Tech Talk

Finally, smartphones based on the Google-backed Android operating system are starting to come of age. The OS will soon come in its second major iteration, and will power smartphones from the likes of Motorola, HTC and Samsung.

What this means is consumers can start choosing from a plethora of quality devices (as opposed to the one and only iPhone) that run on a modern and snappy mobile OS that provides an almost desktop-like Internet browsing experience, an amply-stocked application store that can help extend the abilities of their devices, and simple contacts integration with Facebook and Google accounts.

Death to the mediocre smartphone, I say.

Sony Ericcson is the latest to join the Android fold with its announcement of the XPERIA X10.

The impressive-looking hardware (a 3.5G smartphone with 4-inch touchscreen and 8.1-megapixel camera) is accompanied by a slick pair of custom applications, Timescape and Mediascape, which provide much more refined experiences with media playback and communicating with contacts.

Have a look at what the XPERIA X10 might be capable of when it gets on shelves in the first quarter of 2010:

Over in the United States, Motorola’s new Droid smartphone (it could possibly be called the Milestone if it arrives here) is getting lots of airtime for being a possible iPhone-killer with its well-specced hardware – a fast mobile processor that’s coupled with a 3.7-inch touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash:

Smartphones won’t be the only devices that will get loaded with Android. Netbooks will soon be graced by the ‘droid, too:

Tags: Apple, Google, iPhone, Mobile, Smartphone

For those still waiting for that elusive action role-playing game (RPG) Diablo III, there is one pretty nice action RPG  on your iPhone now – the Dungeon Hunter.

You play a young king on a quest to eradicate the dark forces from his land. It’s a cliched storyline that gives you the excuse to hack and slash through dungeons and crypts, killing evil denizens and picking up plenty of loot along the way.

You get to choose your character class – a sword-wielding Knight, a stealthy Rogue or the magical Mage. Personally, I prefer to hack and slash my way through in true Diablo style!

The game plays very smoothly without any drops in frame rate and the controls are simple and intuitive. The graphics is fantastic for an iPhone game, and the audio track is great as well.

There are a few side-quests you can complete other than the story-driven main quests in order to get more experience points. With more experience, you level up and get more abilities to strengthen yourself for the quests ahead. Basically, it feels like playing Diablo II on an iPhone!

Fallen foes will drop plenty of loot for you to pick up, like weapons, rings, armour and potions. In fact, managing your inventory takes up as much time as your hack and slash. However, there’s no way to teleport to town to sell your loot, but you can transmute your loot into gold at a lower price.

Another quirk I have with the game is that its viewing angle sometimes gets blocked by the surroundings. In addition, although your character level is saved automatically, you can’t save your progress. In other words, if you exit when you are in the middle of the quest, you have to play again from the last checkpoint.

These quirks aside, Dungeon Hunter is one hell of a game for anyone who loves Diablo, or for anyone who loves a nice piece of action while waiting to catch your flight, or your spouse to show up or just to kill time during lunch breaks.

So, what are you waiting for? Get it at US$6.99 from iTunes Store now!

Tags: gameloft

It is an announcement that few envisaged or even contemplated.

But for Macintosh users with BlackBerry phones, the announcement that Research in Motion (RIM) will be releasing a BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac must be music to their ears!

Currently, if you are a Mac user who owns a BlackBerry phone, you can only sync your device with your computer using third-party software, like PocketMac or MarkSpace’s Missing Sync for BlackBerry.

Come September, with the BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac, you will be able to sync your iTunes playlist, calendars, contacts, as well as add and remove applications, and back up or update software in your BlackBerry phone with a Mac.

But why the sudden change of heart from the Canadian company?

I have a suspicion that RIM is trying to slow down the momentum of its rival offering, the Apple iPhone.

And why target the iPhone when there are so many other smartphones out there, you might ask? Well, just look at this report that highlights the fact that despite having only 3% of the world’s market share, Apple and RIM have an estimated combined 35% of the world’s operating revenue. Having a big market share doesn’t always translate to big profits.

