Behind the Scenes

Current blogger status: On extended leave

Reason(s) for status: Torrents of homework + Impending final examinations

Will return to active field duty: Optimistically by 13 Dec

Standby,
T'ang

Who's Ready for Round 2?

Intel's Core i7, codenamed Nahalem, is out. And it sure as hell looks promising:


Can AMD survive another Core 2 salvo?

T'ang


(Benchmarks from http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2333776,00.asp)

One Phone to Do Them All - A Review of the Samsung Omnia

Yes, that's what it's name actually means. "Omnia" is the Latin plural of "all". After a few days of tinkering with its hardware and software, I have a few words to say 'bout it. For this review, I will be using my iPod Touch as the software benchmark in lieu of the iPhone.

Firstly, it does live up to its name. The feature-packed handheld can accomplish virtually any task you throw at it (from a smartphone's perspective, that is). With its touchscreen capabilities and Windows OS, it's the unmistakable iPhone and Palm rolled into one.

With that said, it's certainly not the 'One Phone to Rule Them All.' Even though I do see it's functionality capabilities, it does have its flaws.

Samsung's efforts to hide the unfriendly-to-the-touch Windows mobile, which was designed to be used with a stylus at hand, is evidently shown. But it still seems that the pervasive Windows oriented interface is everywhere to be seen. Yes, Samsung's own TouchWiz interface does make the phone more touch-friendly. But when you rummage through the phone's programs, you are bound to bump into bothersome tiny icons, scrolling bars and drop-down menus. That indeed is the crux to the phone's downfall.

Samsung's engineers made the phone so touch-oriented (or at least, they have tried to make it so) that they relinquished the need for a stylus by not including a stylus slot on the phone; though a stylus is included. The stylus looks atrocious too--more on this later. Needless to say, you'll need one. So the only way to attach a stylus is by dangling it on at the phone's side, or by simply putting one in your pocket. If you haven't got one, fret not. A mouse pointer makes up for it as a temporary solution. In fact, it works better than expected. The button between the 'call' and 'end call' buttons is actually an optical pad (it doubles up as a D-pad as well). It tracks finger movements and the mouse pointer moves as directed. It's similar to a trackpad of a notebook, only smaller. Much smaller.

As for the stylus, it surely doesn't look like one. It looks to me like a lipstick tube. See for yourself:


However, the phone excels at its primary purpose: making calls. Reception is unbeatable and call quality is top-notch. Build quality is also superb with a brushed metal look-a-like back and slight chrome accents at the edges. The in-built camera is best in its class. The phone packs a 5MP shooter (a first for its class) and like the rest of Samsung's product line, it produces absolutely stunning images. Most importantly, the phone's battery life is way above average and it features a user-replaceable battery - a must-need for me.

My experience with the phone is generally positive (due to time constraints, I left out some of its promising features in this review: GPS, Bluetooth, DivX video, Opera browser etc). Ultimately, the Samsung Omnia outclasses the iPhone in terms of hardware quality. But due to its software's shortcomings, it still falls short of the market leader. However, till Apple releases an iPhone with a removable battery and sells it sans contract here in Canada, I might as well stick to the Omnia.

'Nuff said,
T'ang


(all images from GSMArena.com)

SEED

Nicol Amalfi's Blitz

T'ang

A Pack of Smarties

Oct 19 update: Oh well, case closed. My parents have decided to purchase the Samsung Omnia. No, actually, it has already been purchased. Specifically, it's the 16GB model; My parents just couldn't pass up the 100 dollar for double the memory capacity prospect. They weighed the features of the respective phones and believed that the Samsung delivered the most features per dollar. Well I have to agree with them, as the Omnia has the finest camera, one of the largest built-in storage, a standard 3.5mm jack (albeit requiring an adapter) and the longest battery life. However, I just felt that the Omnia simply lacked the oomph present in most of the other phones, such as the prevalent iPhone. In fact, I was originally vouching for the Apple :)

However, truth be told, the Omnia will be going to my brother, not to me. It seems that he is the one that is in real need for a smartphone, not me. Well, for starters, he's still using the ancient D-Cube MP3 player that used to be mine a long, long time ago. That was in secondary 2, if I remember correctly. I bet my bottom dollar that most of you haven't even heard of that brand before. Well that's mainly because the company has gone into liquidation shortly after its introduction (I guess). That obsolete piece of hardware only deserves to be in one place: the recycling bin. After roughly 3 years of handling, the D-Cube has started to show its age; the 'record' button has gone faulty, the connectivity of the 3.5mm jack has degraded, and the red LED which used to twinkle from time to time has shorted out. Speaking of MP3s, my music player has changed dramatically in just 3 years. I've outgrown the measly 512MB (the D-Cube), to a 1GB Nano, and finally to a 16GB Touch that I currently possess.

So, 500 to 16,000MB will be a huge leap for my brother. Also, if that doesn't satisfy him in the long run, the Omnia has a contingency plan: it features a expandable storage capacity with a MicroSD card slot. So that doubles up to a 32GB music player with the currently limited 16GB max microSD.

Additionally, he has frequently nagged about his need for a better camera. All his b'day party photos taken with his current 3.0 mega camera phone didn't turn in the quality of images he expected. Hopefully, with a 5.0 mega model, he would be pleased. However, I doubt it; I think the Omnia would most probably perform as dreadful in low-light conditions.

Lastly, with GPS, he'll never fear getting lost in the city center of Vancouver ever again :P

The poll will still be up for a couple more days though. For those who haven't casted their vote, it would honour me by doing so. I'd sure like to know collectively, whether the Omnia was the right road to take.

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I've recently been on a hunt to find which touchscreen smartphone is best for me. Why do I need one you may ask. Well, I need a quad band phone as my tri band nokia's reception is starting to get on my nerves. There are times where the reception drops to zero in school, rendering the cell phone useless. There was one occasion in which a call was barely audible - the sound was crackling incessantly. Even rudimentary text messages took 10 seconds to transmit, whereby in Singapore, it barely took 3 seconds.

Complaints aside, I could've just gotten a basic, no-frills phone with bona fide quad band reception. But that's easier said than done. Of course, I cannot just blindly pick such a phone and call it a day. When it comes to cell phones, they have to be design oriented. I absolutely disgust phones which should rightly be called bricks and paperweights. What's outrageous is that even Samsung, my primary source for elegant looking phones, didn't carry a model that qualified for my tastes, let alone the Nokias and Sony Ericssons. The current Motorolas are not bad, but they are just too common here in Canada.

So, what's left are the models which reside in the category of smartphones. I emphasize again that these are touchscreen smartphones. Not the ones with a monstrous mechanical QWERTY keyboard on their faces (cough, Blackberry, cough). Such phones are no different that the ones I described earlier on. Out of hundreds of webpages, I managed to round up 6 models that allured me. They are as follows:

1. Samsung Omnia

2. HTC Touch Diamond

3. Apple iPhone 3G

The above three handsets are widely available today. On the other hand, I can also wait these for upcoming models:

4. HTC Touch HD

5. Nokia 5800

6. HTC G1 (if it really lives up to its hype)


And here they are in pictures (in order from left to right):


There's a poll up above the tagboard. Do let me know what you think.

T'ang


(all cell phone images taken from GSMArena.com)

A Moment to Spare

Was clearing my camera's memory card a while ago, so I thought that it might be a good time to see what I had accumulated in the past few months. Most of the photos are trivial; with little to showcase about. But a couple of them looked kinda striking. This was what I could unearth:

Note that the following images are in their raw form. I haven't got the time to edit them just yet.



Moonlight Serenade
This is the view from outside my room. It's a pity that the position of the moon forced the horizon to be a tad too low. Love the lens flare effect of the moon though. The shot is a little overexposed as well.



Zoom Zoom
Nothing laudable here. It's just my first try at traffic photography. Gotta say that I really like the color composition.



Glow
Just a typical lampshade. I took the shot while testing my lens, but for some peculiar reason, I somehow fancy the image.



A Storm is Coming
A menacing storm cloud not to be trifled with. Thunderclouds here in Canada can get as ghastly as in Singapore.



Twilight Zone
Saving the best for last, this one's my personal favourite. It's a spectacular view outside my balcony. I spotted it one fine evening and was lucky enough to get a shot of it. As this was unexpected, I didn't have the opportunity to prep for a proper landscape shot. As you know, sunsets last no more than what? 10 mins? And the colours change real quick too. Thus, I propelled the ISO to 1600 and enlarged the aperture to a not-so-landscape-friendly f2.8. I just love the way the mountain range is silhouetted against the fading light. Somehow, the orange colour formed a distinctive streak across the sky. To sum up what the scene was like, it was magnificent. Like Bryan said, I don't suppose I'll ever get to see one of these in S'pore. Lucky me!


That's all, for now,
T'ang

Before You See You Hear - A Quick Look at the Logitech Z-2300

Previously, I had thought about using my Logitech Z-5500 for my multimedia set of speakers. But due to a series of unfortunate events, it wasn't the case for me. I was facing several space constraints in my bedroom, thus the 5.1 speaker set had to be placed outside in the living area. I actually planned that I would put my PC there, but I couldn't imagine having need to share one desktop area for my 32 inch TV and my 24 inch monitor. So, it was positioned in my room itself. Therein lies the problem. I could share the speaker set with my DVD player and my PC, but it's obviously impossible now.

I was left with no choice but to rely on solely my headphones for sound. However, after a couple of weeks, my ears were gravely sore; just a pair of headphones just couldn't cut it. I went shopping for a pair of speakers next. Then, just as if was fate, a pretty darn good deal popped out as I opened Bestbuy.ca - a pair of THX certified Logitech Z-2300 2.1 speakers going for half price.


So far, I'm pretty impressed with the nifty set of speakers. However, I do think the subwoofer is a little overkill when paired up with the minuscule satellites. Consequently, for music, bass is a little too deep (just as I anticipated from a Logitech model) at the default level. It's good that there is a conveniently located control pod where I can level bass response to suit my tastes. As far as I can recall, longitudinal wave production is clearly clearer than my complementary pair of Dell speakers in Singapore (duh!). But when directly compared to my Z-5500s, there was an immediately noticeable difference. The sound coming from the larger 3 inch drivers managed to crank out a larger soundstage than the 2.5 inch ones.


Nevertheless, my Logitech Z-2300 speakers are certainly respectable without even mentioning the fact that I bought it for half the retail price.

T'ang