Masterkey: Your Mobile Phone
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No other device in the history of technology shows us how much humans love gadgets and wish them small enough to fit into our purses and pockets. The smartphone of today is the perfect example of how we make technology our very own: engraved, named and otherwise covered in glitter and bobbles of our own choosing.
In doing so, we have created new industries and built businesses so large that they rival any in human history. For example, Apple (capitalizing on merging a music player with a cell phone) is now charted on the same pie with the Dutch East India Company, Saudi Aramco, and Standard Oil as being histories largest moneymaking organizations.
A short walk down memory lane illustrates just how, as a species with the power of speech and the use of an opposable thumb, we have come from communicating across distance using smoke signals, telegraph, and vacuum tubes to what would look like black magic to anyone born before 1900 AD.
The magic of the mobile began before World War II, with wireless radiotelephony connecting passengers bouncing on the high seas with their loved ones on land. The cost of wireless phone call then: a mere $100 USD per minute in today's dollars. In 1946, mobile telephony made debuts in automobiles, with devices that weighed more than the average teenager, at 80 pounds or more.
These bulky (to say the least) devices had other limitations; as only 3 customers in any given city could use this pubescent cellular system at a time, and folks in the olden days waited 30 minutes or more to place a single cellular call. But of course, the innate human desire to miniaturize and improve would prevail, and by the 1970's or so researchers had figured out how to create switching networks for mobile devices using cell towers that soon blanketed the landscape of all metropolitan centers around the globe.
The first true handheld consumer cell phone wasn't put into production until 1983; the DynaTAC 8000X weighed almost 2 pounds and cost about $4,000 USD – dubbed "The Brick" and was just as portable as one. This mobile took over 10 hours to charge and had only 30 minutes of talk time. Clearly our urge to personalize and miniaturize could not stop here.
This primitive mobile could only do one thing - make calls while on the go – which was clearly not enough for those fascinated with the thought of communicating with anyone, anywhere. In comparison, the 1983 $4000 "Brick" does pretty much what the 2012 Samsung Guru E1081T does, but this newer mobile phone costs just a few thousand rupees and weighs in at 700 grams. The Guru also plays a few rudimentary games, takes photos, and sports a 128x128 pixel color screen to boot.
And here is where the true magic of this evolution unfolds, not in making a mobile communication device that is small and cheap, but in making one that does literally everything one would desire a pocket device to do.
Only our imagination is the limit for features and functions of the current-day mobile. For the past decade or so, our phones have incrementally begun to include features such as time displayed in all world time zones to the ability to speak the time to us. Some microprocessors in today's mobile phones rival the ones installed in laptops and even desktop computers, so of course they can now do whatever those devices do, only they fit in our pocket - plus make the occasional call to family, friends and coworkers.
This new type of mobile, dubbed the smartphone, is the culmination of all our desires – we want it all – the very height of all gizmo technologies combined into one device that fits in the palm of our hand. Telephony, photography, videography, audiology, entertainment and advanced computation synthesized into a single unit that weighs little more than a juicebox full of Orangina, and costing a little more than a fancy toaster. Well, just a bit more.
My latest "precious" cost less than Nrs. 60000, and is a prime example of this pinnacle of communication perfection so desired by what seems to be everyone on the planet. The Galaxy Note II, like the latest iPhone from Apple, takes better pictures than most inexpensive digital cameras on the market, can record HD video clips and instantly post them on Facebook, and can answer any question asked of it at the tap of an icon. If I attach a keyboard, mouse and HD display, I instantly have a personal computer. If I detach those gizmos and tap another icon, I have an odometer that records my morning workout. If I tap another icon, I have a portable music player with access to the entire world of audio recordings as offered by iTunes (recordings that soon will number in billions instead of millions). Another tap, and I am tapped into any movie or TV show imaginable, while on the go or sitting in my living room.
My phone has become a part of me, in the most personal of terms. Within lies my net worth, and allows me to purchase products by tapping a retail register while out shopping. Or I can tap my wife's phone, and share with her all things captured digitally. In this sense, our phones are becoming extensions of ourselves, containing all the personal bits of us shared over vast social networks and through multitudes of electronic gateways – a far cry from the very first mobile, that DynaTAC 8000X.
