Category Archives: Mobile

A month with Android and Samsung Galaxy Mini

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It has been about a month that I am using a Samsung Galaxy Mini. That’s a cheap EUR 99 phone.

There is a hell of a lot packed in there. I am coming from a BlackBerry Bold 9000 (that wasn’t repaired properly by Belgacom – but that will be for later).

There is also a lot of Apple kit over here, namely iPads and an iPhone 3GS.

So, how does it feel to work with such an Android phone?

Pretty well it turns out. But not without glitches either.

The multitasking works well and in some senses better than on iOS based devices. And I now understand why Apple didn’t allowed multitasking to run wild on their own devices.

Memory management is pretty much transparent on iOS and requires constant attention on Android. When memory gets short, everything slows down to a crawl. I didn’t had this feeling on iOS.

Touch is okay. I don’t like the Swype keyboard and thank Samsung to have included their own.

When it comes to push mail, it works fairly well

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Apple brings an effective value upload pipe to the world

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Apple released iBooks2 and a new textbook creation app for the Mac (You’ll need Lion for that, and even if these things are free, they’ll end up pocketing money from that new tide of upgrades – I know they will from me).

Keynote already made a huge difference to helping me communicate to an audience (people seeing the presentations tell me regularly: hey, this is definitely *not* a PowerPoint, it looks waay better, and is more effective!).

So, I was using it on my iPad to convey ideas in meetings, where it brings a sense of closeness and bonding that helps in securing business.

But with the textbooks that do come to life, we enter a new dimension. Think about all Seth Godin PDFs in the form of animated Textbooks, think about curated content with comments on a given subject put together and released to the world!

Mmh, in a sense, it is weird that this is announced aroud the time SOPA gets protested and MegaVideo got busted by the FBI. But I may digress.

Anyway, this is a super gift for all of us who have value to share. And sharing this way is really making it all exciting. That’s what Apple products have succeeded in doing: getting people involved in getting excited again. It is not happening with Linux, it is not happening with Windows. It is happening with Apple products, and a bit less with Android phones.

I’ve bet a lot of the farm on Apple. Not because I am any kind of fanboi, but because it is the logical thing to do when a cash-laden company uses it to roll out such innovative and stimulating stuff ot the world.

That’s what Apple is strong with: cash-loaded, innovative, master of their supply chain, and controlling the delivery channel. Walled garden? Sure! But generating money and recognition for the players: very very true indeed! Love, money, recognition: they made it so that you get the three assembled with Apple.

That’s what leadership is about: instilling the motivation to follow and make your best.

So, Apple may lead to people challenging jumping off buildings at Foxconn (and doing something about it, as was reported) but they also deliver us these.

I started with an Apple II eons ago, moved off when they were out of fancy, and am back to them 20+ years later. Yet another proof that you can turn things over given the right decisions. Quite different from Kodak. But quite alike to Fujitsu.

Some more info: http://mashable.com/2012/01/19/this-is-how-apple-changes-education-forever/

 

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iPad2 and information creation

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I am typing this on an iPad2 and inside Quickoffice.

I am reading a ton of eBooks and given my not so suberb eyesight, I needed something that would support what I am reading. So, let’s try this out.

Is the iPad a joy to use? Well, it depends.

There are a lot of idiosyncrasies in the way things are done. For one, there is no file system so to speak. And no built in productivity application like this one. You have to shell money for the applications, adding €50 or more to have something dece

Of course, one could work with Google documents on the system. But this translates into being connected all the time. So, Quickoffice was my choice here. Pages is fine but really not what you need when you use the device for dealing with Office style documents.

For presentations, Keynote is nice and I got a copy of it.

And you really start to understand what “cloud” means on such a device. Dropbox, Google Documents, and MobileMe all make a lot more sense to use here.

I expected a better camera at such a price point and it definitely sucks. A lot of grain. Not a great focus.

Reading outdoors is a big no-no. For that a Kindle is the way to go.

But even as iPad users are mainly using the device for gaming, that’s not what I have in mind for my own use.

To be frank, consuming information is great. As long as the information isn’t fast food style. One can get addicted to such things as RSS feeds, Twitter streams, Flipbook, and, the ultimate time waster of all: Facebook.

Being constantly distracted is a big issue these days. But to achieve anything meaningful one needs to concentrate and produce meaningful results.

The iPad helps in producing content for me because it works well in places that are completely unsuited for holding a laptop but perfect for thinking. Try a laptop in a hammock!

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Test driving Pages on iPad

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It looks like that I now have all applications of iWork on my iPad (except Numbers but I don’t use it anyway).

After a moment of adjustment, typing on the screen keyboard appears eminently doable. Well, in landscape mode that is. In portrait, it is a pain.

It is clear that the device takes much less space on a tabletop than a laptop and is much less intrusive due to it’s low profile. With the smart cover helping with a gentle slope it really is nice to use.

Text selection works but is still a pain to work with. Maybe do I need more testing.

Of course, multitasking is not yet as smooth as I want but there are also positives on the iPad, especially when it comes to the integration of social applications.

I wrote several WordPress posts and it went fine. Also the Twitter client is really zippy and nice to use.

The net result is that for dealing with business matters, it is way sufficient.

Of course, one is not going to code software on this thing. But writing content and editing it is great.

I also gave a shot to GarageBand and it was a nice surprise. The touchscreen adds a really interesting dimension to it.

And iMovie is also fine to use. For basic edits and titling, it fits the bill.
One thing about typing on the iPad is the following: the US keyboard layout is much more usable for a lot of things than the French keyboard. Especially for things like dollar signs and so on. And accents do work from the US keyboard anyway. So, back to qwerty for now!

One ridiculous thing tough is that given the size of the keyboard on screen, one can only see a small chunk of the text at once.

There is a full screen button, but the keyboard is then gone… Too bad.

All in all it is an interesting device and piece of software. As always with Apple, you get top notch stuff at top of the line prices. Like with the smart cover. Got myself a leather cover. €69 for a cover? Insane! But get it and you won’t regret the expense. I see this as paying to be part of the in crowd. Sometimes, that’s the way to go. But with the price of the device, the cover, and basic software, you quickly reach €1K. As a professional expense that’s all right and valuable. But for private things, it is damn expensive as a book reader or game console.

So, this will conclude this typing exercise in Pages on the iPad. Generally satisfactory.

And for sure, superior to anything you could get from an android device. Add to this that the integration with MacOSX is perfect and we have a perfect winner for the premium segment.

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