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Category: gadgets

  • The missing iPhone

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    By now all the people who are into gadgets should have heard about this iPhone Gizmodo gate: this is apple’s next iPhone .

    I don’t know about the fate of this Apple engineer, as Gizmodo did not say a word about him/her (Why Apple Couldn’t Get the Lost iPhone Back). I hope he/she won’t get fired for this (assume this whole thing is not an Apple stunt). Because a while ago, if we recall, a young Chinese engineer died from iPhone leak(HuffingtonPost: Sun Danyong, Chinese Engineer, Kills Himself After Losing ‘4G’ iPhone Prototype).

    After all, life is much more important than stupid iPhone, if we can put things in perspective.

  • Is PALM here to stay: II

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    I sold my few shares of Palm Friday morning shortly after opening. Palm (Nasdaq:PALM) share dropped 29% on Friday after horrific earning outlook (marketWatch). Palm is increasingly likely to say “bye bye” to its loyal customers in a year or two. Quote sobelmedia:

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    I’m never going to forget my very first Palm Pilot in 1998…how cool…it was everything I needed and wanted in a handheld device…addresses, notes, contacts everything…and it had the ability to sync with my computer to keep it up to date. Over the years the company changed owners, management, operating systems and the competition heated up all at the same time. Now it appears as though Palm is at the end of the rope and Wall Street is ready to say goodbye.
    ======

    I think PALM has to blame itself for the recent problem (since webOS based Palm Pre launch at Sprint network last July). I saw the following problems:

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  • Palm only way forward

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    1. Come up with products that is consistent (not sometimes work, sometimes don’t, see this old post from PreCentral guys).

    2. Also come up with some smart ads (with Sprint and Verizon), something like this one from German carrier O2.

    O2 has about 11% market share in Germany per Yahoo Answers.

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  • iPhone TV ads vs. Palm TV ads

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    It appears to me iPhone TV ads are more effective than Palm TV ads.

    First iPhone ads

    There’s an app for that

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  • Palm Pre First Impression

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    Got opportunity to play with Palm Pre for couple minutes in the weekend. Sprint kiosk at Chesterfield Mall has the real Pre (instead of the faked phones at many other places). I was very impressed by the screen, both the (multi) touch and the display. Surfed the web: amazon, ESPN etc. Zooming in and out is very similar to iPhone (using two fingers). Checked out the tiny keyboard, it feels OK. Initially I thought it’s not “qwerty” keyboard, I was wrong: it was just different from the keyboard of my Blackberry 8800, as you can see from this picture at PreCentral: .

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  • Palm pre plus ads and GMail on Nokia 5800

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    Saw the Palm Pre Plus ads by Verizon at PreCentral.

    I installed the GMail on my Nokia 5800. I could not remember why it did not work last year when I bought it first. The software on my Nokia 5800 is the same, but the GMail client may have changed. The user interface is kind of funky, but it works.

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  • iPad: funky name cool stuff?

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    There are already a lot of talks about iPad now that Steve Jobs showed off his latest toy. The name is funky because “pad” has a lot of meaning, and there are people already making fun of that, such as this video at Youtube.

    But seriously, boy, this is cutting edge stuff in terms of technology. Apple has a video on its own web site, which explains the functionality and features very well. It’s more like a builder’s explainations of why the house is beautiful. Obviously, this new toy launch won’t be complete without the blessing of the chief creator: Steve Jobs.

    (Source: cnet video from Youtube)

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  • Tech overview: cloud computing and smart phone

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    Forget today’s Google China news for a minute. We are at very interesting times in terms of technology, from apps, cloud (web based) computing (online data backup, for one), to net book, smart phone, e-readers, smart book and tablet. The past week’s CES showed us the explosion of a lot of hardwares I mentioned above (plus many new mashups: hybrid devices). I did not attend the CES, but I found the CEO interviews at AllThingsD to be interesting, e.g., Palm CEO.


    (Source: allThingsD video)

    From investing/speculation point of view, I think PALM is at interesting point because Verizon will start to sell it on Jan 25.

    Challenges

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  • Some notes on Google Nexus One phone

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    Official link here: www.google.com/phone

    Walter Mossberg (AllthingsD, WSJ) Review “Google’s Nexus One Is Bold New Face in Super-Smartphones“, quote:

    I’ve been testing the Nexus One for a couple of weeks and I like it a lot. It’s the best Android phone so far, in my view, and the first I could consider carrying as my everyday hand-held computer….

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  • FStream is very good

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    I was looking for an iPhone radio stream (particularly wma format because it seems middle kingdom likes this Microsoft audio format), and I found this FStream at iTune store to be good. After I set up the following:

    北京人民广播电台首都生活 (Beijing Radio)
    mms://alive.bjradio.com.cn/AM603
    format: wma
    rate: 64 k/sec

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