Geekzone Technology Community

Xero acquires WorkflowMax

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:32:00 PDT

New Zealand-listed Xero has strengthened its cloud-based offering through the acquisition of WorkflowMax, a full practice management suite that enables accountants to handle everything from leads and jobs to invoicing and time tracking.

Diablo III sets PC-game launch record

Wed, 23 May 2012 13:59:00 PDT

More than 3.5 million copies of Diablo III have been sold in the first 24 hours after its release, setting the new all-time record for fastest-selling PC game.

New Zealand Budget 2012 goes high tech with new iOS and Android apps

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:28:00 PDT

The Government will launch a smartphone and tablet app for Budget 2012 on Thursday, providing more ready access to Budget material and helping to reduce the need for printed documents.

Australian Vocus acquires New Zealand ISP and data centre company Maxnet

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:20:00 PDT

Maxnet owns and operates a data centre located just outside the Auckland CBD in Albany. In addition to these operations, Maxnet also provides cloud based services, offering a host of Infrastructure as a Service based (IaaS) products.

Are New Zealanders More Evolved Internet Users Than Aussies?

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:29:00 PDT

Fascinating insights into the evolution of the NZ and Australian internet consumer are contained in new data being revealed exclusively in this column this month. The comparative data from Roy Morgan Research (RMR) is based on identical survey questions asked in Australia and NZ during 2011.

Media Design School launches game development degrees

Sun, 20 May 2012 15:27:00 PDT

The School has been supplying the game industry with talent since 2004 when it launched the Graduate Diploma of Game Development. However, the new degrees - Bachelor of Creative Technologies (Game Art) and Bachelor of Software Engineering (Game Programming) - will ensure the industry is populated with a new level of talent.

Commerce Commision lists factors that affect broadband uptake in New Zealand

Sun, 20 May 2012 14:34:00 PDT

Noit surprisingly, connection and usage costs are seen as critical factors that may impact, while video delivery is seen as the primary driver.

BlackBerry 7 and 7.1 Operating Systems Approved for Use by Australian and New Zealand Governments

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:22:00 PDT

BlackBerry smartphones running the BlackBerry 7.0 and 7.1 Operating Systems (BlackBerry 7) have been successfully evaluated and approved for Government use by the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) of the Australian Government.

Never forget your receipt says New Zealand startup

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:47:00 PDT

The world of retail is being hit upon by a wave of new innovations for retailers and their customers, including cloud based Point of Sale software, smart-phone payment technology (NFC) and other new industry upgrades and improvements.

11 reasons to attend HP Discover 2012 in Las Vegas

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:16:00 PDT

We are attending the HP Discover 2012 in Las Vegas and arranged for a good discount offer for any IT Pro planning to attend the event.

snom UC edition business phones now managed by Microsoft Lync

Wed, 16 May 2012 13:10:00 PDT

snom BETA release "Apollo" speeds and simplifies enterprise-wide setup, configuration and management of snom UC SIP endpoints with Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Voice.

Zoho Launches Zoho Sites, Website Builder for Businesses (with video)

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:49:00 PDT

Zoho Sites Website Builder makes it extremely easy to build professional-looking websites that are also mobile-ready. Service uses drag-and-drop user interface, code-free development.

AMD unleashes second-generation AMD A-Series APUs

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:27:00 PDT

Second-generation AMD A-Series APUs enable best-in-class PC mobility, entertainment and gaming experience in single chip with up to 12 hours of battery life and double the performance-per-watt compared to previous generation.

Digicel launches NFC-based mobile wallet payments with VeriFone

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:33:00 PDT

The mobile company has developed the world's first integrated NFC capable Wallet service that doesn't require a bank account, credit card, or smart phone.

SMBs adopting virtualization, cloud and mobility for improved disaster preparedness

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:24:00 PDT

A recent Symantec survey shows how SMBs are adopting these technologies, often with improved disaster preparedness as a goal, and how the move is paying off for them.

Introducing the Hot New Social Network

antoniosk — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:55:00 PDT

PhoneBook (Allows User to Call Friends, Speak to Them)

SILICON VALLEY (The Borowitz Report) – A new social network is about to alter the playing field of the social media world, and it’s called PhoneBook.

According to its creators, who invented the network in their dorm room at Berkeley, PhoneBook is the game-changer that will leave Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare in a cloud of dust.

“With PhoneBook, you have a book that has a list of all your friends in the city, plus everyone else who lives there,” says Danny Fruber, one of PhoneBook’s creators.

“When you want to chat with a friend, you look them up in PhoneBook, and find their unique PhoneBook number,” Fruber explains. “Then you enter that number into your phone and it connects you directly to them.”

Another breakout utility of PhoneBook allows the user to arrange face-to-face meetings with his or her friends at restaurants, bars, and other “places,” as Fruber calls them.

“You will be sitting right across from your friend and seeing them in 3-D,” he said. “It’s like Skype, only without the headset.”

PhoneBook will enable friends to play many games as well, such as charades, cards, and a game Fruber believes will be a breakout: Farm.
“In Farm, you have an actual farm where you raise real crops and livestock,” he says. “It’s hard work, but it’s more fun than Mafia, where you actually get killed.”

Original article posted at Borowitz Report. This guys stuff is funny....

