reHASHplus

Sober IT truths from the island-state

by Michael Tan, Singapore

You can sit back to watch YouTube now

Nov 10, 2009 14:51

A great man, the one who heads the team which developed the world's first low-cost MPEG-4 decoder with SoC chip, once told me: "There are just two ways to interact with an immobile display screen. You either lean forward or sit back. Chances are when you're leaning forward, you're not in the mood to enjoy a movie."
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The most significant thing this week: A new genre of phones defined--the App Phone

Nov 6, 2009 11:31

I've never called the iPhone or Android phone a smartphone.

Somehow, the smartphone was reserved for phones which were much more limited in capability. My first smartphone was the Sony Ericsson R380, followed by the P800, M600, and Nokia 9500 Communicator. These were phones based on extensions to previous operating systems for normal dumb phones.

Intuitively, it just didn't seem right for the term "smartphone" to apply to powerful phones like the iPhone with an application platform which anybody could develop for. But since there are only three major ones--the iPhone, the Android phone and the Palm Pre platform--I didn't feel the need to invent or use any term. Anyway, I am just a little guy, so whatever term I would have come up with would not be authoritative enough or gain universal appeal.
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I goofed up in Dragon Age Origins

Nov 5, 2009 16:46

I bought the game as soon as it came out. I THOUGHT that it was an RPG in the classic sense.

It is. But why make something like the good old days when you can do it better nowadays, I was wondering?

When I played the game it was a great experience. I even spent 45 minutes trying to make my elven mage girl character pretty. I got the prettiest one. I spent 7 hours playing the thing and leveled nicely. I flirted with the men and I was surprised I could do it in an RPG.
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Contender for best error message

Oct 30, 2009 12:13

This is a contender for the coolest error message. Full Javascript, the clouds move. Appears on Android browser, too.

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Motorola R2D2

Oct 30, 2009 10:52

Did you see this?

Motorola uses DROID name under license from Lucasarts

The word DROID is used under license from Lucasfilm. What a difference an ALPHABET makes. Well done, George Lucas.

But given the license, Motorola should have:
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About Michael Tan

Michael Tan is lucky enough not to have to choose between his job and his passion. He is the responsible for all aspects of developing new businesses and sourcing new productlines for a regional IT distribution company. He also oversees the company's legal affairs as General Counsel. In real life, he is a technology enthusiast, from both the fun and business viewpoint. The only choices he has to make are whether to play with his astro telescopes, his PC games, his Wii console, hit the track, tweak his car, or refine his biofilters, post his blogs, research for a new digicam, scour every forum to feed his habit further, play with his son… You can reach Michael at michaeltanyk@gmail.com ALL BLOGPOSTS ONLY REFLECT MICHAEL'S OPINIONS AND NOBODY ELSES'.