Google I/O 2012

It's just over, and hello Jelly Bean, hello Nexus 7, hello Nexus Q, hello Project Glass, hello offline maps, and hello Android's Chrome.

I personally are more excited toward Nexus 7 and offline maps. An USD199 tablet with latest hardware is kinda attractive to gadget mania like us. Offline maps is actually the most environment friendly design, at least it save some power to connect to the server to download maps info over the 3G or LTE. Now the phone battery can eventually last more longer if you are road blind like me.

Look at these big IT player, Google, Apple and Microsoft, they are non-stop giving us waves of new ideas and products. I believe they can't stop, unless they planning to close down their operation and go back kampung to plant banana.

So thanks to them for all the ideas and also sucking our hard earn money for their hard works.

2012 International CES

If you are fans of IT & gadget, CES will not sound strange to you. It's happening now at Las Vegas, from 10/1 until 13/1.

This year sound very interesting and mostly are concentrated on OLED screen, slate, ultrabook, smartphone, new processor. All the big players are there to show their latest product line for year 2012. So, if you plan to get a new phone or new notebook, wait until June to get all the latest products from these players.

What I notice these few days, Android 4.0 ICS will flood the world of phone, slate and TV operating system this year; screen resolution is pushing to HD 1920x1080 for new ultrabook; touchscreen will dominant the world from phone until huge TV; phone and TV getting thinner and thinner; Intel finally realized that the huge market of mobile processor; Microsoft is trying hard to penetrate the phone and tablet market; Nokia and BlackBerry seem dying; Ericsson is no more with Sony.

Year 2012 will be a very interesting year and I believe once Google TV launched, it will again shake the world. Let's sit down, have a cool drink and watch the show.

Microsoft owned Skype

An USD8.5b deal and Micro$oft owned Skype. I was Skype user since few years ago and I used to use its VoIP when I was oversea to call to my family's mobile phone with about USD0.06 per minute, it's definitely very cheap solution if you found free wifi service.

So how Micro$oft will use this product? According to Micro$oft CEO, Ballmer, he said

"We're committed to optimizing Skype for the TV, with Xbox and Kinect, for the Windows Phone, and the Windows PC," he said. "We [also] want to extend the reach of Skype by connecting Skype users with users of our Outlook products, our Lync enterprise unified communications product, Xbox LIVE, and other opportunities like Messenger and Hotmail."

But everyone know that Micro$oft have a very famous product call Messenger and it is using different technology (client/server vs peer-to-peer), then why Micro$oft bought over Skype. Google walked alway years ago because owning Skype means either they have to rewrite Skype from zero, or rebuild Google current network architecture. I believe Micro$oft is facing the same problem now. Then why Micro$oft still purchase Skype?

I'm not graduate from business school, but from an engineer point of view, if there are two company that selling similar product/service, they are competing each other; but if one company selling similar product/service with two different name, they are helping each other to penetrate deeper into the market. At least now, Google have to fight harder to gain the market share.

Basically, as an end user, we always hope to continue to enjoy the free and better service provided by whoever. I always believe that Micro$oft is very good at long term war. With introduction of Win7 mobile OS, they really need something to regain the market from Android. Symbian is dead since Nokia itself has gave up on their own OS and jump into Win7 phone. Blackberry has nothing to scare about since their target is more for business and old man XD. iPhone is a very well designed phone, but they cant dominant the market also since only one factory in this world is producing the phone. So, left Android which can threaten Micro$oft to gain it market share in smart phone.

So, lets see what magic can our software giant show to knock down the internet giant.

Finally Android 3

I believe it officially mark the beginning of the tablet war.

N97 mini VS X6

Before I continue, I just want to clarify that this blog is not about mobile phone review and it is also not free commercial advertisement for Nokia. I don’t call it a review because I only start to use this phone since last 3 days, although I know I’m a genius :p but I still not a specialist in writing those technical blogs.

Ok, why I bought me and my wife a new phone?

