The Samsung GALAXY Nexus (Image: Samsung/supplied)

The flagship phone for Ice Cream Sandwich – Android 4.0 – is on our review desk. However, does it live up to the hype what Google and Samsung have produced, or will it fall flat like many Android phones? Plus, is ICS an improvement to the Android ecosystem?

Terence Huynh reviews.

Design & Features

As we may have noticed, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a slim touchscreen phone – not as slim as the Motorola RAZR, but is pocketable. The phone also features a unique curve, mainly because of the 4.65-inch curved Super AMOLED display. Speaking of the display, the colour reproduction is good and are vibrant (and it should, especially since it is considered the flagship phone for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich). The phone also features a dual core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM; and 16GB storage that is not expandable via a microSD card.

As well, you have the standard headphone jack and a microUSB port at the bottom; a volume rocker at the left side; and power button on the right. You also have a camera – 5 megapixel that can record 1080p video – with a LED light at the back; in addition to a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera.

The body, typical of Samsung’s high-end smartphones, is perfection. It is beautifully designed. However, playing with the phone longer than anticipated, I started comparing it to the other phones I had to review, and the phones I previously reviewed – and it has a problem.

The body feels bland. It’s perfectly designed, but just doesn’t excite me as much – and it’s because of the colour, or lack thereof.

After playing around with the Nokia N9, you do sort of miss the bright and screaming colours of magenta and blue (I did have the Black version to review, but I did also play around with the two colours).The shade of black and/or grey and a mesh pattern at the back of the phone just gets boring when you see it on every single phone.To be fair, it’s not Samsung’s fault. Every single phone manufacturer is guilty of simply sticking to a monochromatic colour scheme.

Being the flagship phone of Android by Google, it does have to add hardware features that developers will be (hopefully) using for their apps. This phone includes Near Field Communication (NFC) and is one of the few phones that supports Mobile High-Defintion Link (MHL) – where you can connect the phone (via microUSB) to your HDTV. It is also sort of a way to reproduce 1080p content since the phone lacks a microHDMI port.

The Camera

The camera touts “zero shutter lag”, and the claim does stand up. The photo is taken and saved instantly when you press the on-screen button to shoot. However, while it does have continuous auto focus – meaning, it will constantly readjust to make sure the image is mostly clear -  you can get a bit of blurriness in the photo. It also comes with a panorama mode, so you can take 360 degree shots at ease.

In all honesty, the photos could have come out better. The camera’s weak spots are in low-light conditions. The flash when doing close-ups over-saturates, and does kind of make a person look like he or she has jaundice. Not a great look.

But the big improvement has to be the interface. It’s clean, simple and the settings are not hidden through menu, after menu. It has been a bit simplified, and stripped down to the basic features of zoom, changing the white balance, turning off or on the flash and changing the quality of the photos. It doesn’t have the weird oddities such as effects – like HTC has done; but who cares about the effects. All of us want simple snapshots.

Ice Cream Sandwich also lets you have quick access to the camera in the lock screen. So now, you’ll never miss a moment.

Ice Cream Sandwich

Now, let’s get straight to the main business – it is currently (at the time of writing) the only smartphone running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that is available in Australia. Combined with the dual-core processor, it runs smoothly in comparison to the heavily customised versions from manufacturers – I still have bad nightmares from Motorola’s MOTOBLUR.

It pretty much takes Honeycomb and slaps it onto a smartphone. However, ICS ditches all physical buttons on the front of the phone, instead relying on the static buttons on the bottom of the screen – representing back, home and a way to see currently running applications. Also new to ICS is the ability to now close apps in the background, a new data usage manager, screenshot capture and the ability to create folders. Widgets now are in its own tab with the Apps menu, and like Honeycomb, you can now resize them.

But those are considered minor to Google. It is touting two things – Android Beam and Face Unlock. Unfortunately, we couldn’t test Android Beam since we don’t have another phone with us on our review desk that has NFC, but its a new way to share contacts, web pages, YouTube videos, apps, etc without using the cumbersome pairing process of Bluetooth.

Face Unlock, however, isn’t all that great either. The ads somewhat blemish the uselessness of this feature. In fact, Google admits that it is “less secure than a pattern, PIN or password”. So why put it in there? Because simply, iOS and Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have it. To its credit, it managed to unlock my face instantly – after tying to get it to angle correctly in the circle so many times; but it didn’t work in different lighting conditions (it could be because parts of the face were obscured). So, if I was you, I’ll stick with the traditional pattern or PIN.

However, back to ICS – in its purest form, it is brilliant. Perfectly designed (and as a typography nerd, the font Roboto looks really good for the display) and its complexities mostly simplified, it is the best version of Android yet – despite the gimmick known as Face Unlock.

Conclusions

Calling this phone the best Android phone might be a bit over-the-top, but definitely is one of the better smartphones in the market – if you ignore the gimmicks. The camera does let it down a bit, but most of the hardware doesn’t. The processor makes ICS run smoothly; and ICS itself makes me want to convert to an Android fanboy simply because of its design.

But of course, Samsung will create a better version for its Galaxy line, like every other manufacturer – so I’ll be eagerly awaiting what manufacturers will release with ICS at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

SITE NEWS: Oh look what has returned. After a few months of tinkering and finding a new approach, we have brought back our own link shortner URL – tgau.co.

