From Nexus One to Samsung Galaxy S II

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The Samsung Galaxy S II (SGS2) has got to be one of the most anticipated Android phones of 2011. There are already plenty of excellent reviews of the SGS2 (some listed at the end of this post), so I will not write yet another post to review the phone. What I’ll do, instead, is to share my experiences with the SGS2 coming from a Nexus One user. There are big expectations of the SGS2, because it succeeds the Samsung Galaxy…

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Fuss About Location Tracking

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The recent uproar over location tracking in iOS devices seem to be overblown. Did anyone not realize that their iPhones or iPads could track their location? You can be tracked so many ways. Your favourite iOS device is just one of those many ways of being tracked. Location tracking is so everywhere in the technology of today.

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It’s a World of Android Phones

My Nexus One is over a year old now. My mobile contract is up for renewal. The Nexus One’s hardware specifications are still pretty good, even considering the second Google flagship Nexus S. But there’s always room for improvement, like faster CPU, more memory, longer battery life, more megapixels, etc. Perhaps, even more hardware like adding a front-facing camera or NFC, things that only became standard expectations on the Android platform much after the Nexus One was launched.

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Who Owns My Phone?

It’s a tussle between individuals and the wishes of business organizations wanting to protect their data. The “problem”, is that phones nowadays are so powerful, so ubiquitous, and used so much for personal and work needs. The “problem” is that individuals want to own the phone, because it’s personal; At the same time, work organizations want to own the phone because it contains work secrets.

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Of iPhone 4, Signal Problems and Multitasking

I just made a discovery, or perhaps shall I say, saw a relationship between the iPhone 4 signal loss problems, the way the phone is held, and multitasking. You’ve probably read about how the iPhone 4 encounters some problems with its cellular signal strength when held in a certain way. Steve Jobs answer was to simply not hold it that way. It seems that the iPhone 4 works better if held in the right hand. Well, I started to think…

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NUS Wireless Setup on Nexus One

I figure that anyone who uses a smartphone like the Nexus One is going to have a 3G data plan, so being able to hook onto a wireless network isn’t going to be so important. But anyhow, I thought I’d just make a small little community contribution by sharing how to configure the Nexus One phone (I suppose just about any Android 2.0/2.1 phone will work the same) to connect to the NUS wireless network in, well, NUS. But first,…

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N97 vs Nexus One

I’ve used the Nexus One for a little over a week now. I think the biggest thing I will miss with my previous Nokia N97 is its camera. It’s quite capable of taking some really nice photos, like this shot of the Nexus One (as well as that in the previous post). This is one area that the Nexus One is trumped by the N97. Both phones sport 5 megapixel camera sensors, auto-focus, and LED flash (dual LED on the…

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Switching to the Nexus One

When Google announced the Nexus One last month, I felt it was an interesting development that has begun to change what an Android phone can represent. Some people will know that I have been, until then, rather anti-Android. There were two reasons: unimpressive hardware features (and uninteresting design too), as well as an open source development environment that I felt didn’t quite live up to the spirit of what open source was supposed to stand for. But, the first reason…

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SingTel Mobile Mucks Up Again

It looks like SingTel Mobile has mucked up again. In the late afternoon, I found that my mobile phone had no signal. After rebooting, it seemed to be okay. So perhaps it was my phone. Then my colleague noted that he had no 3G data connection on his SingTel Mobile line. Later in the evening, for much of my trip home, my phone again had no signal at all. When it did, it had no data. Eventually, I got to…

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The Nexus One Arrives

The Nexus One, Google’s branded Android phone, finally arrives in Singapore. It comes in a nice packaging that on opening, kind of resembles how iPods are packed. Singapore customers are automatically offered a 3-pin charger during the order checkout. This will be an additional charger over the US 2-pin charger that is still included in the box. If you want to save a few bucks, the 3-pin charger isn’t all that necessary. The Nexus One charges via a micro-USB port…

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