Canon Selphy printer series and natural size printing

Many times I tried to get natural size prints with my Canon Selphy (CP 710 model) but there was no way to get it!
Printer's specs are simply 300x300 DPI on a standard Canon Color Ink/Paper kit 4x6in (100x148mm) format.
Everybody would think that it's easy to do by setting up a 4x6in image @300x300DPI and printing it borderless but result is far away from a real size printing!!!
Where is the problem with this printer series?If you look at a borderless print that it takes the full printable area you will see that picture goes out of pre cut paper area.
Lets take the lenght of picture and you will see it is 152,75mm long to be as sharp as possible with my digital calliper.
Really the maximum printable area is not 148mm but 152,75.
So to get a ntural size print we must create an image 100x152,75mm @ 300x300DPI borderless taking in mind that we will loose respectively 2mm on side up and 2,75mm on side down cutting sides away (152,75- 2 -2,75=148).

aPad by Utopia (M801 one speaker model) charger akd dock connector

Hi, to help you in case of problem with the charger and/or the dock connector I post some pictures of these important parts.
Remember that the charger in the picture is about aPad model M801 with one speaker, I don't know if this is the same for the two speaker model, be careful if you intend to repair your charger for this two speaker model from my pictures!!!
The first dock connector pictures shows the dock whit plastic cover, upon the up side there is the dock simbol (a rounded rectangle), be careful about this because when I opened the box this plastic cover was disposed opposite, with the dock simbol on the bottom side, I simply opened and cosed the plastic covers in the right way.The second pictures shows the dock without the plastic covers from the front. Here you can see a little how the charging contacts are disposed. In the last picture there is the dock without plastic cover from the back and up side down because in this way I can show better the right position of the carging pins.
In the last pictures we can see that the 30 pins dock is divide in groups of five pins and also that the charging pins are double + and -. In particular, from right to left the positive poles are pins nober 11 and 12 and the negative pins are pins 15 and 16. Take in mind that in the last picture the dock is upside down and for this reason I counted from the right to the left!

aPad by Utopia (M801) intenal memory upgrade

Hi people, yesterday I upgraded my aPad internal 4GB memory with one faster.
As you know in the M801 series the internal memory is on microSD card and in my case it was a class4 memory, I improved it with one 8GB class6.
The metod is to create an image of the original SD and install it to another faster SD.
I use the dd command under linux (Ubuntu) in this way:
- insert the microSD card in to your PC (into a multimedia reader connected to your PC), it will automatically mount it;
- open a terminal and write: sudo dd if=/dev/sdf1 of=/home/gae/sdimage
The command go to read in /dev/ "name of your microSD" my was sdf1 and will create a file in /home/"your home" my is gae/ called sdimage;

the process will take some time...

- after ending unmount the SD and put in the new one faster;
- if there are partition in it the system will automatically mount it but the SD must be unmounted so you have to unmount it;
- type in terminal: sudo dd if=/home/"your home"/sdimage of=/dev/"name of your microSD"

many times again and at the end you will have a new faster SD to insert in your aPad!
I used also bigger SD of 8GB and tried to modify the partition inside with gparted but I couldn't modify as I like because of the original table partition that can't be modified or I'm not able to do it...
So by now only a faster inernal memory.
The sistem boot faster and read/write the SD faster but to get a very fast system I suggest to use a class10 microSD.
I hope to be able to modify also the partition to get a bigger internal memory too.

APAD 8" by Utopia (M801) 3G connected!

Hi guys, here is our Apad 3G connected as U can see in the picture above with external 3G modem Huawei E1750 unlocked!!!
There are many people out there getting nuts for connecting this device with an external 3G modem but HOW MANY OF THEM REALLY FOLLOW SELLER'S REQUIREMENTS???
Not many as me at a first approach I tried to connect via my Huawey E169 and trying many APN configurations I was able to connect this Apad only two times for few seconds (it appears the 3G icon on the status bar).
One day I finally decided to buy an Huawei E1750 the seller in the ebay auction wrote that the pad will connect with this USB kay.
One time I got the E1750, after resetting all my old APN settings (all deleted and so no APN settings present!!!) I switched on the Apad, connected the E1750 to the Apad by his dock to USB dongle and selected the "3G Open Dongle" icon present by default in the application menu, followed the on screen messages (only wait for 15-30 secs) and MAGICALLY the Apad was 3g connected!!!

