nanoomi

The latest object of my affection is my new Asus Transformer.

No it’s not a robot in disguise – rather it’s a new netbook. Or it’s a new Android Tablet.

Actually its both. On top we have a 10.1 inch resistive touch screen tablet with 1280×800 LCD display. It packs 1GB of RAM and 16GB of memory. You’ll purchase it in Korea running Android Honeycomb, but will be prompted to upgrade to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) as soon as you are connected via wifi and have enough juice in the battery.

Down below is the thing that separates the Transformer from other Tablets – the Keyboard. Yes you can get Keyboard docks for the Galaxy Tab, or Bluetooth it with the iPad but the integration of keyboard and tablet is where there is more than meets the eye. (There’s your gratuitous Transformers toy reference). The keyboard includes a multi-touch track pad, dedicated function keys including a system settings, camera, wifi, back and home buttons.

Excuse my horrendously messy desk!

But it is the USB ports that are amongst the greatest draws here.

Plug in a normal USB stick and browse files at will. SD card reader? No problem. USB charging? No worries – the only thing I haven’t done is plug my camera into it yet. Great for playing video (especially on the NVIDA powered 16:1 screen).

And has Android come of age or what? Ice Cream Sandwich is amazing (compared to The Galaxy Tab’s Gingerbread), and being able to use Chrome (in beta) from Google is bliss! Full web browsing on a tablet, Its been close in the past with The Dolphin Browser, but even in Beta, Chrome for Android is just like the Desktop experience. Finally Asus bundles in a slew of useful apps – including Polaris Office – the best Android Office Suite I have seen! (My horrid work documents that always get screwy format wise in anything but Word appear perfectly on screen and export nicely).

Other software includes An ebook thing, a UPnP thing you can stream media to on your home network app backup utilities and Asus offers a year of free cloud storage when you sign up.

Possible things I am going to have to watch out for: Lack of a protective case (bought one on eBay – it’s a’comin’) means the Transformer hasn’t left my desk (except to go on the radio this morning) so it has remained plugged in to the wall. Purported battery life is 5 and a half hours. We’ll see. Notably the keyboard also has a battery and charges the tablet when the two are attached.

The biggest issue I’m having at the moment is opening the damn thing!when attached to the keyboard and folded closed the tablet and keyboard lay flush. Most laptops have a little groove to give your fingers some purchase when opening. The Asus lacks one. The hinge on the keyboard side is new so quite stiff. Hopefully it’ll loosen up over time – not too loose though of course!

If you have a spare W499,000 and in the market for a netbook give the Transformer a look. (Technically an Asus EEE Tablet Transformer T101) Its ability to handle documents alone might be enough to persuade some people.

Score★★★★ 4/5

With Instagram still not available on Android, the market is open to competitors to stake their photo-sharing claims. Pudding.to is the latest, promising to be “The most innovative photo sharing app ever”. That means filters, yes, but also the ability to upload multiple photos, and richer tags including music and location.

So says the review I found somewhere. (Honestly I took an iPhone shot of it on a computer screen)

I have talked about Pudding before, specifically Pudding Camera – published by successful Korean App developers KT Hitel (part of the KT conglomerate of companies) who have brought you Pudding Camera (2011 iTunes App Store Best Seller, 20 odd thousand downloads on Android), Korean Celeb Face Match (Don’t ask!) and the original Korean Foursquare clone “I’m In” amongst others

KTH love their Phone cameras – as evidenced by the original Pudding Camera, which was translated to English and found great success outside of Korea. with their new App “Pudding.to” they’re taking on instagram with the ability to share those photos you’ve taken and add all the prerequisite filters it seems people are so craving to turn their “crap-snaps” and “sel-cas” into introspective lomo-ised works of art. (Not that I necessarily dislike that….)

KTH took the proactive step of launching pudding.to in both Korean and English simultaneously and have associated Blogs for Pudding Camera, pudding.to and Korean Celeb Face Match at – you guessed it – www.pudding.to (.to being the TLD for The Kingdom of Tonga and “to” being 2, as in their second camera app! Smart aye!)

