The Straits Times Blogs - Digital Life

Royalty versus loyalty

2009-11-21T11:38:00Z

Sherwin Loh asks what’s in it for fans when Blu-ray makes DVD obsolete.

FOR those who do not know, I am a movie addict.

I watch a lot of movies in cinemas and collect them in the form of DVDs, be it movies, TV shows, special edition releases, etc.

Lately, the shift has been to buying the high-definition Blu-ray titles and, if the price is right, replacing my DVD collection with a Blu-ray version.

So it was with much joy that I saw that Warner Brothers is having a DVD to Blu-ray replacement promotion, where users can convert their DVDs into Blu-rays.

The plan is simple – visit www.dvd2blu.com and check if you own any of the 50 titles listed, like Rush Hour 3 or Ocean's Thirteen.

Click on the titles you want and pay a token sum of between US$7.95 to $9.95 for each, and you will receive the new Blu-ray copies after you mail them the DVD versions you own.

The catch, of course, is that this is available only to US residents and even if you find a way to circumvent the shipping details, this exercise will most likely work on the US protocol (Code 1 DVDs) and not the local Code 3 versions.

While it is great to see a Hollywood studio rally consumers towards Blu-ray – and its own Blu-ray content – by getting movie fans to upgrade their DVDs rather than replace them, it is highly doubtful that local consumers will ever see such an offer here.

The simple answer is because Hollywood studios do not release DVDs or Blu-ray titles directly to the local market.

Instead, they use licensees who pay studios the royalties for movies on DVD and Blu-ray titles, and then sell them to retailers and consumers.

So if the licensee has already paid Warner for the royalties on that copy of Journey To The Centre Of The Earth DVD they sold you, they will not be thrilled to take back that DVD in exchange for a Blu-ray version instead – losing money in the process.

They will make more money if they sell you that copy of Journey To The Centre Of The Earth Blu-ray, because the token sum that they should charge, if the licensee ever rolls out such an exchange, will leave them with very little profit.

This royalty, when factored into the price of a DVD, also explains why movies cost a lot more here, compared to the US.

As much as I can see the reason behind the call to support local businesses and suppliers, it is reasons like this US-only deal with Warner that makes me question what I get for my loyalty.

I am stuck with a bunch of soon-to-be outdated DVDs with no other recourse than to buy Blu-ray versions as replacement.

If I had, like some of my friends here, bought the US Code 1 DVDs, there would still be the option for me to participate in the upgrade program.

But I picked the wrong camp to support and you can bet I won't make that mistake again.

Lines of succession

2009-11-19T06:25:00Z

Sherwin Loh asks why gizmo upgrades happen at such a breathless pace.

AS I sat at my desk this week opening up my review unit of the N97 Mini smartphone from Nokia, I could not help but feel sorry for the poor souls who, just a few months ago, had picked up the original N97.

The N97 is Nokia's flagship device, mixing a small computer with 32GB, 5MP camera with a 3.5 inch screen. It was launched in June for $1,028.

The Mini, as the name suggests, is a smaller device with a 3.2inch screen and 8GB capacity. The price, at $1,020, had not shrunk much when the gizmo launched this month.

Two phones, almost similar in specs, launched less than six months apart at about the same price. If you factor in telco subsidy, you can get either phone for about $500 on similar subscription plans right now.

Some might say that the extra memory in the original device makes it a better buy, but I'm looking at the N97 Mini as the more updated device, with extra time spent on improving it, and thus, the better product. Form wise, the metallic back cover of the new kid beats the plastic one of the big daddy any day.

But this blog is not just about phones, but more about companies releasing newer versions of their products at a faster rate, with cellphone companies the latest player in the catch-up game.

In the home movie industry, it is called "double dipping", where studios release a movie on DVD first, and a Special Edition with extra features and bonus disc a year later.

In the case of electronics, not too many consumers can afford to buy a second device for the additional features, but imagine spending a tidy sum on a new plasma TV, only to find out that five months later that the model you bought now has a thinner variant, with different colours and more bells and whistles too — and at about the same price.

I would be upset.

As a consumer, when I buy an expensive product, I hate knowing that there is a newer version just around the corner.

Some might argue that innovations give rise to these upgrades. So consumers get tinier gizmos yet with niftier tools.

I do not deny that soup-ups are great. There is the original iPhone, the much improved iPhone 3G and the current 3GS, all launched with significant upgrades about a year apart.

Take the new PlayStation 3 Slim. At 33 per cent smaller and 36 per cent lighter than its predecessor, it also comes with a 120GB hard drive against the 60GB of the original. And it’s priced the same as the original but with more to offer.

Unlike super fast handset roll-outs, the PS3 Slim – also trotted out in August this year – comes three years after the original made its debut in November 2006.

Of course, fans might take issue with the fact that after the roll-out of the $512 120GB version here last month, Sony announced this week the price of the 250GB version at $552. Again, I pity those who bought the 120GB version.

