Anphase
Root of Negative 0neKindle Classic Review
Why on Earth… I have to admit, I didn’t read much until recently. The only stuff I ever read were school books so that I could, you know, get along and pass my courses. So a while back, I heard the Steve Jobs autobiography was coming out. I was fascinated by the man so I decided I wanted to […]
The Paperless Dream
Since the beginning of time I’ve been searching for a device to replace paper. The problem with paper is that I use a lot of it. A whole lot of it. For performing a quick calculation, jotting down some notes, making a quick sketch etc., paper is the easiest, cheapest and fastest way to get […]
On to the next one
After over a year with the Samsung i8910, I am moving on. Samsung is through making updates — in fact it’s through doing anything Symbian for the time being. As far as custom ROMs go, there’s only so much the modders can do. The ROM cooking community is not very big and with no further […]
Windows Phone 7 Shaping Up To Be Monster!(Video)
#include <microsoft> #include <mobile> void main() { (((Zune + XBox_Live)*Simplicity)^Fresh_UI)^2 = Windows_Phone_7; //squared for awesomeness } return success; The Formula For Success Yes that’s right, the code with the formulae for success right there. No logic required, Windows Phone 7 looks like a winner right now. Microsoft has taken the things that define ‘mobile’ today […]
gpSP4Symbian for Samsung i8910 Now Live(Video)
Thanks to the persistence of one Samsung i8910 user, @brower, and some hard work by the developer gpSP4Sybian now works on the Samsung i8910. Video after the break.
Symbian^4 Screenshots Revealed, Lacking Oomph
The screen shots for Symbian^4 just leaked, they’ve since been taken down from the official site but I got them via Daily Mobile(thanks @Snizzl3) I’m a big fan of Symbian but it has let me down lately. Nick Jones from Gartner said it perfectly, it’s like Symbian is “re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titatic”. […]
Some Awesome s60 5th Edition Apps for the Samsung i8910 pt.4: Games Edition(video)
Now I’m going to look at games on the Samsung i8910. Some of these games are not free, few good things are. In the preview I’m going to cover some of the games I got from Gameloft HD Games. They range in price from just $US0.99 to $US4.99 which is about the same as iPhone […]
Consumer Electronics: The grass is never greener
Now I’ve been reading up several devices, trying to find out if there’s a perfect device out there. The results were exactly as I expected, there are no perfect devices. So the question is, why is this? Why can’t some company just make a killer device that does everything the users want. Just how bad […]
Apple iPad: The be all and end all of mobile computing
The Apple iPad has been bashed the blogosphere over, even I took a swing at it. Reading through all the problems, I believe we’re missing the point. The iPad is a revolutionary device and it will change mobile computing as we know it forever. Purpose The first thing that I’m going to tackle is where […]
Apple iPad: The bad
So the Apple iPad has just been announced and I couldn’t help but notice a few bad points. It looks awesome and promising and it will probably do well but there are some short comings, as expected.
Can’t Samsung Re-Launch the i8910 Omnia HD?
The Samsung i8910 was announced at the Mobile Wold Congress 2009 and officially launched around the world some time in May 2009. At the time it was announced, it was not short of innovation. Being the first mobile phone to boast a 3.7″ AMOLED display, first Symbian phone with a capacitive screen, first mobile phone […]
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What to expect in the upcoming update and a bit more(video)
I’ve prepared a video to give you a preview of the upcoming update. The firmware is not final, it still has a few issues to be ironed out but it does give you an idea of what’s to be expected. I’ve also included a few apps from Samsung Mobile Innovator and Imagination Technologies PowerVR SDK. […]
Version 3 of the report on the Samsung i8910 is ready, a great conclusion…
Report on the i8910 v3 Yes the report is up, better than ever before! It took hours so feel free to dive in and enjoy!!! 7421 words, 38 images and countless hours of work! Coinciding with 2000 signatures signed! Here’s a screen cap of a few pages: A few corrections have been made, some people picked […]
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Well that took a while…
Posted on July 26th, 2012 2 commentsWhat can I say, life happened
. A lot has been happening in tech as always. The new and exciting gizmo of the moment has to be the Nexus 7 tablet with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, then there’s Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion released today. Having tried these out, there are a few thoughts I have on them.Nexus 7
The Nexus 7 doesn’t really break new ground. Yes, it is the first 7 inch tablet with a quad core processor yada yada, but the most important feature it has is wide availability. The Kindle Fire was the first powerful-but-easy-on-the-wallet 7 inch tablet. Problem was and still is — you can only get one in the US. Enter the Nexus 7. Boom.
It’s widely available, powerful and super affordable. The only other company that has the resources and experience to pull a hat-trick like that is Apple. Maybe that’s why the rumors of a 7.8 inch iPad are starting to brew.
Back to the Nexus 7. I wasn’t really sure I was a fan of the 7 inch form factor until I tried it out. I love the iPad but at times I think it’s just too big to take everywhere with me. The Nexus 7 is just right. It’s light and just portable enough to go everywhere with. It doesn’t get in the way. It is the perfect balance between mobile phone and tablet.
