Korora Project | Korora 18 (Flo) beta released

The Korora Project announced today the first beta release of version 18 (codename “Flo”) which is now available for download.

Features

Derived from Fedora 18 stable, this release comes with the usual Korora extras out of the box, but now also includes:

  • Adobe Flash plugin
  • Experimental support for Valve’s Steam client
  • unburden-home-dir, which moves cache files (like in Firefox profiles) onto RAMFS at login
  • undistract-me, which pops up a GUI notification when a terminal command has completed

Upgrade

It is now possible to upgrade from Kororaa 17 to Korora 18, thanks to Fedora’s FedUp tool.

via Korora Project | Korora 18 (Flo) beta released.

Favourite Android Apps

I’ve mentioned before that I use an Android phone, currently a HTC One X, and thought I’d share my favourite apps. Note that I said favourite. I can’t guarantee that they are the best out there but are the ones I use and like.

Paying For Apps

I’m a bit slow to buy an app without trying it first so rarely buy an app when there isn’t a trial or free version available. I know this is strange given that most apps cost less than that universal item of economic comparison, a cup of coffee. Having said that I should add that when I use and like an app I invariably buy the paid version.

The Apps

(Clicking on the name will take you to Google Play)

Chrome – there simply isn’t a better browser particularly if you use it on your computer as well.

Security is something everyone thinks about and locking your phone is a simple security measure but it can be fustrating when you use it a lot. Delayed Lock turns off the lock when you are in an environment that you feel secure such as when connected to your home wifi. It has other features too such as the ability to wipe your phone after several failed attempts to unlock.

Your phone is useful for some rather mundane things too, like doing the grocery shopping. I’ve used Hungry Shoplist for while. It is a bit basic, there are others with more features but it works for me. Some custom roms have an option to turn off the 3 dot menus, I found Hungry will crash with this option selected. I don’t think this is a bug as it isn’t a feature of standard Android.

I bought my phone in Australia but it was an International European model and so came with few locales installed but not Australia. More Locales2 does what its name says, allows you to add any locale you want.

If you have a data limit on your phone you’ll find Netcounter useful to keep an eye on how much you use.

Sometimes you need to quickly turn features like Wifi, mobile data and GPS on or off. Having Power Toggles on your home screen can do that and much more.

One app I use but never touch on my phone is Mighty Text. It uses your phone to send SMSs from your computer. It also shows incoming SMSs and other alerts on the computer screen. Follow the instructions to set it up, the installation order is important but easy to do and use.

One problem with phones is the difficulty typing on them, a good keyboard is essential and there isn’t any better than SwiftKey. It has a wide range of languages packs including Australian English which makes it even better.

For drivers who want or need to keep a record of vehicle expenses aCar is very powerful. It tracks all types of expenses and can handle multiple vehicles.

Android probably has more weather apps than any other type but to track current weather and forecasts in Australia only Au Weather is worth considering. It uses data from the BOM and nothing is as accurate or reliable as the official data.

Lastly HTC Sense is a bit controversial, many hate it and some love it. Personally I don’t dislike it and stuck with it for a while but once you try other launchers you find there is better options out there. I tried several but currently use Apex. It isn’t the fastest but has some nice features and good support.

So there are many apps I like and use regularly. I have others installed on my phone, e.g. I mentioned Open GPS Tracker in an previous post, but these are the ones I use most. E.g I don’t use a custom camera app as the standard HTC one on the One X is as good as any I’ve tried.

If you can suggest any others please do so.

More on Geotagging

I posted recently about geotagging photos in Linux. There is a post on the digiKam blog about the same subject with a good idea I hadn’t thought off, using your Android (or any other one that can tag photos) phone to take a reference shot. Read the whole post here, it’s worth a look.

Geotagging in Linux

You may ask why geotag images? I have some images I took on film 20 years ago and would love to know where they were taken. Often I have a rough idea but I couldn’t find my way back there if I wanted too. One image is marked ‘beside the Croydon to Georgetown Road, Queensland’. Not very helpful when you think those 2 towns are nearly 150k apart, that’s almost 95 miles for those from non metric places.

