Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Be smarter than your Smartphone

It crossed twitter few days ago a line saying "be smarter than your smart phone" I guess this hits me a bit with how things are now. Phones get smarter, but are we?

Pada dasarnya, telefon, handphone, tablet, pad, gadget,.. atau apapun itu, dibuat untuk mendukung kegiatan kita sehari-hari. Kata kunci? "mendukung". Saat ini tampaknya, seperti diperkirakan, keadaan agak sedikit berbelok dari niat awalnya. Gadget bukan lagi alat pendukung kegiatan.. atau sekedar alat komunikasi. Gadget itu .. Lifestyle, Fashion Statement, sampai status!

Things have evolve soooo fast! Sekarang bukan jaman 2 handphone lagi. 3!!. Salah satunya pasti ada Blackberry.! bener ga? Mulai dari Om-om yang bawa men purse sampai anak SMA. Dari tujuan "biar telpon murah, pake cdma.. yang 1 khusus buat nelpon" sampai "ini telpon kantor, ini pribadi".. ada juga ya "ini istri gw ga tau......" pfft!

Antrian gadget masih menjadi tren yang luar biasa. Tahun lalu kita dikagetkan dengan launching pertama nokia communicator di seluruh dunia yaitu di Indonesia,.. tahun ini adalagi dengan peluncuran Blackberry Bellagio yang juga pertama kali di dunia,.. di Indonesia. Bedanya, kali ini memakan korban sekitar 3 korban patah tulang dan 90 korban pingsan. Not bad lah ya? -____-

Tampaknya, Blackberry, yang kenyataannya di Amerika anjlok harga sahamnya, masih menjadi yang paling dibela-bela-patah-tulang-dan-pingsan di sini. Pangsa pasar operating system handphone di AS 80% dipegang iOS dan Android. Bahkan, Omset Appstore milik Apple, lebih tinggi dari Blackberry keseluruhan.

Lalu, Vertu makin banyak yang tidak takut memamerkannya! handphone mewah yang bisa mencapai ratusan juta ini ternyata tidak sendiri. Pernah dengar Gresso, Amosu?

Berapa banyak dari kita yang merasa harus memiliki gadget terbaru? baru memikirkan butuh atau tidaknya, belakangan? *disodorin cermin*

Yang terbaru, hadir dalam bentuk yang mempercantik gadget "biasa" yang sudah dimiliki. Dalam bentuk.. simple casing. Tapi, bukan casing biasa kalau tidak menyatakan status. Ini contoh leather case iPad dari Hermes yang harganya lebih mahal dari iPad-nya itu sendiri ($800 - $1400)

Itu hanya beberapa contoh tentang bagaimana sudah berkembangnya industry ini. Bagi para pengusaha tentu bisa melihat peluang yang luar biasa darinya.. mulai dari produksi gadget sendiri (contoh KohHengky dengan Ti-Phone-nya hihi) atau produksi casing aksesoris, content provider, sampai isi rington! (bukan ringtone)

Semua diatas sangat menjauh dari kegunaan gadget pada dasarnya yang merupakan pendukung kegiatan, untuk komunikasi, multimedia, organizer, atau bekerja itu sendiri. Tidak sedikit yang tidak tahu cara menggunakan meng-install aplikasi, mengunduh dan meng-edit dokumen,.. bahkan banyak yang lebih tahu cara menggunakan facebook dan twitter.

Gaptek masih jaman?

Setidaknya, semua gadget terbaru yang saya beli, saya ulik abis,.. selain cinta saya terhadap dunia teknologi tetapi juga menurut petuah tadi "Be Smarter than your Smartphone" .. Remember, it is human who create smartphones!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Reviewing the slim & sexy droid: Motorola RAZR Droid

Yesterday I briefly tweet sneak review of Motorola RAZR. Now I'm gonna rewrite here, and dig deeper.

Here we go...

Okay you must remember Motorola had a phone launched named RAZR? the very slim one that comes in several colors? yeah! here comes the latest version! still slim, sexy but packed with a whole lots of new things (bigger, touch screen, and android!)

Mine is not for sale! haha!





I'll show you how slim is RAZR, comparing the old and new:

This time RAZR droid is 7.1mm.. the thinnest android phone compared to 8.49mm Samsung Galaxy S2 and 9.4mm iPhone 4S! sickishly slim! (is that even a word?)

Still on the form factor. I like the kevlar meet aluminum meet gorilla glass back cover that looks premium. I love it!


Lets move on and have a look at the battery. Bad thing is its irreplaceable (just like iPhone). Considering the size, I guess they MUST made it that way. Good thing is, its 1780mAh (onyx 2 1500mAh, Dakota 1230mAh, Samsung S2 1850mAh, iPhone 1420mAh).. but its only numbers. The life of your battery depends on its life cycle (how many times you charge it), the use (whether its 3G? wifi? bluetooth? applications on, screen brightness, etc.. etc..). It claims to survive 8hours. I don't have that much time to test it. I gotta return this sexy thing! *broken hearted*

The insights? we call this "jeroan" in Indonesia. It packs 1.2 Ghz dual processor, which is not the fastest out there and 1GB ram. Fast enough for a size this slim


I promised you yesterday on my twit that I'm gonna share some pics result. Remember.. result also depend on the way you look at it! I mean.. DISPLAY! Here's how it looks on the phone comparing to iPhone 4 & Dakota:


Here's how it looks after I transferred it to computer:

Blackberry Dakota

Iphone 4

Motorola RAZR

The reason of why RAZR have more color on screen rather than after its being uploaded? the 4.2" Super AMOLED display that it has.