So where is all this going from here, we must ask. What further developments will shape the current smartphone into what it's to become after just a few more years of technological magic?
I asked this of my favorite retailer of gadgets and gizmos, Anil Maharjan, the Senior Sales Executive of the WORLDLINK STORE in Jawalakhel, who reports that the hottest selling smartphone there is the Galaxy S III and Note II:
"I would like to see solar smartphones that charge by sunlight, and that have even tougher glass and waterproof components, and that have even better audio systems built-in," says Anil.
I agree, as Anil is one smart dude when it comes to phones, and in selling phones. Today's personal wonders are not very durable (thousands are ruined in toilets each year) and there is nothing worse than depending on a device, and then noting that the battery is long dead. Solar power and longer-lasting batteries will fix that, but what about this for an evolutionary idea: the complete devolution of the device!
Yes, there are many researchers that think that the days of the mobile device (as we know it) are numbered, and this pinnacle of communication power is about to explode and fragment into even smaller pieces. Basic chaos theory I suppose, or like with every sun, there is a supernova.
In the laboratory, designers are already prototyping this devolution of the smartphone by separating features and functions and placing them into surprising places, like watches, eyewear and fabrics. Thus taking the personalization and miniaturization of the current smartphone, and weaving that power of smartphone even closer to our skins...perhaps even under our skin!
Apple is expected to transmute the iPhone into a wristwatch, Samsung is experimenting with flexible materials that will make communicating with your shirt sleeve possible, and Google already has eyeglasses that do and show all. It's anyone's guess how this will shakeout, but one thing is certain: the mobile phone idea that first started out weighing more than your teenager and costing more than your car, will soon become feather light and as affordable as a new pair of shoes.
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The Android Invasion, Here and Abroad
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In the universe of mobile phone operating systems, it's been a little over 5 years since the Android invasion began. For those who have been hiding under a rock since the assault began, Android is what runs most modern smart phones on the planet today, all compliments to Google Inc.
Close to a half-billion Android phones will be sold this year, and that number has been increasing over all others each and every year since Google first released Android into the wild during 2008.
In today's smart phone universe, Android rules the world market share at 75%. By comparison, Apple's iPhone currently has only a 15% share, with all other phone operating systems (for example, Windows 7/8 phones) fighting for what's left – a meager 10%.
For today's consumer, that means that the next phone you buy will probably be running some version of Android, and that phone will do far more than just make calls, surf the web and display the weather report.
Google's first Android phone sold (code-named Cupcake) did little more than that, but today's incarnation coded Jelly Bean, will rock your socks off in innumerable features and function. For example, I just picked up a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (the new phablet-style phone) but I don't use it to make calls; instead I bought this device to put a needed PC in the living room. That's right, by simply docking this amazing device to a HD monitor with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, I now use my "phone" to occasionally call the wife, but more often than not, to run multiple web browser windows, handle my email and other messages, edit photos and documents, play games, and in general, compute what needs computing.
A video of how this can be whacked together is here: http://youtu.be/9nh2NSLgaII, and this setup is highly recommended for anyone looking for a mini PC replacement on the cheap.
But today's Droids (running multi-core processors and sporting multi-megapixel cameras front and rear) are more often seen functioning as phones and tablets, outdoors and on the move. For example, Sushila Rai of Kathmandu says this of her new Samsung Galaxy S3, bought locally at the World Link branded shop in Jawalakhel:
"This phone is absolutely amazing, I can log into my office's Lotus Notes to read my mail, and do something fun like watch YouTube or play a game, even if I am in a taxi and on the way to work."
Sushila is also an iPhone user, but now prefers the Samsung look and light feel over the iPhone, as well as the super smooth operation. "Not a single problem," says Sushila.
And as sales patterns here in the Valley show, she is not alone when choosing an Android phone over an Apple one, with iPhones selling for about Nrs. 15,000 or more above an equally outfitted Samsung – and with the new iPhone 5 selling for a whopping Nrs. 75,000 plus! In fact, the penetration of Android across the price spectrum of phones has proved to be it's key selling point in Nepal, as Android phones can be found for as little as Nrs. 15,000 or so. PriceNepal.com shows decent smart phones, like the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10, selling for just that.