It’s not without flaws though. There are issues with the display that people are reporting: the screen is lifting off the unit on the left side, dead pixels, over saturated images etc. On the features side, it lacks a micro SD slot — a trend that seems to be getting more common with mobile devices. The iPhone is to blame, pity the HTC One X had to follow suit. Despite these petty issues, it costs about half the price of the low end iPad so… hey,16 gig will suffice.
Overall, great device at a reasonable price. Jelly Bean is also a great update to ICS. It doesn’t add a whole lot in terms of features but it adds spit and polish to a solid Android OS. I will be looking forward to the JB update HTC promised on my One X.
Mountain Lion
Mac OS 10.8 is a bigger shift to iOS than Lion (10.7) was. It’s bolder and more refined than its predecessor. There are more than 200 new features but the ones I have actually noticed without digging in are few.
Visually it looks and feels about the same. There’s a new notification centre icon in the top right corner where spotlight used to be. The dock has lost its glossy reflections aaand that’s about it. It has a new dictation feature, a bunch of new apps from iOS, notifications and improved performance. At $US20 there’s no reason not to love the update. It make a couple of commercial apps like Growl notifications redundant. Awesome, unless you’d already paid for them
Well that’s all for now, tune in next year on some random day when some random things happen in tech and I have time to write about them!
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Updated
Posted on May 17th, 2012 No commentsWell it has been a while and a lot of things have happened, naturally. The update took a little longer than expected
. Anyway, back to the happenings. The Desire HD is gone, replaced by the super awesome HTC One X. The first gen iPad is gone — replaced by the new resolutionary iPad and the Kindle classic has been substituted by the Kindle Touch. Reviews will follow soon. The Galaxy S3 is also coming up and although it doesn’t look like it, it has the best benchmark scores of any phone ever. That said, I still have some old devices lying around and I want to go in depth on what has changed and what has remained the same on mobiles in the last 5 years. I guess the next big thing coming up is iOS 6 in June and perhaps some resolutionary MacBooks! -
Updating…
Posted on January 20th, 2012 1 commentJust moved to a new and better host for anphase.com. I moved from Go Daddy to Bluehost. Faster, better, stronger, awesomer. I am still fixing some database bugs but everything should be sorted in a few hours – it takes a while for the updates to ripple through the inter-webs especially to NZ – it’s still better than what Go Daddy had though! iTunes U for iOS and iBooks 2 look awesome by the way. If only my 1st gen iPad didn’t crash so much… But that’s another story.
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2012, Year of the Tablets #2
Posted on January 4th, 2012 1 commentThere’s a big clash happening this year. When Windows 8 meets the iPad. Android Tablets, Playbooks all the Windows 7 tablets and stuff are irrelevant for now, the iPad is still the only tablet I can recommend. I’ve used many of the Android tablets and I have to say, they are not great. I’m not sure whether I can attribute their sluggish performance to the operating system or the hardware; at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter – bottom line is that right now they are garbage. I won’t even go into the Windows 7 tablets. Windows 7 wasn’t built for tablets. Nuff said. The Playbook just doesn’t offer enough for anyone to take it seriously. It’s dead in the water.
You’ll notice that I said Windows 8 meets iPad and not iOS. The iPad is very popular, so popular in fact, that in the tablet realm, it stands on its own. Unless the next iteration of the iPad (iPad 3 I suppose) ins’t “revolutionary”, ultimately Windows 8 will win.
Windows 8 strengths
Power
Windows 8 is a desktop operating system whereas iOS is a mobile operating system. I’ve been using Windows 8 Beta since it was released a few months back and it is awesome. Although it is not clear how much of the desktop elements will remain on the tablet version of the OS, it looks very promising. With support for full desktop applications such as Office and Visual Studio, iOS can not compete when it comes to software.
Metro UI
The Metro UI on Windows Phone is one of the most attractive user interfaces anywhere. The Windows team has managed to expand on that great UI without compromise in Windows 8. The ‘live tiles’ are the next generation icons. The principle is quite simple – animated tiles of various sizes displaying some information about the application, that are locked into a vertically-sliding grid. They eliminate problems of organising icons, knowing something about the apps and esthetics all in one blow. Gone are the days of the static icons that we’ve had since the beginning of personal computers!
Familiarity
It’s Windows. That may be a turn-off for some, but people use Windows more than any other operating system. Windows 7 became the most widely used operating system around August 2011 after beating…you guessed it…Windows XP. The same can’t be said about Mac OS 10.7 Lion which is yet to beat its previous iteration 10.6 Snow Leopard.
What the iPad needs
More power
Yes, it’s not about the features, but the iPad 3 needs to up the ante. When I say power I’m not just talking about the processing capability, I’m also talking about the interface. The iPad is not great for input for several reasons – but that can change. Siri for the iPad seems to be an inevitable addition coming to the iPad. That would offer a unique competitive advantage because even though Siri isn’t perfect, it’s very good and it has so much potential.
Steve Jobs said something like “if it has a stylus, it sucks”. He has been wrong before and I beg to differ with him on this one. Humans have been writing stuff with instruments for 5000 years now! Fingers lack the precision and intuitiveness of a pen. We use several fingers to carefully coordinate the motion of a pen and we learn to do this from as early as we can grip stuff and continue to perfect the craft till we die. A stylus implemented the right way is mightier that the finger for input any day.
The processor, ram, graphics chip etc. are not very important though. At the end of the day, it’s important that whatever they implement works well. It doesn’t matter if they decide to use the same processor with the same 512 MB RAM or a quad core processor with 1 GB of RAM – as long as the thing works well. My first generation iPad is still alive and kicking but it crashes like crazy. It crashes more often than it doesn’t. Whether I’m using the native browser, playing a game or running some app…crash. I don’t know about the iPad 2 but I’m guessing it is not immune to crashes either. I would have thought a new OS like iOS would be the first crash-less OS. There’s some research on the subject using Formal Verification and Models of Computation but I guess we’re not quite there yet.
Final words
There is going to be a shake up in not only the tablet space, but in the whole computer industry this year. Windows 8 will arrive in all it’s glory on multitudes of new tablets from all the major manufacturers. The iPad 3 will also arrive, probably with the highest resolution tablet screen for a while, together with an A6 processor and a new version of iOS – iOS 6 – later in the year. Android is not resting on its laurels either. More tablets will come out to demonstrate the full power of Ice Cream Sandwich. It will be interesting to see if the same thing that has happened in the mobile phone space will happen again in the tablet space, that is, Android will take the lead in market share, the iPad will drop just below it and Windows just won’t take off. This is a whole different type of ball game though and I don’t see that happening.
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Where my robots at?
Posted on December 11th, 2011 No comments
NAO robot, you can get one now…for an arm and a leg…if you get picked
For the longest time I thought 2 things were going to happen before 2010. The first was that tablets were going to take off. They did. I thought Windows was the OS to do it since Microsoft had been trying for ages but that didn’t really work out. Instead, Apple came out of no where with the iPad. Actually it was probably because of a Microsoft executive (read the Steve Jobs biography!) but that’s another story. The second thing that I thought was going to happen: robots.
I honestly thought robots were going to be mainstream by now – like everyone either has one or knows someone who does. Years ago, I used to watch a show called ‘Japanese Video Topics’ and they had all sorts of robots; from the Aibos to the the ASIMOs of this world, both announced over 10 years ago in 1999 and 2000 respectively, what ever happened to them? I understand they were quite expensive when they first came out but isn’t all technology? I thought by now I’d have or at least I’d be able to afford a robot pet of some sort. But ain’t so.

NAO robot with 25 degrees of freedom
The NAO robot shown above is the latest iteration of the robot by Aldebaran Robotics. They have a developer program whereby you apply and if accepted you pay several thousands to join. Once a member of the developer program you get a robot with the SDK. So these things aren’t really for sale.
The cheapest programmable robots are probably the Roomba vacuuming robots by iRobot, you can buy those for a few hundreds. They have all sorts of range sensors and there are lots of ways to interface and program them around the inter-webs. Of course they don’t have arms or fingers with opposable thumbs like the NAO robot but it sure beats nothing. Funny thing about iRobot is that they are this hightech robotics company making cutting-edge military robots…and vacuums.
I guess it comes down to what consumers would want with a robot. I would want to program it for fun, teach it to do something interesting like…umm…dance?… I can’t even think of a good reason why I would want one actually. It can’t make calls or help me communicate, it can’t do anything useful like fetch stuff because it’s too slow and the process is pretty complex (obstacle avoidance, object recognition, navigation) it can’t keep me company because the AI and voice recognition on it probably sucks. Basically, until these things are good enough for doing things in a domestic and highly complex environment, they will never become mainstream. Given the exponential rate of progress, probably by 2020 we’ll have something.
So much for that.
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Kindle Classic Review
Posted on December 11th, 2011 No comments
The Kindle Classic aka The Kindle 4
Why on Earth…
I have to admit, I didn’t read much until recently. The only stuff I ever read were school books so that I could, you know, get along and pass my courses. So a while back, I heard the Steve Jobs autobiography was coming out. I was fascinated by the man so I decided I wanted to read the book. Problem was, the thought of adding another book to my fairly large collection given the limited space I have seemed like a drag. So I started to look for alternatives. The obvious option was to buy the ebook on Amazon and read it in the Kindle apps on either my phone, iPod, iPad or computer. Simple. Not so much.
You see, I had tried to do the same before. I have several lengthy research papers in PDF format that I’ve had to read before – this proved to be a nightmare and I ended up printing them out for reading. My biggest issue: glare. I just can’t stand it! It’s OK to be in front of a computer screen (or any backlit screen) for 1 or 2 hours at a time, but when you have to spend say 5 hours straight? Nightmare. Programming or doing other tasks is different. You have the opportunity to look all over the screen and occasionally look away to think. When reading you’re staring at about the same spot, scrolling and all – not cool. So I decided to get a Kindle.
Overview
I decided to get the classic Kindle. I will admit, at first I thought I would buy it then sell it to get the Kindle Touch but it turns out, this is the better one for me.
The Kindle classic is better than the other touch variants for several reasons. First off, because it lacks touch sensors and speakers, it’s the lightest and thinnest of the the ebook readers out there. The screen is also not as ‘deep’ as the others because it lacks touch, which means that there isn’t much of a shadow cast on the screen when you’re reading under a light. Such things are important since the Kindle lacks a backlight.
Reviews have shown that the Kindle Classic is also faster than the other touch screen readers or at least as fast. The other readers just don’t seem to be as responsive. This could be attributed to the touch screen technology or just poor software though. The Kindle Touch lacks physical page turn buttons, in fact it has only a home button and power button. This means you have to touch the screen (at specific oddly chosen areas mind you) to turn the pages. Although I haven’t used the touch screen, many others who have find the physical buttons on the Kindle Classic better than the touch controls. I personally think they are awesome; not that the screen would smudge or anything (it doesn’t because of the matte finish) but the tactile feedback and the quick response are satisfying.
The beauty of it
I was against ebook readers a short while back. I thought they were pointless, sluggish, backward and gimmicky. The idea of this monochrome, slow-responding, single purpose device seemed ridiculous to me. I thought it was one of those things that was just going to pass. Those ideas started to change when I tried to do some serious reading on my iPad. I just couldn’t stay focused. I found myself getting easily distracted. Besides the eye strain, I would get all sorts of notifications or I would just start thinking about playing Infinity Blade or Sparkle or something. There’s just so much that can be done on the iPad. That, coupled with the eye strain just left me with heaps of stuff half read.
That’s when I realised the potential of these ebook readers…and I was right. There’s not much you can do on the Kindle, especially the Kindle Classic. With no touch screen, even the things you can do are a pain. For instance, the Kindle has a built in ‘experimental’ browser, but without a touch screen and with the e-ink screen, I have to say, it’s one of the worst browsers I’ve ever used in my life. I won’t even get into the ridiculously slow process of text input. The only thing this device is good for is reading books. That’s it. And that’s awesome!When I’m using the Kindle, my mind is clear, it’s just me and the book. The thoughts of checking my mail or browsing the web or playing a game are all thwarted by the pain of the thought of trying to do anything other than reading the book. There’s this purity to it that I just love.
The Kindle has rekindled my interest in reading. I’ve always been fascinated by all sorts of facts, people, events, techniques etc. but it had been a while since I had gone out to look for books the cover these interests. The Kindle has helped me rediscover the wonder.
The bad
That’s the good stuff. There’s really not much I don’t like about the Kindle but I will list a few things that could be better…or wishes rather.
- The screen resolution is pretty low. It would be nice if it were sharper than 600x800 (@167 ppi). Ideally it should be close to the iPhone/iPod Touch Retina ppi of 326. That would be awesome! The text is quite alright though, I rarely ever notice the pixelation of text anyway.
- Expandable memory would also be nice but so far the built in 2GB is more than enough for me. Each book is usually a few hundred KBs anyway and you don’t really want to be stuffing anything other than books in it so yeah.
- ePub support would be nice too. That way I could buy books from other stores or something and just load them without converting. On the other hand the Amazon store has the largest collection I believe and they have the best prices anyway.
That’s about it really. No deal breakers for me.
Kindle Classic PDF reading (my project report!)
In conclusion
I love this Kindle, it’s the best piece of kit I’ve bought in a while. It’s not for everyone though. If you want to take notes and listen to audio books or music, then the Kindle Touch is the better option. The other touch readers by Kobo and Sony are also alright according to the reviews floating around. You may also want consider the older Kindle Keyboard if you’re big on buttons and the form factor. Otherwise, if you just want the raw basics in a slim, light package with a few buttons – you can’t go wrong with the Kindle Classic.
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The Future: Siri-ously Lytro
Posted on October 21st, 2011 2 commentsThere are a few technologies that have popped up in the last few weeks that I believe are the future. One of them is Siri and the other is the Lytro camera. I will start with Siri.
Siri

Siriously awesome
Siri is the incredible new virtual assistant for the iPhone 4S. It (she) works with voice commands and as far as intuitive control goes, it gets no better than that. Nothing comes close to voice control when it comes to passing commands right now… maybe until they perfect that Emotive brain control system.
Why is this awesome? Say for example you want to create an appointment tomorrow for 2pm. On most devices, the procedure would be something like this:
- Launch the calendar application
- Select the option to add a new appointment
- Enter the title or description of the appointment
- Enter the location
- Pick the date
- Pick the time
- Save
That’s roughly 7 steps and I can bet there are heaps more steps for other devices. To do the same thing in Siri is just a matter of holding the phone up to your ear and saying “Set up an appointment for me with Michael at 2pm tomorrow”. Boom. That’s it. That is just one of the many things you can say to Siri. Siri is not only aware of who is talking, it’s aware of relations, members of the family (wife, husband, brother, contact) aaand it’s also location aware. So you can tell Siri something like “Remind me to call my sister and to take out the trash when I get home”. Once set up, it will know who your sister is and know when you’re home using GPS. Amazing.One of the skills we master early in life is to talk. Instead of having to learn how to use computers and other devices, it’s great to see that technology has reached a point where it learns us and the way we can interact with it. That makes technology more accesible to the masses, no manual needed. The next bit of tech is also about as revolutionary, it’s called the Lytro camera.Lytro

Lytro camera
Words can not describe the awesomeness of this camera… So I found a video to break it down. In a nutshell, the Lytro camera captures the light field as opposed to just a plain image. With this light field data you can refocus an image after taking it. That’s incredible. Further more, you can parallax-pan the image and do all sorts of magic with the picture data. I can foresee this technology moving into mobile phones. I mean, there’s no need to focus and the camera is lightning fast — perfect for mobiles.
