Digital Living

HTC Touch 3G Revealed!

HTC website reveals the HTC Touch 3G -- the latest "touch" product from HTC.

Take a look at how beautiful these latest generation device looks like.

Peter Chou, the HTC CEO is surely a really great leader! He successfully and magically brings HTC from a large yet "unknown" handheld maker, to become the most branded Windows Mobile handheld maker of them all.

Most "magical" of all: each time he introduced his latest product, his next step innovation always bring another wow!

HTC uses SPC software to build the "intuitive & user friendly interface skin" on top of Windows Mobile. This approach has been taken since day 1 the HTC touch device is introduced.

Yet -- based on HTC Touch's first generation experience -- because HTC devices is still using Windows Mobile underneath, beneath the beautiful skin surface, everything is still the same old clunky, multi-steps, unintutive, cluttered, complex, confusing, tired menu-and-folder-navigation structure of Windows Mobile!

I wonder whether in this release such "limitations" already being totally fixed or not.

More excitingly, I wonder what if one day HTC could come out with Android version of such device, or PalmOS version of it. The whole experience of using the device might be significantly better. And the device might eventually become a great contender of Apple legendary iPhone device.

Peter Chou is surely know where he put his bet, and how to overcome the "basic limitation" of Windows.

In that respect, he is truly ingeneously awesome!

Microsoft "Un-Mojave" Experiment: Have These People Being Shown A Mac OSX Before/After They Are Being Shown Vista??

Microsoft Mojave experiment try to tout the "beauty" of Vista by sharing to the world how people get "ooh ahh" by the sheer beauty and magnificence of "Microsoft's future operating system" which later they found out was VISTA!

They said people really "Oooh Ahh" about it, as they never thought such great operating system was VISTA!

Hmmm ... this is so Ballmerian "trick" by nature. >:-(

I think this experiment "miss" ONE key important point:

• Have these same people and audiences being shown Mac OS X BEFORE they are being shown Vista?
• Or at least: Have these same people and audiences being shown Max OS X AFTER they are being shown Vista?

If they have been shown the Mac OS X before (or after) they have been shown Vista, what would then these same audiences feel? Would Vista be still "feel" the "same" ??

 

This is what I called the "UnMojave Experiment". ;-)

Oh, Mr. Ballmer, your "old dirty trick" is such a "tard".

OpenOffice Conference 2008 - Beijing

This year OpenOffice Conference will be held in Beijing (November 5-7).

While during last year conference in Barcelona we spoke and shared our idea & vision about the "future of Office System", this year we will showcase the "OpenOffice Server" --  a real rendering of how those concept, ideas and technologies being implemented in reality.

This would be exciting!

Interesting to see that on the next session after our presentation ("Woorknet - The OpenOffice Server"), the IBM team will be talking about Lotus Symphony.

It has been quite sometime I haven't seen these "Lotus based" technology in place. Would be exciting to learn what has happened during all these years we haven't met each other. ;-)

Here's a link to the conference program.

See you in Beijing. ;-)

Here Comes The "Apple Latte" !

A week ago we talked about the most artful (and beautiful) cappucino created by Barista artist Sammy Lin at Bottega del Vino, NY.

Today I discover this photo on Idris Mootee's blog:

Welcome to the "Apple Latte"!

Anybody know where to get it? I "seriously" want one. ;-)

The Team That Develop "Google Chrome"

Google took 6 years to develop their "chrome" browser. The project involves many people with different expertise and extraordinary gifted talents. During the past 6 years, these people come to Google through  hiring or through series of strategic acquisition.

Here's a picture of the team involved:

And here's the fascinating story behind "chrome" great effort and development:

http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/2008/09/google-chrome.html

During the great days of Windows (1990s), we always remember names like Brad Silverberg and the bunch of team that created Windows. During the era of the excellent Mac OS X Tiger we remember names like Avi Tevanian.

I wonder who now develop the "boring, dorky" IE ??

How Would We Enjoy Music In The Future?

Many people argues that buying music from iTunes is the best way to enjoy digital music today. Around the world we see increasing trend that more and more people love this.

Yet still people argue whether that would be really the case of the future. Would we enjoy downloading and playing music online in the future, or would we rather play it live from the web instead?

Would the future iPod and iPhone be the place where we store our digital music, or would the internet instead becoming our giant jukebox?

Digital music enjoyed, livecast from the web!

I am imagining a future whereby people purchasing music from the web, and "downloading" those music to their "web" instead of downloading it to their local music player harddrives. By storing their music on the web, they can annotate their likes and dislikes and have the powerful "social networking" feature of the web discover even more tastes around the world that would match or enrich these individual's profile!

With that, people can enjoy and discover music in richer ways around the globe, as the networking and discovery engine help them match and discover tastes around the globe, than if they isolate their music individually inside their own "iPod" cubicles.

Would this be the more preferred way of how people would enjoy music in the future?

We shall see how the future goes. ;-)

How To Make Unlimited Calls Around The Globe At $12.95/Mo??

Skype recently introduced a new pricing scheme that allow people to make unlimited call to a country, or to many countries around the globe.

They provide people with ability to subscribe at around $5.95 (for one country) up to $12.95 (for many country) per month. With such subscription, everybody can enjoy unlimited calls to landlines telephone number, at anytime, around the globe.

This is the complete pricing scheme:

Now imagine that a start-up company located in Jakarta or Bali have some major customer and partners (all with landline connection) in USA, Hongkong, Singapore, Australia and China. They need to communicate constantly. How much would such everyday communication and coordination cost now? $12.95 per month!!

A major shake up on the great VOIP communication revolution is about to begin! And Skype is definitely in the best position to dominate and/or win that all.

Linux Desktop Soon Will Understand "Touch" Gesture!

Soon Linux/Ubuntu desktop system will start to understand "touch" gesture.

Being called Ubuntu MID (Mobile Internet Device) edition, this Linux based operating system aimed not only to become as friendly and as beautiful as Apple Mac OSX, but at the same time -- complemented by the increasing popularity of the NetPC -- also being targeted to spur Linux-desktop adoption in the mass market.

Truly fascinating future.

Stay tune, and let's see how the future goes. :-)

The Rules Of The Garage

The whole history of Silicon Valley starts from the pioneering work done by Hewlett-Packard during the 60s. Some of their way of behaving and doing things at that time becoming "legendary rules" that becomes so legendary that it marks the "HP-Way" (and the "Silicon Valley" way) of doing things.

In 2000s, Carly Fiorina, then CEO of HP, try to rephrase the rules of the garage. She said the "rule of the garage" was:

• Believe you can change the world.
• Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
• Know when to work alone and when to work together
• Share - tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
• No politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage.)
• The customer defines a job well done.
• Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
• Invent different ways of working.
• Make a contribution everyday. If it doesn't contribute, it doesn't leave the garage.
• Believe that together we can do anything.
• Invent.

Some words are still true until today. Some words are probably embedded and imbused (and made a bit more "complicated" than it needs to be) by marketing people (the likes of Ms. Carly Fiorina) around the original concept and spirit of the HP-Way.

Nevertheless, as a  total, these words might still resonate within every single new garage around the world, in the mind and heart of the people and new company founders that consistently try to invent the "next great thing", which they instinctively believe perhaps -- one day -- could contribute to betterness of the world; and the society they live in.

After all, as history shows: almost every single company (and today's great brand) that is now becomes big and famous: Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Matshushita, Honda, Toyota, Ford, Virgin, Nike, Starbuck, McDonald, Walmart, Amazon.com, Google, Pixar, Disney, was once either a small company, a "boat", a "truck", an "apartement", a "house", or a "place", a "studio", an "idea"; essentially a "tiny garage" with the greatest product, asset, leader and inner-spirit that change the world for the better.

Tiny company that survive (and later on becoming really huge, iconic and phenomenal) usually are the company with the greatest inner spirit within (THE "BRAND"), imbused, lead and facilitated by the greatest founders and leaders (THE "LEADER"), accellerated, leveraged and enabled by greatest product of all time (THE "PRODUCT").

Across history we saw that when these "3" essential essence beautifully combined, usually new great iconic legendary company emerge.

To contribute to the world, or to change society/the world for the better, after all, is perhaps the greatest essence of truest entrepreneruship spirit of all time. These are the "hidden things" that makes "the spirit of garage works". The "essential instinctive thing" that makes the "tiny company struggling attempt and effort" survives". The "strong inner motivating thing" that makes "the next new great company happens".

The "other stuff" seem to take care of its own later on, when the time "has come".

iTunes U: Another (Great) Innovation From Apple!

When life & information is being digitized, the innovation possibilities are endless. Apple iTunes U is another great example: