Just now Amazon quietly launched the Kindle for Mac.

The new applicaiton is a very basic that fucntions exactly what you expects a Kindle application on the Mac does. It downloads your purchased Kindle books from Amazon, so you can read them on your Mac. The application also use Whispersync to synchronize the spot in the book where you left off when you last read the book. The functionality is not that much different than the Kindle for iPhone app. The only major addition is the Mac version’s ability to resize the screen displaying the book.

Unfortunately, there is a bug in the application, where if you were resizing the window (by dragging or clicking on the Zoom Out button) while the book is loading, the application often messes up the line widths of the book.

Un-intuitively you have to use the Font Resizing icon to bring up the Font/Line Resizing window to adjust the line width, so that more of each line fills the page.

Hitting the Reset to Default button in the window or dragging the slider all the way to the right expands the lines in the book to occupy the full width of the screen.

Kindle for Mac NOW Available is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

It appears that the features that Twitter staff had hinted about is appearing on the Twitter.com web site slowly.

I noticed now you can row your cursor over someone’s @reply reference, a tip box showing the individual’s profile will appear.

Twitter.com New Feature is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

On March 25 a group of Twitter users will join over 200 cities/countries around the world for Twestival. An excuse to get together and network in person with all the people you have exchanged tweets with over the years. While at the same time have chance to win great prices and raise money for Concern Worldwide.

Thanks to Staunton’s Group, this year’s Hong Kong event will be held at Staunton’s Wine Bar & Cafe.

By the way there will be small quantities of the limited edition G.O.D. designed and sponsored t-shirts available at the door. So remember to get there early to ensure you get one.

Tickets are available online or at the door of Staunton’s Wine Bar & Cafe on the night.

See you all there.

Twestival Hong Kong on March 25, 2010 is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Apple began taking pre-orders for their iPad today via their USA online store for delivery to US addresses or in-store pickup.

There are two ways to reserve your iPad for the April 3, 2010 launch date, you can pre-order it and have it delivered to your US address, or you can reserve one for in-store pick up at one of Apple’s US retail store. In either case, Apple limits the iPad pre-order to 2 units per customer. I guess this limitation is to warn off grey market sellers, ensure enough early adopters get their iPad’s, and less likely is the rumor that supplies of iPad will be low on launch day April 3rd (in USA).

There are two specific lines of iPad’s, one with WiFi only connection and another with both WiFi and 3G connections. Which one you buy really depends on how you plan to use the iPad. The great thing about the iPad is that its use will depend on the user and the apps s/he choose to install onto the iPad. People have to stop slotting the iPad into any existing electronic device categories. It is definitely not a “tablet computer” in the traditional definition or a “notebook” or “netbook” computer, so comparing it to any of these are like comparing apples (sorry for the pun) and oranges.

For me I believe the WiFi+3G version is the only viable line for this sort of device. My reason can be explained by how I use my iPhone. Many of the apps in my iPhone depend on readily available connection to the Internet. In Hong Kong (where I currently live) WiFi hotspots are not always available even though Hong Kong has the second highest penetration of WiFi hotspots in the world. What I mean by “not always available” is that one may not be able to get an IP address right away or the WiFi signal is too weak. When a WiFi hotspot is available, it usually requires the user to go through a tedious login screen before the user is allow online.

When I perform a task on the iPad, I do not want to think about the network connection or my login credentials. I will want to jump right to the task without having to worry about whether I can get a WiFi signal, if there is a WiFi hotspot that I have access to, wait for the WiFi hotspot login page to come up, or enter the require credentials. All these are interruptions in the workflow of accomplishing whatever task I want on my iPad. This is the reason I have my WiFi turned off on my iPhone 3GS, leave my 3G radio enabled and have an unlimited “local” data tariff plan from my carrier, Smartone-Vodafone.

With the acceptance of pre-orders Apple also reviews more information about the iPad and the custom apps that Apple had made (ie. iBooks, etc.), in particular the WiFi+3g version of the iPad. Apple states:

No-contract 3G service
In the United States, 3G service is available through a breakthrough deal with AT&T. You choose the amount of data per month you want to buy — 250MB or unlimited. If you choose the 250MB plan, you’ll receive onscreen messages as you get close to your monthly data limit so you can decide whether to turn off 3G or upgrade to the unlimited plan. Best of all, there’s no contract. So if you have a business trip or vacation approaching, just sign up for the month you’ll be traveling and cancel when you get back. You don’t need to visit a store to get 3G service. You can sign up, check your data usage, manage your account, or cancel your service — all from your iPad.

So apparently the WiFi+3G version of the iPad will tie very close to the carrier partner Apple has for the country, in this case USA and AT&T. Or Apple has an API where it can allow the mobile carrier to publish and process usage data. From my past experience determining iPhone usage data from the mobile carrier prior to bill date is close to impossible. So the iPad’s ability to show number of MB remaining in a fixed data tariff plan is something new.

Also the ability for iPad users to sign up and cancel data tariff plans directly from the iPad, means that the GSM micro-SIM within the iPad may not be removable or provided by the mobile carrier like past GSM mobile phones around the world.

Therefore, if you want the WiFi+3G versions of the iPad and you do not live in a country where the iPad is officially offered by Apple. I will suggest you wait until a few days after users in the “luck” countries receive their WiFi+3G iPad before purchasing your iPad from those countries. Given the nature of GSM mobile devices it is hard to imagine the iPad to be locked to a specific mobile carrier, but with mobile carriers involve like AT&T it is not totally unthinkable for them to insist Apple in doing so.

BTW: there is already rumors that the US CDMA carrier, Verizon, will have a promotion campaign for their MiFi device targeting iPad users.

Should non-US Residence Pre-order iPad WiFi+3G? is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

The long awaited Google Street View feature within Google Maps is finally available in Hong Kong. This feature had been available in USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Taiwan and many other countries for years. Taiwan only received this capability last year (September 2009).

Over a year ago others in Hong Kong and myself reported seeing the Google Street View vehicle (Toyota Prius) capturing images all around Hong Kong. With the Street View feature enabled, users of Google Maps can check out their desire spots in Hong Kong before they actually visit the locations. This is particularly useful for tourist and other visitors who are not familiar with places in Hong Kong. This feature will also be useful to Hong Kong natives, as many locals rarely visit areas outside of their homes and work districts.

Below you will see the one instance where I was following the Google Street View Prius East bound down Wanchai Road on my way to work one morning; I’m the one in my dark Audi A3 in Lane 2. Cool eh? I guess I will at least retain this Google Street View fame for the next 3 years.

It is rumored that 3 years is how long Google takes to refresh the Street View images in Google Maps. I suppose that’s pretty quick, given it was just over a year ago that Google began taking images of Hong Kong streets.

BTW: I my dark metallic grey 2006 Audi A3 Sportback 3.2 with only 28,000km on the odometer is for sale. Please contact me directly if interested.

Google Street View for Hong Kong Now Live is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

The much talked about new version of Foursquare for iPhone 1.6 was accidentally made available in the Apple iTunes App Store over the weekend and then pulled immediately, with Foursquare saying that their system was not ready. As a result all versions of Foursquare for iPhone were removed from the App Store until Tuesday when they re-released the previous versions as v1.6.1, which is higher than the version that was released on the weekend.

This morning (HK time) Foursquare again relaunched the new version as v1.7. Below are the side by side comparisons of what’s different between the old and new versions, looking at the revised UI designs.

Gone is the old landing page, with the new version when you start the Foursquare app on your iPhone it will return to the last screen it was on when you left.

The order of the buttons at the lower toolbar has been reworked. The first icon now shows the friends’ latest checkins

Next is the icon that shows the near by Places the user can check into.

version 1.7

version 1.6.1

After that is the Tips icon which shows the Near By tips and My To Dos.

version 1.7

version 1.6.1

The old More icon has been replaced with an icon with the user’s name on it. It shows the user’s Profile with history of checkins and access to the user’s list of friends. The previous Badge icon had been removed from the lower toolbar and now the list of earned badges are accessible from user’s Profile screen.

version 1.7

version 1.6.1

The venue screens have been reworked a bit to align with the new UI design. Some of the functions that were available on these screens are now hidden within an option button at the top right corner of the screen.

version 1.7

version 1.7

version 1.7

version 1.6.1

version 1.6.1

version 1.6.1

The ladder screen has received the similar UI refresh to align with the new design.

version 1.7

version 1.6.1

Same UI refresh was applied to the Badges screen.

version 1.7

version 1.6.1

Here are some of the other screen in the new version (v1.7).

version 1.7

version 1.7

version 1.7

Overall this new UI design is a welcome change. The light colour scheme aligns better with the traditional Web2.0 style applications, but the lighter colours may also consume more power on the iPhone.

Foursquare 1.7 for iPhone Available NOW is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie Alice in Wonderland in 3D at AMC Cinemas, Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong. One of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

This Tim Burton sequel to the original Alice in Wonderland movie from 1903, began the story with a 19 years old Alice Kingsleigh who just lost her father and is about to be married in an arranged marriage with the son of his father’s ex-partner. Alice (Mia Wasikowska), got distracted and followed the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) into a rabbit hole once more and began her adventure in Wonderland.

In Wonderland there is a battle between the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), in which Red Queen won and took over Wonderland. The White Rabbit was sent by Dormouse (Barbara Windsor), Dodo bird (voice of Michael Gough), and Tweedledee / Tweedledum (Matt Lucas) to look for Alice, because The Scroll claims that on the Frabjous Day, Alice will return to slay the Jabberwocky (Christopher Lee). Along the way Alice runs into her old friend Hatter (Johnny Depp) and he further explains to Alice what she needs to do.

Carter gave a familiar performance as she did with her character in Sweeney Todd, which Depp starred as Sweeney Todd. The Australian actress Wasikowska played a wonderful Alice, someone innocent, determine, ambitious and full of imaginations.

The special effect was okay and the 3D affects were minimal. I would not suggest going to see the 3D version of the film, as I believe the extra cost is not worth it. Rather I wish I had simply chosen a theater with a large screen and good sound system.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland (2010) is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Apple has announced the ship date to be April 3, 2010 for iPad in the USA, and begins to take pre-orders on March 12, 2010.

According to Apple’s January 28th announcement, they will released the iPad in stages. The WiFi only versions are expected to release 60 days from the announcement date (approx. March 30th), then the versions with WiFi+3G was to come 30 days (approx. April 29th) after that.

So based on the above understanding the April 3rd ship date should be for the WiFi only versions, and the versions with WiFi+3G are expected 30 days after that; some time beginning of May (approx. May 4th), just in time for Easter.

Interestingly the Apple HK web site still shows the WiFi versions are expected to ship “some time in late March” and the 3G versions in April. Did Apple change its iPad worldwide released strategy? Is Apple shipping both WiFi only and WiFi+3G versions in the US on April 3rd?

I guess we will have to wait until March 12th to find out.

iPad Ships on April 3rd (USA only?) is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Every iPod released by Apple since October 2001 had the feature to allow user to mount the iPod on the desktop of the host computer (running either OS X, Windows or Linux). Unfortunately, Apple removed this feature from the iPod Touch (September 2007), and when Apple released the iPhone, it inherited this “deficiencies” from the iPod Touch.

