This is the year that we get to see plenty of new firsts –the first Google branded smart phone, the first standalone touch screen tablet device, the first commercial 3D display screens, and many more. 2010 has always been a favorite setting for some science fiction writers and while we may have not found the ultimate in renewable power sources or commute in flying cars there are still plenty of things that technology can astound us with.
Indeed, just a little over a decade ago, it would have been hard to envision the social networking site Facebook and microblogging tool Twitter as easy and accessible web services. The average high end smart phones are capable of running 3D games, augmented reality apps and of course, take videos in HD format.
Google’s Android mobile platform is an advancement that has not been talked about much in science fiction, but it does enable people to achieve a close result. This open source platform gives developers the freedom to play around with whatever functions they can think of –giving the device an almost unlimited degree of versatility (limited only by the hardware’s capabilities). Even Google’s very own apps are already awe inspiring. Take the Google Goggles for example; it is practically a device that precedes Star Trek’s translations devices (just point the phone camera at text written in a different language and the phone will translate it to English).
The tablet has also become a major figure in the tech industry. For now, circulation of the device is still limited as only Apple’s iPad is available and it has yet to be launched worldwide. But if the US sales are to be measured, at least a million units of the tablet was sold in the first month of sales alone. It will not be long before a touch screen tablet is a common household commodity –and with the upcoming Android tablet, we can expect to see more of their technology in use.
Archive for May, 2010
Future Forecast: Androids, Tablets and More
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010HTC Phone Lineup: Recap and Rumors
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
HTC is making plenty of waves recently and their latest line of smart phones is certainly a big reason why.
The list starts off with none other than the HTC Desire. This Android smart phone is the best in the line, in fact, it can even be said that this new phone is one of the best Android devices out in the market. So far, it is only matched by the Nexus One –and the two phones share the same manufacturer. This device comes packed with a 1GHz CPU, a 5 mega pixel camera and a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen.
Along with the HTC Desire, another handset was launched, the HTC Legend. This new device did not have the same edge as the Desire, but it still packed some pretty practical features. The display is smaller at 3.3 inches (but at least it was AMOLED) and it had a much slower 700MHz CPU. Like the Desire, this phone comes with a 5 mega pixel CPU.
New to the HTC smart phone line is the addition of the newly launched HTC Wildfire. This little Android smart phone is specs-wise inferior to the Desire and the Legend, but it still gets the job done. While the other phones as more expensive, the Wildfire’s cheaper hardware focuses more on the social networking aspects –providing users with plenty of coverage and of course Facebook and Twitter integration.
Next up on HTC’s to do list is the Mondrian. This smart phone is still pretty much unknown in terms of specs. But rumors that it could possibly be running on a much newer Snapdragon processor has placed the estimates that the device’s CPU might be clocked at 1.3 GHz. It has also been reported that the new phone will have a 4.3 inch touch screen or larger.
Enterprise View: iPhone and BlackBerry for Business
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
If there is one reason why the smart phone was invented, it was because people who worked in offices needed them. The first core functions of smart phones were simple: e-mail access, contacts list, organizer, a notepad and a few extras. This was the basic formula for the very first smart phones –and BlackBerry’s mastery of the email medium has made them one of the pioneers and the forerunners of making smart phones for the enterprise market.
Recently, the Apple iPhone has been getting plenty of business centric features. With the inclusion of these add-ons, more and more companies are starting to realize how much the made-for-general-market touch screen gadget could be beneficial to the company. Even Standard Chartered has announced that many of its key personnel would have a choice of getting either a BlackBerry or an Apple iPhone for their on the go device.
Still, many businessmen feel that the iPhone still lacks the edge it needs to dominate BlackBerry’s market. The main reason, and a simple one that it is, is that BlackBerry smart phones are, more often than not, equipped with physical QWERTY keyboards.
While the iPhone does have a virtual keyboard for typing out letters and long messages, no on screen keyboard can ever hope to match the physical feel of buttons and of course, the actual feedback that is felt through touch as opposed to simply being seen with the eyes or heard by the ears.
However, Apple’s iPhone is offering a few extras that the BlackBerry has yet to touch up on: security. The presence of new security features on the iPhone has made the Apple device much more appealing to some people –especially the ones that use a smart phone for work, but hardly need the keyboard.
So far, it is still too early in the race to tell if the iPhone would ever be a real major player in the business market. But if a version of the iPhone comes out with a keyboard, then BlackBerry better beware.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Stance on User Privacy Issues
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
According to the big man himself, the real issue that people should be concerned about is not the level of privacy that they get on the internet, but rather how much control they have over how their information is shared.