NZ Tech Podcast: Spotify, Galaxy SIII, Windows 8, new MacBooks, facebook IPO

paulspain — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:58:00 PDT

In the NZ Tech Podcast this week we discussed the Samsung Galaxy SIII (it just arrived) vs HTC One X (again), Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, new MacBook Pro rumours, Spotify lands in NZ, Kiwi domain names, paperless receipts, facebook IPO, video... (more in the full post)

Conversation with a spam bot

juha — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:46:00 PDT

"Alexis" appeared uninvited in my Google Talk or Chat or whatever it's called now. I suspected it was a spambot so decided to see if it was any good. It wasn't.

Seriously, do people fall for this kind of stuff?

Alexis

hiya!

Hello

Are you a spam bot?

Alexis

hey thanks for the add hun, there's hardly anyone on here anymore to chat with ya know?

You probably are a spam bot

Alexis

i miss how it used to be when there was more people on here but oh well, so what's up with u?

I am chatting with a spam bot

Which seems meaningless

Alexis

ah, so my asshole ex-bf cheated on me so i just been going out and meeting new people having a blast, i forgot how fun it was to be single again lol

So I might just block you

Do you mind?

Alexis

well i was actually about to get on my cam did u wanna cum join me... i found an awesome site that's like a facebook for adults but with cams

Ugh, no thanks

Can't think of anything more horrible

Alexis

i started using it so i couldn't be recorded but it's really fun and i love "putting on a show" if u know what i mean wanna cum see?

No, I really don't.

Alexis

yay!! all u gotta do is sign-up but like i said it's 100% free and only takes a sec k?

I don't think you parse what I write, do you?

Alexis

kk just go to [link removed] that's my profile page. at the top there u should see a gold button that says "Join Free" see it?

No way am I clicking that link.

Alexis

k just click that and then all u do is just make ure account and u can start typing to me... i have a private room for us so it's just one on one

Now where's that block button...

Alexis

yeah u do need a card of sum kind but it doesnt get charged and actually if u look you'll see it even says it right there. it's just so they don't get in trouble for any kiddiez

You're the crappiest spam bot ever, do you know that?

Alexis is typing.

You have blocked Alexis. You can no longer see each other online or chat together. Unblock Alexis

Alexis is offline. Messages you send will be delivered when Alexis comes online.

Continue this chat over SMS.

Why does Google think I'd want to continue the chat over SMS after I blocked the spambot? And "Alexis" isn't offline either. Silly Google.

The HTC One X "Real-user" review: All things photography; a day at the zoo. Bonus four-way shootout Vs the Galaxy Note, iPhone 4S and a standalone digital camera!

TelecomTech — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:00:00 PDT

Woven through this piece I'm going to tell the story of a day at the zoo with photos taken exclusively from the One X. Like all good days, this one started with a home made coffee (and a nice post-processing filter courtesy of the gallery app).

Smartphones are cannibals; they consume other devices by making them obsolete. Witness for example what they’ve done to standalone alarm clocks. Their appetite hasn’t been remotely sated by that entree though, and right now they’re poised a good way along the road to gobbling the market for standalone GPS units, mp3 players, portable media players and handheld games consoles. But what about cameras?

If you believe the marketing divisions from mobile phone manufacturers, it would seem standalone cameras are on the imminent verge of going the way of the dodo too thanks to smartphones. Should you believe them? No, no you shouldn’t. Never believe anything anybody in advertising says about anything. When it comes to advertising I’m with Bill Hick’s (if that reference has you scratching your head, YouTube has enlightenment and a bunch of laughs waiting for you). Having said that, I do actually believe it will happen in a future that is now only a few years away. If you want evidence to support that statement I will simply say “Look at some Nokia Pure View 5mp samples at full zoom”, and rest my case.

HTC are pretty keen for you to believe you should sell up your standalone and throw in your lot with the One X camera, but I guess you can probably infer how I feel about that by now. It begs the question then, if it isn’t good enough for that yet, just how good is it? Have HTC really upped their game with respect to the camera, or is the One X destined to be another forgettable imaging device in their rather long history of mediocre imaging devices?

Read on to find out!

Naturally my fiance wanted one too, a good expose for the macro mode

Software
OK, so let’s start with the (very) good – the software that supports the 8mp camera on the One X. I really have to commend HTC on what they’ve done here, it’s a significant leap from what they’ve done before, and really puts them in the driver’s seat as far as currently available handsets go.

Let’s break it down into some bullet points, everyone loves bullet points:

Start-up time, shutter speed and shot-to-shot speed are superb.
The UI is excellent,
- Settings are very quickly and easily accessible, something which has not always been true of their camera UIs
- The photo and video capture buttons are both present in the viewfinder screen. I simply cannot emphasize enough how good this apparently small innovation is. Smartphone photography owes a lot to them being on your person at most times, a lot of what they capture are candid moments – brief moments in time that pass a long time before you could retrieve a “real” camera. Not having to wait those few excruciating seconds as ‘the moment’ expires in front of you while you switch modes is golden.
- The feature set is utterly superb:
  - The ability to take still shots whilst shooting 1080p video (if I were to quibble though I’d say it’s a feature very slightly marred by the framing of the resulting shot being different than what you see in the video viewfinder).
  - Burst mode, capable of taking up to 4 shots a second (the performance deteriorates in lower light settings). As a father with a toddler I can personally attest to how great this feature is for capturing fast moving subjects at just the right moment.
  - A great set of shooting modes including panorama and high dynamic range.
  - Rich camera settings including the ability to customize ISO and White Balance parameters, face detection, smile detection and Geo-tagging (embedding your location into the photos EXIF data).
  - A range of filters available within the camera app, including not only common filters like Sepia or Negative, but also some excellent filters like depth of field.
  - The ability for some post-processing too in the form of the editing functions available in the One X Gallery application to alter things like colour temperature, or add even more filters.