We’ve decided to ditch our old internal system for a more better approach using bit.ly’s own custom domain feature, which is free for all to use. Plus, this has an added bonus of letting us use it on anything that supports bit.ly.

So, if you look at the bottom of the post, you’ll see a link shortened URL with tgau.co, rather than bitly.com or any of its sister domains.

Enjoy using it!

Facebook files an IPO, we learn Zynga makes 12 percent of its revenue, and Anonymous manages to swipe a recording about them from the FBI? Wow, and we thought Sony’s security was lax. All this and more on TECHGEEK Weekly.

Stewart is away this week, so Terence, Chris and Tom are joined by the wonderful (and often replacing Stewart whenever he isn’t on the podcast) Harley McEvoy.

Don’t forget to listen and subscribe!

You may be wondering why this was late on schedule. Well, we had some technical issues with CDN. It’s all fixed now. Sorry for the problems. – Terence

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

Facebook files IPO, wants to raise $5 billion

Facebook Goes Public: Surprising Facts Learned From IPO Paperwork

Zynga made up 12% of Facebook’s revenue in 2011

Zuckerberg will take a $1 annual salary starting next year

Facebook Javascript API Goes Down, Taking Down Likes, Comments And Apps With It

Howard Stringer to leave Sony CEO role, promotes Kazuo Hirai

Remember that rumoured February iPad 3 event? Make it March

Anonymous gain access to FBI and Scotland Yard hacking call

Pwnage Playtime

GAME looks to offload Australian stores after Christmas disaster in UK

Minecraft Will Never Be Finished

Nintendo Announces Online Gaming Network

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Exetel founder John Linton has passed away, after having a stroke. Linton was known for his opinions on technology and the ISP industry. His family has asked those to donate to his favourite charity – the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Micron CEO Dead At 51

Microsoft’s head of Windows Phone developer experience, Brandon Watson, leaves for Amazon

In Other News

Microsoft’s terrible ‘Gmail Man’ video becomes official, attacks Gmail’s ‘lack of privacy’

Windows Phone 8 ‘Apollo’ video details Skype plans, Windows 8 integration, and hardware support

Apple: Piper’s Munster Finds More Evidence TV Coming Soon

Feds: Megaupload user files may be deleted starting Thursday

Megaupload data to get two-week extension

Google must pay $660,000 for offering Google Maps for free

Is This the First BlackBerry 10 Phone? [PIC]

WiFi Kindle Touch gets its passport, now available internationally

Tom’s Stockings (2)

The latest update of Skype (version 5.8) for Windows is now available. The update, while fixing some bugs, also brings several key new features – including full HD video calling, Facebook video calling and group desktop sharing. Some, however, require you to have Skype Premium. You can download the latest version on its website.

Tweets by Scott Browning, marketing director for JB Hi Fi, has noted that the company has plans to release the app for its JB Hi Fi NOW streaming service “by the end of March” and has confirmed that it will allow users to download songs on their mobile devices for offline use.

Panasonic has announced that it will post a $10 billion annual loss – a record – for the year, blaming restructure changes and writedowns. As well, Sony and Sharp are expected to post heavy losses as all three are trying to fix their TV business.

Apple has finally pulled the delta update for Mac OS X 10.7.3, a release that was supposed to fix bugs and other problems but instead caused major problems to some users, such as the CUI errors and other application issues. Instead of downloading the smaller delta update, users are now made to download the combined update, meaning a bigger download of 1.34GB, almost double the original update’s size of 730.6MB

While the issues weren’t happening to everyone, a large number of users had OS-breaking problems, including myself. If you don’t want to risk anything, you should always wait a week after an update until the all-clear is given. And while this update is probably safe, you might want to wait if you’ve got important work to do.

The reasoning is that Sony wants you to use the same ID on all services, such as Music Unlimited, Video Unlimited (not available in Australia yet), and PlayMemories Online.

Why they would add the word ‘Entertainment,” I don’t know. Maybe Sony Network was taken? All I can hope is that Sony Entertainment Network doesn’t also get compromised and actually has some good security systems in place.

UK gaming retailer GAME looks likely to be pulling out of the Australian market, after striking a deal with its creditors to save the company from bankruptcy due to poor Christmas sales which includes plans to sell its overseas stores.

The deal allows GAME to continue lending, albeit within a lower limit. In return, the company has to provide an updated plan that will be approved by the lenders. The plan also includes a review of overseas operations – which could suggest the company could be looking for a buyer for its international assets to keep its UK stores afloat.

The company has 664 international stores – including 115 stores in Australia.

The company has reportedly been struggling due to the rise of online stores in the UK as sales during the Christmas holiday shopping season fell 15 percent. It has already announced it will be making a £18 million loss, and closing 60 of its 610 stores across the UK and Ireland by 2013. This is on top of the 39 stores it closed last year.

The struggle has also seen EA spooked. CEO John Riccitiello has noted during an investor call that he was concern of a “major European retail partner” – with many in the gaming press assuming it was Game.

The latest update of Skype (version 5.8) for Windows is now available. The update, while fixing some bugs, also brings several key new features – including full HD video calling, Facebook video calling and group desktop sharing.

The full HD video is currently supported by one camera – the Logitech C920 webcam. This is because the encoding is done inside the camera, rather than Skype. So, if you want to stream yourself in full HD, you now can – provided that you have at least 2Mbps download/upload speed.

