Two Minutes with the Samsung Omnia (i900)

This year, we highly anticipated the release of a mobile phone, it has 3G, it has GPS and a lot more… The iPhone!

 

Before the 2008 WWDC, there were a lot of rumors of what the 3G iPhone would look like, there were even pictures of it having a Front Camera. Then came two men carrying a locked case and at the end of the TV ad came the new iPhone… With no front camera!

 

After the launch of the iPhone, came a lot of disappointments among bloggers and developers, it still cannot record video, still no flash and still the same memory (either 8 or 16gigs).

 

A couple of weeks later (before the iPhone hits the retail outlets, it will be available July 2008 something) came the Samsung Omnia (a.k.a. i900). You have to say that this phone looks like an iPhone. It almost has the same size and feel (The first time I saw it, I honestly thought it was the HiPhone from China).

 

(had to do the oil painting effect)

 

I was able to play with this phone for a couple of minutes only since it was only on display in the Samsung store at Vivo City (Singapore). Here’s my mini-review…

 

I won’t go too much of the things we already know. Just a fast refresher, we know its Windows Mobile 6.1, its got FM, GPS, 3.5G, video call and the other stuff you expect from a WM Device.

 

I actually liked the fact that every time you tap an icon on the screen (or the on-screen keypad/thumb board), the phone vibrates, Samsung’s UI is clean but I have to say that its too clean making it look like an iPhone’s UI (I honestly feel they wanted to achieve that).

 

You can assign icons on the “today” screen and it will look like Vista’s Widgets.

 

One thing that surprised me with the Omnia is that the famous “stop all running programs” is not available. Yes, I pressed Start (I had to open File Manager just to see the start button on top), settings, system then memory. Inside that tab are only two memory tabs, no stop all running programs. I was actually surprised with this and I’m not sure if this option was removed only in the Omnia or in all WM6.1 devices.

 

Pressing start then programs does not look like the normal WM device. It will go back to the programs menu of Samsung’s UI which I found to be surprising too since my wife’s LG KS-20 will show the regular programs list of a WM Device.

 

As for the external buttons, you will see that it has three (3) buttons in front, call, end and the one in the center. That button in the center works like the i780’s track pad and I think this feature is a very good addition to PDAs.

 

There are even more buttons on the side which I did not care to press since I do not have the luxury of time.

 

Compared to the iPhone (which only responds to your finger), you can use a stylus with the Omnia, but the phone will not come with a Stylus. Even person selling it is not sure if the box will come with a stylus but there’s no hole in the Omnia’s body where you can have the stylus inserted.

 

One drawback I found with the Omnia is that it uses a “Samsung” cable to connect to a PC and Charger. The people from Samsung actually told me that I was the first person who made that comment but I explained to them that maybe I am the only person interested on their phone who travels a lot. I cannot imagine carrying an additional cable in my luggage just to be able to charge this phone. I have too many cables already and a Samsung Cable will give me enough cables to make my own Suspension Bridge.

 

*****the people from Samsung actually told me that I will also carry another cable for the iPhone but the thing is we will already carry an iPhone’s cable since we will surely travel with our iPods. Imagine this in your bag… Cable #1. Laptop Cables, 2. USB – mini USB (it will connect to my Mobile Internet, charge my P525, Motorola Headset, Jabra BT Adaptor, 4. Nokia Chargers (company phone), 5. Digital Camera Charger, 6. iPod Cable. A Samsung Cable will required me to carry SEVEN (7) cables.*****

 

As a conclusion, the Omnia is a great alternative to the iPhone, LG KS-20 and HTC Diamond. Looks, Functionality and Entertainment. Each and every model has its own pros and cons. The only thing I did not like about this phone is that it looks like an iPhone! The person right beside me was holding it beside an iPod Touch and even the person from Samsung thought that he was holding two (2) Omnias side by side.

 

Here’s a picture of the Samsung Omnia beside my trusty old ASUS P525… look at the size of this thing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comics to Movies…

For the past several years, there have been a lot of Comic Books which made its way to the big screen.

 

What once used to be a hit from comic stands now dominates the box office.

 

For some people, the younger generation, they will see these movies as entertaining but for the older ones, I am sure that they have mixed comments on these movies as some of them did not stay true to the characters when they were still in comics.

 

As some directors say it, their films are “loosely” based on the comic books, but how can they say that if the movie is all about the comic’s main character? Others will say that they had to make amendments to the hero’s origin as it is no longer applicable during the present time.

 

Whatever they say about it, it still feels good that comics are considered as a good material for big budgeted movies. I can’t wait to see what other movies we can expect in the future.

 

For those people asking on which of their beloved comic books has been made to movies, here’s a list…

 

Animated Films are very tricky but I have decided to include them on this list.

 

30 Days of Night, 2007

 

300, 2007

 

A History of Violence, 2005

 

Art School Confidential, 2006

 

American Splendor, 2003

 

Barb Wire – Pamela Anderson Lee, 1996

 

Batman

v      Batman – Michael Keaton, 1989

v      Batman Returns – Michael Keaton, 1992

v      Batman Forever – Val Kilmer, 1995

v      Batman and Robin – George Clooney and Chris O’Donnel, 1997

v      Batman Begins – Christian Bale, 2005

v      The Dark Knight – Christian Bale, 2008

 

Blade – Wesley Snipes

v      Blade, 1998

v      Blade II, 2002

v      Blade Trinity, 2004

 

Bulletproof Monk – Chow Yun-Fat, 2003 

 

Cat Woman – Halle Berry, 2004

 

Captain America – Matt Salinger, 1990

 

Constantine – Based on Hellblazer – Keanu Reeves, 2005

 

Dare Devil – Ben Affleck, 2003

 

Dick Tracy – Warren Beatty, 1990

 