There is nothing wrong with gizmo makers trotting out newer models, but in a breathless span of a few months, or even week?

Surely, the respectable time distance should be a year, like cars, for which a new model is launched each year.

Such pacing – apart from discouraging over consumerism and clogging the earth with electronic junk – gives consumers the latitude of buying without feeling so cheated.

The least they can do is come out with the devices with new model numbers or names.

Alas, Nokia already has the N98 and N99 models lined up so it is stuck with calling the new N97 the Mini, but that is what happens when you launch and design things so close after the other.

Tech titan of the decade

2009-11-08T22:00:00Z

Grace Chng explains her love for Apple and the man behind the brand.

ON NOV 5, Fortune.com honoured Apple’s imperious and often tyrannical head, Steve Jobs, 54, by naming him the CEO of the decade.

They did this because in the past 10 years, he has radically and lucratively reordered three markets -- music, movies, and mobile telephones -- and his impact on his original industry, computing, has grown.

Apple’s valuation has increased from US$5 billion in 2000 to US$170 billion, only slightly more than Google.

This for a man who felt his world had collapsed when he was ousted in 1985 from the company he co-founded in 1976. He contemplated leaving Silicon Valley because he thought himself a failure.

But he decided that he still loved making computers and founded Pixar, an animation company and Next, which made technologically advanced but expensive computers. Apple bought the company in 1997 for Next technology and Jobs returned to Apple. (Pixar was acquired by Disney in 2006 for US$7.5 billion, turning Jobs into the largest Disney shareholder with about 7% of stock. )

What followed next - a string of successes with the Macintosh computers, iTunes, iPod and the iPhone – is public knowledge.

As a gadget freak, I like simple products and services that does what it serves. So I’ve fallen for the Kindle which is a great ebook reader and nothing else. Similarly, I like Google because its simplicity is so appealing. They are no more then 28 words on Google’s home page and it does not distract you from doing what you want to do on it: Search for something.

I don’t have to read any manual to learn how to use these offerings. So it is with Apple’s products. They are intuitive and easy to use. The fact that they are sexy too is a bonus point.

It was the in the early 80s when I bought my first Mac and it was then that I started to closely follow Apple’s and Jobs’ developments and fortunes. I’ve been privileged to have the front row seat in the last decade to hear first hand all the new gadgets Jobs announced.

The Fortune article of Nov 5 described Jobs as tyrannical perfectionist and an excellent businessman. I can see it in the products that have emerged as well as the high company valuation.

But it is the Macworld keynote presentations that he has become the stuff of legends. To hear him speak, Macworld attendees camp overnight at the Moscone convention centre where the event is always held. For the media, the day begins at 6am for breakfast and then a brisk 20-minute walk in the crisp morning air from the hotel to Moscone.

Then it is a two-hour queue. Every 15-20 minutes, the queue moves a few steps until the door to the hall opens at 8.45am for everyone to be seated. He comes on at 9am and speaks for about 90 minutes.

I’ve attended about 10 Macworlds, mostly in San Francisco, and a couple in New York and the routine only changed in the last two years when Apple let media into the waiting area from 8am. (Apple announced this year, it would not be doing any more of the keynotes at Macworld San Francisco.)

It is at these events that Jobs would unveil Apple’s new offerings like the iPod, iTunes, the thin Macbook Air, the iPhone and the App Store. He is great at presentations. He knows how to position the problem and then unveil the solution. He certainly knows how to work up the crowd.

Jobs missed the Macworld keynote this year as he took leave to focus on his health. He was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004. He had operation from which he recovered. But in 2008, he had lost considerable weight. His bones were sticking out of his trademark turtleneck shirt.

He took six-month medical leave to focus on getting better. He is now back at work after a liver transplant.

I must admit that when I saw his emaciated look last June, I had a terrible fright. It looked certain that I would have to prepare an obituary for him.

In that moment, I realised that he is my hero.

For daring to follow his heart to create products his competitors slammed; for creating new life out of matured industries like MP3 and cellphones; for his creativity and ability to micro-manage and have a vision.

Technology that lets a blind man 'see'

2009-11-04T05:38:00Z

Tan Chong Yaw admires technology for the blind but is more amazed by one user.

ASSISTANT Professor Wong Meng Ee reads using a scanner.

Dr Wong, 39, who is blind, reads a book by zapping it into a computer – page by page – with a flatbed scanner.

A software – OpenBook – converts the scanned image into words. The words are then read in an artificial-sounding voice to him. The scanner and OpenBook act as his eyes for books, which he relies on for his research and lecture preparation.

Another software, Jaws, is a screen reader. It reads out what is on the laptop screen -- like his e-mail messages and Word documents.

With such technology aids – called assistive technology (AT) – Meng Ee is able to teach students in diploma, masters and post-graduate courses at the National Institute of Education.

But AT helps don’t come cheap.

OpenBook costs US$995 ($1,393). Jaws starts from US$895 ($1,253).

