Out with the old, in with the new Samsung i9000 Galaxy S Well, figured I should use this blog to vent other thoughts. First off, a bit about the Samsung i8910. I thought the most likely update for it to get was Touch Wiz 3.0. I emailed some folks at Samsung and they don’t have any plans to implement that on the device. Windows Phone Series 7 on the i8910? Well, that seems unlikely. Turns out, Microsoft made a ‘gimmick i8910’ just to get people excited. It’s totally not happening. To get it in on our current devices we would have to replace the display with a smaller one. Microsoft certainly wouldn’t let us have this device with WP7 without Windows branding on the buttons. So sad but true. If that i8910-like device running WP7 is ever to be released, it will be different from what we have now. Other OSes are just not going to happen. It’s too complex to implement them and there are few people who have the time or the skills to do that successfully. With the slew of new devices coming out and Samsung’s heavy marketing of the i9000 Galaxy S, the i8910 is pretty much dead. Updates will come, but mainly to fix bugs. The introduction of kinetic scrolling will remain the biggest update …

The big move My new website is http://anphase.com I have decided to move from wordpress.com to wordpress.org. There are several reasons for my move to the new domain. More control: with the move I am more able to control everything about the website. You will see that the difference between this website and the new one is quite big. I can now embed videos from any services, store more data etc. Ease: wordpress.com and wordpress.org are about the same, I transferred about 99% of the blog/comments etc to the new site. Ads: As you may know, I’ve been doing all this work in my spare time without much to show for it. The new domain allows me to place a few subtle ads so I can make a dollar or two out of it :-) Easy to remember: anphase.com is easier to remember, it just rolls off the tongue. It’s still a work in progress, tell me what you think, suggestions, attacks etc. all welcomed :-)

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. 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 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, 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. E-Book reader E-book Reader: There are plenty of e-book readers on the market and more on the way. Most are bogged down by E ink technology in an attempt to mimic the ‘real’ reading experience. The iPad, like the iPhone, uses transreflective technology for its display allowing for easy operation even in direct sunlight. That makes it good enough for almost any conditions thus easily outweighing any advantages E Ink has in when it comes to displaying content. Concerning battery life, the iPad doesn’t disappoint with 10 hours of continuous use and up to a month of stand-by time. Millions of e-readers have been sold worldwide with their limited capabilities. The Kindle DX for …

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.Whether or not I’ll be in the queue to get it on the first day is a mystery to me. I really want to like it as it is, but I know that Apple will respond to user feedback and launch a much better device with a camera, faster processor, support for flash content and multitasking in 2011. Not to worried about the software side of things, but that missing camera is a pain that can not be “fixed” with a software update. Time will tell.

A couple of problems with the iPad 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. No flash support. As a device for the ‘ultimate web experience’, this comes as a bit of a surprise. I thought Apple would up the game and come up with a flash enabled browser. Given that they do not allow 3rd party browsers, this is how it’s going to be for a long time. Maybe they’ll release the iPad Flash in 2011? No multitasking. Very disappointing as well, even more than flash. Symbian phones have been doing it for years and they are not nearly as powerful as the iPad. Why Apple, why? Maybe it has to do with performance? iPhone apps rarely stutter or crash and they probably want users to experience the best of which ever app they’re using on the iPad as well. Bummer. No camera/webcam. Maybe I’m being picky here but this is very restricting. A webcam or camera of some sort would have opened a whole new dimension and given greater reason to get this device. Coupled with its 3G capabilities, it would have become a more useful communication device. Even …

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. Apple is a game changer and there’s no doubt in my mind that the game will change in some way. The tablet, based on the iPhone OS, which in itself revolutionized the mobile phone industry, is bound to have the same, if not a greater impact than the iPhone. The tablet industry has been awfully clumsy and filled with really expensive devices. Devices that offered nothing special when compared to other computing devices, only compromises in an attempt to cram a lot of technology and power into a very small space. Technology has evolved over the years. A quote from a Popular Mechanic’s article on of James Cameron’s Avatar movie applies to tablet computers up to now: "the project was so ambitious that it took 10 more years before Cameron felt cinema technology had advanced …

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. The Sony Ericsson Kurara for instance, set to be launched some time this year has a 3.5" LED display, S60 v5 and pretty much about the same features as the i8910. According to an early leak(Russian), the Kurara offers nothing that hasn’t been seen before on the i8910. Sony Erricson Kurara, offering nothing new The Omina HD has had at least a 6 month head start against this device. It has the upper hand, or does it? Samsung Mobile Innovator was launched in late 2008 as: "a new program …