With the ability to mount the “old” iPod on the desktop of the host computer, this allowed users to transfer files to/from the host computer to the iPod, consequently using the iPod as a portable USB connected drive.

As you can imagine, many existing iPod users were very disappointed when Apple omitted this USB mount ability from the iPod Touch and iPhone. Fortunately, now there is an application created by Macroplant (previously named “myPod Apps”) called Phone Disk that brings this feature back for iPod Touch and iPhone users running OS X on their host computers.

Since the released of the iPod Touch, there had been other applications that enable access to the iPod Touch and iPhone file system on the host computer, like Air Sharing, Files, etc. But these other applications requires either an OS X sister application running on the host computer or the user has to access a WebDAV link from the iPhone app through a browser on the host computer.

Phone Disk does not require any of these methods to connect the iPod Touch or iPhone to the Mac. It simply runs in the background, silently waiting for an iPod Touch or iPhone to connect to the Mac. When it sees any of these devices it will mount them on the OS X Finder. The mounted iPod Touch and iPhone will appear as an icon on the Finder Desktop.

An additional icon will appear in the Menu Bar, where access to the application’s Preferences and the list of mounted devices can be found.

Note: having access to the file system of the iPod Touch and iPhone is very dangerous, as many of these files and folders have specific purpose. Moving, renaming or deleting any of them will affect the functionalities of the iPhone apps and/or loose personal data. Please proceed very cautiously.

For a limited time, Macroplant is giving away the application FREE of charge. Users just have to enter the following serial number into their copy of Phone Disk before September 1, 2010. Plus these users will receive free updates to the application.

2H96A-QK7MX-8GEYK1V-ZR6S8

So don’t hesitate and go give it a try.

Simplest Way to Access iPhone from Finder is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

I was made aware of InfoXenter’s recent released iPhone application called “TimeSqueeze”. It is a simple app; like any iPhone app should that focuses on performing one task and do it well, in this case the task is creating time-lapsed videos/photography on the iPhone 3G or 3GS running OS 3.1.2 or later. At the moment it does not support the iPod Touch.

After displaying its title page the user is brought into the Main screen of the application where it awaits the creation of a time-lapsed video.

On the Main screen you will find several controls in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. The first icon will begin the recording of the video, before the second icon is a bar that controls digital zooming that is enabled during video recording. The second icon will bring up a Project List containing the recorded time-lapsed videos. Lastly is the Setting icon that brings up the speed up slider, which allows the adjustment of the amount the resulting time-lapsed video is sped up.

The speed up formula is as follow:

5 X = a 60 seconds video will be sped up resulting in a video that is 12 seconds long.
1000 X = a 24 hours video will be sped up resulting in a video that is 90 seconds long.

1000 X being the maximum speed.

After these time-lapsed videos are recorded in MPEG4 (the default and only format available) they can be uploaded to YouTube, Facebook or YFrog, the latter by sharing the video through Twitter, as YFrog is the current default service used to host videos shared with a tweet.

Note: if you like to save the video out to the iPhone’s Camera Roll along with other recorded videos on the iPhone, you will need to click the “Save to Library” button. I believe this button may need to be changed to “Save to iPhone’s Camera Roll” to make it more obvious what it does.

Clicking on the YouTube button will bring up a screen to enter the information: Title, Description, Tags and Category, these are all fields that YouTube requires when uploading a video. TimeSqueeze automatically used the Project title as the video Title, entered “Timesqueeze”, “iPhone” and “Timelapsed” as default tags and “Comedy” as the default category.

After these mandatory information are entered you can then click on the Upload button at the top of the screen to bring up the YouTube Credentials/Upload screen.

TimeSuqeeze is not using YouTube’s OAuth API to authenticate the user’s YouTube account but requires the user to manually enters the Username and Password. Fortunately, TimeSqueeze saves these credentials between use/uploads.

During my test of a 57 seconds video that was converted into a 11 seconds video, it took several minutes to upload (on a 3G network connection). Unfortunately, my test failed with an error message and the video was not uploaded. After trying several times I gave up.

I uploaded it manually, by first saving the created video into my iPhone’s Camera Roll, connect my iPhone to my Mac, import the video using the iPhoto application, then uploads the video using a browser connection to YouTube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Clicking on the Facebook icon brings up a screen to enter the information: Title and Comments (optional), these are information Facebook requires when uploading a video. TimeSqueeze automatically used the Project’s title as the video title.

Here TimeSqueeze uses Facebook Connect to authenticate the user with his/her Facebook account. Afterwards clicking on the Upload button will theoretically uploads the said video onto the user’s Facebook account.

Unfortunately, my test upload also failed with an error message.

Clicking on the Twitter icon brings up the screen to enter the body of the tweet and the user’s Twitter credentials. It is unfortunate, that TimeSqueeze is not using Twitter OAuth to authenticate the user’s Twitter account, but fortunately it saves the entered credentials for subsequent uploads.

I had reported both of the errors encountered during upload attempts to the developer and he assures me that both functions work properly as expected. He is now investigating the issues I had encountered.

The Negatives

I wish the application would use the respective OAuth services for the corresponding sites to authenticate the accounts. This can be done in the applications Settings either within the application on in the iPhone’s Settings app.

There should be a way to change the recorded video’s sped up speed after recording and before saving to the iPhone’s Camera Roll. Alternatively, a copy of the original video should be saved within the application’s storage space. Understand this can be storage intensive but most videos are one-shot-deal and cannot be retaken.

The application should recognize the orientation of the iPhone when recording so that upside down videos would not result as in the example below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Conclusions

As mentioned this is one of those iPhone app that lives up to the true nature of apps on the iPhone. iPhone app should perform one or a few tasks best it can and does not try to do too much unlike a typical desktop application. That is one of the main differences between iPhone “app” and regular “applications”.

Although I was not able to get the upload features working, I do have confidence in this developer because of past experiences. He is always very good with following up any bugs in his programs and actively improves applications he creates. So I am certain those the bugs I encountered will be corrected.

This application makes creating time-lapsed videos/photography on the iPhone very straight forward and I believe all iPhone 3G or 3GS users should have this in their photography app library.

Where To Get It

At the moment InfoXenter is asking USD1.99 for the application via the iTunes App Store.

Review: TimeSqueeze on iPhone is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

After using the Nexus One for 7 days I came to a conclusion on whether Nexus One is suitable for me. That was several weeks ago, My Transformation to Nexus One, and based on the title of this post you can guess what my conclusions are. I will attempt to explain my position in this post.

First and foremost, I do agree that Google’s Nexus One is one of if not the best Android phone in the market; at the moment. This is mainly due to the version of Android OS (2.1.x) it is using; 2 versions ahead of any other released Android phone in the market at the time of this writing. For the Nexus One there are no other layer above Android’s UI to obscure the user experience as Google had intended, this latter point may be an advantage to some and a disadvantage to others. As Google is not famous for developing the best User Interface.

Being a Macintosh user, one of my main reasons for not liking the N1 is its poor integration with the Mac. I rely on various applications and tools on my Mac every day. iTunes to manage the music and podcasts I listen to every day. Contact information for everyone I know and in touch with are stored in my AddressBook application. My photos are organized in iPhoto.

Using the N1 I cannot sychronize the play count of songs, making the Smart Playlists I have in iTunes useless. As I have Smart Playlists that automatically gather songs that I had not listen to in the past 2 days. Making the need for a large music storage device unecessary. It also does not sychronize the position within the podcasts I listen to, making it difficult for me to get through all the podcasts I need to. Neither of these issues can be resolved by the Mac application DoubleTwist, which I use to synchronize the music between the N1 and my Mac.

For contacts information the fields in Google Contact are much less detailed than the ones in my AddressBook application on my Mac. Google Contacts doesn’t separate First and Las names of contacts, or have the number of additional fields that AddressBook offers. Fortunately there is SpanningSync on the Mac to help mange this.

For some reasons DoubleTwist was not able to synchronize the photo albums in iPhoto with the N1. So any photos I need from iPhoto onto the N1 will require first mounting the N1 via USB as an attached drive, then drag the desired photos into the appropriate folder on the N1.

As you can see I had to use various “workarounds” to accomplish my day to day tasks on my “mobile personal device”, currently the N1. Which I did not have to do when that was the iPhone.

Aside from the above there are also some general user experiences that I do not like about the N1, which makes my use of the N1 clumbersome.

For over two years we were waiting for Apple to introduce Copy & Paste; that they invented on the Macintosh over 24 years ago, to the iPhone. When it finally arrived it quirky became part of my daily use of the iPhone. On the N1 there is Copy & Paste but these features are not available when you needed it most. Like copying an URL or phone number from a SMS or email. The N1 will not even allow you to copy text within the builtin browser.

My conclusions about the three platforms of smartphones: Windows Phone (aka. “Windows Mobile”), iPhone and Android are as follow.

For Windows Phone the user must think and learn the way Microsoft do thing on the phone.

For the iPhone, Apple considers all the different ways of performing various tasks on the phone and think for the user so the user can focus on the task at hand.

For Android phones, Google wants to be as flexible as possible, and does not want to restrict it’s users so they just don’t think and allow the user to customize the phone the way they want. To accomplish the task the users want.

My opinion is that the N1 is not suitable for the layman users and is more suitable for the technical types. I am definitely a technical person, although when I use my “mobile device” I do not want to deal with the technical aspect of the device, but just focus on the tasks I want to accomplish. The iPhone allows me to forget about the technologies and focus on the tasks.

This is why I am selling my Nexus One. If you do not agree with me and like to purchase a barely used N1 please let me know.

My Decisions to LEAVE Nexus One is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

From January 31 – February 14 I travelled to three US cities: New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. As you all know I am a long time iPhone user, someone who is very familiar with the Internet and various technologies. Hence, I was surprised to received a SMS from Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) on Feb. 5th, while in Los Angeles (the second city of my trip), regarding my data roaming charges exceeding HKD1400.00.

I immediately followed the instructions in the SMS and contacted SMV’s Customer Service (CS) department to determine what had went wrong. Especially when at that point, out of the 6 days I had been away from Hong Kong I spent 2 of those traveling on air planes.

To make things worst the AT&T cellular network in Los Angeles is very unreliable and I had to call the SMV CS 3 times, at the end SMV had to call me back to finish the conversation. The SMV CS representative tells me there were several +2MB files download and that my iPhone is still using data connections while I was speaking to the SMV CS representative. This was impossible as I had turned off Data Roaming, all Push Notifications and any Email Fetches on the iPhone. So I ask the CS representative to immediately disconnect all data functions for my account until I return to Hong Kong.

Out Come

On Feb. 14th when I returned to Hong Kong, the first thing I did as soon as I am able to turn on my mobile phone was to contact SMV CS. They tell me that they can reactivate all data functions for my account, but for any further enquiry about the case I will have to wait until Feb. 17th, when the department that handled my case, while I was in the US, to return to work from the Chinese New Year holidays.

