Bluetooth 4.0 on iPhone 4S

I wonder why Apple did not emphasize more on the Bluetooth 4.0 used in the iPhone 4S.
It's the first smartphone to implement that!


If the specs are to be believed, Bluetooth 4.0 not only better its earlier version in terms of range (50m vs 20m), the most significant feature is the extremely short "setup time" like pairing and searching.
Bluetooth 4.0 has a setup time approximately 3ms vs Bluetooth 2.0's 6 seconds.

Now, this fast setup time is even faster than NFC's (Near Field Communication) 0.1s!

This may open a lot of nice features using Bluetooth.
Can't wait to see them!

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iPhone Upgrade vs Samsung Upgrade

What makes upgrading from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S less special than from Samsung Galaxy S2 to Samsung Nexus Prime?

I prefer to think it the other way round.

This is based on my personal usage of smartphone.
For me, iPhone 4S provides a lot more wanted features over iPhone 4 compared to that of Samsung Nexus Prime over Samsung Galaxy S2.

First, screen size.
The Nexus Prime has a bigger screen size at 4.65".
Do I need that much screen estate?
I'm currently using the 4.3" screen size Galaxy S2.
Yes, I would love that kind of bigger screen. However, I prefer to have a "palm-size" friendly phone which I can message without awkwardness with one hand. That I'm struggling with the 4.3". 4.65" is really beyond extreme.
For this, I would go for iPhone for the screen size.





Second, software:
I don't see any killer apps mentioned in the Nexus Prime that you cannot have in Galaxy S2.
I do see and impressed with the Siri voice recognition and control capability of the iPhone 4S that will not be in iPhone 4. And this may be what I need and will be using. I'm seeing this very useful when I drive on the road. Currently, I have make use of the stop at road junction red light to do a quick SMS texting.



Yes, I would sell my current Galaxy S2 for the iPhone 4S come 28th October 2011 when it comes to Singapore.


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Thoughts on Apple Device's Innovations

So, there seems a lot of suing around by big companies like Apple, Samsung, etc.


That leads to one to think of innovations, creativities, etc of the device.

Now, while the original Apple iPhone brought us new and highly intuitive handphone usage, a few of its ideas seems to me rather familiar...

Before the introduction of iPhone in 2007, I've been using a long string of Palm Treo handphone models, such as the Palm Treo 600, 650, 680 and Centro. Also not to forget those pre-smartphone PDAs like Palm M-100, T3, T5, TX, Lifedrive which I've owned before.

Here are 3 of the familiar functions that were implemented on the Palm devices before the 2007 iPhone 2G:

1) Ringer Switch
Simple idea, but great usability! This is one feature that is available on all Palm Treo smartphone models.



2) Threaded SMS
This is one feature that brought me to buy those Palm Treos. Even "heavy-weight" smartphones like Windows Mobile did not have threaded SMS back then.




3) Screen Rotation
I first saw a screen rotation feature on the Palm T3 PDA. There was no accelerometer back then though. You need to tap on a button to rotate the screen to landscape and vice versa. Following that, this feature starts appearing on Windows Mobile phones.
Now, that is innovation!



Sadly, due to extremely poor marketing of Palm Inc, Palm declined.

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My Top 3 Mandarin Songs of the Week

1. 李佳薇 - 煎熬
Strong and powerful voice.




2. 胡夏 - 那些年
Clean and "Boy-next-door" voice.





3. 郁可唯 / 林凡 - 听你说
Cheerful and clean voices there.




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We've Got The Smurfs

So, the Smurfs figurines come to MacDonalds'. Pestered by the kids, we bought two meals and got the first two last week.

This week, they introduce two new figures, one of which is Smurfette, my kids' favourite!

So, we just bought two more meals and got these two. The kids will be overjoyed!


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Now The iPad Can Run Flash Contents and Videos !!

One feature that is always being requested by users of iOS devices is Flash support. However till date, iOS still does not support Flash natively.

Now, things change for the better with the availability a few web browsers that support Flash.

There are at least 3 third party browsers now in the Apple AppStore that support Flash Content:
1) iSwifter
2) Puffin Web Browser
3) Skyfire

Both iSwifter and Puffin Web Browser supports both Flash Interactive contents and videos while Skyfire only support Flash Video.

I'm taking the following Flash Interactive Content-based website, "www.singtelshop.com" as an example.

Here's how it looks like when the URL is run in my iPad's built-in Safari Browser:



I'm stucked at the first screen using Safari Brower.

Here's how it looks when run in Puffin Web Browser:



Yes!! The all-so-familiar Flash content of SingtelShop shows! It's also as interactive as it's on desktop browser.
I would say it's even smoother than on my Galaxy Tab which supports Flash natively!

Well, I do not know if these browser (Puffin or iSwifter) did any conversion prior to serving the contents to the user. But it sure runs like native Flash content, if it's actually not native.

Price-wise, Puffin is not free and I don't see any "lite" version.
However there's a free lite version for iSwifter which runs the Flash contents as smoothly as Puffin.

Note that no Jailbreak is needed to run these browsers.

Now, I wonder why this is not being widely made known to iOS users.

Another reason to get the iPad over Android Tablet.

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Reasons to Upgrade From iPad 1 to iPad 2 - Video

There are many who told me that there are no reasons enough to upgrade my iPad 1 to iPad 2.
They feel that without a Retina Diaplay, the rest are too trivial.

I beg to differ and went on to sell off my iPad 1 and get the second gen. No regret since.
First off, video watching is one of my main uses of iPad.
The current iOS, as with the previous versions only support hardware video acceleration for mp4 format. In fact the built in Video app only support mp4 format.

Not long ago, Apple open up its app store to third party video player apps. These apps support video formats other than mp4, e.g mkv, avi, rmvb, etc. However it can only use software decoders to decode these formats. When these formats are played on my previous iPad 1, higher bit-rate videos tend to go sluggish intermittently.



I ran the same bit-rate video of avi format on my iPad 2 and hey, it plays rather smoothly!

Watch this space for more reasons to upgrade ....