Last Saturday, I bought a Samsung Galaxy SII thinking that an update for Android 4 should be available for Singapore since Samsung had already rolled out the update for UK. I was wrong not to check first before buying the phone. Upon reaching home with the new phone, the first thing I did was to download the Samsung KIES software and tried to do the update before I transferred my contacts. Sadly there was no update to android 4. I should have gotten Samsung Nexus and save myself the disappointment of not have a android 4 and other updates in the future. Phone vendors are most reluctant to update their old phones to the latest firmware. Naturally, they would want us to just buy their latest phones. If Android makers continue to do this they might suffer a black lash. People might just get frustrated with such poor support and move on to another platform. Another point to take note is that if they phone vendors do not provide update to their phones, the market will be flooded with different version of Android OS. This kind of fragmentation will cause headaches to developers. On many websites, there are mentions of developers frustrated with this kind of fragmentation and might consider developing for other platforms. This good news for Windows OS as some of the developers might jump back to Windows OS. This is my first Android phone and I am feeling disappointed already. Lucky I still have my iPhone.

Just last week, DL talked about getting young I.T professionals to learn old programming language such as Cobol to support applications on mainframe. This week on on DL, Aaron Tan reports that HP aims to come up with product for companies ditching high-end servers(mainframe) for cheaper x86 systems. Seems like there will be an end to mainframe. HP's Project Odyssey will help companies to migrate from Unix to x86 systems to reduce I.T cost. Under this project, HP will also bring some of the high-end features, such as automatic repair of system errors and intelligent routing of data, to ensure IT systems are available at all times. If this project is successful, HP will strengthen the x86 market and make Linux and Windows more attractive even to banks and companies who are a big of Unix systems. I applaud HP for this project. Moving to cheaper hardware means that more can be spent on other area like IT training, software, security, etc. For me personally, I would hope more companies can adopt cloud computing. Companies can concentrate on their core business and leave the dirty IT works to cloud computing companies. 

Another 3 more months, I can recontract my mobile line. I am wondering if I should jump to android platform. I am very interested to find out what android 4 (ice cream) is like,as I never own an android phone before. I have tried out my friend's older android OS but did not like it. I wonder will that change with ice cream. There are some cool features as mentioned in DL like Data usage monitor, Resizable widgets, Improved voice commands and Facial recognition.

Looking around for an android phone is not easy. There are so many android phone around. Each maker interface is different unlike iPhone. 1 thing, I like most about iPhone is consistancy. I do not have keep learning new way doing the same task. Before reading up on Samsung Galaxy Nexus on  DL, I thought I would just pick up any android phone running ice cream. The article on Nexus brought up an important consideration for me. Nexus which carry the Google brand name comes with a stock android OS. This is important in a way, as I can manually update the phone to the latest OS, instead of waiting for vendors and telcos to roll out the upgrades. For people who bought the Samsung Galaxy S II, they have to hold their breath to see if their  handset is supported when ice cream came out. This is make me appreciate iPhone a little bit more. I have been upgrading my IOS without such worries. Apple's IOS is compatible with iPhone 2 gen before.

I also have another consideration jumping to android. I have bought a navigation apps on iPhone. Jumping to android means, I will not be able to use my navigation apps on android. That's something I can live without but it will be waste.

I guess there are some considerations before jumping from one OS to another. I might just stick to iPhone after all. I am probably not going to wait for iPhone 5. One thing I learn from people who bought the iPhone 4S early, apple can let you wait 6 months to fix iPhone's calling audio silent issue.

Looking at the last page of DL ( Digital Life section from Strait times), reminds me of my situation. Helen Tan reports that "Many corporations still use mainframe computers that use Cobol, an old programming language." In this fast moving I..T world, is there a place for legacy technologies? Given a chance would anyone wants to learn learn old stuff. Estimated salary of a Cobol engineer is about $15,000 to $20,000. I guess I would be tempted if someone offer me the job and train me to be a Cobol programmer. However, what is the career prospect after Cobol pragramming? You probably have to pick up another skill set. That's a bumper. Imagine you are age 55 and have to learn another skill set. That is like a career switch. That's the problem with I.T. Your skill set can never last long. Always chasing certifications and technologies, unlike other profession.

There are still some dinosaur equipment, I am supporting. The number is not many but these are the equipments that give me the most headaches. They are before the internet era and not much information can be retreived from  the internet about them. Some time when problem arises, we are just trying our luck. I survived so far but I wonder sometime why are still supporting them when the vendors have even closed down. True, the maintenance contract might be more profitable than the newer ones but the sale person is not the one cracking they head in the middle of the night. I believe if there are still companies out there who continue to support these equipment, legacy equipment will remain. Technologies cannot progress until it cannot replace the old equipment easily. It is the people who stood where they are until they miss out the chance to upgrade or it comes too troublesome to do so.

Finally managed to update iPhone 4S via iTune. I tried to update via WIFI first but I kept getting download error. After a few attempt I turned to iTune. Although iTune failed to update my phone yesterday as well but I gave it a try anyway. Who knows, it worked. The whole update process took me about 20mins.

Once I am on IOS 5.1. I tried to make some calls. The upgrade solve my calling issue. I used to experience audio silent whenever make call to others for the first attempt. I usually get line only on the second attempt. Now the calling seems to be perfect. I also like the camera function being place at screen lock. I now have quick access to camera function. For the battery life , I will find out if it is fixed in a few days of usage.

Kindle work around

If you still prefer Kindle's ink display and like to use one in this island, there is work around.

Getting a Kindle is easy. You can use VPOST, Comgateway or Borderlinx to ship the kindle to you.
After you got your Kindle, here comes the tricky part.



To begin buying ebooks, you need to get ready the following ;

1) VPN service to US - You can use any VPN as long as the end point is in US. Free VPNs like OpenVPN and securityKISS work fine.

2) US address - You can use the US address from VPOST, Comgateway or Borderlinx.

3) 2 Amazon account - one account with local address registered and the other with US address registered.



After you have the above items ready, you are set to make your purchase.

1) Login into the Amazon account with local address registered. Buy the Amazon gift card for Kindle store and send the gift card via email to your Amazon account with US address registered. After you have send the gift card, logout of the Amazon account with local address registered.

2) Launch the VPN service. To confirm that you now have the US ip address, open IE and goto http://whatismyipaddress.com/ or http://www.ip2location.com. You should see that you now have a US ip address.

3) Login into the Amazon account with US address registered. You should be able to see Kindle's ebooks llisting. Continue to buy your ebook using the Amazon gift card. When you check out, Amazon will might ask you for your billing address. As you are using gift card, billing address is not critical. Select or key in the US address you registered earlier.

4) After you make your purchase. Download the ebook to your Kindle via USB. Do not use Amazon Whispernet to download.

5) After you have download the ebook to your Kindle logout of your Amazon account with US address registered and disconnect your VPN.


Always remember, DO NOT login to your Amazon account with US address registered outside US. Amazon might tracks that you are not in US to access the ebook content. To download ebooks into Kindle app on iPad or iPhone, you will also need to turn on VPN on your iPad/iPhone first.

Limitation on iTune and Amazon

Ebook is hot nowaday. Many bookstores are closing down due to high operating cost. Page One turned to it's final page in Feb. Harris in Great World City also closed down. Even my favourite bookstore in Funan for I.T books also closed down and is now operating online. I guess with the popularity of tablets, ebooks will eventually become main stream. For one, ebooks are convenient to get and are cheaper. In this island, sad to say there are some limitations. Here we have no access to itune store so getting ebooks from itune is out unless you have a US credit card or someone bought you a Apple gift card, but you have to change your location to US by registering a US address. Apple don't seems to care where you download the content from as long you fulfill the above mentioned criteria.

Amazon, that;s a different story. Amazon do track where you download the content from. You can also register yourself with a US address to access the kindle ebook store but again you cannot buy ebook without a US credit card. However you can use any credit card to buy Amazon gift card which can be used to buy ebooks. Seems like a loop hole? Remember what I mentioned. Amazon TRACKS where you download the content. If you use a US register address to buy ebooks and download the content in this island, sooner or later they will send you email to verified your US address. In some forums, people have mentioned that Amazon will eventually block your ebooks download. To fellow islanders who want to buy Kindle or read ebooks on iPad using kindle app, this is a nightmare. Just let you know, to download kindle app for Apple, you also need a US registered address Apple ID. You might be asking why. Apparently this is due to censorship and distribution rights issue here.

There are alternatives. You can get ebooks from Skoob (By Singtel) and read them on Apple IOS, Android and PCs. Kobo is also another alternative.

Yesterday I got an email from mocca.com. They will be shutting down the web site until further notice. Mocca.com web site is owned by Mediacorp. It is served as a classifieds web portal. I personally had used the site for selling my old stuff like wii, lava lamp,etc. The web site was good as it did not charge any fee for posting unless you wanted more features for you posting, like adding more photos of your product. Unlike Ebay or Gmarket, the website did not offer any form of transaction function. I guess it did not evolve enough to stay afloat in this ever changing internet environment. I wonder what will happen to mocca.com in the future.

2nd post for me today. I will be using the labels feature to organize the topics that I will be posting. Still on the subject of Apple today. I tried to update my iPhone 4S yesterday and it just failed. First I cannot seems to be able to update via WIFI. For iPhone 4S, the IOS 5.1 update package via WIFI is 185MB. Via Desktop iTune, it will be 804MB. I tried to update WIFI a couple of time and my iPhone just tell me I have problem downloading. I switch to desktop iTune. Once I opened up iTune, it prompt me to update. I updated my iTune to 10.6 and did a reboot. After that I plugged in my iPhone and clicked on the update button. I did not do a backup first as I had already done so a few day back. The iTune downloaded the IOS 5.1 package until 450MB and gave me a error message saying I had connect issue. I tried a couple of time and it still failed. Google the internet for help and found that the IOS 5.1 has not fix the battery issue and also the call audio drop issue. Some guys in the Apple forum did mention they are facing problem downloading also. Maybe everyone is overloading the server. Will try to update again when I have the time. Like I said before if this update don't fix my call audio problem, I will have the green guy changing a new phone for me.

Beginning my blogger life in the internet after so long.Why I want to start this blog? Maybe it is because I need some space of my own. After living in this small little tropical island for so long, I started to feel a little cram. There used to have quiet places in Orchard road where I can sit down quietly, enjoying my drink after a stressful day. Although nowadays, there are a wider choice of cafe but the number of people had increased exponentially. They said our population is around 6 million. 6 million people already? I cannot image it going to 7 or even 8. Maybe in the future when you are not careful. You might just fall off the edge and into the sea.

Anyway, this blog is not going to be another "loser" site and I cannot afford to be sued. I am not going to grumble here. In here, it will be a space where I and perhaps my friends can pin down thoughts for nicer stuff.

How about iPad news? Coincidentally, today in the red dot we got about news about the "iPad 3". This morning I went to apple web site and realized that the new released iPad is not called "iPad 3". It is just call iPad. After looking through the specs, I did not feel that I need the upgrade. I can leave with my iPad 2 for a while. I was feeling a little sore when they release the new iPad as I had bought iPad 2 last Sept. Just after 6 months, Apple decided to release a new model. To me the new iPad just have better resolution, better graphic and it support 4G. I am not a gamer or a vivid TV drama person, so the iPad 2 screen is good enough for me. I also  do not need the 4G. 4G is still new and there is only 1 operator with 4G coverage. The new iPad is also slightly thicker and heavier.

Although, I do not need an upgrade for my iPad, there 1 upgrade I need to do. Upgrade my wife's iPhone 4S to IOS to 5.1. My wife's iPhone is having problem making outgoing calls. Sometime the audio will just go silent and you cannot hear the other party voice.This is the problem since day 1. Try to get it repair but the Green guy keep telling us that our phone is not faulty and we cannot do an exchange. Instead the green guy gave us codes to turn off call barring. I hope this IOS upgrade and solve this once and for all. If not I will have to insist they give me another phone.