There is room for improvement though. The 8x optical zoom is probably part of the reason why it has such unique elongated cube design. Also, I assume the large amount of data captured is the is probably why the Lytro camera can’t do video right now but I’m sure with advancements in storage and perhaps some optimization and compression, we’ll be seeing that soon.This kind of camera will definitely shake things up and I can not wait to see it extend to video capture and mobiles. Enjoy the Lyro camera demo from All Things D at the AsiaD conference with Walt Mossberg below.
Apple, iPhone, Mobile, News iPhone 4S, Lytro, Siri, The Future, Video Lytro -
Change
Posted on October 8th, 2011 12 commentsIt’s really funny how things change so fast. At the beginning of the year, I let go of my Samsung i8910 and I got a new Android phone, the Desire HD. At that time it was the cream of the crop — later came the Samsung Galaxy S2, which still reigns supreme. Now my Desire HD is now looking dated; it weighs a ton, it’s thick as ever, it has a washed out Super LCD screen, a single-core processor and poor battery-life. Such is the trend year after year.
Some phones seem to last though, those phones that are really good at a particular thing. The Nokia N8 for instance is still the best camera-phone around, the iPhone is still one of the most stylish and app-rich phones and… well I guess those are the 2 big ones. Every other phone seems to have faded to black. My assumption is that the Samsung Galaxy S2 will have the same fate as every other phone. It’s really good at the things that keep getting better on phones and not much else. It has an awesome processor, great screen… great everything really, but it won’t be so hot a year from now unlike other phones. In fact, it will probably be overshadowed in every way like the Samsung Galaxy before it — by another Samsung monster (I’m looking at you Nexus Prime).
I like having images in my posts. I guess the one I picked is appropriate for this piece because we spend a lot of change changing phones and such. The Desire HD is a mediocre phone. I can not say it ever blew me away. The i8910 for instance had lots of potential and that drove me to the whole report/petition thing. The Sony Ericson K800 Cyber-shot, which I had before it, blew me away with its amazing camera. That camera still amazes me today with the Xenon flash and amazing still shots even when the camera is moving.
From now on, I’m all about good products that last. Products that are supported for as long as they are relevant.
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Remember: Free Upgrades to Lion for New Macs
Posted on July 7th, 2011 1 comment
Mac OS 10.7 Lion
If you bought a qualifying Mac from an authorized retailer on or before the 6th/7th of June, you are eligible for a free upgrade to Mac OS Lion (10.7). Lion is available only through the Mac AppStore, so all you need to do is head over to the Apple Up-to-Date page and get a redemption code; enter this code in the AppStore and you’re good to go. The 4 gig download is quite a pain though, wish they had a boxed option for those of us with limited bandwidth. I heard you can download Lion free from an Apple Store if you happen to have one in your area… or country… or continent. I had trouble finding this so hopefully it will help someone.
Source: Apple
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First Look: Macbook Pro, Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Posted on July 7th, 2011 No comments
MacBook Pro 13 inch Early 2011
I got a MacBook Pro 13 (early 2011) about a month ago and I thought I should share my early impressions on both the MacBook and OS X Snow Leopard. Now I do realize that Snow Leopard is going to be refreshed this month — in about a week or so, according to rumours — so my experience with Snow Leopard will soon be forgotten but still relevant. I will also talk about OS X Lion when it comes around — I’m eligible for a free upgrade to Lion since I bought the mac recently. The key specs are:
Intel Core i7 2.7GHz dual core, 4GB DDR3 RAM and 500GB Hard drive. It also has a Thunderbolt port but I haven’t found any use for it. Mac OS version 10.6.8 (current latest and probably last point update for Snow Leopard)
“Missing” Programs/Features
Coming from Windows, there are some programs that I assumed were bundled in with every operating system. For the most part, they are present in Snow Leopard but there are some that I miss.
Paint
I never thought I cared much for Paint until I realized it was missing in OS X. It’s a simple graphics tool that you can use to draw stuff, shapes, lines and what have you. Nothing like it is bundled with Mac OS X. Lucky enough, someone made a clone called Paintbrush. It works like a charm with all the key features that make Paint such a gem.
Aero Snap
One of the features I’d grown to love on Windows 7 is the Snap feature. This resizes open windows to occupy half or the entire screen when you drag them to the edges or the top of the screen respectively. It’s a very powerful feature for productivity — so much so that even Ubuntu now has it. Not there in Mac OS X. In fact, window management in OS X is pretty bad. Windows don’t always maximise to occupy the whole screen; you can only resize windows by dragging the right bottom corner and no where else.
There are solutions though, this time not free. I use BetterSnap Tool which goes further than Snap to allow resizing of windows to a quarter of the screen as well. I also use Moom which has more advanced window management to allow customizations like resizing windows to 3/4 of the screen using keyboard shortcuts. It’s overkill — which is why I love it!Uninstalling apps
Installing programs on the Mac is quite different from Windows or Ubuntu. It’s very simple — drag the application into the applications folder. Some programs do have “Windows-like” installers though and others require installation via the Terminal. That’s all well and good. Maybe I’m being a little picky here but… The problem comes with removing apps. On windows we have uninstallers that take care of everything most of the times. On OS X you have to navigate to the applications folder and delete the app/drag it into the trash. Worse still, parts of the apps still remain in mysterious places.
