of Philosophy and Technology

My Wii has arrived, again courtesy of my source in Hongkong who untiringly sends me new stuff  everyweek for review in the Technews Section of the Manila Bulletin.  It was originally at HK4200.00 but I was suprised when he called and said that it is now only HK3600.00.  On the contrary, he said that the price of the PS3 is rising as shortage of supply has been reported in Japan and Hongkong. He was expecting a PS3 like scenario when the Wii was launched in Hongkong but it did not happen,   many even cancelled their orders.

 I will be publishing the review ASAP in the Technews Section of the Manila Bulletin.  My first impression of the Wii is that it is not for serious gamers.  No wonder hard core gamers who are clients of my source in Hongkong cancelled their order.  It could not be compared side by side with the PS3 as they don’t have anything in common.  But if you will ask me, my vote goes to the PS3. 

I heard that there is a Wii now available in Greenhills.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced this week that it has developed the thinnest reported LCD panel, no thicker than a credit card at 0.82mm, which is 0.07mm thinner than the panel previously reported to be the world’s slimmest. The company also announced that it has developed a new mobile technology, which it is calling, “i-Lens”, for integrating the entire panel assembly, including a protective layer, into a single, thinner module that is more shock-resistant and easier to read than conventional panels.

To achieve the slimmer package size, Samsung’s Mobile Display Team redesigned the light guide plate subassembly and the glass substrate, which accounted for most of the LCD module’s thickness.

Samsung has further contributed to the trend toward slimmer phones with its new i-Lens technology. The result is a thinner, highly integrated LCD module that protects the mobile phone’s main display better than previous designs, making it more resistant to damage from shock and vibration.  In deploying Samsung’s i-Lens technology, manufacturers can trim 1.4 to 2.4mm from the thickness of a mobile phone.

Today, a typical mobile phone screen leaves a 2 to 3mm space above the panel before attaching a reinforced plastic sheet to protect the LCD module.  In Samsung’s new i-Lens process, a shock-resistant protective sheet is fastened directly to the LCD module, thereby eliminating the space between it and the panel surface.  With i-Lens, the thickness of the LCD module is reduced to a mere 0.82mm, while resolving the sunlight reflection problem inherent in the use of reinforced plastic. As a result, the panel is much easier to view outdoors. 

The new LCD screen is available in 2.1 inch-diagonal and 2.2-inch-diagonal screen sizes. It features qVGA (240 x 320 pixels) resolution, 300nit brightness and a 500:1 contrast ratio.  Mass production is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2007.

Wi-Fi is a brand originally licensed by the Wi-Fi Alliance, to describe the underlying technology of wireless local area networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications.

It was developed to be used for mobile computing devices, such as laptops, in LANs, but is now increasingly used for more services, including Internet and VoIP phone access, gaming, and basic connectivity of consumer electronics such as televisions and DVD players, or digital cameras.

A wireless router integrates a wireless access point with an IP router and an Ethernet switch. The integrated switch connects the integrated access point and the integrated Ethernet router internally, and allows for external wired Ethernet LAN devices to be connected as well as a single WAN device such as cable modem or DSL modem.

Why did we gave this brief introduction? Well, we got on our hands D-Link’s newest babies for this one-of-a-kind double review. From our point of view, the wireless router and notebook adapter works well together. This is the D-Link DIR-635 RangeBooster N 650 Wireless Router and the D-Link RangeBooster N 650 DWA-645 Notebook Adapter.

D-Link RangeBooster N 650 DIR-635 Wireless Router

For D-Link, a global leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of advanced networking, broadband, digital, voice and data communications solutions, the DIR-635 RangeBooster N 650 Wireless Router is their latest baby in the Draft 802.11n networking market.

Physically speaking, it uses a three-antenna configuration, mounted on a black-and-silver box wherein the antennas can be bent or pivoted to maximize signal strength. The router has standard LEDs that can be found in front, to indicate power and network activity status. At the back, it has four LAN ports for network connections; a USB port; a WAN port for connecting the router to a modem, a power jack, and a pinhole reset button.