This is my 3G modem, I bought it on ebay searching for a new and cheaper one but I'm sure every E1750 will be good.
Now my next step will be to integrate the E1750 inside the Apad activating it if necessary by a switch, I think to make an internal connection to the Dock pins by soldering four littlw wires to the pins of the USB key and placing a switch on the 5V wire or the GRN wire to switch the modem ON/OFF.

APAD 8" by Utopia (M801) disassembling

Hi, after my last post about this tablet I take knowledge that the internal 4GB rom was reached by a microSD class 4 and to be sure about it and to upgrade my tablet 4GB to may be 16 or 32GB I disassembled it. To start disassembling you must first remove two screws in the bottom side vertically looking the display. May be the two screws are covered by two little warranty void stickers, you must remove them. After with a little plain screwdriver start removing the touch panel long the edge between the black edge and silver edge. There are many hooks, slowly unlock them and pay attention to the internal cables, in the middle bottom and in the middle left side. To remove the lcd panel too unscrew the four corner screws.
Here the images of the tablet opened...




The rom is a microSD 4GB class4 as announced and I was happy to be sure about it, now I can upgrade the tablet with a faster and bigger microSD 8/16/32 GB class6. What I thought to modify is the microphone hole, to make one larger may be on the panel on the black side upon the microphone, may be change also the speacker with a best one, faor this I have two speakers from my netbook AOA150 wich changed with better speakers some time ago.
Also change battery it's not difficult having a little bit soldering experience...
Interesting would be reach some usb ports and may be can change the webcam module with one at least VGA 640x480 pixel.
Hope to be helpful 4U again!

APAD 8" by Utopia (M801)

Hi people, spent some days playng with my new
tablet from China, it's the APAD by Utopia (M801) Android 2.2 Froyo OS tablet with Android Market and powered by Cortex A8 iMX515 freescale CPU@800 up to 1200 with overclock, 512 MB ram and 4GB rom with max 32GB external SDHC microSD. You can find it for 169€ directly from china.
This unit has a resistive touch LCD led lighted display NO multi-touch 4/3@800x600 pixel, there is a 320x240 pixel webcam, WiFi module standard b/g and G-sensor. What there isn't are HSDPA modem (3G module), Bluetooth and GPS. Not hi problema! You can connect these modules externally by the dock-USB cable (female) in boundle. There is also the a dock-USB cable (male) to connect to your PC.
Trying rooting Froyo I tested many software and the first that rooted it successfully was Z4root V 1.3.0, I found it here: http://www.filecrop.com/apad-root.html
What I can't do by now is connecting by my Huawei E169 USB HSDPA modem but I'm working on it and found many online howto. After rooting I could delete the software installed by Utopia because it was only in Chinese lang and make it run at 1200MHz by Overclock Widget from android market. First you have to set the widget and then you can clock it to 1,2 GHz but I don't know why the widget icon shows 800MHz even if I can see the animate galaxy wallpaper go faster!?
The display is very nice with a good brightness and good contrast, I set it at 70% to save battery, best would be at 100%. Using a capacitive display with my Samsung Galaxy 5 phone, this resistive display at a first time appears not good but using it I take confidence with it and finally I can say that it's a very good and sensitive display, the max is using it with a stylus, nice playing with Angry Birds, Spider Man, Slice It and Farm Tower.
One think that shocks me was the G-sensor sensibility, firstly rotating the tablet I thought that there would be a minimal G-sensor only for the rotation function but when I played with the race game installed, I found it very fine!
The battery is a 3900/4200mA Li-polymer (inside the box there are two documents with these two different battery capacities reported sure is a Li polymer) and has life of 4 hours with WiFi on. By now I'm at the 4th recharge time and I hope the battery will reach his max capacity in a few other recharges times. My final opinion about this tablet is 8/10, Android is fantastic and customizable and the hardware is excellent even if a capacitive display would be better but consider the price!



In the left you can see little hole for built in microphone, audio mini jack imput, microSD slot, little hole for reset switch, 30 pin dock port (the same of Apple format) and the audio speaker holes. On the right there is the right tablet side and you can see a double button home/menu and the on/off switch.



The back is all silver painted wonderful for your stickers!!!
The package is fine with magnetic closure, documentation is useless, only an hardware description and some easy android operations. Inside the US/EU standard AC adapter charger 9V 1.5A, and two 30 pin dock to USB cable one for PC connection (male) and one for connection with external hardware (female). Iside the box there is the stylus place but empty!?
In the right image you can see the specifications.
This the web address http://www.utopiacn.com/eng/product.html
Hope to be helpful 4U

General Mobile DSTL1

Dovendo gestire due SIM simultaneamente e volendo disporre di un telefonino con ANDROID l'unica scelta possibile al momento è stata questo telefono detto anche SCIPHONE N21.
Dai video in rete l'apparecchio risulta ed è molto squadrato e con un frontale lucido, dai video il telefono sembra grandicello e molto spesso ma la realtà è diversa, una volta in mano mi è apparso di dimensioni contenute simili a quelle di un N73, leggermente più largo di questo e meno spesso! Li ho paragonati tenedoli in mano entrambi, probabilmente le dimensioni sono mm più mm meno quelle di un N95/N96. In mano appare molto bello e veramente leggero, le plastiche daranno prova di bontà solo con il tempo...
Il telefono è arrivato nella sua scatola contenente cell, batteria, libretto istruzioni in inglese, auricolari, carica batt con trasformatore di spinotto da USA a UE e, stranamente, con un secondo carica batterie con spinotto UE e con porta USB senza cavo di connessione da USB->mini USB per collegarci il cell. Questo mi è sembrato un errore di confezionamento comunque meglio così, ho due carica batt di cui uno generico con uscita USB, il cavetto "mancante" ce l'avevo in casa anzi ne ho due...
Sul web si legge che il cell ha un processore da 624Mhz, perciò nella regola per questi apparecchi, anzi solitamente le cpu adottate da altri marchi vanno a 512Mhz ma deficia per dotazione di memoria fissa con RAM+ROM di 128Mb+256Mb. In cambio il cell gestisce microSD SDHC fino a 16Gb.
Altra peculiarità è la presenza di una fotocamera con ccd SONY da 5Mpixel con flash e utofocus.
Android era alla versione 1.5 quella "vecchia" ma sul sito di General Mobile (molto curato) è disponibile in download la nuova versione 1.6 Donut con supporto anche all'italiano, migliorato consumo della batt, migliorata ricezione wifi etc...
L'aggiornamento è stato facile e veloce, le istruzioni presenti sul sito sono veramente chiare.
Una volta aggiornato il sistema operativo lo splash screen iniziale è cambiato ed in meglio a mio parere, dalla scritta SCIPHONE su sfondo nero che sapeva molto da cinafonino di bassa categoria si è passati ad una schermata professionale e bella con logo della General Mobile.
Anche il sistema operativo ha mostrato subito i miglioramenti, l'italiano era di default e la wifi che prima non si connetteva col mio ruter a causa della mancanza del canale nelle impostazioni, il router usa il 4 ma il cell disponeva di auto, 11, 12 e 13, ora inseriti ssid e wpa2 la connessione è stata immediata.
Migliorato anche il touchscreen, mentre qualche difficoltà l'ho avuta con il G sensor che va calibrato bene e ci si mette un po' (qualche minuto per far mettere le tre bolle parallelea terra).
Il G sensor è solo per la rotazione dei 90° antiorari.
Le mie conclusioni sono che anche se esteticamente appare un blocchetto alla fine in mano è bello e leggero, avere un display più largo sarebbe meglio ma con i suoi 240x400 è più che sufficiente ed anche luminoso, io l'ho settato a metà luminosità. C'é anche il pennino che si nasconde totalmente nel telefono ma credetemi non ve n'é la necessità soprattutto dopo l'aggiornamento.
Le funzioni avanzate ce le ha tutte fatta eccezione per il GPS incorporato ma la possibilità di gestire contemporaneamente ed indipendentemente due SIM è la peculiarità più importante!
Android si è dimostrato molto bello e reattivo, la tastiera virtuale è veramente ottima.
Ho provato degli htc con android e mi sono apparsi meno reattivi anche se con lcd magari più sensibile.
La microSD da me utilizzata è una da 8Gb SDHD Class6 che ho utilizzato solo per aggiornare Android e non ha ancora programmi o file audio video.