All 76 entries tagged Technology

Imagine: being always on

I came across an interesting prediction whilst researching for a presentation: according to the Nokia Siemens Networks, by 2015 there should be 5 billion people 'always on'. This is a pretty amazing feat that will happen. Simply put, 5 billion people will have permenant access to the communications infrastructures (telephone and internet). This will be achieved by manufacturers selling low-entry mobile phones for $10 and networks expanding to the remotest of places, making it affordable and available to a wider audience and communities that used to be cut off from civilisation.

Along with the relentless move to 'always on' mobile connectivity, the greeting my phone (shown below) gave me a few weeks ago might become a common occurance! :S

You have a missed call, Unread SMS, MMS and email... argh!

Nathaniel Ho : 23 Mar 2008 16:33 |  Tags: General Imagine Mobiles Phones Technology |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Imagine: life with just a pen

This is the time of the year where everyone moans about essays, dissertations and exams. But can you imagine things 10-15 years ago where the average student probably didn't have a laptop or maybe didn't even have their own computer to use. Essays written by hand and not on a word processor. Research done exclusively on books without the aid of search engines and stuff like google books. Must have been tough! And yet we still moan...

Nathaniel Ho : 23 Mar 2008 14:46 |  Tags: General Imagine Life Technology |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I. want. one.

Just when I thought deciding between the Asus EEEEEEEEE PC and the HTC TyTN II (aka O2 xDA Stellar aka T-Mobile mDA Vario III) was difficult enough, there's now another one to add to the mix. I want that shiny thing pictured above. Looks like SEM have done the wise thing and dumped the rubbish Symbian OS and are installing Windows Mobile instead. Copying the HTC angle-sliding screen design, should be a hit. The only problem is its only got HSDPA but no wi-fi (according to the spec sheet) (update: it does have wifi!). It will probably out at the end of the year - hopefully when I'll have some money to afford one!

More Info on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

Nathaniel Ho : 11 Feb 2008 19:55 |  Tags: 3G Mobiles Phones Technology |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

No Service is normal service

Its now been 2 weeks that my Resnet internet connection to my campus room has been inactive. Its basically some duff CAT5 wire with poor SNR. The response time needless to say is slow - primarily because the network guys wouldn't believe the problem wasn't to do with my computer until I carried my desktop down to the service point to prove it was fine. Still the nice guys down at service point gave my system a full valet interior cleanout with the compressed air, so it wasn't a total wasted excercise. And now networks are too busy moving offices to deal with calls.

Due to some guy trying to sue IT Services to claim some money back for ridiculously poor service in 2005-2006, ITS have changed their T&Cs to basically look like a charity who offer free internet at no obligation to the end user. So refunds won't happen. Still the nice people at the service desk do their best. But I what I really need is authorisation to use a switch and a very long piece of cable!

Fortunately before coming back to campus I got a data tariff on my phone, knowing that one day I would need it. Unfortunately I've hit the upper end of the data limit! Got to slug it out for a bit longer...

Nathaniel Ho : 11 Feb 2008 17:44 |  Tags: General Technology |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Internet first, voice second

I have notice a huge flaw with my phone. Supposedly, the best thing about 3G is that you can be on the internet and have a phone call at the same time. Unlike 2.5G GPRS which is like a V.92 dial-up in terms of low bandwidth and (lack of) connection permenancy - you can't receive calls when you're actively on the internet.

On my SEM K800i I find that even with 3G good reception, I get awful call quality, because it can't handle a switch-circuit voice call and data at the same time. It keeps dropping a lot of downstream switched-circuit voice data - and I can't hear a damn thing. This means I have had to stop using push email (which maintains a permenant internet connection to the email server). I have no idea whether this limitation is due to the phone itself or UMTS technology. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Nathaniel Ho : 07 Feb 2008 14:54 |  Tags: 3G Mobiles Phones Technology |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

UMPC

Ultra Mobile Personal Computers are really good. Chris has a Samsung Q1 Ultra with an OEM HSDPA card making it a very portable computer / a very large phone.

The 7" screen is good enough for general surfing, reading and note taking. What really surprises is the fact that the 800MHz processor with 2GB RAM is enough to run Vista Aero interface. And its not sluggish either. I managed to use LogMeIn to remotely connect to my home desktop over HSDPA without any trouble at all. Despite the sluggish ping time of 130ms and slower 1Mbps sync speed (up to 6.3Mbps in T-Mobile UK Nov-2007), the response was really good and totally useable. MSN webcam video call struggled a bit at 2fps though.

I'm now thinking about getting the Asus EEE PC when the 8GB version comes out. I can't find a decent smart phone and this mini-laptop is a bargain at £220 RRP for what it does. It would pair up nicely with my old K800i (no HSDPA though).

