Month: January 2010

Support for Samsung i8910 Omnia HD to continue till end of 2010

Upadate: Update: I’ve moved to a new website

From what I’ve observed with the Samsung i8510 Innov8, it is apparent that Samsung will continue to produce updates for the i8910 up to at least the end of 2010. That’s really promising considering that many people thought the i8910 had reached the end of its life cycle and it had been left out in the cold.

Samsung i8910
Samsung i8910: It's not over yet!

So, the question is, what are they going to be doing in this time? Fixing bugs only? From my meeting, it appears as if the features are generally permanent and they may consider implementing only a few of the proposed suggestions from the report. Adding kinetic scrolling was quite a leap, it was never described as a feature on the phone but they decided to add it to enhance the devices functionality. What else is in store for the next couple of months?

Samsung has failed to deliver

Before we go into the updates, it is now apparent that Samsung has failed to deliver the official update on time. They said in their press release that:

“The firmware update will be available from January 2010 in the UK and gradually rolled out to other European markets, Southeast Asia, the Middle East Asia, Africa and rest of the world.”

According to information that I got from i8910 owners around the world, the update has not been released anywhere. Continue reading Support for Samsung i8910 Omnia HD to continue till end of 2010

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.

Apple iPad
Apple iPad, the future is now

Purpose

The first thing that I’m going to tackle is where the iPad fits in. That, I believe, is the fundamental key to its success. It covers a lot of categories under its umbrella, making it a ‘must have’ device among ‘must have’ devices. Continue reading Apple iPad: The be all and end all of mobile computing

Apple iPad Launching in New Zealand first

Apple iPad
Apple iPad Launching in NZ first

The Apple iPad is set to launch worldwide in late March 2010 starting with the WiFi version which will be followed by the 3G + WiFi version in April. As with the iPhone 3G launch and the iPhone 3GS after it, the Apple iPad will be sold in New Zealand first before the rest of the world. From other similarly priced devices, the iPad should be starting at about NZ$799 which is a really good price. That places it smack in the middle of Netbook-ville. I wouldn’t wait for the 3G version which is considerably more expensive since I’m either at home or at university 90% of the time, breathing WiFi. Besides, NZ 3G plans are really bad, not at all practical for the ordinary human being. Continue reading Apple iPad Launching in New Zealand first

Video demonstration of the new Apple iPad

Engadget just got a hold of the new iPad and took it for a spin. Here’s the video taken at the Apple Launch Event for the iPad.

[viddler id=51b063e8&w=437&h=288]

It looks really awesome and operation is fluid. Except for the bad points, the Apple iPad is a winner. Can’t wait to get my hands on it myself.

Apple iPad: The moment of truth

Apple Event
The moment of truth

Well the time has come for Apple to reveal the tablet that everyone has been waiting for. Even Bill Gates said that

“the future of computing lies in the small genre of portable computer called a ‘tablet PC’.”

back in 2001. In an interview in 2007(at around 3:28) on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart he went on to say that he uses a tablet in meetings. But I digress, the Apple Tablet is here and now. Continue reading Apple iPad: The moment of truth

Battle of the mobile browsers: Opera Mobile vs. Skyfire on S60 5th Edition(video)

Tested on the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD

Major highlights

Opera Mobile:

  1. More fluid browsing
  2. Better User Interface and elements
  3. Tabbed browsing

Skyfire

  1. Better home screen with social media integration
  2. Faster browser load times
  3. Support for flash/ajax scripting/javascript

…and both of them are free, You can download the browsers at these links:

Download Opera 10 Beta 2 here

Download Skyfire 1.5 Beta here or by directing your mobile browser to http://m.skyfire.com

Can’t Samsung Re-Launch the i8910 Omnia HD?

Samsung i8910
Bright Future?

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 to support OpenGL ES 2.0 and the first mobile phone with HD video recording. Add to that an ARM Cortex-A8 600 MHz processor with a Hardware Graphics Accelerator, 256MB RAM, an 8 Mega pixel camera and a compass just to mention a few of the highlights. Some of these features are the same as, if not better than the features seen in mobile phones that have been launched lately. Continue reading Can’t Samsung Re-Launch the i8910 Omnia HD?

Screen test and simple concept for a torch app for the Samsung i8910

DIY Screen test

I recently read this article, on the MOTO labs website, for a DIY touch screen test for capacitive touch screen phones. So, I decided to put the i8910 to the test to see how it compares to the others and this was the result, click on the image for a better view:

DIY Screen Test
DIY touch screen test with the i8910 factored in

The test on the i8910 showed there’s waviness and stair-stepping, an indication of low touch screen sensitivity. The outer edges show low sensitivity as well but this is probably deliberate because of the screen’s close proximity to edges and also because there are no contours around the screen. Continue reading Screen test and simple concept for a torch app for the Samsung i8910

What to expect in the upcoming update and a bit more(video)

Update: I’ve moved to a new website

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. All these are freely available for download. So far, these demos are as close as we can get to the full power of the i8910, and that’s a lot of power. I’ve also added an extra video with a preview of Symbian^4 running on the i8910 courtesy of AAS from The Symbian Exchange and Exposition SEE 2009.

Short demo of upcoming update and a bit more

Links

(Updated) You can download qt demos from qt demo website. To get Qt to run on the i8910 you need to install the following files:

Qt_selfsigned

Qt_installer

Fluidlauncher

After that you’ll have a suit with several Qt demos. You can then install the Weather, Budget apps etc that are on the Qt website above.

Qt Apps
A bunch of Qt apps on the i8910

SMI Demo pack from Samsung Moblie Innovator (You need to have a free account with Samsung Mobile Innovator to download)

(Updated)Opera moblie browser from Opera Mobile. Watch a video comparison of Opera Mobile vs. Skyfire (with links)

Fring for VoIP from the Fring website

You can get more free apps from AAS(All About Symbian) over here on their top 20 list of applications for the i8910 compiled by Steven Litchfield.

Some of these apps take a while to install because they consist of several applications. You will need to accept a bunch of things many times when installing…maybe 20 prompts, I lost count 🙂

Check out some Symbian^4 action on the i8910. As this runs right on top of Symbian, since Qt is a UI framework, we may see it coming later on. The demonstration starts around 40 seconds into the video. Courtesy of AAS.

I have no links though, it was strictly a demo for SEE 2009. Continue reading What to expect in the upcoming update and a bit more(video)