nanoomi

This is the third, and final, part of a brief series looking at Google’s Android mobile Operating System and its success (or otherwise) in Korea.

So I’ve looked at Android in general, and already those stats are beginning to look a bit shoddy as news came out this week that Android handsets are outselling Apple’s iPhone. I’ve also gone into a brief history of Android in Korea, and indeed looked into our crystal ball at one rumour that I would like to come to fruition. In this final post I’m going to look at arguably the most important part of the whole equation – especially in terms of handset sales and market dominance – Content.

Its one thing to have a flash whizz bang handset, but if you can only make calls on it you may as well go back to your Motorola RAZR. Smartphones are all about doing more. Some have called them mini computing platforms, still others have shied away from this moniker, but everyone agrees that smartphones are excellent for content consumption.

Enter Tatter & Media, a blog aggregation, curation, organisation, and among other things design, company which I am affiliated with through Nanoomi. TatterMedia (for short) curates so-called “power bloggers” in Korean-language K-Blogland who discuss all manner of subjects in their respective fields of interest.

Read the full story

In this, the second of three posts looking at Android, I look at the situation in Korea.

Android in Korea is characterized by one letter and one letter only: “S”, as in Galaxy S and Samsung, but while Samsung has a long pedigree in Smartphones (I can’t say I miss my BlackJack II or my Mirage) and indeed Android outside it’s domestic market, it wasn’t first to market with an Android handset in Korea. That dubious honour goes to Motorola who, despite falling sales world wide, launched the Motorola Roi back in January.

Read the full story

An interesting name for an iPhone App, which unfortunately has nothing to do with dessert. But don’t let that put you off, Pudding Camera, the Apps full name is finally a camera app for iPhone worth downloading.

I have tried a number of photo / camera apps for iPhone but up until now have been pretty unimpressed. I fear the iPhone 3GS’ (no iPhone 4 here in Korea yet) paltry 3 megapixel camera is pretty crap as it is – adding Lomo effects and various other tweaks in apps like Adobe’s woefully inadequate Photoshop Mobile ended up degrading the quality of pictures even further.

Pudding Camera, on the other hand, offers 7 different film effects and 7 different camera / lens effects. On the film side you have your standard iPhone basic, Mono (black and white), Noir (adding that faded “I took a photo in 1972 and now its faded” look), Vintage Brown and Vintage Blue which pushes up the yellows and blues in the exposure, Vignetting (which is an effect cameramen generally try to avoid unless wanting it for effect), and Dazzel (overexposed look). Pretty standard, but here is the key and what I suspect leads to much better photos.

Rather than applying the filter before taking the snap, the effect (camera, film or both) is done in software after the image has been captured. (I stand to be corrected on this point, but the processing time between taking a picture and being able to view it can take some time if you have something process-intensive, say vignetting and fisheye effects.

On the camera effect side you have another 7 options, A “4 lens” “Motion” camera producing a 2×2 square of 4 images at  37mm equivalent, 4:3 image, and a “4 lens” (Linear) “motion” camera, producing a 4 cut 37mm equivalent, 1:3 image. Pudding again does something unique here, previous motion apps I have seen actually take a video (meaning you have to keep the phone still) and then slice up the action. Pudding takes 4 individual snaps and then joins them together:

and the results:

Another exceptional feature to Pudding Camera is the ability to change the exposure, with a difference of about 4 f stops

The viewfinder screen – unlike most camera apps you hold the iPhone in landscape mode. Controls from Left to right: Exposure control, Camera effect and film type. (In a nice touch the film is actually pictured “in” the camera), Sharing settings, album viewer and self portrait mode. The shutter button is on the far right.

Other camera effects include a fish eye lens which produces some good results:

As well as simple snapshot mode, and “Fantasy” mode which allows spot focus and blurs everything else – and may allow some interesting tilt shift effects – I will have to do some experimenting.