The cheapest Pac Mate, a personal digital assistant (PDA) with a Qwerty keyboard, is a stiff US$2,395 ($3,353) – more than the price of a high-end laptop.

Meng Ee uses a Pac Mate QX for taking notes at meetings. Looking like a bloated keyboard, the PDA, which runs the mobile versions of Microsoft Office, has Jaws built in too.

Relief is available.

The Assistive Technology Fund (ATF) subsidises up up to $10,000, the purchases of aids like PDAs and screen reader software. The aim is to let people with disabilities cope with mainstream schools or jobs.

But tech gear can help only so far.

Watching Meng Ee stand over his scanner as he showed me how he "reads" one page of a book, I realised how tough it was for him to do a task that I take for granted.

Scan. Convert. Listen.

The three-step routine is for pristine print.

Underlined phrase or a highlighted paragraph will confuse the software. Graphs and diagrams are out. So are tables unless they are simple ones. For these, he turns to someone who has sight.

Meng Ee enjoys jazz. But if I were to pick a soundtrack that reflects his indomitable spirit, On Earth As It Is In Heaven – a track from the 1986 movie The Mission – comes to mind.

The Ennio Morricone composition starts quietly with a choir in sotto voce then builds up gradually but relentlessly into a thundering climax.

Like that composition, nothing in Meng Ee - apart from his firm handshake - revealed his resolve when I first met him. But as he described how he copes with his work, I came to realise the strength of his tenacity.

Kudos to you, Meng Ee.

For more information on the Assistive Technology Fund (ATF), call the Centre for Enabled Living at (65) 6593 6437.

Street cred in a virtual world

2009-10-29T22:25:00Z

Oo Gin Lee says checking out his friends online isn't wrong.

I AM a midnight voyeur. But it's not what you are thinking.

Not the type that stares out of the window in the middle of the night, through high-powered goggles, searching for live porn action.

My time is spent flipping through the profiles of my friends on Xbox LIVE – the online part of the Xbox 360 game console, which among other things, lets me connect to my friends and challenge them to virtual death matches.

And this I usually do at the stroke of 12, which is when I get my free time in my daily busy working schedule.

What I am looking for? Xbox Achievement points.

Xbox Achievement points are points that gamers earn when they complete certain parts or tasks in the game they are playing, like finishing a mission in the single-player campaign or finding 50 hidden objects in the game.

Each game can have a maximum of 1,000 points but to get all that requires a lot of hard work and play time.

Playing a game normally and finishing it on a single play through will usually net you about 300-500 of the total points.

But to get it all, you often have to complete the game again in the hard and hardest game modes. Every game requires you to do different things, and some games requires more effort to get the points.

So why am I so hung up about these points? It is all about street cred.

The points you earn from each game are added up and whenever someone looks at your gamer profile, your total "gamerscore" is displayed right next to your name and profile picture.

My score is just over 10,000 points, a decent score but not high enough to be among the stars.

There are many hard-core gamers out there with over 30,000 points and one guy I know has hit a crazy 50,000.

I can also drill down into my friends' individual gamerscore and see exactly which games they played and how many achievement points they accumulated from each game.

It tells me a lot also about the type of games they like to play and the type of person they are.

My friend Ben for instance is a jock. Not only does this ex-rugby captain – who gave it up after his third concussion - have to ice his leg after his Sunday basketball matches with other alpha males, he gets uninterrupted play time while soothing his leg since he cannot move around with an ice pack. He plays all the Fifa soccer, NBA Live and Forza racing games.

My colleague Sherwin is a huge comics fanboy and karaoke crooner. He has very high scores in games like Batman, Spiderman and Wolverine as well as music games like Lips. He obviously is not into sports since I do not see a single racing, soccer or basketball game in his list. Chances are, he doesn't spend much leisure time on sports in real life.

Whenever I add a new friend to my Xbox LIVE community, first thing I do is check out his gamerscore and do a side-by-side comparison of our individual scores in different games.

As for myself, I am at heart an adventure and role-playing game (RPG) fan. Sword and sorcery, games that let you level up and gain new powers and skills, games that lets me explore virtual worlds, are all my cup of tea. I work hard to maximise my points in this genre, so I can be respected by other gamers as a serious RPG man.

But I will play any game, even third-rate shooters and failures with broken storylines – so long as they will net me easy Achievement points.

So that I will look good when other gamers check me out too.

Like I said, it's all about street cred, even in the virtual world.

Laptops should be better

2009-10-29T22:20:00Z

Eve Yap comes up with a new, wrist-friendly laptop design.

TWO days ago, I went shopping for doodads on company time. No, I wasn't skiving. The trip was to source for gadgets for an upcoming issue.

But the contraption I was really looking for was nowhere to be found. It was an under-desk keyboard tray.

I found lots of models online in earlier searches but none of them were sold here.

