iPhone 4Gen : It’s the real thing.

It was found and Gizmodo has the scoop on what could be the iPhone 4Gen running OS 4.0. And from initial assessments – it’s a sweet package. All speculations on whether this was a hoax were laid to rest when Apple sent a letter to Gizmodo to ask for their phone back.

What’s in store in this wonderful package:

What’s new

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

Full Article : Gizmodo – This is Apple’s Next iPhone

But the timing couldn’t be better. Hot on the heels of the iPad launch, the 4Gen iPhone was found lost in a bar in Redwood City. How coincidental is that? Or is it a really clever publicity stunt? Makes you wonder, will we be seeing a new iPhone release later this year?

Half a day without email.

For half of today, I did not have email. The gods were smiling at me this morning when I came into the office and found out my PC had crashed the night before. Everything else ran well except my email client. It just would not boot up. A reinstall was required but I was in not hurry. I told the technician to reinstall the client but did not push it and allowed him to take his time.

I did not panic. I did not fret. Neither was I nervous over the fact that no-one could contact me via email. It did not bother me the least bit.

My euphoric joy lasted half a day when the technician came round to my office at 2pm and re-installed my email client. And it was back to my life of details.

Maybe I’ll purposely leave my iPhone  at home one of these days. Just leave it and go fishing or backpacking in another state or out shopping.

I think it is a fallacy to think that solitude is a bad thing. There are times, being on our own is the best cure. In a world where “status-updates” are the norm, it’ll be good to have some private time. Would my Twitter followers or Face Book spectators be bothered if I did not post my status for one day, let alone for a month? It probably make no difference in their lives. Would it make any difference if I stop blogging for a month or take a vow of silence for a year?

In today’s mad rush to keep everyone inform or in touch, we miss out on the beauty of silence. The private moment when you listen to what’s stirring within you and acknowledge your sense of self. At times, we need to run away from all things in order to find ourselves.

iPad is not cool. IT’s PUNK ROCK, HIP-HOP, BALAD-ISTIOUS way cool!

First, I have to apologize. I have posted before this : I’ll wait until the iPad 3GS is on sale and stated I will not buy the 1st Gen iPad. Well, I am taking that back.

I will buy the iPad, 1st Gen; the moment it reaches Malaysian shores. I’ve already set aside an iPad-Fund.

Yesterday, I finally managed to have a full hands-on experience with the iPad and I was blown away. Especially by the capabilities of the iPad as a book reader. I was flipping through pages of Winnie the Pooh as if it was a real paper-based book. The whole process felt so right and so natural.

As a multimedia tool, nothing surpasses the iPad. The speakers were clear and loud, and if that was not enough then you can plug in your own earphones. The iPad is a gorgeous movie player and akin to having your home tv sitting on your lap.

Is it a writing tool?

The built in Notes app can double up as an app to write your novels but since it can run iPhone apps, then WriteRoom would run fantastic on it. The possibility of writing a full novel on the iPad is there and I won’t be surprise if someone comes up with a port of a full fledge novel writing software for the iPad.

What is the iPad?

This is where things get tricky because once I get an iPad, where does it sit in my family of gadgets? So I asked my friend, where would the iPad sit and his reply was simple, “The iPad is in a class of it’s own. It will define a whole new field all together.”

So the iPad would sit in between my iPhone and my iBook. Most likely, the iPad would serve as my satellite device, which I take around and then sync to my iBook especially if I need to generate Word DOC reports and such. But I see the iPad totally taking over the role of my iBook in the near future.

When will the iPad be available in Malaysia?

It may come round to Malaysia by June but pricing is still un-known. I’m looking at a range from RM1,500 – Rm3,000. It all depends on whether the government will levy tax on it. If it is classified as a multimedia-device then tax will be levied but if it is considered a computer, there may not be tax.

The iPad is truly an enigma. It’s not a computer neither is it a phone so it’ll sit in between my iPhone and iBook but when the apps gravitate towards the iPad platform, I am sure great things will happen. Slap on a video cam and it will make a great tool for video calls. Put in flash (if Apple ever wants this) then it’ll be a great platform for online games and Adobe AIR applications.

The iPad is here to stay and it may have just defined a whole new genre of hardware.

When Apple Moves, the World Watches – iPhone OS 4.0

Image from Lifehacker.com: iPhone 4.0 – The Best New Features.

In short this is what you will get on your iPhone 3GS and iTouch 3Gs when you upgrade to OS 4.0:

• multitasking
• fast app switching
• local notifications
• app folder
• a new mail app
• ibooks
• custom backgrounds
• game center
• iAd advertising
• 5x digital zoom
• bluetooth keyboard support

For the breakdown read Gizmodo’s dedicated iPhone 4.0 page and Lifehacker’s article.

This means I will now have to scout around for a used iPhone 3GS, to fully enjoy all that OS 4.0 can offer but do I really want to? My iPhone 2G is serving me well and I’m happy with the way things are working our for me now. So do I need another gadget to add to the mix? I not sure I want to but if there is anyone who has a 3GS lying around (and you are not using it) then I am most happy to receive it.

Another thing that is good with this upgrade is that the other phone manufacturers will now have to up their products to match what Apple has to offer. Truly, the iPhone was the phone that changed the market. It opened up the market for touch-screen phones that double as PDAs and mini-computers. The other phone manufacturers have been playing catch-up ever-since and expect things to up a notch with this upgrade to the iPhone OS.

