Tag Archives: smartphone

As Time Goes By, I Feel As If Customers Are Being Criminalized

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Posted by on in Anything Goes, Hardware, Internet, Software
Smartphone Evolution

Smartphone Evolution (Photo credit: Phil Roeder)

So, which smart phone are you going to buy next?  I can totally see that this is like a hello kind of greeting for people nowadays, but of course don’t take it literally OK?  Anyhow, iPhone 5 is about to come out, and I mean really about to as it seems that Apple will release iPhone 5 late this month.  Today, Apple reveals iPhone 5 to the world.  In a way, iPhone 5 event is a big thing for Apple fans.  Very big indeed!  Nonetheless, smart phone competition is already in the overdrive mode, therefore haters also come out in droves to point out that iPhone 5 isn’t that impressive.  Personally, I care little for a specific smart phone!  This means iPhone, Android, or whatever smart phone will only be on my radar if it appeals to me at a specific point in time.

Some of you may not be able to think like I do in regarding to worship a God of a specific smart phone according to one’s mood.  How come?  Some of you’re buying into an electronic ecosystem and platform when buying, upgrading, or switching (i.e., to a different brand) a smart phone.  For an example, let say Mr. Eat Donuts On Mars bought a smart phone from a well known smart phone brand Blah (fake company I made up so to not be bias or against a specific brand of smart phone) few years back, and now he wants to upgrade to a new smart phone.  Unfortunately for Mr. Eat Donuts On Mars, he feels ill about upgrading his smart phone with the same brand as before.  Still, Mr. Eat Donuts On Mars has no choice but to upgrade to a new smart phone with the same brand as before, because he had bought too many digital contents such as 2000 MP3 tracks (with DRM protection) with the brand of the smart phone he wants to do away with.  The moral of the example of Mr. Eat Donuts On Mars is that if you’re heavily invested in digital contents of a particular electronic brand, it’s very hard to move away from such a brand when digital contents are being protected by DRM (Digital Right Management) and anti-customer practices/regulations.

I’m totally for buying digital contents legally, because I believe that the artists and whoever else in the digital media business need to make their living just like you and I do.  Nonetheless, I’m against digital contents to be treated like digital contents of today.  I think there must be a way to allow the owner (i.e., the customers) of the digital contents to be able to transfer the digital contents from one electronic ecosystem/platform to another.  Also, the owner of whatever digital contents should be able to share their digital contents with whoever he or she wants once the purchases had been completed.  Of course, there must be temperament in everything.  This is why I think there should also be a regulation(s) to make a set up of massive scale of distributing digital media/contents — in the purpose of destroying the digital business of a company — illegal.  This way, common sense can use a specific regulation to punish whoever tries to massively distributing digital media/contents for malicious purposes such as to steal business profits from the true business source (i.e., content creators and legitimate distributors).  I guess, I’m trying to promote the idea that once you buy something, whether it’s digital or not, such something must be owned outright.  With that being said, I know digital media/contents — all — is a very different beast from other types of products.  After all, anyone can totally redistribute and remarket the same digital media/contents without any overheading cost, to a point as if outright stealing the sweats of the content creators and legitimate distributors.

It’s truly very hard to have your cake and eat it too if we try to come up a perfect solution for dealing with digital media/contents, in regarding to piracy matter.  Nonetheless, I think customers should be treated like customers and not like criminals.  This is why we need to be both soft and hard toward the idea of sharing digital media/contents.  This is why DRM is too rigid for actually making sense in term of treating customers as customers.  Customers can only truly feel that they’re not criminals when they can share their digital contents in common sense way.  I propose that the customers should be able to share their digital contents without being criminalized.  Nonetheless, as I had said earlier, customers or not, when trying to distribute their purchased digital media/contents in malicious methodologies — massively distributing digital media/contents through a server or P2P software or whatever for the purpose of monetizing, destroying the business of the content creators, or whatever other malicious purpose — cannot go unpunished.  I truly think common sense has to be the way when we’re dealing with digital media/contents.