You see, my search for the tray was to alleviate the tightness in my severely knotted shoulders — ligaments and muscles all tensed up from hours of daily hunching.

I sorely need my tui-na lady who will not only tug, stretch and unkink the kinks in the sinews but pinpoint the agony spots, too.

"Ah, here is pain, right?", she'd say in Singlish before I even gesture where they are.

Anyway, back to the under-desk keyboard tray.

Having one would mean a more ergonomic incline for me — forearms parallel to the floor, forming a sort of 90-degree angle at the elbows.

But then again buying the tray would simply mean treating the symptoms rather than addressing the source of the problem.

Yes, the fount of all aches and pains, as far as I am concerned, is the laptop. And the fact that from the first laptop to the current one, no one has thought to break the mould. (At least, I don't think so.)

The wrong mould: a base with non-extendable "legs".

Like how people tell bigger and bigger lies to get themselves out of the original one, a whole industry has come up to "support" the wrong cause.

There are laptop consoles that elevate the appliance so you don't develop a turtle syndrome (stick your head forward when you type); fan bases to whirr under the machine to prevent it from overheating; and cooler balls to stick to the corners of the notebook to tilt it for a better typing angle.

Wouldn’t it be simpler if, instead of fixed studs at the four corners of a notebook PC, there were extendable bumps instead?

The bump would look like a Magic Glide patch but it would be anti-slip instead.

Tapping twice on a pad would release a catch and you could then pull out the bumps and adjust each until the tilt angle was just right for your wrist.

Done for the day? Simply give each bump a light tug, and it retracts into its slot in the base.

Also, you could shape these retractable legs — made of flexible yet sturdy metal (that's for rocket scientists to invent) — to resemble the legs in the Fountain of Wealth structure at Suntec City.

That way you could place the laptop over your lap — finally, giving some true meaning to the word — with no fear of singeing the thighs (or other body parts for the guys).

So, that is my idea for the Worlds' Most Ergonomic Laptop for now. Anyone out there with suggestions to make it even better?

E-mail Eve Yap with your ideas for a better laptop computer or leave a comment below.

DSLRs and marriages

2009-10-20T06:57:00Z

Tan Chong Yaw deems a DSLR camera too hard to have and to hold for life.

I DO not own a DSLR.

And after four years of reviewing cameras from dinky blings to ones that cost more than a shiny new scooter, I know that DSLRs give the best pics – bar none.

So why don't I have one?

The thing is, owning a DSLR is like a marriage. Buy a DSLR and it is yours to have and to hold - and that's the easy part.

It can be a plasticky (I mean, made of polycarbonate) budget buy or one that is as formidable as the Death Star – the battleship in Star Wars that is the size of a small planet.

Besides the lush colours in its photos, a DSLR is just pure photographic adrenaline because of its responsiveness – especially if you have been on a diet of compact cameras.

But once you buy one, it is for better or for worse.

If you buy a high-end model, you can sniff at the owners of lesser cameras. But only for a while. Soon enough, an update will be launched. There will be an extra X to the name or a Roman numeral will be added – like from a I to a II.

You may not be stirred. Or you, at least, you'll try your darnedest not to be.

But isn't that the essence of a marriage, you commit to your chosen as an act of the will.

For richer or for poorer?

Forget the former. A DSLR will deplete your bank account as surely as prolonged haemorrhoids will give you anaemia.

You will need accessories. Think of them as children – in terms of resources required.

First, you build a collection of lenses to cover the usual focal lengths – from wide angles to telephotos. Then, you "need" lenses with wider angles – they get more expensive as the lenses cover more.

Soon you will want faster lenses – nothing to do with morals, but pricier lenses that have bigger apertures so you can shoot with less light and get prettier bokeh (the character of the parts of the image that are out of focus).

As your lenses get more upmarket they also grow in size and weight, so leave aside a budget for sturdier tripods and larger dry cabinets.

Also, like a marriage, a DSLR needs devotion.

Like cleaning your camera – especially after exposure to the elements. Trips to the workshop for cleaning and servicing are de rigueur for any self-respecting photog.

So you have to see your camera through sickness and in health.

You will continue to love and to cherish your camera because its performance depends on your commitment to its well-being.

Sure you can have a fling. Buy a DSLR and chuck it in a cupboard when you tire of it. Or sell it when the new model comes out.

But, hey, I am not that kind of a guy.

Touch me not

2009-10-17T12:15:00Z

Eve Yap wonders at the tap-happy trend of touchscreen gizmos.

BLAME it on the now dead O2 Xda Atom smartphone that has made me dead to the touch – of touchscreen gadgets, that is.

They are everywhere, these peck-it pleasers: cellphones, netbooks and desktops too. And don’t forget the touch-smart interface of Microsoft’s newest operating system, Windows 7, launching next Thursday, Oct 22.

Windows 7 has neat pluses that make everyday computing easy. (Read Digital Life’s cover story on Oct 21.) But I won’t, er, touch any of the other gadgets with a 10-foot pole.

