Today is the global launch of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. If you pre-ordered, you’re assured a copy today. I got my hands on the standard edition for South East Asia. Interesting that the box does label the regional distribution as this has implications to the server.
Also got my dog tag and Starcraft II shirt.
You will need an Internet connection to install and authenticate Starcraft II. So for those living in the Paranaque area today, Skycable is undergoing a plant maintenance and thus all Internet and cable is down. I managed to connect to the Internet by turning my Samsung Galaxy S into a WiFi hotspot using the Mobile AP settings. Yay!
I’m installing Wings of Liberty for both the Mac and PC. While the install is happening, you will be required to sign up or login to a Battle.net account and link the game with your ID. Just like Steam, you can also opt to download the client in case you lose the DVD.
Oh the box comes with 2 guest passes for Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. Anyone want them? First two to comment, I can give you the keys and please do install the game and add me up on Battle.net. It also comes with 2 free keys to 10 days of WoW. Well if anyone wants that …
UPDATE: On third day use, I kept the charger plugged in for most of the day. Odd, but battery life improved. It’s been 9 hours and I’m still on full bar. It is apparent therefore that the drain really comes in when you start doing wireless Internet and other such functions apart from calls and text. I checked other websites and they confirm the same thing as well — battery life is significantly less, but if all you do is SMS and call, you’ll get by on a single charge.
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I was able to borrow a Nokia N97 mini for the weekend. I’ve been using it for two and a half days. Despite being a new release, the phone suffers from two things which I think is integral to day to day use — weak battery life and a noticeably weaker signal similar to the E71.
Truth be told I wasn’t into the hype for the Snow Leopard announcement as it seemed more like a ploy to get consumers to shell out 29 USD for what could have been a software update. I’ll tell you why — the very fact that Snow Leopard focuses more on “having a faster Mac” after install channels most of what these other software updates say, from version 10.5 onwards to what is now version 10.6.
So all of the qualms have been put to rest as they gave me a review copy (!!!) of Snow Leopard which I installed, for educational purposes on two Macs — a 2G “Black” MacBook and the first 13 inch unibody, both running on Intel processors. The rumors are true — Snow Leopard does some magic to your files and frees up disk space. The product text says about 7GB of space is freed up but in reality, my black MacBook freed up 11GB while my unibody gained 10GB. Not bad — think of it this way: Snow Leopard pays for itself because its as if you bought an extra 10GB for USD .00
They did a great job with Quicktime — I’ve always wanted to buy the Pro version for the codecs, but this new Quicktime X, complete with new logo, takes the cake. Part iMovie, part Screenflow, and part Quicktime Pro, it again allows Snow Leopard to pay for itself. I won’t be surprised if the new Quicktime will interface with an update to iMovie ’09 as they have similar cropping features. Next — I was bummed with my USD $80 purchase of Screenflow many months back as Quicktime boasts a pretty robust screen recording feature. Junior Tan from Apple however laid my frustrations to rest as he really did show me how big a difference Screenflow was from the screen grab feature of Quicktime.
Ah, Expose is so much better as well. Rather than the “artistic” clutter of all your open windows, Expose arranges everything neatly, just like how Stacks does it. Everything is faster. The UI is more responsive. Javascript loads better. And the spacebar preview for documents works so much better as it zooms into the document to make the fonts readable.
What’s equally interesting is the new 64 bit boot mode. If you restart your Mac and hold down the “6” and “4” keys, your Mac will boot in 64-bit mode taking full advantage of the multi core capabilities. There’s been some debate though with regards the full support of 64 bit. Apparently, my 13-inch unibody isn’t even part of the list — I can boot in 64-bit, but can’t utilize the new 64 bit drivers. Well, Macrumors says this whole 64 bit thing should not matter, and you should not really care at this point.
* If you wish to boot your Mac in full 64 mode by default, you can edit the com.apple.Boot.plist and change the values, allowing you therefore to boot back into 32-bit mode by holding the “3” and “2” buttons. Pretty intuitive.