Below is something of a walk-through of the app and some screenshots for Y’all:

Welcome to Pudding.to!

Like InstaGram, You can see popular photos

Recommendations on Pudding photographers to follow

User Profile

Take a picture

Add a filter, frame and add in a tilt-shift effect

Add a mood Tag

Or choose up to four photos for a collage effect

Be careful not to cut off any heads

Add a comment, Tag with hashtags, what you’re listening to or your current location

et voila!

These were taken on the iOS version of the app. I have had some trouble running Pudding.to on Android, specifically on Gingerbread 3.21 and Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0. I have been in touch with the developers at KTH and they note that the issue (not being able to login) is known and has to do with authentication on non-network devices, i.e. you can only use pudding.to on phones and tablets with 3G and LTE connectivity, my original Wifi Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 and Asus EEE Tablet Transformer (neither of which connects to a cell network) are sh*t out of luck – for now. I have been assured that the issue will be fixed in the next update – 1.0.3. I am not sure if this affects non-connected iPad 2s and iPod Touches with Cameras – Kudos to anyone who can test out the app and let me know.

Overall Pudding.to is a pretty good follow up to the original pudding camera. The addition of extra tagging options and ability to view users in your area add to the functionality and beat Instagram. In future updates I would like to see a couple of more filters and of course a fix for non-networked devices. Best of all – It’s free!

Score: ★★★★ 4/5

Last week I attended the Launch event for Samsung’s SmartTVs, the latest refresh in Samsung’s 3D, internet connected television line.

While Samsung continues to be embroiled in open warfare with Apple over phone patents and trade dress, the television part of its business goes from strength to strength and is arguably leading TV makers LG and Sony in both innovation and advances in flat screen technology.

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Last night I sat down (virtually speaking) with Jeff Lebow of Koreabridge.net and freelance web designer Mattew Weingard, and discussed the state of the Internet here in Korea.

On the table, Google’s most recent run in with the Dongdaemun Police Station Cyber Crimes unit, a surge towards responsible web design, a merging of the way Korea and Koreans use The Internet with the way the rest of the world uses The Internet, The Galaxy Tab 10.1 and my new watch.

Of particular interest, aside from the topics discussed, is the voodoo that Jeff has put together to allow him to record interviews etc on Google+ using Hangouts, Live Stream, some chewing gum and Gaffer Tape, the results of which you can see below:

With one click, QR codes offer smart phone users contact information, websites, and more.

You may have noticed them cropping up in advertising, on the sides of buses and even street signs—strange black-and-white pixelated boxes that look like some madman’s attempt at a crossword. What are they? QR Codes.

Originally an alternative for tracking car parts and other inventory, the QR (standing for “quick response”) code is akin to the more recognizable bar code but can provide much more information. With a scanner and the right software, you can obtain phone numbers, web addresses and text from the little black and white boxes.

The most recent and growing use for QR codes is “mobile tagging,” which allows smartphone users to take a picture of the code with their phone’s camera and then access the information. Apple, Android, Nokia and Blackberry all support QR codes and have a number of apps available to decipher them.

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These five Korean bloggers offer the latest on the Korean tech scene, if you’re bold enough to brave a different language environment.

I like to think that I am reasonably up to date when it comes to technology. I am an early adopter of new technology, often going to long (and expensive) extremes to acquire new gadgets and other tech goodies.

But my efforts pale in comparison to a hardcore cadre of Korean bloggers who get their hands (and cameras) on the latest and hottest technologies, sometimes before the general public does. And while these blogs are written in Korean, they’re still worth the effort, even if it is through the filter of Google Translate. Many of them link to English-language sites, their basic information is generally easy to discern, and the care they take in presenting their finds and accompanying them with high-resolution images makes them worth reading.

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This week COEX hosted the 2011 Seoul Photo show. On hand were the world’s leading manufacturers of cameras and lenses, Nikon, Canon, Sigma and Tamron as well as Olympus and Panasonic. Also in attendance: local favourite, Samsung.