Group desktop sharing means that you can now share a document, image or whatever is on your desktop instantly to a group conversation. This feature, however, will be available only to those with Skype Premium. Facebook video calling is also a big thing, meaning that you can now communicate to your friend even if they haven’t got Skype installed. In order to start a video call with a person on Facebook, you select the person you want and click “video call”.

Other new improvements include a Push-to-Talk feature, integration with the Bing Toolbar and hiding offline Facebook contacts.

You can read the full list via Skype’s blog.

Not only does Google offer perfectly fine privacy policies, with the claims of this video false (Google AdSense does analyse emails, but in no way is it done or seen by employees), but their Google Apps that you pay for, just like paying for Office 365, have no ads. It’s comparing a free service to a paid service. And Google could easily be the best company to hold your data, with new ways to free it, such as in Google Takeout, where you can export almost all of your data and go somewhere else.

Also, never mind the fact that free Hotmail users probably have the same privacy in regards to ads as free Gmail users, but Microsoft would never let that get in the way of a good story now, would they? Neither would a number of other media outlets.

Either way, the video is below, and if you want some real facts about Gmail and Google, read their blog post. And remember, don’t listening to misinformed people and competitors. They probably just want a page view.

Update: Also, Microsoft also has personalised advertising. So does Facebook. And you can Opt-out to Google and Microsoft’s personalised advertising at any time. Just Google it.

Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au

Facebook is going public. The social networking site has filed its hotly anticipated (and much rumoured) IPO, with the company seeking to raise $5 billion from selling its shares on the stock market. The company, however, has not listed when it will sell those shares, nor has it released any initial price on those shares.

The company also plans to sell Class A stock – which will entitle holders one vote. However, there will be Class B stock – allowing holders ten votes per share. So, we can expect Facebook’s own executives will take hold of Class B stock to maintain some control over the direction of the company.

However, there are juicy tidbits coming from Facebook’s own filing – including announcing that there were 845 million active users on the site, 250 million photos uploaded every day, and 2.7 billion likes and comments across the site per day. The company also announced that it has made $3.7 billion – with 84 percent just on advertising revenue.

You can read the entire IPO filing below.

Exetel founder John Linton has passed away from an “intensive stroke” after having lunch yesterday. The news was communicated by the company on his blog by his son James Linton, adding that the company plans to continue.

Linton started Exetel as a consultancy company in the 1990s, before it shifted to become an ISP. Linton is also known for his own opinions on the ISP industry, regularly publishing on a blog to customers of Exetel and those who donated to his endangered wild life protection fund.

We have copied the full text, via a Whirlpool poster:

Yesterday my dad was doing what he liked doing best. Eating at a nice restaurant, drinking nice wines , and talking about the state of the telecommunications market in Australia, and the various companies that make this up.

At lunch he suffered what was thought to be a mild stroke, and was immediately taken to St Vincents hospital. He was conscious in the ambulance, responding to their questions, but when he got to the hospital he had trouble breathing and they needed to put him into a medically induced coma and put him on a ventilator to help him breathe. Unfortunately it turned out to be a very intensive stroke and there was nothing the doctors could do, without killing him in an operation or leaving him severely brain damaged. So last night, with most of my family present, his ventilator was turned off and a few hours later he passed away peacefully.

This is the saddest day of my life, I have lost my dad, my mentor, my boss, and one of my best friends.

However dad would not want us fussing over him, he would want to know what we have sold, which was actually one of the last things I said to him. He would also want Exetel to go on as he had planned for it to. He put in a place a strategic plan, so we need to move on as he had wanted us to, and remember him for the great man he was.

If any of you feel like buying my mum and family flowers, I would ask that you instead make a donation to his favourite charity, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; http://www.rspb.org.uk/

James Linton

Our thoughts are with his family.

Image: ITNews

Sony has announced that Sir Howard Stringer will leave his role as President and CEO; and that Kazuo Hirai – the current head of Sony’s Electronics division – will succeed him. The move is effective from April 1.

“Three years ago, I started to work with the Board on succession plans, and in February, 2009 we named a new generation of leaders to be my management team. Among them was Kaz Hirai, who had distinguished himself through his work in the PlayStation ® and networked entertainment businesses,” he said in a statement.

“It was my honor to recommend him to the Board for the positions of President and CEO, because he is ready to lead, and the time to make this change is now.”

Hirai has risen up the ranks for the past decade or so. He started in Sony’s music division in Japan before jumping over to its Sony Computer Entertainment (PlayStation) division. He would soon head up the US division, where he would play a role in making the PlayStation brand a household name in gaming.

In 2006, he became vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment and a few months later, he would become president of the same group. In 2009, he was then moved to become the head of Sony’s entire electronics division and an Executive Vice President within Sony. This gave him total control of Sony’s gaming, personal computing, and portable devices; and all of its online services.

“I am grateful to Sir Howard and to the Board for their confidence in me, and I look forward to working with everyone at Sony more closely than ever before to build a strong future for our customers, shareholders, partners and employees,” Hirai noted in a statement.

Right now, Australian school kids are going back to school after their summer holidays. However, we all know that the level and amount of study increases – especially when they enter their final years of school to complete their VCE, HSC or equivalent. Since I finished high school last year, I decided to write down how I managed to study – while, of course, balancing my time on the site.

I know studying is hard and will be painful. But, with these tips, these will hopefully help you study efficiently.