Not least, as I said, because of history. Four years ago, (2005) I bought my first smartphone – the Xda Atom – for about $1,000 but it turned out to be a horrible thing. The phone would hang, the screen freeze, and just getting to applications like the To Do liststook forever on the Windows platform.

True, these could be software setbacks rather than a hardware hindrance. Or that the particular piece I bought could have been a lemon: one colleague, who had the same model, had similar woes but they went away when he downloaded a software patch to his handset.

True, too, such bugs in smartphone software have by and large been fixed. But even now I wonder about the phone that started the whole tap-happy trend – the iPhone. Or rather, I wonder about at its adorers. And the adorers of other finger-navigated handsets for that matter.

How do they use these cellphones without throwing up their arms in frustration at the bother of surface upkeep? Two women I know (identities withheld for my safety) polish their handsets – on their pants or a piece of sunglass wiper – after almost every other call or text message they make.

And when they need to compose a text message? They hold the handset in one hand, and with a dainty index finger, go peck, peck, peck. Mamma mia.

If I already find it easier to flip than to scroll (easier to read a newspaper in print than on screen), then I will certainly find it easier to press buttons than peck at a screen. Texting on, say, a Blackberry is okay but doing finger calisthenics on an onscreen keyboard is not.

Worse, I imagine, when you transpose all that "caressing" to a bigger appliance like a touch-smart all-in-one (AIO) desktop. If typing on a keyboard already induces wrist ache, what would stretching out your arm for hours in a day – to get around all the applications like browser, Word document or PowerPoint slide – do to your poor limb?

There will soon be more touchscreen buzz when telco M1 when starts selling the iPhone later this year.(2009) SingTel, which had the first bite at selling rights, has already sold "tens of thousands" of the handsets since August last year. (2008) But I doubt that M1 can count me as one more digit to this tally.

No free gifts for nice write-ups

2009-10-14T22:28:00Z

Tham Yuen-C says the ‘you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours’ mentality should stop.

THE first thing most people ask me, when they find out I write for Digital Life, is whether I get to keep all the gadgets that I review.

For the record, the answer is no. We return all gadgets sent in to us for review, and do not accept long-term loans (read: I'll-look-the-other-way items). Most media companies, ours included, have policies against accepting commercially valuable gifts and freebies.

In the blogging world, the work of regulating credibility has been left largely to the free market. There is nothing to stop bloggers from waxing lyrical about mobile phones, face creams or even hotel stays, without declaring that they got these products or services for free.

Not anymore, if the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US and the Media Development Authority (MDA) in Singapore have their way.

Last week, the FTC updated it's advertising guidelines to include blogs. Under the new rules, bloggers who get paid for endorsing products or services are required to declare it.

The Media Development Authority in Singapore is also mulling stricter disclosure rules, although no date has been set for roll-out.

The aim is to protect consumers who could fall prey to false advertisements or advertorials masquerading as reviews.

Yet, enforcement will be almost impossible.

With so many bloggers opining about anything from restaurants to running shoes to handbags, the agencies in charge of policing the blogs have their work cut out for them.

There will also be many things to pin down, such as who a blogger is, what qualifies as a blog and which legal jurisdiction a person would fall under if he or she were, say, a Singaporean blogger living in London.

Even in the media industry, where there are rules and the threat of dismissal for breaking them, mandating credibility is not an easy task. What more in the nebulous world of the Internet?

These days, blogs, review sites and even Twitter have become the first stops for consumers who want to canvas other people's opinions about products and services before springing good money. So more protection for people is definitely welcome.

But rather, the focus should be about regulating the practice (of deceptive advertising) and not the medium (of blogs and new media).

For example, while it will be hard to track all blog posts and bloggers, it should be easier to police companies that use new media channels to make self-serving claims under a cloak of partiality, and the advertising companies that broker these deals.

On the matter of avatars

2009-10-11T07:52:00Z

Eve Yap rediscovers the fun in playing digital dress-up.

IF YOU ask me, the good folk who created avatars must have been baby boomers.

They must have been born sometime between 1946 and 1964, and they must have played with paper dolls. Must have. How else do you explain the close similarity in concept between paper dolls and today’s avatars?

Paper dolls were those sheets of paper you bought for a few cents when you were little. You then pressed out the doll cutout and hung clothes and put bracelets and shoes – via tiny fold-back tabs – on the dolly.

An avatar is your digital likeness of being. And you also tog her out.

But there are big differences.

It used to be that playing with paper dolls was a girl thing. Today, playing with avatars is a geek thing – that brotherhood of guys who shoot, slay and strum in game genres from first-person-shooters to music bands.

Also, the old inanimate dolly was just that – a hard copy Barbie. But today’s avatars represent you. And that’s the thing, I’ll wager, that hooks people into the avatar craze: vanity fuels the desire to make these mirror images of you look good, so you feel good.

