App-based "bike sharing" systems have grown unbelievably fast in Chinese cities. But what does bike sharing really look like? How does it use technology to create new options for urban transportation?
When I first visited Shanghai in mid-2016, transportation was a bit tricky. I wasn't staying particularly close to …
In Part 1 of "Inside a $34 Smartphone" we poked at the software side of the dirt cheap Huami H3 smartphone.
We now know the phone is a Spreadtrum SC6825 passing off as a MediaTek. Using fake branding that combines Huawei and Xiaomi into Huami - something less than either.
(Speak Russian? Vlad translated this post!)
This Huami H3 smartphone cost me $34US (210RMB) in January. It's sold with a 5 inch screen, Bluetooth, WiFi, 4G cell connectivity, Android 4.4 and an 8 core processor.
I picked it up in the electronics capital of the world - Shenzhen, China. My …
On Friday I tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/projectgus/status/555828391329292289
This post expands on what I meant.
Last week I was fortunate to be in Auckland attending linux.conf.au. There are dozens of things I could write about from LCA, inspiring talks and fascinating people doing great …
It's possible to blacklist a single USB device from connecting to Linux, while allowing similar USB devices to connect. In my case, I wanted to disable my laptop's built in Bluetooth host (a USB device installed inside the laptop). However I wanted a second USB Bluetooth host, integrated as part …
I've been a bit lax with the blog updating. In Part 1 of this post I promised Part 2 "soon" and here it is, eight weeks later. Oops.
This two-post series, aimed at embedded device beginners, explains some differences between Arduino and Raspberry Pi. In this second part we're going …
Decisions, Decisions...
"If I can buy a Raspberry Pi so cheaply, why would I ever use an Arduino for an electronics project?"
I often hear this from people who are new to embedded programming and electronics. This post is the first of two, aimed at beginners in the embedded world …
This post is about last month's Shenzhen Maker Faire. It follows on from Shenzhen Trip Part 1.
Shenzhen was my first Maker Faire that wasn't "Mini". Mini Maker Faires are organised externally to Make Magazine but under license, and there have been two of those in Australia - Melbourne …
Earlier this month I was lucky enough to head over to Shenzhen, China, for Dangerous Prototypes' Hacker Camp and Maker Faire Shenzhen. I flew over with Jon Oxer (from Freetronics), and Mitch Davis (from Hackvana) was on our flight as well. Good Melbourne contingent!
Ian from Dangerous Prototypes has put …
I've been messing around with Bluetooth Low Energy on a few projects lately. There's some fun stuff out there, but like a lot of embedded stuff it can be a bit tricky in a non-Windows environment (I run Linux whenever I can.)
One module I've come across is …