Sony Ericsson diverges

So Sony Ericsson dropped a lot of phones today. Well, figuratively, seeing how these press releases mean we the buying public won't be able to get our grubby mitts on them for another month to 6 months depending on distribution and manufacturing issues.

First off, the thing that strikes me is SE giving N. America the big F U seeing how most of their high-end (and most desirable) phones seem to be missing 2 important things. The 850mhz band which is the more prevalent band in the U.S. And lack of EDGE data connection, which again, is only used here, seeing how the rest of the world has already hopped on the 3G bandwagon, while most of the U.S. at the GSM camp, with a few market exceptions, are stuck on this "2.5" thing. Also a telling sign that SE's phones only operate on the European standard of 3G data (UTMS).

I'm also noticing something. SE has decided to make devices that are more specialized. Some are better for taking your music on the go, while others shine as cameras, while some are just dirt cheap that anyone can own a Sony Ericsson phone. Nowhere in their lineup is there a divergent phone that can really compete with something like, say, the iPhone. Most of their Symbian phones lack cameras, while the one that is supposed to be all in one (the P990) is getting kinda old. Hopefully all this will change next week at the 3GSM conference. Maybe they've got something up their sleeves they haven't shown us yet.

MacBook Pro/MacBook complaint

So after using a shiny new MacBook Pro for a week, I've found something I don't like about it. This also applies to the MacBook, since I've tried my wife's MacBook out and it has the same design flaw. The screen does not tilt back far enough. I know this because my old school twelve inch Powerbook G4 tilts back a little further. Which is something is nice to have when you're stretched out on the couch half slouched, half laying down and you wanna prop your laptop on your half propped up leg and type, not so easy. Why did Apple shorten the throw/tilt of the new macbooks? Give me back more tilt!

Update: Apparently I'm not the only one bitching about this problem. -> Link

iPhone isn't the second coming

Now that a week has passed, people have gotten over their initial high of Apple finally announcing an iPhone (I mean, come on, engadget and gizmodo are flying banners at the top of their sites for their coverage), I have somethings that might be reasons NOT to get the iPhone. Of course, there are the usual reasons that a lot of people have been whining about:

• no 3G
• only GSM
• Cingular Only (until 2009)
• No Third-Party Apps
• High Price

First thing that gets me is 2 fold. One, I'll reserve my judgement on.

Touchscreens, ok, I'm reserving my judgement on the multi-touch system, but people, myself included want to have tactile feeling when we're pushing buttons. You can't include that in a touch screen unless Apple figures out how to create some elecatrostatic-polymorphic plastic that can morph into buttons based on what's onscreen. Which brings me to my second point. Watching Steve Jobs give all his demos on the keynote, everything needs to be done with two hands. This goes against two principles of the iPods itself, and how most people use phones. They like to use it by using one hand. No one wants to walk around face buried in their iPhone and walk right into something because they had to concentrate using their phone. Also the same reason why Apple had originally had their iPods be completely touch sensitive in their third generation iPod only to "back pedal" and throw the click back into the click-wheels of the fourth gen iPod and on...til now.

Also, screens. Screens are prone to smudge and scratching. Ask anybody that bought a PSP, or even an iPod. Unless Apple was smart enough to acquire this, I smell another class-action lawsuit about people bitching how their iPhone isn't working up to their unattainable expectations.

As for them touting internet browsing. It seems like a nice idea but do I really want to treat a web page like a map where i need to crawl around the page to read snippets about it? I like Opera's approach of screen optimization. After all, mobile browsing should be simple. And the way Apple has approached it seems more of a pain than simplicity.

So, seeing how I'm not willing to switch and pay the price of breaking my T-mobile contract and probably pay twice more for the same type of phone/data service on Cingular, I'll just have to wait for an unlocked version in 2008.

Screens Screens Screens

The new Nokia N800 Internet Tablet is on the verge of getting introduced. I more or less love my Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, so I'm wondering what bump in speed or memory is under the hood. The only thing I wish my tablet could do better was to be able to view flash video a la youtube/google video and also be able to handle embedded video in Windows Media and Quicktime format.

Which got me thinking, the upcoming week is gonna be big in the tech world, seeing how both the Consumer Electronic Show is busting open their doors in Vegas while Apple is gonna have another Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld. Everyone is clamouring the next big gagdet, of which 90% or so will have to do with something about looking at a screen. Be it a smartphone, a video display that outputs 1080p clarity, a fancy tablet, etc.

And it got me thinking, is our world so dull that we need to distract ourselves with windows into virtual/fantasy worlds? Is technology and capitalism just creating a new paradigm of Plato's Cave? Is reality that harsh that we have to cling onto our techno security blankets? Maybe. After all, I have a love/hate relationship with this stuff. It excites and frustrates me at the same time. Will I be still shelling my money over for the toys that are introduced next week? Probably. Will I resent myself a bit because I could've spent the money a bit better by either traveling or paying of my debts? Maybe. I guess only time will tell. Although, most of the time, I know sinking my money into technology is sort of like drugs. They get me high for a bit, but ultimately, I'm looking for a stronger high, a bigger fix. And ultimately, I might just be a bit poorer for running in this vicious cycle.

Holiday Hiatus

With the impending holidays, me leaving my job, and just other chaotic things, postings will be sporadic for the time being.

Justin Long still a Mac

So all those rumors were unfounded, and now we see 3 new Apple ads with Justin Long still as a Mac. At least he's not that smug in the latest batch.

I do not, however, get the PC vs Mac Japanese ads they're running. Maybe its me, but I don't think they get translated very well.

Flickr layout

I laid out a bunch of gadgets I had and took a swanky photo of them at the beginning of the year. Sal over at JustSetups.com pinged me and asked me if he could post it up on his site and I said "sure." What's funny/sad is that I don't even own the PSP anymore (evil Sony hype) and my Sony Ericsson phone has been superseded by my T-mobile Dash.

In anycase, the photo gave Sal the impression I lead such an on the go life, but really, I don't. I guess I just like portability.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....zune

Stopped by the Best Buy this afternoon with a friend to pick up an antenna for his newly bought HDTV, and while there, I picked up the Zune while walking around the store. Man, it has zero tech-sex appeal. Maybe if I hadn't been exposed to Pocket PCs, or anything with the words "Windows Mobile" on it, I'd be impressed. But holding it in my hand, and playing with it, it did not emit the same techno-lust as when I held an iPod in my hand for the first time. In fact, the Zune felt bulky and I wondered why it was so thick. Microsoft should've held off and released a better product rather than slapping their name on a Toshiba Gigabeat.

PS3 Pandemonium

My contribution to the PS3 pandemonium? I decided to stop by the local Target this morning on my drive to work. I casually sauntered in around 8:30am to a relatively empty store, walked over to admire the newly set up PS3 booth, then asked a girl in a red shirt if they had any PS3s. She smirked and said no, there was a line this morning and they only had 6 units. And that was it. I think I'll wait until next year when there's a 100 price drop to get mine.

postscript: who are these insane people paying upwards of three to nine thousand dollars for a game system on ebay anyway? Are they the rich that can't be bothered or people going into massive debt to feed an addiction?

Apple needs to get their bluetooth act together

For the past few weeks, I've been trying to figure out how to get my powerbook to hop online via my T-mobile Dash. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. One of the reasons I bought a Mac is it "just works." However, this is not one of those cases. Apparently Microsoft's newest version of Windows Mobile: AKU3, has done away with the Dial-Up Networking (DUN) bluetooth profile and replaced it with a much more (subjectively) versatile profile called Personal Area Network (PAN).
From bluetooth.com

Personal Area Networking Profile (PAN)
PAN describes how two or more Bluetooth enabled devices can form an ad-hoc network and how the same mechanism can be used to access a remote network through a network access point. The profile roles include the network access point, group ad-hoc network, and PAN user. Network access points can be a traditional LAN data access point while group ad-hoc networks represent a set of devices that are only attached to one another. PAN is intended to allow the use of BNEP on Layer 3 protocols for transport over a Bluetooth wireless technology link.

The main problem? Apple OSX Tiger doesn't support the "Personal Access Network" bluetooth profile. What's funny is that Apple loves touting the fact that they love bluetooth, yet why are they dragging their feet on keeping current with bluetooth technologies? Why hasn't this been implemented in one of their 10.4.x patches? I've spent more than a few hours trying to track down a solution from editing the /etc/ppp/options file, to poking around the command line on Terminal, to setting up different serial connections via bluetooth. Then it hit me, why am I doing so much legwork? I used to do this with Windows. Getting something to work on Microsoft was like pulling teeth half the time, and yet, the irony is all I have to do is right click on the bluetooth icon in the system tray in XP and select "Join Personal Area Network." It just works!

Oh Apple, why have you forsaken me? You used to be an innovator and now you can't even keep current. You used to be the guy that paid attention to the little details and now, in this instance, Microsoft has beat you to the punch.