Steve Jobs - RIP

Sad news - Apple just announced that Steve Jobs has passed away, likely from the pancreatic cancer that's been plaguing him.

My first reaction was no! Someone who still had so much to give and live for should not die, not yet.


Then I though about the various wonderful products that Apple have made over the last 5 years, and how my kids enjoy these products.

Then I thought about his famous Stanford commencement address in 2005, and about what he's achieved so far, and I believe he died knowing he's lived a good life.

Looking back, his decision to step down a month back was probably because things had taken a turn for the worse.

Also Apple's announcement comes a day after the launch of iPhone 4S. It couldn't have been easy for Tim Cook and the senior Apple management to do the launch knowing Steve was dying.

RIP, and thank you, Mr Steve Jobs.


p.s.  As an aside, I feel kinda weird that I found out about Steve's death from a RSS reader on a HTC Trophy, running Windows Phone 7.5, when I've been the biggest Apple advocate this side of Suntec City the last few years. I'd decided to try out the new Mango software until iOS5 was released, just so I could say more about WP7 when the time comes. Strange how life works out sometimes.

Blackberry Bold 9900 - review

I recently bought a BB Bold 9900, for two reasons -

1. I'd never used a BB before.
2. The reviews on the new BB9900 and OS7 were quite good, and tempted me.

I also rationalised that the touchscreen OS7 would ease the transition from my hitherto daily iOS use.

But I think the real reason is that I simply wanted something new to toy around with. ;-)

After about two weeks (of daily use), I must confess the BB has surprised me somewhat. The main thing going for the BB is, of course, email, and I have found the experience to be quite wonderful. I no longer wonder why some people (whom I think would love the iOS ecosystem) actually use BBs.

What's good -

The best part of the BB experience is probably what goes on behind the scenes, ie the famous Blackberry email service.

I'm subscribed to BB Internet Service (BIS), which allows you to use email through the BB servers by redirecting your email to a BB specific email address when you sign up. I'm not sure what the difference is between BIS and BB Enterprise (BES) - I think there is email synchro across the desktop and devices and also scheduling and contact sync for BES - but the push email service in BIS should be the same as BES. From my experience so far, this is the best thing about a BB.

The reliability of push email shines through in BIS. All my emails get pushed and received on time and this reliability can sometimes be taken for granted. For example, my experience with iOS and my work email server has been spotty to say the least (downloading emails etc can be intermittent and sometimes emails refuse to download) which has led me to use Gmail as a go-between, which obviously isn't ideal, since my email replies then come from my Gmail account, which I don't want to disclose sometimes.

With the BB (using BIS) though, I can reply via BB whilst on the move, and my emails appear like they are coming from my work server. Perfect.

Other than BIS, the physical keyboard is excellent, and reminded me of the good old days of me using the Treo 650, which is the highest compliment in my book.

The touchscreen is also excellent. The touch response is not as instant as the iPhone, but good enough. Viewing angles are great, and colour is sharp and vibrant. But the size is rather small, compared to the iPhone, and the landscape view is rather restrictive. Font sizes are also too small, and website pages are unreadable at the default setting, and you have to zoom in to be able to read anything at all.


What's average -

The rest of the hardware is nice but nothing to shout about compared to any average Samsung or HTC device. The iPhone 4 is superior in this regard. I'm talking here about the device aesthetics, build quality, speed, storage space, camera functions, etc.

The BB is better than my iPhone 4 in some respects, eg phone reception, dropped calls and battery life (although not by much).

One point to note about the control scheme - having a touchscreen is fine and good but I've never seen the point of using the trackpad / trackball compared to the good old 5-way button. Perhaps that may have made the device thicker or larger than necessary but surely a better design could have been found by now. The sliding movement required on the trackpad is too finicky to be consistent, even after a couple of weeks of daily use.

The BB OS is also decidedly average. Nothing one would not expect from a 2011 smartphone, but nothing cutting edge either. One thing I didn't like was that sync could only be done via desktop software and there was no way to sync to MobileMe (but then, I shouldn't expect that anyway). Google sync was supported but not in the complete way for Android devices. Also my Outlook contacts kept duplicating themselves after I first synced with BB desktop (I suspect my MobileMe connection here played a part), so I've given up syncing for now.

What's bad -

The overall UI is f**king ugly. Sorry for being profane and blunt, but that's the truth.

The email app is good and fine, and all my documents / pictures load up ok, but it's just so damn ugly to look at. The fonts are too small, and not really nice. The UI elements need work, etc, etc. It's functional, everything works, don't get me wrong, but in 2011, with Android and iOS looking the way they do, OS7 just doesn't cut it, man.


Take these screenshot comparisons -

1. Whatsapp (a very good and free messaging app) -

2. Bloomberg -

See the difference?


It may not be so stark in the Bloombarg app, but trust me, when you factor in the UI elements, BB OS has a long way to go.

The BB app store is also quite useless / barren. Some of the more useful apps are there, eg Sugarsync and Whatsapp. Dropbox is missing. I also downloaded Bloomberg but that's about all I've used so far.

To be frank, I'm pretty sure some of the apps I use regularly on my iPhone, eg Reeder (a RSS feed app), some news apps, etc, are also available in the BB app store, or there are apps with similar functions. Ditto for games.

However, I've found myself not even trying very hard to look or search for such apps - each time I fire up the BB app store, I am confronted by app screenshots which turn me off, or are unappealing to look at.

BB fans can shout function over form all day, but I've come to realise a fundamental truth for present day smartphones. When iOS and Android offer such pretty UIs and also functional apps, then RIM may be fighting a losing battle unless they get their new QNX OS working quickly and beautifully.

Conclusion -

I'll most likely keep the BB for now, until my patience runs out with the UI. I'm still quite happy with the email, but that's about it for now. Let's see how it goes in a couple of months' time.

My 10-word review for the BB is therefore - Great for email, but it still cannot replace the iPhone.

..ac

Cheeky monkey!

I am a cheeky monkey... :-)

Malaysia Day 2011 - ISA repealed!

Selamat Hari Malaysia to all my fellow Malaysians, friends and all alike.

Najib also announced the repeal of the ISA in conjunction with Malaysia Day.

Wow. I never thought I'd one day live to see this day. Most welcome political development in a while.

:)ac

Steve Jobs quits as CEO

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/08/24/steve-jobs-resigns-as-apple-ceo/

Whoa.... Steve quits as CEO (everyone who follows Apple would have seen this coming a year ago), the share price tumbles 5%+, and all of Apple's competitors whoop for delight... ;-)

Seriously though, looking at Apple today, it will definitely survive Steve Jobs in the near to mid term, simply because they have such a huge advantage in certain markets - digital music, iPhone, iPad, consumer PCs, and more importantly, the highest profit margins in each of those markets.

What would be interesting would be to see if Apple innovation and creativity will continue, say in 5-7 years' time,  when everything you see today has become obsolete. Will the people Steve has trained for the last decade or so be able to foresee tech trends the way Steve has done so brilliantly?

Side note - AAPL share price now very attractive... hmm...

/ac

Signs there's still hope for this World yet, Part 1

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/police-japanese-returned-78-million-missing-cash-quake-174212622.html

The Japanese continue to amaze me all the time. They suffer with grace and dignity and endless patience.

Contrast this with the recent riots and looting in the UK.

HP kills webOS devices

HP just announced that they are killing the TouchPad / Pre line of webOS devices. The exact wording is "discontinue operations for webOS devices".

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/hp-punts-on-webos-discontinues-touchpad-cuts-outlook/55386

What this means is, I think, HP couldn't sell enough TouchPads, just like Palm found out a couple of years ago that they couldn't sell enough Pre smartphones, and now decided to cut their losses.

I'm quite surprised by the timing of all this. Just one month ago, Jon Rubinstein was being quoted, more or less, as saying HP has a whole host of webOS products coming out -

http://thisismynext.com/2011/07/14/dewitt-rubinstein-interview-exclusive/

Then they announce the TouchPad 4G, and the Pre3 just went on sale a couple of days ago in Europe.

Now, they cancel everything? WTH?

The sad thing about all this is, webOS now looks like it's gonna die, unless HTC or Samsung decide to license it from HP, which seems unlikely, given they are all-in on Android right now (although that could change, given what Google did about a week back).

I was soooo looking forward to the Pre3 and the next-gen TouchPad, particularly for webOS, but now, another potential gem could just be lost to tech history. Damn.

/ac

Google acquires Motorola

Amazing news. US$12.5 billion (!)

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/supercharging-android-google-to-acquire.html

Choice quote from Larry Page -

This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences.

We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

The combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences.

The crucial parts above indicate that the purchase is more about Motorola's patents rather than Google being interested in manufacturing handsets.

The ongoing litigation between the big boys, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Samsung etc, also shows how desperate these companies are to establish a space for themselves in the new mobile world. Which also tells us all how immature the mobile space is currently, and how confident all these companies are that there is huge growth potential in the mobile space. Recall the same thing happened with MS and Apple back in the early days when Windows was trying to establish itself with Win 3.0 before becoming dominant with Win 3.1 and Win 95.

:)ac

BWF World Championships 2011 - Singaporean stuns Taufik Hidayat

See this link - it's a French based website

http://www.badzine.net/news/worlds-2011-day-3-%E2%80%93-pi%E2%80%99s-back-spanish-speakers-shine-again/15830/

Also this one - this is an Indian newspaper

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/more-sports/badminton/Hidayat-bounced-out-on-his-birthday/articleshow/9559900.cms

Both articles reported on the stunning news that Derek Wong, a 22 year old Singaporean, had stunned Taufik Hidayat, the Indonesian legend in straight sets. Both sites also got quotes from Derek, and he seemed delighted with the result, which puts him in the last 16 of the World Championships.

As at 11:30am this morning, I have checked and re-checked the local news websites, Straits Times and Today Online, and neither of the websites carried any news on this wonderful win for Singapore badminton. Channelnewsasia only had an article which was taken from AFP, and which is titled "Hidayat suffers birthday blues at world championships."

Come on, surely the local sports journos would have caught wind of this, and at least tried to call up Derek to get a quote??

/ac

New HTC Desire S - bug alert!

I just got a new HTC Desire S from an old friend (thanks, bro!), and was happy to re-acquaint myself with Android and to try out Gingerbread.

I became extremely flabbergasted when I simply couldn't add a 2nd Google account to the phone. I remember this was a great feature with Froyo, and try as I might, I couldn't get it to work. I could enter the credentials ie userid, password etc, but as soon as I press "finish setup", the account disappears. I tried a few times, reset the entire phone, but nothing worked.

I then stumbled onto the "solution" - apparently you have to go into the HTC YouTube app, sign in to the primary Google account and then exit. After that, when you go back and add the 2nd Google account, it'll now work.

My reaction was like - WTF??! Can't believe this kinda bug exists - I dunno if Google's or HTC's fault, but either way, this is why iOS is currently ahead on most user experience counts.

:)ac