Once again there’s a truckload of apps to solve that issue — simply drag the app to be deleted into an app like AppCleaner, and it will find the all garbage files associated with the program for you.The good stuff
I’ve focussed mainly on the bad so far. Now for the good stuff. You’ll notice I haven’t said anything about the MacBook itself — that’s because it’s left me speechless. It is beautifully made; from the uni-body construction, to the backlit keyboard, to the giant glass touchpad — it’s all well thought out and simply awesome. The only thing is that it’s heavier than I thought but that’s ok… I could do with a bit of a workout.
The Mac more than makes up for the few things it doesn’t have with a boatload of features.Automator
Automator is an app for building apps in a way. You can design a workflow or a series of tasks that you want the computer to do for you. These can be repetitive tasks like resizing a batch of images based on some criteria or extracting data from a website or anything really. I haven’t fully tapped into it but I can tell it is extremely powerful.
Spotlight
Spotlight is like the text search in the Windows start menu, only way more powerful. It indexes all the files on you computer so they are only a few keyboard strokes away. With spotlight you can quickly search for and open files, applications, word definitions and even perform calculations. There are more powerful options on Mac through, like Alfred, Quicksilver and others which can allow you to go to websites and even search websites or play songs in iTunes, write a note, create a calendar event or send an email — all from a little one line text box. Yeah.
Mac AppStore
I’m a huge fan of apps. I like trying them out, discovering new things and doing the things that I’ve always been doing easier, smarter and easier. I like easy. The Mac AppStore is simple and elegant and it has a whole bunch of apps. I find that Macupadte still has more apps than you can poke a stick at though. Macupdate has everything, the old and the new — stuff that hasn’t been released (betas), stuff that has been rejected etc.
Conclusions
The Mac is awesome and OS X Snow Leopard is awesome too. I will be upgrading to Lion when it officially comes out. I didn’t get any of the developer previews because I wanted to experience Leopard first as much as possible to see where it’s all coming from. Hopefully my experience will be helpful to anyone new to a OS X or just plain interested. I will continue to post more OS X stuff and a top apps list or something together with the usual(or not so usual :-p) news and happenings.
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Crazy Mobile Chipsets on the Way
Posted on July 6th, 2011 2 comments
Qualcomm Roadmap
Some insane mobile chipsets are on the way starting later this year. According to this leaked roadmap, a 1.7 GHz dual core chip is coming out Q4 this year. It will be enable 1080p video capture at 30 frames per second(fps), and 20 mega pixel 3D images. It gets crazier from there — another processor in the leak is a 2.5Ghz quad core processor capable of 60fps and 30 mega pixel stills. Of course that’s coming out a little later on — in 2013. Looks like we’re in for a wild future in mobile.
The thing about a lot of tech is that it’s very hard to predict where things are going. Henry Ford once said something like
If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me “a faster horse”
Looking at this roadmap, these processors are exactly that — ‘faster horses’ — something everyone expects — and that’s great for now. I doubt that in 2030 or something we’ll have 10,000 core chips with whatever frequency. I can’t help but wonder what the next big innovation in processing will be. Perhaps when processors are fast enough companies will start focusing on other important things like battery technology which is stuck in the 80s.
Via: Netbooknews, Engadget
Source: M. Daou, MobileTechWorld
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Will a Display Screen Let Me Recharge My Cell Phone?
Posted on April 12th, 2011 5 commentsThis is the first Anphase guest post by Sofia Sheppard who writes for the solar battery chargers blog, the non profit hobby web site that she uses to share the latest technology information about solar battery chargers for small devices. Enjoy…
French corporation Wysips is focusing on a whole new technique which will allow mobile phone touch screens to perform double duty as photo voltaic power panels to recharge cell phones.
The thought is pretty interesting [1] mainly because it consists of laying an extremely thin transparent pv film layer together with the mobile phone display. The film will take energy not just from the sun, but any nearby source of light.
Expected recharge times can be about six hours from sunlight and some time longer from leaching electricity from indoors lights. Wysips is at work for the 2nd development of the technology, which seems to supply half an hour of talk-time after just one hour in the sunshine.
The major problem with a solar battery charger could be that the sun moves continually, and my practical experience have been that you must move the battery charger every minutes to help keep it in the sunshine.
Actually most solar chargers for cell phones can be best for individuals who spend lots of time outdoors, and should not readily utilize a car or wall charger for devices. Backpackers, fishermen, etc, could possibly like this.
Otherwise, you are probably happier picking something different. The most effective solar mobile phone chargers available on the market take a long time to charge — a single hour charge will give you just enough to make a 5–10 minutes mobile call. It requires something similar to 8–10 hours to obtain a full charge.
Another big disadvantage of these chargers would be that the unit is only able to be charged approximately 500 times. This could equate to approximately 12 months in the event you used it everyday. You will never go green with this particular thing, since you’d need to change it out every 12–18 months.
