New Nano has been released for your new netbooks

Don't mistaken the word "Nano" here for the one that's made by Apple. ;-p

This "Nano" comes from VIA Technologies, the underdog company that fights in chipset market against Intel & AMD. But for you, who have purchased HP's 2133 Mini-Note, or who is following the progress of netbook competition, VIA's processor is not a stranger to y'all.

To replace the aging C7 processor, that's used in HP's Mini-Note, and in order to fight heads-on with Intel's Atom processor; VIA has released its next gen processor for netbook: VIA Nano.

Glenn Henry, the head of Via Technologies subsidiary Centaur Technology, said to Brooke Crothers from nanotech in a quick interview: "We just started shipping to customers last week and this week--literally right now."

Henry said there is a lot of demand for larger form factors. "There's a lot of demand to move those things up to higher screen sizes. I've heard customers say they want to build 12- or 13-inch notebooks," Henry said. Uh, oh. Looks like there will be more and more options to choose from, for you who wish to purchase netbooks in near future.

But is the VIA Nano good enough than the Intel's Atom? If you're looking at the flexibility in its architecture, yes it is. Meaning; you can plug in Nano into older C7 processor slot, although there'll be BIOS upgrade needed before hand. But in term of heat generated when in use, Nano is hotter than Atom. Nano needs 5 watts to run at 1GHz speed, while Atom only need 2 watts to run higher speed at 1.3GHz.

Why the difference? Nano uses a more sophisticated superscalar, out-of-order design, while Atom has a more simple "in-order execution" architecture. Because of Nano's more complex design, it may deliver better performance than Atom in some cases.

Brooke pointed out an important remark on why this thermal envelope is so important: "...because it can influence the design of a Netbook-type device. Typically, parts with lower thermal envelopes can go into smaller devices."

So, what is our next step then? Do we need to wait till the VIA Nano featured in new netbooks in the market, or should we wait for the dual-core Atom processor from Intel? Don't sweat yet, my good readers, cause this Nano processor hasn't reach production gate. Henry said products using the Nano processor will not appear immediately. "No product that actually uses this is for sale to the end customer (yet). So the parts we're shipping are going into the (customer's) manufacturing process or development process."

I can't tell much about the rumored dual-core Atom, but as for the Nano, Henry said: "We're working on it. When you see it, who knows. We're implementing it but it's not near at hand."

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

LG KC780 first promo shot appears

Mobile phone's camera war has been taken into the next step; 8MP resolution. There are two early contenders now, which have already show their faces: Samsung M8800 Pixon & LG KC780. Let's take a look at the next one: LG KC780, shall we?

Seeing the picture on the left, you must've guessed what so special about this new upcoming handset from LG right? Yup, the 8MP camera on the back is its main trait.

There hasn't any more details on the spec of this monstrous camera phone yet so far, but according here's what we should expect according to GSMArena: "The 8 megapixel slider LG KC780 should be able to offer quad-band GSM support and even limited touchscreen functionality - only in multimedia applications much like the LG KF750 Secret. We can also expect 30fps video recording - but that of course is a no-brainer for LG cameraphones."

Head on to GSMArena web page to see more live shots of LG KC780.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Samsung's M8800 Pixon

Mobile phone's camera war has been taken into the next step; 8MP resolution. There are two early contenders now, which have already show their faces: Samsung M8800 Pixon & LG KC780. Let's take a look at the Samsung M8800 Pixon first, shall we?

What would you do, if you're a mobile handset manufacturer, and you need to stay in the tight competition? The answer is easy; keep on throwing bigger and meaner features into the next handsets. So that's what Samsung is doing with its M8800 Pixon handset; it got big 3.2 inch display with a resolution of 240x400 pixels & a meany 8MP camera on the back.

What so meany about this handset's camera? Aside from the manufacturer claims it's “even better than an actual camera”, the scariest part is the fact the M8800 Pixon capable to capture videos in DVD resolution (720x480) or in QVGA with option for 120 frames per second. The Pixon will even have DivX playback and SRS (surround sound system) Virtual 5.1 Ch.

This slim handset, touting at 13.8mm thickness, will also have the latest features available in most smartphones nowadays: GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, built-in accelerometer, FM Radio with RDS and microSD slot. Unfortunately it only has tri-band GSM band, so no 3G connection for users in U.S. soil.

The Samsung M8800 Pixon will start shipping in mid-October for about 550 euro price tag (US$800), starting with France and soon continuing to most other European and Asian countries. Sources are from GSMArena & PhoneArena, hit the respective links for more pictures.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Bloody Lanyard

“Bloody hell. She's lying, right?” – quoted from Ron Weasley (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie)

That’s what I said when I looked at the picture above, which I first saw it in Leslie Katz’s post at

Crave. And maybe you said like that too, or perhaps you’ll say something else like: “Oi, have people gone mad?” Putting your own blood in a small flask, and then hang it around as a lanyard for your mobile phone…?

Well, apparently the bloody lanyard is only for parody, meaning it’s not real blood after all. It even has the injector replica as well, making it look real enough at first sight. This distinguishable accessory comes from a popular belief in Japan that a person's ABO blood type or ketsueki-gata (ketsueki-gata?) is predictive of their personality, temperament, and compatibility with others. – as quoted from Wikipedia --

Confirmed by Leslie’s colleague, who lived in Japan, it is very popular in there. Sold around $5.82 at

Tokyo’s Strapya World store. Even dating services in Japan use blood type to make matches, employers use it to evaluate job candidates, and morning TV shows and newspapers there regularly feature blood type horoscopes.

Leslie also got a good insight; who knows, maybe someday this kinda accessory might comes in handy for medical emergency. Aside than that, at least it can be used to get you a date. ~LOL~

”Astounding what a few drops of your blood will do, eh, Harry?” – Voldemort (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie)

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Microsoft has found the first ingridient with "And I'm A PC"

Forget Seinfeld, forget Bill Gates, and heck... you don't even need to know Steve Ballmer.

I think Microsoft has finally figured out to use its "I'm a PC" slogan as the first ingridient for the whole recipe, caught this 'And I'm A PC' web page via Gizmodo.

It's simple, but it's a spot on. I had a really 6-8 minutes of fun and a very good laugh, when I was keep on clicking on that web site to see what kinda line to come out next.

And if you wish to participate, which I also have done, just click the 'Submit Your Own' button. After that, enter your name and write your own line. I know I'll be having a laugh when I'm gonna revisited this website tomorrow with my Treo...

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Interview with Dmitry Grinberg by TamsPalm OS Blog

I almost forgot to post this interesting interview between Simon Pfundstein with Dmitry Grinberg, originally posted at TamsPalm blog. You must know Dmitry, the talented and well-known Palm OS software developer, who created the SDHC driver for Palm devices.

The questions in the interview are about how Dmitry see & view on Palm's future, here are few of the parts taken from the interview:

• What do you think are the (now) best mobile platforms and why? I think PalmOS is. Many will disagree, but my definition of bet likely does not match that of the crowd. ...
• What should Palm do to sell more devices? Make a sexy device that does not scream “I’m a boring middle-age corporate guy with a brick-for-cellphone so that my boring job can reach me at any time in my otherwise boring life” ...
• What do you think about the sentence ‘Palm is dead’? I think I mostly covered this above. No one is dead till they are dead. I do not see a reason to be excited about them yet, but at the same time to reason to give up on them yet. ..

Read the whole interview at

TamsPalm OS blog, and find out what the other Dmitry's oppinion on Palm and its future.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

F1 Grand Prix Singapore 2008 Night Race

I got to post this off topic news, since it's been a rare occasion, in fact it was a mark of history in F1 Grand Prix race. The first time F1 race ever held at night, and under the illumination of around 1,600 lights in Singapore; the F1 racers were competing last night to become the first "dark champion".

And so who's the winner of the F1 Grand Prix Singapore 2008? Here's the official news from F1 website:

"Renault’s Fernando Alonso scored a surprise success just when he most needed it, in one of the most eagerly anticipated Grand Prix in Formula One history, under the lights of Singapore on Sunday. And he owed much of it to team mate Nelson Piquet, whose crash on the 14th lap changed the face of the race."

Other than showing you this news, I'd like to show you too the exciting F1 Grand Prix Singapore 2008 Night Race preview video which I've embedded below this post. Enjoy, and I hope you'll have an exciting and heart-racing start of the weekend tomorrow!

Here's a hard and sad truth: Singapore is able to lighten up the F1 street track with 1,600 lights; while Indonesia is suffering of random power outage every weekend...


[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Eva Longoria invents a new holder for BlackBerry

It's not very often to see actors & actresses to really use their brains for something creative and useful *chuckles*, but Tony Parker's spouse; Eva Longoria has invented a new holder for her BlackBerry Curve.

Sporting a swirly psychedelic pink minidress overtop a pink shirt with matching flip flops, the “Over Her Dead Body” actress had her hands full, so she tucked her Curve in between her curves. Eva Longoria toted her BlackBerry mobile phone around the set of “Desperate Housewives”… in her cleavage!

Way to go girl, you show the world what are those assets of yours can do besides for 'something else'. ~LOL~

File Explorer Extension v.2.03 for the lousy default WinMob's File Explorer

It is indeed, one of the greatest mystery; why Microsoft never put a single great and powerful file explorer in its products. Either it's the file explorer in Windows desktop version, or at the Windows Mobile's.

If you're a power user, and surely feels that the default File Explorer in your WinMob's isn't enough to accomodate your needs, then the answer would be... A: Buy and install a powerful 3rd party app to replace it, or... B: Install this amazing free enhancer for that lousy default File Explorer of ours.

Well, I took the choice B. And this File Explorer Extension v.2.03 is a very useful tool in addition of the basic features in File Explorer, here are the additional features you can get:

• Resizable header for easy sorting by file name, date of last modification or size
• Tree view of folders; you can now jump easily from a location to any other on your device in one step
• Show extension option for those who ask themselves the same question I do: “What type of file is this?
• Icon view that enables the display of files as icons similar to your desktop computer
• Real time image preview; now you don’t have to open several files in order to send the one you desire
• Open with Program allows you easily select an application to open the specific file you select (useful in case you don’t have the correct file associations or when you want Album app to open your images instead of Windows default picture viewer).
• File property context menu for easy renaming and attribute changing
• Open all executables with Parameters in case you need a special parameter when launching an application
• Sending shortcut to Programs for instant shortcut creation of executables placed directly in Programs folder in Start Menu.