One notable exception was Sony, who were conspicuous by their absence (notwithstanding the fact that they actually have a full blown store right next to the convention hall, not more than 20 meters from the front door!).

The Olympus booth (booths) had two dominant themes – their mirrorless four-thirds camera system “Pen” and the seemingly indestructible “Tough” line of water- and shock-proof point-and-shoots.

Ubiquitous to any such show in Korea (motor show, photo show, food retailer’s show I’m going to this week) are the scantly clad models – “booth babes” – that hundreds of people crowd around and take photos of. And while this might be an appropriate forum (taking photos of models at a photo show actually makes sense) I couldn’t help but notice that there seemed to be a certain kind of infantilizing going on here that was… simply put… a bit odd. But I’ll let you make your mind up as the photos below show my exploration of the Seoul International Photo and Imaging Industry Show 2011.

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If 2010 was the year of the iPad, 2011 is going to be the year of the other tablets.

Overseas, if you are willing to pony up £600 in the UK or upwards of $539 in The States you can get a Motorola Xoom – the first Honeycomb / Android 3.0 tablet (Plus the cost of a data connection). As Google’s flagship Honeycomb tablet it’s pretty slick. Other manufacterers have their own iterations in the works as well, The HP slate, running Palm’s old OS and Windows among them.

Here in Korea it’s a two horse race between iPad and Samsung’s 7 inch Galaxy Tab, with a 10.1 inch already shown at The Consumer Electronics Show in January and nowrumours of an 8.9 inch version coming as early as the end of the month.

Beginning late February the Galaxy Tab was introduced by LG U+ (LG Telecom) at various rates including essentially for free if you sign up for a data / voice plan over W55000 a month. The data plans are by no means generous with 2 and 4GB monthly free or with unlimited use if you go for the W55000/mnth plan.

The LG U+ model with models

However according to this ETNews article the plans (with 2 or 3 year options) compare favourably to those offered by SK Telecom.

I’m not entirely sure, but comparing Samsung’s micro sites for the product it looks like The LG version runs CDMA 3G, which after all makes sense considering it only has a CDMA network.

The big news is KT’s offering. It seems KT and Samsung have gotten over their tiff over KT selling iPhone. (Indeed SK Telecom will start selling iPhone 4 and iPads from March 16th)  KT will be offering a Wi-Bro / Wifi version of the Galaxy Tab. Rather than having to carry around a Wi-Bro modem (Like KT’s Egg) the Wi-Bro (Mobile WIMAX) radio is built in. And although from that article it is hard to discern, (My Korean is not that good OK?) it looks like the 3G radio is dispatched altogether in favour of the Wi-Bro, meaning voice calls will be VoIP. Confirmed via Yonhap.

The KT Model with a Model.

KT is offering the Galaxy Tab at various rates with various plans and discounts etc.

It comes at an interesting time when this week KT announced that all the metropolitan areas in Korea now have Wi-Bro coverage (previously it had only been Seoul and the part of Gyeonggi down to Suwon) and that you will also have Wi-Bro coverage Along most of Korea’s main highways.

But the bigger big news is that FINALLY Samsung will reease a WiFi only version of the Galaxy Tab for those of who don’t need yet another contract with one (or more) of the Telcos listed above. And unlike the SK Telecom, KT or LG versions won’t set you back W995,000!

Instead the wifi version is set to retail at just over a third less at W600,000.

Wihch is interesting.

Considering that the 10 inch WiFi version of the current and next iPad versions will sell at W500,000.

But I do so want one. The form factor is great, my iPad is starting to really bug me when I am reading on it for long periods, and in the subway it is near unusable unless I am sitting down, holding it any other way becomes quite tiresome after about 3 or 4 stops. The Galaxy Pad is much more hand friendly and as I said in my iPad2 post the iPad is becomeing more and more content creation friendly while reading on the Galaxy Tab’s 7″ TFT display will still be a pleasant enough experience.

