Computer Talk

Re: Computer Talk!!

kliu0 said:

Taiwan does have carrier subsidised phones but the problem is the contract, which is 24 months long. Phones from Taiwan do work in Australia as most of my phones were brought to Australia. Australia also has subsidised phones but their plans are so expensive, like the new HTC Dream is $59 AUD per month and an additional $19 bucks for phone payments. HTC Diamond is $99 AUD bucks per month.

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If that includes an unlimited data rate these prices aren't bad actually.

I think China is a difficult market, considering the amount of non-branded phones available there, in addition with Chinese brands such as Huawei releasing their own smartphone this year. HTC is a bit expensive than other brands comparing against LG, Samsung and the SE Xperia. The HTC Magic is an interesting phone, I'm keen to see if they've fixed their mistakes when they made the G1. Adding flash to the camera, better music capability etc.

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I'm quite interested to see the HTC Magic. Want to experience and evaluate the Google OS.

I think HTC's prices are justified. For me, these phones are better built and more reliable than LG, Samsung's and SE.

According to a study, the list of the most unreliable brand to the least, starting from the worst is

1. LG
2. Sony Ericsson
3. Samsung
4. Nokia
5. Motorola

If you got something that escapes this list you can breathe easy.

Oh yea, take a look at the new Mac mini

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Its interesting that Apple is releasing something that is directly competing against Asus's Eee Box. Have you seen the Eee Keyboard? Its like a mini pc stuck on a keyboard. Quite cool.

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I have not seen the ee box yet. I helped my brother in buying the eepc with the 8.9" screen.

The Mac Mini is one of Apple's stealth products, like their TV box. Not advertised but its there.

Re: Computer Talk!!

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Re: Computer Talk!!

crobato said:

According to a study, the list of the most unreliable brand to the least, starting from the worst is

1. LG
2. Sony Ericsson
3. Samsung
4. Nokia
5. Motorola

If you got something that escapes this list you can breathe easy.

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You hurt me a lot Crobato. I've just bought a new LG KP500 only a few days ago. The version has a large touch screen, but lack of 3G. I start to find out that it has a slower reaction time, maybe its processor is smaller and slower. I wonder how is the price here compared to other places. It costs me US$196 with a 2GB microSD card.

Re: Computer Talk!!

I got one of those LG Shine (LE770) before I got my HTC. Reliability wasn't a problem and the metal body is drop resistant. However, the thin, Razr inspired metal keyboard buckled under finger pressure. I'm not very happy in the design of the menus and the interface. I also dislike the "for teenagers" approach both LG and Samsung uses on their phones, like when you dial a number, each digit is displayed in a big loud font each with a different neon color. Not to mention the odd format for the calculators which all Korean made phones share.

The KP500 is what, I think its called the Cookie in the US. Its actually a popular mid end phone. Its best competition should be something called the Samsung Instinct. Both of these have proprietary OSes, so you can't download and install new applications however, do crazy things in your firmware like turning your phone into a 3G to wifi router. But they should be snappier and more idiot proof than the LG or Samsung equivalents sporting WiMo.

I do think this current fascination with all touchscreen phones have the potential to blow up in the face of the makers. The reason for this is that touch screens don't make a good typing experience compared to physical keyboards. Both young teeners and business people alike share one thing is that they're all heavy into keyboarding via messaging, chatting and email.

That's why the G1 and the Palm Pre has a keyboard, though the G2 is all touch screen. Some of Nokia's own recent designs, not counting the all touch screen 5800, now have full qwerty keyboards as well, including the N97, 5730 Express, E71 and E75.

Having said that, the trend is towards sideways keyboards that slide out, though not the clam shell type pioneered by the Nokia Communicators, which also pioneered the sideways keyboard. The open qwerty format like you see in the Palm Treo and Motorola Qs, have now been pretty much gobbled up by the Blackberries, and this format doesn't really sell that well outside of the US. Note how Motorola's and Palm's share of the top end smartphone market has literally been decimated, though they stubbornly continue to make new offerings. HTC, the leading maker of WiMo phones now, only has one design that uses an open Qwerty format.

On the Google phones, turns out the sales exceeded expectations. I like to experiment on one, they say the Google Chrome mobile browser is very good.

As for Apple, OS 3.0 for the iPhone has been announced to be released this summer. Has over a hundred changes, including system wide copy and paste, a sort of limited multitasking with messaging apps, shake to shuffle, MMS on the 3G phones, Bluetooth networking on the 3G phones and 2G Touch (so you can play games in groups like Nintendo DS), and so on.

My opinion, the trend will focus on hybrid phones---using both touch screens and physical qwertys---in the future.

Re: Computer Talk!!

So, who claims that Crobato is old? He has all modern knowledge that some teenagers don't. Maybe DB Popeye is getting old, he use his desktop like an old man .

I chose the KP500 because of its mid-end vs price. I'd like to experience something new; full touch screen. In the past few years, I only bought dated hand phone. Well, you know when a new product is first introduced, its price tag is up in the sky. My pocket doesn't allow me to do that , so sad. I haven't played a lot on both phones and computers. With an average income of nearly $1000 per month, I'm considered high income among the salary people. But I need to pay for a lot stuff, and can't spare too much money for modern product. Oh yeah, I really hope the KP500 has 3G in it.

