Category: Compooper Stuff

Update on the Nexus One experiment. Google has thrown in the towel, admitting that selling these phones on the internet, sight unseen and at full price (unlocked) was not successful. More here. I think that selling an unknown quantity such as the Nexus One was one of the reasons why it didn’t take off. This sales model could work with a known commodity (iPhone) that would justify its full price (unlocked). So if you want a Nexus One, be prepared to deal with “incentivized” sales drones…

Now, here’s my recap traveling with the Nexus One on my Asia rounds.

Singapore/StarHub Green: In Singapore, I have a prepaid SIM from StarHub that I’ve maintained (recharged to keep my number) for 7 years. Each time you recharge, your number stays active for 6 months afterwards. StarHub has a new recharge called “Happy Stars” (yes, that’s its real name) that gives you 120 minutes, free incoming calls and 30 MB of 3G data, all to be used in Singapore and lasts for 30 days. Perfect for an unlocked smartphone!  The StarHub network was adequate. Data speed was fine, averaged 800 mbs downspeed. All my apps on the N1 worked. GPS and navigation was fantastic. One minor hiccup is that Google did not program the N1 with the APN info for the Singapore carriers. Strange since the N1 has been officially released there. I found the info on the net and plugged it in. All worked fine. This becomes important later because in Hong Kong, I couldn’t get onto data. In Singapore, it’s “success”.

Hong Kong/New World Mobility (CSL) International Roaming Prepaid: I have also maintained a prepaid line in Hong Kong for several years. AFAIK, NWM is the only carrier in Hong Kong that still that has free IDD (dial 1678) to first tier countries. On previous visits, I used an older Sony Ericsson phone, the K850 in Hong Kong. It was one of a few phones that SE made that was quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA which usually means it will work in the USA. I purchased that phone in Hong Kong and it may have been provisioned with NWM APN settings. When I use my SIM with that phone, I get a big “H” on the top of the screen and I can access the internet. When I put the SIM into my N1, no data. It made calls and SMS just fine. Just no data. I needed to research what the APN settings are and verify that these settings are here in the N1. So in Hong Kong, it’s “inconclusive”.
I’ll post my opinion on the Android OS compared to the iPhone OS later.

I currently live in the US and I have an iPhone. I like my iPhone. The apps you can download to it can be extremely useful (or extremely dumb), it works well, the design is great and it’s easy to use. These are the traits that made the iPhone a market transformer.
However, since I’m in the US and stuck with AT&T as my carrier (since they have the exclusive to the iPhone here), there are some serious downsides. In the US (unlike Singapore, for example), the iPhone is SIM Locked. Fine. AT&T does that to all their phones. So wait until your contract is up and get it unlocked. And AT&T does that for every other phone EXCEPT the iPhone. A call to Customer Service blames Apple. A call to Apple blames AT&T. So in the end, the status quo remains and the problem isn’t solved. It’s not like this in Europe where people whose contracts are up have their phones unlocked via Carrier Update that is synced with iTunes. The carrier update is sent by Apple by request of the carrier. And AT&T ain’t doing it.
Of course, if you want an unlocked iPhone, you can always jailbreak and unlock it. The problem is that sometimes the jailbreaking process kills certain functions, like push notifications. All things being equal, it’s best to get an unlocked phone unlocked from the factory.

Which brings us to the Nexus One, an Android powered device sold direct and unlocked. Since practically all phones in the US are sold with a subsidy that justifies the SIM lock, this is a first over here. For the past few trips back to Asia, I’ve been using an original iPhone (EDGE data) that’s been nothing but a glorified phone since there’s no 3G data and no GPS. The point of using a smartphone is to make your life easier and more efficient. So this trip, I will take the Nexus One with me, keeping notes on how useful it can be using prepaid services in various countries. So let’s see how it goes…

This is why!

Generally, it works more often than it doesn’t. Also, unlike Dish, I can use my TiVo!

