The Beanster Blog

It's "Show Your Lock Screen Saturday", I have been on a Ralph McQuarrie kick lately the photos from #McQuarrieMonday on the web. XiaoMi Mi3W   Samsung GT-S7582 What's on your Lock Screen/s???

iPhone rumors and leaks are coming in, and since Apple is suing Samsung again. Some documents have become available and people are analyzing away... in the leaked court documents Apple admits that consumers want bigger screens (and more affordable iPhones) if we correlate this with the alleged drawings from a Japanese magazine from last month I think we can say that Apple is seriously considering bigger screens. Personally I am not over the moon about a wider device, the rumored smaller size iPhone is as wide a LifeProof case which makes it acceptable for me, the bigger size iPhone is a bit taller and is closer to size to a Note 3, which is really too big to be a phone. I think Apple would not care if a huge iPhone eats into the iPad mini market. Should Apple increase their screen size this round or should the company wait another cycle? Judging by my friends who have moved on to Samsung I would say yes they need to do it this round. Should they release both sizes or stick with i...

The following clips show the difference in response of Google Now for iPhone vs Android. Also added a Siri clip for comparison. Google Now Android Test Google Now iPhone Test Siri Test What's curious is the information being presented on Android has already been acquired by Google so why is it not showing up on the iPhone side? Keep in mind the iPhone app is behind the Android app.

On all three devices I am using Exchange ActiveSync to sync Calendar and Tasks for my work email account.   I have no issues with Calendar items. Items I create on any device are synced complete with correct reminder time.   I created one task on each device with a reminder for 12PM. Items created on Android or PC have their reminders wrong on the iPhone but display correctly on the respective devices. All three devices have the same time zone settings. I checked my Outlook.com account and the time zone is also correct.   So I am stumped. Have you experienced this issue?   Apple iPhone 5S iOS 7.0.6 (11B651) Time zone = Manila   ACER 4740G Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - all updates installed Outlook 2013 (Office 365 subscription) Time zone = UTC+8 (which is Manila)   Samsung GT-S7582 Android 4.2.2 Time zone = GMT+8:00, Philippine Time    

Here is a dumb Samsung (Android) bug.  Device = Samsung Galaxy S3 If you check-in to your Cathay Pacific flight via the CX Mobile App or their site using Samsung browser (or Chrome) you get to send a link of your mobile boarding pass to an email address. When you click this link instead of displaying your mobile boarding pass it tries to load itself to wallet (?). Searching for Google wallet in PlayStore yields nothing my dad has a Philippine account, and it appears Google wallet is not available. So you cannot view or download your boarding pass on a Samsung device??? The link should not be automatic. It should not try to download the boarding pass if the wallet app isn’t even installed. In iOS the mobile boarding pass is shown and the user has the option to add it to passbook or not.  As a workaround I emailed the link from S3 to 5S, I was able to open and view the link on Safari Mobile. I took a screenshot and emailed him the file. For some odd reason ...

I have always purchased my devices unlocked and refrain from getting subsidize units from telcos. Anyway I saw this on SMART's website  and got irked by them saying it is FREE. IT IS NOT FREE! An unlocked Samsung Galaxy S4 goes for about PhP 30,990.00 up-front.  Now if we look at the offering of SMART. Let's break it down, you get locked for 2 - 2.5 years with the telco and you are actually paying more for the device. So before you sign on the dotted line and chain yourself to the telco do some simple arithmetic and really consider if it is worth it. Remember that contract HAS a monthly fee, you need to pay the said amount every month. Ask yourself: are you really consuming that much in calls, sms and data? Also remember an ETF (early termination fee) is included if you want to get out of the contract ahead of time.   On the surface, mobile phone subsidies are presented as a way to make the latest and greatest devices available and affordable to us the...

In a couple of weeks we would go into 4th Quarter 2012. So it's time to think about your device road-map for 2013.  I have analyzed my use case and I mostly use Google services like GMail, Calendar, YouTube, Maps the only thing I leave on iCloud is Contacts and Notes. So for PIM (personal info management) it would be a minor issue to move over to an Android device. A big plus would be getting Google Maps back since Apple has decided to discard it and YouTube in iOS6. Gmail, Calendar, Maps, YouTube all are free and all are great! Good job Google.  However when I look at applications, games, media (basically entertainment) it is clear that I am trapped in the iTunes ecosystem. I have spent a lot on the AppStore and I do not think it would be possible to make a clean break with it any time soon. Good job Apple.  I have always been pro-convergence. One device preferably pocket-able for communications, work, and play. However the escalating pla...

The much awaited successor to the very successful Omnia. This bad boy had one of nicest screens I’ve seen, better than the fruitphone even. The 3.7in AMOLED WVGA display was just gorgeous…  The slab type device has good heft the screen had haptic feedback (just like the 1st Omnia). Of course it has all the bells & whistles any top tier device should have. The 5MP auto focus shooter w/ photo LED (yes HTC camera's do need flash), the 3.5mm jack, a choice of 16 or 32Gb internal storage, plus microSDHC expansion (hey Apple how about a card slot for the iPhone) make this ideal for multimedia creation or playback. Samsung is touting 480p video recording & playback… yes kiddies that’s DVD quality. I was not able to try out the camera because I kept on playing with the screen. Like most touch based devices Samsung releases this one comes with their TouchWiz system of widgets. The heavily skinned touch optimized UI is nice to look at but I feel it makes the device sluggish (jus...