Many thanks to the author & maker of this amazing little enhancer tool; bnm7bnm (such a strange nickname...), acquired via WMExperts.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

iPhone's Safari gets a new face in v2.2 software update

Those guys at iPhone Atlas has managed to get their hands on a screenshot of what seems to be the new Safari interface for the upcoming iPhone 2.2 software update. Here's the rest of the news:

While details regarding the newly released (for registered developers only) iPhone OS 2.2 are still trickling in, sources report that the MobileSafari interface has been tweaked. The new iteration of MobileSafari eschews the magnifying glass and refresh buttons at the top of the screen, instead displaying the URL bar and search fields side-by-side, much like the desktop version of Safari. Page refreshes are now accomplished via a tiny icon located inside the URL bar.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

IE Mobile 6 face shows up

The very old Internet Explorer (IE) Mobile on our WinMob devices is going to get a nice update, it'll be updated from v4.x (first released in September 1997) into v6.x, according to the::unwired (via Gizmodo). And Microsoft has given a neat nick name for it too: 6 on 6, which is basically mean Internet Explorer Mobile 6 on Windows Mobile 6.1.

The::unwired even has tested the new IE 6 with their own blog page, it provides two different compatibility options: Mobile and Desktop. So far the theory, still according to the::unwired; in reality you can see the difference if you visit the::unwired which works with browser sniffing to serve the appropriate layout. On the left, the::unwired in Mobile mode, on the right in Desktop mode and as you can see, the Desktop mode looks quite similar to the::unwired on your PC.

Head on to the::unwired blog page for more screenshots of IE 6.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Visa wants your mobile digital money too

Like it’s not enough for the world’s largest credit card organization to have our money in its bank accounts, Visa has announced on Thursday to make an aggressive moves to the era of mobile digital money. The moves consist of three separate partnerships with different group of companies: Nokia, Google & U.S. Bancorp. I’ll break them down each by the companies, so it’ll be easier for you to read…

Visa – Nokia. It’s actually an old news, repeated over and over again. This is the many times you and I heard of the use NFC for contactless & wireless payment, and Nokia is still embedding NFC technology into its middle-range handset: the 6212 Classic edition, which is slated to launch in Oct. 2009. Please my old posts about NFC and other use of electronic wallet, for more informations surrounding these technologies.

Pam Zuercher head of global product innovation for Visa, said in an interview that by placing the smartcard inside the phone, a user's physical wallet can be replicated. Each phone will be able to store several accounts, and the application can be password protected with a PIN or remotely disabled if the phone is lost or stolen, she said.

With the new technology, consumers will be able to use their Visa account to pay for goods and services; initiate mobile money transfers to other individuals with Visa accounts; receive near real-time notifications of activity on their Visa account; and "opt in" to receive offers and discounts from merchants, Visa said.

Visa – Google Android. Visa is keen enough to catch on the latest trend of mobile world; the Android platform, which I assume it’s because of the open source platform that attracts Visa rather than the stability of the new mobile platform itself. Visa is already developing a set of services to become native apps for Android, which will be available for Chase Visa cardholders. The Visa mobile applications developed for the Android platform will initially deliver three powerful services, they are:

• Alerts: Consumers will receive near real-time notification of purchase activity based on customized cardholder preferences.
• Offers: Consumers will receive targeted offers from merchants directly to their phone.
• Locator: The Locator service is expected to integrate with technology developed by Google, such as Google Maps and Google location-based services, to show consumers nearby locations of merchants sending them offers, or of an ATM that accepts Visa. The location would be called out on a map displayed on the mobile device screen.

Visa – U.S. Bancorp. Visa also said that it would partner with U.S. Bancorp, the owner of U.S. Bank, to allow consumers to transfer money from one Visa customer to another by way of mobile phones through a pilot program. "The other side of that coin is remote payment," Zuercher said. "We're extending the ecommerce capabilities to the mobile channel, including SMS, and we're extending authentication to mobile devices as well."

This initiation movements by Visa can be considered as a good sign for mobile world, where we’ll at last be able to enjoy the real use of electronic wallet with our favorite smartphones. But the one ultimate question will remain the same, like always: when will it be used globally?

Sources are from:

Update: Visa Unveils Massive Mobile Payment Plans (PC Mag)

Visa to Develop Mobile Payment-Related Services for Android Platform (Yahoo! Finance)

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Steve Ballmer still clueless on how to fight Google

The fact that Google is still way ahead from his company, made Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer scratches his head in search for the answer to beat the search giant company.

But the ever-energetic and now the sole 'charismatic' leader left in Microsoft, is not completely clueless on what Microsoft should do next. "We need to do some work to fundamentally reinvent the search business model," Ballmer said during a dinner at the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley. "You don't brute-force your way into a market. You only make great strides when you redefine the category for the user." And that will take some time. "It's a five-year task," Ballmer said. But Microsoft is ready to spend a lot of money trying.