Get a Calendar – Google Calendar

Google Calendar is your friend. Use it to keep track of any scheduled exams or when major assignments are due. What’s a big plus for Google Calendar compared to using Outlook is that it is available on every platform – mobile, desktop or tablet – via the web or through several methods, with native integration with iOS and Android phones. What’s also neat is that every computer or phone will be in sync, so you know you will not miss a date.

The great thing is that it is free, and if you already have a Gmail account, then you’ll be able to access Google Calendar as it falls under your “Google Account”. This also means that you have access to Google Docs – which is a great tool for collaborating on projects and on storing documents as a backup.

Limit Your Facebook Time

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter can be huge distractions – so it’s time to limit your usage. The key word is LIMIT. I’m not going to call on you to block these sites, because we don’t want to kill your social life (or what’s left of it). There are two extensions that can do this – LeechBlock for Firefox and StayFocusd for Chrome. Unfortunately/fortunately, there isn’t one for Safari, Opera or IE.

If you are desperate, then you should really consider blocking them. There are a few ways of doing this – find an extension or application to do this, or simply modify your HOSTS file with a long bunch of URLs relating to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all the alternative URLs that you usually go to in order to bypass a filter. Though, if you choose to modify your HOSTS file, back it up before you do any changes. It is a systems file, and if you screw this up without a backup, then you may potentially harm your computer.

Don’t get distracted when writing typing

You’ll often notice when writing your essay or assignment is that you lose your attention when you see a little notification or even possibly the time on the taskbar simply because you just don’t want to do this. I know, I’m doing it right now. If you find yourself experiencing this problem, then maybe you should consider getting a distraction-free writer. Many of which are free.

However, you will not be getting the same features as Microsoft Word, like styling and adding images – the crux of any document editor. And while it will be annoying, just do a simple copy and paste when you are finished with it, or just open the .txt file to your document editor – all document editors will read .txt files.

While there are plenty of distraction-free writing software, some of the better ones include OmmWriter (Mac/PC/iOS – free/donation), WriteMonkey (Windows – Free) and Q10 (Windows – Free).

(Cloud) Bookmarking is your friend

Finding evidence or sources for an essay or project will most likely be easy – do a Google search. However, recalling this is a pain since Google’s results change every day. You can always look through your history – but everything will be a mess. So, make sure you bookmark those pages – and it is a simple click in many browsers. Firefox, for example, is a simple click on the star.

But what about if you are on another computer – especially at school – you can’t access your bookmarks. That is why you should bookmark your pages on a service like Delicious. All you need to do is to install a plugin or add a bookmarklet – which is a piece of Javascript that you add to your bookmark bar, so when you press it, it will let you save it to your account. And you can keep track of links and tag them for organising them.

And did we mention it’s free? So, if you need to collate sources for a project or essay, then this should be a must-use tool.

Create Flashcards – and take them everywhere

One of the brilliant ways to study and revise for a test is creating flash cards. Summarise what you have learnt, add questions and definitions, and finally motivate yourselves to revise again, and again, and again before your final exam. However, now there are services that bring flash cards to your smartphone – so you can take it, and study, at any time and in any location without carrying lots of paper.

For the iOS (except iPad) and Android platforms, there is a service called StudyBlue, which lets you create flash cards on the fly. You can also track whether or not you got the answer right or wrong (meaning that it is heavily based on trust), so you’ll know whether or not if you are retaining that knowledge or you have to go back and study before the final exam.

Another app, which supports the iOS platform (including the iPad) is called Flashcards Deluxe by OrangeOrApple.com. The app lets you create your own flashcards via a text editor or spreadsheet, via online services or within the app. And if you do create your own outside of the app, you can upload it to their own servers or retrieve it via Google Docs or Dropbox. It comes in two versions – a free version that has a limit of 4 decks with 6 cards per deck; or a paid version with no limits for $3.99. I suggest you take the latter version, because it’s worth it.

Extra 1: Back Your Files Up!

One of the most important things is to back up all your files. I have lost my USB drive so many times, and I am thankful that I at least have a copy somewhere. The basic principle you should follow is to store it on your computer, store on a USB flash drive or an external hard drive and store on the cloud. And make sure you keep each version updated – or at least one version away so you don’t lose all your work. It may be a huge effort, but you do not want to spend all night rewriting a piece of work you finished but were stupid enough to lose it.

For cloud storage, you should either use Windows Live SkyDrive or Dropbox. SkyDrive gives you 25GB of storage for free – and that will take you ages to fill up. Dropbox gives you 2GB of storage for free, but you can subscribe to a 50GB and 100GB plan. Dropbox also has an added bonus of having a dedicated app to syncs your files from a specific folder to its servers – so any change will not be lost.

Extra 2: Go Outside

You should always strive to find a balance of school work and your social life. Don’t focus on one or the other, because you’ll either feel too exhausted to be motivated to do work, or will keep pushing studying for something back further and further away. But do go out once in a while, as it will keep you grounded. My friends and I always have a day during the school holidays just to catch up – and for many, breathe fresh air after days locked in our rooms trying to finish the massive school load of homework.

Even if it is like two or three hours in a friend’s house, just have a period where you don’t do any homework and be with friends. You’ll be relaxed and hopefully less stressed out about how to do homework.

