Try Mango on Your Phone

i bet most of you know about the brand new Mango OS developed by Windows team. It will be powering a number of new smartphones like Lumia from Nokia and HTC Radar 4G. But how good is Mango? How do we know it's worth the change? Good news is, you don't necessarily need to travel down town just to try out the demo set at the mall. The demo comes to you. Windows is now offering iPhone and Android Phone users a chance to have a sneak peak at Windows Mango mobile operating system for free. All you need to do is tap on the following URL: http://aka.ms/wpdemo which will open up a demo which allows you to personally try to swipe, scroll and tap the Mango UI. The demo is great, letting you feel most of the important features of the phone. Besides that, the demo UI displayed on your phone screen makes the navigation experience even more realistic. For those who don't have an iPhone or Android phone, you worry, the support also extend to iPad and iPod, although it looks kind of small on your big iPad screen. So, go ahead and try it, see if you like it.

A New Chapter

"It's insane: We all have busy lives, we have jobs, we have interests, and some of us have children. Everyone's lives are just getting busier, not less busy, in this busy society. You just don't have time to learn this stuff, and everything's getting more complicated...We both don't have a lot of time to learn how to use a washing machine or a phone."                           

                                                                                                                               --The Independent, October 29, 2005

I choose to initiate this meaningful chapter with a quote, that meant so much to me. Having the opportunity to reach the 100th post, I am thrilled. From the first day I started blogging, I've been holding the very same fundamental principle, "deliver simplicity". No jargon, no technical terms, no benchmarking, no alienate language. I want and would like to maintain the uniqueness of this tech blog. Just like what Steve said, we all have busy lives, and we already have too much to care about, why complicate stuff that can be made simple? That's the sole reason this blog exists. It serves to educate and share information with general readers, readers like you and me, with simple words. There are so many tech blogs and articles out there, but most of them are complicated and confusing. Benchmarks and statistics were displayed and elaborated, but to be honest, how many of us really care about that? 

All I want, is to make computer technology less intimidating. Technology, for me, is meant to be a fluid and joyful experience. Hence, it's my deepest wishes, that the same joy can be shared with all my readers.

This chapter, as I believe, is just the beginning, a great thank you to all of you who read and follow my blog, and also to those who spend your precious time giving me valuable comments. Thank you.

Talking About Google

While we talk about the differences between the Mac and Windows OS, and between iOS and Android Platform, we can see both parties arguing on how the openness of the operating system affect its user experience. It is not hard to notice that Apple's controlled and closely integrated system works well, in terms of the quality of hardware, software, apps, and the ease of getting everything to integrate with each other, seamlessly, though it lacks the freedom of parts changing and modification, something considered important for hackers and hobbyists. Windows and Android, on the other side of the wall, offers the freedom to license their OS and software to various developers and companies, giving them better compatibility and ease of modification, but at the same time, struggle in the battle of piracy and quality control. To be fair, there are both pros and cons for both approaches.

Talking about Android, it usually reminds us of its big boss, the king of search service, Google Inc. Like Microsoft, Google is working hard in expanding its empire, in both its web services as well as its mobile division, Android, which seems to be gobbling the mobile market share aggressively. While Android is growing healthier, same goes to its web counterpart, the Google web division. Google offers numerous services, ranging from media, blog, web browser to even social networking. Famous services like Gmail, Google News, Google Doc, Google Translate, Google Map, Chrome, and Google Earth have survived and develop through all these years, getting healthier and stronger. But the recently announced Google Plus social networking platform that aims to compete with Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook is somehow controversial. Many even question if Google is making the correct decision, whether this project's effort is in vain. "Do we need another Facebook?" is a common question that circulates around the web.

Google Deserves the Credit

 Though it's still too early to make assumption regarding to the future of this social network platform, which is practically in yet its infant stage, there's something Google did correctly that deserves the credit. Guess what, though many of us are penalizing Google for  Android platform's lack of apps' quality control and its system's openness (leading to non-standard UI for different third party apps), Google did manage very well in designing its web apps and services. Evidence? Just look at the way Google make sure all its native web applications work and integrate together, seamlessly. Once you sign up a Google Account, you have instant access to everything, including your Gmail, Google News, Google Doc, Blogger and Google Plus, no extra sign up procedures required. It's not just that, with Google, every app is closely linked to each other. For instance, you can share your favourite blogpost or news through Google Plus by clicking on the "+1" button below the blog post. At the same time, you can also email news updates to your friends by clicking on the "Share via Email" icon. This works with Google Map as well, allowing you to share a map on your Google +, and at the same time, tag some friends from your circle, together with video and link sharing. Everything works smoothly together, making web browsing a pleasant experience.

