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

I have been hoping to write about interesting iPhone apps on a regular basis but work just seems to take up too much of my time. Now that I have time for a slight breather, I’m going to make my first iPhone app recommendation!

There are tons of apps on iTunes Store and it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate the good apps from the bad ones. I also find it troublesome to download all those “lite” versions to test out the games or utilities.

Well, get AppReviews from iTunes Store. It is a simple app that draws all its content from iphoneapplicationlist.com – a site that provides information about the latest discounts, the hottest apps and reviews of apps. It really is a gem as it helps you to keep track of all the latest apps and discounts available.

The best part: AppReviews is free!

So, what are you waiting for?

Tags: Apple, iPhone, Mobile

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

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

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