(This does assume that you managed to find time to allocate it somewhere else, however. So maybe it’s a good thing you have a calendar to help you – see tip 1)

Image: Bart Everson/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Tweets by Scott Browning, marketing director for JB Hi Fi, has noted that the company has plans to release the app for its JB Hi Fi NOW streaming service “by the end of March” and has confirmed that it will allow users to download songs on their mobile devices for offline use.

The revelation was sparked when one Twitter user asked him about whether or not if the app will support offline caching. This move will put it somewhat on par with competitor Rdio – which recently entered the Australian market. Rdio lets you cache songs offline (effectively, download them to your mobile device) so you can play them where you don’t have an internet connection or don’t want to use your 3G connectivity.

While you’ll still have to wait for about two months, at least we have an update of its development.

The next version of Microsoft Office – dubbed Office 15 – has begun the Technical Preview stage of its development. This means a select number of users under non-disclosure agreements will be sending feedback on some of its new features and changes.

Office 15 has been dubbed as the division’s most ambitious project, mainly because it will blur the lines of a physical and a web app.

“With Office 15, for the first time ever, we will simultaneously update our cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio,” PJ Hough, the Corporate Vice President of Development in the Office Division, wrote in a blog post.

“Quite simply, Office 15 will help people work, collaborate, and communicate smarter and faster than ever before.”

Microsoft has also confirmed that a public beta will be released later in the summer, so we’ll all know what are the new things inside Office 15.

The Nokia Lumia 800 - its first new smartphone running WP7

Despite reporting an operating loss of over 1 billion dollars, Nokia managed to pull off a feat to mollify the investors – 1 million Lumia Windows Phone device sales. That’s actually quite a respectable result considering the device has yet to make a showing in markets such as North America and Australia.

But aside from that, Nokia’s future doesn’t appear to be looking any brighter than it was a year ago, in fact maybe it’s even a little bleaker. What Nokia use to have in the market was exclusivity and scale. The tandem of those two factors ultimately led to Nokia’s commanding success.

Nokia has neither of these two factors today, aside from the exclusivity of being a 100% committed Windows Phone partner, but really that’s only working for Microsoft. The N9 running Meego Harmattan was certainly an exclusive, but with the promised commitment to run full steam with Windows Phone, Meego Harmattan’s potential may never be realised, or at most, a peripheral pursuit.

Of course, it’s not like Meego Harmattan had a big chance anyway.

And scale, is something Nokia simply can’t obtain given the R&D required to build any good smartphone, especially if you’re Nokia and really trying to deliver with a bang. Nokia’s now signature polycarbonate shell in the N9 and Lumia 800, 900 models is a feat of engineering that simply couldn’t have been achieved if the company had floored it and delivered a tsunami of Windows Phones in generic form factors and hardware variations.

The only segment where any economy of scale is possible, is in feature phones, once Nokia’s money-reeling gem but now declining precipitously in developed markets. Of course, there’s still money to be made there, and with most cellphone vendors relaying their focus to encompass smartphones 100%, Nokia is really in a position to take full control of the feature phone market. But there’s a reason why the world and the industry is stepping with both feet into the smartphone pool, it’s because not doing so would be committing to a world that will cease to exist in a very short time.

For Nokia, it’s even more crucial than this. As a company undergoing a brand image overhaul, investing excessively into feature phones would do nothing but hamper Nokia’s planned course to become viewed as a forward thinking company. Consumers can’t think of Nokia and see number keypads anymore.

Aside from the fact that Nokia no longer has significant leverage in the development chain to pump their business anymore, there’s also the issue of getting consumers to sign a contract to their phones which run on a platform that hasn’t gained the amount of traction that the company probably thought it would. Aside from getting the nod from reviewers, consumers are yet to see the great value proposition in Windows Phone.

Sure, 1 million sales exhibits promise, but it’s early days. The company has most likely skimmed the piece of market that gravitated towards Nokia in the first place, but from now on, it’s war and Nokia needs to pose some real fight – not only to lure consumers away from the eminent iOS and Android, but also to funnel them away from the other Windows Phone vendors in HTC, LG and Samsung among others.

The latter, an easy task that the company should win, but the former being a spectacularly tall order.

It stands to beg the question of why Nokia didn’t pursue the Android paved path in the first place. I can imagine it being an appealing option, Nokia’s acclaimed hardware quality and design paired with an OS that has solidified its position in the marketplace. It’s always nice to be on a winning team. But Nokia took a risk with Windows Phone, as a consumer I applaud the path they’ve taken, and from Nokia’s vantage, I would’ve done the exact same thing.

Success in Windows Phone will yield a significantly greater reward that would be irksome to supplant, whereas success with Android would simply be providing another option, as opposed to a different option.

It’s an uphill climb from here, and by sucking dry their loyal customer base in the first million sales, Nokia is essentially running on fumes. But since when is business not an uphill battle?  Build beautiful things, make sure people know about it and you can’t really go wrong.

Anonymous retaliates over the MegaUpload shutdown, RIM ditches their co-CEOs and Twitter starts censoring the tweets? And Stewart responds to Chris’ piece on Windows Phone 7 – all that and more on TECHGEEK Weekly.

Sadly, Chris wasn’t on, so that gave Stewart a chance to rebut without any interruptions.

Don’t forget to listen and subscribe.