The only letdown in terms of camera effects is Panorama which is not actually panoramic (obviously you would need a different lens at the very least) instead it squishes the snapshot to a 1.85:1 ratio, its a bit of a cheat, to say the least, but in terms of panorama with the iPhone you would be better off taking a series of shots and putting them together with Auto stitch on the phone or with an application on your PC.

Pudding is built ostensibly by Paran, one of the also-ran Internet portals here in Korea, well behind Naver and Daum. But if you are a member of Paran, (good luck trying to join if you’re a foreigner) Pudding also gives you access to their cloud storage solutions in a fairly simple matter.

Pudding Camera is a neat app, put together by a developer who must have some experience in real photography, and who has taken a great deal of time to pay attention to the little things in the interface that make Pudding easy and fun to use and also look good on the iPhone. If I had an iPhone 4 with its decent camera, this would be one of the first apps I would download.

Pudding Camera is free from the Korean iTunes App Store.

Bimbo rating: ★★★★★

The latest iPhone game I have been playing has a special connection to me in that I was part of the beta testing / focus group for it. WolfBoy from NHN (Naver.com’s parent company) is a cute little side scrolling action / fantasy game staring a young boy, whose girlfriend gets kidnapped by a Monkey like monster. He sets out to get her back and…as you might have guessed, has the ability to transform into a werewolf, all the while fighting off mutant tomatoes and strange bumble bees.

Only from the minds that brought you Naver.

WolfBoy and his Lady friend – Watch out for the Monkey Boss!

But it is pretty addictive, easy to play and its graphics are very, very cute.

Watch Out Rucy! – Oh No!

While the touch interface of the iPhone / iPod Touch is intuitive for many of your input needs I have yet to find a game (especially) that works the way it is supposed to when the player is required to either use a button or a joystick on screen. Tiger Woods is relatively good with the main game mechanic involving a swipe across the screen to swing one’s club while buttons serve secondary pre~ and post swing actions.

Beware Satanic Tomatoes

WolfBoy works around the limitations of button mashing on the touch screen in two ways, firstly the buttons are big and bright (allowing visually impaired fat thumbed individuals like myself to use it easily) and by also integrating inputs into the action in what is a unique and innovative approach. To turn the boy into a werewolf, rather than press a button the player presses the moon in the top right of the background – kinda makes sense really.

Die Bitch Die! Yeah! Three Hit Combo!

WolfBoy can pick up some alternative attacks along the way (which I put forward as an idea at the focus group – don’t know if anyone else also thought that way). The most effective is the fireball – a la Mario. but so far i have also been able to freeze enemies in blocks of ice and also squish the diabolic fruit with a big ass hammer.

Level Up!

You can also upgrade the abilities of WolfBoy, both as a boy and in the guise of the werewolf by spending the coins you collect during each level. So far i have only got up to Level 9 and have only accumulated a few hundred won worth of coins, reviews I have seen on the app store have mentioned stages as high as 39, so i assume you can max out the abilities section.

Speaking of level 39 – I imagine things might be a little repetitive by that point. There are a finite number of enemies to destroy and each level is exactly the same. I imagine the developers were somewhat constrained by the platform and size the app needed to be, but I would have liked to have seen some alternatives in their among the vegetable massacre, some platforming and obstacles might have mixed things up a bit. And while I’m dishing out a few negatives, despite the developer’s efforts, the controls are still a bit dodgy – but like I explain I think that has more to do with moving the button / D-Pad paradigm to the touch screen than anything else.

The biggest problem though is the prohibition on games in The Korean App Store – WolfBoy is only available from the US version of the iTunes App store, where it is doing reasonably well – on the featured Games page last time I checked. At the moment it is USD$0.99 for a limited time only – expect it to go up to USD$1.99 shortly.

Bimbo Rating:★★★★★ 5/5 – even despite the Negatives!

I would have thought this deserved a lot more play in the Korean Media (or did I miss it?).

“applegirl002″ or Kim Yeo Hee as she is known to her parents, rose to YouTube stardom a couple of months ago using a collection of iPhones (four in total) to do covers of Beyonce and Lady Gaga. (I don’t know who those people are.)