Nathaniel Ho : 30 Nov 2007 14:21 |  Tags: 3G General Mobiles Technology |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Bypassing T–Mobile Image Proxy

Writing about web page http://www.lewiz.org/archive/2007/01/03/hacking-t-mobile-web-proxy/

T-Mobile UK Web 'n' Walk is a nice and speedy service. Chris has said he's seen it sync at 6.3Mbps. Another reason it is so fast (besides HSDPA connection) is the fact T-Mobile have a transparent image proxy that compresses all images until they are really really small and subsequently really really awful in image quality. This is fine for adverts, banners and picture titles and phone browsing, but starts to get annoying when you're using it on a UMPC or laptop or PC.

The simple fix is pressing CTRL+F5 to force a non-cached refresh. Fortunately there is a way of modifying the headers permenantly using a simple add-on for Mozilla Firefox as discovered and documented in this awesome guide.

Unfortunately I haven't found a way of modifying headers in IE yet.

Nathaniel Ho : 26 Nov 2007 12:57 |  Tags: 3G General Mobiles Technology |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

LG Viewty

Not a bad phone, but not a great phone either. Its basically the prada phone in 3G with a newer camera. There's some promotion going around campus whereby you can borrow one for a few hours - so I took them up on that. I was immediately impressed with the HSDPA connection (primarily because I've never used one before). Loading clipped webpages at 3.6Mbps was certainly fast. The camera is 5MP and is ok. It has some very high ISO operating values (but obviously a lot of noise too). Overall its quite well specc'd. The problem was the interface, the touch screen wasn't as sensitive as say the iPhone, and iChris said the handwriting recognition was much slower than his old Sony Ericsson W950i.

I guess with a little bit of familiarisation, the Viewity would be good to use. I recommend trying it out to see if you can live with it before committing to it.

Nathaniel Ho : 21 Nov 2007 22:35 |  Tags: 3G Mobiles Technology |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

iPhone: iHot or iNot?

Technologically I think the iPhone is a bit backwards: lack of MMS functions, no video recorder, no keypad, no 3G, no HSDPA, but it does have a nice touch screen. Score! Needless to say, iChris is off to iBirmingham to go to join the iQueue outside an Apple iStore to purchase a £900 iPhone iContract.

Personally I think its going to be a hit today. The problem is there are too many Apple Fanboys in the world who relish the chance to pay £900 for a phone. Imagine what you could buy with £900. You could buy a laptop AND a regular 3G phone. 

The other actual Chris (without the prefix i) reckons it won't be as a hit as the hype makes out because: 

the people in the UK are smart enough to know that EDGE is whack!

Revolutionary yes, worth it? No. Wait for iPhone II.

Nathaniel Ho : 09 Nov 2007 11:32 |  Tags: Mobiles Technology |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A Dork's Digital Dilema

Follow-up to Web 'n' Walk from nathanielho.com :: blog

(Phonewang - if you don't speak in 1's and 0's, look away now)

My Sony Ericsson K800i has been serving me very well for over a year. Its has a decent AF 3.2MP camera with xenon flash which gives decent pictures. I can stream BBC News over the net, or download podcasts. I can encode episodes of TV into 3GP format to play on it when I'm bored on the train. With the excellent Web 'n' Walk internet tariff I can take a picture that's 800kB large, right click, send via email and its off very quickly. It checks my emails all the time, updates my RSS feeds and with 4GB of storage it has enough for music.

I've made myself think for quite a while that I want the Sony Ericsson K850i (the successor to the K810/K800). It looks awesome (yet to see it in real life though), has more megapixels (3.2MP was enough to print photos on 6x4 but 5MP should be better). It has HSDPA which means the net will be 5 times faster than normal UMTS, but without connecting it to a computer, I won't notice much difference. The main problem is that its not a smartphone - I guess its not designed to be one: Just an ordinary phone that could blow the doors off everything else and yet still work with MyPhoneExplorer.  But I want a phone to do a bit more. I want to use messenger, Skype, SIP (the latter two limited by my data tariff - so WiFi or 3-mobile would be needed). 

The Sony Ericsson selection is currently about compromises, you can only have one or the other: Do I want WiFi or HSDPA? The Nokia N95 probably sorts out all these problems by having both and an operating system which people write a lot of apps for. So I could get Fring to use messenger, skype, SIP etc. But if I've gone this far (in specs and price), I could keep the K800i and get a laptop instead (which would do a whole lot more!), and a laptop has probably got the same battery life as a N95!

Maybe the real solution is the £49.99 3-Skypephone on PAYG, unlimited skype-to-skype calls and chats, plus MSN messenger for £10/month. But we all know how much I like carrying twophones and how well I got on with 3-Mobile in the past...

Nathaniel Ho : 31 Oct 2007 12:58 |  Tags: Mobiles Technology |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem