Jenson Press

I have been seeing the advertisement on Samsung OMNIA lately, and I haven’t really see the device myself yet, except for the pictures seem on the Samsung website, newspaper, as well as the mobile service operators’ websites. The pricing is quite attractive for such a powerful smartphone, or I would rather call it a PDA phone, which is a PDA with telephony functionalities. That’s why the OS (Operating System) running on this Samsung OMNIA is named Windows Mobile.

And in fact, it comes with a better and latest version, which is the one I long wanted to get one device running on it, the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. It has GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Document Viewer, 3.5G supports up to 7.2Mbps download, Radio, music playback supports most of the common formats, office tools, emails, and etc.

The things I fancy about most of the time is the Wi-Fi, The 3.5G support, the built-in 8GB or 16GB of memory is definitely a big helps for those who like to snap photos and take videos. It’s also quite useful for business users who always travel and bring along their powerpoint slides as you have the document viewers to open it up and to project it to the screen using the video output for your presentation, if you don’t want to bring along your notebook/laptop.

And if you don’t even need to worry about having not enough memory, because it’s tested to support up to 8GB of memory card as backup, so you would have total of of either 16GB or 24GB of data storage of your phone, everything would come in handy when all you need to do is just bring your phone with you!

What OMNIA means to be with all the features available (Of course, I have no listed all the features yet, and it’s just simple too much to name all of them out here. For more information on the OMNIA, you can follow the link HERE to find out more. ) is a featured pack device which I would always stick with, especially it pack mp3 player and smartphone in one single device.

And I’m a developer myself, and most of the time I’m working on Windows Mobile powered device application development, thus it’s not surprising that I would love any Windows Mobile powered phone. Though one can always download paid or free application for Windows Mobile powered device from sites like PocketGear, but I would love to develop application which will be more customized to my own usage and needs, and if anyone else like it, I can easily share it with other users, or simply upload it to PocketGear and make it as free download for everyone else. And what’s more? I can always test my new application with my own OMNIA too since I have a physical device, as you just can’t test everything on the Windows Mobile Device Emulator provided by Microsoft. It’s more practical to test it on my own device if I have to test on devices other than the targeted platform.

Well, besides that, the stunning interface, which is always a strong point for Samsung handsets, are very appealing to me and I love it so much, Samsung makes the conventional looking Windows Mobile interface more appealing to users and the phone does look very intuitive and user-friendly to me. Well, I wouldn’t say whether this is a killer phone for iPhone or not. But for sure, if one is not a big fan for iPhone or are not fancy about iPhone, or simply need a phone which can do more than iPhone, not to mentioned the recently reported problems and bugs of iPhone like reception and connectivity problems, I can guarantee that you would not regret for getting this phone as your next upgrade choice.

The first time I saw OMNIA in picture, I have fall in love with her, it’s a beauty with so much features that one would love it so much and regret for not getting one for herself. I was once looking for upgrading to HTC handsets, but after this Samsung OMNIA has released, I only want to get OMNIA as my next upgrade and I know there is a better one with 8 Megapixel camera, the Samsung Innov8, but I prefer Windows Mobile based device more, even though it’s the so called tough competitor for iPhone. OMNIA has bigger screen over Innov8, which is 3.2″ on OMNIA to 2.8″ on Innov8. I always prefer a bigger screen and a platform that allows me to do more and preferably allow me code for my own applications and load them in with ease.

What’s more? I can always sync my contacts, appointments, notes, favourites and etc with my PC through Outlook and ActiveSync on Windows XP, or Sync Center on Windows Vista. Everything would be familiar to me as it used to be. I’m right now using a HP iPAQ which is more than 2 years old now and it does not come with wi-fi support, the mic is not good and in fact it’s not functioning well now as the other party at the other end can hardly hear what I’m talking about if I do not shout loud enough. The screen is big, which is 2.0 or 2.2″ but I can’t recall the correct screen size now. I have loaded plenty of stuff in but unfortunately it comes with 64MB system memory and that forced me to get a memory card for it, right now, due to the malfunction mic, I can’t really use it to make call now. I mainly use it for the PDA functions which anyone else would use it most of the time.

And one more thing not to forget to mention about OMNIA is it actually comes with Chinese support which users just need to upgrade to get it installed, while most of the time, for a windows mobile powered device, especially Windows Mobile 5.0, one can only read and send English emails, SMS, or MMS, if you want to do anything in Chinese, you have to install third party Chinese support software on your phone, for Samsung OMNIA, this is a different story as they provide you Free-of-charge!

I simply like it as my mobile warrior and next upgrade choice, and that’s why I’m sharing with you all right here, right now.

Jsut grab some photos from Samsung website for sharing, hopefully they won’t charge me for that, after all I’m helping them to promote isn’t it? Alright, just to make it clear, all the photos you are looking at now are taken from Samsung website, the copyrights belong to them, I just borrowed from them to show you how sleek and beautiful OMNIA is, enjoy!

Due to the recent hard disk failure on my Toshiba Satellite M30 notebook (Yeah, I know it’s a pretty old notebook by now) and I have missed quite a lot of time doing nothing but reading. Well, I should have come up by sharing with you my experience with the Father of the Internet, Vinton G. Ceft, as well as other things that I think would attracts you or rather draw your attention (well, maybe you don’t think in that way).

Didn’t notice that I actually wait until today and I’m still waiting to finish this little “report”. I met my ex-classmate - Fiona, and her boy friend today at Toa Payoh Lorong 7 Hawker Centre But don’t have the time to talk much to her as I was talking to my dear over the phone.

Well, that’s not what I’m going to talk about. What I’m really going to tell you is that until you meet Vinton, you would not know why vision is such a powerful attribute one should possess and share with other people, and power up with some imagination, then you have a great vision and view ahead of the rest And of course, try to be creative and open-minded too.

Ok, continue, this is the continued part on August 1, 2008. Yes, you’re right, don’t get puzzled. I just continue this post today as I’m so tied up with other things and company projects until I can hardly touch anything here. But well, talking about Vinton, some of my friends claimed that what he said are nonsense, they also know how to talk about things that he’d mentioned during that night. Well, for me, I do feel that it’s something different from what we normally would think of.

It sounds very common, but it could actually be considered a sneak preview into what would be available in the future, how technology assists human in the near future and how human make use of the technology available. It’s quite hard for you to talk a lot from different perspective especially if you’re not good in any of them. Merely scratching the surface wouldn’t draw people’s attention and would create resonance with the audiences.

He’s a great speaker, humurous, creative, imaginative, and a dare devil I must say. Well, there wouldn’t be much to talk about if you’re not interested in knowing him or knowing more about what he had talked about. But I do enjoy his speech and gotten a chance to took a photo with my mobile phone, but unfortunately, the one escorting him does not take the picture properly, but still can see Vinton face clearly there. He looks tired and almost lost his voice, but he’s still willing to take one last photos with me as he’s always very friendly and generous.

Alright, there are some photos here for you guys to get a picture on what happening that night. Yup, I took the food there too, not bad, coffee and other drinks are served as well. It’s a good place for networking too, those people not given a seat stood in the theatre, luckily the theatre still can accomodate them. We’re given permission to attend the event and take any seats available after all the attendees with valid “pass” have seated. Luckily they spotted one empty row and direct us there to be seated and enjoy the session with Vinton

I will write more on other things when I’m free again. Stay tuned and I hope you enjoy. Very tired and so sorry that I can’t blog much on this. This is quite an old event already, should have posted it by end of May, haha… my apologies if you don’t find yourself enjoying this :p

Do enjoy the photos here

EDIT: Forgot to tell you that the venue for this conference is at Suntec Convention Hall, Level 3, Room 325

Vinton and Me

Caught them before they left

People enjoying refreshment

People gathering and sharing thoughts

Vinton

Vinton again

Vinton giving his speech

Vinton Q & A

Vinton Q & A - 2

Attendees - Right

Attendees - Left

If you did visit my blog regularly, or maybe once in a while, you would notice some changes at the sidebar of the page. You would notice there is a new category named Affiliate, and another named Shoutbox/Tagboard.

The Affiliate is to put down all the links of the “affiliates” of mine, for example, the group I belong to, The Singapore Flex User Group, as well as the Official Event for Actionscript in Singapore, which is the TAC - The Actionscript Conference, organised by Singapore Flex User Group and sponsored by Seesmic.

If I’m not wrong, Seemic is a US-based company working on online video community, you can visit their site here –> Seesmic and I’m helping them to promote the site too, I’m also trying to get a badge from them, so that I can put the Seesmic official logo down there.

I’m in the midst of sparing more time on my self learning to upgrade my skill sets, I know a lot of people out there are looking at your certifications and I know I don’t have a “Adobe Certified XXX Developer/etc” and I’m trying hard to master more than one languages and if possible, to get myself certified, if a cert is really so important now.

I’m trying to master at least Adobe Flex and AIR and to try out various possible applications developed in Flex and use them as my product showcase, maybe? Maybe I should consult those Flex expert like Shunjie, Lionel, and Kenneth.

I’ve emailed Adobe but so far no reply from them yet regarding supports and trainings available from them for SME who is not yet in Flex/AIR development by now.

I wish my company can be more open to changes and new technologies/platforms. I really can foresee the benefits gained compare to the amount of time and money invested in it. Well, after all, it worth everything off.

I really like the AIR and Flex and now, after being introduced to Y!DN a.k.a. Yahoo! Developer Network, I can see the open source communities around the world is blooming and growing fast. I never know there is this Y!DN until Henry from Yahoo! Singapore introduced it to us during the Auguest Flex User Group meeting held in Yahoo! Singapore office. It’s pretty cool and I really love it so much, but I’m afraid if I get myself involved in too much communities, I would get myself lost and gain nothing. I wonder whether it is ok for me to do that, but I know I should focus on a few main one for the time being instead of branching out too fast and too wide.

What’s your view on this? Let me know and I would really love to hear from you. The Y!DN is HERE. Hope you would be one of them, may not be now, but some time later or in the near future

I’ve consulted Henry, he said Yahoo! Search BOSS API is open sourced and they’re not afraid of Microsoft digging the best of their API and search engine and integrated them into their Live Search, as the R & D is at Yahoo! is constantly improving their API and search engine, and even though they lose everything out to Microsoft until the state where Microsoft Live Search is so dominant, it’ll do no harm to the general users and developers too. Henry said, Yahoo! is willing to do everything good to the users, developers and the communities =) Which I think is a good direction, in such a way, Yahoo! would be growing stronger and better, I think that open up their Search API is a good move for developers. Microsoft has similar approaches too, like their Live APIs. Correct me if I’m wrong, now developers can build application for Office, integrate their apps with Live Search, Messenger, and etc. A lot of things you can do with .NET platform if you’re a .NET Developer

I’m mostly working on .NET platform and most of the time on Windows Mobile based application development. I’m branching out to Adobe, on Flex and AIR which I think have advantages over .NET in certain areas, and it would be good if we can integrate them, it’s all about integration now I think, your apps should be able to work with other platform or rather apps developed in other languages should be able to get integrated into a central management software or tool, where all of them can talk to each other easily and that makes all systems work as a whole.

Hmm..dreaming or ranting? Your choice

Well, back to Shoutbox/Tagboard, it’s actually raised up my one of my ex student from YSS, and she suggested to have a tagboard/shoutbox on my blog so they can interact with me “live”, so i did a search and found this useful plugin for my blog. I did some modification to the scripts and to integrate it into my side bar, hopefully it doesn’t look awful to you. Now you can start tagging me or shouting out there, it’s right at the bottom of the page, just before my login panel Have fun!

Cheers, Jenson

Hi guys, I know it’s a bit late to talk about this now especially for those of you who have already been making use of the site and learning it right now. However, I still feel that I should do my part by blogging about it a bit here and to let those who have yet to find out about this site to have the opportunity to read more on what is this Flex In A Week regarding.

Well it’s actually an effort from Adobe Flex Team to get developer started on their Flex learning, also in a way to promote the adoption rate of Flex in RIA developement as well as cultivating more Flex developers globally.

I have tried the first day tutorials for the first 4 lessons, which I find it quite comprehensive and easy to follow, but the problem is you are not given the playback options for the video. I found out that I cannot pause it or rewind, as sometimes I have something to see it more clearly or to jot down some important notes, I would miss some of the parts shown in the video. What I always have to do is to close the windows and click on the link to bring up a new window playing the same video, and to wait until it plays to the part where I missed out previously.

They have only put up 3 days lessons now, I have been visiting the same page daily and there are still no lessons posted for Day 4 and 5 yet, but they have good explanation for those want to learn about Day 4 & 5 lessons but cannot proceed further yet.

By the way, I just paste it here for you guys to see what they put there on their Adobe Flex Team Blog:

Flex in a Week is a week-long, video based online training program for developers. This self-paced program is free and is intended to help developers accelerate their Flex learning. The training will eventually be a full 5-day program, however we are launching with the first three days which will provide developers with enough learning to get them started using Flex. We will complete the remaining two days of content over the coming weeks. Please help us promote this valuable new training resource by blogging about it and by including a link in your email signatures. This program should play a key role in increasing Flex adoption. We are also looking for feedback. Please let us know what you think of this training.

So, enjoy and hopefully our Flex community would keep on growing bigger and better =)

I love Flex and the IDE - Flex Builder, it’s so great that you can’t resist having one for yourself if you’re really thinking seriously about coding in Flex. But you can always try other alternative IDEs, but personally feel that Flex Builder is still the best out there to pick up. Too bad only their SDK is open-sourced, how nice if they make their Flex Builder open source too :p

Wow, never know that time flies so fast. I just realized that I’ve not been seeing my poly mates for 4 years, and it was like quite long ago when I look back. All my memorable moments were brought back and awaken once again after I revisited my pal’s website - SnowCube.com and I can still see all the photos taken using Jiahui’s Sony Ericsson mobile phone that time. I always try my best to hang out with all of them even though I have limited budget due to my limited pocket money

Well, as usual, I always enjoy listening to songs playing at Jiahui’s site, it’s always so soothing and bring back all the sweet memories when you’re enjoying his posts. From his postings, I know that he has been doing very well so far, most of my friends are doing pretty well, or should I say better than me? Wonder when would it be my turn? =)

Ah… time really flies, I really miss those days when we always hang out, eat out, work on assignments and projects together, chit chat, and etc. However, after graduation, everyone has started their own new life and move on from there, we seldom have time to come out and sit together anymore. It has been quite hard to gather all of them once again nowadays. All have their own busy schedules and as usual, full of commitments too. Haha… I wonder when we all grow older, whether we would still remember each other and have time to gather together once more? This reminds me of the song - Yesterday Once More, and also not to forget - Yesterday by Beatles.

Well, I’m making use of some free time to quickly type out my thoughts and feelings here, else I’m afraid I might not be able to catch it once again.

Jiahui, and all my friends, keep it up, let’s work hard towards the goals in our life. I hope we will meet each other one day, very soon, yes, I’m waiting for that day, for all of us to share the achievements and happy moments once again!

It’s fate that brings us together, it’s also fate that will bring us together once again! See you all soon! Miss you all very much