Archives for June 2010

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Helping UPS

I think UPS needs help finding my place, so I’ve printed a map for them:

ups map

They obviously don’t have a map and are trying to deliver my package from Amazon by way of Sacramento, or perhaps a nice coastal trip up to Seattle and back.  That’s the only logical explanation for them to schedule delivery for June 22nd, when the package arrived in San Pablo on June 17th.

Now, with my map they know I’m only 41 miles away.  And I feel good, having saved them all that extra gas.  🙂

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Samsung Galaxy S vs. Samsung Galaxy S

The title is not a typo, I’m really comparing the Galaxy S to the Galaxy S.  Join me.  Here’s the version many of us have seen, and I held in my hands (salivating with desire, I might add) at the Google I/O Conference:

Samsung-Galaxy-S front

And here’s the Samsung Captivate, announced by At&T today, and heralded as AT&T’s brand for the Samsung Galaxy S.

Something does not compute ( and I don’t mean the phones, these babies are blazing fast).  But either they are not both the Samsung Galaxy S, or this name refers to an entire family of devices, not just one specific model.  The latter does not make too much sense to me: Samsung Galaxy can be a family name, without the “S”.  Case in point: Samsung Galaxy Tab .

What gives?  Does anyone have an explanation?  Samsung, feel free to chime in.   Oh, and please release this baby while I am still within the 30-day period of my HTC EVO 🙂

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(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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Ungrateful iBozos, Stop the Whining. Get a (i)Life.

<sarcasm>

iPhone-4-steve-jobs I’m sick of all this whining within the iFamily.  These iBozos just don’t appreciate all the goodness they have.

iPhone preorder systems failed.  So what?  You’ve just saved a boatload of money, be happy, get a life!

Yet another At&T security breach. What’s the big deal?  All your data is public anyway, has been for a while, will always be so, so STFU.

Orders Charged and Sent to the Wrong People – and Gizmodo has the balls to call it a disaster.  They don’t understand the Grand Scheme. Have you ever been to a potluck party?  You bring some, get some (or not).  Random credit cards get charged and iPhones get delivered to random people – so what?  On the average it all works out, everyone receives an iPhone (or not).  We’re all part of iFamily.

MG Siegler Wants a Micro-Cell Rip-Off Box – WTF?  To actually waste time making calls?  Voice calls are so 90’s anyway. He should pay extra to AT&T for providing such a valuable time-saver plan.

I’m fed up with these unfaithful, ungrateful iWhiners.  They should be happy to be admitted to the iChurch and shut up. At least while on AT&T

</sarcasm>

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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iPhone iPen iPaper

What’s iPen? Not this.  What’s iPaper?  Not this (although Scribd has a strong case).

It’s AT&T taking iPhone orders on paper and pen.  In 2010.

paper order

Well, at least paper won’t leak customer data like AT&T’s systems are.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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How to Enjoy the World Cup Without Vuvuzela

vuvuzela No, we have not become a sports blog, but when technology comes to rescue millions of soccer-fans, we can’t remain silent.  And by not remaining silent I don’t mean blowing our own horn Vuvuzela🙂

The Vuvu has caused quite a kerfuffle at the World Cup this year. TV networks and broadcasters are fed up, those live at the stadium are in danger of hearing damage ( this thing creates 130 decibel noise, which is above the human pain threshold), the FIFA is considering handing out free earplugs to dampen the noise.

While we can’t help those in the stadium in South Africa, there’s a very simple solution to the rest of the world following the game on TV or the Internet.  You need a device that has an equalizer: better TV sets do, if yours does not, try to hook audio to your Sound system, or use a computer.

EqualizerThen all you have to do is filter out (reduce) the 300 Hz range – apparently all Vuvus shriek at this frequency.

If you don’t have access to an equalizer, you may try fighting sound with sound: an online company claims to generate noise-cancellation sound that is “ a wave with the same amplitude but with inverted phase to the original sound.  The waves combine to form a new wave, in a process called interference, and effectively cancel each other out -an effect which is called phase cancellation

Warning: we have not tried the anti-vuvuzela filter and can not make any claims to its efficiency.