To quote what the man said at Times: “The way that people think about privacy is changing a bit. What people want isn’t complete privacy. It isn’t that they want secrecy. It’s that they want control over what they share and what they don’t.”
Well said, but the big problem is that his social networking site Facebook does not seem to reflect that the man actually cares. In fact, there is nothing in that statement that shows that the concept of privacy control even matters to him. He does follow up the statement by talking about trends and how things are starting to shape up, but the bottom line of it all is that despite the fact that Zuckerberg already knows that users want control he is still not willing to give it.
Indeed, the real problem that people have with Facebook is not the issue with the slowly growing lack of privacy, but rather with the way that Facebook forced the situation on all of its users. When the social networking site started out, most of the information on a user’s profile can only be accessed by direct friends. In the past few months, this access restriction has slowly expanded until large chunks of user information are viewable by people searching through Google.
Sure, Facebook’s privacy settings will allow users to set things back to the way they once were, but the fact that people have to manually change the settings is the problem. Nobody is aware that the settings have changed in the first place. Facebook did a bad job at informing users –which should have never been a problem if they did not change all the setting. People should have the right and opportunity to opt in for special offers, setting changes and what not, but these changes should never be forced upon users.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro Review
Monday, May 24th, 2010
In their recent push to create high-quality compact alternatives for their communication entertainment line of phones, Sony Ericsson has announced a number of new mobile devices. Born from this streak of development is the Xperia X10 Mini Pro, a compact cousin to the Xperia X10. Announced in a press conference in February, the X10 Mini Pro is slated to be released in the first half of 2010 in Pearl White, Black, and Red; rumours say it should be available by the end of May for an estimated £300+ before taxes and subsidies, but no official information has been released yet. Based off of the design of the Xperia X10, the X10 Mini Pro is a feature-packed compact mobile device, not unlike the X10 Mini, but with a few extras. So we should hopefully not have very long to wait for Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro deals to make their way on to the market.
Sony Ericsson has loaded with Mini Pro with plenty of features that belie its tiny size as part of a push to become the new industry standard for high-quality company phones with impressive specs and features. In order to bring the X10 Mini Pro to the forefront of the pack for communication entertainment, Sony Ericsson has included a slide-out QWERTY keyboard to make messaging much more quick and convenient. The Mini Pro also features conversation-style SMS text messaging, MMS multimedia messaging, support for simultaneously e-mail accounts, instant messaging, and predictive text input to speed up your communications.
Similar in size to its cousin, the X10 Mini, the Pro weighs about 120 grams and measures 9 x 5.2 x 1.7 cm, but its size is no indication of its power. With a 600 MHz processor, the X10 Mini Pro can smoothly handle almost anything you throw at it, making interaction with the phone an enjoyable experience without stuttering and slowdowns. Running on an updated version of Sony Ericsson’s UX platform, the X10 Mini Pro features a customisable four-corner touch screen with auto-rotating capability that allows you to easily create shortcuts to your favourite applications on your homescreen in each corner with simple drag-and-drop functionality, and easily access them with a single tap. You can also customize your homescreen with picture wallpapers.
Utilizing version 1.6 of the popular Android OS, the X10 Mini Pro has native access to the extremely useful Google application suite including Google Maps, Google Search, and a number of other applications. Along with Google Maps, he Mini Pro has aGPS support and Wisepilot turn-by-turn navigation with live voice instruction to help you plan trips and keep you on track as you travel. If you find yourself wanting a bit more functionality, there are plenty of applications in a variety of categories on the Android Market to fit whatever needs you may have. As open-source software with the second highest market penetration and plenty of support, Android allows for nearly unlimited customisation suited to your desires; you can develop your own applications, rewrite software yourself, or access the hundreds of packages already available on the internet to change the way your phone works.
Sony Ericsson has also included a fairly unique and interesting “Infinite” button that makes it easy to access a variety of context-based information with the press of a single dedicated button. Depending on what you’re viewing at the time, you can instantly check social networks for the latest updates from a friend. get additional info about contacts, find album and artist info on the track you’re listening to, or search for a video on YouTube.