Recently I’ve been experimenting with automatically geotagging my photos, also known as GPS Co-relating. This requires having a gps track of where I have been and an application that can match that track with the appropriate photos.

First thing is to create a gps track. This can be done with a dedicated gps unit or with some other device. I chose to use my android phone because I always have it with me. To record the track requires an app. There are many available but I use ‘Open GPS Tracker‘ because it is open source, it’s free and it works. It has many options that I don’t use including real time streaming. It has the option to output .gpx files which is what the co-relating applications require.

After you have the track you need an application to read it and match it to your photos. As always there are a number of options in Linux. Digikam has this option but I couldn’t get it to work reliably so I use ‘GPS Correlator’. It is available in the repos of many Linux distros, just needs a ‘yum install gpscorrelator’ in Kororaa (and Fedora). It has more options than Digikam which is how I got it working.

One thing I should mention is that your camera and gps unit (phone in my case) must have the time settings synchronised as accurately as  possible. Doesn’t need to be to the second but as close as you can get it. As most phones handle their time settings automatically this means changing the setting on your camera. Check it before each use particularly if you live in an area with daylight saving.

In the gpscorrelator screen you can select photos to process then the gpx file you got from your gps unit. You should set the time zone your camera is set to as gps data is always in UTC. You can also set the time difference and offset. Fortunately gpscorrelator has tool tips which describe how to use these options. If you still get no match on some images try selecting the ‘Between Segments’, it compensates for any gaps in your track. Particularly useful for areas with poor gps reception like cities and wooded areas.

Gpscorrelator also has an option to remove gps data from images if you want your location to remain private. This is handy for phones and other cameras that automatically record your location. For images taken at home and at friends’ places you might prefer to keep the location private when you post them on photo sharing sites.

There are a couple of things I’ve learnt so far. First is allow some time between starting the tracker and taking your first image. Also between taking the last image and stopping the tracker. First time I tried it I stopped the tracker when I got back in the car after taking the last images. None of the images taken there would match as the last point in the track was some time before the images were taken. Today when I got it working I started the tracker when I left home and stopped it when I get back.

Second is if you are constantly moving you might need to adjust the ‘Logging Precision’ in ‘Open GPS Tracker’s settings. It defaults to normal but if you find this doesn’t give enough points try a more precise setting or set you own custom interval. Experimenting is the only way to know what works for you. Explore the settings for other options that may improve your accuracy or that you might find useful too.

If you are using the tracker for a long period, e.g. most of the day, you might need to consider battery life. So far I’ve been in the car and I can plug the phone into a charger so that isn’t a problem. But without the external power recording a track for several hours may result in a dead phone battery. This maybe a good use for an old android phone if you have one laying around, maybe you know someone who has recently updated?

Adding location tags to your images is useful now and so easy to do why not try it.

Favourite Linux Applications

Below is a list of the applications I use regularly. I don’t claim they are the best but they are the ones I prefer. Many are KDE based but there are fewer of them than previously. I use both KDE and Xfce as my desktop environments. The apps that come with Xfce are pretty basic so I prefer alternatives.

One of the complaints I have about many of KDE’s apps it that they have been combined with KDEpim which means you can’t install single apps. If you don’t use Kmail and its brethren then I would avoid Blogilo and Kjots, both of which I have previously used.

Chrome / Chromium is my browser of choice. Not perfect, it doesn’t integrate into the desktop too well. But it is fast and has the main extensions I like.

Conky – just calling Conky a system monitor really understates what it can do. Conky can do so much that it requires its own post. Since it introduced real transparency it greatly reduced the problems running it under KDE. One of the first things I set up on a new installation.

Krusader – twin pane file manager. Dolphin is good especially with the split feature but I like the power and retro style of Krusader. I’ve tried others like Midnight Commander which is quite good but nothing comes close to Krusader.

Gimp – it is all you need to edit images. To work with raw files just add ufraw and ufraw-gimp.

