Vinko’s Thoughts On…

Last week I unlocked an iPhone and tested it with a SIM card from Smartone-Vodafone. Today I unlocked another iPhone and this time using a SIM Card from Three (2G service without Data plan).

Next I will be unlocking my own iPhone on Smartone-Vodafone. I have commented on my article last week, regarding the most appropriate data plan to choose from Smartone-Vodafone for iPhone use in Hong Kong. I have copied the comment here for my readers’ convenience. (more…)

Many of you know that I was in North America this past two weeks and was also in New York City.

While at NYC I spent some time at the 5th Ave. Apple Store gaining some hands on experience with the iPhone. This was the first time I saw the iPhone in person and played with its applications and Multitouch interface. I will talk more about this in a separate post.

Getting back to the topic in question. While in NYC last week much had transpired regarding the unlocking (release of the lock down of the iPhone to the AT&T carrier). End of last month iPhone SIM Free announced that they had a software to unlock the iPhone from AT&T iron fist. They said that they will be selling the software on a per user (iPhone) license within a few days. Weeks had past and no announcements. (more…)

Apple® today announced that the iPhone™ will deliver significantly longer battery life when it ships on June 29 than was originally estimated during the unveiling back in January.

Although, with all the non-mobile phone features one would need all the battery life possible.

It is unfortunate that Apple is forced to compare its iPhone with phones from the other manufactures like Nokia, Samsung and Blackberry. I think that iPhone is in a class of its own and will definitely shake up mobile phone / multi purpose portable device market, but personally do not think that any of the existing mobile phones can be compared.

I think that Apple also realize this, but most potential consumers do not, therefore they must compare these parameters (listed) of the iPhone with other devices.

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On Monday Apple Inc. released the Beta version of the next major version of Safari at the opening keynote of WWDC ‘07 (2007 Worldwide Developers Conference). Apple released versions for Mac OS 10.4.x, Mac OS 10.5, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Since my primary system is Mac OS 10.4.9, I only downloaded this version for review and my impressions below are only based on this version.

Before I start I want to give everyone a little background. Last week when a vulnerability was found in both Internet Explorer and Firefox I switch back to Safari 2. It had been almost 4 years since I use Safari as my primary browser, and I was surprised to find that Safari felt faster than FireFox 2 (my previous primary browser). Now with Safari 3, it is even faster. Of course this is non-scientific and it is based on real life usage of it for a week.

I operate an online retail business, Vinko’s Treasures, and the backend system for my operation is completely web based. So I noticed the speed improvements right away only after a few days.

In Safari 3 I did not find too many new features or features that are better than FireFox. Most of the new features in Safari 3 are just catch up features to the default (without any 3rd party Extensions) FireFox 2. These being:

• Inline search: rather than having a dialog that pops up for the user to enter the search term. Safari 3 now displays a thin bar (”Search Bar”) at top of the browser just below the Tab Bar or Bookmark Bar; depending on what you have visible. After the results are found, Safari will dim the entire page and highlights the found terms on the page. 

  





• Movable Tabs: you can now drag the Tabs back and forth. Rearranging them in any order you like.

  

The new feature I found so far, is what the user can do with Tabs. They can take a tab like the one above on the right and open it in a new window. This can be accomplished by performing a Control + Click (or right click) on the Tab Label, which brings up a contextual menu. From here you then choose the menu item “Move Tab to New Window”.

The “Mac” way of doing the same thing is just to drag the Tab out of the Tab Bar and let go, like you would with icons on the Dock or Finder Sidebar. Unlike these other User Interface elements, doing so here will cause a miniature version of the Tab window content to show for a second, then a new browser window with the Tab window content will open.

As with Expose activation, holding down the Shift key will cause the animation of this behaviour to be in slow motion.

All in all I am fairy happy with Safari 3. It did install a new WebKit so some of the Widget I use in Dashboard no longer works, but that is expected for a “Beta” classification application.

Due to my work, I do use Mail, Dashboard and Safari 18 hours a day. So far I have encountered no crashes; knock on wood.

Finally our Windows user friends can have yet another full (W3C) Standards compliant browser to choose from: among the likes of Firefox and Opera.

With Microsoft admitting their mistakes in Internet Explorer over the years and finally began their own compliance to the W3C Standards with the release of IE 7. May be the lazy web developers (specifically ones in the Financial and Real Estate industries), who still code their web sites only for Windows version of Internet Explorer will finally start to recode their web sites with W3C Standards compliance.

One can only hope that this is an indication of a bright new beginning.

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Apple finally released the highly anticipated iBook replacement, the MacBook.

With this new (comparatively) lower end series of the MacBook line Apple has completed its Intel transition for the entire Macintosh portable line up. The only series left is the PowerMac G5 towers and the XServers.

The introduction of this new models has also see the elimination of the MacBook Pro 1.83GHz model. Apple also lowered the prices of the remaining MacBook Pro after the introduction of the MacBook Pro 17″, plus made the 2.16GHz version of the MacBook Pro a standard model, that used to be a Made-to-Order-Model.

This new MacBook also comes in a Black version that we are now accustom to with the introduction of the iPod nanos and 5G iPods last year.

There was one more rumor that we have yet to see a conclusion for, and that is the rumor of a “red MacBook” and “red iPod”. This red dual is suppose to be in support of U2’s Bono’s Product Red charity, benefiting African AIDS victims. There is one more press event this coming Thursday (Eastern Standard Time) when Apple introduces its new flag ship store in the GM Tower, 767 Fifth Avenue at 59th Street, New York City. So I guess we will have to see.

Apple today released the brand new MacBook Pro 17″.

This new version of the Intel® based Macintosh notebook has again surprised the analysts who did not think Apple would be able to release a new MacBook Pro that is the same thickness as the current MacBook Pro 15″, while bringing back the old 8x SuperDrive with DVD-DL write capability.

Also another surprise to the analysts is Apple’s decision to bring back the long depended on professional FireWire 800 port to the new MacBook 17″.

To make it even more attractive, Apple have released this new Mac at the same price as the current MacBook Pro 15″ 2.16GHz, so with the extra screen size, FireWire 800 and DVD-DL writable SuperDrive, other than buyer who really do not want the extra screen space will definitely purchase the MacBook Pro 17″.

I personally hope that this aggressive pricing of Apple is a sign that Apple will lower the price of the MacBook Pro 15″ and/or bring back the 8x SuperDrive writable DVD-DL to the MacBook Pro 15″.

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