See.. super AMOLED is a new thing in display section. Samsung S2 uses super AMOLED Plus but RAZR support Pentile technology. AMOLED, for it to be easy lets say.... the black is REALLY BLACK! (relax Ario, we're not talking about skin color here, phew)

*the picture was taken at the same time. Sorry that I only have those other 2 phones with me*

What do you think?

Here comes the question. Why does it only packs with Android Gingerbread? not Honeycomb nor Ice Cream Sandwich? any andro geeks out there can help me with this? Gingerbread is 2 generation behind the new Ice Cream Sandwich (for those who are confused with all the FLAVORS here, I'm actually talking about the operating system and why its not the latest one)

Its a very sexy device that packs above average beef inside! with a price of less than 6 million Rupiah, I think its a catch! I give 9.5 for form factor and 9 for overall! its slim & sexy, who could resist? :')



Thursday, December 15, 2011

iPhone 4S : Reviewed! -- in a comma --

I've been doing this small survey on twitter asking my followers on which product I need to review. And, as promised, the winner is.... iPhone 4S.. with the total voters of... THREE! yeay.. out of over 1600 followers! I'm amazed of how enthusiast my followers are -_____- *yawn*

Imma do this review bilingual yeeeee... #justincase

iPhone 4S was already launched in several countries... dan Indonesia belum (surprise surprise). Gw beli i4S gw nitip dari temen di Perth. It cost me (di konversi) 7 juta. not bad for a iPhone 4S 16gb, early user! Waktu itu gw nitip 2, 1 buat temen gw, tompi, which is excited like a kid sitting in front of a chimney waiting for Santa on Christmas!

Basic knowledge on iPhone 4S:

1. first thing first is POWER. Jeroan 4S tumbuh! sekarang, iPhone 4S pake prosesor yang sama ama iPad 2. A5 dual core processor and a 512mb ram! anggep aja 20-30% lebih cepet, kira2! Make apps runs smoother, faster & less glitch, or hang, jam pasir, or whatevs...

2. it packs 8mp camera. I know "mp" doesn't mean a thing, kalo ga di print!, tapi, To me, iPhone4s is the best in MOBILE Photography! by far!! ini fotonya juara banget. Auto focus works fine, and the power of @instagram. Siapa yang ga tau instagram? online photo sharing community that changed the way people take photos on mobile phones!

3. SIRI: now how do I explain this.. Bahasa kerennya: "an intelligent software assistant and knowledge navigator functioning as a personal assistant application for iOS, anggep aja ada robot asisten pribadi di dalemnya!.

Siri adalah satu fitur yang harus diperhatikan di iPhone4S. Perlu diketahui bahwa Siri tidak menaruh database jawaban-jawaban atas pertanyaan kita, di dalam handphone.. tapi di simpan di server Apple. Yang artinya, setiap kita bertanya ke siri, Iphone4s akan mengirim rekaman suara pertanyaan kita, untuk dikirim ke server, dan kembali lagi dengan jawaban! So? it will cost you data connection! ini bahaya untuk yang paket dengan providernya, LIMITED! tanpa disadari, tagihan jebol!

Siri juga belum fully functional di Indonesia. terutama di semua hal yang berhubungan dengan lokasi.. misalnya tanya alamat, tanya restaurant, pompa bensin, ATM,... dll... yang sebenarnya sangat lancar di US

Siri juga sensitif menerima perbedaan aksen. Ada setting aksen US, Aus & UK. tolong ya diperhatikan.. thele is no Singapolean English laaaaaah

Kekurangan iPhone 4S yang lain adalah baterai. Sesuai hukum alam rimba dunia gadget. Semakin canggih suatu gadget, semakin banyak konsumsi listriknya. Artinya, batrenya semakin banyak kerja, borosssss.... dan ini diakui Apple. Hadirlah update iOS.. 5.0.1.

The following story might only be valid for my phone only.... here it goes:
I was so shocked knowing that my iPhone 4s went chaos after upgraded to iOS 5.0.1. It keeps losing signal without notice, and everytime it happens,.. satu satunya cara untuk bener? reset! Its not a freaking solution! Kenapa ini harus kejadian setelah Steve Jobs ga ada?? :S

Setelah browsing, it was between happy nor sad knowing I'm not the only one in the world. Silakan dibaca nih... https://discussions.apple.com/message/17004092#17004092

Jadi masalahnya ada di ketidakcocokan iOS 5.0.1 dengan SIM Card. Punya tompi ga masalah, punya gw MasyaAllah!! Gw pake XL (tompi T-sel) dan mereka ga bisa bantu karena XL belum menjual iPhone 4S. I'm well stuck!

Bottom line, I think you should postpone your intention buying iPhone4S until I SAY SO! hahaha.. I mean.. until Apple fix these problems (battery & sim compatibility). You might get lucky like Tompi, but hey.. who wants the risk!??

So I gotta spare iPhone4S lying around in a comma, waiting for an antidote from Apple. God save its soul!