Installation and set-up of the DIR-635 RangeBooster N 650 Wireless Router is quite easy. For first-time users, you should first upload the CD (included in the package) in your PC’s optical drive that will guide you through the set-up, from plugging in the cables to powering on and configuring network settings. As for old timers, one simply connects the cords, power up, and point their browser to the provided default IP address to access the router’s configuration utility.

Donnie, one of the Technews Labs’ network support team had set up the device with ease. The DIR-635 was first connected to a PC to configure the IP address used for the whole test. Once configured, it was given its own static IP and can be configured on the web.

The DIR-635 offers a lot of features for network administration like schedule rules for various firewall and parental control, automatic email reporting of system log files, route alert message, and firmware updates, firewall settings, network, inbound and website filters, and more. To the network admin blockhead, this may be tough to handle so better be assisted with someone knowledgeable.

D-Link DWA-645 RangeBooster N 650 Notebook Adapter

See, many people with notebooks who connect to hotspots prefer a fast (at least, if not very) connection so that they can surf, download, stream, play online games, and send e-mail without the long wait. If you happen to be one of them and wanted an extra kick on their wi-fi connectivity, you might want to try the D-Link N 650 DWA-645 Notebook Adapter.

This may look like an ordinary wi-fi card but what it offers is really amazing. Eventhough you don’t have the latest notebook, as long as it has an available 32-bit card bus slot and it runs Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4) or XP (Service Pack2), it’s enough to match the DWA-645 with.

Out of the box, it installs like any other network adapter. Reading the quick start guide, we installed the driver first, inserted the DWA-645 as told by the installation, and finish. And I have to take note on what was mentioned on the user manual, which I find quite funny. It says: “You’ll be able to configure this notebook adapter without having to call the teenager from down the street to help you.”

It was easy alright. The D-Link Wireless Manager keeps track of all your most frequently accessed networks without having to configure it everytime. At the Technews Lab, we had set up two access points (one using the Cisco router and the other using the D-link Rangebooster N 650 DIR-635 wireless router). The DWA-645 had no problems connecting with the two, and both showed promising data transmissions.

Simply put it, even if with basic networking knowledge and hardware installation, the DWA-645 is fit for you and your laptop. This little piece of hardware has also eliminated the external antenna and looks sleek, in a way.

If you’re laptop does have a built-in wi-fi device, the DWA-645 would be a good hardware as an upgrade without having to buy a new notebook. It is a draft 802.11n client device that will enable even old laptops to connect to high-speed access points.

The PS3 combines state-of-the-art technologies featuring Cell, a processor jointly developed by IBM, the Sony Group and Toshiba Corporation, a graphics processor co-developed by NVIDIA Corporation and SCEI, and XDR memory developed by Rambus Inc. It also comes with a Blu-ray Disc ROM with a maximum storage capacity of 54 GB (dual layer).

The PS3 features the Cross Media Bar or XMB similar to the PSP, and the PS3 version also includes: Users, Settings, Photo, Music, Video, Game, Network and Friends. Users of PSP will surely love the interface as it feels like they are playing with a gigantic PSP with a very comfortable game controller.

It was supposed to be launched last Friday, November 17 in Hong Kong and we heard that all units were already pre-sold even before they hit the shelves. To my surprise, when I came to the office two days before the launch of PS3 in Hong Kong, I saw it in all its glory on top of the Technews Lab table in front of the 60-inch Sony Grand Wega — connectors and everything already installed, courtesy of the very eager staff who received it the night before.

Shattered expectations

All my expectations of the PS3 were shattered as I was expecting it to be just an excellent game console and a blu-ray player. I realized that the PS3 is all that plus a lot more; it features non-gaming functions that were never mentioned in the demos when I was in Japan and Hong Kong a few weeks back. Like its younger cousin, the PSP, it can also store different user profiles, explore photos, play music and movies (MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, SACD and DVD), and it also has an internet browser.  Its compatibility with a USB Keyboard and Mouse makes it very convenient for surfing the web. Also, the PS3 adds multitasking capability that allows users to listen to music while surfing the web or looking at pictures.

SIXAXIS controller

It comes with a controller called SIXAXIS, a controller identical to the PS2 DualShock. Although it looks like the DualShock this controller however is different as it provides the user with a full six degrees of freedom. Six degrees of freedom, or 6DOF, refers to motion in three dimensional space, namely, the ability to move forward/backward, up/down, left/right combined with rotation around three perpendicular axes; and the movement along each of the three axes is independent of each other and independent of the rotation about any of these axes. The controller allows the user to have this six degrees of freedom hence the name SIXAXIS.

The controller can operate wirelessly using Bluetooth connectivity. It also comes with a mini USB port, which can be used to connect a USB cable for either battery charging or wired playing. The battery charges automatically upon connection.

In place of the “Analog” mode button of earlier controller models is a PlayStation logo button that can be used to access the home menu and turn the console on or off. On top of the controller are four LED port indicators to identify other active wireless controllers. Up to seven controllers can be supported by the PS3 at the same time.

The SIXAXIS controller however does not support the rumble or shock effect of the previous DualShock controllers. Sony said that they decided to remove the vibration effect as it interferes with the motion sensing capability of the new controller.

Firmware

Similar to PSP, the firmware of the PS3 can also be updated via download. The current version is 1.10; it supports Playstation Network, Atrac, Full Screen Video, Playstation Store, Online User Manual and more.

Sony also said that the PS3 is backward compatible; meaning every PS and PS2 games that comply with the system’s Technical Requirement Checklist (TRC) can be played in the PS3.

Other Operating Systems

What’s surprising about the PS3 is its openness; it allows users to install other Operating Systems (OS). I was expecting that it would come with a pre-installed Linux OS as what was previously announced by Sony, but available units do not include Linux; instead an option in the Cross Media Bar menu to install other operating systems is added.  Sony has a web page  (http://playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html)  which will list compatible operating systems; the site however did not have a list of compatible OS as of press time.

Playing with the PS3

Users will not appreciate the full potential of the PS3 if they will not use a High Definition TV.  The resolution of the Sony PSP is full HD or up to 1080p. The latest Sony Bravia Television units in the country support up to 1080p and these units come with HDMI input.  Playing RidgeRacer 7, one of the three games that comes free with the PS3, is just awesome; high quality graphics in a 60-inch TV coupled with crisp and clear Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound is a dream come true for every gamer.

Motorola is slowly but surely regaining its position as a brand to reckon with in the mobile phone world.  With the release of Motorola’s RAZR V3, V3x, and V3i, Motorola was able to combine style, elegance, functionality, usability and more in one phone.

Just recently, Motorola again introduced a phone that will certainly catch the attention of mobile phone lovers - the Motorola KRZR K1. 

The Motorola KRZR (pronouced cray-zer) K1 is a clampshell quadband phone that is ultra-slim but is packed with stunning style and innovation.  It measures 4.0″ x 1.6″ x 0.6″ compared to 3.9″ x 2.2″ x 0.5″ for the original RAZR.  It weighs an average of 3.6oz or 120grams which allows me to put the KRZR in my shirt’s pocket.

When the phone cover is close, aside from its caller ID, clock and date display and service information - the button on the right side activates the light on the screen.  The left side of the phone contains 3 buttons.  The upper two buttons can also be used to activate the light, plus they can also use to change your ring styles.  The third button on the left is used to activate the phone’s 2MP camera, that means you can take a picture of yourself even while the phone cover is close since the lens is located on the cover itself.  Once the camera is activated, the upper two buttons are used for zooming in and out.

Once you open the cover, the elegance of the phone comes in full swing.  The 176×220 pixels, 30 x 37 mm display are lit in light blue and the characters are in white that makes it readable in different lightning conditions.  I would rather Motorola applied 240×320 pixels instead.  The whole keypad is flat with carved horizontal and vertical lines that acts as separators and are well illuminated that adds superior style to the KRZR.  The one I have is a cosmic blue KRZR, heard it has another color which is silver.

If you’ve ever used any Motorola phone in the past, you won’t be surprised by the interface of the KRZR.  The four arrows of the D-pad can be program by the users for program shortcuts.  Pressing the center key opens the main menu and is displayed in a 3×3 grid of icons or list.  Navigating through the menu of KRZR is relatively easy.  The menu selections are: Tools, Google, Settings, Recent Calls, Messages, Phonebook, Games & Apps, Webaccess, and Multimedia.

When an incoming call is received, the external display will show the number calling, the PictureID will also appear if you’ve provided one in your contact options, and even animated images are visualized.  If the cover is open, pressing the button on the right side activates the speaker-independent voice command.  This allows the user to search and call contacts via voice commands.  You can also do dialing names search or digit dialing.

One function I noticed missing in KRZR which I think should be a must-have function is the auto-focus for the KRZR 2MP camera.  In the many pictures that I took, some of them turned out to be blurry due to the lack of auto-focus.  The KRZR does not come with a flash as well so shooting at no lightning is useless.  Indoor images with minimal light is acceptable.

Another improvement Motorola should do is to add a “Sent” folder in its messaging section.  Everytime I send a text message, the sent message will be stored in the “Outbox” folder.  If sending message failed, the message will also be store in the “Outbox” folder which to me is confusing.  The only identifier whether the message was sent successfully or not is an “X” symbol beside the messages that were not sent.

When it comes to audio, the KRZR comes with two players - a regular sound player and a JAVA music player (Digital Audio Player).  The first one sports a plain interface while the Java player is more graphical.  The quality of sound is respectable.  With regards to its video player, one thing is like is it allows me to play the video in full-screen mode.

In summary, the KRZR supports polyphonic and MP3 ringtones and comes with vibration mode.  The phonebook memory is 1000×20 fields and supports photo call.  Call records is 40 dialed, 40 received, and 40 missed calls.  It haws 20MB internal memory and microSD card for optional upgradeable memory, slot.  It supports GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth and USB.  It supports SMS, EMS, MMS, Emil, Instant Messaging, WAP2.0/xHTML browser.
 
Camera is 2MegaPixel with 8x digital zoom and image editing, 1600×1200 pixels, video, Hava MIDP 2.0, MP3/AAC/AAC+ player, T9, Organizer, Calculator, Built-in hands free, video memo, standby time is 300 hours while talk time is 6 hours.

The Motorola KRZR K1 or MOTOKRZR is definitely an eye-catching phone.  I have yet to meet someone who was has not admired or at least touch the phone and left envious.   It has a solid construction, slim, shiny and certainly a fashionable piece of art packed with new and standard functionalities. However, like other Motorola phones that we have tested, the K1 mysteriously slows down after a few weeks of extensive use, giving us doubt whether to include this unit in our shopping list come Christmas time.

The E61 is a BlackBerry-like device with a QWERTY thumb-board, quad-band GSM with EDGE, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. It has a 75MB on-board memory that can be expanded using MicroSD cards should users require additional space. The unit supports VoIP calls and ships with a variety of third-party email tools, including BlackBerry Connect; a tool which will enable users to connect to BlackBerry services like push-based email technology. Push technology means no prompting and no downloading. This technology has made Blackberry an efficient and reliable communications platform as it automatically delivers emails and data to and from a wireless device without additional user configuration.

Also, a Blackberry can interoperate with major e-mail applications to enable wireless e-mail forwarding. A user can access up to ten email accounts in a Blackberry unit. The push-based BlackBerry architecture and infrastructure from the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM) has enabled users to remain connected to business and personal information while on the go.  Users will surely enjoy the features of the E61 together with the added benefit of BlackBerry connectivity.

The E61 however is not the first Nokia phone to support Blackberry functionality, unknown to many, the Nokia 9300 and 9500 can work seamlessly with Blackberry. I am the first consumer in the Philippines with Blackberry in my 9300.  I have requested, cajoled, forced and even begged Nokia and Smart to activate Blackberry in my 9300 as I could not get used to carrying the big, black and ugly looking Blackberry 7730 that I owned. Although Blackberry is very useful, many were taken aback by its looks.  This is the reason why business people especially women did not dare touch the blackberry units being offered by Globe and Smart. And now, While others check emails in their ugly looking units, I can proudly check my email while flashing my Nokia 9300.

With the E61, Nokia has proven that looks should not be sacrified for functionalities. Despite bearing a strong resemblance to my old Blackberry unit, the E61 has more to offer. It sports an elegant silver finish, a four-way joystick and a wide 16 million color screen. It also supports full attachment handling and editing functions. There’s also an additional functionality that  the Nokia E61 can do, it could send and receive emails, even when on a phone call; a very useful feature especially if you are collaborating with your associate in sending an email.