Her YouTube clips show not only the awesomeness of the iPhone and the number of professional sounding music apps available, but also a young lady with considerable musical talent:

I like the way she introduces each app and the riffs going in to making each song.

It turns out that applegirl002 has garnered something of a following on Twitter here in Korea and as a result put together a live Twitter show case / meet up of covers that you can see on her YouTube channel here.

Well now it turns out she has a record deal and released an EP (iTunes Link) and has released the video for her first single – sans iPhones. Say what you want about K-Pop (And I say its bleeding from the ears high pitched nonsense) but Kim Yeo Hee really is quite talented. The Single is called “나의노래” or “My Music”:

One of my favorite Korean blogs at the moment is RadioKidz@LifeLog which, surprise surprise, covers a lot of tech. RadioKidz has had a couple of interesting posts of late, which, despite my dodgy efforts at translation, deserve to be shared.

Sony NEX-5

RadioKidz managed to get hold of the new Sony NEX-5 camera this week and took it for a spin. The NEX-5 is one of two new Sony cameras that incorporate a sensor 50% larger than the Micro four thirds format, and interchangeable lenses, into a point and shoot form factor.

Read the full story

I’m just going to come out and say it. The Korean iTunes Store sucks. In fact you can only buy Apps there, you can’t even buy music, and there is no way in hell you are going to be able to buy TV shows. (Even if they are a bit expensive).

If you want your fix of Paduk or Go Stop, then the Korean store should suffice. However there is a “work around” to getting access to the veiled USA version of the App (and music) stores, and I’m gonna tell you how.

The first thing you need to do is create an account on iTunes with an American address, for argument’s sake I have used 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, 95104. (Apple’s Headquarters)

Read the full story

Rob has written a thoughtful piece on Korea’s national branding campaign to outsiders, and how it’s always falling short because of its pigheaded heavy-handed approach(es)

Which is not to say there efforts aren’t well intentioned, and indeed Travel in Korea’s (Is that the Korean Tourism Organisation – KTO??) attempt at an iPhone app is a good example of a balanced workable approach, albeit a little lacking in what is, the first iteration.

Read the full story

Earlier in the year the Korea Times threatened that over-regulation of the Internet, and particularly the mobile Internet, would lead to a smartphone sector in Korea hobbled, if not [sic] “retarded”. Times reporter Kim Tong-hyun explains in a rather lengthy article from last week that there may be some hope not only for mobile gaming and banking, but ultimately everything that is wrong with the Korean Internet. It seems that industry players KT and SK Telecom are more than open to a relaxed mobile Internet market – for obvious reasons, less regulation means more Dollar (or Won) signs for the two companies. Reporter Kim doesn’t shy away from where the real problem actually lies:

rewriting the country’s legal framework on Internet usage, which had been criticized for suppressing mobile-based electronic payment and entertainment, will be a more difficult task. Korea Times

Read the full story

So far the iPhone has proved a boon for getting around in a part of the country that I have only just arrived in.

One really useful App for getting around is simply called DAUM 지도 or Daum Maps and is free (Free!) from the App Store:

I have talked about the efficacy of Daum Maps before in that up until very recently they provided a much better alternative to Google’s offerings on Korea. While Google has lifted its game considerably, Daum still has the advantage with its “Road View”– a version of Google’s “Street View” which isn’t available in Korea.

Daum has done an excellent job of porting their maps (http://local.daum.net) to the iPhone with the same “pinch and swipe” multi-touch interface you would expect. In addition with KT’s 3G network it provides real-time traffic data. But it is the Road View option that shines on Apple’s big ass phone display:

This can be quite handy in Korea, a country seemingly without street numbers. Now with Daum Maps, you can enter an address and actually get a view of what the building looks like!

Very Handy!

As I say, the App is free from The KOREAN version of the App Store (Haven’t checked the US version) and is in Korean, so a working knowledge of the language to start would be good, especially if you want to search addresses, only the simplest of English searches worked when I tried.

Bimbo Rating: ★★★✩ (3.5/5)