Maybe for you, that indirect statement from Steve Ballmer sounds the same old answer from CEO of a big company. But in my ears, that sounds more like this: "Yup, we're 5 years behind Google in search business. And we're gonna spend lots and lots of money, more than your monthly wage and far from how much you could possibly imagine, in that 5 years to come..." ~LOL~

When asked about smartphones, Steve Ballmer believes that Nokia, RIM & Apple will loose to him... uhmmm..., I mean Microsoft (in whole). ;-p Why? Because according to the Microsoft's CEO; those smartphone companies design their own proprietary hardware and tie it closely to their software. Nokia leads the smartphone market today with about a 30% share, he said. "If you want to reach more than that, you have to separate the hardware and software in the platform," he said.

Steve Ballmer predicts, in the end, the battle will be between the Symbian OS (which is now open source), mobile versions of Linux and Windows Mobile only. Although he then conced a horrifying fact: "Forty percent of servers run Windows, 60 percent run Linux," he said. "How are we doing? Forty is less than 60, so I don't like it. ... We have some work to do."

-- I think I heard the "hankering" Linux die-hard fanboys are screaming in happiness after knowing Steve Ballmer himself actually said that... *sigh* --

And when asked about Apple, Steve Ballmer said in great pride: "Apple's a good company, I won't take anything away from them, but they have a certain kind of strategy. They believe in putting the hardware and software together, they don't believe in letting other people make it. I'm not saying there isn't a 'threat' from Apple. But if Microsoft and its PC partners do our jobs right, there's really no reason Apple should get any footprint in the enterprise."

Yes, yes. Whatever you say Steve, whatever that pleases you and your humongous ego. Now, can we please have our PC run Mac OS X? ;-p I wonder what made him so pleasantly cute and modest, perhaps it's got to do with what they serve at the Churchil Club dinner? Read the whole interview at the Standard web page.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

The beautiful & ugly side of G1 Android

I ain't gonna talk about the physical or the look of T-Mobile's G1, that runs the most anticipated Android platform in it. I think everyone has gotten out what they wanted to say in their chest, about the handset design that is originally made by HTC.

But instead, I'm gonna take you (yet again) to look behind all the solid of G1 Android's body. There are interesting stories behind all that, controversial and yet true, trivial matter and yet important. Let's see the ugly side first shall we? So then you'll have a good - happy ending, and a good night sleep. ~LOL~

An ex-Google employee, Ulf Waschbusch is once Google's product marketing manager not so long ago, so he must have seen the company's Android in its early stages. In fact, Eric Schmidt introduced the device himself to Ulf. Here's the snipped words from Ulf taken via Valleywag:

"It’s funny - but the first time I heard about Android was about 2.5 years ago, when Eric Schmidt told me about the device at Stanford after I got a job offer from Google (yet before I accepted it!). Since then I have seen many iterations of the software. The software. Not the device itself, because sadly it hasn’t changed in many years. The reason many people see the phone as ugly and old-fashioned is simply… because it IS! It’s a design unchanged for at least two years, without iterations on it besides color schemas (it’s now available in Zune-brown along with white and black) and the silly ‘with Google’ description on the back. Don’t ask me what ‘with Google’ means. I didn’t understand it back then and still don’t understand it today."

Ulf even bravely declared in his

blog the G1 as an ugly device: "The reason many people see the G1 as ugly and old-fashioned is simply … because it IS!" He then updated his blog with more clearence of what he has said, after the blogosphere picked up the pieces together. You can read what Ulf got to say at the picture above.

You may disagree with Ulf about the 'ugliness' of G1 design, but you'll have to admit that it took too long for Android to come into its shape right now. We've heard the first rumor about gPhone / Google-phone long time ago, and we've just see it become materialized this year. Another fact comes from Forbes article: The font, dubbed Droid, is the product of a two-year collaboration between the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant and Ascender, a digital typeface company based in Elk Grove Village, III.

Ascender's chief type designer, Steve Matteson, who created the Droid fonts, says Google requested a design that was friendly and approachable. "They wanted to see a range of styles, from the typical, bubbly Google image to something very techno-looking," Matteson says.

We can appreciate the Droid fonts in almost every details in G1 Android, from the characters, symbols and numerals on the phone's physical keyboard to its software--everything from drop-down lists to the address book to map applications. Applications written for Android will also feature Droid, since the font is built into the platform's software development kit.

And so is when you open up the Android web browser, you can find the Droid fonts are imbued within the web pages. You can watch the video demo of Android's web browser just below this post, it works beautifully and could become a very serious competitor to iPhone's Safari web browser. Which the Google has pledged its Android's web browser as the real "Full Web Experience", I wonder how Apple is gonna take it since it was sued due to the false interpretation of iPhone ads in U.K. ;-D

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

G1 Android is still offering few Beta apps?

I'm as surprised as you are, when I first read about this great insight by Royal Pingdom's blog, and then I realized how true it is: 22 of Google's products are still in Beta version! And that's not what really shook me, I even forgotten that the Gmail I've been using since 2004 is in fact still in Beta state...

From the 49 Google products, here are the few most notable of them that still in Beta:

• Gmail
• Talk
• Calendar
• Google Docs
• Orkut
• Google Finance

The first three apps up there are offered in T-Mobile's G1 handset, so that would means we're still using Beta products instead of the final and stable release. The end question is why, why does Google still keep on using the Beta label? Royal Pingdom has came up with a very good answer:

"Charging money for a beta product. Google has paid options for Gmail and Docs (via Google Apps). So, how does that rhyme with these products being in beta? A beta product is by definition an unfinished product, which is usually not something you charge money for. Is any other company getting away with this? We don’t know of any."

