA that you just don;t find on a smartphone.  SOme of these can seriously make a huge difference to the success of your Mobile solution.

Persistent Storage

Rugged PDA’s have a persistent storage area, some configurable in size, that are designed to be used in order to make your solution more resilient to hard resets and wiping of data.  These areas can be used to store anything from data to applications that will remain on the device if tampered with or rebooted in the field.

Boot Sequences

Coupled with Persistent storage you can alter what gets loaded up, what is locked and what the device can do.  It effectively turns the device into a resilient 1 job line of business tool.

OS Image Building

Some Rugged PDA manufacturers will allow you also rebuild to a degree the actual OS build they have on.  if you want a particular application to be totally resilient and actually built into the OS, this can be done.

Alternative OS’s

Some (not all) Rugged PDA’s can even give you a choice of OS to put on the device making for the ability to chop and change from say French versions to UK versions and even between Windows Mobile versions.

Kiosking

Most rugged PDA manufacturers come with a KIOSK application, usually free these are apps that tend to have to be written and targeted to specific Rugged PDAs and the will lock down and only allow the applications that an admin user has allowed.  This means you can stop users browsing the internet, making calls or from playing with the setting of the devices too.

Data Capture applications

Pre-installed these allow you to use the basic barcode, RFID and even camera functions of the PDA.

A lot of manufacturers also bundle many applications on their devices to help with basic POD and tasks all of which can lead to greater efficiency. 

OK, that’s it folks we all hope you enjoyed the series on what it takes to be Mission critical in a mobile world.  Monday we’ll be talking about something fresh and new!  have a great weekend and see you then!

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Mission Critical Mobile Solutions – Part 8 Accessories

17 11 2011
Accessories can make the difference between an awkward and efficient mobile solution

Accessories can make the difference between an awkward and efficient mobile solution

This is the penultimate blog in our Mission Critical Mobile Solutions series, and today we turn back to hardware and accessories for your Rugged PDA in particular.

Having a device that’s up to date, but more importantly just does the job at hand is often only able due to the accessories it can use.  Sure cases, tethers, stylus etc are all important too but what about the most important stuff?

Cradles are so important and only rugged PDA’s have these options.  USB cradles go so far but Ethernet connected cradles in 1 2 or 4 device versions are also very key to how easily your data gets from device to business as well as how easily they can be charged.

Vehicle cradles that are rugged and will work with rugged RAM mounts are often critical and as will anything that charges the device directly.  If you can’t get a 2A plus charge into your device then it will take hours to charge its battery.  Does your smartphone also come with a commercial class vehicle charger that will protect it when being used in commercial grade vehicles working at double the voltage or more?

I think it’s important to be able to get larger batteries, tougher cables and connectors and also all the weird and wonderful snap on type of accessories that make line of business applications work that much better.  Scanner trigger handles, RFID snap ons and even payment clip ons all add up to a truly mission critical application that’s also secure and easy to use.

When you’re buying your next mobile device for your line of business application just take the time to have a look at the accessories that are available to ensure you have a device that is totally optimised to what you;re trying to achieve.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Mission Critical Mobile Solutions – Part 7 Operating Systems

16 11 2011
Are all Mobile Operating Systems Mission Critical?

Are all Mobile Operating Systems Mission Critical?

Our monster Mission Critical Mobile Solutions series continues today by looking at the various Operating systems that are Line of businesss suitable and those which are not.

Now i’m not going to argue that this subject is a hotly debated one and the old Unix/Linux Vs Microsoft and PHP Vs .NET arguments seem to relive themselves when talking about mobile OS’s but I am going to stick to some facts you need to know about them.

When is a Mobile OS not Line of business?

Well it’s about change and how that’s handled, it’s about backward compatibility of later OS’s, its about the apps that are developed for these OS’s and its about support of the OS and Apps.  Essentially you need all 4 elements to be a proper mission critical OS. 

Lest take the big 4 OS’s out there and see how they fare:

Apple IOS

IOS is tidy, its mobile, its capable and it’s simply really cool and easy to use.  Like all Apple products it works and it’s a pleasure to use and program for.  However half the apps built for earlier versions of IOS running on iPhone 3′s which are little more than a year old now will not run on the newer OS’s so this is always a risk, Apple have a very short support period for older OS’s and one OS can be very different from older ones with no guarantee of compatibility.

IOS is kind of like the Techie who can do anything with code but it always seems to break when the crunch comes!

Google Android

It’s the same story here, in fact it is worse in a way as vendors are free to manipulate and change the OS so you;re never certain if 2 devices are going to be the same.  Sure you can keep the kernal’s the same but the fact is they never are and you have to be careful.  The older OS’s have a short official support time, they are also not technically supported by Google leaving and again we see new versions coming out all the time making big changes to the OS and what can run on it.