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

MegaUpload Founder Again Denied Bail, High Court Appeal Launched

Filesonic Kills File-Sharing Service After MegaUpload Arrests

Hackers retaliate over Megaupload website shutdown

MegaUpload Trial: NZ politicians question Kim Dotcom’s resident status

MegaUpload, Pirate Party to sue FBI for users’ lost files

Kim Dotcom ‘scared hell out’ of neighbours with bizarre email

RIM co-CEOs step down, new leader vows to overturn fortunes

Exclusive: What BlackBerry Lovers Are Looking For

Tweets still must flow

Twitter’s new censorship plan stirs global furor

Tom’s Stockings (1)

HP has announced a timeline for when webOS will be open sourced. By September, HP expects that the full open webOS will be released to developers. However, for those wanting to create apps, it has released the framework today. You can find a link at our site.

Nokia is reported to have announce that the Lumia 800 and 710 will be out in Australia in March. The Lumia 800′s price has not been revealed, but Nokia’s Chris Carr also stated that all three major carriers will be on board.

Get ready for more uproar from Facebook users. The company plans to roll out Timeline “over the next few weeks” to all of its users. You will also have seven days to preview what is in your timeline before it goes live. So, start editing – and delete those embarrassing messages.

In Other News

OPINION: Windows Phone: Sweet on the outside, sour on the inside

Google+ changes naming policy – now allows pseudonyms and “abstract” names

Google+ finally opens its doors to teenagers after adding new safety features

“Streamlined” Google privacy policy and terms of service coming March 1st

Updating our privacy policies and terms of service

One policy, one Google experience

Pirate Bay to allow real-object downloads

Tom’s Stockings (2)

Anonymous – or whoever is trying to claim to be from them – has announced Jan 28 to be the day they will try and take down Facebook. AnonOps’ Twitter account is claiming it is not and is a “mass media lie”. But Facebook reassures everyone that it is ready.

Motorola is suing Apple, saying that the iPhone 4S and iCloud are infringing on its patents. It seeks to have an injunction on these two products, meaning they could be banned. Apple has not responded to the claims.

Nokia has been fined by ACMA for sending SMS messages with ‘tips’ but failing to provide details on how to stop receiving them – which is a violation of the Spam Act. Nokia will pay $55,000 in fines and agree to be audited.

Okay, it’s now our turn to review HTC’s 3D phone. It records, takes pictures and plays 3D content without the need of those awkward and annoying glasses; and it also touts some top-of-the-range hardware specs. However, does it stand out from the crowd with its 3D, or is it just a gimmick? Terence Huynh reviews.

Design and Features

The HTC EVO 3D is unapologetic in being ‘bulky’ in comparison to the iPhone 4S, and moves away from the trend of slimmer smartphones with beautiful designs. A rubber back and an assortment of buttons everywhere, the phone feels very manly. And it’s heavier, weighing at 170g. It is wrapped in a dark-grey body with just a bit of red where the camera.

However, packed inside is a 1.2GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, 1GB of internal storage that is also expandable via microSD, and support for 3D with two 5-megapixel lenses. I’m guessing the second camera is adding to the thickness to the phone. As well, it features a 4.3-inch qHD display – one of the biggest screens from HTC – where the colours are vibrant.

The phone is one of the few 3D phones out in the market, and will let you play 3D content, take 3D pictures and even record 3D video in 720p video quality. And don’t worry, you will not be wearing any glasses to get it working. The company uses something the Nintendo 3DS uses, and it’s called parallax barrier technology. Downside is that it does cause some eye-strain if you are using it for too long, and that you’ll have to get it in the right angle or else the effect disappears. However, the effect is really good for video and games.

In terms of multimedia, you’ll not going to be impressed. Despite having some big specs, for some reason, it only can play out 720p files not 1080p files – which you would want if you were going to play these on your phone. Granted, it’s a minor issue. There is no HDMI output on this phone, but you can always buy an adapter for its microUSB port to HDMI (again, that feels like another hurdle).

The Camera

The quality of both picture and video is great, though not excellent. You can switch between 3D and 2D modes with a mechanical switch, and there is a dedicated physical camera button – which is something that I would love to see on phones. It does have auto-focus, so it’ll constantly adjust the lens – the sound does get a tad bit annoying. However, it doesn’t adjust to compensate for the dual LED flash when taking photos in a short range. So, you should be accustom to your flash options.

The camera also comes with some effects – including some effects that you can find in Instagram or Camera+ for iOS. The effects vary in effectiveness – such as the soft-focus feature. You can see one instance of the effect below.

Making your own 3D content, however, is another story. The pictures look alright, but you can’t really tell the difference between taking the same photo in 2D. And as well, staring at the screen for a long time, especially for video, does hurt your eyes – so you’ll not going to get a good video to share to your friends.

Performance + HTC Sense

The phone performs really well with no lag issues, and this is because of its 1GB of RAM and 1.2GHz dual core processor. The phone runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with its HTC Sense UI – and of course features its own applications. I should point out that its own applications – including its own Twitter application Peep is not a good replacement for the Official Twitter application. So I suggest you go and download that app first. Other novelties you may find on this phone include a Flashlight, which is using the dual LED flash from the camera.

I personally felt the keyboard to be awkward to use and that could be because of its size, but also the sensitivity of the keys. Pressing the right key I want shows me another key next to it sometimes.

Battery life on the phone is okay, but better than some other HTC phones. Heavy users can expect this phone to last them around a day. Lighter users can expect to see this phone’s battery life expand to two or three days.