Timescape, Sony Ericsson’s version of HTC‘s Friend Stream, gathers all of your social networking communication—Facebook and Twitter status updates, text messages, emails, even call logs—into a single easy-to-navigate stream that keeps you up to date and in touch with your friends, or even see if you’ve missed a chance to talk to them. 3G+ HSPA and Wi-Fi connectivity combine with the Webkit browser to let you access the web anywhere for the latest news and information—with bookmarks, you can easily get to your favourite sites with a single tap. USB and Bluetooth connectivity allow you to easily synchronise your mobile device with your computer to back up all of your data, or connect wirelessly to other devices up to 10 yards away, and ActiveSync makes it possible to connect to a Microsoft Exchange server to sync your corporate calendars and contacts effortlessly.
To live up to the “entertainment” part of its design, the X10 Mini Pro offers easy access to YouTube and FM Radio to stream music and videos right to your phone so you’re never far from your favourite song or silly cat video. It also includes a full-featured 5-megapixel camera with built-in auto-focus, photo flash, continuous video lighting for recording, and support for geo tagging to add location information to your photos. With integrated Facebook support, you can easily share your latest videos and photos with friends and family in seconds. The Mini Pro’s crisp 240×320 pixel (QVGA) TFT display is capable of displaying more than 16.7 million colours, letting you view all of your pictures in clear, vivid colour.
The Mini Pro also features Sony Ericsson’s Music Player that they’ve perfected in their other phones to offer quality music playback and intuitive interaction. The Music Player can save album art to make browsing what you already have a quick and colourful experience, while the “Infinite” button also makes it easy to check out new music. With a simple press, your phone can instantly gather pertinent information from the PlayNow music store or YouTube so you can buy the track. Likewise, the extremely useful TrackID software allows you to record a few seconds of any song you hear, after which it searches through the online database and within seconds returns album, artist, and track information for a huge collection of music. Bluetooth A2DP stereo offers freedom of movement as you listen to your favourite music, or use the 3.5mm headphone jack for conventional headphones. Up to 16 GB of microSD storage in addition to 128MB of internal memory gives you plenty of space for your music and other media, applications, and games you might find on the PlayNow store or Android Market. Set to be released very soon stay tuned for more Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro reviews shortly.
LG Panther Appears Ready to Pounce
Monday, May 24th, 2010
Microsoft has yet to announce when the new Windows Phone 7 OS will finally be launched, but it looks like they already have their first smart phone ready: the LG Panther. This handset already appeared early in March –right after the WP7 Series was announced. Now, several months (and a name change) later, the new MS mobile platform has finally appeared running on a commercial model (no word yet if the Acer demo device shown in the Microsoft presentations was a commercial design mobile phone).
As seen in the images, the Panther comes with a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a large WVGA capacitive touch screen. While LG has yet to tell us how big this screen is; initial estimates place it at 4 inches diagonally. Spec wise, the phone will be following Microsoft’s preset requirement for the new OS, which means that we can expect a 5 mega pixel camera, GPS, WiFi, an accelerometer, Bluetooth and the usual smart phone extras.
The CPU will no doubt be a Qualcomm chip, and we are hoping that it will be the newly announced Snapdragon-A that runs at 1.3 GHz (like the one used by the upcoming Mondrian by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC).
Of course, the new phone will have all of the WP7’s announced features. This means that user will get to enjoy all new 3D game apps running on Microsoft’s XNA system and will be able to log and track their in-game achievements via the Xbox Live Games service. Media fans will certainly enjoy the Silverlight support and access to the new MSN player.
Microsoft Office will also be present in the device, brining much needed enterprise functionality to the otherwise social-networking centric operating system. With no specific launch date having set, we can only wait for this amazing device to finally hit store shelves.
Tech Myths: Mobile Phones Inducing Cancer; Again
Monday, May 24th, 2010
According to a recent headline: “Using a mobile phone for 30 minutes will lead to a heightened risk of brain cancer” –it is preposterous to see and read something like this when it was only a few days ago that the results of a major study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France has finally polled in the results of their large scale study which showed that there is no link between using mobile phones and the presence of brain cancer in users.
While it is understandable that there will be medical professionals who would support one result and dispute the other, the fact of the matter is that the International Agency for Research on Cancer is a World Health Organization division and that their study encompassed 13 different countries with subjects that reached up to 13,000 in number. This is officially the largest study ever made to search for the link between phone usage and the presence of brain cancer.
The Institute of Cancer Research has its own studies and they are also a respected organization. However, to actually think that their research surpasses that of the WHO would preposterous –or at the very least, mildly insulting to the global effort.
In any case, regardless of who ever is right about their findings; the fact of the matter is that no matter how many health warnings are put out, people will never stop using mobile phones. These gadgets have long since become necessities –far from the gadgets of convince that they were when the first mobile phones were introduced.