I expect Nokia to improve on their Symbian OS and push their product developments. The rest will follow suit. In short, when Apple moves, the world watches and adjust itself accordingly. Apple is bold in their product development and by (finally) providing multi-tasking on their iPhones, I see faster and bigger capacity iPhones in the near future.

It’s really a great time to get an iPhone. Cheers!

Constant writing even if it’s just computer code

I was meaning to write a few lines of my new book but my brain has decided that it has had enough of thinking and writing. I spent the morning, installing micro-sites for my organisation. It is so much quicker to work via SSH and after a few hours in cyber-space, the command lines have got the better of me. I feel tired and sickly. Yet, it is still writing.

I’ve always enjoyed, to a certain degree, writing code. There’s this attraction to being able to write concise command lines that accomplish all you want to do. Then there is the wonder of writing “pretty code” in programming. Neat and tidy and properly aligned code that just looks so pleasing to the eye.

Gosh, I’m falling asleep at my station. Well, nothing wrong with closing my eyes and allowing the Matrix to take over.

Writing is an adventure, a journey that takes you places; even if it means, you would be writing code no-one else ever gets to see. Yet, the results leave an impression with your readers or users, no matter what.

Cheers!

I’ll wait until the iPad 3GS is on sale

Would I buy the iPad, just days after it’s official launch? NOPE.

I’ll wait until it hits, iPad 3GS; then I’ll fork out the cash to buy it, because by then the application would have matured and all the apps would run swell on it. And maybe there would be flash support and a web-cam thrown into the package. And once jailbroken, I can run OpenSSH with it and update my web-server via command line. Wouldn’t that be great?

With all things Apple, they get better with the latest incarnation. So buying the first generation of any Apple product is for collectors. Yup, collectors of gadgets. The serious users will pile in by the 2nd or 3rd revision of the product. So hold on to your cash and wait until the geeks all agree that the iPad is really worth buying. Heck, the iPad 3GS may even be cheaper than the recently released iPad.

At least these guys agree with me : Why You Shouldn’t Buy an iPad (Yet).

SONY clamps Beyonce’s YouTube site

Motherboard has the low-down on Sony’s move on clamping Beyonce’s YouTube page, from broadcasting her music-videos based on copyright grounds. It’s pretty laughable considering since Beyonce is helping Sony market itself.

If this type of action is allowed, what could stop people like book publishers clamping down on authors who advertise or market their own books via their blogs or websites?

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Twitter and Facebook can actually make you more productive.

Employers don’t really like Facebook and Twitter, so before they decide to ban these two social networking apps into the abyss for wasting your time hence pulling productivity down, tell them that studies have shown a different picture.

But for knowledge workers charged with transforming ideas into products – whether gadgets, code, or even Wired articles – goofing off isn’t the enemy. In fact, regularly stepping back from the project at hand can be essential to success. And social networks are particularly well suited to stoking the creative mind.

How Twitter and Facebook Make Us More Productive [Wired.com]

This doesn’t mean you Tweet every other minute or post everystep you take on your Facebook profile. The key-word is “regularly stepping back” which implies that you take short rest-bites while working on your project or task.

Breaking your train of thought can introduce new ideas, ideas you may not have been able to see before, into your task and this is what jump-starts the creative process.

So, having a Facebook or Twitter account doesn’t make you the devil’s advocate for slacking off work, it may just make you the star employee of the month for creativity.

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The most useless key on the board – Caps Lock

It’s unanimous, the most useless key on the any keyboard is the Caps Lock. It’s barely used and it takes up one whole key. Ask yourself, how many times do you actually use the Caps Lock?

So if you are running Mac OS X, then CapSee may be something you would appreciate. It tells you when the Caps Lock is engaged and does it in a visual form.

CapSee is a small utility that lets you see when you bump the caps lock key. Identical to the built-in Mac OS notification bezels, like volume and screen brightness, CapSee presents a bezel whenever you enable caps lock… preventing the accidental caps lock forever!

If this doesn’t really work for you, then why not just physically remove the annoying button altogether?

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Idiots do Multitasking, Geniuses Single-task.

“Multi-tasking”. Say it…say it. What the hell does it mean? Seriously, take time, now, to just ponder the meaning of that word. “Multi-tasking”, what does it mean and imply?

Seriously, I don’t do multi-tasking because it’s for idiots. The smart people in the world single-task and that’s really the natural order of things. Human beings were never made to multi-task. Multi-tasking in the office was a cheap way to cut down on employing more people and to enforce a form of slavery in the modern office. Yup, slavery is not confine to third-world countries, you can find it in modern air-conditioned offices. And the slaves are those of us who ever got slap with the “you-can-multi-task” stick on note.

Single-tasking is the way we were meant to be. Because we are single-track-minded beings. Our linear minds are most efficient handling a SINGLE train of thought instead of jumping from track to track. It’s just the way we are hardwired in the nugging.

Leave the multi-tasking to computers and machines, why? Because that’s why we invented them. Computers have multi-threaded capabilities embedded into their CPUs. They are built to handle several data streams at one instance. Multi-tasking was meant for the computers. How on earth, did this virus jump from the computer to human species is beyond me. But I bet it was some idiotic HR manager who wanted to save on paying for an extra employee.

So next time someone pushes the “You can multi-task” line into your face, do the smart thing. Reply back, “I’m single track minded, so I work best on a single-tasking model.”

Cheers!

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