Why, some avatar merchandise are highly sought-after items. For instance, as of Oct 8, you can buy NFL jerseys on Avatar Marketplace, the Xbox Live’s online mall.

Some people even spend real money buying an online wardrobe – from tops to tattoos and all sorts of headgear and footwear in between. (Read about it in Digital Life’s cover story on Oct 14.)

If it seems somewhat pointless - all this serious activity - just to soup up a visual icon of yourself, it probably is. Other than the kick you get from kitting out your likeness, I don’t see much else of worth to it.

But truth be told, I have an avatar too. Courtesy of Yahoo. It lets me dress me in my choice of a pale green polo T-shirt, white biker pants, a pink bicycle and a wink. For the background, I chose my most favourite place in the whole world – the seaside.

It’s been at least six months ago that I created my avatar; I had stumbled on the free service when I signed off from my Yahoo e-mail account. But after the initial experimenting, I got bored and forgot all about mini me.

Now, avatars seem hot once more: even staid British newspaper, Guardian, is asking its online contributors to use at least an avatar, if not a real photo, when posting articles.

So, I may visit my avatar again. Head to an Avatar Town (like a mini mall), and click on skirt or surfboard for a change of clothes or a new prop. Give myself a make over.

What can I say? Vanity calls.

A model senior citizen

2009-10-06T09:40:00Z

Grace Chng meets a 68-year-old who surprises her with his e-habits.

ABOUT three months ago, I had bought a Kindle, an e-book reader from Amazon. It was such a useful device. No more thinking about where to put the new book shelves. With the Kindle, everything is digital.

I wrote in Digital Life about the convenience of owning a Kindle and how it was easy to buy and read the latest best-selling novels the instant they hit the stores.

A retiree, Mr Tang Wee Lip had read about it and was determined to own one. He emailed me to ask about it and how to go about buying it.

Online store Amazon sells the device but only in the US. There are workaround solutions for bookworms here and I shared them with him in my response to his email.

What impressed me in his email which thanked me for the workaround solution was the last line of his message: "I’m 68 years old. I was intrigued.

Seldom do I come across an elderly person who’s so interested in technology. At that age, most of my friends’ parents are complaining about the small font size on their cellphones or how they preferred to read the real thing, a book, instead of going digital.

Well, not only did Mr Tang, a former civil servant and financial consultant, manage to buy a Kindle, he bought the latest model. The Kindle DX sports a 9.7-inch screen, bigger than the original device so that he can enlarge the fonts and read better, he said, when I met him about two weeks ago, to show him how to buy e-books.

“The Kindle also has text-to-speech, it can 'read' to me which is good because my eyes tire when I read too much,” he said as he made me show him step-by-step the task of buying e-books and how to change to a bigger font size on the Kindle DX.

What I discovered in that one-hour meeting with him over coffee at McDonalds in Tanglin Mall was that the Kindle was not the only e-book reader he had. Neither was he a tech newbie.

He already owned the Elonex e-book sold in England which he bought early this year. But he was not happy he could not increase the size of the letters to make it easier on his eyes. Hence, the Kindle DX.

For our meeting, he brought along his netbook, the ultra-portable laptop that has a seven-inch screen and weighs less than a kilogram.

And you know how most PC users tend to use Internet Explorer as their web browser?

Not Mr Tang.

He was toggling between Firefox and IE when we met as IE had refused to launch on his computer. I was surprised his computer was running Firefox, a browser more popular with geeks, but my jaw dropped when I saw he also had Chrome, a new browser from Google which is still undergoing tests.

This is the thing about Mr Tang. He has a redundancy plan. He has an alternative so that, if one fails, he can turn to the other. It's the same reason why he has two other regular-sized laptops at home, "in case one fails", he explained.

His experience has been that often one laptop would hang, which prevented him from going online. So having a second computer allows him to continue with his cyber activities while he fiddles with the "hung" computer to find a solution.

"I just try various options to find a solution to the machine that isn’t working. You’ve to be patient to try various things before you can find one that will work," he advised.

But the laptops are too heavy to carry around with him. Hence, his choice of a netbook which is light and handy enough to slip into a small bag. It lets him check stock prices and his e-mail, not only from his doctor daughter in England, but from friends and fellow retirees here who want to share with him their favourite YouTube videos.

And to make sure he can go online wherever he is, he doesn’t rely on the free wireless hotspots. Instead he subscribed to a mobile "stick", a USB-like device that has a 3G SIM card in it and allows a user to go online anytime, any place.

This mobile "stick" was in his netbook so that I could show him how to buy content online.

E-books are not his only cyber interest. He also downloads news and current affairs podcasts from BBC which he listens to every night.

More senior citizens should be like Mr Tang. He is a model senior citizen when it comes to IT. He bothers to keep himself up to date with technology although computers are not second nature to him like it is with the millenials.

But he is willing to spend time to learn and to explore new areas like e-books. That surely is a good way to keep remain mentally active and prevent the cobwebs from dimming the brain.

Simple is tough

2009-09-29T11:28:00Z

Tan Chong Yaw tests out downloading a couple of apps on his smartphone.

KEEP it simple.

That's what Apple had done with the task of adding new programs to a smartphone.

How easy? To quote my seven-old-son: "Duh!"

That was his succinct response when I asked him did he know to download and install apps to my wife's two week old iPhone 3GS.

Apps. That's a word that Apple has helped in popularising. It's a snappy handle for what is called a program or software application.

While writing a story on smartphone apps, I was downloading and testing apps.

Now, let it be known – I am not an Apple fan. I don't even own a single Apple product.

I have been using Microsoft's Window Mobile devices since the OS was called Pocket PC.

That was when phones were just for making calls.

For computing power on the go, you would get a PDA (Personal Data Assistant). The merger of the two – into the smartphone – is bucking the trend in worldwide phone sales.

Smartphones are hot items and they are no longer the preserve of the geek.

One of Apple's masterstrokes is a small icon, just one out of the 20 icons that greet you when you switch on the phone.

Dubbed simply App Store, behind it lies an online library of more than 85,000 apps and container-loads of designer smarts to make the process as simple as making a phone call.

No need to look elsewhere – all Apple-approved apps in the App Store.

Once you have found an app, all it takes is two taps on the app price button – it can be free or a price in US dollars is given – and the app is zipped through the air into your phone. It will quietly install itself and sit there until you want it.

It couldn't be simpler. Apple could make it a single screen tap but that would mean that you could be downloading a hundred dollar app just like that.

Google's app store – the Android Market – comes close in convenience. It is almost as beckoning as the App Store – cheerful and well formated for the phone screen.

Like in the iPhone, Android app downloads are fuss-free.

I like that I can also browse through popular apps on my PC at android.com/market. It's a pity that searches can't be made there but only on an Android phone like the HTC Hero.

The download of an app is just too busy a process. There is an information overload with progress bars and windows that inform me about loading and connecting. Do I need to know all these?

But it was Nokia's website – store.ovi.com – that I enjoyed using the most for its openness. No need for me to open an account like with the iPhone. And all the apps are shown unlike the Android Market website.

But the Ovi search engine needs an overhaul though. A search using the keyword, Singapore, yielded only one app – The Straits Times.

Which reminds me – don't forget to pick up your copy of the paper tomorrow – there will be stories in Digital Life about phone apps. And a list of free apps designed for Singaporeans.

There is something that American jazz bassist Charles Mingus once said that phone makers should heed.

"Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity."

Read more in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.

Radio in an iPod - Aye or nay?

2009-09-24T02:02:00Z

Grace Chng weighs in on Apple's latest iPod Nano.

I was on leave when Apple unveiled the new iPod Nano on Sept 9. It was only two days later in Melbourne that I managed to check the Web to see the latest Apple gizmos.

Wow! The iPod Nano is a beaut. The colours it came in – green, pink, orange, blue, silver – looked brilliant. What caught my attention was the pedometer. That would be cool since it could replace my Polar heart rate monitor when I'm travelling.

At an Apple store in downtown Melbourne, I wasn't disappointed with the new Nano. It is slim and will fit nicely in the small pocket of pair of running shorts. In addition to being an MP3 player, it is also a video camera, a pedometer and a radio.

A radio in an iPod? That sounds odd. This is the first iPod from Apple that has a radio tuner built in.

Apple has tried its best to shield users from radio ads, endless DJ chattering and music you don't like since it unveiled its first iPods in October 2001.

However, companies like Creative Technology, Diamond and Samsung had always offered radio tuners in their MP3 players. I recall the sharp remarks these companies made about the iPods: "Who would want to listen to only canned music when you can listen to fresh music played on radio?"

I remember how on many occasions, Creative Technology which was fighting with Apple for dominance of the MP3 player market, would claim that its Nomad MP3 players were superior in engineering quality and that no one would buy a digital music player without a radio.

Creative was Apple's biggest competitor then because it launched the first MP3 player in the world at the end of 1999. Apple made a stupid move by not offering radio on the iPod, it said. Moreover, my friends also complained that they can’t listen to news when they use the iPod.

Ten years later Creative still sells digital music players but it does not dominate the MP3 market while Apple has gone on to grab more than half the global market.

At heart, Creative is an engineering company that believes that every gadget should be stuffed with all sorts of features. In its eyes, this is giving customers value for money. Customers reciprocated by buying millions of these devices.

For Apple, it's about fit for use. Find out what customers need and match it accordingly with feature offerings. Don't fill gadgets with too many features that people don’t understand and won’t use.

So in my view, the radio in the new Nano fits the market segment Apple is targeting: the outdoor and active person. The Nano slips into any pair of gym shorts or it can be worn on an armband. Together with the Pedometer function (it measures the number of steps you take), perfect for the jogger, gym rat or exercise fanatic who wants to know the intensity of his workout.

