Proctele apps in the App Store

Proctele apps in the App Store
Click the picture to see Proctele apps in Apple's App Store

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

How big is a smartphone?

There's a race going on now between smartphone brands about who sells the largest smartphone. Samsung is leading the race with its 5.5" screen Note smartphones and the Galaxy S3 with a 4.8" screen. HTC Butterfly has a 5" screen. iPhone5 has a 4" screen. Only a few years back 3" meant a large screen.

How big can a smartphone get before it gets impractical? It depends on who you ask. The answer is more complex than just one number, like 5". It depends on the form factor. With a very wide screen you might have trouble using it with one hand, or even holding it with one hand. If the screen is very high, you might have the same problem.
There's of course a carrying issue with larger phones. A 5" phone might not fit well into the front pocket of your trousers and the back pocket is just too dangerous a place for a smartphone. I usually keep my iPhone in my breast pocket, where it's out of the way of keys, coins and the rest. BTW a silicon phone protection is essential for breast pockets, because it stops the phone gliding out of the pocket. Weight is an important issue too.
Now some people just insist on having big smartphones, and there's a solution for them too. At least if their big one is an HTC Butterfly (5"). Here's the solution: an HTC mini:
The HTC Mini has a number pad and small screen and can be used as a handset companion to the Butterfly (the non-US version of HTC’s Droid DNA) as well as a remote control when the Butterfly is connected to a larger display. The Mini can make calls, display messages and calendar events, and control the shutter on the Butterfly when connected.

It's inevitable that screen sizes will become more diversified. I think size will become fashion. Sometimes small will be all the rage, sometimes big will. I also think pads and phones are so different devices that there will "always" be room for both. Both have their different strengths.



Monday, January 14, 2013

Flat is fine, curved is better!

The old fat TVs used to have a convex curvature. Future TVs will probably be concave, like the largest cinema screens are already. What we see here are some curved screens shown at the CES:

OLED screens like these can be extremely thin and bendable. Bent screens apparently cause a 3D effect, which is said to be dramatic.

The potential of bendable screens is likely to stretch well beyond home cinemas. Samsung showed a bendable screen for use in mobile phones. They use the term flexible (see the Youtube video in the references below), because the user can actually bend the screen himself. It looks quite neat.

Then there's the new use of vending machines. Here's one that'll lend you a MacBook:

I thought it was a joke, but this machine is apparently at the Drexel University in Philadelphia. The machine lends out MacBooks free of charge—with proper ID—for five-hour periods. What's its Raison d'etre? It's not for saving students the money for a MacBook, instead it lets students who are studying at the university's library late into the night, leave their own hardware at home, so they're not a target for thieves on the streets of west Philadelphia. A common problem with Apple products, like the iPhone.

You must have heard of the Java security hole. It hasn't been fixed yet if I'm correctly informed. To be on the safe side you might want to disable your browser's Java plug-in. You'll probably not have to enable it again, because only a small percentage of sites use it.

Refs: 
http://gizmodo.com/5974348/lg-curved-3d-oled-hands+on-an-imax-for-your-house (LG bendable screens)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2nG9qy6vs (Samsung flexible screen)
http://gizmodo.com/5975475/how-to-disable-java-in-your-browser (Disable Java)

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Is it a TV or a PC?

It's a Google TV made by LG and it's on display at CES2013. Here it is:



This beautiful piece of hardware can do more than just show TV-programs. 

Being a Google TV of course it has SEARCH and not only that, you can ask it to search by talking to it (voice).

BTW, have you noticed that we tend to communicate with fellow humans more and more by text, while some think we want to communicate with machines by voice?


It further features streamlined access to VOD (Video on Demand), YouTube and apps.



For gamers LG Google TV will offer the OnLive app pre-installed, which will turn this TV into a gaming platform without a separate console. 

You will be able to enjoy hundreds of high quality video games in the cloud. It also has CINEMA 3D TV functionality.

Ref: http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20121224/lg-google-tv-models-ces-2013/