Update: more options @ GigaOM .

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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The Chaos of BYOW (Bring Your Own Wi-Fi)

It all started as an innocent joke:

scoble zoli wifi

Robert Scoble was sitting in the front row @ Apple’s WWDC conference while I was following the tweetstream from home.  Little did we know out joke would soon turn serious, as Steve Job’s keynote demo crashed when his shiny new iPhone 4 could not get a network connection.  Ars Technica offers detailed technical analysis of what may have happened, citing wi-fi experts who think the iPhone 4 may have a software glitch – but beyond that, they go deeply into analyzing the roots of network congestion at major gatherings.

It’s a great read, I have nothing to add on the technical side, just a little speculation on what brought this potential chaos about, and how to avoid it.

In short, we’re in a vicious circle.   The best “should-know-better” conferences have famously failed to provide sufficient wifi, including  Web 2.0, LeWeb, Gnomedex, Microsoft PDC, Google I/O… you name it.   We’re not talking about Birdwatchers’ Annual Convention or Road Builders Conferences – no, these are hi-tech events heavily attended by geeks, analysts, media, bloggers – the wifi_proliferationalways on, ever connected types, who will not tolerate being offline and will come up with their solution, as soon as the technology exist.

Thus, Bring Your Own Wifi was born – first the dedicated USB sticks with their $60 a month fees, then Mi-Fi, and now a flood of smartphones all providing their own hotspots.  Now all these BYOW devices wreak havoc and cause congestion.

Now, there are some cosmetic improvements we could all do, for example stop broadcasting our hotspot’s SSID. Not that it would reduce the behind-the-scenes congestion, but at least it would not clog the list of Wi-Fi for anyone else.  (Even this is easier said than done: some hotspots do not offer the option to shut broadcasting off, and even more sadly several devices refuse to connect to a Wi-Fi unless the SSID is listed).

We’re heading into a period of wireless chaos – it probably won’t be so bad on the road, in remote places, not even while using public transportation – but it will definitely get worse at places of expected high Mi-Fi / hotspot concentration.

We’ve come full circle. It all started by the lack of “centralized” connectivity, we all came up with our own ad-hoc solution and now we’re spoiling the game for each other.  I know I’d stop fiddling with my  EVO (or the gadget of the day) if there was rock-solid wi-fi at all conferences.  It’s time conference organizers step up to the plate.  If they don’t know how, I suggest they talk to Eric.

P.S. On a ligther note, some people already discovered the option of using the SSID for messaging. Is this the next marketing opportunity?

rwang wifi ads

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(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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Update on the Sprint HTC EVO Battery Debate: Not Bad, Really. See Yourself.

IMG_9983The HTC EVO is the hottest Android phone for now, but it is plagued by the much debated battery issue.  Clearly, it’s a monster of a workhorse, and battery life will depend on one’s usage patterns: you can’t expect a whole lot if you get background updates from social networks every 5  minutes and watch HD video for hours.

But the real divisive issue is battery life on stand-by: some claim their EVO’s die in Sleep mode in a matter of 5-6 hours, while others swear battery life is not worse than that of the iPhone.  TechCrunch goes as far as warning people: Don’t Buy The HTC EVO, It Is A Seriously Flawed Device.

Wow, that’s a heavy statement – and I have to disagree, because I had experienced all the trouble myself, than started to research, experiment and went from 5 hours to 2 days standby time.

But I don’t want to argue – I don’t have to.  I have proof.  Just look at the image on the right: after almost 2 days my EVO still has 40% battery left.

I’d say that’s as good as you can get, from a powerful little computer that happens to allow phone calls, too. 🙂

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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Always On

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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BP Spills Coffee

This is making the rounds today:

Hat tip: Dan McWeeney (proving that Geeks have a sense of humor, too)

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BP