Today, I was finally able to see my SMV bill online. According to SMV, on Feb. 5th when they sent me the SMS warning, there was supposedly a 7.999MB data usage costing HKD1119.86 based on a rate of HKD0.14/KB in a period of 1 minute. As you can imagine this comes as a great shock to me, since I knew mobile carriers have outrages roaming fees. So I was very careful not to incur any data usage while I was overseas and only do so in a very controlled manner. I explained all this to the SMV CS representative but he insists that my iPhone had indeed used the said data and refused to do anything about the charge.

Over the past several years I had supported Smartone-Vodafone by recommending it to almost everyone I know, including writing about it compared to other Hong Kong mobile carriers. Mainly due to its obvious desire to do its best for its customers. I even supported them during the past several years when it is indeed inferior to other mobile carriers in Hong Kong. I even offer my personal time to help them test their network, to try to help them improve the quality delivered.

My mobile phone bill for the month came to HKD3153.12 and I am only disputing the HKD1119.86 charge for the 7.999MB data use, but the SMV CS representative refuse. Saying that I have to provide proof that I did not use the said data amount. How am I able to do that?

I am very surprise to find SMV to be so heartless and disregards all that I had done for its Network Team. I expect it to stand on my side and believe that I did not incur the 7.999MB data claimed on Feb. 5th. This incident had totally changed my positive opinions of SMV and will definitely think twice on any future recommendations for SMV. I will most likely look for another carrier when my current contract expires.

[Updated: February 23, 2010, 22:00]
Smartone-Vodafone had paid attention to my situation and now they had done the following three things to help ease the charges of my February bill.

• Credit me for the voice charges relating to the calls I made from LA in regards to this issue.
• Applied a 20% discount on the roaming data charges upon complaining about this issue and after I published my post.
• Applied a further 10% discount on the roaming data charges after publishing my post, generating discussions on Twitter and after several SMV departments were made aware of my complaint.

These actions on behalf of SMV is appreciative and discounts the title of my post “Smartone-Vodafone Heartless”. Having said that, I believe SMV CS needs to reflect on the tone and attitude of the CS representative (Mr. Kong) who handled my complaint the second time I called after returning to Hon Kong. I do not believe that SMV handled this case correctly initially, they should be treating all their customers as valuable customers. It should not take someone complaining about the situation publicly on the Interweb to react.

I hope SMV had learned a lesson about handling customer complaints as I have regarding roaming with my home carrier.

Smartone-Vodafone Heartless to Its Most Loyal Customer [Updated] is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

On the heels of an iPhone OS based device, iPad, comes another iPhone OS upgrade for existing iPhone users.

Although, as all hacked iPhone users know, this also means a WARNING to these users from upgrading to the new OS. This include all users with jailbroken and most of all “unofficially” unlocked iPhones.

Yes, there is currently a version of redsn0w tool is reported to be compatible to iPhone OS 3.1.3, but I would recommend you wait until iPhone Dev Team release a new Pawnage Tool and confirms their use for all versions of iPhone and iPod Touch.

Of course, the iPhone Dev Team are following and analyzing the effects of iPhone OS 3.1.3 on jailbroken and “unofficially” unlocked iPhones. You can keep up to date on their progress via their post, 3.1.3 and thee.

For all users who do not care about jailbreaking or unlocking, and users of Apple officially unlocked iPhones 2G/3G/3GS, should upgrade their iPhones as soon as possible to this latest iPhone OS 3.1.3 to avoid the flaws in the iPhone OS outlined by Apple.

Stay Far Away From iPhone OS 3.1.3 is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

This morning (10:00 US PST) Steve Jobs introduced the Apple iPad to the highly anticipated crowd at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center.

The specifications on the device are:

• Display: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm) IPS display
• Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
• Depth: 0.5 inches
• Weight: 1.5 pounds
• 16, 32, or 64 GB solid state hard drives
• Processor: 1 GHz Apple A4 chip
• Wi-Fi: 802.11n
• Battery: 10 hours, over 1 month standby
• Other features: Speaker, Microphone, 30-pin connector, Accelerometer and compass

WiFi version:

• Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)

WiFi + 3G version:

• Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
• UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900,1800, 1900 MHz)

The versions with the WiFi and 3G radios will be available in 90 days (some time in May 2010). I believe for this device to live up to its full potential, the 3G capable version is the one to get.

Of course you can save USD130 and go with your carrier’s HSPA modem/WiFi hotspot solution. Many of the carriers offering such a device will give away the device for free in exchange for a 3G data tariff plan; which you will need for the 3G enabled iPad. Alternatively, you can purchase a HSPA modem/WiFi hotspot, like the MiFi, but that will cost you around USD3xx.00. As with all mobile device, I personally will be happy with the 16GB version of the device. So I will start saving my USD629.00 (HKD4,891.48).

Strangely in the list of languages the iPad supports, Traditional Chinese is not one of them

• Language support

  for English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian

• Keyboard support

  for English (US) English (UK), French (France, Canada), German, Japanese (QWERTY), Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian

• Dictionary support

  for English (US), English (UK), French, French (Canadian), French (Swiss), German, Japanese, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin), Russian

I personally does not like the name “iPad”, I prefers the “Mac Slate“. The one thing Apple did right was to enable all the existing iPhone’s 140,000 applications in the iTunes Store to run on the iPad.

With the new iPad, Apple also released a keyboard stand for the iPad.

Along with iPad, Apple also introduced a new iBookstore within iTunes. It currently has 5 publishers (Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, Hachette Book Group)  supporting it and more coming.

Apple released a new iWork designed for the iPad touch interface. I wonder how much of the features of the new iWork will be transferred to the Mac version of iWork.

Overall this is another device that most likely will shaken the “netbook”, “tablet” and “eBook/eReader” markets. Although, Apple say that the iPad runs all the iPhone application, but looking at the Apple developed iPad applications: iWork, Email, Photos, etc., the iPad SDK has way more capabilities and flexibilities for the developer to create applications that deliver a fully immersed experience so that the end-user does not feel like they are using a computer but an interactive device.

Now, I can’t way to see how iPhone 4.0 and the upcoming iPhone will change, given what Apple has introduced in the iPad. Definitely an exciting 2010 for Apple fans worldwide.

Here is a link to Apple’s promotion video for the iPad.

[Updated: February 28, 2010, 12:00]
Apple has made the keynote presentation launching the iPad available on their web site.

A comprehensive guide to the iPad produced by Mashable.

[Updated: February, 28, 2010, 15:00]
Reactions and editorials from staff at Engadget.

Several opinions about the iPad on Mashable:

• 4 Reasons the Kindle is Dead, 4 Reasons It’s Not
• What’s Missing from the Apple iPad?
• The Anti-Hype: Why Apple’s iPad Disappoints

Reactions to Apple iPad [Updated] is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

During an interview with CNBC yesterday afternoon, the McGraw-Hill’s CEO Terry McGraw told CNBC (at 02:50 in the interview) that the yet unannounced Apple tablet “will be based on the iPhone OS.”

McGraw-Hill’s CEO Jump Spill the Apple Tablet News is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

On Jan. 22 I received my Nexus One directly from Google.

Since I lived in Hong Kong I bought the USD529.00 fully unlocked version.

The purchasing experience at Google’s Nexus One web site was very present. Google recognized I already had a credit card in my Google Checkout account, and auto filled the shipping address for my order. After choosing the unlocked version of the Nexus One, it automatically chose an AC adpater suitable for Hong Kong. I guess that’s because of the shipping address. I excluded it as I believe it is more convenient to charge via USB.

Within 24 hours I received a message from Google stating that my order had shipped. For international orders Google use DHL as the carrier.

Within hours DHL already shows my shipment as being processed for a flight to Hong kong. Another 24 more hours DHL shows my shipment as being processed through HK customs. A few more hours later my shipment is shown to be with the delivery courier.

Google took a page from Apple and mimic them on the packaging of the Nexus One. They even went as far as copying the 3 steps to get started, Apple used for their Macintosh computer.

Shortly after I ordered the Nexus One I began migrating my contacts to Google. Which I had always used Apple’s Address Book to manage on my MacBook Pro. This was not as good of an experience as I had hoped. Mainly due to Google Contacts’ basic design. It doesn’t even seperate the First and Last names of contacts. To resolve this issue I used Spanning Sync on my Mac to manage the differences and to keep the two data store in sync. Until Google updates Google Contact to support the standard fields of a vCal record, software like Spanning Sync is indispensable.

Right after turning on the Nexus One it gives the user the opportunity to open a Google account or enter the credentials of an exiting one. As soon as I provided my Google account credentials the Nexus One immediately begins to synchronize the information I had on Google’s various applications: GMail, Contacts, Calendar, Reader and Voice.

Afterwards it asked if I like to allow Google to backup my settings and Bookmarks. This is so that I can easily restore my Nexus One if I ever have to change phone or reset my Nexus One.

Like with all devices I had to allow the N1 to charge over night before using it. So I will save my experience of the N1 for another post coming soon.

My Transformation to Nexus One [Updated] is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

It appears that various media like: Engadget, Ars Technica, FoxNews, have now received the official invitation from Apple for the event on January 27, 2010 at 10:00 (US PST) held at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Fox News even went as far as reporting that they have confirmation of the topics that will be presented by Apple. These being the new tablet, iPhone OS 4.0 and a new version of iLife.

Apple Event January 27, 2010 Confirmed is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

This is a visual summary created by Siko for the French web site Nowhere Else, it summarized all the rumores surrounding the upcoming iPhone from Apple.

Besides the features are values indicating the likelihood for the feature to be true. All of these are educated guesses and none have been commented or confirmed by Apple themselves.

iPhone 4th Generation Summarized Visually is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Stores in Hong Kong are starting to sell the Google Nexus One.

This store in Wanchai Computer City is asking for HKD5880.00 (cash price), which give it a mark up of HKD1554.47 when compared to buying the phone directly from Google

Nexus One = USD529.00
Shipping to Hong Kong = USD28.32
Total purchase price = USD557.32 (approximately HKD4325.53).

Given the high mark up, I don’t see why anyone would purchase the Nexus One from these stores in Hong Kong, unless they do not have a credit card (Google uses Google Checkout which accepts credit cards only). Plus all Nexus One purchased from Google has the option of adding up to two lines of engraving to the back of the phone.

Google Nexus One for Sale in Hong Kong is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Many countries immediately sent humanitarian aids and rescue team to the devastated country where over 80% of the buildings are destroyed.

Most of these countries air lifted aids to Haiti but the airport was not reopened until late that evening.

Instead of doing what other countries do, USA sent their Nimitz class supercarrierUSS Carl Vinson to Haiti. It brought with it humanitarian aids, search and rescue, but instead of bringing fresh water to Haiti. The US used the carrier’s ability to produce fresh water to create 300,000 liters on location.