Aside from the Blackberry functionality, the E61 offers features that will make things easier for its users. One of the most useful tools of the E61 which my old Blackberry did not have is its TRANSFER tool.  This function allows users to get contacts and contents from other phones, it automatically transfer contents from other phones  to the E61 device via bluetooth or infrared.

The E61 also offers a feature called Voice Aid, this feature provides audio feedback from contact list and phone logs, as well as audio feedback of current time.  I have successfully called Luanne Erni, Nokia’s Marketing and Communication Manager with my eyes closed as this function allows the phone to “say” the names in my contact list. It also provides audio feedback by number dialing using a joystick or keyboard.

The E61 also comes with the latest version of PC Suite, a group of PC applications that allows users to manage and secure the information stored in the E61 using the PC. With PC Suite, users of E61 can do backup, syncronize, install new applications, manage files and contacts, send messages using the pc, store images from phone to PC, manage connections and transfer music.  The PC Suite also includes a player that allows users not only to view but convert video files to files viewable using the E61.  Users of E61 could also use the unit as a modem to connect to the internet easily thanks to “one touch access”, a feature that makes use of the E61 as a modem for the user’s laptop or PC. Just select your operator and you can connect to the internet immediately, no additional tweaking needed.

With the introduction of the E61 in the market, Nokia has proven that business device could have maximum functionality and yet be aesthetically pleasing.  Whoever said that you cannot mix business with pleasure has not seen the Nokia E61 yet.

Men beware, your days of not telling the truth (lying!) about your real location are numbered. Even the fake noise you installed in your mobile phones that emits a traffic or office background noise while you talk would now be useless as there is a gadget that exactly reports your location in real time. The good (or bad?) thing is that this gadget could be installed by someone who has access to your vehicle with or without you knowing it. Parents could install the gadget in their children’s vehicle, business owners could install it to their fleet of delivery trucks and of course doubting wives could put this to their husbands’ cars in the guise of security in this “dangerous times”.

The iNav Global Positioning System is now in the Philippines. Mr. Edel Ortiz, Country Manager of iNav Philippines proudly showed the iNav units to MB Technews last week and we were impressed by what we saw.

Unlike other tracking systems and locators that use GPRS and GSM signals to locate the subject, iNav system uses satellite signal.  The problem with locators that we have tested is that they triangulate the location of the subject giving us inaccurate results. There was even a locator from a leading telco that gave us an almost a kilometer off-mark from where the subject is located.  The iNav tracking system is different, aside from accurately pin-pointing the location of the vehicle it has additional security functions.  You can eavesdrop to whoever is using your vehicle without them knowing. It could send SMS messages updating you the present location of the vehicle and it could provide journey records for your vehicle. The vehicle could also be tracked using google map or the electronic map which is accurate up to secondary or small streets within Metro Manila.  There are other functions which I hope I could discover and play with in the next two weeks. 

Although the real application of the iNav GPS is for security and monitoring, just imagine what this gadget could do to philandering husbands and unfaithful boyfriends haha.

Full review of the product would be published here soon.

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Acer to introduce never before seen gadgets

Acer Chairman and CEO JT Wang announced that Digital home solution and smart phones will be Acer’s star products within the next few years. Wang in his presentation during Acer’s 30th anniversary celebration hints that Acer whose core business is computer would be introducing never before seen products soon.  This was confirmed by Acer President Gianfranco Lanci, he said that laptops and notebooks would become smaller and these products need phone functionality in order to connect.  He however declined to elaborate what would these products will look like.

The announcement came just a week after Symbian predicted the death of the PC. In a keynote address in London, Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford, told attendees that the huge growth of smartphone sales spells impending doom to the PC.  He went on to indicate that the PC would be dead in 5 years, due to growing capabilities of the smartphone. If this would be the case, Acer is indeed on the right path.

Nokia however is one step ahead as it introduced last month the Nokia N95, a product which they call “the next multimedia computer”.  Luanne Erni, Nokia (Phils) Marketing and Communications Manager said that the N95 would be available early next year.  Our source in Hongkong said that they could send Technews a unit as early as December.  So expect a review of the N95 from Technews ahead of the planned release.