Musings

Two colleagues of mine – both Apple fans – and I were talking about the Macbooks and iPhones yesterday afternoon. One was surprised, like my Kumamoto colleagues last year during the teaching trip, that I used my Macbook Pro primarily to run Windows 7 and not the Apple OS. As I explained to them: I like the Macbook Pro’s hardware design and form factor, but I dislike their OS. Once the other notebook manufacturers catch up in terms of notebook build (HP’s Envy series sure looks close in addition to Sony’s overpriced Vaios), I’ll likely go back to using a dedicated Wintel notebook.

The mobile phone and techforums are yet again abuzz with the latest installment of the newest Apple debacle over signal loss in the iPhone 4G if you hold that phone in a certain way. Shockingly, Bloomberg uncovered information that suggests Apple was actually already aware of this a year ago when their senior antenna expert pointed out that the 4G phone’s design was going to lead to signal loss.

Apparently, Steve Jobs not only did not apologize for the 4G design flaw that’s led to owners experiencing signal loss and even reception disconnections, he’s even all but claimed “but hey, every other phone has the same problem as ours”, and dragged in Samsung, HTC, Nokia and RIM, manufacturers of the Blackberry devices.

One’s never certain what’s going on in Jobs’ head, given the enigma he is. But one thing’s for sure: in the last 12 months, it’s been one PR Fail after another for Apple. First, it was the employee suicides from Foxconn, the company that pundits call the slave labor camps for Apple and a bunch of other computer hardware manufacturers. Then there was the shocking police raid on Gizmodo’s editor’s home after he did a world scoop on the insides of the then-yet to be released iPhone 4G. And now finally, this.

Not surprisingly, Nokia and RIM isn’t taking Jobs’ latest tirade lying down. But Nokia’s certainly a lot more polite. They said in their press statement:

“Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.”

They didn’t mention Apple and Jobs’ attack on (their) mobile phones, but there’s no mistaking that their response was directly specifically at the 4G’s antenna design issues.

The RIM co-CEOs however, practically snarled back at Jobs when they issued the press statement below: (formatted for easier reading):

“Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage.

One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.”

OUCH LOL. The online forums are a hilarious read right now with many pointing out that this is the equivalent of RIM’s response to Apple to go *(expletive)* themselves for dragging them into their own cesspool of a mess.

In moments like these, I sure am glad again that I dumped the iPhone. It’s hard to support a company that displays this level of arrogance.

The posts on my MIT trip here are all tagged as ‘Boston’ – but that’s really a bit of a misnomer. Because while all the attractive sites of visitation are indeed in Boston, I’m really living and working in the neighboring city, Cambridge.

According to the Wikitravel’s article on Cambridge, this city has a thing about ‘squares’. There’s Potter Square (nearest to where I’m staying), Kendall Square (near where I work), Harvard Square (where Harvard is), and Central Square – which I haven’t visited yet – among others.

Several of these key city areas are all linked via the ‘T’ subway. The subway transportation network linking Boston and the immediately-surrounding cities is pretty intuitive. The lines are all color-coded (e.g. ‘Red’ – which is the line I’m staying along, ‘Green’, ‘Orange’). I certainly had an easier time figuring it out compared to the unnecessarily complex compass direction-based names used in Singapore’s MRT. Occasionally, I still have problems remembering all the different lines: EAST-WEST, NORTH-EAST, NORTH-SOUTH and what nots.

The train levels in each train stop vary greatly in depth. The Kendall/MIT one for instance – where I alight each day when heading to work – doesn’t go very deep, but the one for home – Porter – runs at least two or three floors of depth. There’s a very long escalator ride each time:

Not photoshopped, and the two pictures above don’t even begin to hint how high the escalator goes. And it doesn’t even go up to the ground level!

The train level platforms are all open: and imagine – back at home there’s talk about whether these levels need barriers to stop people from jumping onto the tracks in suicide attempts.

Incoming trains are routinely announced by the station’s broadcast system, and awaiting passengers will feel an oncoming strong gush of air too indicating an impending train arrival. Sort of like a huge air-conditioning unit supplemented by ten 18-inch fans all switching on at the same time and blowing into your face.:)

The trains themselves aren’t terrifically wide though. In fact, they seem slightly narrower than Singapore’s, and certainly much more so compared to those wide carriages I rode on everyday in Kumamoto City last December.

The trains tend to be quite pack during the usual peak hours, an indication of how much Bostonians rely on the public transportation network considering how expensive is parking and difficult driving is in the city.

One funny sight though which I first remarked when during the San Francisco trip last March was that the iPhone is really ubiquitous. In a row of six passengers, I’ll see five of them (at least) all using their iPhones for music playback or just fiddling with them in general. On occasion I’ll see the odd Blackberry and the candy-bar styled mobile – but those are more the exception than rule. Just for fun, I’ll bring out my Android Galaxy S and playing around with it just so to show the other passengers who bother to look that there’s really a world outside the iPhone. Frankly, owning an iPhone no longer makes you distinct. It makes you part of a compliant lemming crowd in my opinion.

In any case: now that I’ve covered the transportation and residential part, I’m gonna do a next post on the Streets of Cambridge. When I have enough pictures anyway. Before that though, I still have posts to do after visits to the Museum of Science, the (VERY!) lovely Butterfly Garden in that Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts (lots of Monet and Renoir), the Boston Public Library, and the Skywalk Observatory:)

My brother Tchung, sis-in-law Sharon and Ling were talking about during Hannah’s birthday event at Lentor last weekend, and the conversation ventured into the merits and disadvantages of DSLRs versus compact cameras.

Sharon used to lug around a pretty light DSLR, but even that was too much for her, what with her two nephews running about her too when they were out of home. So, she switched back to compact cameras and hasn’t looked back.

I don’t think there’s any dispute that DSLRs easily offer the best overall images, and superior handling. One disadvantage of the Olympus E-PL1 is that the type of autofocusing mechanism it uses isn’t just different from that used in DSLRs, it’s also significantly slower in reaching a satisfactory focus point when taking pictures of Hannah. That’s why Ling – surprisingly – actually prefers to take pictures using my D300 than the E-PL1, heavy as it is.

For myself, I’m really fine with the D300’s weight. The issue though is that when you’re using a DSLR as large as that in the public, you’re drawing a lot of attention. It’s not an issue when you’re in a place thick with tourists, but at a neighborhood mall like Hougang Mall, the security uncles will immediately conclude that you’re up to no good – a professional photographer at best seeking to take pictures without consent, and a terrorist scoping the area at worst.

That’s one of the advantages of using the E-PL1. Out of the several thousands of pictures I’ve taken of Hannah in her first year, only a small fraction of them have been out of home but that’s changing slowly. Taking pictures of our dear girl in restaurants is easy: there’s been a few online posts about restaurants frowning at their patrons taking pictures of their dishes, but by and large no one’s told me to stop taking pictures of Hannah at the many restaurants we’ve been to. The real challenge would be to take pictures out of those places where you’re properly sequestered as a paying customer though, e.g. in front of a cake shop where Hannah looks curiously at.

Still, I’ve been trying my luck on occasion to see how far I can go. So, the above picture was taken at the escalator running up from the carpark to the basement level of Hougang Mall as a start. Then followed by the usual Hannah @ McDonalds’ picture. She grumbled quite a bit this morning asking for a continuous stream of hotcake nibbles.:)

The iPhone4 was just announced a few hours ago at the Apple WWDC 2010. Not surprisingly especially considering the several prototypes that have got leaked then dissected in the earlier months, there wasn’t really anything terrifically surprising about Apple’s new upcoming phone – and apart from the very high 960 x 640 pixel resolution display, there seems little else that’s really grabbing people’s attention the way the 3G did 2 years ago. Pundits are already pointing out that Apple is going to have a hard time dominating the smartphone market with its new toy this time, what with the landscape completely now changed with the availability of so many excellent Android-based phones (like mine LOL).

After having spent nearly a week with the Samsung Galaxy S, I’m still terrifically happy with it. It’s responsive, speedy, and I like the feeling of not supporting the new evil empire. I’ve dumped onto the phone nearly every one of Hannah’s HD videos (all 14 GB) taken since February this year, and the ‘droid handles all of it very well. This is going to be real important for me since I’m going to miss our dear girl when I’m away.

Here’s a fun photo that was taken over the weekend. There was a new Toastbox breakfast place situated at the basement level of Compasspoint. Items were relatively pricey, and the fare was only about average. Hannah took an interest in the new phone too.

Hannah approves.

Jasmine and I were discussing over Hannah’s birthday party too about kids’ exposure to Facebook and mobile phones today, and it’s given me food for thought on whether and how should children be taught responsible use of technology and social media. It’s not an easy question to answer, and I don’t think there’s going to be a one-size-fit-all solution. As much as we might like to think of sites like Facebook (or whatever is the in thing for the day) being especially risky for younger persons what with the dangers of sexual or opportunistic predators that lurk around, the reality is that technology and new media have become so pervasive that if you don’t introduce them to kids at some point, they’re going to find out on their own anyway and you would have lost that window of opportunity to guide them in their first explorations.

Well, it’s something for me to think about and likely write on once I get my thoughts together on it.

The Samsung Galaxy S Android phone from Singtel arrived just within its delivery period yesterday afternoon, and Ling was at home to pick up the package. Curiously, Singapore’s the first country internationally to get the Galaxy. The phone will only be available in the US much later this year.

Having spent a day on it, I’m very happy with it. Certainly more so than with the mixed feelings I had when I first picked up the iPhone 3G 14 months ago.

The package came with two Super Junior boyband tickets. Had no interest in them, so gave them to two of my students. These tickets are auctioning online now for ~$400. I must had gone mad.

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Anyhow: my comments:

Everything about the Galaxy feels way, way more responsive than the iPhone… which was terrifically sluggish by comparison, even after restoring the phone back to factory state. The iPhone 3G was just s l o w.

Lots of customization options, and certainly more than the iPhone too. Steve Jobs’ idea was to build that walled garden but at the expense of control and modifying the phone to work exactly the way I wanted it to outside jailbreaking the thing (which I did).

Putting Hannah’s pictures and HD videos onto the phone was a cinch! Just hook it up using the supplied USB cable, mount the device, and it shows up in Windows Explorer. Compared to the iTunes hoops that the iPhone made you jump through just to get media onto it.

All the productivity applications and utilities I use are free off the Android marketplace… compared to the about USD30 I forked out in the first month buying the same applications for the iPhone. The Galaxy even reads Powerpoint 2007 slides – very handy so I can prep my presentations on the move without printing out hard copies.

Living wallpapers – very nice!

And there’s the hardware specification: the stunning super-Amoled supported by a larger screen and higher resolution. The upcoming iPhone 4G might equal or better these specifications, but if the experience of the iPhone 3G released here in Singapore is any indication, we might not be seeing it here until months after the US release.

On the other hand:

The Galaxy feels more fragile than the iPhone, with its thumbprint-inducing glossy plastic casing. Must get a skin or case for it.

The  Samsung’s own TouchWiz UI is pretty slick. But the iPhone OS felt more cohesive, if very marginally so only.

But those were the only two things. On balance, the Galaxy for me is a far superior, useful and more productive device than the iPhone was. It’s a keeper for me.:)

Well, it’s been a love-hate relationship with the iPhone 3G I’ve been using for 14 months now. The OS interface is gorgeous, and there continues to be a huge store of apps available for it.

But the phone hasn’t been without huge issues too. E.g. paying for utilities which I feel ought to be baseline and built into the phone especially considering that there are phones which already offer that. Like a better SMS facility, or the ability to view Office documents, and document storage.

More seriously though is that since November last year, the phone has experienced SIM card problems which render it completely unusable unless I reboot the phone – but the freakin’ phone doesn’t even ring out an alarm when it happens to begin with so how would I know.

I’ve been keeping an eye on Android phones, and decided this morning to go for a crazily attractive promotion that Singtel was having: basically, the Samsung Galaxy S phone which has won rave reviews. The phone is suppose to retail at close to a thousand moola: but after completing the online order, it cost me just… $48.

Yeah – I was really surprised too! How did that happen?! Well…

- The voice/data plan I opted for will cost less than my current equivalent plan with M1 – wow.

- Singtel is giving me $150 worth of discounts as a welcome package.

- The package also comes with a pair of concert tickets for this South Korean boy band… and people are selling those tickets online now for between $400 to $500.

So, if I were to sell those tickets, I’ll actually be coming out of this arrangement with a new phone and $400 richer LOL.

Only thing is that I won’t be selling those tickets. Call me crazy; but I’ll be giving them away to my students.:)

The Internet-tech world is abuzz with the iPhone 4G Loser controversy right now – which really is more the irony that the news sort of replaces the screaming headline news of the recently released iPads earlier this month, and how local retailers here are selling their units for twice the retail price.

As the story goes: someone who was working on the iPhone 4G accidentally left it behind at a bar. The unit gets picked up by someone else who initially intended to return it to the owner, but upon realizing that the unit was the top-secret iPhone 4G, had a change of heart and instead put it up for bidding. Popular news site Gizmodo apparently paid an princely sum involving four-digit figures to pick up the device, which they next proceeded to dissect – and then determine that yep, it’s the real thing. Apple, not surprisingly, now wants their toy back, and there’s talk of law suits coming down Gizmodo’s direction.

Opinion sure is divided whether the leak is deliberate on Apple’s part. On the one hand, some think it’s inconceivable that Apple would knowingly leak out what is a bonafide prototype of a hot product, knowing their penchant for jealously guarding product secrets (and people have committed suicide apparently out of terror of what Apple would do if you bloop there). On the other hand, others are saying this must be one of Apple’s cleverest ‘gotcha’ tricks they’re playing – they’ve deliberately let out the leak just to generate free publicity for their next big toy.

Either way, I’m tempted to just dump the Apple iPhone when the thing wears out and just go for an Android phone next. The phone’s got a fatal defect now – at least two or three times a day, it’ll state dumbly “No SIM card installed”. And everytime that happens, instead of an iPhone I’ve got an iBrick.

I did a lot of reading on the replacement HDCamcorder I posted about the other week, and opinion sure is divided over two leading models: between the model I’ve been eyeing – the Panasonic HDC-TM700 – and its closest competitor, a Sony CX550.Without getting into technobabble between the two; the Sony was more expensive but with slightly better low-light performance out of the box. The Panasonic was about USD200 cheaper, slightly better resolution, a possibly more audible fan, and also the much vaunted 1080p mode which had traditionally been a feature only of those extremely expensive professional-grade video cameras.

Either way, it didn’t seem as though the TM700 was going to be in Singapore stores any time soon, and judging from prior retail prices for earlier Panasonic models, I would be expecting to pay at least SGD2K for it.

So, on Tuesday morning I took the plunge and made an order for it on B&H Photo Video. The unit arrived via UPS delivery on Saturday morning: the final cost including GST, disbursement from the clearing office etc. was about SGD1500.

The unit’s noticeably larger and heavier than the svelte HDC-SD20 it’s replacing. I couldn’t find a sexy red color similar to its older brother too, so went with the default gunmetal grey version of the TM700. Here’s a quick picture taken of it using the E-PL1:

So what are the main features of the new HDCamcorder? Well – the features most relevant to me anyway:

- Somewhat better low-light handling than the SD20

- Wider-angle than the SD20

- Much better resolution and color than the SD20 in normal and good lighting

- Built-in 32GB flash memory with the SDHC slot

- Support for 1080 60p

- A ton of manual controls

I’ve been taking several home videos of Hannah already with it, and even for Ling’s relatively untrained eyes in noticing video imagery, she’s already remarked that the videos taken using the new camcorder look a lot sharper, fluid and smoother too.

OK – most notes to come after I’ve played around with it more.:)

I was remarking to Matt over MSN the other afternoon that of the lot of lens filters I’ve got, the GND – graduated neutral density – one hardly ever gets used. The filter is a bit of a last resort if you are facing an over light bright sky and can’t recover sky detail naturally or with a circular polarizer. The graduation for the Marumi GND filter I’ve got seems to have a semi-abrupt transition between the hard and soft edge i.e. there isn’t much of a gradual blend, The pictures taken in a composition with extreme contrasting in broad daylight can look a little funny, so I’ve avoided using the GND filter.

In any case, I decided to bring it out one early morning just to have some fun with it and to try it out stacked with other filters. I had the Marumi GND stacked with a B+W CPL and on my Sigma 10-20mm. Severe vignetting on the widest end – no surprises there – and the usable images only started at about 13mm onwards. Here’s a quickie shot taken:

Looks real odd LOL.

The newest Apple toy to be revealed this morning must had been one of industry’s worst kept secrets. Funnily, when the specifications of the new tablet device was presented, it didn’t get the unanimous and unreserved approval online the company might had been hoping for, though that hasn’t stopped the usual Apple Faithful from gushing all over the device and shouting down anyone who’s questioned the new device’s real usefulness and design compromises.

In the last year the Cupertino boys have got my business for their iPhone and MacBook – which are alright devices but still long ways from being the nirvana devices fanboys rate them to be – the iPad won’t this time after looking at its specifications, never mind that the name is uncomfortably similar to a sanitary object. Why?

As a portable music playback device – it’s too big. My Cowon D2 works just fine, and runs for 40 hours compared to the iPad’s reported 10.

As a productivity device – Never mind that you can’t multitask on the iPad. But I don’t care to use a touch screen to create or edit a word-processed document. OK, so there’s going to be keyboard options, but it’s a separate peripheral… which means more $$$ and having to bring along more devices just to get the same level of productivity you get already with a netbook.

As a portable game device – for iPhone-esque games only. Anything more complex or visual that’s commensurate with the screen size requires the kind of processing that won’t be possible with iPad’s weak processor.

iPad’s 10 hours battery life? Some of the netbooks are already dishing out 8 battery hours, and it’s still improving with newer models and low power processors.

As a communication device. Er, no onboard camera – which means you can forget about video calls.

As an e-book reader. iPad is rated at 10 hours battery. Amazon’s Kindle is rated at 7 days.

So I don’t get it. Just what exactly is this device really for. Is it supposed to be superior to netbooks when the latter can dish out more for less money? It’s too big to be truly portable, and too small and missing integrated I/O peripherals to be useful for anything more than what you already can do on the iPhone.

But that’s Apple for you. The iPad will likely sell millions of units to Apple fans, if nothing else because it’s a fashion statement to own one, never mind its real utility and that it seems neither here nor there. Well, I won’t be one of them this time. I’ll rather just save my money for the next iPhone which hopefully won’t be the same size of this brick!