Yes, this sending a USS carrier is impressive and it also has the infrastructure necessary to assist the wounded, like shelter and field hospital, but a more cost effective way would be for United Nation, UNHCR and other national agencies to invest in local purification systems, like LifeSaver invented by Michael W. Pritchard. According to Pritchard it only cost GBP4.00 per person.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Incredible Technical Approach is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

I speculated yesterday that Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) will return Tethering back to iPhone users on their network. This morning I noticed a new .IPCC (carrier specific) file for iPhone users on the SMV network.

Now I am back home, I am able to confirm that the tethering between the Macintosh and iPhone via USB is again functional.

You need to remember to restart your iPhone after downloading the new SMV specific .IPCC file:

~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Carrier Support/

If you had previously used the Help.Benm.at to create a new “profile” on your phone, you will need to go the following location on your iPhone and remove this Profile before the Tethering option will return.

Settings -> General -> Profiles

Confirmed Tethering for iPhone is Back for Smartone-Vodafone is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

This morning when I plug my iPhone in to iTunes, it reported that there is a new carrier update. The .IPCC file is what was updated and each Apple carrier partner in the world has one of these files. Visual Voicemail and Tethering are dependent on these files to be activated officially on the iPhone.

So with my report yesterday regarding SMV’s Voicemail migration and today’s appearance of the .IPCC file, SMV is well on its way to become Apple’s 2nd official carrier partner in Hong Kong.

[Update: January 16, 2010, 19:00]
After restarting my iPhone I now have Internet Tethering back. What I also had to do was to remove the Profile originally created with Help.Benm.at.

Smartone-Vodafone Began Its Transition (Updated) is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

I like to share with my readers the process in which I became a SSD (“Sold State Drive”) user.

The price of SSD drive is still way more expensive than a regular HDD, especially when you compared the cost per GB (Gigabyte).

In Hong Kong on average one can find a reasonably fast 7200rpm 1TB (Terabyte) 3.5″ internal drive for about HKD790.00. Even if you purchase a USB capable external enclosure that is only an additional HKD120.00. Giving you a cost per GB of HKD0.91/GB.

On the other hand the Intel SSD X25-M 160GB cost me HKD3770 at the beginning of January, giving me the cost per GB of HK23.56/GB. This means using a SSD cost 24.89 times more.

How I come to decide on purchasing the Intel SSD X25-M? Partially it is because of the reviews and information gather from AnandTech’s web site, plus the feedback from various people about Intel and OCZ SSD.

The reason I compared the 2.5″ SATA II SSD internal drive to a Western Digital Caviar Black 3.5″ high performance SATA II drive, is because that’s what I would have purchased as an additional drive for my MacBook Pro. Now that I purchased the SSD, I converted the original 320GB drive into an external backup drive with an external enclosure.

So is the 160GB SSD installed in my 2.66GHz MacBook Pro 15″ (Mid 2009) with 4GB of RAM 25.89 times faster than when I had the original 320GB 5400rpm HDD installed? I use the program XBench 1.3 to test my MacBook Pro prior to and after swapping the new SSD for the HDD.

The following are the summary of the scores.

These results show that my MacBook Pro improved its overall XBench score by 1.64 times and its disk performance score by 7.91 times. Due to Write Amplification I believe more RAM will help further improve the overall performance of my MacBook Pro.

How I Became a SSD User is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

All of a sudden I received the following cryptic SMS message from Smartone-Vodafone:

Voicemail system migration has been completed. Your greeting & PIN have been reset. To check messages before system migration, dial 138 & press 5.

The thing is that there was no prior message to say that the Voicemail system is to be migrated. Also what does the last sentence mean? Isn’t this SMS to inform me that the said migration has already been completed?

Seeing that this Voicemail “migration” comes so close to the official iPhone launch by Smartone-Vodafone on the 23rd. Does it imply that I’m correct earlier about Apple’s Visual Voicemail coming to SMV iPhone customers very soon?

Cryptic Smartone-Vodafone SMS is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Starting January 23, 2010 Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) will become an official Apple carrier partner in Hong Kong, along with 3 HK. May be this will mean that the two long awaited features: “Visual Voicemail” and “Tethering”, will also be officially available to SMV customers (old and new). I was not able to get an official confirmation about this, as everyone I spoke to are keeping the SMV iPhone tariff plans and features very secretive.

When Apple released version 3.1.2 of the iPhone OS, they disabled the long enjoyed tethering feature for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users in Hong Kong who are not 3 HK’s customers. This arguably is not the right thing to do and does not make sense. As 5 out of the 7 carriers in HK offers iPhone tethering plans for their customers. Plus all iPhones purchased through official Apple channels are fully unlocked and full featured. When I spoke with AppleCare about the disappearance of tethering on my iPhone 3GS, they admit that tethering should be working for me (a SMV customer).

This is especially frustrating when a friend of mine who purchased his iPhone 3GS from 3 HK, but has since switched to SMV. He is able to see the “Enable Tethering” feature on his iPhone using the SMV SIM. Putting his SIM card into my iPhone 3GS, or replacing my SMV SIM card with a new one, did not correct the problem.

I hope my hypothesis about tethering and Visual Voicemail coming to SMV customers is correct, I guess in a bit over 1 week we will all know.

Tethering Finally Returns to SMV iPhone Users in HK is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie Old Dogs at JP Theater, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. One of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

With Seth Green in this movie I had expected it to be a slapstick comedy. Even with John Travolta, who has done great movies: Wild Hogs, Ladder 49, Swordfish, et., in the past I was a bit skeptical. Fortunately, these are not the only two main actors in the movie, there’s also the Oscar winning Robin Williams, whom I believe have yet to appear is a bad movie; well may be RV was an exception to that rule. At almost 60, Williams is still able to carry the movie on his own with Travolta playing more as a sidekick and supporting actor.

This movie had a fairly simple plot executed well by Walt Becker. It is about a busy successful man finding the priorities in his life, and pursing them at all cost. Overall there are many touching moments while at the same time contains the humor that is famous in Williams’ films.

This is definitely a must see for Williams fans and anyone else who enjoy a happy fun night out to the movies.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Old Dogs (2009) is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

goFerry is a Free application created by a Hong Kong investment company, SINO Dynamic Solutions Limited, but own and operated by a Malaysian travel company called AsiaTravelMart. I will go into why this is important later in this review.

The vendor refers to its application as the first iPhone application to allow mobile purchases of ferry tickets between Hong Kong and Macau on one of the three companies: TurboJet, Cotai and New First, which it does.

The steps for purchasing tickets are quite straight forward. They are as follow:

1. Choose whether you like to purchase a one-way or round trip ticket.
2. Choose the date of your departure.
3. Choose the terminal to depart from.



4. Choose the terminal to arrive at.
5. Choose the date you like to return, if you’re purchasing a round trip ticket.
6. Next the user is presented with a warning that the “Main Contact” is the only person who will be able to pickup the tickets. I believe the the taxonomy used here should be change to refer to the individual as the person picking up the tickets.



7. The Main Contact Details form is what the user have to complete next.
8. In the Main Contact Details form, the developers failed to set the Email field to a email type field, so the user have to keep switching the keyboard of the iPhone to enter the complete email address.



9. After the personal information of the Main Contact is submitted, the user has to provide payment information, this being the credit card details. On the Payment Details form the user is not asked to enter the type of credit card, presumably the application is determining this by the first 4 digits of the credit card number.



10. I did not continue to what I believe is the final step, because I did not want to purchase a set of tickets. You can see from the Payment Details form the user is able to accept (default) or reject the Terms of Conditions, but there is no link to see the details of the T&C.

There are no indication that any of these personal and financial information are sent to the goFerry service via a secure channel. There are also strange design decisions in the application. For example, the progress icon and terminal names/details are bi-lingual but the rest of the application are in English. The goFerry.hk website also tries to be multi-lingual, and has the ability to choose among Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and English versions, but the English version contains mainly Chinese content. When you click on most links in the English version it will redirects to the Chinese version of the site. This is so typical of Hong Kong web developers, another sign of sloppiness and not paying attention to details.

One major issue with the workflow of the application is that it does not protect the user from purchasing ridiculous itinerary like the one I have created in error; note that my return time is before my departure time on the same day. It places the responsibility on the user to ensure the itinerary is accurate. I always believe applications; more to the point application developers, should do as much as possible to assist the end-user. Not including such a simple test is simply lazy on the part of the developers.

There is an issue with the list of available ferries from the search. It is simply a list of departures sorted by departure time in accending order. This is not too convenient for comparing ticket prices and times of departure. There should be a very simple presentation for both of these types of comparisons. Not that Hong Kong/Macau ferry pricing are complicated but it should be done much better.

As the last step in the workflow the application requires the end-user to provide credit card details including the CVV code. Although I was not able to find a Privacy document within the application, the FAQ or the goFerry.hk website. Their Terms of Use also does not mention or explain how the company will use and protect these personal and financial information.

When you take into account of my first paragraph in this article and the above, it becomes even more dangerous for the end-user to use this application to purchase tickets.

Let me explains the issue with SINO Dynamic Solutions Limited and the Malaysian company, AsiaTravelMart, that owns and operates the goFerry services. The website for AsiaTravelMart is not accessible, and any information found on the Internet about AsiaTravelMart are either marketing information or negative reviews.

To make things a bit more suspect, Alexander Kong, the principal behind this application and service, currently has an outstanding bankruptcy case against him, involving SINO Dynamic Solutions Limited and AsiaTravelMart.

Review: goFerry on iPhone is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My Rating:

This evening thanks to NeonPunch.com I saw the movie premier Sherlock Holmes at JP Theater, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. One of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

If you are a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels then you will have been looking forward to this version of the movie for some time. For this movie they casted Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as Holmes sidekick, Dr. John Watson. The villain this time is Lord Blackwood played by Mark Strong, and the romantic distraction is Irene Adler played by My Name Is Tanino’s Rachel McAdams.

I feel Downey delivered his typical Tony Stark character, which in my opinion does not fit my imagination of how Sherlock Holmes should be. Given that Holmes is a well known character, it is often hard to satisfy movie goers’ expectations and preconceptions. On the other hand Law’s performance was excellent, he presents a Watson that I expects from the years of reading Sherlock Holmes stories. Having said that the movie was able to keep the audience intrigued by a series of twists and revelations in the plot typical of Holmes stories. The movie ends by revealing the character, professor Moriarty, but comes short of revealing who the actor will be. As fans of Sherlock Holmes will know that Moriarty is the arch nemesis of Holmes, so no doubt if this movie does well in the box office, there will be a sequel.

Aside from the acting, the special effects masters were able to recreate a very believable 19th century London, along with Piccadilly Circus and an unfinished Tower Bridge. Although at times some of the blue screen became apparent in the CGI when mixed with real actors, but having sat so close to the screen I hardly noticed them.

For fans of mystery novels, Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr. or Jude Law this will be a movie not to miss.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes (2009) is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My Rating:

This afternoon I saw the movie Avatar 3D at UA Cinema, Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. One of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

Before I went to see the movie I questioned my decision to pay the extra cost to watch the 3D version of the movie, but after watching just the opening credits I realized I had made the right decision. Above all the three times Oscar winning Canadian director, James Cameron wrote and filmed this movie with digital 3D cameras in mind. Therefore to experience the movie as Cameron originally intended, one will definitely have to watch the 3D version.