Overall, my two MacBooks are running relatively faster with Snow Leopard. I guess purchasing this upgrade isn’t going to be a big decision problem as it is indeed cheap. Truth is, you actually do not need it if you’re a regular consumer as a lot of the tweaks are for the developer community (i.e. Grand Central). Nonetheless, if you feel the need to be up to date and want that much needed speed boost — and an extra 10GB of space, Snow Leopard pays for itself even just through the HD space optimization and Quicktime X.
Nota Bene: Some applications may have problems loading. I’ve seen that Plants vs. Zombies does not load, according to Gabe Mercado (his new video podcast is brilliant by the way!). My ultra useful Menu Meters menu bar app also does not load. World of Warcraft has some problems as well when it comes to a conflict with Spaces and shortcuts.
Hi folks. You probably read my first hands on with the Nokia 5800 last year. My first impressions still are basically the same, now that I finally have the unit with me and I’d like to supplemement that review with this post. I’ve been pondering how to go about reviewing this phone and opted out from a specs perspective, and will talk about the experience of using a touch screen Nokia device. Thus this review is oriented for Nokia users who are wondering how well the touch screen technology has been implemented on the 5800.
Before I continue, note that this is not Nokia’s first take on the touch screen. They had two devices in the past that did this, and their “N” web browser tablets also do the same. But this is the first time Nokia has put out so much marketing for an XpressMusic phone that seems to be more like an Nseries device because of the way it’s implemented.
The photo above shows you how to get around to the different “hot areas” of the phone’s main menu. Because of the touch screen, you can find other ways to access the clock, alarm, connectivity, and profiles without creating shortcuts. With the XpressMusic menu button on top, you also don’t need to use the custom shortcut buttons for the multimedia functions. Thus, I use the 4 shortcut keys for putting in other things such as messaging, calculator and the camera.
Size Comparisons
Below are comparisons with the Nokia E71, the Apple iPod Touch (Generation II), and the HTC TyTn II. The 5800 is handy and light to the hand, similar to the Nokia N82.
Home Screen
You can customize the phone’s home screen to use the traditional S60 menu of calendars and updates or you can use the “RSS friend” tracker that updates you with the information of 4 of your chosen friends. I personally don’t find the latter function to be as useful (it does sound cool but I prefer to have my dates and to do’s on the menu).
Nokia 5800 Virtual Keypad
How well can you text with it?
It’s been four days and I don’t use the QWERTY or mini QWERTY mode of input. I stick to the good ‘ol fashioned numerical keypad that works almost as well as real keys. There have been mixed feedback on how sensitive the keys are compared to real hardware buttons but I sincerely think that you can get used to it.
A small reservation I have is the method for finding names, as it can get rather confusing when you have the entire A-Z displayed, and as you type in a name, some letters go odd man out on you to see what’s left. It can be confusing at first but come to think of it, it’s the most efficient way save for offering multitouch on the keypad.
Browsing through names using the scroll bar can be a chore. I’m glad that the keypad senses your entire thumb even if you’re not directly touching the scroll node. To scroll up and down, it’s most comfy to put your thumb above or below the node and let the phone scroll itself up and down the contacts list.
iSync Compatibility with OS X
If you are a Mac user, as of late there is still no sync tool for iSync. But guess what? I was able to find a workaround to getting a flawless sync to work with Apple’s iSync. You can download the plugin from that link. Keep checking the official iSync plugin page for an official driver.
Things that need to be improved:
There seems to be something up with the signal. The screen flickers on and off at times when I’m on a call and I tend to lose the person I’m talking to on the other line. It doesn’t happen often but it needs to be addressed.
Battery life is another issue. It’s not as bad as when the first N95 came out. You will get a day of full charge on this thing if you use the multimedia and WiFi sparingly but you may need to carry around a spare charger for a really long day.
So, I know a lot of guys lined up the for the huge pre-sell discount. How goes your Nokia 5800 experience so far? Leave a comment and let’s figure things out!