I have been using S.E. K610i since around 4 years ago, and I bought it together with my buddy, Nic. It is a good phone, but recently, it start giving some problems. Mine phone start to hang once a while and my wife’s phone sometime the volume is too low. So, I start searching the net for a new phone since last month.

Other than the mentioned reasons, two very strong “excuses” for me to acquire a new phone.

First, I need a phone that has wifi. Ya, I think if you know me, then you will know I will get myself online whenever I can. From PSP to pocket PC, I try to get myself to net whenever I received the wireless signal.

Second, I need a GPS. I always get lost in the city, so I really need to get myself a GPS, although I already have a beautiful live GPS with me :p

So, I start to do the study. Symbian, Android, iPhone, Meomo, …

iPhone is definitely out of my list. Not because I don’t like iPhone, it’s expensive in the first place and a personal reason that lead me away from considering this phone.

I don’t like Blackberry, so it is out.

Now only left Symbian and Android phones.

Ok, I know Symbian is dying. No doubt that Symbian^1 is old and Symbian^3 is still in the lab. But when you look at the market, Symbian is still dominating the market of mobile OS. I hope by introducing the Symbian^3, it wouldn’t end like PalmOS.

I like Android although I haven’t uses it before. I got confident with Google. But, when talking about Android, the first thing come out from my mind is HTC. I never doubt of Google capability, but I doubt the name of HTC. It reminds me of O2 and dopod. I just hope HTC will not end like these two brands.

Other than the bad history of HTC, the price also stops me from looking at it. Then the second brand come out from my mind is S.E.

I was used to be the S.E. supporter. When that time Nokia is screwed up with its stupid phones, S.E. shows us hopes, that why I bought K610i. But today, S.E. didn’t continue to develop its phones. All the high end models are either using Android or Symbian. Xperial X10 is huge, nice hardware but using Android 1.6 -.- and the price is stoping all the poor man like me to think to own it. X10 mini is too small, X8 is still in the lab. Satio & Viva is expensive in the first place, and why I want to get a S.E. phone that use Nokia’s OS? If Symbian is originated for Nokia and it don’t perform well in Nokia, how can it perform better in S.E.? So, S.E. is out.

Samsung i5700 is another choice. Running on Android 2.1 with 800Mhz CPU and it is only cost around RM1100 (AP set), it should be a good choice. Too bad, the phone is a mid range phone with lousy camera that do not come with flash. Galaxy S is too expensive. So, that’s end of my consideration of getting a Samsung.

Now left Nokia. I choose N97 mini for myself and X6 for my wife, since she sent me an email with a big cross on the N97 :p

I was thinking getting myself a X6, but after that I changed my mind and get a N97 because it suit more to an old working guy. X6 is more suitable for teenage.

Thanks to Nic for helping me to get the phones and I accidentally poisoned him to get the X10. He is confirmed a rich man.

Once I power up my N97, I happy that I make a good choice. The keyboard is just awesome. The interface is OK, the respond is acceptable for an old man, and stability is ok although I make it hang for few times.

X6 touch screen is much better and sensitive than N97. I love its touch screen. When those days, people call a resistive screen a touch screen, now they should call the resistive screen a “press” screen and the term touch screen should reserved for capacitive screen. When my wife saw my N97 stylus, she is so happy to ask me to give it to her. Then I told her too bad that she can’t use the stylus because the screen is designed for human hand. Poor wife :p, now she need to learn how to use the phone in the teenage way.

So, both phones are good. N97 mini is convenience with the keyboard, the UI is ok. X6 got a very nice touch screen and bigger internal memory. Both come with a very sharp camera with flash. A little bit slow with the slow CPU speed, but overall it is acceptable. So get a N97 if you want to look pro and matured, and get X6 if you want to feel or look young.

The OS is quite complicated if you want to use the full power of the phone and it will hang when doing complicated tasks. Well, totally acceptable by me, even an i7 will hang with Win7, not to say an old OS with low speed gadget.