Aside from the direction, the artifical set of Pandora is beautifully created, matched with perfect original score. It is no wonder that the movie had already received 9 award nominations; including Best Director, Best Visual Effect and Best Origianl Score.

Half way into this almost three hours long movie, I finally understand why others referred to the movie as “Dancing With Smurf”, a play on the title of the 1990 movie, Dancing With Wolves, staring Kevin Costner. Although, as most will agree the Na’vi is not as cute as the Smurfs.

The movie rehashes the plot of big corporations taking advantage of natives (the Na’vi) and what appeared to be the under privillaged, for their own corporate benefits. It also highlights the issues of one group trying to impose its own believes and values onto another. Which is the basis of the USA foriegn policies. Of course, it also had to include the chic topic of being more aware of our environment and suroundings.

The movie starts with Sam Worthington’s charater Jake Sully, an ex-Marine, finding out his twin brother; a scientist for the corporation, died. Since avatars are grown as human Na’vi hybrides and genetically matched to the human counter part. The corporation did not want to waste the costly avatar offered Jake, his brother’s job of operating an avatar on Pandora. Seeing this as a chance for Jake to walk again he took the job. What Jake did not know is that the corporation is minning for the valuable Unobtanium mineral at Pandora, where the largest deposit on the planet is underneath one of the Na’vi tribe’s camp. The Avatar program is creates to gain the trust of the Na’vi, so they will move away from the camp, avoiding a military intervention to remove the tribe.

The technologies in the movie is very believable even for a technologist like myself. I particularly like the scene where the operator seamlessly drag an object from the big monitor to his tablet. Reminisce of Tom Cruise’s Minority Report and wishfully the soon to arrive Mac Slate by Apple.

Yes the 3D version is more expensive but in most cities you will be able to find the cheaper version.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Avatar (3D) is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Last weekend the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs proposed a way for disgruntle iPhone users on the AT&T network in the USA to protest against the behaviour of AT&T. This also sparked the creation of a Facebook Fan page.

Although I do not agree with Operation Chokehold. From what I know of the quality of service AT&T customers receive in the USA, I do agree that AT&T needs to improve their network infrastructure.

3G GSM networks requires a dense cell configuration and AT&T may not have enough cell towers to cover the vast areas that their network serves. On the other hand, playing the devil’s advocate, AT&T’s 3G network, like the ones in Australia, is still immature compared to other 3G networks around the world, so the US population needs to give the company time to build up the network to a more mature level.

All the user complaints about the iPhone in the US and Australia are not specific to the iPhone, but the iPhone just exposes these deficiencies in the respective networks due the ease of use of its data capable applications.

In comparison, we in Hong Kong has a very mature 3G network (over 5 years) and the GSM network has been around for almost 10 years. There are 7 mobile carriers serving a population close to 7 million in an area smaller than Manhattan, NY.

Having cellular signals in subway stations, subway trains, parking lots 6 – 7 levels below ground are expected by all HK cellular users. As I recall this is not the case in North America. Most people only expect “good” cellular signals when they can see the sky.

Having said that. I think AT&T needs to be more up front with their customers, accept the fact that their network in inferior compared to other 3G GSM networks around the world. Their network is not yet ready for the iPhone and its users. AT&T had underestimated the data demand of iPhone users.

Instead of blaming iPhone users or trying to restrict iPhone users from using AT&T’s data network with increased data tariff plans, AT&T needs to acknowledge these deficiencies in their network and focus on improving the network, rather than spending unnecessary money on marketing or PR to improve their company image. As the saying goes, delivering good service to customers is the best marketing and will speak for itself. Case in point, Apple Inc.

Operation Chokehold on Friday 18, 2009, 15:00 US EST is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

With the iPhone’s popularity growing every company out there are trying to think of ways to get in onto the platform and hype. Some of these companies deliver their online services to the iPhone and others used their custom developed iPhone application simply as an advertising tool. The latter are the ones that fail and turns out to be a waste of resources to create.

Now fashion brands are jumping onto the bandwagon with DKNY and Gucci each creating their own iPhone application to promote their respective clothing lines. The former actually trying to offer advice to its users on the Cozy wrap in its iPhone app. Now Kipling is trying to get in on the hype with its Kweather iPhone application. Kipling’s application displays the local temperature, which is not that accurate (not sure of its source), and a built in function to help locate the closest Kipling outlet.

Although all these applications are free, I believe only the biggest fanboy of the respective brands will download these application as they really do not offer too much for the average iPhone user.

I think companies should take the necessary time to analyze the added value of their iPhone application and all associated Use Cases before spending the efforts and resources to create an iPhone application.

Fashion Lifestyle Brands Going iPhone is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My Rating:

This afternoon I saw the movie The Storm Warriors at UA Cinema, Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Not one of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

This is a sequel to the 1998, The Storm Riders (風雲), also staring Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng; two of Hong Kong’s big-time 90’s pop singers. Both movies are based on the Chinese comic book written by Wing-Shing Ma, and directed by the twin directors Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang.

The twin directors were not bad when they directed Bangkok Dangerous (2008), although with Bangkok they have the Oscar winning Nicolas Cage to carry the movie. This time with Storm Warriors they had over-the-hill HK pop singers who pretend to be actors. In this movie Cheng and Kwok had the same facial expressions that they always had in movies they appear in.

The movie has a weak plot which is important as the rest of the movie are not able to support the movie to maintain the interest of the audiences. The story began with a warlord capturing the elites of martial artists around ancient China forcing them to follow him, and passing on their martial art secretes. Failing this the movie jumps to the warlord’s hunt for a magical bone, whose location is only known by the emperor of China. In the mean time the good guys have decided that the only way to defeat the warlord is to have one of its lead martial artist go to the “dark” side. Yes, the scene literally mimicks Spider-Man III, and of course Star Wars in regards to the “dark” side.

They did spend a lot of money on special effects, but unfortunately, I few the various elements of the movie just do not compliment each other. I feel the editing, direction, cinematography, stunts, special effects and sound tracks all fight for the audience’s attention. I particularly do not like the editing, which made the movie appear even slower than it is already is. Adding to that the inappropriate sound track, it actually distracts from the mood set by the scene/directions, making the whole scene awkward.

I never give Hong Kong movies much hope of being able to impress me, but The Storm Riders (風雲) was okay so I thought I give this one a try. After watching The Storm Warriors my opinions about Hong Kong movies has worsen.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Storm Warriors, The (風雲 II) is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

I just read the article, Two Weeks, 5 IPhones Sold in Chinese Online Store in PCWorld by Owen Fletcher which Kit Eaton of Fast Company regurgitate in his own post on FastCompany.com.

The article in PCWorld appear to contain misleading facts. For one thing the list prices for the Apple iPhone 3GS in Hong Kong are: HKD4488.00, HKD5388.00 and HKD6288.00 for the iPhone 3G 8GB, iPhone 3GS 16GB and iPhone 3GS 32GB versions respectively. At these Manufactured Suggested Price the USD equivalent are USD579.09, USD695.22 and USD811.34 respectively. I do not think Fletcher should focus only on the top of the line iPhone 3GS and not report all prices of iPhones sold in Hong Kong; through official channels, unless his intention is to give the impression of exorbitant iPhone prices to his readers.

Note that all iPhones sold in Hong Kong through Apple authorized channels are officially unlocked by Apple, meaning they can be used on any GSM mobile carriers in the world.

The one thing I do agree with Eaton, is that Apple does not really care that the sales of iPhones through official channels are low. As gray market iPhones had been entering mainland China and the countries in the region since the first iPhone released late 2007. Apple are making money as long as these gray market iPhones are purchased through legitimate channels.

When the iPhone 3G arrived in Hong Kong in 2008 the iPhone gray market became even more prevalent in the region, because officially unlocked iPhones are available directly from Apple Hong Kong through its online store and authorized resellers. In mid 2008 China Mobile reports that there are over 500,000 iPhones activated on its mobile network.

These gray market new and second hand iPhones (3G and 3GS) are full featured including all 3G (tethering) and WiFi capabilities. So even with the mark up the gray market sellers charge, the prices of these iPhones are still cheaper than the ones found at Apple Store – Beijing and China Unicom.

I believe that Apple [Steve Jobs] are quite aware of the lucrative gray market in China and as long as Apple are selling iPhones some where they really do not care where the mainland Chinese get their iPhones.

As for the issue about most mainland Chinese do not have credit cards, that is a good point. But the people in mainland China who can afford the real iPhone and China Unicom’s high tariff plans, are the percentage of mainland China population who already have access to credit cards. The mid to lower middle class are not able to afford the iPhone and its on going cost through the 2-year contract from China Unicom. Therefore, whether these percentage of mainland China has access to credit cards or not is not an issue.

It is true if Apple lowers the price of the China iPhones so that it is comparable to the more featured gray market version iPhones, sales through the official channels may imrpove. Although, I think Apple [Steve Jobs] is trying to make a point to the China government, who demands Apple removes the current WiFi capability and insists that Apple’s iPhone supports China’s WAPI authentication protocol.

The iPhone is a success in Asia and well before the official availability of the iPhone. Taking the small population (over 7 million) of Hong Kong as an example, the wide range of individuals who use the iPhone is broad. They include average middle income house wives to executives, young working class to high school students. Of the 7 mobile carriers in Hong Kong, 5 of them has iPhone specific tariff plans, even though currently there’s only one Apple official carrier (3 HK).

Apple Doesn’t Care About iPhone Sales in Mainland China is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

NASA is an iPhone application released by USA’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

It is loaded with all sorts of information about the past and present missions of NASA, and is ideal for space enthusiasts plus anyone who has a slight interest in space exploration and wants to find out more.

The organization of the information presented in the application is very intuitive. One can search the content based on a particular mission or scan through the image and video libraries. While scanning through either of these libraries, one can search using keywords or filter the images and videos by source of the videos.

For images NASA included images from the Hubble Telescope.

You can use this application to track path of any NASA satellites include the International Space Station.

NASA included Twitter feeds from its various Twitter accounts it has. These can be accessed either from the dedicated Updates icon in the bottom toolbar or from within a mission or satellite’s page.

With a price of FREE this is definitely a must download from Apple’s iPhone App Store for anyone who are interested in space exploration.

Review: NASA on iPhone is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My Rating:

This afternoon I saw the movie Law Abiding Citizen at AMC Theater, Admiralty, Hong Kong. Another one of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

Most surprising part of this movie is the role of Gerard Butler who is most known for Beowulf and 300. In this movie Butler began as a victim who had his family murdered in front of him and then getting even after the justice system failed to convict the ones responsible. So far this does not sound too unusual but the way Butler’s character got even and the character’s background made the movie interesting for me, giving it a feel of MacGyver.

If you like The Bourne Identity movie franchise you will like this movie.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Law Abiding Citizen is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My Rating:

This afternoon I saw the movie 2012 at AMC Theater, Admiralty, Hong Kong. Another one of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

Normally I make a point not to get into details of the plot of the movie, but I will make an exception for this movie. The movie is about the destruction of the Earth due to solar flares causing the core of the Earth to over heat and making the crust unstable.