In this day and age, nobody can survive a regular work day without being able to keep in touch with colleagues and contacts. Even one’s personal well being is not tied up to having a phone –socializing and even family matters are not usually discussed over mobile devices than meeting in person.
The Next iPhone Could Be Spiffier than the iPad
Monday, May 24th, 2010
No one knows for sure, but if the now emerging rumors hold a shred of truth in them, then there is certainly a lot to look forward to when Apple holds their press conference this upcoming June 7.
We already knew early on that Apple is planning a June event, but nobody really know what this will be all about. Many are already predicting that this would be mostly focused on the upcoming Apple iPhone 4G/HD device that is about to be launched. At the same time, we are also expecting the event to cover some bits of the upcoming worldwide iPad launch from the folks at Cupertino –provided that they finally managed to manufacture enough of the devices.
According to various reports, the specs of the upcoming next generation iPhone are as follows: first off, better screen technology. The device is expected to make use of both IPS (in-plane switching) and FFS (fringe-field switching) which will enable the iPhone to be viewable –somewhat even when the lighting conditions are bad –basically, under sunlight.
We have no idea yet how this will turn out, but at least Apple has been able to pinpoint one of the major weaknesses of their devices. For the record, the Apple iPad is completely worthless in direct sunlight as the screen tends to reflect too much light.
Other spec details revealed is that the device will be packed with Samsung made RAM at 512MB, an LG touch screen with a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels (we are estimating a screen that is at least 4 inches diagonally) and of course, a front facing camera.
The rumors are also stating that Apple is now preparing for a large demand for the product and that they plan to manufacture at least 24 million units all in all. For June alone, it is expected that Apple would have at least 4.5 million units ready and waiting.
Facebook Bullies Mobile Networks to Provide Free Access
Thursday, May 20th, 2010Well, we really do not know how Facebook managed to convince 50 mobile network operators all over the world to provide free internet access to their website, but they did. And this is a nod to the power and influence of the social networking site that has over several hundred million users.
Facebook has recently overtaken Google in terms of being the most accessed site in the internet, the site is not just getting bigger –the scope of Facebook has also been expanded as well. Facebook started out as a simple social networking site, but now it has expanded to become the haven of many social groups, a message hub for families a directory for schools and so much more. At the same time, Facebook holds the most private details for individuals on a global scale.
Recently, Facebook has launched two mobile-optimized websites; the 0.Facebook.com and the m.Facebook.com. Both sites have been trimmed down and optimized so that they will load fast on mobile phones and will also be easy to use. The 0 version is made primarily for devices that do not have a touch screen display while the m version is made for users with touch screen phones.
According to Facebook, they have made an agreement with 50 mobile network operators in 45 countries in order to provide users with free access to the largest social networking website instantly. And by free, we mean completely free.
As impressive as this may sound, the service is not available in the UK. It appears that locally, mobile network operators stand to lose a lot by providing free Facebook access to users. Other countries such as Germany, the USA and even China are not part of the list. Surprisingly, UAE and India (which are heavily populated), are part of the countries covered by the free service.
Tech Myths: Mobile Phones and Brain Cancer
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
The argument is far from over, but for now, the latest verdict is that mobile phones do not cause cancer. A group under the World Health Organization has been doing an intensive study among mobile phone users in 13 countries. This is officially the largest study ever done to find the link between the use of mobile phones and brain cancer.
The study focused on 13,000 people and in particular the correlation of mobile phone use with occurrences of the two types of brain cancer; glioma and meningioma. The results are pretty surprising, it turns out that there is hardly any link between the use of mobile phones and the presence of cancer. Judging from the results, one might even say that the use of mobile phones actually decreases the chances of having cancer.
However, medical experts are not about to accept this conclusion. Many believe that the sample size is too small and the study should have non-phone users as part of the control group. Aside from criticism from the medical community, the study still provides a promising look into mobile phone use.
Despite the large scale of this study, it still lacked certain factors. First off, phones have different signals. The basic technology of mobile phones is the same, but there are slight differences between the network types being used. There is nothing that distinguishes the difference of the user sample that uses the older 2G networks and people who make use of 3G. The study also does not take into account the various usage patterns –which phone users prefer to make calls or which of them prefer to send emails or text messages.
In any case, the study still has plenty of merit, thanks to the large scope of the research done, this little bit of news will certainly be enjoyed by many promoters of mobile phones.