This means that as well as well-off corporate execs, students are also being indoctrinated into the Android way of life, and just like the rest of the planet, Nepal is well on it's way to becoming another Android nation. But are all Droids the same, just as all iPhones basically are? Not really, and this is where the Android ecosystem breaks down: last year's models of HTC or Sony Ericsson phones may not be running the latest and greatest from Google - Android 4.2 - and they may never. Even with the newest phones on the Nepali market (the Samsung Galaxy line), you may have to wait months for updates, which come from Samsung and not Google.
This release paradigm is akin to Microsoft's strategy of yore, when everybody and their brother manufactured PCs with the operating systems coming tweaked by each manufacturer of the hardware, and not from Microsoft itself. In the Android universe, things operate likewise, with different flavors of Android running on many models of phones sold by all of the top phone and tablet manufacturers.
But clearly delineating itself from the Apple iPhone, most models of Android phones can be rooted and tweaked back to the way you would like them to be: running the latest and greatest - plus extras. This ability to customize your phone without voiding the warranty is what makes the Android OS a favorite amongst app developers and phone hobbyists alike. That's in stark contrast to Apple's iOS6, which is a closed ecosystem and very difficult to customize.
And just as within the PC world, the downside of mobile computing within an open system vs. a closed system is simple: security. While Android is clearly rocketing past even Apple's iOS6, the one "gotcha" here is that ever-persistent presence of malware. Nasty invaders from hacker space can more easily make it's way onto your Android device than onto an Apple one, and so says Anti-virus giant Symantec, "Google does not appear to perform a rigorous security analysis on some of its marketplace (Google Play) apps."
So, word to the wise: be careful with what you play with on Google Play, and note that after rooting your Android phone, it may be open to all invaders - malicious or otherwise.
Which One To Get...
While Nepal retailers offer limited stock amongst the top selling Android phones of 2012, here is what I would look for:
Samsung Galaxy S3 I know this phone intimately, as my wife and I both share this one to some extent. Selling in the low 60's around the Valley, this Android 4.1 phone sports the best AMOLED screen on the market, has a great camera, and is expandable in storage to a whopping 64GB using it's extra mini SD slot. The S3 is the top seller in 2012, as well as a sure winner for anyone needing a really (really) smart phone. Sells in the low 60s' all around town.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 This phone is basically an updated S3, but with a bigger screen (5.5 vs. 4.8 inch) and has a pen to boot. I use mine more as a tablet than a phone, and those with smaller hands will want a Bluetooth headset to make calls. Buyers note: The Note 3 due out soon is rumored to have two SIM slots and a better screen. The Note 2 currently sells around town in the high 60s'.
Sony Xperia S After Sony ditched Ericsson, things only got better, and the new Sony Xperia uses the same engine that drives Bravia TVs, and this phone plays media just as well, in blazing speed. Caveat: just as in the olden days, Sony is slow to update software, and the latest version of Android will be slow to get. Sells in the high 30s' or low 40s' around town, and my best buddy in KTM swears by these new Sonys.
Google Nexus 4 This pure Google phone released just this year shakes things up price & feature wise, and is probably the best value on the market today. Great hardware (from LG) and the latest Android version is installed direct from Google. While not readily available in Nepal, this top model sells in America for half the price of an iPhone. Expect to pay in the Nrs. range of 35K - 45K if you can find here.
Smack Down: Win8 vs. Mountain Lion
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For those of you that follow the battle between the reigning champion of the PC World, Microsoft, and the forever contender for that title, Apple - then this Smackdown is for you. These two mega stars have been having at it for decades, and in all the many Operating System bouts they have fought – with me watching ringside and home and in the office, I've always favored the David of this Goliath matchup.
Touchscreen users will be delighted, assuming of course one pairs up Windows 8 with a touchscreen machine like any of Dell's new LED screens, laptops, and All-in-ones. New machines like the Inspiron One 23 and 27 have large touchscreens that are both fun and practical to use. I'm sure both kids and serious professionals alike will be glad they can now move things around on their screen - using fingers or toes – you choose.