Any Chance of Winning?

It is not certain whether Google Plus can overcome Facebook's current state of fame and glory, but its compelling features, less complicated and user-friendly interface, ease of access, add together with Google's existing strong foundation and worldwide supporters, make it an extremely competitive newbie with, what I believe, a bright future. So, let's wait and see.

Intel Pair & Share: You Don't Need Apple TV to Do the Trick

Sharing has become part of the virtue when technology comes into the topic. Media sharing that works seamlessly between PC and mobile devices is the dream that software and apps developers have been working very hard to achieve. Not only because the King of post PC devices (iPad) doesn't have a USB port, but also because nobody likes to be cluttered by annoying cables. How about the idea of showing off your vacation photos in your iPad to your friends by mirroring it on your laptop or WiDi enabled HDTV? Some of you might call me an outdated moron (Hey dude, we have an amazing stuff called AirPlay!!!), yes, I'm definitely aware of that stuff, but to be honest, how many of you have an Apple TV?


This is a totally cost free method, as long as you have a intel powered PC with Windows 7 (if your PC is running on AMD processor, you are out of luck), a mobile device running on either iOS & Android, and a stable home WiFi connection. Besides PC, those who own TV sets with built-in WiDi (Wireless Display) can also try this method.


Alright, here comes the method. First, download the Intel Pair & Share Software for PC from Intel Download Center, then install it on your Windows 7 PC. Next, search the Intel Pair & Share app from App Store or Android Market (depends on your mobile device). Download and install the app on your device (as for me, I installed it on my iPad2). When you are done, launch both the PC version and the app version on both your devices. You can now put your full concentration on the screen of your mobile Pair & Share app. On the screen, check if the app manage to detect your PC, if it does, your PC name should be listed on the app display. To connect your mobile device to your PC, just tap on your PC's name on the screen and it will start connecting and eventually prompting you to key in a set of code, which is now displayed on your PC desktop version of Intel Pair & Share. Just key in the code and both devices will be connected instantly. Now, all you need to do is just browse through your device's photo collection (Intel will automatically locate your photo albums for you) and tap on the photos that you want to display on your laptop widescreen or HDTV. You can select multiple photos and as you tap on each of the photo, it will simultaneously appear on your widescreen. Don't worry, only a single photo that you tap on it will be displayed to the public, so you are totally under control.


Once you are done with the show, you can either choose to disconnect both devices from the app, or just simply close both the desktop software and the mobile app to cut off the connection.


This app works on all iOS devices (iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone) and Android devices. Only photo can be shared through this method. The screenshots below are captured from my iPad and PC.

Voxer-More than Just Walkie Talkie

Phone bills are expensive and besides that, there are still 3G charges to cover. What if I tell you that you can actually use your iPhone and iPod Touch as a multi functional walkie talkie? Not just a simple hold-talk-and-release walkie talkie, but also a multi-functional one. Isn't that cool? This free app called Voxer. It allows you to communicate with your friends as long as they have the app installed and have internet connection. The way it functions is totally simple, just press and hold the "Hold and Talk" button at the bottom of the screen and say whatever you want to say, then release the button for the voice message to be delivered. It works exactly the same as a real walkie talkie. What makes this app different from an ordinary walkie talkie is that there is no distance limit. Moreover, you can even send photos and text messages to your friends at the same time! Voxer is completely free and is now available at the App Store. So, grab it now!!!

Note: Voxer is also functionable on iPad if you don't mind the smaller scale interface.