The young pretender, with aspirations of becoming Mission Critical, but can it ever be built on top of a free LINUX based model?  Its like the hippy becoming CEO! (what a wonderful world that might actually be though!!)

Blackberry

This is no different to the 2 OS’s above, however with Blackberry you also have the issue of programmer availability due to the more proprietary nature of the OS there are less people that can tinker with it.  I think Blackberry is best left to email and phone calls :-0!

The oddball in the corner who does her job really well, but is best never asked to explain…

Windows Phone 7

WP7 might as well just be a different OS as far as this is concerned, its nothing like Windows Mobile and was never meant to be.  The fact of the matter is it’s a great OS but it changes like the wind to keep up with the never-ending innovation packed into smartphones.  Exciting and cool it is, stable for a line of business solution it aint!

Porsche driving, successful Manager who networks well and always manages to get someone else to do the actual work!!

Windows Mobile or Windows Embedded Handheld

You can now see where WM or WEH as its called now really scores.  Sure it’s boring, it lacks functionality and it certainly doesn’t do flashy but what it does do well is stability, security and it’s actually quite light to run too.  .NET at its core it has the largest band of programmers who can quickly develop for it and the lack of changes made means that it is most backward compatible.  Oh yes and Microsoft support WM for years and years, direct from the horses mouth. 

The accountant, maybe a  bit boring!, shirt and tie worn at all times but the VAT man never comes knocking because its dealt with……always

I think with OS’s you have to scratch the surfcae.  Cool up to date OS’s are not the best for a mission critical application that is required to run unchanged for years.  Don’t get lured in by the falshy bits and the fact they run on cheap smartphones, they will leave you for someone else the minute your backs turned!!

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Mission Critical Mobile Solutions – Part 6 Top 7 Software Cahooners!

15 11 2011
Software is a major element of being Mision critical in a mobile scenario

Software is a major element of being Mision critical in a mobile scenario

So in today’s blog that continues our Mission Critical Mobile Solutions series, we’re going to de-focus on the hardware & support elements and instead take a look at the mobile software side of mission critical.  Being “proper mobile” is an area that we see every day where applications and Windows Mobile software often simply miss the point and make the everyday mobile solution a pain to work with at best or even seriously hampering the business at worst.  I thought I’d do this by means of the Top 7Mobile software cahooners I see here practically every month.

Top 7 Mobile Software Cahooners!

1. Poor Connectivity Management

People who write websites think they can just go ahead and use .NET to do mobile stuff.  Whilst technically this is one of the benefits of using Microsoft technologies to program with, the mobile scenario in general is very different.  If you don’t manage your GPRS, WiFi and Ethernet connections properly you’ll get all kinds of battery issues and data corruption issues too and your code needs to take in to account that a Rugged PDA is only occasionally connected to the Internet.

2. Non existent battery management

Ditto for the above but with the battery.  No screen brightness management, not taking into account the sensors the device gives you and generally doing nothing to extend the life of the battery at all can often be the difference between a great business solution and a really poor one that costs you time and money needlessly.

3. PInvoking for the hell of it

I don’t know why we see this so much.  Perhaps some programmers are just stuck in their old C++ ways, perhaps its programmers trying to look clever or make themselves more indispensable or perhaps it’s simply some software houses trying to lock customers in some how.  Pinvoking (for those that might not know the depths of mobile programming!) is where you venture outside of Microsoft’s .NET safe and managed code area and you talk to elements of the device directly.  It’s good if you need to do something that .NET doesn’t let you do, but it does often lock you in to using a particular device as they all implement low-level areas differently.  We see a lot of software doing this where it simply doesn’t need to which makes support harder, the device choices more difficult and generally the business suffers from it.  It’s defiitely a case of why complicate things?

4.  LCD and Screen

Screens change all the time and it;s easy now to develop for different screen sizes and resolutions so you can be multi device compatible or just move from one resolution to another, especially when moving from QVGA to VGA, there’s no excuse really.  Make sure your software is as flexible as it can be for different screen sizes or the solution finds it really difficult to swap out hardware or run multiple devices.

5. Barcode and RFID Scanner usage

if you want fine control of your scanner then use the SDK that comes with the device, if you want device portability then you have to do it in other ways, Simples! 

6. General lack of SDK and Rugged PDA Persistent storage usage

following on from the above, general use of the SDK and the special persistent and boot areas that rugged PDA’s offer shows a complete lack of Mission Critical understanding when it comes to programming.  We see solutions that give major problems that would never have occurred if the devices SDK was used correctly or at all.

7. RFID implementation

We see so many people come unstuck here as RFID has become more and more popular.  A simple lack of appreciation of the tag you are using can be critical in building a robust mission critical solution.  There are countless tag memory structures, read/write types and general data structure formats so make sure you know what you are dealing with and then use the tag in the right way.

That’s it for software, we’ll continue tomorrow and up until the end of the week!

www.ruggedandmobile.com

 


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