Digikam – adds digital asset management aka photo organiser. Has editor which works better for raw images than ufraw but I prefer Gimp. Has export to almost anything you can think of.

Cups-pdf – while Koffice and LibreOffice can create PDFs adding cups-pdf allows you to create them from anything that can print.

Kdenlive – the most stable video editor under Linux. A good balance between power and ease of use. Not perfect but there is nothing better at the moment.

Tilda – a drop down terminal emulator. Makes accessing the terminal so easy and you can hide it and let it get on with what is doing. KDE provides Yakuake which has many options and is a great application.

LibreOffice – the most polished FOSS office suite there is. If only Base was up to the standard of the rest of the suite.

Clementine – what can I say, can’t work without some music. A good mix of features and performance.

Zim – note taker / desktop wiki. I used Kjots for a while but it was integrated into KDEPim which meant it was near impossible to sync it between 2 systems so I switched to Zim. Just as good maybe better but I don’t use all its features and it has fewer dependencies.

So that is it. There are other applications that I use from time to time which work well too, things like Yumex and VLC but the ones above are those I like and use nearly every day. They are all available in Kororaa, a couple require extra repos to be installed in Fedora though.

Kororaa 17 Released (Finally)

Chris Smart announced finally announced the release of Kororaa 17 today. It had been delayed by a couple of weeks waiting for enough mirrors to sync the iso’s but he obviously didn’t want to wait any longer. Full details can be found at the Kororaa site.

The new Cinnamon desktop is a great addition. As expected Kororaa 17 comes with all the extras that we come to expect. It is still based on the current Fedora and so has all the latest applications and access to one of the largest repos around. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Cinnamon Adds Some Spice

One of the big additions to Kororaa 17 is Cinnamon. You probably know that Cinnamon is an alternative interface for Gnome 3. It was developed by LinuxMint to provide a similar usability and experience to Gnome 2 while retaining the technical advantages of Gnome 3. It provides a more traditional user interface that many of us prefer. In the last couple of days Cinnamon has accepted as an official package in Fedora.

I’ve experimented with Cinnamon in a vm for a few days and I must say it is impressive. I can see why it is so popular. Performance is good, even in a vm and it can be made to look good. I found my way around the system without problems and felt comfortable using it something I can’t say for Gnome 3.

Cinnamon is option on the Gnome version of Kororaa 17, you need to select it in Sessions on the login screen. Kororaa 17 beta has been out for some time and if you have it installed you will get the updates to the  final version by simply doing a regular system update. The final version will be officially announced any day now.  See the Kororaa site for more details.

Kororaa 17

Kororaa 17 “Bubbles” Beta was released yesterday. As with previous Kororaa it is based on the final Fedora 17. There are the usual KDE and Gnome versions with the extras you have come to expect from Kororaa. Kororaa 17 introduces a new option too, the Cinnamon desktop is included with the Gnome version.

Check it out here.

Xfce 4.10

It is old news now that Xfce 4.10 has been released. If you haven’t caught up with it yet there is a tour of the new features. Unfortunately the release was too late for it to be accepted for Fedora 17 which is due out soon. It will be part of Fedora 18 that is due later in the year. However all is not lost as there are repos available for 17 and 16 at Fedora People.

I’ve been running it for a few days now on my Kororaa 16 system and on a separate Fedora 16 Xfce spin. While there are no earth shattering changes 4.10 includes some nice improvements over 4.8. One that is not mentioned on the tour is support for wallpaper slideshows. There is no need to run scripts as we did in earlier versions. The improvements in Settings and the addition of the Mime Type Editor are useful too.

The update procedure went well after first removing xfburn which requires some work to function in 4.10. There was an issue with the main panel having everything on the left. This is easily fixed by adding a separator and setting it to expand. The systems have not missed a beat, they are still as stable as they were. If you didn’t notice the changes you wouldn’t know it had been updated. If only other DE’s could learn from that.

All in all this is a good update and recommended for all Xfce users.