With all sorts of DRM protection(s) in place and criminalized dictations of the usage of whatever digital media/contents, I often avoid the purchasing of digital media/contents (such as MP3 tracks) outright.  This is why I have been a loyal customer to Spotify.  I only subscribe to Spotify and not really buy any music, because a premium service from Spotify allows me to play all songs within Spotify’s music archives at anytime.  Of course, if I ever decide to not pay Spotify a relatively cheap monthly fee, all of my playlists and music access will go poof (i.e., disappearing).  With that in mind, I still prefer Spotify or similar service(s) for digital media/contents over purchasing digital media/contents outright.  In the end, I think I prefer to feel like I actually own something when I purchase something; if this isn’t the case, I should not be bothered with buying something outright and just go for a subscription service(s).

So, you see, when you’re purchasing a new smart phone, it does mean a lot in term of what to do.  Most often, you might have to ask yourself, can I really upgrade to a different brand of smart phone?  If a smart phone user is heavily invested in digital media contents, the case is usually a very sad one.  He or she must have feel frustrating as he or she may not be able to actually, fully transfer all of their digital media/contents from one smart phone to another since both old and new smart phones are not of the same brand.  Obviously, this isn’t always the case.  How come?  If two different brands of smart phones are using the same software ecosystem (i.e., same operating system), the chance of being able to transfer digital contents from one smart phone brand to another is very high (i.e., almost 100% or 100% chance to be able to transfer the digital media/contents). Still, there might be an outlier even in this very case.

In a nutshell, it’s not simple for customers to switch their phones like they switch their shirts.  I think the smart phone business and other electronic types of business can totally be more profitable and highly regard if they simplify the process of switching electronic devices/platforms.  Of course, you can argue that — this is insane — as it’s most likely that an electronic brand should do everything to keep their customers’ brand loyalty, even it has to come down to locking their customers in an electronic ecosystem.  I beg otherwise.  I think customers should not be taken hostage to any electronic ecosystem or platform.  DRM and similar methodologies can totally be used to lock the customers into a specific electronic ecosystems/platforms.

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Video Gaming On Smartphones About To Be Changed In A Very Big Way, But With Button Smashing And Joystick Pushing Old Fashion Kind Of Experience

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Posted by on in Gadgets, Mobile, Video Games

Video gaming is something I’m familiar with, because I play many games.  Nonetheless, whenever it comes down to playing games on a smartphone such as on an iPhone, I cringe every time.  Reluctantly as I am for playing video games on a smartphone, but I do this anyway to kill some time.  I don’t think I have ever expected myself to be too serious in playing any game on a smartphone, really.

Playing games on a smartphone isn’t as great as playing games on a console or a computer, because most smartphones nowadays rely solely on touchscreen functionalities (i.e., without buttons and joystick).  It’s much harder to be precise in executing commands for a game when I have to actually make sure I had touched the right area on the touchscreen display of a smartphone.  There isn’t much texture feedback for the fingers of a gamer, therefore it’s harder for a gamer like me to appreciate the playing of video games on a smartphone.  I think only few games can be done well without relying on the constant input of the fingers.

Luckily, a KickStarter Coco Controller project is here to rescue the horrible on the go gaming experience (i.e., playing games on smartphones).  When there is enough funding, the people behind KickStarter Coco Controller project will be able to produce a controller case for various smartphones, allowing people to play video games on a smartphone as if they play video games on a handheld gaming device.  So far from what I had read on Coco Controller, the case is so simple to use as one has only to slide the smartphone into the case effortlessly.  From what I had read, the Coco Controller case utilizes a smartphone’s audio jack, therefore it does not need any battery power of its own to power the case.  At the bottom of the Coco Controller case, there will be an audio out jack for headphones or speakers.