Lions out basking. The cameras dynamic range is shown up here a little by the broad luminance range of the scene, but the shot is pretty pleasing overall

Stills
Stills are good on the One X, but not more than that. If that sounds like a condemnation of faint praise, well, it is and it isn’t. Photos from the One X are around the same level we saw from other manufacturers' best efforts last year. That’s not to say they’re bad by any stretch of the imagination, and in the context of HTC's historic imaging credentials that’s actually a rather impressive turnaround.

If you look at the images taken in good light closely you can see that the One X resolves a bit less detail than the Galaxy phones of last year, partly because of overly aggressive sharpening algorithms, and partly because of heavier lossy compression and the noise that generates. The images tend also to have a decreased dynamic range in comparison to the Galaxy phones. If you're not looking that closely though, and let's face it most users don't, then there really isn’t much between them outside of personal preference.

If you look at photo's in lower light the One X does better than the Galaxy phones with it's superior F/2.0 aperture, although the difference isn't as large as you'd expect - some of the advantage is lost because of the sheer amount of noise in One X shots. I should also mention that I tended to find the One X's camera a bit hit and miss in low light, while the best shots were better than the Galaxy phones, the reproducibility of obtaining those shots wasn't as reliable.

An HDR shot, you can see it achieves a better result than we got with the lions (in fact for basically any static image in bright light on the One X I tend to use HDR mode, you can't really use it for moving subjects because the multiple exposures create ghosting, although you can create some great images by taking advantage of that too at times)

Since the hardware is superior, you have to ask why the pictures aren't showing that in as dramatic a fashion as you might expect. I think it's the image processing software myself. The reason I say that is that if you install a third party camera application from the Play Store, say Camera ZoomFX for example, and take snaps in low light you'll notice better resolution of detail. They do tend to be a little over-exposed, presumably on the basis of the third party apps not managing the backside-illuminated sensor and F/2.0 aperture quite as well, but as a proof-of-concept exercise it certainly suggests the One X sensor is capable of more than we're seeing on present firmwares.

Hopefully HTC can improve on this with future firmware updates, but for now that's how it is, and while it doesn't seem to quite be living up to its promise, it's good and most users will be satisfied.

There are some great effects in the stock camera app, this one is using the depth of field effect and was only possible because of the great shutter speed of the One X - I love how the depth of field conveys the sense of movement!

Video
Right near the top I introduced the software side of the One X camera as “the good”, which rather intimated the fact that “the bad” would follow at some point. We’ve reached that bit. Where the stills camera really holds its own against competitors, perhaps falling the tiniest bit short of its main competitors for certain things like resolution of fine detail, the video camera is frankly disappointing in comparison.

The main problem here is that video is captured at quite a low bitrate of 10mbps, and in fact often even lower than that, resulting in a lot of lost detail. I’m at a bit of loss to explain this, since HTC have implemented better video recording with higher bitrates on a number of previous handsets, for example last year’s flagship the Sensation.

If I’m being charitable I’ll simply chalk it up to being on early firmware, and HTC will improve video capture in future iterations of One X firmwares. If I’m being less charitable I’m inclined to think this is partly due to the One X not having a memory card slot, a decision on HTC’s part that irritates me no end (all the more so for them being able to make room for a card slot in Sprint’s One X equivalent in the States).

I can almost hear the objections starting in some minds already, “But I can’t even fill the 16GB on my iPhone, how could anyone possibly need more than 32GB of storage?” and “Pshaw, I’m on the cloud baby!” I’m going to respond to those thoughts, starting with a quote. Bill Gates is famously attributed with the having said the following: “640K ought to be enough for anybody” That’s laughable in retrospect, right? So why then do so many espouse a scaled-up version of the same anachronistic sentiment now? Just because you don’t use much storage now, it doesn’t mean nobody does, and certainly doesn’t mean you won’t in the future.

More and more people are producing and consuming high definition video content, higher quality digital audio, and playing storage-intensive high quality games. People's storage requirements are increasing, and the cloud can't cover all of that (or at least certainly not at present). For example; you can't stream music when you listen to FLAC files at roughly 30MB/song, you can't stream the install files for high quality games, and at the times when you're away from home and watching video content on your phone streaming that content is also less than ideal.

\endrant

After the zoo it's time for dinner, HDR creating a typically moody shot of the sky

Anyways, looking at video recorded on the One X I see file sizes that are less than 1MB/s of recorded second, whereas on the Galaxy S II I see files with 2-3MB/s of recorded second. When your users are forced to live within the confines of 25GB of available user space, I can see how you might want to compromise on video quality for the sake of minimizing storage difficulties.

Conclusion
As someone who came to the One X a skeptic in relation to its camera based on earlier experiences with HTC devices, it’s interesting sitting down and actually drawing my thoughts together into a conclusion. My impressions of the One X camera had a rather intriguing trajectory – things started off extremely well, then waned after some pixel-peeping at full zoom images, and then rose again as I came to fully appreciate the software and look at it more from the perspective of normal consumers (who rarely, if ever, examine their pictures at full zoom to trawl them with a fine tooth comb looking for preservation of fine detail and the like).

…so, in the end, how do I sum up the HTC One X camera?

The One X’s camera user interface and feature set are best in class right now.
As a still camera it’s good, not as good as HTC would have you believe, but certainly holding its own against the most highly regarded 8mp snappers from last year. I would hope that HTC improve the image processing software a bit though, because the sensor and F/2.0 aperture certainly seem capable of delivering more.
Video leaves a fair bit to be desired, but its early days and based on the experience with the Sensation I expect this will improve in future firmware revisions (how long you’ll wait for Telecom to roll those updates out is another matter of course, but that’s a rant for another day).
For the present, as a complete package looking at UI, features, images and video I think it probably leads the mainstream smartphone pack by a small margin (I say mainstream smartphone pack because if you include the Nokia N8 or Pure-view cameras, the One X/Galaxy S2/iPhone 4S all fall dramatically short). The big question is how long can it hold that crown in the face of upcoming challengers from Samsung and Apple?

...and the boy is off to sleep now, time for a mojito to finish the day. This striking shot was created when the flash fired in one of the HDR exposures creating the “impossible light source” effect in the mint leaves shadows. This shot isn’t so much to illustrate HDR again, but more to illustrate how the wide feature set of the One X camera can let you flex your creative muscle a bit more than you may have been accustomed to.

Four-way camera shootout, there can be only One?
For all that I've opined above, there is nothing quite like a blind camera shootout to find out which cameras really produce the best results in the eyes of users. What follows is a series of shots taken in succession under the same conditions by the following devices: a 14mp Panasonic Lumix FZ-100 standalone camera (not in the DSLR quality range, but better than your typical point and shoot), the One X, a Galaxy Note, and an iPhone 4S.

In each of the scenes being compared I've randomized the order the contestants shots appear in, the FZ-100 images have been resized to 8mp so that you can't pick 'em for size alone, and all the EXIF data has been stripped – you'll have to trust your eyes to discern which is best! Also, all the shots are taken with automatic settings, since that is how most people use their cellphone cameras most of the time, and so has the most external validity and generalisability.

If you want to get your pixel-peep on, you can download the full resolution images from here http://db.tt/j7kztWWF or here http://tinyurl.com/7glumyl. Don’t feel obliged to though, the whole point of this is to get organic feedback – be as scientific or unscientific as you like in how you choose your winners!

To prevent inter-observer bias (you know, where the first person says “this one is clearly the best because of X-Y-Z”, and all subsequent viewers impressions are contaminated?) what I’d like you to do is refrain from commenting on images in the shootout for now. Instead simply rank the pictures in each of the following series of comparison shots from best to worst, and email your ratings to this temporary email address gherdekseks@dunflimblag.mailexpire.com. If you also want to comment on any of the pictures feel free, a bit of qualitative data never goes amiss. Next week I’ll reveal how the cameras did!

Oh, and be warned: there is some serious headphone porn coming up, if headphones are your thing you might want to consider a private viewing. Ditto the Star Wars lego.

Series One: Pitch black room

A

B

C

D

Series 2: Low light without flash

E

F

G

H

Series 3: Same scene, with flash

I

J

K

L

Series 4: Outdoors, overcast

M

N

O

P

Series 5: Indoors, fair lighting, macro headphone porn

Q

R

S

T

About the author

My name is Murray Winiata. When I'm not on my own time I work as a medical doctor in General Practice, and when I am on my own time I'm a dad, blogger, obsessive home barista, audio enthusiast and guitarist. Online I'm probably better known by my handle "NZtechfreak" via my participation in many online forums including, but not limited to, Geekzone, XDA-Developers, AndroidForums and Head-Fi. Previously I've blogged for Clove Technologies in the UK, and more recently at my own blog AndroidNZ.net. Like most smartphone owners I'm fully social-media'd up, and you can find me on Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Facebook. If you've got burning questions about the HTC One X you'd like me to try and answer, or you want my up-to-the-minute impressions and experiences with the One X, then Twitter would be the best channel to tune in to. Besides that, I'm always available here at Geekzone, which remains one of the best little corners of the internet (even in spite of my membership!). Naturally I'm thrilled to have been chosen to blog about the HTC One X here at the TelecomTech blog, and plan to bring my trademark objectivity to the fray once again. Catch you here again soon!

My Take on the HTC One X vs Galaxy S III Debate

TelecomTech — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:02:00 PDT

UPDATE: "This blog post was originally written only a day after the announcement of the Galaxy S III and due to the delayed posting of it, it is not as relevant today as it was a few weeks ago. My views on the Galaxy S III, noticeably the design and performance areas, has improved noticeably. As such, if I get my hands on a certain Samsung flagship in time I will write a revised post as a follow-up to this one."

A few days ago we all witnessed the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S III in London. Thanks to that annoying thing we call hype, many Android fans left their computer displays at 7am that morning somewhat disappointed. We saw it with the iPhone 4S, and we saw it again today with the Galaxy S III. Hype dramatically increases disappointment levels. This rule is universal.

Design
I can’t help but think the design of the Galaxy is just a refresh of the Galaxy Nexus launched last year. Heck, it even reminds me of an enlarged Galaxy Mini, and the similarities are noticeable.