With more persons getting cellphones and ipads etc.…, the drain on electricity grids is increasing. So, incorporating the capability for the mobile phone to independently re-charge from the sun light implies they could help pull their own weight, and also you wouldn’t ought to take along another battery charger or move it around.
Another interesting truth is the opportunity to employ this system to charge the smartphone while using the indoor light… it is a real bonus. The device could be continually charging as light falls on display screen, meaning it might be topping off it’s power as the mobile phone just sits inactive.
This progression is much more appealing than previous attempts to generate solar chargers for smartphones, for instance Samsung’s Blue Earth mobile [2], which included a solar charger on its back. A few months ago Apple was awarded a patent [3] for a process to charge mobile units using solar powered energy, an indicator the company considers solar powered energy worth exploring.
The solar efficiency from Wysips’ charger is now only 9 %, in comparison to the most effective solar panels used elsewhere. That is much better than the 0 % smartphones offer now. The additional power gained coming from a solar charger for instance Wysips’ could allow cellphone designers to produce slimmer batteries for their devices, or facilitate faster, stronger devices with appropriate battery lives.- Wysips Official Web site explains in greater detail how the new solar charger works
- Official Samsung web page where it’s published the info about the Blue Earth Phone
- Techcrunch writes on the Apple’s patent on photovoltaic powered devices.
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MeeGo Tablet User Experience(Video)
Posted on February 15th, 2011 1 commentThe video speaks for itself. The UI is not very interesting. It’s about, swiping, tapping and long pressing. You have panels that have different sets of data, sort of like big widgets. There’s really not much to say here. It’s still early in development (notice the mouse pointer?) but I don’t see much to look forward to with the UI just yet.
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The Best Tablet So Far: The HP TouchPad(Video)
Posted on February 14th, 2011 1 comment
HP TouchPad
The HP TouchPad’s is the epitome of tablets in 2011. It has the design, the guts and the user interface of a true champ. It’s even better than the Apple iPad because it beats it at its own game — blending elegance and emotion with functionality. The TouchPad takes functionality to a whole new level.
Design
The TouchPad is slim and it has a glossy finish. It’s got a gorgeous 9.7-inch XGA capacitive, multitouch screen with a vibrant 18-bit color and a 1024x768 resolution. It also has a 1.3MP front facing camera and internal stereo speakers with Beats Audio™. A well thought out design.
Guts
The TouchPad performance is awesome. Way better than anything we’ve seen on Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets — that’s the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy 10.1. It has a snappy Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 clocked at 1.2GHz. Each core is faster than the processor on any tablet released in 2010 and there are two of them! It is the best performing tablet yet.
User Interface
The UI is what sets this tablet apart more than anything. It’s beautifully done and very well thought out. The ‘cards’ and ‘stacks’ and especially the notifications all make for an unparalleled experience. The integration of services like Twitter and Facebook is deep — the experience feels more complete than anything. I’ve embedded a video demo posted by HP to show you what I’m talking about after the break. Read the rest of this entry »
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Newspapers Are Dead
Posted on February 12th, 2011 3 commentsEarlier today, I launched The Daily app on my iPad. It immediately started to download today’s issue. This was the headline:

The Mummy Returns
Several newspapers came in this morning with a similar headline.

Newspaper headlines today
I thought, wow. After all that’s happened Mubarak won’t step down? Wow. A little while later the story changed. Turns out he decided to step down after all. The headlines on newspapers remained the same. We’ve got to wait for tomorrow to get the latest on that situation.
In computer terms, we say The Daily isn’t hard, it’s soft — it can be edited. That’s a powerful thing. Because a few hours later, the headline and news changed to this:

Mummy’s Curse Lifted
That’s my paperless dream. Paper must go. I mean, ok, there are times when the newspaper is convenient - say there are no iPads lying around or there’s no internet to even start with. Then yeah, yeah…
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Jerusalem ‘Super Ball’ UFO Fake? (Video)
Posted on February 6th, 2011 No commentsSo there’s this ball of light that hovered over a holy temple up in Jerusalem. This happened on the 28 of January and there are several videos showing this UFO. I’m a big fan of this UFO thing but I’m also one of the greatest skeptics. I don’t believe any of it but I really want to. The folks at Disclosur3 have taken 3 of those videos and synchronised them for our viewing pleasure. Here’s the video and my analysis of it after.
My problem is with the way the videos are shot. You’ll notice that when the first two videos start, the UFO isn’t the centre of attention! I mean the people behind the camera are giving us a view of both the UFO and the temple below. It’s almost as if they are trying to say “Hey look, we’re here in Jerusalem, just like the other guys taking these UFO videos”. At the moment when the UFO shoots up, again the camera people are not trying to zero in on this thing to try and identify it. No. Instead they’ve all conviniently zoomed out so we can see the ball take off! I don’t know about you, but I’m not buying it. as much as I’d like to. Oh, and by the way, I just made up that ‘super ball’ thing since we are in the Super Bowl season, no one else is calling it that, sadly.
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Android Honeycomb: Yet Another Real iPad Competitor, For Real
Posted on February 6th, 2011 No comments
Motorola XOOM
We’ve been here before. The Galaxy Tab was the first real iPad rival. A few months down the line and we’re starting to hear the same thing all over again, Honeycomb is the new first real iPad rival.