Conclusions

The phone may be fat – in comparison to other smartphones in the market – and 3D is a bit of a gimmick (one that can hurt your eyes), the phone still proves to the phone with the required features we want – a camera that works, a phone that does not lag and it is usable. The iPhone 4 and 4S encompasses all of these qualities that what every consumer wants in their phone, so the HTC EVO 3D does not fail to impress.

A newspaper article has stated that Nokia Australia could be releasing the Lumia 800 – the first (and currently, flagship) Windows Phone 7 phone by the company – in March this year. Also coming in March is the Lumia 710, a lower-end version of the phone.

Nokia Australia’s Chris Carr confirmed to the Australian Financial Review that the Lumia 800 has distribution arrangements with all three major carriers, while the Lumia 710 currently has none finalised. Nokia previously did state that the phone would be reaching in Australia sometime this year, but an actual date has not been confirmed.

The Lumia 800 features a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, a 1.4GHz single-core processor, 16GB of internal storage and an 8-megapixel camera. It also shares the same body as the Nokia N9 – and Nokia has been touting the phone as the “first REAL Windows Phone”.

The Lumia 710, on the other hand, features most of the same features – except it has a 5-megapixel camera, 8GB of storage, and a cheaper body.

The Lumia line and its Windows Phone 7 deal has propelled Nokia back into the spotlight, and more attention has been given to the Nokia-WP7 tie up as it means that: 1) Nokia managed to ditch the long-struggling Symbian OS as its flagship platform; and 2) Microsoft is now getting serious with its mobile strategy with a big manufacturer.

But should Nokia Australia be wary of a March launch? Mobile World Congress is in the last week of February, and Nokia is expected to make some more announcements about Windows Phone 7 – alongside every other Android and Windows Phone 7 manufacturer. But, those phones usually come out in June (or even later for Australia).

We’ll keep our eyes on this product.

The Pirate Party in Catalonia and MegaUpload have announced that it will file a joint complaint against the FBI over their decision to seize the company’s assets, which meant users’ files were lost – some of which were copyright infringing, but many others were note.

The Pirates in Catalonia, in collaboration with the Pirate Parties International, claims that it has caused “incalculable damage, far in excess of the losses claimed by the content lobbies”. It also claims that the FBI’s actions may have violated Spanish law for “misappropriating personal data”.

“The widespread damage caused by the sudden closure of Megaupload is unjustified and completely disproportionate to the aim intended,” it wrote. “[We] have begun investigating these potential breaches of law and will facilitate submission of complaints against the US authorities in as many countries as possible, to ensure a positive and just result.”

The party is now calling for legitimate users of the service to join in a class action suit, regardless if they had a paid or free account via MegaUpload.

You can participate in the class action lawsuit here.

Image: Richard Clupes/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Previously to sign up for the social network you had to be aged 18 or over, however a number of people with fake ages on their profiles were wrongfully allowed in or locked out.

But the idea to change the age limit wasn’t an overnight decision, with a number of new safety features in place for teens. For example, if a user under 18 posts something as “Public,” they’ll get an extra warning message. Also, by default the user can only be contacted by people in their circles, although surely this can be changed in the settings. Also, if a user who is under the age of 18 is in a Hangout and another user who isn’t in their circles joins, the under 18 person will have their audio and video muted and will then be asked whether they want to continue. I’m not sure how this will work with big Hangouts, such as the recent Dalai Lama Hangout, or the upcoming Hangout with US President Barack Obama.

I’m not sure why it took so long, but it’s great to see Google+ now finally able to compete with Facebook and Twitter. Here’s hoping it isn’t too late to gain some traction in the space, especially thanks to the inclusion of the Google+ app with Android Ice Cream Sandwich and also the fact that new Google Accounts include Google+ now.

By September, HP expects the entire project to be finished. Meanwhile, Enyo, a webOS application framework that made its debut with webOS 3 on the TouchPad, is available today, open sourced. As well as this, an update of Enyo 2.0 has also been released along with its source code. As The Verge points out, this shows that HP is making good on their promise to ”be an active participant and investor in the project.”

There are plenty of other releases on the schedule, such as UI Enyo widgets and the switch to a regular Linux kernel, meaning wider hardware compatibility, as long as HP sticks to schedule.

Open webOS will be available for developers HP TouchPads later in the year, and HP is looking into putting Open webOS onto all webOS devices, including my Pre 2.

So will this see webOS compete with Android and iOS? Probably not. But it’s a big step into giving the OS a real ecosystem, even if it remains small. And who knows what company might actually start releasing some webOS phones or tablets.

Image: Dimitar Nikolov/Flickr (Creative Commons)

The European Commission has announced sweeping reforms in privacy and data protection laws within the union – including a single legal framework, and stronger penalties to make sure companies abide by these new rules.

The EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding announced the new reforms, claiming that businesses will also save €2.3 billion a year because of the reduction of unnecessary administrative procedures and paperwork. EU rules will apply to all companies that are active within the EU market – so this includes companies like US-based companies Facebook, Google and Twitter.

New rules include the right of data portability – meaning users will be able to transfer their personal data from one site to another; the ‘right to be forgotten’ where users will be able to delete their data if the company has no legal reason of retaining it; and rules on how data can be transferred internationally.

“Personal data can be collected in Berlin and processed in Bangalore. I therefore want to improve the current system of binding corporate rules to make these exchanges less burdensome and more secure,” Reding said in a speech.