Electra – Jennifer Garner, 2005

 

Fantastic Four – Ioan Gruffud, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis

v      Fantastic Four, 2005

v      Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 2007

 

From Hell – 2001, was based on the Graphic Novel with the same title

 

Garfield

v      Garfield: The Movie, 2004

v      Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, 2006

 

Ghost Rider – Nicholas Cage, 2007

 

Ghost World, 2001

 

Heavy Metal, 1991

 

Hellboy – Ron Perlman

v      Hellboy, 2004

v      Hellboy II: The Golden Army, 2008

 

Howard the Duck, 1986

 

Iron Man – Robert Downey Jr., 2008

 

Josie and the Pussycats, 2001

 

Judge Dredd, 1995 – Sylvester Stallone

 

Men in Black (MIB) – Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith

v      Men In Black I, 1997

v      Men In Black II, 2002

 

Monkeybone – Brendan Fraser, 2001 was based on the Graphic Novel Dark Town

 

Mystery Men – Based on the Flaming Carrot, 1999  

 

Nick Fury – David Hasselhoff, 1998 – this movie was made for TV

 

Popeye – Robin Williams, 1980

 

Punisher

v      The Punisher – Dolph Lundgren, 1989

v      The Punisher – Thomas Jane, 2004

 

Richie Rich – Macaulay Culkin, 1994

 

Road to Perdition, 2002

 

Sin City, 2005

 

Spawn – Michael Jai White, 1997

 

Spiderman – Tobey Maguire

v      Spiderman, 2002

v      Spiderman II, 2004

v      Spiderman III, 2007

 

Supergirl – Helen Slater, 1984

 

Superman

v      Superman – Christopher Reeve, 1978

v      Superman II – Christopher Reeve, 1981

v      Superman III – Christopher Reeve, 1984

v      Superman IV: The Quest for Peace – Christopher Reeve, 1987

v      Superman Returns – Brandon Routh, 2006

 

Tales from the Crypt, 1972

 

Tank Girl, 1995

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

v      Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1990

v      Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, 1991

v      Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, 1993

v      TMNT, 2007

 

The Crow – Brandon Lee, 1994

 

The Incredible Hulk

v      Hulk – Eric Bana, 2003

v      The Incredible Hulk – Edward Norton, 2008

 

The League of Extra Ordinary Gentlemen, 2003

 

The Mask – Jim Carrey, 1994

 

The Rocketeer – Bill Campbell, 1991

 

Timecop – Jean Claude Van Damme, 1994

 

Transformers, 2007

 

V for Vendetta, 2006

 

Wanted, 2008

 

X-Men

v      X-Men, 2000

v      X2: X-Men United, 2003

v      X-Men III: The Last Stand, 2006

 

I will try to update this list for as much as I can. If you have any comments or anything that you would like to add, please send me an e-mail or a comment.

 

Last update: 18 June 2008

Free Tones

As the song goes, the best things in life are free!

 

I honestly disagree but for those looking for Free Tones for your mobile phones in .wav format, here’s a couple that I have uploaded over the internet.

 

Please rate them or send me an e-mail (or a comment in this blog) if a tone was good/bad.

 

http://www.airfagev.com/tones.asp?username=ice

The Killers!

Have you noticed that for the past months (or maybe years) the word “killer” as been often used specially for electronic goods?

 

I can remember seeing an iPhone Killer and an ASUS EEE PC as examples.

 

So the iPhone is not a Prada Phone killer since the Prada Phone never dominated the market, but did the iPhone dominate it to receive so many killers waiting in line? Seeing a graph of PDA users in the US, the Blackberry is still number one, why didn’t I hear that the iPhone is a Blackberry Killer? The iPhone just passed the Windows Mobile in terms of numbers so this makes sense that the Windows Mobile is now aiming at the iPhone (which is number 2) in making their new products.

 

So the iPhone integrated new features like Push E-Mail to make it corporate friendly, they made it work like a Blackberry, but do we hear Blackberry people saying that the iPhone us trying to clone their device just as some people insists that Windows Mobile, Samsung and the others are cloning the iPhone? In finger friendliness, the Prada Phone came out first then the HTC Touch before the iPhone but we still here these people saying that WM, and LG are trying to copy iPhone.

 

The ASUS EEE is also one of those gadgets who received a lot of killers. After being in the market for less than a year, they have gained the attention everyone wanted to have.

 

Lets face it, while everyone were proud to announce that they have more core’s than the others, they have more hard disk and faster optical drives, the EEE pulled the carpets under them by making a device that has less storage space than an iPod Video. It turns out that there’s a market for people who just needs a basic laptop for their basic tasks, no video cards, no optical drives and even no Hard Disk! Imagine 4gigs of space on your machine, and people didn’t care, our market knows what they need and ASUS brought it to them.

 

Now we have other manufacturers trying to beat each other not only in pricing but features as well. All of us consumers have so much to gain as prices of what used to be luxuries goes down. Trying to make “killers” for market leaders and since this maybe the norm for the next couple of years, we will be enjoying a wide range of products for all types of income groups.

 

So I guess we can say that the term “killer” is used when a new product is launched aimed to get a market share from the leader.

 

Having “killers” is not so bad after all; however, I still think a better word could have been used. Did we hear the Toyota Yaris is a Honda Fit killer or Yokohama coming out with a Good Year killer? How about McDonalds trying to kill the Burger King or Kenny Rogers trying to kill Colonel Sanders? I think I made my point.

 

I guess this comes with being a leader in your market will get free advertisement when a competitor releases a new product. 

Filipino Food in Lau Pa Sat: Panyeros

Here’s another stall in Lau Pa Sat where you can eat Filipino Food… Panyeros!

 

 

Sorry for the dark picture, I just used my mobile phone’s camera.