Honeycomb is, of course, Android 3.0 — Google’s answer to the iPad/iOS in general. The iPad and iOS are both Apple controlled whereas Honeycomb is Googles OS new Android OS supported by tablets from a slew of manufacturers from here on. I’ve got a feeling this is going to be the “iPhone killer” story all over again, only with iPad instead of iPhone.
Several tablets are going to be released with high hopes, massive fanfare, glitz and glamour, only to turn out crappy. What we have to realise is that Apple has more than a year head start. Steve Jobs said the iPad came even before the iPhone did. That says a lot when it comes to maturity of the platform. When buying an iPad or an iPhone, it’s not a gamble. You’re pretty much guaranteed of a high quality experience that few companies can offer.
Honeycomb on the other hand is starting off at the rear end of the line. This is Google’s first attempt at a tablet OS. And it’s coming at a time when Apple is gearing for round 2. Now consider this. With Android, it took Google about 3 years to catch up. Most people agree that Android 2.3 is at least on par with iOS. They both have their issues but they just about cancel out. Android in the tablet realm is probably going to take about that long to catch up to iOS.
Entering the game at the same time is the HP/Palm Tablet. It has all the elegance of iOS and with the right hardware it could shake things up, more for Google than Apple as it tries to gain tablet market share. These are tough times for Tablet and OS engineers but awesome times for consumers, if they make the right decisions. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Paperless Dream
Posted on February 6th, 2011 2 comments
The NoteSlate — This is it
Since the beginning of time I’ve been searching for a device to replace paper. The problem with paper is that I use a lot of it. A whole lot of it. For performing a quick calculation, jotting down some notes, making a quick sketch etc., paper is the easiest, cheapest and fastest way to get that done. But there are several problems with paper.
Paper occupies physical space. I have so much paper lying around everywhere in the form of notebooks and refills and random scraps of paper it’s crazy.
That brings me to another problem. Managing all of this paper. One can form only so many stacks and each stack can only be so high. The result is that I can never find anything and I just have to dispose of the older stuff. It’s all quite depressing.
A few years back, I got the HP iPaq 211 PDA. That was my first serious paper replacement contender. With a 4″ resistive touch screen that has a 640x480 resolution and Windows Mobile 6.0 , I thought it was perfect. I got the ultimate writing app too — PhatPad (shown below). Read the rest of this entry »
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3D Phones? Come On, Really?
Posted on February 1st, 2011 3 comments
LG Optimus 3D
Maybe 60years ago the headline was Colour TVs? Come On, Really? And a few years before that it was Sound In Movies? Come On, Really? But seriously, come on, really? My point is, 3D at the movies and especially 3D in the home, hasn’t really taken off. What gives them the impression that it will work on mobile phones? Google certainly doesn’t support 3D in Android yet and there aren’t many apps(if any) that have anything to do with 3D in the Android Market.
LG is going to unveil the worlds first full 3D smartphone capable of 3D photography and video recording at Mobile World Congress(MWC) 2011. The phone also features a glasses-free LCD 3D display. The thing about 3D is that it’s not everywhere. Where are you going to view these movies and photos? On your phone’s ~4″ screen only? On the 3D TV that you probably don’t have yet? Granted, there are some 3D TVs, photo-frames and laptops on the way and already on the market, but they cost a lot. This 3D phone is like an invitation for an expensive ride that’s going to crash.
It’s future proof though, right? Not even close. First, there’s no guarantee that this 3D phone thing will take off. We might remember it as one of the great flops of 2011. Second, 3D hasn’t really been standardised. So the kind of 3D that this phone produces and displays may not be the one used by everyone else, making it redundant.
The ultimate questions are, does a 3D user interface have advantages over 2D interfaces to justify the price? Are videos or pictures that much better? Like the difference between black/white and colour, SD and HD, day and night?
Phone screens are small and you interact with them; tap, flick, swipe, long press etc — effectively obscuring your view of the display partially. They are also flat; 2D with a width and a height. Introducing depth in the UI without extra screen real-estate is a formula for disaster. Unless it’s just a cosmetic change and that makes whole thing pretty pointless.
3D phones are a gimmick not worth paying for. I wonder when coffee making holography phones are going to be announced? It’s about time! Read the rest of this entry »
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The Symbian Advantage
Posted on February 1st, 2011 4 comments
Symbian OS
The Symbian OS is powerful. Extremely powerful. There’s nothing that you can’t do on Symbian that you can do on the other platforms. The same can’t be said about the other platforms. Allow me to illustrate.
iOS is not open, there’s no secret about that. Although Apple is becoming more flexible on the kind of apps you can use on the iPhone, there are still a lot of things they don’t allow. That is why the jail-breaking scene is so huge — it allows you to do some simple to complex things that Apple won’t allow. From turning the phone into a Wi-fi hotspot(coming soon in iOS 4.3 maybe?) to displaying more info on the lock screen or transferring files via Bluetooth - features that have been available on Symbian devices either out-of-box or through apps for ages. We often take these features for granted. It’s when you don’t have them that you realise the central role they play in your mobile experience. Read the rest of this entry »