As the Coco Controller case fits effortlessly over a smartphone, a gamer like me can just bash and throttle away the buttons and the joystick of the Coco Controller.  I think the texture feedback of the Coco Controller case will definitely enhance the video gaming experience on a smartphone (i.e., smartphone utilizes touchscreen display for everything).  I can already imagine with Coco Controller, I don’t have to second guess myself when I execute the commands for a video game as I can rely on the texture feedback of the buttons and the joystick.

So far, Coco Controller promises to come in four sizes.  These sizes will cover Samsung Galaxy SIII, iPhone 4/4S, latest iPod Touch, and the soon to arrive on the smartphone market iPhone 5.  Nonetheless, I think as Coco Controller gets more popular, I can only see more smartphone models will want to be supported by Coco Controller.  After all, I think Coco Controller will greatly enhance video gaming on the go (i.e., with a smartphone).

Another great inclusive aspect of Coco Controller which is a bonus in my opinion is that smartphone users can totally use Coco Controller to play their smartphone video games on big screen TV.  Nonetheless, this only works if a smartphone does have the capability of mirroring the graphics on the smartphone to the big screen TV.  A good example of this would be the latest iPhone 4S.  iPhone 4S allows users to just mirroring the graphics on iPhone to Apple TV, and Apple TV will project the graphics onto the big screen TV.  Coco Controller takes the advantage of smartphone graphic mirroring and allows users to play smartphone video games with precision on big screen TV.  Not a bad idea in my opinion.  Honestly, I don’t think video games, whether on a smartphone or on a big screen TV, should ever be controlled by a touchscreen display at any cost, because the touchscreen display is so imprecise (and textureless) in allowing a gamer to control the motions within a video game.

Before a Coco Controller can be in a customer’s hand, the KickStarter Coco Controller project needs to be funded with at least $175,000.  As I’m writing this, 65 people had already backed the project, providing the project with a sum of $3,597 .  It’s only 29 more days to go before the fund drive for this very project ends.  You can totally visit KickStarter here to know more of KickStarter Coco Controller project.  By the way, just for your information, it’s not like Coco Controller will suddenly work with all smartphone games.  The game developers for any specific smartphone game must first develop their game with Coco Controller in mind, therefore they need to program their game to work with Coco Controller case.

Source:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/games/the-coco-controller

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Practically, Healthtap Is An App That Might Prove To Be Extremely Practical For Internet Users Who Seek For Valid Health Advices From The Internet!

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Posted by on in Mobile, Software, Web Services

Most apps on mobile devices such as a smart phone are pretty much useless in my earnest opinion, but some of those apps are actually practical.  Practical apps are hard to find these days not for the reasons such as lack thereof, but it’s about how hard it’s for us to look for not so obvious practical apps among hundred thousands of similar useless apps.  Plus, there is this saying, one individual’s trash is another individual’s treasure.  Some apps are purely for pleasure and aesthetic means, then I guess it’s up to the eyes of the beholder to judge the beauty and merit of the apps.  So, when I first set my eyes on Healthtap, I felt immediately that the app is unique and practical.  For an example, an app in which had been rolled out by a bank to help facilitate banking transactions would be an obvious useful and practical app.  Healthtap is definitely fitting into an obvious useful and practical app category since it helps its users to seek for answers to their health-related questions with real doctors for free.  Nonetheless, if a user feels that she or he doesn’t need to reveal health-related questions in public forums, she or he can basically pay for private questions.  Initial private health-related questions cost around $10 each, and subsequent health-related questions in relation to the initial ones will cost $5 each.  Nonetheless, users who don’t want to pay or ask health-related questions in fear of losing privacy can just browse for the answers from Healthtap public forums.  In a nutshell, Healthtap provides the means for reputable doctors to help just about anyone who uses Healthtap easily, and everybody can access these doctors for some quick advices affordably.

Obviously, to truly treat one person’s illness, one probably has had to visit a doctor in person for a complete treatment, but Healthtap might help a person to clear up some major curious health-related questions before making a face to face visit with a doctor.  Even if Healthtap app is hard to use and ugly, the value behind the means of this app is still tremendous.  Luckily, I had browsed Healthtap app through a browser from a laptop and noticed that it was pretty sleek and easy to use.  I also had downloaded Healthtap onto my iPhone, but I had not yet launched it to see how friendly it would be on a mobile device.  Furthermore, Healthtap app is also available for iPad and Android mobile devices.  Besides the obvious means of asking health-related questions such as sending texts and photos to a doctor, Healthtap provides means to allow all doctors to rate the health-related answers — providing even more confidence to such health-related answers.  According to TechCrunch’s “With New Mobile Apps, Eric Schmidt-Backed HealthTap Brings The House Call Back To Healthcare” article, Healthtap provides doctor-to-doctor ratings known as DocScore.  I’m not sure how DocScore works out, but it seems that it’s a peer review kind of thing.  Perhaps, peer review can be biased (i.e., people who knew each other may give each other great score on something), but it does put pressure on doctors to have great Healthtap reputation for them to be effective health providers in the eyes of Healthtap users.  Obviously, I had left out many features that Healthtap is providing, because I’m still learning how this app works exactly.  Nonetheless, it’s clear that the purpose of this app is sound and practical.  Whether people will find Healthtap as the only app to go for health-related advices is remained to be seen though.

In summary, Healthtap is a health advising platform — with the potential of allowing patients to meet up with reputable doctors for real treatments — which so far has been successfully connecting thousands of highly regarded doctors of various medical fields to just about anyone who has the will to use Healthtap.  This feat alone is excellent and practical.  Icing on the cake features are features such as allowing Healthtap users to ask each private question for minimum fee of $10 or less, encouraging people who may not have the wish to visit a doctor yet to find out what is going on with their health affordably and virtually.  Meanwhile, Healthtap users feel reassuring that Healthtap’s medical advices are merit since the advices come from licensed doctors.  Simply put, I think there will be plenty of people that find Healthtap to be practical and useful.  After all, humans with failing healths are plenty in number, because they are humans!

Afterthought:  Prophetically, people have had envision that one day patients don’t really have to meet up with their doctors physically to get a health exam or something similar since Internet technology might advance in a way that allows such possibility to be possible.  I think ISPs need to provide more affordable and much much faster broadband services in order for people to regularly stream videos and possibly 3D digital contents before the idea of having doctors to visit your home virtually be feasible.  Plus, ISPs need to get rid of bandwidth limit and favor the flat rate, unlimited bandwidth applications before innovation such as having doctors to visit someone virtually be practical.  For now, Healthtap is only a stepping stone for the next best innovation that will bring doctors to someone virtually!

Source:  With New Mobile Apps, Eric Schmidt-Backed HealthTap Brings The House Call Back To Healthcare

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Aren’t We Too Eager To Throw Away The New To Make Way For The Newer?

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Posted by on in Anything Goes
Verschillende handhelds bij elkaar: Game Boy A...

Verschillende handhelds bij elkaar: Game Boy Advance SP (2x), Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, Sony PSP en Nokia 6630 Smart Phone. Foto zelf gemaakt. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes I feel we are too eager to throw away the new to make way for the newer.  The truth is I too have bought into the whole trend, and probably continuing to do so unless one day I wake up to find the world of technology has suddenly got a facelift.  You will know where I’m going with my ramble if you have already owned a smart phone.  Instead of trying to maximize the lifespan of our smart phones, we often decide to buy newer ones since newer ones usually come out with better and more features.  Sometimes, the smart phone designers, manufacturers, developers, promoters are too eager to roll out newer models of smart phone that encourage users to upgrade, therefore we often see smart phones that are working perfectly fine and only a year old or so find their future in the electronic recycling bins and dumpsters.

Perhaps, there isn’t anything wrong with how we are using our electronics today since at least we’re recycling our electronic wastes.  Nonetheless, I’ve often wondered many possible fictional outcomes if we had gone with the electronic usage trend which would partake on allowing the users to only upgrade and modularize their electronics.  Of course, it would not make sense to do this if upgrading and modularizing electronics are much more expensive than otherwise.  Plus, upgrading and modularizing really tiny electronic devices might be possible but rather almost impossible for regular users who just want to have something that works.  Upgrading and modularizing do sound like extra hard work, therefore people might not want to even think about such things.  Nonetheless, what if we do have commercial services that eager to provide upgrade and modularization of electronics for cheap — or at least to make it more affordable than just buying brand new?  We have seen how people love to upgrade their desktops, laptops, but why do most mobile products such as smart phone cannot be modularized?

Besides the reasons such as affordability, we also have concerns about electronic wastes and how electronic wastes might damage our environment and the health of the people who are actually working to get rid of the electronic wastes.  This begs the question of, will upgrade and modularization encourage a greener environment and less health hazardous working conditions for the workers who are responsible for getting rid of the electronic wastes?  I will not know, and I love to know.  In the end, I picture that one day we may have all in one product which can do everything pretty much — as in things that electronics do and not things that electronics don’t.  For example, we can’t expect electronics to breathe oxygen literally.  Even so, I fear electronics might one day breathe oxygen literally to power themselves, and such a day would be a sight to behold.

Back to the idea of all in one product (electronics) — perhaps such thing will be possible since it’s making more sense to not have to worry about carrying the weights, worrying about losing the things, and so much more if the all in one product turns out to be a robot, right?  I imagine a robot can be a companion, yet it can also be a smart phone, computer, maid, search engine, projector, and so much more.  With a robot following you everywhere you want it to, why would you want to carry a smart phone, a computer, a maid, a projector, and so on?  With a robot, you don’t even have to worry about misplacing it!  So, I think a natural progression of our electronic evolution, robotic industry has got to be the next biggest thing, yet!!!   Plus, it makes more sense to upgrade and modularize a robot than a smart phone.

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Samsung Will Let You Project Up To 50 Inches Of Moving Images With Galaxy Beam Smartphone

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Posted by on in Gadgets, Mobile
samsung galaxy beam

samsung galaxy beam (Photo credit: bhautikjoshi)

I imagine you might have to wear headphones just to hear the sounds of the moving images from a Samsung’s Galaxy Beam smartphone, but the distractions from friends’ own projections might be even more annoying since they too can beam up their own moving images from their Galaxy Beam smartphones next to you.  Maybe, you incline to glance at their projections and slowly ignore the one you’ve been projecting.  Does this sound like a Galaxy Beam projection party?  With few open cans of beer, maybe this sorta party might get even groovier.  Hit the source link for in-depth detail on Samsung’s announcement of its new Galaxy Beam smartphone which will allow you to beam your own projection images up to 50 inches (source:  http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/26/samsung-announces-galaxy-note-10-1-and-projector-smartphone/)

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When It Does Come Down To Size, Samsung Is Huge Indeed (Employing 160,000 Employees); When It Does Come Down To Products, Even Making Tanks Is Part Of The Routines

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Posted by on in Anything Goes, Internet
English: Samsung Logo Suomi: Samsungin logo

Image via Wikipedia

Samsung has got a lot headlines lately, because it has been sued by Apple in many parts of the world in regarding to smartphone patents.  Anyhow, Cnet made a video on Samsung’s history.  It is an intriguing video, because it points out how large Samsung has become.  Did you know, besides the making of awesome smartphones that Apple loathes, Samsung made so many things that even a tank was a Samsung product?  Come to think of it, my modern refrigerator is a Samsung.  By the way, Samsung is not only big in brand, but it’s also big in size.  According to the Cnet video below, Samsung employs just about 160,000 employees.  Indeed, Apple is picking on somebody Apple’s own size!

Source:  http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/20/cnet-shows-us-samsungs-history-talent-for-building-tanks-vide/

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