Nevertheless, you might say that having BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac is not going to have a significant impact on consumers, since those who are using a Macintosh probably have an iPhone, and those who have a BlackBerry probably don’t have a Mac.

That can’t be the whole truth of course. There are still plenty of Mac users who don’t like the touchscreen iPhone but prefers the buttons, email security and battery life of a BlackBerry. More importantly, there are many Mac users who are probably still on a Motorola Razr or a Sony Ericsson CyberShot, and who are contemplating the leap to a smartphone. Having a BlackBerry syncing software for Mac means they don’t have to give up their beloved Apple machines or their precious BlackBerry.

But the biggest losers are not Apple (hey, BlackBerry users don’t have to switch to Windows anymore) or its iPhone; it’s the Windows Mobile and other OS-based smartphones that will suffer the most.

By September, Apple and RIM are probably the only companies that manufacture smartphones catering to both Windows and Mac users out of the box (let’s keep Palm Pre out of the picture for now). For the savvy smartphone user who straddles between two major OS platforms, the choice will be either an iPhone or a BlackBerry. Who needs other mobile platforms anymore?

This move from RIM might not seem significant but the ripples it causes will one day turn to waves across the smartphone market.

Tags: BlackBerry, iPhone, Macintosh, RIM, Smartphone

I think live video streaming services like Qik could very well be the next big thing after Twitter (here’s our news report on Qik). It’s still early days yet for live video streaming from mobile phones because cellular networks that can provide mobile broadband aren’t pervasive enough globally (we’re lucky to have islandwide 3G coverage). But when it is, all you need to broadcast live video to an audience of millions on the web is an affordable phone (with a built-in video camera) that can hook up remotely to the Internet.

In my job as a journalist, a live video streaming service like Qik would enable me to report live with a piece of gear that fits in the palm of my hand. Despite the diminutive size of such handheld video capture devices and the lower quality of footage, the ability to witness events as they happen are far reaching. Just imagine, for example, the immediacy at which we could view the atrocities of war or civil unrest as they unfold on the ground in countries like Iran. In such cases, international help could arrive much faster if word got out instantly. And the experience of viewing it is much more engaging and compelling than reading simple text updates from Twitter. It makes the world that much smaller – and much more immediate.

I was initially intrigued by Qik because I had chanced upon a fellow Singaporean working for the web startup. Audrey Tan (check out her Qik page here), who’s currently studying at Stanford and holds a job at Qik as a product marketing manager.

I’ll let her introduce herself via Qik:

Audrey helps us to interview Bhaskar Roy, one of the co-founders of Qik, to give a quick low-down on the live video streaming service and a brief tour around their office:

Tags: Citizen journalism, Mobile, Smartphones, Video, Video streaming

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Kua Cheng Hock from Adaptive Instruments while I was covering the launch of the iPhone 3GS here. He’s also from the Guide Dogs Association of the Blind and is the only blind person in Singapore who owns a guide dog as well – he’s working on getting funding so more visually-handicapped people can get one for themselves.

So why was he at the launch anyway? This might surprise you. According to Mr Kua, the iPhone is one of the few phones that’s made to be friendly for the blind right out of the box (you simply need to tweak a few settings to switch on its accessibility features). Apart from verbally relaying what’s onscreen to him so that he can operate it, the smartphone’s built-in GPS and digital compass can help him find his way. Currently, he has to carry multiple devices just to do the same thing. The all-in-one device is much cheaper too and can help him with his email and other work-related activities as well. I’ll let him do the talking:

Oh, by the way, this was shot on location with an iPhone 3GS too.

Tags: accessibility, Apple, Gadgets, iPhone, Smartphone

As we’ve mentioned in our iPhone 3GS review today, the smartphone captures decent images and movies with its 3.2-megapixel camera. It has a really intuitive way of letting you focus as well. You simply need to tap on the desired part of the image onscreen:

The square above indicates the area I’ve tapped onscreen. On the top right, you’ll see a slider to switch between video and camera mode.