Like many recent movies from Hollywood, this movie also attempts to teach the audiences a lesson. This time the lesson is about the fragile planet Earth and how everything are interrelated. Unfortunately, this will be the only good thing to take away from this movie.

If you go to this movie expecting a captivating plot and storyline you will be greatly disappointed. Of course the movie has a storyline, but it is not complicated nor did it have any twists or turns. The most impressive moments in the movie are from the special effects. It is a movie filled with some of the best special effects from Hollywood. Creating some of the most spectacular scenes in any movie.

The movie reminds me a bit of War of the Worlds from 2005 staring Tom Cruise. In that the lead is struggling to gain the confidence from his children, while trying to save them and the human race from ultimate destruction. John Cusack had not have much luck with movies in the past except may be Runaway Jury, and there’s no difference this time.

I suggest you give this a miss unless you are into special effects.

There were several scenes involving the Chinese government in Tibet that will most likely cut when the movie is shown in mainland China. So if you still want to see this movie, make sure you watch the uncut version from outside of mainland China.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: 2012 is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

If you have not heard of Google Wave you will want to go to Google’s About Google Wave web page to learn all about it. Please be aware that Google Wave is still in “public preview” (aka. alpha) product status, so the features are still evolving and infrastructure being improved.

Ever since I received my second batch of Google Wave “invites” and announced it on Twitter, I had been bombarded by spammers asking for invites. The last thing I want is to become part of the reason these spammers gain access to Google Wave.

What I have decided to do is take note of what one of my online friend, @Daynah, had done, mimicing her techniques in trying to screen out these spammers. I encourage anyone who have Google Wave invites to give out to do something similar.

It is very unfortunate that we have to ask potential Wave users to go through these troubles, but I hope everyone understand that we’re just trying to keep Google Wave spammer free.

So, if you like a Google Invite, please take a few minutes and do all of the following:

1. Follow me on Twitter.
2. Leave a comment to this post, describing something you know about me. Hint: aside from having met me in person there are much you can learn about me from the sites I own and participate in.
3. In your comment please also explains briefly how you will use Google Wave.
4. Send me a PM or DM (via Twitter) with your GMail account (Google Wave requires GMail accounts).

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Please do understand that this is a first come first serve offer. I cannot guarantee that everyone who do all of the above steps will receive a Google Wave nomination from me. I can only promise to try to send out more nominations from future batch of invites I receive.

I hope to know and meet you online soon.

Note: what users like myself have are “nominations” for Google Invites. After submitting your GMail account to Google for a Google Wave account, it usually takes Google some time to fulfill the nomination and send you a Google Wave invite. Previously this had taken several weeks but recently they had speed up the process to days and even hours.

Google Wave nominations are given to existing Google Wave users for free by Google, please do not pay for any Google accounts or nominations.

One last note, Google may not like that a person receive multiple nominations. So please do not request Google Wave “invites” from multiple parties.

Do You Want a Google Wave Account? is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Several years ago OfficeMax created the viral holiday ecard called ElfYourself, now it is back with an improved version with more functionalities for this holiday season. You can see my version of it below.

Don’t worry I will not be spamming my friends with it.

Elf Yourself 2009 Edition is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Early this year both PCCW and CSL launched their HSPA+ network. As a result improving the speed and capacity of their respective networks. Offering a theoretical downlink speed of 21Mbps and uplink speed of 7Mbps.

On Wednesday, November 4th Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) launched their HSPA+ upgrade to their 3G network.

The difference between SMV’s announcements and the others, is that SMV also released a document to clarify the theoretical speed of HSPA+. Where as other mobile carriers in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world, only focused on marketing the HSPA+ networks’ capability of 21Mbps speed, leaving the actual ability to achieve 21Mbps as small prints in their promotional materials. Such practices of these other mobile carriers are very misleading for layman consumers. I will attempt to explain further, to help clarify this theoretical speed of HSPA+ for layman consumers.

The ability to achieve a downlink speed of 21Mbps on any HSPA+ networks depends on many uncontrollable factors. Not to mention the availability of client devices that are compatible with HSPA+ networks. The user with the HSPA+ compatible device will need to satisfy all of the follow:

• The user be within a very close proximity to the cellular antenna; well within half the distance to the cell edge.
• There are no one else connected to the cellular antenna other than the user.
• The edge server of the carrier has no other users.
• The server hosting the web site has no other users accessing it.
• Lastly there are no other users using the connection between the mobile carrier’s ISP and the web site in question.

As you can see from the above it is impossible to achieve such a scenario in real life.

In an effort for SMV to be transparent and honest to its customers they lay out the explanations for this theoretical speed in a web page on their web site, The truth about broadband speeds.

I will give SMV HSPA+ network a try in the coming weeks and will report back after I do.

In the mean time I have already noticed improvements on the SMV 3G data access speed in the recent days. This is most likely due to the additional capacity gained by the HSPA+ upgrade.

Speed of 3G Network in Hong Kong is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

A friend on Twitter brought Shipwrek to my attention, an application developed by Candy Cane in Estonia.

It is a game with a simple goal. There are two docks: one yellow and one red, the player has to guide the corresponding coloured boats to the correctly coloured dock by drawing course lines on the screen for the boats. When the boats reach the appropriate spot at the dock it will load/unload their cargo. Some boats move faster than others and the trick is not to let any of them collide, if they do the game is over. It is almost like air traffic controller for the sea.

I showed this game to two 6 years old and they picked up the game with just a simple explanation of the goals.

If you’re looking for a game to occupy your time while waiting in line at the post office or the bus, this is definitely the one to get. Especially when the developer is asking for our favorite price of “FREE” in the iTunes App Store.

Review: Shipwrek on iPhone is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My Rating:

This afternoon I saw the movie Jennifer’s Body at UA Cinema, Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Another one of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

This is a comedy thriller staring the Transformers famed Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried from Mamma Mia!. It is about a young girl living in a small town that has an unlikely best friend, with very little in common, who ends up being possessed by satan, and starts to kill boys in a high school. As you can tell from the description it is a very Buffy-the-Vampire-Killer like plot.

I believe most male audiences went to the movie because of Fox and most females are only there because their male counter parts ask them to. Fox is not even sexy in this movie.

I would normally remove this movie from my Must See Movies list, but I wanted to make sure this review is accessible as many places as possible.

The only good thing about this movie is the sound track, which I may purchase a few tracks from the iTunes Store. I suggest you rent this movie from iTunes Store when it becomes available even if you are a fan of Fox, hence my 2-penguin rating.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: Jennifer’s Body is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

The Google Reader web client on the iPhone is not bad, it is one of the better web applications from Google aside from GMail. May be that is why there are very few iPhone client made for Google Reader.

Newsie is such a client developed by Instant Voodoo Magic and released in the Apple iTunes App Store this month. It allows users to browse feeds they had set up in their Google Reader accounts.

Newsie presents the list of feeds and folders from the user’s Google Reader account in a list called “Filter News”. This is strange choice of taxonomy, as it is displaying the content normally found in the Feeds section of a Google Reader account. On the “Filter News” screen the user can choose either to look at their feeds based on “Subscriptions” or “Folders & Tags”.

After selecting a feed/filter, the user is presented with all the articles from the chosen feed(s) on the Articles screen. To indicate an article is unread, a green dot appears on the left and the title is coloured green. Clicking on any part of the article summary will bring up the Article Details screen.

On the Articles screen there are 4 icons at the bottom tool bar, which are a bit cryptic. The first icon represents the feeds in the Articles screen, follow by the icons for the list of Starred articles, “My Notes” and Shared articles. Although, these icons may make sense after one finds out what they are for, they can be reworked to make them a bit more intuitive.

Unfortunately, the “Mark All Read” button/function is at the end of the Articles screen. This may be convenient for some users who read all the items (25 or more, depending on your settings) within a feed, but it is a sign that the developer may not have considered all use cases for this application.

Having said that, Newsie does have several features that users of Google Reader have come to expect. Like emailing an article to a friend and marking an article for “Sharing”. This latter feature is very important to me, as it is my way of sharing articles on various other social networks: FriendFeed, Facebook, Twitter, etc.. Surprisingly this sharing feature is not something that exists in the, free Google Reader client, NetNewsWire.

There is a clever innovative UI in Newsie that allows the user to quickly toggles an article as Read/Unread or Favorite. The user simply have to slide an article to the left in the Articles screen.

The really quirky feature is the way Newsie presents the folders from Google Reader. It lump these and feeds into what it refers as Filters, this is confusing for experienced Google Reader users. Aside from the icons, the chosen taxonomy also needs some rethought.

Whenever an application developer decides to charge for an application; especially ones that performs functions similar to equivalent free service, the developer needs to enhance the overall UX of the end-user for the service. Failing to do so right at version 1.0, may hurt both the application’s and the developer’s reputations, eventually effecting the application’s ability to capture supporters for future updates.

At the price of USD3.99 that Instant Voodoo Magic is asking, this needs to be a more refined application compared to the free Google Reader web service. The only reason to pay such relatively high price for an application is to encourage the developer to rethink the application’s features, and hopefully with 2.0 it will be a much better application.

In the mean time I suggest readers consider the free NetNewsWire or just stick with the web based version of Google Reader via Safari.

Review: Newsie on iPhone is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Both of the new iMac models announced today capable of attaching an external display up to a 30 inch at a resolution of 2560 by 1600 pixels, but most interestingly is that the 27-inch model’s Mini DisplayPort also supports video inputs from DisplayPort equipped devices like the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

The new iMac also has a built-in SD media card slot, enabling quick transfer of videos and photos from camera to Mac.

The 27-inch models now come with Quad Core i5 or i7 Intel processors with 8MB of L3 cache, with the latter i7 version capable of Hyper-Threading.

Along with the new iMac Apple released a VESA Mount Adapter Kit for use with either iMac models and the Apple LCD Cinema Display, allowing the iMac or the Cinema Display to be mounted on any VESA compatible mounting solutions.

Additionally Apple also introduced a brand new Apple Remote at USD19.00, and quietly gave the top of the line MacBook Pro 17-inch 3.06GHz, 8GB RAM, Antiglare model a price cut of almost USD1000.00.

[Updated: Oct. 23, 2009, 23:00]
Bellow is Apple’s promotional video describing the design of the new iMac (Late 2009).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Apple’s New iMac Hidden Feature Plus More! is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

As most readers know I conducted a joint test of Smartone-Vodafone’s HSDPA network last week; which I now found out it cost me HKD60.00 in data charges, as I had detailed in my post, Smartone-Vodafone HSDPA Network Speed Tested.

At the time Smartone-Vodafone technicians did not have the data correlated until today.

These results are from running the SpeedTest iPhone application on each of the iPhones used in the test.

These two data chart were provided by Smartone-Vodafone, so it has the tendency to show Smartone-Vodafone network as the faster network.

I would not have averaged out the speeds of the test on site by site bases, as we are talking about different locations on Hong Kong island at different time of the day. The better way to look at these data is to average out the browsing speed on a per site, per location bases. Below is the chart showing the speed in number of seconds to completely load the respective web page.

As you can see from the chart above. It is not that web browsing speed of the iPhone 3GS on the Smartone-Vodafone network is always faster than the iPhone 3GS on the 3 HK network. The important thing is that the browsing speed is much more consistent for the iPhone 3GS on the Smartone-Vodafone network.

Having a consistent speed is much more important than having a fast downlink or uplink. I hope that this will provide consumers in Hong Kong a close to real life comparison of the two mobile carriers’ 3G networks.

Smartone-Vodafone HSDPA Network Test Results is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Over the years there has been a lot of rumors on the soon to release Apple Tablet “Thingy”, which I will call “Mac Slate”.

These rumors and mockups are mostly based on leaked information from existing Apple suppliers and manufactures in China and Taiwan. They are interpretations without any explicit information from Apple themselves, as Apple will not comment on any unannounced products. Therefore, in an effort to collect my opions on the subject, I like to add my educated speculations on this soon to arrive Mac Slate.

First let us look at Apple’s past achievements, we see that Apple did not invent the MP3 player, but transformed and redefined it with the release of the iPod, iTunes Music Store and iTunes. Apple did it again when they entered the mobile smartphone market with the iPhone and the iTunes App Store.

In both cases Apple did not invent the market or the devices used. On both occasions the industries were well established with significant leaders. This did not matter to Apple and when Apple launched their offerings they shook the market and their respective industry leaders.

I truely believe Apple will do the same with the Mac Slate. The difference this time is that Apple will shake four different industries: Media Player, eBook, Netbook and book publishing industries.

I believe the Mac Slate will position itself among the Macintosh computer, iPhone and AppleTV, becoming the hub for content resides in the cloud, the Macintosh computer and Apple TV. May be it will utilize the iPhone’s communication capabilities to make video and voice calls.

Some people believe that the Mac Slate will have all the modern wireless radios: WiFi, HSDPA, Bluetooth, WiBro, etc., but I think it will only have a WiFi and Bluetooth radios. This is so that Apple can keep the cost of the Mac Slate down. Since Apple has products in the price ranges:

• iPhone/iPod Touch/AppleTV: USD100 – USD400 range
• Mac Mini: USD600 – USD800 range
• MacBook/MacBook Pro/MacBook Air: USD1000 – USD2500 range
• Mac Pro: USD2500 – USD3300

This gives Apple a price range of USD600 – USD800 for the Mac Slate, which is higher than the Amazon Kindle (USD280 – USD490), but the Mac Slate will be much more than just an eBook. I believe it will have a large enough screen to make reading books, magazines and newspapers a joy. Incorporating what Apple had learned from the iPhone UX, it should make purchasing books and getting electronic documents onto the Mac Slate very simple.

Speaking of content, there was a rumor that truck loads of books were delivered to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, so iTunes Store may begin to expand its collection very soon. Additional to the content that already exist in the iTunes Store, the Mac Slate will be able to receive streamed content from the cloud; hopefully from services like Hulu and alike.

Had you ever wanted to know more about the movie you’re watching, the characters in the movie or subject matter in the plot, the Mac Slate will be able to do so by recognizing the content being consumed via iTunes or AppleTV. It will intelligently bring up relevant content from the Internet pertaining to the content in question, whether it is from AppleTV, iTunes or on the Mac Slate itself.

The OS should be based on OS X, as on the Macintosh and the iPhone/iPod Touch. It should incorporate multi-touch capabilities that are already on the Mac notebook’s track pads and the iPhone/iPod Touch. The OS will not be the same as the current iPhone/iPod Touch OS but will be a variant, which later will transform into the Touch OS for all three devices. I do not believe there will be a physical keyboard and just a virtual one, but hopefully Apple will support the full Bluetooth suite so an external keyboard can be paired to the Mac Slate for users who like to use a physical keyboard or mouse.

Transitioning from a Macintosh computer or the iPhone/iPod Touch to the Mac Slate will be seamless. The data on the Mac Slate will be synchronized across devices ensuring the user will have the latest versions of the data s/he needs when they are operating the Mac Slate.

The Mac Slate will utilize SSD rather than HDD for internal storage. It will have a minimum of 4GB of RAM, and the internal storage, RAM and battery will all be upgradable but it will require removing the back cover like in the current MacBook Pro design.

Of course, all these are my educated guess of the Mac Slate. I do not claim to have any in side information from any Apple sources for the above. I have two certainties: Apple will release the Mac Slate, Apple will again transform and redefines the industry that the Mac Slate appears in.

Apple’s Mac Slate is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My Rating:

This afternoon I saw the movie 500 Days of Summer at UA Cinema, Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Another one of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

The movie starts off telling the audience it is not a movie about romance, which further emphasis it as being a movie about love, romance and relationships.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the past was very active in TV series like 3rd Rock from the Sun, and won awards for his performances. He took time off to attend Columbia University which resulted in his absence from the motion picture industry. This movie is the first leading role in a Hollywood blockbuster since his return from Columbia University. Here Gordon-Levitt is partnered with Zooey Deschanel, who makes a perfect couple, both delivering a believable performance of a relationship that is sometime hot and sometime cold. Something many relationships will go through, hence easy for the audiences to relate.

The supporting casts in this movie were well chosen. With Geoffrey Arend playing Gordon-Levitt’s friend from work, Chloe Moretz playing the much much younger worldly sister, and Matthew Gray Gubler the best friend from Elementary school. All in all the casts, wardrobe and soundtrack gave this movie a homy feel.

Speaking of the music, although the soundtracks are good, for me they did not appear to be the kind of music these two young characters will be into at their age. You can listen to the soundtrack yourself on iTunes to decide for yourself. Having said that, the music is the reason that this movie gain an extra penguin in my rating.

The other was the way in which the relationship story was told. It moved back and forth among the 500 days from the first moment Gordon-Levitt’s character met Deschanel’s character; skipping forward several days at a time. If the audiences are not paying attention they may loose track of where in the timeline the story is at.

If you have a very secure relationship I would suggest you watch this well made story of relationship. Otherwise, this may not be a movie for you, but if you watch it you may learn something about your own relationships in the past and why you may not have one.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: 500 Days of Summer is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

The people at Smartone-Vodafone took notice of my post, iPhones on Two Different 3G Networks Compared, and wanted to get to the bottom of the cause of the slow down in their HSDPA network; especially compared to 3 HK (another Hong Kong mobile carrier).

They began by acknowledging my claims, although they did not do what most other companies do; especially those in Asia, and simply claims that they had different results and dismissed our findings. Contrary they responded by saying they did not have the same results as we did and wanted to look into why we have different results.

They investigated the un-scientific test results I made and several days later contacted me to arrange a joint test. Today was the joint test at the three locations I had previously tested their HSDPA (3G) network:

• IFC Mall, Central, Hong Kong
• Areas near Wanchai Computer Center, Wanchai, Hong Kong
• Starbucks, Hysan Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

In this joint speed test we used the following web sites as benchmarks:

• Smartone-Vodafone http://www.smartone-vodafone.com
• Cathay Pacific Airways (International version) http://www.cathaypacific.com
• Yahoo Hong Kong http://hk.yahoo.com
• Three Hong Kong http://three.com.hk

The latter web site was only suggested by me just before we began the test. We also use the iPhone applications SpeedTest to test the raw speed of the network with as little variable as possible.

The iPhone used for the test were:

• iPhone 3GS running firmware 3.0.1 with a Smartone-Vodafone SIM card
• iPhone 3GS running firmware 3.0.1 with a 3 HK SIM card
• iPhone 3GS running firmware 3.1 with a Smartone-Vodafone SIM card

The latter is my daily iPhone with many of my 9 pages of applications installed. To offer a test closer to real life use, my iPhone also has Application Notifications turned on for 7 application and Push Notification for GMail and Google Calendar. The 2 iPhone 3G were restored to factory condition before the test.

Before each test of the above web sites we cleared the cache and cookies for Safari each time. At each of the locations we tested the set of web sites and run the SpeedTest application at least twice for each locations.

The results were not spectacular, but in most cases Smartone-Vodafone did load the set of web sites quicker compared to the iPhone on the 3 HK network. In cases where the iPhone with the 3 HK SIM was faster it only beat the iPhone 3G on the Smartone-Vodafone network by only a fraction of a second. In all cases, the iPhone 3G on the 3 HK network did not beat my iPhone 3GS on the Smartone-Vodafone network.

One thing I did notice from the results of SpeedTest is that the 3 HK network appears to be very inconsistent, where its latency, downlink and uplink speeds go up and down at the same location. Contrary the Smartone-Vodafone network was very consistent between tests at the same location.

As soon as Smartone-Vodafone send me the data from our joint test I will share them here with you all.

In conclusion, it appears that the mobile carriers in Hong Kong are making rapid improvements to their respective networks. These results may be evident to us end-users very soon. I believe no one should sign a new contract with any Hong Kong carriers at the moment. We should wait at least 2 months and see what each of them offer before we make that kind of commitment. If you are not in a position to wait, try to choose the cheapest and shortest contract commitment possible for now, and ask if you can upgrade to a new (higher priced) package during the life of the contract; be sure to have that in writing before you sign.

[Update October 8, 2009]
Today a friend on Twitter shared with me that 3 HK is testing a much quicker HSDPA network connection in the MTR (Hong Kong subway) stations. He was able to achieve a sustainable downlink of 4Mbps between Wong Tai Sin and Diamond Hill stations. At one point he was able to achieve a downlink of 6Mbps at the Sham Shui Po station.

This is very significant since in the past when I tested Smartone-Vodafone’s and 3 HK’s HSDPA networks I was never able to receive a downlink speed past 2.6Mbps. This includes the times when I was doing the joint testing with representatives from Smartone-Vodafone.

I hope that this is an indication that HSPA (3G) network speeds will improve in Hong Kong very soon.

Note: the aforementioned downlink speeds of 4Mbps and 6Mbps were not speeds achieved within a browser.

Smartone-Vodafone HSDPA Network Speed Tested is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie The Time Traveler’s Wife at UA Cinema, Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Another one of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

The movie’s plot is different from what the title implies and not unlike the 2001 Kate & Leopold with Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman, or the 2006 The Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. All three movies use the concept of moving between times to deliver a love story that cannot happen.

In this latest movie, Eric Bana (Henry DeTamble) of Hulk fame, delivered a very good performance playing the time traveller who has no control of which time he jumps to or when.

The only thing consistent is that he will always return to significant life events, in all cases he cannot alter the outcome of his past and future. For this sort of movies, the audiences cannot go in thinking everything in the movie will be believable, you have to go in with the attitude that the movie will try to capture you and take you away to an imaginary world.

Usually I gage the ability of a movie the capture my full attention by whether I notice the areas around the screen, rows in front or the people next to me. During this movie I did all three. At times the movie was a bit slow, it had scenes that repeats but did not offer additional information to the plot of enrich the story in any way. This is the main reason it lost one of the penguins from my rating.

If you are a romantic you will enjoy this movie. It has all the elements of a romantic drama, love story that cannot happen, lovers that are kept apart, in this case the condition of time travelling. This is the reason this movie retains the 3 penguins of my rating.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it on iTunes
	Waste your time elsewhere

Movie Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

My apologies to my readers waiting for my review of HTC Hero. It is only today that I had time to go into the Smartone-Vodafone store to check out the HTC Hero.

Previously I gave the HTC Magic a try and really did not like the feel of the Android OS on the Magic. Not sure whether this was a hardware issue or the nature of Android. When I tested the HTC Magic I was able to try the phone freely without any of the usual carrier security devices attached to the phone. For the HTC Hero, I wanted to try the phone without being bordered by any sales staff, so I just tried the display model, which had several security devices attached to the back and around the front of the screen.

Compared to the basic Android OS on the HTC Magic, the HTC Sense UI in the HTC Hero is much better. Since I was not able to use the phone freely with the security brackets and other security devices attached. I cannot really give the OS the full test I wanted. One of the security device actually obscure the screen partially.

I wish there was a HTC specialty shop where I can use the phone longer and freely. So far what I saw was good. The HTC Sense UI was fast in the Hero. I particularly like the way it unified all the contact information of an individual into one place; a very user centric approach. I cannot give the hardware much of a judgement due to the SMV security devices, but it did feel light. I also like the AR applications on the phone (I gave Wikitude a try), but those applications are also coming, from many of the same software manufactures, to the iPhone.

In the past I had found that I cannot live without my iPhone for more than a day, it is difficult to tell whether the HTC Hero can fulfill my needs in place of the iPhone. So at least for me, the time being, the jury is still out for the Hero.

I hope someone from HTC or Smartone-Vodafone can send me a review unit, so I can give the HTC Hero a proper review.

First Impression of HTC Hero is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.

Over the years many Twitter clients had come and gone on various mobile phone platforms: iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc.. Some great ones like TweetDeck, Tweetie, Echofon Pro (formerly TwitterFon) and some flops like TweetStack.

I’m glad to see other developers are still trying to out do its established competitors. Recently I came across such a developer, MotionObj, in the form of SimplyTweet. The version I reviewed here is 2.3.

In the past I had enjoyed the Grouping feature of TweetDeck its ability to synchronize created Groups across multiple TweetDeck clients, and the simplicity of the free Echofon.

SimplyTweet has a simple UI and UX, with many of its features layout logically and readily available.

At the top right hand corner is the icon to allow the user to create a new tweet at the bottom is a toolbar containing 5 icons of your choosing. Both of these are the only constant elements on most of the  main screens in SimplyTweet. By default the bottom toolbar has the Friends, Mentions, Messages, Search and More icons shown. You can customized the icons shown in the bottom toolbar by going into More -> Edit button.

The Friends Timeline is similar to most other Twitter clients, with the avatar image on the left and the body of the tweet on the right in a speech bubble. For each tweet you can immediately tell who is the author, whether the tweet is a tweet that mentioned you (shown with a blue background), and whether the tweet is new since the last update (shown with a blue dot on the right of the tweet).

Clicking on the left side of the tweet will bring up the Profile page for the author of the tweet.

The Profile page allows you to follow or unfollow the individual with your Twitter account. It also enables you to see the usual details of the individual: number of Followers, number of accounts they are following, the number of tweets posted, and whether the account if following your current Twitter account. The latter is something many Twitter clients do not show. The other thing on this page is the list of last 20 tweets the individual posted on Twitter.

Here, the bottom toolbar changes to the Options Toolbar, where you can: see the individual’s Bio in his/her Twitter account, the conversation your current Twitter account has with the individual, perform a search on Twitterverse for tweets that mention the individual, returns to the Home screen, look at the individual’s Favorites items, and More Options. The latter will allow you to Send a Public reply to the individual, add the individual to a View, add some notes about the individual for yourself, or Block/Unblock the individual.

Clicking on the top right hand corner New Tweet icon will create a DM to the individual in question, additionally you have the option to add multiple recipients to your message.

Going back to the Friends Timeline, if you click on the right side where the body of the tweet is, will open up the Detailed Tweet screen. As expected you will see the details of the tweet in full, opportunity to mark the tweet as one of your current Twitter account’s favorites, the Twitter client used by the individual to post the tweet.

At the top right hand corner the icon is replaced by the Reply icon, for you to reply to the individual regarding the tweet in question. This time the bottom toolbar changes to the Options Toolbar with the following options: see the conversation the individual has regarding the tweet in question, Retweet the current tweet, return to the Home screen, More Options. The latter will allow you to post a hyperlink to the tweet in question within a new tweet, email a hyperlink to the tweet in question,  or to repost the tweet in question as your own. The latter is a bit different but not sure why a Twitter user will need this feature.

An unique feature to SimplyTweet is its ability to send a reply to multiple tweets right from one of the Timeline screens by bringing up the Tweet Options menu. The menu would overlap on top of the tweet in question and the user is presented with the option to: Reply to the tweet, Reply to multiple tweets, or see the conversation behind the tweet in question.

This is just one of the examples, that shows the developers of SimplyTweet have carefully thought through the various different use cases of a Twitter user, and try to deliver features in the application to cover as many of  these cases possible. The more I use the application the more I encounter these thoughtful features. As a result this review took me much longer to do than normal, because I want to give it the time it deserves.

Another interesting feature is SimplyTweet’s ability to let the user save a tweet in progress as draft for later post. Although, it was only from experience that found out that there can only be one draft tweet at a time.

The New Tweet screen, here you can find the all important features of counting the number of characters, within the 140 characters limit, remaining for the tweet. One good thing about this counter is that it also take into the length of the URL of any attached photos.

Speaking of photos, there is a Camera icon in the New Tweet screen to allow the user to choose one or more photos/videos from the iPhone’s built in Camera Roll, or take a photo/video with the built in camera (video applies to the iPhone 3GS only). Although to discard this attached photo/video is a bit unintuitive, this feature is hidden under the list of options after clicking on the Cancel button.

I wish there is a way to remove a photo/video when browsing the list of attachments.

Also on the New Tweet screen is a More Options icon, which brings up a list of tools one can use in relating to the tweet in progress: Shorten URL, Shorten Text, append a reference to a friend, append a recently used hashtag, or append the URL to the Google Map representation of the user’s GPS location.

Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a way for the user to choose the URL Shortener Service that the application use, or at least I had yet to find it.
[Updated: Sep 29, 2009, 12:49]
As mentioned earlier in this review, there is a great deal of features in this application and it takes some time to discover them all. I totally forgot the SimplyTweet’s Settings module in the iPhone’s Settings section. This is where you find the ability to change the URL Shortener Service among others:

• User can change the theme used in the application to one of the five built in ones: Bubbles, Silver, Twilight, Pink or Sunny.
• Choose the URL Shortener Service for attached videos in tweets.
• Whether to use Posterous as the Text Shortener.
• The Retweeting style for tweets.
• Many settings relating to auto refreshing of timelines.
• The others I will let you discover in this section as an exercise.

Aside from a tweet Search feature that allows the user to filter the results based on geographic distance to the user’s present location, SimplyTweet also has a Photo Search. Where by the user can use inclusive and/or exclusive keywords to find photos posted on the Twitterverse. The results are presented in a 4 x 5 thumbnail grid, and the fit of a photo to be included in the search results is by the keywords in the associated tweet. Although I have yet to determine if 20 images is the maximum number of images it will return.

Among the Photo Search feature found in the More icon within the main toolbar are other features of interest. They are:

• View the current Trending topics on Twitter.
• Register multiple Twitter accounts to the client so the user can easily switch between accounts from within New Tweet screen simply by tapping on the name of the account at the top.
• View a public timeline of Twitter.
• Look at all the notes the user had left for various different friends/followers. I believe this is an unique feature, which I had always wanted Twitter to have built-in. I hope that if Twitter ever decide to add this feature, the notes I have added for individuals via SimplyTweet can be sync back to Twitter.
• View the list of Twitter accounts that have been blocked by any of the associated Twitter accounts.
• View the list of tweets that the user has marked as Favorites for any of the associated Twitter accounts.
• View the profile of any Twitter account simply by knowing their Twitter handle.
• List of Views and to create new ones.

The concept of Views is similar to Groups in TweetDeck and other Twitter clients. It is a way to organize the list of friends for the current Twitter account. I always believe this to be a very important functionality of any Twitter client for users who have more than a 100 friends on Twitter. Especially if these friends are talkative.

It is very easy to add someone to a View from the View Edit screen or to associate an individual to a View from the Profiles screen. Unfortunately, determining the View membership of an individual is a bit convoluted and needs improvement. For some reason Twitter clients’ ability to show individual’s Groups/Views memberships is always an issue. It was in TweetDeck and Seesmic, and now in SimplyTweet too.

[Updated: Oct. 22, 2009, 10:00]
Today SimplyTweet upgraded itself to 2.5, further improving many of its existing features and adding several new ones; like TextExpander (one of my favorite tool on my Mac) support. Here is a list from the developer:

• Added TextExpander support (you need TextExpander app installed to use it. Configure shortcuts in TextExpander, enable sharing, and the shortcuts will be available in SimplyTweet).
• Added support for swipe menu in account view.
• Added timestamps in account view.
• Added support for muting/filtering people in lists from Friends, Mentions and Public timelines.
• Added support for Pic.gd (a URL shortener for photos) in picture viewer.
• Added the option to hide avatars in Blocked list.
• Added indicator for the number of contacts loaded so far during refreshing in contact pickers during tweet/DM drafting.
• Added default recipient settings for in-app emails.
• Added reply all action in tweet view.
• Enabled adding to Instapaper from within tweet/DM view (without having to open the built in browser).
• Tweaked for faster loading.
• Tweaked to UI and themes.
• Full landscape support (including timelines, drafting and photo viewer).
• Modified the behaviour of saving a draft in tweet/DM compose view, it is also automatically saved as a new Note.
• Modified “Saved Views” to “Lists”. To prepare for official support of Twitter List, as well as reflecting the filtering functions in lists.
• Modified posting of links to not use “-” to save 2 characters.
• Modified Replay all in swipe menu no longer includes @screennames in the tweet body (use Reply All in tweet for that).
• Moved Block/Unblock uses and Edit Lists tab into Misc.

Regular users of Twitter web site, who do not use any 3rd party clients, may not understand why a Twitter client can be difficult to create. Existing users of other Twitter clients will appreciate the efforts the developers of SimplyTweet put into the application. Any new, Twitter client users, will find themselves becoming more advanced users just by using SimplyTweet to handle their daily Twitter needs.

The USD4.99 that the developer is asking for in the iTunes App Store is align with most other paid Twitter clients on the high end, but in the case of SimplyTweet it is well worth the money.  I would pay even more for the treasure trough of features I have discovered after using the application for just two weeks.

For readers who are still not convinced MotionObj does have a Lite version of SimplyTweet for free, but without many of the features that made SimplyTweet stands out among its competitors.

Review: SimplyTweet on iPhone [Updated] is a post from: Vinko's Thoughts On... a blog of true technology Versatilist.