Talking about typing on phone, I'd been looking fast typing phone when I was hot with SMS (not now any longer). I used to use PC suite to type an SMS and sent it out via phone, because it could drive me crazy typing a long SMS on the phone. Then I came across with the Nokia N-Gage (wrong spelled?) Game Phone which you can type with both hands (one hand controls the keys, and the other controls the direction), it was faster than traditional phone. But still slow. I realized that I need a full keyboard rather than the 12-keys keypad. And I ended up with O2. But the keyboard was slided downward rather than side way (that O2 is still at home, but it's not still working now). The keyboard was narrow and not very convenient. Because I type Chinese more than English, and I found that the hand-writing feature was far better than any keyboard. So I used the hand-writing and the soft keyboard rather the hard keyboard on the phone. Like you said, the slide sideway keyboard is one of the best solution for fast typing. But if you type Chinese, you'll find that hand-writing makes you feel most comfortable.

Re: Computer Talk!!

It sounds like you bought your phone without a carrier subsidy plan. I made a short study. KP500 aka Cookie aka Dare, uses quad band GSM. No 3G but it has Edge, which makes it faster than regular 2G. For many people Edge can be fast enough for browsing and other internet activity, as I have seen Blackberry and 1st gen Apple iPhones run on this as well. Note that 3G has its quirks, coverage is not as good as regular GSM, and it eats battery life faster.

Does your KP500 have Chinese handwriting recognition?

Yes it makes sense that a touch screen with hand writing recognition would be strong for Chinese users and for the Chinese market. A good demonstration of that was the Linux based MotoMing A1200 back in 2006.

Here is another example of a pure touch screen phone with Chinese handwriting recognition, Lenovo's OPhone using Google's Android.




I'm not sure if the HTC Touch HD has hand writing recognition. The Diamond doesn't but the Diamond 2 does. But its all English. I'm not sure how the versions for Taiwan, HK and the PRC works. I bought HTC because I thought it was time to try a touch phone. But I don't want Apple because of their locking policies, plus I already have a 32GB iPod Touch. I like the opportunity to try out Windows Mobile and experience all the pluses and flaws for myself. Having said that, I spent some time studying all the alternatives including Nokia and Blackberry.

Re: Computer Talk!!

crobato said:

It sounds like you bought your phone without a carrier subsidy plan. I made a short study. KP500 aka Cookie aka Dare, uses quad band GSM. No 3G but it has Edge, which makes it faster than regular 2G. For many people Edge can be fast enough for browsing and other internet activity, as I have seen Blackberry and 1st gen Apple iPhones run on this as well. Note that 3G has its quirks, coverage is not as good as regular GSM, and it eats battery life faster.

Does your KP500 have Chinese handwriting recognition?

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I simply bought the phone, cause I have my phone number already. The different of 3G here is that you can use a different carrier which provide high speed internet, large capacity MMS, and unlimited airtime within network for $3 per month. People like it because they can talk as long as they want. But what attracts me is the high speed internet only.

And yes, the KP500 I bought has Chinese handwriting recognition. The phone was made in Korea rather than China. It supports a lot of languages, I don't count it, but roughly more than 10 languages.

Yes it makes sense that a touch screen with hand writing recognition would be strong for Chinese users and for the Chinese market. A good demonstration of that was the Linux based MotoMing A1200 back in 2006.

Here is another example of a pure touch screen phone with Chinese handwriting recognition, Lenovo's OPhone using Google's Android.

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I'm not sure if the HTC Touch HD has hand writing recognition. The Diamond doesn't but the Diamond 2 does. But its all English. I'm not sure how the versions for Taiwan, HK and the PRC works. I bought HTC because I thought it was time to try a touch phone. But I don't want Apple because of their locking policies, plus I already have a 32GB iPod Touch. I like the opportunity to try out Windows Mobile and experience all the pluses and flaws for myself. Having said that, I spent some time studying all the alternatives including Nokia and Blackberry.

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I haven't heard anything about Lenovo's Phone before. But here, people generally think that Chinese phones are scrap. You know, no brand. The dealer can put whatever brand he likes on it. They are usually dual SIM, touch screen and TV. You pull out a long antenna from the bottom then you can watch local TV wherever you want.

Re: Computer Talk!!

That's good, if the KP500 has multi language support. That would be a good reason alone to have one. Other than it not having 3G, you didn't pick a bad phone. Does it has email and browsing?

Lenovo phone is much like the way Dell, Acer, Asus and long before HP from Compaq, went into smartphones. They see a vision of the future that includes technological convergence, and because of this, devices are starting to overlap each other. Their move is a logical one. They're not the only Chinese vendor to announce an Android phone, since Huawei also did, using another touch screen tablet phone. Both of them aren't the only ones, just the better known ones.

I would regard as Chinese phones are those that have a brand name tacked on them, since a lot of Chinese phone makers are ODM (original device makers). HTC is of course, the best known ODM, until finally they decided to become their own brand name.

Re: Computer Talk!!

Yeah, KP500 supports both e-mail and browser. I want a touch phone because I want to browse the web. You know, to use the keypad to browse a website on a phone is another frustrating thing. Hope I have a correct phone.

Re: Computer Talk!!

Maybe DB Popeye is getting old, he use his desktop like an old man .

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You mean BD....

Yep I'm old..but I do have the very basics of compuer knowledge. And I'm happy with it. There's an old saying..
KISS..Keep It Simple Stupid

That's the problem I have with this gadget prone world. Too much is built for techno geeks and not regular people. Even cars are getting that way nowadays.

Keep It Simple Stupid!!!!!!

I'd love to take you young men back to when I was a teenager in the late 60s & early 70s..

No cell phones
No cable/satellite TV
No computers
No calculators
No Microwaves
No video games
No DVDs
No CDs
No Ipod..I still don't know what that is..
No MP3 players

VCR?? Not for sale yet...

Your mommie and daddy were not going to pick you up and drop you off at your whim. You had to walk or ride the bus or ride your bicycle.

Could you survive? Probably..but you'd miss your toys.