The Star (Malaysia) News App for iPad

With various established local news companies beginning to develop their own iPad news apps, the Malaysia top selling English newspaper, The Star, Malaysia, has finally joined the crowd. The app features a downloadable offline issue, which is updated frequently (not available for certain days), and also an online news feature, which link you to The Star's online news page. It is noticed that the offline magazine style version doesn't really include all the news from the newspaper, instead, it is more of a magazine delivering the featured and significant news, opinions, media, etc. If you are a reader who desires more than just featured news, I would suggest you to check out the online section of the app.

Back to the downloadable issues, it's pretty easy navigate through the pages, as simple as scrolling and swiping. The graphics and news arrangements make this news issue pleasant to read. However, it would be more delightful if they could include more news in the downloadable issue and update it more frequently.

Google for iPad: Optimizing Your Touch Browsing Experience

Previously quite disappointed with the "Google Search" browser for iPad, I didn't really have the courage to try its latest updated version at first, yet consider it as one of the strongest competitor of Apple, I've decided to give it a quick glance, and honestly, I am in love with it.

Despite being a browser without multiple tabs feature, the new Google (ommited the "search") is fun to use. It takes full advantage of iPad wide touch screen interface, transforming web browsing into a more interactive and intuitive experience. It enables you to browse the web by using sliding and swiping gestures unlike the conventional button type browsing.

In the plain white main page, there is a big search bar, and three simple blue buttons under it. They are "history", "application", and "Goggle". The "History" button leads you to a clear display of your browsing history, in the form of graphic, rather similar to the cover flow concept in Safari (you can also swipe to your left to reveal the history page). "Application" displays all google applications in tiles form, making it easy for you to access your favourite Google apps like Gmail, Picasa, Google +, Google Map, Google Translator, etc. One really convenient feature is that by tapping on the Gmail app, it actually link you directly to your iPad Gmail app (if you have it installed). Next, is the "Goggle" button. It is a brand new feature which let you search the web by capturing the image of an object using your iPad's rear camera. By I found this feature not so practical as the search result is not yet precise. I tried to capture my Sony Ericsson J108 handphone and the browser displayed results of other SE phone model. Though not yet practical, it is still a worthy feature, as it shows future potentials of mobile web browsing technology.

Overall, this new version of Google Browser deserves praises, as it shows us the beauty of modern web browsing.

How to Create W8 Ribbon UI in W7?

In the previous post, I've guided you guys through the way to recreate the Windows 8 metro UI (user interface) experience on your Windows 7 desktop. Well, this post shares a similar purpose. As we all know, the Windows 8 concept is not just about its breakthrough in designing a brand new UI, it's also heavily emphasizing on its ease of access and broader functionality. This of course, should include the ribbon style Windows Explorer, the controversial toolbar, which is inspired by Microsoft company's 2010 Office Suite. The main purpose of this design is to improve users' accessibility to the toolbar, by displaying all functional options on two simple tabs, "Home" and "View". So believe it or not, you can actually port this new feature into your Windows 7. The process is unexpectedly simple. What you have to do is just to download and install a tiny application called BExplorer (a.k.a Better Explorer). Just click on http://bexplorer.codeplex.com/ to get to the website or click Download to directly download the application. After installing the application, the rest are pretty much self-explanatory, you just have to launch the application, go to your Windows explorer, and start trying it out. 

Note: You might experience some minor bugs while using this application as this not a finalized project.

Make Your Desktop Feels like Windows 8

The new tablet-based Windows OS, codename Windows 8, will most probably be available only at the midst of 2012. For those who are eager to have a taste the new Metro UI but do not dare to make your hands dirty by installing the buggy developer preview, there is actually an alternative for you.

Pulmon is probably one of the most stable application around that emulate the metro UI experience. It takes just split seconds to set up and best part is, it doesn't require installation. Just launch the app and set it to "run on startup". Then at the setting, you can also select the widgets that you want to display on your desktop. Some widgets such as the Firefox Aurora widget and the Microsoft Office Widget might not work, but most of them does integrate pretty well with the Windows 7 system. My personal favourite is the ability to customize our own full screen wallpaper, instead of relying on the default ugly greenish background, you can replace it with your own HD photos or wallpapers. To see Pulmon in fullscreen, you have to select the fullscreen mode, located at the setting. Once you are done with the setting, you can hide the setting panel to your taskbar tray and auto-hide your taskbar to make your desktop interface more neat and tidy.

Note: Pulmon also come with a metro UI optimized browser named Zuro which claim to bring a brand new web browsing experience. However it's hope that you don't take it seriously as its still very buggy and full of error.

Is Asus Doing it Right?

When this new piece of aluminium made its first debut, Windows lovers were thrilled. There’s finally a Windows based ultraportable that can beat the AIR obsession. But does it? My first look at the Zenbook suggested that it was just another Macbook clone that tried too hard to outdo the Mac. However evidences show that there are some features that make this ultrabook worth its effort and price. 

First of all, Zenbook has traits that consumers drool over; it’s super thin, just like the Macbook Air (even thinner than the Lenovo’s U300s). It has a unibody aluminium design, making its structure tougher and sexier (unlike the Acer Aspire S3 which is plasticky). It has a speedy Core i5 or i7 processor (depends on the model), and 128gig SSD, which grants it faster boot and resume times. It also has a higher resolution display than the Macbook Air. 

The Bundled Goodies

The Zenbook has come with a brown fabric sleeve, that looks more like a leather envelope, a USB-to-Ethernet adapter, a micro-VGA-to-VGA adapter (save you some cash from buying an adapter separately). The adapters also come with dedicated pouch. I do hope that they include a micro- HDMI-to-HDMI adapter.

Keyboard

Something worth mentioning about its keyboard is its brush aluminium keycap, compare to Macbook Air’s black plastic keycap. However, a significant flaw that might keep customers away is the low sensitivity of the keys. Many complaints that they need to stroke the keys hard to make sure the presses are detected.  It is also good if Asus can adapt the elegant back-lit keyboard design which eases users for typing at low light condition(like the Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, and HP Pavilion dv3510nr). 

Touchpad/Trackpad

The Zenbook UX31 touchpad is nearly as large as Macbook Air’s, making it more comfortable to manoeuvre around.  However scrolling is still not as smooth as the Mac, and the two fingers scrolling and pinch to zoom in/out gestures are somehow over sensitive. Asus can’t be blamed entirely as this is also possibly due to the multi-touch patent that Apple made.

Display

Though Zenbook’s screen resolution (1600 x 900) is higher than Macbook Air’s (1440 x 900), a quick test at the showroom indicated that there some undesirable issues on viewing angles. I need to really sit in front of the screen and adjust the screen for the best viewing experience. The screen is also not as sharp as expected.

Speakers

Packed with B&O ICEpower and Asus signature SonicMaster, the speakers sound great, despite the size of the Zenbook. (don’t expect it to be as good as the N Series, as they have a larger resonance chamber)

Boot and Resume

Well, I don’t own one the Zenbook, so I can’t test on the boot and resume speed. But based on the data stated, the boot speed of Zenbook running on Windows 7 Home Premium is approximately 29 seconds, slightly slower than Macbook Air that runs on Lion. It resumes instantly from sleep in about 2 seconds.

Conclusion:

If you really want a Macbook Air alternative that runs on Windows, perhaps the Zenbook is the gadget for you. But for me, with the touchpad and keyboard being an essential part of an ultraportable, Asus still need to work harder on it. And I really think that Asus, being a successful Taiwan-based company should stop making nearly exact copy of the Mac design, and instead, focus on developing their own unique identity in the ultrabook industry.  From what I can see, Asus has been doing great on its overall product lines, having creative designs and robust performance; therefore, I don’t see why they need to be involved in this imitating frenzy. 

You Deserve a Better Weather

Named "Better Weather", this app rated 4&1/2 stars is indeed a BETTER weather app. With a fully customizable interface and a comprehensive tutorial, this app deserves the praise. When you first launch the app, the illustrated tutorial launch at the same time, guiding you the each and every corner of the app. It displays the temperature, switchable between both Farenheit and Celcius. Available on the colourful display are some of the essential information such as the time, date, your location (which can be detected precisely using the iPad location service), and also some handy features like weather forecast, humidity, visibility, wind, and time of sunrise and sunset. The best part of this app is the animated weather condition display. Even more surprising is the ability to change the objects' position by by tap and hold your finger on it. Lets say I want the sun on my left, I can just tap my finger on the sun, hold it, and drag it to my left. This applies to the clouds, moon, and also stars. If you feel bored about the free basic theme you have, you can also purchase extra themes with just $0.99 USD (I'll definitely stick with the free one, lol). If you want to make your iPad a weather display frame, you can do so by turning on the "Prevent Auto-Lock" option at the setting. Well, you certainly need to purchase a iPad smart cover or third party stand to keep your iPad at its standing position. There's an extra feature for those social networkers, you can share the current weather with your friends on facebook, Twitter, and email.