The technical winner here is not so clear, as both systems are rock solid and at worst, have some annoying early-release bugs. On one hand, the genetic differences between Mountain Lion and the previous release are tiny, whereas the difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8 is huge in comparison, and may cause a bit of confusion (or consternation) for those die-hard window's users out there. Both new OS's have annoying little bugs, but those are expected to be exterminated later on.
If there was such a thing in my virtual world, I would give an award to Microsoft for finally doing something original for PC users, just as Google has done for phone users. It's high time that these Goliaths (and the David's too) of the industry give the people what they want: something fun, bright, and full of new stuff to play around with. Yet at the same time, work fast and efficient, especially when using the OS to get a job done. But here is my secret: when it comes time for me to work, I always turn to my trusty Apple iMac (circa 2008) and run Mountain Lion - I just wish now that I could fold it flat and use in a Windows 8 way. But if I decide to buy that Dell Inspiron, I could... and I just might.
A Sony PlayStation 3 Review - Years Late
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I know, you are probably thinking, "Why is he reviewing a gizmo now that first appeared in 2005?" Well, even though the Sony PS3 is almost technically an antique on today's gadget timelines, I found the one I just bought last week down on Durbar Marg an amazing device – even if one near destroyed by it's maker – just as Dr. Frankenstein did to his ever-popular monster.
R.I.P. Flash for Android
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This week Adobe Corp officially laid to rest one of it's elderly technologies that has grown long in the tooth over the years and is now finally being retired, at least on Android devices. Adobe announced that Flash will no longer be supported on Android devices newer than 4.0. That means that the next generation of mobile devices that will have "Jellybean" - won't have Flash.
Some of you may be wondering, "What is Flash, and will I even miss it?"
For those of you who play games on the web, or visit rich multimedia websites like wechoosethemoon.org or moodstream.gettyimages.com, you were using pages developed on the Flash platform. But for most all of us, we have been using bits of Flash on websites for years (animated buttons & banners, videos in the .swf format, and other eye-poppers on web pages for example) and it's been ubiquitous to all but the geekiest of us.
Personally, years ago I used Adobe's Flash editing suite to create museum walkthroughs and other engaging sites where multimedia was needed along with a way to pull in data from different sources and display all of that (to include audio) onto a single browser screen. Those sites were fun to develop, but a bear for users to view unless they had a super-high speed Internet connection, as they do in America.
Even large familiar sites like YouTube and Facebook's Zynga gaming pages were using Flash to deliver videos with overlays and lot's of interactivity. But over the past year or so, developers have been hard at work porting all their Flash bits over to the new kid on the block, HTML5. For example, when you upload a video today to YouTube, it is no longer converted into a Flash movie, but instead into a HTML5 wrapper that your newer browser will understand. And back about a year ago, Zynga purchased the German game engine developer Dextrose AG, in order to get in-house help for porting popular games like Cityville into HTML5.
Steve Jobs rightly predicted Flash's demise years ago, and refused to allow the Flash player to be used on Apple's mobile devices going back as far as the iPad 1. He caught a lot of flak for that decision then, but now in hindsight, it appears to have been the right one. His major objection to the Flash platform was that it was closed (owned by Adobe) and was unreliable, a poor performer, and a security threat. In addition, it was a battery killer for any mobile device and not "touch friendly," as for most Flash applications, you need a mouse to make it go.
And now it seems that Flash's creator Adobe agrees...but just because Adobe has decommissioned Flash for the Android market, that does not necessarily mean that your Flash player on your PC or Mac is now dead in the water – but it's days are certainly numbered.
For common folk, this should not be an issue, but a blessing, as soon you won't have to worry if that "Update Flash Player?" message on your computer is a virus or not (google Flashback for info on that) and getting "missing" Flash Player errors in your browser is soon to be a thing of the past. But for developers of websites, this is a big deal. It means retooling back at the office, and a bit of retraining as well.
Web developers are going to want to look at Adobe's own Edge for creating Flash-like content, as well as Hippo Animator and Hype (for Mac developers). These tools provide a GUI that will help you do what you used to do in Flash, in HTML5 clean code. Other tools of note are initializr.com, which says it will get you going on a HTML5 project in just 15 seconds, and of course the official website for the HTML5 standard at html5.org. Another cool page for those starting out is switchtohtml5.com, which will take your HTML4 coding and create a new framework for you to get started with, based on your old pages.
So what began as FutureSplash back in 1995, 17 years later we can finally put Flash to rest, and move on to something more lightweight and easier for all to experience.
Musical Tech Talk
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Like the game of musical chairs I played as a kid, music technology is constantly shifting and vying for the ultimate throne to rest upon. Some argue that Apple's iTunes has already taken that seat, and will be tough to turn out as the reigning king. And with over 400 million plus active iTunes accounts tied to credit cards, it's hard to come up with who could possibly succeed.
Kuire Ko Kura: Fourths Gone Bye
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Having now spent over a decade of "Fourth of July" days in Nepal instead of in America, it's getting harder for me to remember just what goes on during this holiday back in the motherland. Of course, it's American Independence Day, commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 - but for most Americans (as I recall) it's more about a day off work, beer and barbeques in the backyard with friends and family, and culminating into big bangs from a huge fireworks display.
But as a kid who grew up in the antique footsteps of the American Revolution, it was always just a bit more for me. After all, on the walk to school each day I passed a commemorative sign extolling the fact that "George Washington Slept Here" and I was but just a few dozen kilometers from some of the most famous of revolutionary battlefields: Fort Ticonderoga, White Plains, Trenton, Saratoga, etc.
In fact, the very primary school where I learned to read and write was named after a soldier and one of the lesser known American "founding fathers," Gov. George Clinton. The halls were lined with busts of revolutionary generals and battle scenes along the Hudson River, which was always in view from the village that I grew up in. I also remember the Gadsden flag hanging in my 6th grade home room (coiled rattlesnake labeled Don't Tread On Me) and the Ben Franklin cartoon snake "Join, or Die" was fascinating to me as well, being a lad with lots of captured snakes in aquariums whilst growing up.
But the essence of this environment must have really sunk into my young growing bones, as I grew up despising the Brits on some level (How dare King George for treading on my forefathers) and always hated the idea of being taxed... for anything, including my very first paycheck working on a loading dock after school let out. I grew up believing in what Thomas Paine wrote in the "The Crisis",
"Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth."
That, and growing up in a neighborhood comprised of 50% Black Americans – all descendants of real slaves – instilled within the fiber of my being that tyranny, taxation without representation, and slavery of any sort was a huge no-no. Yet, just as David McCullough says of American life in his seminal work "1776":
"Bribery, favoritism, and corruption in a great variety of forms were rampant not only in politics, but in all levels of society."
I saw little change from that scenario in 1976, in the very spot where those battles against just that were fought, and apparently won.
In other words, I was highly disillusioned from the get-go, and after having spent an entire college semester studying Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States", my disillusionment only got worse.
So I guess it's no surprise that on my first July 4th in Boudha Nepal, the party that I hosted had a cake with not an American flag in frosting, but the Tibetan one, and inscribed with Happy Birthday HHTDL (& America, in small letters).
And on this 4th just past, a decade later, I did have the traditional hotdog and beer - but courtesy of Nina&Hagars with a Nepal Ice, and not Nathans & Coors – and while sitting on my small deck overlooking a small section of Dhobighat, I enjoyed my celebration of independence watching a few large cows grazing in front of a small cold store, where a simple man was squatting - repairing an umbrella - with chickens and mangy hounds at his feet while unshod baboos danced around a ball of string. And it was during this small celebration of Independence Day that I had a revelation, an epiphany of sorts...
No matter what flag we are under and no matter what century of our precious birth, we all seem to have the same struggle: the common struggle of wrestling free from those forces that bind us, in all cases whatsoever, in all ways possible - physically, mentally, economically and spiritually – and it is just these forces of social nature that we must oppose, diligently, or succumb to almost unnoticeably as we move through the remaining days of our lives.
-- END --
Writer's bio for this episode: Herojig is quirky kinda expat, now retired and living happily with Nepali family & dog, and who has high hopes for the liberation of all human beings, under all colors of flag.
Ps. This was the last Kuire Ko Kura published in the Republica.