The camera churns out great photos in daylight or well-lit areas despite its relatively low resolution:

Images in low-light conditions tend to suffer from some visible noise as you can see below – but it’s a general limitation of such cameras in phones:

Here’s a typical food shot in an environment with very low lighting (hey, it was closing time). The iPhone manages to pump up the exposure so that your subject is visible:

The 3GS captures VGA-quality video and also allows you to choose an area to focus on as well, just like in picture mode. This opens up creative ways in which you can capture footage. In our example below, we used its macro focus to limit the depth of field, so you can see details on the raindrops and the texture of the car door’s faux-leather trimming:

Note that the videos on this blog have been compressed because they’ve been uploaded to YouTube straight from the iPhone. As with the camera mode, the quality of the video does tend to suffer when you’re in low-light environments, with visual noise becoming rather visible:

If you’d like to see the full quality of the footage that we’ve captured, download it from here.

Tags: Apple, Gadgets, iPhone, Mobile, phone, Smartphone

It’s encouraging to see the startup scene in Singapore grow so fast. The groundswell isn’t only happening locally though; many startups in Asia see Singapore as a hub of sorts for the region, and some are even looking to set up shop here because the country has government-backed initiatives for startups from the likes of IDA or MDA, good IT infrastructure and an active entrepreneurial community. I came to this conclusion after attending unConference Singapore 2009 last week, an annual event organised by E27, (a local grassroots community that supports entrepreneurs and startups) where startups from across Asia can network and demo their latest products and services. The event is already in its third incarnation and most of the attendees I spoke to noted how much livelier and crowded this year’s session was.

It was also a chance for me to try out something new: blogger-style video interviews. I took the chance to interview three promising startups:

1. Klout by Duration Inc.

Aung Si Thu Hein, vice-president of Singapore-based Duration Inc., presents Klout, a tool it has developed that can help Twitter users track their influence across the web, and also for companies to identify who the big influencers and connectors are in their respective industries. Singapore brands and companies are already using Twitter as an alternative way to spread the word on their services and products. I reckon tools like Klout will grow in importance as social media takes centrestage on the web, and measurement and analytical tools are needed to quantify how effective the medium is.

2. Sparkle by Genkii

Ken Brady, chief executive of Tokyo-based Genkii, gives me a peek at Sparkle, the first virtual world on the Apple iPhone. I’m particularly impressed at how easy it is to use and how neat the graphics looked on the smartphone. Virtual worlds, though exciting and immersive, can sometimes be hard to use and delve into. And you need to be tied to a desktop because it needs hefty processing power to render 3D graphics and you need to be connected to the web. But when you combine virtual worlds with the ease-of-use of devices like the iPhone and the smartphone’s ability to be mobile and perpetually connected to the Internet, it might make it all the more accessible.

3. eJAMMING AUDiiO by eJAMMING

Ben Scherrey from US-based eJAMMING showcased eJAMMING AUDiiO – a piece of software and accompanying service that allows musicians in remote places to meet and make friends and most importantly, to jam together live across the web with little latency (that’s delay to you and me) thanks to peer-to-peer technology. I’m somewhat of a bedroom musician (very amateurish at that) and love twiddling knobs on old synthesizers but find it more fun to jam with others, so I thought eJAMMING was a great idea – it’s been dubbed as a kind of Skype for musicians or an Internet-enabled incarnation of Apple’s Garageband (eJAMMING’s available for both Mac and Windows).

Tags: Music, P2P, social media, Twitter, Virtual worlds

Last month, Apple happily announced that more than 500 million applications have been downloaded for the iPhone since App Store’s inception in July last year.

However, a study by Pinch Media released a few days ago found that less than 5 per cent of iPhone users still use an application actively a month after downloading it. Only a paltry 1 per cent of total downloads are used long term. Unsurprisingly, paid applications retain users for a longer period of time than free applications, though the drop-off in usage is still pretty sharp.

As I don’t have the full copy of the study, I don’t know for sure how representative the sample size (30 million applications) is of App Store. Still, results of this study run contrary to the news we hear everyday, that independent iPhone developers are chalking up hundreds of thousands of dollars working out of their garage or basement.

I’m wondering if these developers are earning their fortunes from impulse purchases of App Store users, or did they just plain get lucky? Probably lucky, I think.

From personal experience, I would concur with the study results, as I’ve quickly grown tired of playing some of the games I buy from App Store. On the other hand, utilities are generally better worth the purchase as you tend to use them longer.

For example, I bought the application Things to keep track of deadlines and things I need to do, and have been using it regularly ever since. In contrast, I quickly grew tired of Real Soccer 2009 within two weeks of purchase, and soon started looking for new games to buy.

I find myself slowing down the pace I was playing games in order to enhance their longevity. In fact, I have stopped playing Hero of Sparta for fear of completing it too soon! It’s my favorite iPhone game right now, but if I complete it, I don’t think I’m going to play the whole game all over again. Yes, there will be a higher difficulty level unlocked, and you can retain all your weapons, but I still refrain from playing it.

Hero of Sparta

As a result, I’m more picky in purchasing items from App Store these days. Some of the games are either too short or will not sustain interest long enough for me.

Thus, for those lucky developers who struck gold, their pots of gold might not be full for long if they don’t come up with updates or additional contents for their iPhone applications or games. For example, new free levels for Hero of Sparta will be greatly appreciated and might attract new purchases, too.

If not, port some of the most addictive games in gaming history to iPhone, and you are sure to retain users for the long run.

Now, can I have Diablo on my iPhone please?

Earlier this week, Michael Arrington from major tech blog TechCrunch revealed a prototype of an Internet tablet his team was working on. The 12-inch touchscreen Internet device runs on minimal hardware and Linux but comes with WiFi and a webcam and is supposedly affordable – they were initially aiming for a price tag of US$200 (S$300), but it seems US$299 is a more realistic estimate. By comparison, the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet costs $768.

What piqued my interest though, is that Fusion Garage, a little known startup from Singapore, has been working on the software for the device. A visit to their site revealed little of what the startup is about. But I managed to get in touch with Fusion Garage’s founder and chief executive, Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan, to find out more on what they’re working on.

Fusion Garage has been working on a browser-based operating system (OS) for close to a year. It will run on Linux and use Webkit as the rendering engine for its browser.

(Note: Webkit is the rendering engine that runs on the web browsers of the iPhone, Nokia’s smartphones, the Android G1 and Palm’s upcoming Pre.)

They can’t reveal much about the collaboration with TechCrunch apart from what’s been made public.

All I can say now is that it does look very promising and quite polished, from the video that TechCrunch has on their site, even though the software’s still very early in development. And I think the Fusion Garage OS, for lack of a better name, might have a market in netbooks, kiosks, appliances and simple Internet-based devices.

I find the small screen sizes for netbooks impractical and manufacturers have responded somewhat – if you’ve been looking at the new crop of netbooks, you’ll notice that screen sizes are a lot more generous.

To me, an affordable and minimal web tablet certainly seems a lot more desirable than a netbook with a smallish screen. Maybe that’s why circulating rumours about an Apple tablet seemed to get a bit of traction.

In other words, I want one.

UPDATE: I thought it was worth adding my reply to Benjamin’s comment. Here it is:

For me, a dedicated hardware-based web browser lowers the entry barrier for accessing the Internet drastically because one doesn’t necessarily need to fiddle with the complexities that come with learning how to use a computer or a mobile phone to access the Web.

I’ve seen old folks, children and the less fortunate in third world countries give up learning to use the Internet because of the learning curve associated with a computer – interfacing with the web directly via a touchscreen tablet would mean one less obstacle for them too.

Also, I’ve yet to see a device on the market that simplifies web access as much as possible either. It could very well turn out to be a blue ocean that’s waiting to be tapped.

Tags: Fusion Garage, Singapore, startup, TechCrunch

Apart from monitoring news and blogs, the daily commute serves as field research for my work, giving me a peek of popular mobile gadgets and more importantly, the different (and sometimes unintended) ways people use them. Too often those on the forefront of technology (i.e. me) get too caught up in the flashy new features of the latest devices, which might sometimes be irrelevant to what consumes might crave. So, observing consumer behaviour brings a refreshing and accurate perspective of what would make or break a gadget and could serve as a precursor for the next big mobile trends.

Here’s a selection of the more interesting things I’ve seen (disclaimer: apologies about the low-res pictures, they were taken with an iPhone). And if you’ve got any pictures of your own, drop a link to it in the comments.

Gaming on the go

Except for the garish (to me, anyway) pink seats, you could easily mistake the local scene above for a ride on the Tokyo train line. We’ve come a long way haven’t we? These girls weren’t just happily thumbing their way on the Nintendo DS. What fascinated me was that they were effortlessly playing and collaborating on the same game wirelessly – on a moving train. Multiplayer and collaborative gameplay’s already a mainstay on the console and PC platforms and it’s only a matter of time that portable gaming devices adopt more advanced wireless technologies to enable us to play while we’re on the move.

Actually, the likelier candidates that might bring multiplayer gaming on the go to a tipping point are smartphones (the iPhone and Nokia’s N-gage comes to mind), since they already have pretty robust wireless capabilities.

Mobile broadband

A handful of my friends have stopped subscribing to a fixed broadband service at home, opting instead for a 3G modem that they can plug into a laptop so they could get connected while they’re on the move or at home. Sure, we might have Wireless@SG hotspots abundantly littered across the country but using a WiFi hotspot requires you to stay put – not so useful when you want to telecommute while you’re on the move. On the other hand, 3G offers remote internet connectivity, reasonably snappy download speeds and a sizeable chunk of data – largely enough for average users.

My only complaint? There’s no 3G coverage in some underground sections of the train lines (I’m checking with the telcos and will update this post when they get back to me). Oh, and I can’t tether my iPhone’s 3G connection to my laptop either (more on that in an upcoming blog post). If I can’t get a seat on the train, I’ll clear my email and task lists on the iPhone or make do with some reading. But if I do get a seat, I’ll be busy drafting a story on my laptop (say hi if you happen to spot me) or clearing the perpetual digital mess residing on my hard drive. I would love to be able to surf so I could do some online research or well, get on Facebook but half of my journey’s underground. =(

UPDATE: According to the telcos, work to enable the North-East MRT line with 3G coverage was completed last December. I can confirm that it works without a hitch. I managed to get a pretty good signal to stream audio from Last.fm and chatted on Windows Live Messenger without any drop in connection.

Work is still ongoing for the East-West and North-South lines and the telcos hope to get it done by this year. New ones like the Circle and Downtown lines will have 3G coverage when they start operations.

Mobile content services

Taxis now sport interactive touchscreen displays that feature content. Looks snazzy, doesn’t it? It was a nice surprise to finally get to try one out but that initial feeling of amazement dwindled away rather quickly. The user interface for the display isn’t quite intuitive (ok, as you can see, it’s just a column of colourful bars) and the content – largely movie trailers and the latest happenings in town – didn’t seem compelling enough. Worst of all? It gave me motion sickness. Luckily there was an option to shut it off. Which I did. Thank goodness.

You know what could actually be useful? Plot my journey on a (Google) map, so I could choose which expressway to use (taxi drivers, thanks for asking for my opinion but honestly, I haven’t a clue half of the time), find out which roads are congested or simply illustrate the shortest and fastest route I could take. Better still, partner with the folks at gothere, who are already doing a great job at it.

Taxi companies could go one step further and collect the data on our routes. And imagine what they could do with all that data: they can show you the best route to your destination, figure out where the passenger hotspots are so taxis can be dispatched accordingly or where taxi stands are most needed.

Tags: Broadband, Gaming, Mobile, Transport, Wireless