    After signing in we got to play with the devices. I got the Omnia Pro B7320 (a mouthful, I know). The device is a QWERTY bar Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard device (no touch screen). The specs on this are nothing to write home about. I’d rank it as an entry level device by today’s standards. I think it would do good in a corporate environment since the lack of a touch screen or moving parts and hinges makes the device leaps and bounds more robust over the Professional devices or sliders. Construction was solid and the device was not too heavy even with the 1480mAH battery. It was good to see that Samsung opted to use microUSB and not their proprietary connecter (get a clue Apple). The device was very responsive and snappy (keep in mind these were fresh ones with just the default Samsung stuff loaded) WM6.5 Standard would be a free upgrade once it was available. I do hope they get their act together in terms of the upgrade. The upgrade from 6.0 to 6.1 for the SGH-i780...

16-Sep-09 Was fortunate enough to get invited to the Samsung Omnia II & Omnia Pro B7320 Preview at Hanjin Center @ Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City. It was good to see folks from http://pinoywindowsmobile.net and meet em in person. Was seated beside XB and his wife. A couple of things… the preview was held at a training room at Samsung’s offices. The event started late and there was no WiFi available. The nice lady from Samsung was apologetic about the WiFi (something about security). They also didn’t have SIM cards so we had to slap in our own and use our own dime to get tweets, pics or youtube vids out on the interwebs… The devices we got were not fully charged but they lasted well past the duration of the presentation (note: most of them we put on flight mode since we didn’t have a lot of SIM cards) They served food & drink (no alcohol, which I don’t mind cause I don’t drink hehe). Would’ve been nice to have a smoking area but discrimination against smokers has been v...

HTC Taiwanese super company HTC has the following devices either in the stores or in the works: HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Touch Diamond Pro, HTC S740. These are all updates to their devices. I am not too sold on the square and hard edge fingerprint magnet finish of these new devices. I am curious if they will be updating the Shift line. HTC is a really aggressive Windows Mobile device maker so their devices will be a part of their total business. It is interesting to see that they have been selected to make the Google Android powered T-mobile device codename: HTC Dream. palm palm is coming out with a shiny new Treo for GSM markets in the Treo Pro [Treo 850] and the web is a buzz with this newest Treo. While this device has shined the limelight albeit momentarily on the palm camp I don't think this is enough for them to be competitive again. I really think they should put out their next OS and get ODMs to license it, if not may be they should close the OS part of the business and start...

Gentle reminder that the 3G iPhone isn't the only new mobile on the block... :D -- Diamond over Omnia: * VGA display (2.8-inch, 480 x 640 pixels) * TouchFLO 3D Home screen (better than Omnia's Touchwiz UI) * Nicer design * More compact body * Lighter weight * Active magnetic stylus (Omnia has no stylus slot) * Touch-sensitive scroll wheel (better than Omnia's optical joystick) * Better sunlight legibility (by a small margin) * Standard miniUSB slot (as opposed to Samsung's proprietary custom plus) * Dedicated graphics chip with 64MB memory * Comes with the amusing Teeter game (uses the accelerometer) * Has pre-installed YouTube client and MP3 Trimmer application for ringtones * Better video playback performance Omnia over Diamond: * Bigger, though lower-res display (3.2", 240 x 400 pixels) * Has a better, more solid build and finish * Almost double battery life * Better CPU performance (by a nice margin according to software benchm...

Ok ok I might be being too liberal with all the iPhone killer crap but hey this is what the Korean electronics giant has designed this mobile to be. Check out the specs and see for yourself: -- Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional [read: PocketPC Phone Edition] Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and Triband UMTS with HSDPA WiFi Bluetooth 2.0 EDR 3.2" WQVGA (240 x 400 pixel) touch screen haptics / vibrations TouchWIZ UI Accelorometer Trackpad 5MP w/ flash - face/smile detection, image stabilizer microSDHC expansion 8Gb or 16Gb TV out 1440 mAh battery -- Wow this is a definite jab at the Jesus phone and it's 2nd coming... Go Samsung Go!

In my previous post I mentioned that I was using my Samsung SyncMaster 940BW as my primary monitor whilst extending the desktop on the UX280P. Here is a short video demo of what I meant. Enjoy :) --

Ok I finally got myself a bigger monitor for my UX office desk setup. So what can I say about the Samsung SyncMaster first off the screen is gorgeous. The colours are crisp and clear so far I've no complaints with this monitor. I made it my primary display and extended my desktop on to the UX's smaller screen. So I can actually tranfer some windows onto the UX and have other things on my main display... Cool! All I need now is that DVD-RW media drive, then I can start saving up for my next proj :)

Rad pointed me to this Engadget link this AM and I just had to blog about it. I've been reading and listening up on UMPCs and TabletPCs for the past few weeks deciding if I should take the plunge or not. This just might have been the straw that broke the camel's back. -- It's a leaked PPoint slide of the Samsung Q2 which is supposed to replace their Q1 range of UMPCs. -- pics courtesy of: Engadget