Super OLED!

After two years, the age of my Nokia E-71 showed.  The main shortcoming has been the display size.  The good and real keyboard has made it impossible to go higher than 320x240 without increasing the thickness of the phone.

So I got myself the Samsung Galaxy S recently.  It is a very good copycat of the iPhone 3GS, down to the packing box.  What did they say about imitation and flattery?  I am speculating that the next version of the Galaxy would, like the iPhone 4, have rectangular instead of curvy edges on the sides.

I have not used the iPhone other than testing it.  I find Android much more usable compared with my experience with the iPhone.  The menu and back buttons on the Galaxy S are really handy.  The Program Monitor gives me a very visible state of my phone.  If control equals power, I am power-drunk.  People like me would have difficultly living under the yoke of Mr Jobs.

The biggest jump in capability has to be Swype.  I guess Samsung has to pay for it as one Motorola model I know does not have it.  It is so powerful that it makes you become more verbose.  Ever since my first SMS in 1996, I have always ensured that every word in every single SMS I send is spelled in full and every sentence is properly punctuated.  Hence Swype is an excellent tool for me.

The Super OLED display is just super.  It gives new meaning to the term "vibrant colors".  If you have not seen it go to a phone shop and check out the weather forecast in Daily Briefing.  The lightning or moon behind clouds will stun you.

One thing I will have to get used to is that I have to get some basic essential stuff from the Market. I am used to Nokia providing a basic set of software for the hardware they sold.  In the Android world, you are expected to use those written by some kind souls out there.  I still don't feel good that my location accurate to 5m can be reported to some unknown person every time I use some application.

One feature I wish for is an on/off switch for celluar data.  Other than roaming protection, there are times when I need to control radiation.  For example if I am still outside and my battery is low, I want to be able to conserve power until I get a chance to recharge.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S is an excellent phone.

I have not upgraded to 2.2 Froyo as I keep hearing all those negative reports.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Attack Lab - Level 5 explained

Image
Ning Wang has published a very good write-up (2022 update: web page is gone now) on his solutions to the Attack Lab from the CS:APP book. However, I thought his solution to Level 5 could do with a bit more elaboration for those who are struggling with this topic. First, it is necessary to understand what ROP requires. An essential component of ROP is good luck, lots of it. Without getting lucky, you may take more than 10 100  years to find a workable attack, if at all. This, the authors of CS:APP did not mention. I also could not comprehend the purpose this exercise is even given out as homework in CMU to be completed in a week (while there are tons of homework from other courses too), without an intensive course in Intel Assembler as a prerequisite. Level 5 requires the same general logic as Level 3, which can be summarized as (pseudo code): mov <cookiestring address>, %rdi //why? because touch3 is expecting it there call touch3 To achieve the above for Level 5, the
Read more

Setting to English for the Xiaomi Wifi Router

Image
The Xiaomi Mi Wifi Router now is in English. If it boots up to a foreign language for you, this guide will help you to change it to English. It is best to connect to it via wired Ethernet for the first time. Otherwise, the default unsecured wifi SSID should be Xiaomi_C3C1 . Your IP should be in the subnet 192.168.31.x, and the router is at http://miwifi.com which the router will resolve to 192.168.31.1. The first screen you see will be the setting up of the wifi SSID and wifi password. The big blue button at the bottom is the Next button. The next screen sets up the router administrator password (second field). The first field is Home/Work/Custom. Click the big blue button to complete. At the main configuration page, look for the third item (Settings) on the top menu, and the orange option (System Status): The last option on the page is the language selection: Open the drop down to select English: The change will take place the moment you click English. Enj
Read more

Assembly version, File version, Product version

Image
If you are a .NET developer, Assembly and File version would be familiar to you. They can be set in the Designer UI (project Properties page, Application tab, Assembly I nformation button...) which basically updates appropriate attributes in AssemblyInfo.cs. Now, there is a less well known number - the Product version . It is not well documented and most developers ignore it altogether with no side-effects most of the time. However, it is an important number and it seems that, of the three, Product version is the most widely used. The three version numbers simply take the values you give them or: a. If Assembly version is not explictly specified, it takes the value of 0.0.0.0. b. If File version is not explicitly specified, it takes the value of Assembly version. c. If Product version is not explicitly specified, it takes the value of File version. In Windows Explorer of Windows XP and Server 2003, you can see from the properties of a file all three version numbers. In W
Read more