Flying, generally, isn’t a completely bad thing, if done properly. One of the things that has to be done “properly” is learning how to pack. Baggage should be light, as well as the non-clothing things that are now travel essentals.
I’ve been a MacHead for close to two decades now. I’m of the opinion that the MacOS is the best operating system for end user use and general headache avoidance. However, after spending the past couple of years lugging a MacBrickBook around the world, I’ve come to a realization about what I really use a comp for when I’m traveling.
Email, websurfing, blogging, booking travel, photo dumping (from the camera’s memory card) and Skype.
Many of the netbooks out there can do all these things AND are a lot easier to lug around airports and the like. The problem is that the wizards at Infinite Loop refuse to build a netbook. Period. Which is a pain, considering the last true portable Apple made was the 12″ aluminum that, if you ignore the warped cases, the G4 that generated enough heat to make shabu shabu and the squishy keyboard, was the perfect size for flashpacking. So, since Apple won’t make one, guess it’s time to make one myself. Kinda.
I held my nose and ordered a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. Since it’s bad enough to order a Dell Dull, and worse off to have to pay for windoze, I ordered the bare bones stock model with Unbuntu on a 4 GB SSD, 512K RAM, a webcam and bluetooth since it’s MUCH cheaper to order the upgrade bits through third party vendors. 32 GB SSD and 2 GB RAM for under US$100.
Now, why have I sullied my credit card to a company that makes crap pee cees that only IT geeks and people that don’t know any better worship? Because, they got it right with the Mini 9. It’s a good form factor, the screen is not too big or too small and you can actually do real work with it. Did I mention that you can install OSX on it? Yes you can!
Now here’s the question. Are these netbooks made of precious metals? Made by hand by skilled artesians? Nope. Then why does it take a MONTH?? I’ll update when and if it ever gets here…

I’ve just installed a plugin for MT called iMT (clever!). What it does is provide an iPhone friendly interface to make blog entries from (you guessed it) your iPhone.
It works well, so far. I can write basic, text only entries (no pix or links); said entries can be edited later on when I’m back on mah Mac.
Hmm. Is this now one less reason to bring my Macbrick along on the plane now?
Update from mah Mac: Here’s the link to iMT. And since I do most (but not all) of my flying on UA, I’ll still need my Macbrick for AVOD since UA dun have any. Of course, if I could convert my .avi files to iphone format, then I wouldn’t have to lug my Macbrick…

Just finished subjecting myself to webhosted grief…
Upgraded to Movable Type 4.2. Got template issues (but strangely enough, the back end seems to be working fine). That’s why the site looks like crap.
Am working on it, but the lack of responsiveness from the MT boards is making me seriously look at jumping to Word Press…!

I went to a seminar tonight about digital photography.
GOING DIGITAL: THE ABCS OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
MARK RICHARDS, Photographer
SCOTT BUDMAN, NBC 11 Technology/Business Reporter; Host, TechNow!
STEWART BUTTERFIELD, General Manager and Co-founder, Flickr
LARRY MAGID, Syndicated Technology Columnist – Moderator
More than 3 million U.S. consumers will buy digital cameras this year. Whether you are an absolute beginner, a photography enthusiast or a professional photographer, join us as our panel of experts leads us through the latest trends, techniques and innovations in this digital field.
Sounds interesting, right? Wrong. The event’s description sounded a lot more interesting than the actual event which had the co-founder of Flickr, a broadcast “journalist” and a baby boomer photographer whining about the injustice of how people without computer skills will lose out on sharing photos that are on computers, yadda yadda. About a third of the audience walked out after the first 20 minutes (the under 40 crowd). What was left was the over-40 crowd. Fun! *rolls eyes*
The event was held at the Computer History Museum that had a lot of (guess!) old computers inside. Very retro!

The computer that started an empire, the US$666.66 (in 1974 US$) Apple 1!

I think this is a very old ATC system…

Here’s an almost as old IBM mainframe (ask your grandparents what this is)

This is a Cray-1 Supercomputer, circa 1976. I think it’s a neat piece of furniture!
Modern day high end PC processors, like the ones in your lappy or desktop are 100 times faster than the Cray-1. Amazing lah.
Here’s some other “amazing” stuff. Although it’s more of the “wah lau” kind of amazing. While eating dinner, I saw people in polo shirts with their collars turned up. A lot. Is it the 80s’ again?? When I was in the PRC, I saw a lot of this. Maybe the techies that go there to manufacture computers goods brought back this style??
Geez…

One of my friends drank the kool-aid and picked an iPhone up.
Lucky!
I helped him set it up to sync between two computers; the Mac (yeay!) for music, videos, photos and the pee cee (groan) for email, scheduling and contacts. I also configured the email client on iPhone so it could send and receive using EDGE.

That’s my 838 Pro (AKA HTC Hermes) on the right and the iPhone on the left. Look how slim lah!

I repeat, look how slim!
iTunes on both Mac and pee cee controls the sync functions with the iPhone, much like ActiveSync does on the pee cee side. The main difference is that iTunes is a LOT easier to set up, simpler to understand and gives you more control over the process.
And after playing with it for several hours, I can’t convey how impressive this piece of hardware is. Cannot. You should go to an Apple Store and playwiddit for yourself!
If it were only unlocked….!