Samsung’s designs should be flowing downwards starting at the top rather than upwards.

Where the S III apparently has a polycarbonate back cover, the gloss finish presents the cheapo brushed plastic look. The One X on the other hand has the luxurious feeling of a polycarbonate body with a much more matte finish. Plus a body that won’t inherently vibrate on a desk, annoying anyone within a 10 foot radius.

The Galaxy is 0.1 cm wider than the One X, and in a world where the One X is not trusted in one handed use, the Galaxy won’t be any better. Honestly, I never realised where people were coming from when they wanted a smaller, yet powerful smartphone. I understand them now. The One X is just impossible to use securely in one hand, I always find my left right supporting it.

Let’s face it, the One X just looks better. It has a curved display and has a premium feel, as opposed to the slab of cheap looking plastic the S III is. If Samsung wants to be like Apple so much with their “feng shui” and “nature” marketing, why do they build something that appears so cheap?

Winner: HTC One X

The Display
Obviously I have not seen the Galaxy’s display in person, but specs go a long way to giving you a great idea. The 0.1 inch larger display seems more like a effort to out-do HTC - a secret little competition I don’t care about, and personally dislike.

The Super IPS LCD 2 display on the One X is amazing. It isn’t a display, it’s a moving picture. I use, and test, phones how I (and emphasis on the I) use them. I don’t watch HD movies or anything like that on it. That’s not me.

In everything else, from general phone duty use to browsing to gaming the One X’s display has it covered. Viewing angles, colour saturation and pixel density I have never witnessed better.

The S III’s screen is 0.1 inch larger with the same resolution and is of the HD Super AMOLED variety. The lack of a Plus badging means that indeed it has a Pentile matrix, but I really wonder how obvious this is going to be on a 4.8 inch display with over 900,000 pixels.

Samsung has apparently managed to turn down the colour saturation on the S III and as usual blacks are perfect so it could be the perfect, ultra-portable movie watching device (for those that are into that stuff) short of the Galaxy Note.

Winner: HTC One X

Performance
The One X has Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chipset, while the Galaxy has a Exynos 4 Quad (4412) chipset. Both have a quad core ARM Cortex A9 CPU. The four cores in the One X clock up to 1.5 GHz, I haven’t seen anything on the Galaxy.

GPU wise, the HTC has a ULP Geforce and the Samsung has the superior (hardware at least) ARM Mali400 MP4. And yes, this is the same GPU that was found in the Galaxy S II, it has just been clocked significantly higher.

Looking at early benchmarks CPU benchmarks are pretty even between the two, with the One X possibly just taking the lead. This could of course being caused by the Tegra 3 being clocked slightly higher than the Exynos.

Browser benchmarks show the Galaxy taking an impressive lead in Browsermark, Vellamo and a small one in Sunspider Javascript. The GPU benches is where the Exynos chipset gets to stretch its legs, comfortably beating the One X in GLBenchmark and Rightware Basemark.

However, the Tegra powered One X has full access to TegraZone, Qualcomm has their own Snapdragon GameCommand platform that will be expanded over the coming months. Exynos (and OMAP) on the other hand, they don’t really have anything.

TegraZone has games like Dark Meadow (pictured above) which finally gives Android the gaming experience that Apple has had sorted for a while now.

Do you want kickass games or 10-30% better benchmark scores?

Winner: Too close to say

Software
I enjoy Sense 4.0, to the point I actually prefer it over stock Ice Cream Sandwich. I hate Samsung TouchWiz UX. I know you can always install custom launchers, but again, most people are going to be running stock most of the time so I am basing it on that.

Considering not much else really effects the software balance (or that I could compare without an Galaxy S III on hand)...

Winner: HTC One X

The Samsung Galaxy S III has created iPhone-type flame wars back and forth between not loyal Apple-ites, but the Android army’s own HTC allies. Many people have now come to their senses that the iPhone is lost in its own little world with its tiny 3.5 inch screen. The 4 inch HTC Incredible S (former daily driver) feels - and looks - tiny to me now, I’d hate to discover what an iPhone or smaller Android feels like.

Between the Galaxy S III and the HTC One X though, I am leaning towards the southern area of the East China Sea. If I did happen to buy the HTC One X outright (thanks Geekzone and Telecom!) then I would in no way be enduring buyer’s regret right now.

Saying this, I don’t speak for the 99% but I probably speak on behalf of them. Some of the Galaxy S III’s perceived benefits such as a Wolfson DAC, GLONASS GPS support and a MicroSD slot really don’t matter to me, or 99% of the population.

a) It’s a phone, not a mobile mixing and mastering rig. b) Who cares about the Russian satellites? I can get a 6 foot lock easily from my windowsill and the sky view isn’t brilliant. c) 32 gigabytes of storage is more than enough for all the music, video and application you (should) need to have on your phone, plus there is always the cloud.

What phone is going to sell more? The Samsung Galaxy S III
What phone is going to be the quiet achiever? The HTC One X

About the author

I’ll be honest: there was once a day when I got bored and sick of seeing all the smartphone related news in my RSS feeds. This day was literally no more than nine months ago. Well here I stand today; known as Blair the college student in the real world, ArchSerpo in this one. Whilst not even considered an adult by the Government I have established myself as a Android and mobile technology news reporter and in depth reviewer for KitGuru, Android Mobile New Zealand, and now (hopefully) the TelecomTech blog. While bias towards the green team may appear given, I have had experience with all the major mobile operating systems except BlackBerry and MeeGo in the last six months and always keep an open mind.

This thing is impossible to rough up

TelecomTech — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:33:00 PDT

For the last three weeks or so I have tried my very best to rough up the the white polycarbonate body of HTC One X. While I am not courageous, or brave enough to cover the back in permanent marker and attempt to rub it out like this guy I have still yet to cause any marks that can’t be removed in seconds.

When I have started to notice some black marks starting to appear on the where the battery cover perhaps should have been they have all disappeared without any of my own doing.

The other few times some marks did stick around some saliva always did the trick in seconds. My One X hasn’t been sitting around in a case sitting on a desk all day either. It has been in shorts, unwashed jeans and even a bit of rain, and all it has to show for it is a bit of grime in the power button and the usual fingerprints.

If have perhaps been holding back on a One X purchase due to thinking that the white polycarbonate body will be easily marked, think again. The shell that encases the the Tegra 3 processor and other chips should cause no problems, and so far, at least in my case is still as good as new.

About the author

I’ll be honest: there was once a day when I got bored and sick of seeing all the smartphone related news in my RSS feeds. This day was literally no more than nine months ago. Well here I stand today; known as Blair the college student in the real world, ArchSerpo in this one. Whilst not even considered an adult by the Government I have established myself as a Android and mobile technology news reporter and in depth reviewer for KitGuru, Android Mobile New Zealand, and now (hopefully) the TelecomTech blog. While bias towards the green team may appear given, I have had experience with all the major mobile operating systems except BlackBerry and MeeGo in the last six months and always keep an open mind.

Scale your database without effort? ScaleArc iDB

freitasm — Sun, 20 May 2012 21:51:00 PDT

Last weekend a press release landed in my inbox, and I thought it interesting enough to make me contact the agency and get more information about the product. In summary ScaleArc iDB promised to scale your database without changes in code or database... (more in the full post)

The exceedingly influential Mr Stephen Fry

juha — Sun, 20 May 2012 19:21:00 PDT

I am already bowled over by how a few lines of tweeting by Stephen Fry shakes things up particularly in New Zealand. Somehow, Fry's utterances carry a tremendous amount of weight down here. Nevertheless, I didn't expect to see his tweets being referred to by our telco regulator, the Commerce Commission, but there they are in the latest Draft Report for High Speed Broadband Services Demand Side Study [link goes to a 1Mbyte PDF file].

Amazing. The man should run for public office in New Zealand.

HTC One-X Pocketability, Screen vs other popular models

TelecomTech — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:44:00 PDT

Heading into my third week with the HTC One X, and a few of my iPhone owning colleagues wanted to know what it’s like to carry this handset around.

In my opinion, it feels better in the pocket than the iPhone 4. It feels similar in shape/slimness to the Samsung Galaxy SII. The polycarbonate backing also gives you a sense of security, allowing you to throw keys in with it - something I never did with the iPhone 4.

It’s slim enough to go into the same pocket as a wallet, while still allowing easy access. This means I’ve been able to walk round with both my work and personal phone in the same pocket.

After showing my iPhone colleagues how well it stacked up, I decided to meet up with some old colleagues who were provided with HTC phones: the Wildfire S, and the Sensation S. Both are under a year old, but compared to the One-X, the screens look decidedly different.

From left to right: HTC Wildfire S, HTC One X, HTC Sensation

The Sensation, although sporting a Super-LCD display, tends to go grey on side viewing angles. The Wildfire S, sporting a standard LCD, looks even worse. The Super-LCD2 on the HTC-One X provides remarkable viewing angles. Very close to the iPhone 4S, and Galaxy S2.

The difference in Sense UI was noticeable also. The Wildfire had Gingerbread, with Sense 3.0. It was extremely bloated, and overtook most of the UI. The Sensation was closer to the HTC One X, with ICS 4.0, and a Sense 3.5 interface. However, it is still quite clunky compared to Sense 4.0.

All three of the HTC phones had mate plastic/polycarbonate backs, which made them less likely to slip while in the hand.

From left to right: HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy SII, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Apple iPhone 4S

Heading back to the office, I decided to get a few of the most popular phones together for a photo shoot. The HTC One X, the Galaxy SII, the Galaxy Nexus, and the iPhone 4S. My overall rating was:

Best fit in the pocket – Winner HTC One-X, runner up the Galaxy S2
Widest number of viewing angles – Winner Galaxy SII, runner up the One-X/iPhone 4S
Best colour reproduction – Tie Galaxy SII for its vibrant blacks, HTC One-X for its real colours
Slimmest – Tie between the Galaxy SII and HTC One X, both were about the same thickness
Best operability in direct sunlight – tie between the iPhone 4S, and the HTC One-X, followed closely by the Galaxy SII.
Least slippery – Winner HTC One X, runner up Galaxy Nexus. Both the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy SII are quite slippery in the hand and I have in fact dropped both over the last year!

Front top to bottom: Apple iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Galaxy SII, HTC One X

Overall, the screen clarity, design, and thinness all help the HTC One X to be one of the easiest to pocket. Just beware of the camera lens if you do put keys in your pocket. It is the one part that seems to attract scratches, as mentioned in my first review.

