Windows 7 (RC1): It works!

Although a little skeptical about jumping on the windows 7 bandwagon after the Vista aftermath I must admit I haven’t stopped using it since I installed it. The installation was simple and straightforward. With the exception of downloading specific drivers for my Radeon 4870 GFX card, everything just worked as though someone had waved a magic wand over my machine.

The best part is that software meant for XP works instantaneously without having to specify compatibility. Look and feel wise its like vista but the differences become apparent when trying to execute unsigned software installers, your wish becomes its command and it won’t bother you again with irritating questions. My hardware hasn’t changed at all and yet it didn’t demand any more than what it got.

I have yet to try using it with RAM more than 3 GB, something XP didn’t support but apparently vista did. The system hasn’t crashed on me even once in the past month. When applications become unresponsive it subtly asks you what action you’d like to take. Afterall you ARE meant to be the boss here. The massive taskbar reminded me of Linux (perhaps someone learnt something). It made sense to have it big given that the OS is being geared for touch interaction. Recovering from hibernation takes literally 5 seconds (on a 3GHz core 2 duo). Window transitions are comparable to OSX and are a welcome eye-candy (don’t we all wish for something exciting at times?). Windows can be stuck around the screen and even maximized by sticking it to the top of the screen, very intuitive indeed.

Literally everything an average user would make use of, such as photo gallery, printers, wireless network etc can be managed through sensible interaction with the machine. Win 7 even gives you a fair choice of anti-virus software to choose from if one isn’t installed already.

I really am looking forward to getting my hands on the final release.

Samsung Omnia i900: Too little too soon

Image courtesy: Alibaba.com

End-user impression of the i900

1. Hardware: Easy to handle lightweight candybar body with responsive buttons and a big screen. Don’t let the big screen fool you because the resolution isn’t the sharpest. Could have really done with a decent VGA at least. The screen, in comparison to HTC Touch pro is much more responsive. The clunky text (as a result of the resolution) and low color depth makes up for it though. The camera is decent enough to take a “mobile” picture. Video capture works at 640×480 resolution but given the 400×240 resolution it’s scaled down during playback. The stylus hangs outside of the body and looks like a half-pen. Could have really done with some smarts there.

2. Software: Works off the standard WinMo 6.1 pro. The omnia sports a neat phonebook, FM tuner, smart reader (scanner), quick settings, unit converter, “touch” player, streaming media player, and a widget based “today” screen item. By the looks of it samsung hasn’t put in a lot of work integrating the “utility screens” with the device. The online widgets assume network connection availability and for the size of the screen do little to help. Another today screen layout is very iPhone-like and yet another one that delivers the bare minimum. I tried using the SPB mobile shell which completely transforms the phone with some intuitive eye-candy. Auto screen rotation works as expected i.e. the layout changes each time the screen is rotated as opposed to working only with certain apps.

The overall picture: Not the best phone to have if you’re spending money (I picked mine up for free on a contract). Might as well put in a little extra cash and get something worthwhile like an HTC Touch HD. Everything about the device screams “… just get the beta out to market and we’ll work on it from there …” and truly so, Koreans are enjoying a high resolution version of the Omnia. At the end of the day its still a windows mobile 6.1 phone, the OS itself wasn’t designed for finger-touch so you’ll be left pulling out that ugly stylus or pushing into the screen with your nail or worse still picking on corners with anything sharp.

Live video streaming from mobile phone: Now possible with Qik.com

Ever wanted to cover an event or a prank using your mobile phone as it unfolded before your eyes and share it with people, LIVE?

Qik answers your wishes with a service to stream near-live audio-video content online. The model itself is based somewhat around the twitter concept of following people. The video content is laid out like you would expect it to be: “hot posts”, “top qik’ers” and tag based sorting. It lends itself very well to the web 2.0 ideology of user generated content, inter-connectivity with other services such as facebook, youtube and stumbleupon and adds the real-time bit to it. The most important aspect of the service is that you no longer have to wait to transfer videos onto the PC and then upload. Qik records it for you as soon as you hit the record button on the phone app. Whats even more impressive is their range of supported handset manufacturers (see image below).

Qik.com caters to a number of handset manufacturers

Moreover, it gives you plenty of choices regarding how you want to acquire the software for the phone. I’ve already put up the most amateur video ever, here (yeah laugh all you want). The service opens the doors to citizen-video-journalism with live coverage of events worldwide. I’m looking forward to seeing some cool n Qik mashups.