This app works with only iPad for the time being. Those who are interested can grab it at your app store now for free.

SinChew-i has Improved

Maybe this doesn't matter for many of you who are English based readers. But for those in Malaysia who are the readers of one of Malaysia's best selling newspaper, SinChew Daily, and who own an iPad, this is indeed a great news. Since the last time I reviewed about the Sinchew-i app almost two months ago, many have change about the performance and stability of this local Mandarin News app, and I've keeping a close watch on this app regularly. After all the serious tests and observations I've made on this app, I now earnestly re-recommend (if such word did exist) this app to all my readers. The overall layout of this version doesn't really differ from its predecessor, yet significant changes can be felt once you get your hands on it. There are no sign of lagging detected while swiping through the news articles, and the previous issue of the app abruptly turning off doesn't occur as often in this version. As a matter of fact, I didn't face this problem at all for this whole week. There are also no problem in pictures display and videos playback. The only setback with this app is that every time you switch app when you are in the middle of reading a news article, for instance, you suddenly want to update your facebook status, and when you completed the task and switch back to Sinchew-i, it will lead you to the main page again, forcing you to waste time searching back the article that you were previously reading.

Verdict: Overall, this app has made notable improvement in terms of performance, however, I do hope that the developer can solve the issue mentioned above to make it even better. It's a good idea if the developer can add a bookmarking feature within the article which can ease readers' accesibility.

Msn Onpoint: Mag for Girls

Are you a busy woman who wish to have a news app like Zite and Flipboard, but simpler and more female-centred? Now you have it! Microsoft MSN has just announced the brand new app named "Onpoint". It is a magazine-like app which target on female readers, particularly those who don't have much spare time to flip through hundreds pages of mixed gender articles. All articles in Onpoint are handpicked by MSN editors, and updated daily to suit your lifestyle. There are different topics to choose from, and all articles are displayed in tiles. Ranging from health issues to recipes, there should be something for you. You can sync your favourite articles to your other movile devices by signing in with your Windows Live ID. (I doubt you need it). You can also share interesting stories with your friends by signing in to your facebook account. For the time being, the number of articles are still pretty limited, perhaps because it's still new, so let's hope that the editors can work harder and make this app successful in the near future.

This app currently work for all iOS devices, including iPad, iPhones, and iPod Touch. Android might still have to hold on for a while before the Android version is available in the market.

Trap.it Beta - Siri's Closest Sibling

Are you one of the fans of the iPhone 4S voice assistant, Siri, suffering from low budget? No worries, as today, we will introduce you to Siri's................sister (awww, don't be disappointed). And her name is Trap.it. Constructed from the same DARPA-sourced artificial intelligence tech used to power up Siri, Trap.it is not a toy. It is a full feature AI website that helps you discover your favourite news updates, and add the discovery to your trap. For those who read my previous blog post about the iPad app called Zite, Trap.it actually works kind of similar to Zite, except that both are for different platforms and Zite seems to be more organized and rich in features. However, noted that Trap.it is still in Beta stage, so there might be more improvements seen in the future. So, back to Trap.it, how does it work? Easy! Just go to http://trap.it/, sign up the service using your email address, Facebook or Twitter account (I bet everyone has it), within few seconds, you are in! You can start discovering by typing in your desired topics (in the form of keywords). For instance, if you like to know more about Amazon, you can type in "Amazon" and the engine will search and display all the related updates in tiles. If you don't like the tiles display, you can also switch it to list view. When you see the article that you like, you can click on the "+" button to add it to your trap. If you don't really like to choose from the long list of items, you can also choose to add the whole findings into your trap. Once you add the item into your trap, Trap.it will search and update the related news for you 24/7. That will make sure that you get to read your favourite topics everyday, or more precisely, every moment. You can add multiple topics into your trap, and by regularly rating those articles, your Trap.it news assistant will improve herself to give you better services. You certainly can bring along your personal news assistant everywhere you go. Just turn on any pc, whether you're at your friend's apartment or a cybercafe, and login to your Trap.it account, your favourite news will be displayed right in front of you, no extra charges!