About the author

I am Vincent Garcia: an ICT Specialist by day; technology geek and DIY handyman by night. I enjoy playing with gadgets, old and new. Taking most of them through the paces, and to within an inch of their lives! I also enjoy tinkering with things; spending most of my weekends repairing my motorcycles, or renovating my house. I live in the windy city of Wellington, with my lovely wife Nicola, and my cat Morange. When I was offered the opportunity to review the new HTC One X series, I jumped at the chance. The short aeroplane trip to Auckland was all part of the fun! If you want to ask any questions, please add a comment below, or email telecomtech@vincentgarcia.net

Cleanest inflight entertainment system interface ever?

juha — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:12:00 PDT

Doesn't get much simpler than this IFES screen on a Vietnam Airlines between Hanoi and Saigon. Well, there's the small matter of not having anything resembling a keyboard with which to input any information, but anyway.

Being friendly with the HTC One X

TelecomTech — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:18:00 PDT

This week I decided to stop being anti-social with my phone and started communicating with my friends and family again. Text messaging sufficed for most. However, I also wanted to contact a few family members and friends overseas in more depth than texting allows, but I was too cheap to call.

Fortunately for me, the HTC One X integrates nicely with e-mail and social networking applications. I used my Gmail first. The large display and newer Gmail app work well together. I can now view 5-8 emails with short summaries (depending on screen orientation), versus the 3-5 emails a time on the Galaxy S II. While it may not sound like many more, it makes wading through emails a lot faster.

Facebook integration is getting very close to the desktop site now. Most Facebook features are available in the HTC OneX’s Facebook app, including: messaging, photo uploads, and wall updates. I now hardly ever need to use my PC to check Facebook, as it’s all in the palm of my hand. By using the HTC integrated contact list, you can easily send a Facebook message to anyone on your list.

There are a number of built-in HTC apps to help socialise also. The eBuddy app is a hybrid of various messengers. You can add in Yahoo, Google, MSN, and Facebook, if you want. I didn’t use it myself, as I don’t have a Yahoo or MSN account.

I found the DropBox app much more useful. HTC has provided a very generous 25GB of storage space, which can hold anything you want to transport, from home to work, or anywhere else. Or, you can share a dropbox link with your family and friends on Facebook. It’s relatively fast, you can upload photos/videos from the phone, or you can download the DropBox app onto your PC and transfer files from PC to phone. This saves the need to connect the phone via USB, which is excellent for people who can never find their USB cables.

The final social connectivity app HTC has implanted in the phone is FriendStream, which aims to combine all social networks into one Stream on your desktop. Unfortunately only Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Hyves are active. In the future Google+, Youtube, Digg, and LastFM should arrive.

It’s a handy wee application for those wanting to continually receive status updates, and friend check-ins.

Overall the integrated features, and quality of applications in ICS, and the speed at which the HTC One X loads, is impressive. It’s getting to the point where we can go longer without computers, while using our phones for social networking, and communication.

About the author

I am Vincent Garcia: an ICT Specialist by day; technology geek and DIY handyman by night. I enjoy playing with gadgets, old and new. Taking most of them through the paces, and to within an inch of their lives! I also enjoy tinkering with things; spending most of my weekends repairing my motorcycles, or renovating my house. I live in the windy city of Wellington, with my lovely wife Nicola, and my cat Morange. When I was offered the opportunity to review the new HTC One X series, I jumped at the chance. The short aeroplane trip to Auckland was all part of the fun! If you want to ask any questions, please add a comment below, or email telecomtech@vincentgarcia.net

NZ Tech Podcast: Fyx no longer provides a fix, Telecom 4G trial, HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy SIII

paulspain — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:39:00 PDT

This week we discuss what happened to the Fyx Internet service, Telecom NZ's 4G trial, our first experiences with the HTC One X and Galaxy SIII Android phones, accessing Netflix in NZ, hands on with the new 2degrees and Snapper mobile payment system... (more in the full post)

HTC One X: E.T. phone home

TelecomTech — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:51:00 PDT

As I entered the second week of owning the HTC One X, I felt it was time to explore the communication side. After all, what good is a phone if it’s difficult to work out how to make a call?Dialling a number is as simple as hitting the phone icon, which brings up a nice large dial-pad and recent calls list. The call quality on the Telecom XT network is very clear and very rarely suffers from drop-outs or fading.

If you begin to input a number that you’ve saved in your contacts list, the phone directory will recognise it and automatically start populating the rest of the number. This is extremely helpful and a great ICS feature. If you want to search contacts manually, you can select “People” from the phone dialling app or use the contacts app on the home screen.

The contacts list will bring up a list of all phone, email, Facebook, Linked-In, Exchange, Gmail, and Google Plus contacts. However, you can customise the way contact information is displayed so only those with phone numbers, or only selected accounts display. It also gives you an option to link contacts with matching details. If a contact has a Google account as well as a Facebook account, it will pick up the details and ask you if you want to link them together. This creates a single contact for 2+ accounts, which is another great automated feature.

Txt2Park with the HTC Sense Keyboard

Texting on the HTC One X is a breeze. Even those with large fingers - like me - will have no issues hitting the right keys. In “Landscape” mode the keys are even larger still. The HTC sense keyboard is great, plus you have the option to install any keyboard from the Play Market. I ended up using SlideIT, which compliments the screen perfectly.

