Zit Seng's Superwall

It used to be our private joke about how, perhaps, the iPad predates the iPhone. They look similar, the iPad being an oversized version of the iPhone. In fact, they look even more similar if you compare with the rumoured next generation (4G) of the iPhone. It’s as if the original iPhone design was really that big (i.e. 9.56in x 7.47in), then someone higher up in Apple said: “Hey, how do you expect someone to use a phone so big…” And so, the original iPhone was shelved, and Apple engineers had to make a mini iPhone, eventually the first generation iPhone we know today.

(more…)

Well, it turned out not. Rumours surfaced earlier this week about Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer speaking at Apple’s WWDC 2010 keynote. It turns out not. The enemy’s enemy denied. The rumour had earlier said that Microsoft’s CEO would have 7 minutes at the keynote to talk about a new version of Visual Studio 2010 producing iPad, iPhone and Mac apps.

(more…)

I came across two interesting bits of news. First of which is about Android, possibly, having outsold the iPhone. This data, from NPD, may not be absolutely accurate and reflective of the real market, but it does suggest a trend of rapidly rising Android popularity. Until the end of 2009, I myself haven’t been particularly impressed with Android. There weren’t any killer hardware then, and the promise of an open Android platform was, in my opinion, not sufficiently open as I thought it should have been.

(more…)

Many people are still not getting it. IT security has to be a fundamental component in any IT application. It’s not something you can easily slap on later. But still every so often, when I talk to “IT professionals” about various projects, IT security continues to be an afterthought. Most people are just concerned about rolling out features. Many people understand the importance of code modularity, code re-use, and many other nice principles of software engineering. But few actually think about designing security as a fundamental part of the application.

(more…)

We finally decided that we had enough of donating paying IDA about $400 or so a year for a restricted license required by our extremely old walkie talkies at work. The walkie talkies we had were really very old and the batteries couldn’t hold a charge for any reasonable amount of time anymore. We figured that $400 could easily buy us a few sets of brand new walkie talkies. We’ve seen some that were really cheap.

(more…)

When Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was launched last year, one of the things that caught my attention was its support for Exchange 2007. It would have meant better integration for Mac users with a corporate Microsoft Exchange-based calendar and directory service. But alas, when I finally got Snow Leopard installed and tried to get my Mail.app setup, I realized the nitty gritty details. It’s Exchange 2007, not any Exchange, and it turns out that the Microsoft Exchange I have at work isn’t 2007.

(more…)

iPad fever is passing, it’s now back to iPhone 4G. Guess what? The next generation iPhone 4G was “discovered”, then bought by Gizmodo’s parent company , Gawker Media, for $5000. It’s an expensive iPhone, but perhaps not that much considering the “news” value of this unannounced product.

The new iPhone 4G looks to have a camera flash, a bigger lens for the back camera (and hence perhaps a higher resolution camera), a front-facing camera, and a higher resolution screen.

(more…)

10 hours of battery life is practically good for the entire work day! Apple has just announced updates to the entire family of MacBook Pro notebooks, and the latest 13″ models claim to run for 10 hours on battery. The next best thing is the price. At the Apple Singapore store, the price has dropped across the board, by between S$100 to S$500. We’re luckier than US customers, because in the US store, at least one model has become US$100 more expensive.

(more…)

Steve Jobs just shared with the world what is coming with the latest iPhone OS version 4.0. In a media presentation lasting about 1 hour, a couple of the simply amazing features were demonstrated by Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall. Really amazing features like, ahem, being able to set a wallpaper for your home screen. Yes, for the first time ever, iPhone users will soon be able to customize the background of their home screen. I’m sure they will spend countless hours deciding which denim texture to adorn their iPhone screen with. Steve Jobs took no less than 90 seconds to show how wallpapers are selected in his demonstration.

(more…)

Today is the Apple iPad launch day. I thought I would write a few words about this much-raved-about product. Personally, I still don’t see why and how this tablet should be so revolutionary. Maybe it is the user experience that makes the difference. Or perhaps it is the magic of Apple’s marketing. All the initial reviews pouring out now are saying lots of wonderful things about the iPad (though I’m sure Apple chose carefully where to send the early iPads). I know, it looks nice, but I just don’t know how I am going to be using it. Maybe, I’m not the kind of user that the iPad is designed for.

(more…)