Predicting consumer behaviour is an art rather than a science. Was Creative right that radio is a must-have feature in iPods or was it ahead of its time? Let me know your thoughts.

chngkeg@sph.com.sg

A battery of charges

2009-09-18T06:18:00Z

Tan Chong Yaw ponders the problem of dying phone batteries.

TALK about misleading. The manual says that your cellphone has a standby time of a week. But that is if you don't use your phone. At all.

Even the specs for length of talktime doesn't help. Consider this: Your cellphone is your most overworked electronic gizmo.

As a phone you leave it on 24/7. But it also serves as your camcorder and camera. And your e-mail device. You surf the Net on it and check out the latest YouTube clips.

It guides you to your destination and list the services around you once you get there.

You read e-books and even watch movies on it. And your children see your phone as their gaming console.

All these scream for power – more than just for making phone calls. And as the phone's repertoire of tricks grow and screens get brighter and bigger, it sucks up energy. Big time.

Which brings us to the one piece in the cellphone that remains a laggard - the battery.

It can't keep up. Use your multi-talented phone hard and your battery may not last out the day.

With our work and social life revolving around our phone, that is just not acceptable.

More power means a bigger battery. But surely you can't have a lump of a battery sticking out from a svelte streamlined design, right?

Not quite.

One thing I like about my two-year-old Samsung i600 smartphone is that it came with a standard slim battery plus a larger, heavy-duty one that gives almost twice more juice. I am given a choice: Slimness or power.

Mind you, separate housing is included so that the increased bulk of the larger battery is artfully hidden.

But for most phones, a power user on the move can always keep a fully-charged battery handy in case the first battery runs out.

The question is: What if the battery is sealed away inside the phone where it cannot be reached without voiding the warranty? That's the case for a popular smartphone from a company named after a fruit linked to the discovery of gravity.

I know some folks who lug their chargers around with them. Better a permanent bulge in the Kate Spade or attaché case than have a call or transaction that dies midstream.

But what if you are on move away and have no access a power point? There are third party solutions but all add considerable bulk to the phone.

This word, therefore, to manufacturers: Bravo for making phones that are probably smarter than most of us before our morning cup of coffee.

Now, how about giving more power (options) to your customers?

Addicted to fat burnt and calories spent

2009-09-01T06:50:00Z

Grace Chng muses on how heart rate monitors have changed her habits.

SINCE I stopped playing competitive squash nearly 10 years ago, I've had to look around for a sport to replace it.

I've been using squash to get fit. Friends have told me for years that I should get fit to play squash, but what the heck, it's easier to play squash to get fit!

So when it came to retirement, I had few workout options. Jogging and running was out of the question since my knees are injured after over two decades of punishing my knees in the squash courts. Yoga was difficult because I couldn't bend my knees. So it was walking on the treadmill and weight training.

Morning workouts at the gym have become my routine for the last 10 years but I don't know if I'm really fit, whether the fat accumulated around the tum-tum is being burnt.

That's when a friend told me about the Polar heart rate monitor about 10 months ago. Not only does it monitor the heart rate, it also can tell you how many calories and fat you've burnt.

I'd read about the Polar watches but was sceptical. Coincidentally, the annual medical check-up revealed a rather high sugar level. Lose a few kilos, said the doctor. So with the help of a trainer, I set out to do brisk walking wearing a heart rate monitor - and I was wowed by the numbers it gave.

After one particular good workout of a 5km brisk walk on the treadmill and a weight programme, I had spent 700 calories and burnt 15% fat. I was encouraged to continue the next day... and the next. Soon I had a notebook filled with these numbers: Pulse rate, calories and fat burnt and distance walked.

It was addictive, recording to those numbers. I was always eager to find out how many calories was spent and how much fat I'd burnt after each workout. The thing about numbers is that it pushes you onward. Every day, I wanted to do burn more fat, walk faster and longer distances. If I forgot to bring the heart rate monitor to the gym, I would be irritated not knowing how I'd performed that day.

The 5 kg weight loss added to the high feeling. It was worth it all. I can shed a few more kilos, I thought.

Then my knees started to ache. I wasn't running but the brisk pounding on the treadmill every day for at least 3km soon did my knees in.

I haven't stopped the workout routine. In fact, I've changed the programme - one that is as intensive as the first plan - so that the body doesn't get an opportunity to get used to one exercise plan.

But I've learnt one thing: To listen to my body. If something hurts, stop and attend to it. If I feel tired in the morning, workout at night or go for a walk instead. Never mind if the numbers from the digital trainers are not as high as they use to be. The idea is to have a workout programme that is sustainable and most importantly, enjoyable.

I still keep a record, but I've learnt to be pleased not by the numbers but by how lose my clothes have become. At the very least, I can get a new wardrobe as a reward.

Read Digital Life's cover story tomorrow on digital workout buddies that let you meet your fitness goals.