After testing texting and calling, I decided to tinker round inside the call settings. After changing a few settings, I came across “SIP” and decided to explore further (SIP is a voice over IP protocol).

Having used VoIP for several years at home, I decided to put my settings in and see how it went; bearing in mind that I tried it a few years ago when XT first came out and the quality was quite terrible. I found that the quality has now improved dramatically. No longer does it echo, or experience cuts. This feature means I can now answer my home phone while on the move; or dial out from my home phone number and the billing will get charged to my home account.

You will need a Telecom data-pack to use VoIP, and it will drain the battery faster, as it is constantly listening for calls. However, it is entirely worth it, and a lot easier than setting up call forwarding on a home phone. Please note, however, that while the VOIP quality was good while I was testing it, Telecom doesn’t guarantee it always will be. This means that VOIP won’t be suitable for everyone.

From the Telecom XT Terms and Conditions:

“Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is not supported, and we cannot guarantee that access or performance levels will be maintained.”

There is similar wording in the Vodafone Terms and Conditions. 2Degrees’ Terms and Conditions state that it can restrict or prevent VoIP use as it sees fit.

To summarise, calling on both the XT Network, and HTC One X, are exceptionally good. Even over unsupported VoIP, it never skipped a beat.

About the author

I am Vincent Garcia: an ICT Specialist by day; technology geek and DIY handyman by night. I enjoy playing with gadgets, old and new. Taking most of them through the paces, and to within an inch of their lives! I also enjoy tinkering with things; spending most of my weekends repairing my motorcycles, or renovating my house. I live in the windy city of Wellington, with my lovely wife Nicola, and my cat Morange. When I was offered the opportunity to review the new HTC One X series, I jumped at the chance. The short aeroplane trip to Auckland was all part of the fun! If you want to ask any questions, please add a comment below, or email telecomtech@vincentgarcia.net

Riverbed Performance Summit in Sydney

freitasm — Sun, 13 May 2012 17:35:00 PDT

I just got an email from Riverbed announcing their Riverbed Performance Summit in Sydney. This half day event is happening 5th June (Tuesday) from 12:30pm to 5:30pm. Click here for the agenda (pdf). [quote] Learn how the Riverbed performance platform... (more in the full post)

The Write Stuff with HTC One X

TelecomTech — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:22:00 PDT

I communicate with my family a lot via SMS, so having an easy way to send TXT messages is key for me when choosing a phone. I’ve really come to love the conversation view that iOS uses to present TXT messages, as it makes it so much easier to retain context. So it was a relief to see that this same UI paradigm is retained on the HTC One X.

Couple that with a few different ways to enter my messages, and we have a device that meets my primary mobile communication needs very well.

There are a few ways to initiate a TXT message. Firstly you can select the Compose option from the Messages app. You then have the option to enter in a number or name in the To field, which will present a drop down of all people matching the text as you enter it.

Or you can tap on the ‘People’ icon to present a list of all your contacts in a scrollable list. This list will allow you to select multiple recipients, making it easy to send group messages.

Alternatively you could initiate a new message directly from one of your contacts in the People app, or any of the other places that you can interact with your contacts throughout the OS and via the HTC Sense UI overlay. If you have an existing conversation with this contact, you will be taken to the end of that, rather than to an empty conversation window.

As an example of this, there are a few Message and contact widgets which you can take advantage of, and one of these is installed by default. This particular widget presents all your message conversations as a stack, allowing you to easily rotate between each conversation with a flick up or down. Selecting one of these will take you directly to the conversation, allowing you to continue where you left off.

In addition to the various ways there are to initiate SMS conversations, there are also different ways in which to enter the content of these messages. Of course there is the traditional touch keyboard, but one of the first tweaks I made was to enable the Trace keyboard feature. This allows you to spell out words by tracing your way across the keyboard. It does a pretty good job of deciphering what can often appear to be unintelligible or ambiguous scribbles.

Once you’ve got used to this method of input, it really is quite a bit quicker than typing out the words in the more traditional manner.

Another option, although probably more novelty than actually useful, is voice dictation. While this can work reasonably well for short messages, if you’re trying to communicate anything more complex than “See you soon”, you’ll find yourself constantly correcting misinterpreted words. Thats the price we pay for having an accent too awesome for developers to parse accurately, I guess.

The one feature I do miss from my iPhone is the ability to assign a custom tone to received TXT messages. You can chose from a list of canned ones, but I like to assign my favourite riffs to such events. I’m also struggling a little with selecting single words in messages, as the implementation seems to be quite fussy about the double-tap required to do so. But with practice I’m sure I’ll prevail over this.

In summary, the HTC One X works well at serving my primary mobile communication needs. The Trace keyboard feature is an excellent addition to my TXTing arsenal, and for this reason alone I’d probably rate this over my iPhone as my SMS weapon of choice.

About the author
Hi I'm David, a self employed software developer on the wrong side of 40, residing in Auckland with my wife and two children. I am a passionate All Blacks and Blues fan, gadget junkie, mature aged gamer, and connoisseur of fine heavy metal (and music in general). I currently own an iPhone 4, but am very open to trying new technologies, and can't wait to see what the best of Android can bring to the smartphone table. I enjoy keeping up to date with the latest technological advances in general, and am encouraged to see that the smartphone market is no longer an iOneHorseRace. I’m very interested to see how the HTC One and Ice Cream Sandwich fares in this regard.