In addition, the reforms also state that consent must be explicitly given, rather than assumed, for data to be processed; and all companies must inform all users how users’ data will be processed “in simple and clear language”. Companies, however, will still need to report any personal data being stolen, loss or hacked within a 24 hour period.

The reform also comes with stronger penalties. First offences will get a warning; while serious offences could see penalties of up to as high as 2 percent of a company’s annual turnover. For less serious offences, companies could be fined up to €250,000 or up to 0.5% of the annual turnover; and companies not rectifying the problems or notifying users of data loss could face fines of up to €500,000 or 1% of turnover.

The reforms will be given to the European Council of Ministers and European Parliament; and once passed, will be enforced within the Union two years after passing so member states can put it in national law.

I remember first seeing when Windows Phone Series 7 was announced. I also remember eventually using it in store. It was smooth, fast and I really liked the look of metro. I was excited. Finally, an alternative to iOS and Android which….looks good!

Eventually I ended up with a developer device (HTC Surround) and, while at first I was excited, that feeling eventually turned into annoyance and then also into just plain hatred of the platform.

Firstly, it’s stale. When was the last time you heard about a cool new app on Windows Phone? Yeah, I haven’t heard of one either. That’s because there aren’t any new apps that are exclusive to Windows Phone. There aren’t even any multiplatform apps that do something unique with Windows Phone. And whenever you hear about a company that’s announcing an application, Windows Phone is almost always excused from support.

Why? Because Microsoft isn’t working hard enough. And because there aren’t many new devices. Because it’s stale. And Microsoft is a pro at leaving things to grow stale. Look at Bing. Same look (ugly) and same actual tool. While Google adds cool things, like searching for the time somewhere and getting it, Bing remains crap. And Windows Live does the same thing.

The OS also looks and feels exactly the same as when it was announced in…woah. Feb 2010. February 2010! And nothing has changed. It has had one “big” update (with nothing much in it) and it has barely any apps. No devices (excluding Nokia, which is still on the distance for Australia), no updates, no apps. It’s stale.

But why fix what isn’t broken, huh? Well, it is broken.

So far, Windows Phone supports ONE resolution. Now, Metro might actually look good on a high-res screen, but I wouldn’t know. Because on every Windows Phone I’ve seen, it’s looked either too big for the screen or has been a crappy screen. You know the HTC Titan? It has the same resolution, software-wise, as my HTC Surround. And while we can’t entirely blame bad hardware on Microsoft, this can 100% be blamed on Microsoft.

Now, back to the apps. Sure, there aren’t many, but quality over quantity right? Wrong.

Trying to make Windows Phone your main device is impossible. The official Facebook application, made by Microsoft, wastes space, is laggy and doesn’t work. It doesn’t work! While scrolling down my feed the whole thing jumps as it loads. My iPod touch doesn’t do this, the Galaxy Nexus I’m borrowing doesn’t do this, but Windows Phone does. And the app wastes so much space too. There is a dedicated Status bar, which might sound good on another phone, but is terrible on this phone.

The Twitter app is a little better, but not by much. There are a number of problems, I can’t go over them all, but it’s not a good user-experience. And what do people do with phones? Facebook, Twitter, SMS, Calls, Web and Gaming, and that’s a bit of a generalisation, but it’s still what people do.

And every app uses Windows Phone’s terrible multitasking. For example, an application called RunKeeper, which tracks your excercise via GPS, pauses when the screen locks.

So just put yourself in my shoes. I’ve just ridden 10KM and the screen has gone to sleep. The app has now stopped tracking your progress and the whole thing is pointless. Sure, I don’t ride because of that, so it’s not bad, but it is annoying.

So Facebook and Twitter suck. How about the browser?

It’s actually not too bad. Streaming videos on it, for me, is terrible as the videos cannot play without lagging, literally stuttering and making the video unwatchable, but the browser is fine. Sure, websites still treat it like Windows Phone 6 with Mobile websites worthy of your old Nokia in the draw, but it’s a fine browser.

And lots of these problems can be linked back to Metro. It’s terrible. Swyping, while fun on an in-store display, is terrible on a real device. Instead of tapping to what you want to do, you have to go through every other menu, watch it stutter and freeze, and then go to the next menu until you get to the one you want. Ugh.

And the thing you should remember is that I’m just pulling these experiences out of the top of my head. There are plenty of other problems. And Metro is really a lazy UI when you get deeper into it. And don’t get me started on the search key which, instead of searching in the app, is actually dedicated to Bing. You can’t change it to Google either (I hate Bing, not because Microsoft hasn’t marketed it or shoved it in my face, but because it’s ugly and terrible).

Vimeo is today launching “Project Aurelia,” also known as a redesign, which gives the website a clean new look.

The new design brings a much bigger focus on the video, with less distractions on video pages, with a much larger player taking up a big portion of the screen. Not only does it look beautiful, but it’s also continuing the current trend of simplified designs instead of visually-noisy designs, such as the recent YouTube redesign which made the website more busy than simple.

There is also a new +video tag which appears on every page. This is a quick menu which shows related videos, recently viewed, videos you’ve tagged to watch later and your feed, the feed being similar to YouTube’s subscriptions.

There are also more goodies in the new design, such as bulk uploads, and you can sign up to the preview right here. Unfortunately you’re going to have to wait a few weeks before they start sending invites to the new-look site.