Afterwards, Paul McNamara over at

Networkworld got an answer from Google regarding this matter:
"We have very high internal metrics our consumer products have to meet before coming out of beta. Our teams continue to work to improve these products and provide users with an even better experience. We believe beta has a different meaning when applied to applications on the Web, where people expect continual improvements in a product. On the Web, you don’t have to wait for the next version to be on the shelf or an update to become available. Improvements are rolled out as they’re developed. Rather than the packaged, stagnant software of decades past, we’re moving to a world of regular updates and constant feature refinement where applications live in the cloud."

I know I wanted to live in the 'cloud', it's good and fun. But I also wanted to have an insurance that my apps that I've bought, are legit and can be rely on when I'm using them. I surely don't want to rely on a Beta labeled apps, which lethally means: "use at your own risk!" ;-D

Although looking at video demo below on how the Google apps work on G1, I don't think anyone would mind using Beta products. ~LOL~

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Google patents a game changing plan on mobile usage

I got to lift my hat for Google, and looks like I’m gonna do that more often in near future. Google has been pioneering new and great services over the past few years, and its latest Android handset; the T-Mobile’s G1 is just the beginning of what Google is about to offer next.

We’re all puzzled by what was Google agenda on bidding the expensive “white spectrum” in U. S. soil (the 700MHz band)? And now, things are getting more clearer, as one by one Google’s plans have been revealed.

In March 2007, Google has filed a patent for an application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. That particular application, if installed into mobile phones, can find the best wireless connections for your need. Includes WiFi, aside from the obvious mobile wireless networks we already familiar with. A good example given by Nancy Gohring from PCW Business Center article:

”In one scenario described in the application, a user might have a device that is configured to use the least expensive option for connectivity at all times. When at home, the device would attach to the user's Wi-Fi network. Outside, it would switch to the cellular network.

But once outside, the device could periodically search for other available service providers, asking the service providers to bid for the chance to offer service to the customer. The device could automatically switch to the network that has the best price without interrupting a user's voice call or data connection.”

It sounds so sweet for end users, and mobile consumers. Like what Rick C. Hodgin from TG Daily has said in his article: “Using this new method wouldn't require any changes. It would still be possible to continue using a wireless devices pretty much as is done today. In such a case, a user would setup some automatic selection critera which would engage an automatic selection algorithm.”

But it will not the same case and taste for wireless network operators, as what Nancy Gohring again pointed out to the right spot: “If Google were to try to implement such a system, mobile operators might not be interested in joining it. Operators typically try to lock customers into using only their networks, as a way to receive guaranteed regular revenue from customers. Google's plan would make it easy for end users to transfer their calls and revenue stream to other operators that might be able to offer them a better price or service.”

On the other hand, Google has its own reason and argument on keep on making this application to be implemented into mobile phones (Android platform to be precise): “Because the user controls the device, the user receives greater flexibility in deciding what applications they need or want. In addition, such generalizing of the communication channel permits more open development of devices and applications to be run on devices, because the transmissions are standardized, and any device that can format communications according to the standard will work."

Alright, all the sweet talks have made mine & yours mouth full of drool. So when can we see the application? Can we expect it to be alive in the next Android handsets? I’m afraid the answer is still vague, Google said in a statement: "We file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees come up with. Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don't. Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patent applications.”

Or in other word is what Rick C. Hodgin mentioned too about this: "Bid before you use" is the model Google has patented.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

iPhone NDA now means: ‘Never Develop Apps’

I didn’t come up with the idea to change the simile meaning of iPhone NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), but I admit that I do agree with the new connotation which is presented by Dan Moren from Macworld; NDA now has an all new meaning: ‘Never Develop Apps’.

Y’all know what have happened in the growing circle of App Store, the population of ‘flashlight’ applications have reach 6,325 and still counting on. While the more useful apps like NetShare, Podcaster, MailWrangler, and the funny one: Pull My Finger have all been banned from App Store.

The frustration from the software developers are understandable, since they’ve put a lot of efforts and time to make good apps for iPhone/iPod Touch platform, and then easily rejected by Apple without a very good explanation. The one that isn’t understandable, is Apple’s decision on allowing or not an app to get into its App Store.

If you’ve read my previous posts regarding the apps I mentioned above, then you know how groundless are Apple’s decisions to reject entry for those apps. Few of the software developers have posted directly the email they’ve received from Victor Wang, Apple’s App Store watchman and App Store PR (Public Relations), to show the public and specially App Store consumers about the truth behind all banning acts.

But of course Apple doesn’t like what those software developers have done with the rejection emails/letters, posting them on the net for subject to become a laughing material by mean bloggers. So then Apple issued another statement (pictured on the left, click to enlarge it), which says those rejection emails/letters are covered by NDA, thus should never publish into public.

The stiff attitude of Apple on its App Store policy, didn’t make software developers lose their creativity to keep on distributing their apps, one in particular is the developer behind Podcaster, Alamerica. Alamerica founded a workaround to keep on selling Podcaster and make it legit, by offering ad hoc licenses (meant for development and testing) in return for a $10 donation. But then like everyone has predicted, Apple shut down the access to ad hoc license system soon after it became popular.

So now, there hasn’t been any new loop hole in App Store policy to fool the NDA or the rejection. Apple has finally put its iron fingers wrapped around App Store, and with software developers are more bounded with NDA than ever, they’ll be frightened to waste their efforts to write good apps for iPhone platform anymore.

The outcome are not that hard to imagine, it’s like what Jason Snell from Macworld has put so nicely in his article: “But that’s not all. Some of them will turn to more open platforms, such as Google’s Android, and start taking their good ideas there. Which could transform phones running Android into full-featured devices that simply do more cool stuff than the iPhone, no matter how hard Apple tries to write its own software to catch up. Which could, in time, lead to the iPhone becoming a marginalized and limited product, all of its potential exhausted by the idiocy of Apple’s tight-fisted control of the App Store.”

Android’s Market doesn’t need to work hard to get everyone attention, because it’ll soon offer more apps that are wanted by the customers: fun yet useful apps. Ohkay, maybe I over grace the ‘useful’ purpose there. Because ‘fun’ has played more important role on our intuition to purchase an app, rather than what it can do for work. Valleywag has pointed out a spot on argument about this that I very much agree with: “Because if you've ever watched a bunch of drunk twentysomethings playing with their phones in a nightclub, you know that stupid and entertaining often beats pretty and functional.”

So, have you get the idea of this new meaning of iPhone NDA? If not, then I strongly suggest you to take a look at this diagram of the NDA, made by those genius guys at Joy of Tech. ;-D Enjoy!

Sources are from:

• Don't drive iPhone developers away, Apple (Macworld)
• Will iPhone NDA mean ‘Never Develop Apps’? (Macworld)
• iPhone App Store rejection letters covered by NDA (Valleywag)
• Apple shuts down App Store end-runs for rejected apps (Valleywag)

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Maildash for iPhone/iPod Touch

For young executives, successful entrepreneurs, and busy workers; or maybe for a lot of us (read: mobile addicts) ;-p ...replying a bulk of emails by yourselves can be very exhausting and time consuming. Even a very skillful secretary with flexible fingers to type on the keyboard for few hours, replying the same old line using the same templates for the same old questions, are still consider this method as a boring routine to do.

There's a good solution from PureBlend Software, their new Maildash app for iPhone/iPod Touch, with v2.0 software or above, is meant to handle that kind of boring routine activities for you. Replying and sending emails can now be an easy and fun task to do, with the intuitive user interface design in Maildash.

The main screen for replying emails is using the scroll-dial interface, which consists of the usual answer templates like: Be there soon, Be there in 30 minutes, etc. And then of course, like many other templates, Maildash allows you to create and edit your own templates. Here are some the Maildash features listed by the software developer itself:

• Quickly sends emails using stationery
• Personalizes emails using mailmerge-like substitutions
• Email Favorites list - choose an address quickly
• Customizable Templates- make your own message stationery
• Templates include Subject and Body fields
• Customizable Snippets- coin your own phrase shortcuts
• Can send quick replies to incoming email
• Use Maildash to create multiple email signatures

The current version of Maildash (v1.1) is offered at $2.99 price tag on App Store, the coming next v1.2 will include SMS support.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

ColorWare colors for iPhone 3G

Consider this as a quick, painless yet cool facelift for your iPhone 3G. Maybe some of you are already bored with the black & white colors of the back of your iPhone 3G, they're the only colors offered by Apple and the same like the ones own by your friends, families & co-workers. You wanted to stand out in the crowd, let's just say it like that.

If that's your situation of heart, then your prayer has been answer, in a pretty expensive way of course. For around $150-200, or more, you can change the back color of your iPhone 3G into any colors you wish for. ColorWare has introduced its new Design Studio for iPhone 3G modifications, in there you're able to change color of iPhone 3G's back, frame, button, SIM card tray, earbuds and even the iPhone Dock.
Basically there are two kind of finishing: Solid & Metallic, but I think it's best to let ColorWare itself explain them:

"All standard colors come with our high-gloss, scratch resistant finish. This finish is formulated to protect your phone against minor scuffs from normal usage. You can choose either metallic or solid colors. The Metallics contain small flakes within the color to add a little variation and sparkle. The Solids are pure color, without any effect."

The sky's the limit to change the colors of your iPhone 3G and its accessories, as long as your wallet can afford it though. ~LOL~ So, what colors would you pick? For me, I've already picked the ones I like, I've posted the snipped images at this post.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Stanza for iPhone/iPod Touch

Another good and free app for you iPhone/iPod Touch owners, especially who loves to read e-book, LexCycle is offering a free e-book reader called Stanza (required v2.0 software or above).

Here are some of the quick explanation from the developer itself:

"Featuring a clean, well-organized interface, Stanza is expressly designed for reading digital publications, including electronic books, newspapers, PDFs, and general web content. ... Stanza features built-in support for HTML, PDF, Microsoft Word, and Rich Text Format reading, as well as all the major eBook standards: unprotected Amazon Kindle and Mobipocket, Microsoft LIT, Palm doc, and the International Digital Publishing Forum's new epub Open eBook standard."

There's also a desktop e-book reader version for Stanza, available for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS, click on this link to download it. Since all of these free apps are still in Beta version, LexCycle is still asking for users feedback to improve them.

Zak Reiter from iPhone Alley pointed out some important insight about Stanza: "What caught me by surprise is their large amount of fully available and free books. I immediately tapped through and downloaded not one, but six great classic novels. I was stunned still by the simple reading interface. ... Oh by the way... if you want to see something fun, turn your iPhone sideways at any point that you're browsing this program."

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Places for iPhone/iPod Touch

A neat app for you who loves to travel, and do a little adventure around new unknown towns. This free app for your iPhone/iPod Touch, with v2.0 software or above, called Places from CRiMSONJET. The explanation of the app is as following:

"Find nearby restaurants, stores, coffee shops, and bars based on your current location. See ratings, reviews, and pictures from Yelp for thousands of business. Easily get phone numbers, and directions to and from each place. Not sure where to go for lunch? Pick a cuisine and it will show you what's nearby. Traveling in a new city and don't know where all the hot spots are? Just tap the Nightlife section and find the closest bars, lounges, and dance clubs. You can also save businesses in your Contacts for quick retrieval when ordering out."

A very good review is pointed out by Ben Boychuk from Macworld: "Places is a clever, free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that exploits the devices’ locator feature to find nearby businesses, restaurants, bars and shops. ... A couple of other drawbacks with Places: First, the search can be a bit temperamental. Touch “No results” and sometimes the expanded search snaps back to where you began at “0-1 miles.” And sometimes the app will just shut down on you, like a haughty French maitre’d. Second, Places won’t let you save favorites, but it will let you add contacts to your address book. Whether you want to clutter your address book with one-stop locales is entirely up to you."

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Unleashed your Jedi's Lighsaber into your iPhone/iPod Touch

Either you're a Star Wars fan or not, you must have guessed what this app is about when you read its title: Lightsaber. Yes sir, my good master Jedi. It's about Star Wars.

Some of you might also have noticed the first version of this app, when it first came out it's called PhoneSaber. But soon after its first release, PhoneSaber dissappear from App Store. The mystery quickly resolved, after the official Star Wars the Force Unleashed game for iPhone/iPod Touch was released, it's turned into Lightsaber Unleashed.

The main difference between PhoneSaber and Lightsaber Unleashed, is that the latest one has the official go from Lucasart and it's now legally licensed. Aside from that, some reviews have say they're dissappointed by the upgrade version instead of the first release. Here's one good review from Macenstein:

"Once you load the app, you are given a choice between 5 different Star Wars characters to do battle as. At first you might think these 5 would correspond to the 5 colors of lightsabers you had in the original PhoneSaber app, but you’d be wrong. Sure, you still have the choice of 5 colors, but 3 of them are RED. That’s right, they have 3 characters who have the exact same colored LightSaber, so no yellow or purple saber for you. I might also be crazy, but the accelerometer’s sensitivity to shaking seems somewhat less responsive than I remember the original PhoneSaber’s being."

Although, personally, I don't quite get it why the Lighsaber Unleashed doesn't include Luke Skywalker or Mace Windu with his purple colored lighsaber. ;-p It would be cool though...

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

iBlogger for iPhone/iPod Touch

For you, avid bloggers with so many blog accounts spread over the blogosphere, you must have been wanting an application that can help you to blog quickly into each of your blogs. (pheeeww... I think I've used the word "blog" too many there ;-p)

Lucky for you; iPhone and iPod Touch with v2.0 software or above, there's such an app that let you access your blog accounts. It's illumineX's iBlogger, which can work with popular blogs such as Blogger, Expression Engine, Movable Type, SquareSpace, TypePad & WordPress.

You can effortlessly post pictures along with your thoughts, add Categories and Tags. You can even add your location at the touch of a finger, so if you're wandering around in the winding streets of an ancient city, you can blog the location of the cool little shop you stumbled upon.

If you're interested, you can find iBlogger (v1.05) at App Store, or just click on this link to open up your iTunes; iBlogger is currently offered at $9.99 price tag.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Break, Clear, Enter and then Shift

The above title of this post is not some kind of a sequence code that you need to push in certain order, if you’re expecting a white rabbit to come out of a hat, or a winning ticket for PalmAddict’s throwaway, then you better stop. ‘Cause, that is just my expression of what I’ve been through, and what I’m doing right now.

You see, life sometimes can be so dull. When the works you’re doing, even though you love it and good at it, sometimes… things are getting too monotone. And it’s not just me, you, us; who fell that way. Our mobile devices also feel the same, and then they’ll act like any electronic machines would do when they’re being used excessively: freeze.

I’ve been working around the clock since the start of this month, this is the busiest month of the whole year in this little country of mine. Usually, before going to bed, I close all of the apps that are running on the background and free more memory for my Treo to run tomorrow. But as I’m always tired from the works, and I’m getting busier every day, I’ve stopped doing that since a couple of week ago. The result was easy for you to guess; my Treo suddenly frozen at the Today Screen display. The screen couldn’t be shut down, and either the keyboard or the screen were not responding at all.