How to Create a 1-Click Lock Button for Your Windows Desktop?

To lock your Windows desktop is quite time consuming, first you have to tap on the start button, then click the arrow beside the shutdown button, then look for the Lock button, click it and lock your desktop. This might not seem like a big deal for most of us, but when you are very busy and still want to prevent others from peeping into your desktop, there's an express way for you.

First, create shortcut on your desktop. To do that, right click on your desktop, click on "New", and look for "Shortcut".

A wizard will appear, asking you to type in the location of the shortcut, you just have to copy and paste the following lines: %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation
Remember, this code is case sensitive, so it's more advisable to just copy and paste the whole code then re-typing it again. After you've cut and paste the code, just click "Next", it will ask you to give a name to your shortcut. For me, I just name it as "Lock".

Now, you can decorate your icon before giving it a test (if you wish). Right click on the shortcut that you just created. Click on "Properties". At the "Shortcut" tab, click "Change Icon". Search for the custom icon that you downloaded (You can download really cool icon in "ico" format from websites like Deviantart and lifehacker. Just save the icon and in any of your preferable location.) After applying the icon, you are finally done!

If you don't like your desktop full with icons, you can also right click on your shortcut and select "Pin to Taskbar". You can then delete the shortcut icon on your desktop. Your personalized "Instant Lock" button is now ready to be launched at your taskbar!

Gmail App for iOS is Back

Finally, the long waited Gmail App is back again on the App store, today! the app itself is quite hard to be searched in the app store, you have to type "Google Gmail" instead of "gmail" to get to the app. Here's some screenshots of the interface of this brand new Gmail app. Let's hope they won't strip it down again, lol

Safari - A worthy browser, with a tiny glitch

There are few reasons why I never give up my Safari browser:

Number 1, because its slick and sexy. The design of Safari is very much Apple, and it does help to neutralize the look of my "not so beautiful" desktop.

Number 2, its launching time is fast, much faster than Firefox, and in the same pace as Chrome.

Number 3, it has the beautiful and extremely useful feature called "Top Sites", which others are trying so hard to imitate, but fail. "Top Sites" displays all your favourite websites clearly and beautifully in the form of thumbnails, on your new tab, allowing you to simply and launch the site. Besides that, you also get to view your bookmarks and browsing history in Cover flow, the Apple signature 3D file browsing experience.

Number 4, Safari comes with the handy feature known as "Reading List". You can add pages that you haven't finish reading into this list, and continue reading it later. To use this feature, just click on the icon that look like a pair of spectacles, and choose "Add Page."

Number 5, if you are a heavy reader, and prefer a distraction free reading experience, Safari has something for you. The feature known as "Reader" can be activated when you are reading an article in a website, and would like to read it without the distraction of advertisements and pop-ups. Just click on the "Reader" button at the right side of your URL bar, on Safari will filter all the physical distractions in that webpage, leaving you a clean page with only words and the necessary picture. You can also turn it off when you have done reading. Though other third party extension developers try hard to copy it, they fail to produce something as beautiful as this.

However, there's a minor but irritating glitch that stop me from giving this browser a high recommendation, it doesn't support essential two fingers scrolling gestures on Windows based laptops with multi-touch gestures enabled. This is very annoying when I use two fingers on my Asus A43S's track pad to scroll down the web page. Well, I can't! How pathetic is that when you can't even perform a simple scroll down gesture on a web browser that is from a company well known of its multi-touch gestures patent technology!? And even the pinch to zoom gesture feels kind of choppy on Safari. (well, if you don't mind, a wired or wireless mouse works quite well on Safari, letting you scroll smoothly with your scroll wheel)

Verdict: Safari is the browser for you if you are a heavy reader and would want a browser with beautiful and fluid design. However, if you rely heavily on your laptop's trackpad and don't like the idea of bringing along your mouse, just forget about this browser.