So what was my next move? It’s like the title above there, that’s what I did. Let me break ‘em down in each pieces:

Break. No, no, I didn’t break my Treo in half *chuckles* I’m not that mad…, yet. But instead, I took a break from my works, because my Treo frozen on the middle of the day as I was trying to access the contact list to call someone. And then I took a real break from my works and my mobile addiction, by letting Treo screen on until the battery ran out of juice. This continue till I recharged fully the Treo’s battery, I suppose you can say I also let my Treo took a break like me. ;-p

Clear. I never expected this, but it’s a nice break from my Treo for awhile. And awkward at the same time, my hands kept reaching into my pocket for my Treo like usual, but it’s not there. It’s a bad habit I know, but ever since I got my Treo, I’ve been used to look at it for no good reason. I tried to clear my mind out of my Treo, even for half of that day, but to no avail. So it’s crystal clear for me, I got to bring my Treo back to life again before I gone mad.

Enter. After the LED sign on the cradle turned to green, indicating it finished recharge the battery, I reinserted it back to Treo. And then within few minutes, my Treo has entered once again into my life. It works fine like new, every apps work like they should. It feels like the Enter button of our computer, when you push it, the computer will do what you tell it to do. Smooth, that’s the Zen of Palm I know.

Shift. It’s good to be reminded, I just never thought it was my Treo who did that, that it’s time for me to shift gears and change the pace of tedious road I was about to keep on taking. As the time is drawing near to the end of this month, that will means for me everything will slow down afterwards, and comes back to normal again. I just can’t wait to rest and have the old good life again.

And so I hope that for all of you, dear readers, fellow Associate Writers & Editors, to have a great weekend and a good life tomorrow. ;-D

Oh, and one more thing that I almost forgot: welcome to the new Associate Writers. It’s so good to see new members in PalmAddict, I’ll say this is a great community to be in with and it’s like a big family for me personally. And I can’t wait to learn so much from you guys, keep up the spirit!

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

T-Mobile's G1 Android first official photo shot & more specs leak

This is fast, and cruel. As bloggers & the whole blogospheres are sitting in front of their computer screen, waiting impatiently and sitting on the edge of their seats, Engadget has got in their magical bag of news what appears to be the first official photo shot from T-Mobile's first Android phone; the G1.

And then Engadget also gives more leak of G1 specs, via TmoNews blog. Few of them are the usual specs that we're already knew before, but nevertheless a teaser is always needed before the actual launch made; so enjoy while it lasts:

• One-click Google search and easy access to all Google Applications
• Google Maps (including satellite, traffic and street views)
• Gmail
• YouTube
• Calendar
• Google Talk
• Size–4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 inches
• Weight–5.6 ounces
• Display–65K color screen, HVGA (480×320)
• Talk Time–5 hours
• Standby Time–130 hours
• Expandable up to 8 gig memory
• No stereo bluetooth
• GPS is confirmed
• 3.1 mp camera

For more specs details of the upcoming G1 phone, head-on to TmoNews blog to find out more.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Smartphone will get smarter

Yes sirreee..., fasten your seat belt while we're embracing what's the future has in store for us: smarter smartphone. It looks like the mobile consumers, yes that means you and me, are keep on demanding more and more features to be integrated into our mobile phones. And it's not only us, but the mobile manufacturers also see this as a trend to market their products.

Let's see... for examples; Palm is now beginning to embed WiFi & GPS in its Treo 800w & Treo Pro handsets, iPhone now has 3G connection & GPS, and so on. It'll become a merely time competition, when mobile manufacturers are racing to get the newest features out from their production gate.

Digitimes is reporting; as smartphone functionality is becoming more diverse and comprehensive, chip designers are looking to integrate more functionality into a single chip to minimize power consumption, according to industry players.

After Broadcom successfully introduced a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth integrated chip solution for Apple, Atheros Communications, CSR, NXP Semiconductors, Texas Instruments (TI) and Infineon Technologies have also introduced their integrated solutions, such as Wi-Fi-GPS, Bluetooth-FM, Bluetooth-GPS or Bluetooth-audio chips, to satisfy the customers' needs, the sources indicated.

Long gone are the days where mobile phone is simply just a phone, no matter how convenient it is to carry your mobile phone as your shoes, *chukles* it's just there's something 'smelly' everytime we're gonna use a shoe-phone. ~LOL~ Hey, don't kill the old idea. It maybe is outreagous, but at least it's one of the first idea for a wearable convergence device. ;-p

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Palm's Treo Pro is now available at Vodafone UK

The Palm's newest handset; the Treo Pro has finally and officially offered at UK through Vodafone carrier.

The Vodafone's Business Shop on-line store is offering the Treo Pro with £340.43 price tag, the description of the handset is as follow: "The Palm Treo Pro is a Windows Mobile device that utilises both a full QWERTY keyboard and a touch screen, the robust 'pallet' design makes it a superb converged voice and email device. It offers 3G internet speeds as well as Wi-fi and an integrated GPS receiver."

An interesting math calculation on the price is pointed out nicely by Engadget Mobile; the price above if converted into US dollar would be around $624, which is pricier than the unlocked version offered by Palm at $549...

[blogged with my Treo 750v]