Add in support for Gingerbread (it’s coming, Samsung seems to have turned it’s ire towards Google after suc a promising start) and probably HoneyComb (or at least a pairded down version thereof) and the Galaxy tab makes for a better proposition. I doubt my iPad will see more than two more software updates before becoming obsolete anyway.

Samsung has promised the WiFi version by the end of 2011 Q1 (i.e. by the end of March) and preorders are being taken on it’s website (although I can’t find where) and through it’s retail stores (though the shop clerks at Samsung Digital Plaza seldom know what you are talking about and will point you towards SK Teecom if you go asking about a Galaxy Tab.

From Yonhap.

Samsung Electronics started to receive pre-orders for the WiFi-only Galaxy Tab at the price of 600,000 won (US$536) this week through its online Web site and retail shops in South Korea. It did not disclose the launch date.

So expect a review of the Galaxy Tab WiFi version sometime this month, But I can’t disclose the review date.

Portable Gaming. If only I had a commute, I would make more use of my PSP. My old, old PSP. I bought my Playstation Portable while in Japan in March 2005, before it was available in North America, a fact I was pretty proud of at the time even though all I had in terms of games was Namco Museum, Ridge Racer and some weird-ass robot with a gun in his head game, all of which were in Japanese.

Six years on the unit itself is holding up pretty well. The left shoulder button is a bit sticky, there’s dust behind the screen – there’s at least one pixel dead and the battery life is variable, but none of that distracted from a recent foray into Metal Gear Peace Walker and a reprise of the original Grand Theft Auto release.

The PSP

But six years is a long time in any area of technology, let alone gaming. The PSP has seen three iterational upgrades while attempting to supplant the industry leader, Nintendo, and it’s DS, DS Lite and DSi handheld gaming platforms.

The worst kept secret of the last couple of months has been the much anticipate, long awaited  and so-called PSP phone, known now as the Xperia Play, a collaboration between PSP and Sony Ericsson. Essentially an Android Mobile phone with the aesthetic of the latter day PSP Go, the Xperia will be the first phone to truly meld hand-held gaming with the mobile phone.

The Xperia Play

PSP Go!

The Xperia Play is a significant development because of the combination of the Playstation Game platform with Android. While initially seeming difficult, it will be possible, no doubt, to port the Xperia’s operating system or “ROM” between Android handsets, just as it is possible now to put Vanilla Froyo on a Galaxy S, or HTC’s Android improvements on a stock NEXUS One. Obviously hardware limitations will come into play – My NEXUS One doesn’t have a D-Pad or Triangle, Square, Circle and X buttons. But the possibility is there.

Moreover the possibility (though unlikely) that Sony would license its gaming platform to other Handset makers isn’t totally out of the question. Imagine a future Galaxy PSP from Samsung, incorporating Samsung hardware (For which Sammy has been doing well lately) with Sony Ericsson’s take on Android. (Something Sammy has been having issues with lately)

The Xperia Play will run Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” and will receive it’s official unveiling at Mobile World Congress later this month. But in the meantime enjoy this teaser advertisement for the device. It wouldn’t be a Sony release without some creepy sort of marketing, here the dodgy world of back-street Bangkok surgery rears it’s creepy head:

See Engadget for more coverage.

In addition to the phone (which isn’t technically “official” yet) Sony has seen fit to tease us with the latest iteration of the original portable whic incorporates elements of the original, the PSP Go! and the Xperia Play. Code named the NGP or “Next Generation Portable” adds a touch screen on the front and a touch control surface on the back in addition to the usual face buttons dual analogue controllers (a feature left out of the original and its iterations and much lamented by gamers) and directional-pad.

Playstation NGP

Despite this it retains much of the aesthetic of the original, although it does away with games on UMD format once and for all, leaving gamers like me out in the cold with our vast libraries of games on the Universal Media Disc format. (Not so “Universal” were they!)

And of course here is some Sony Propaganda:

Interesting that last part – “The Power is in Your Hands” (That and interesting that the whole scene seems to be taking place in East Timor if the zoom out from the globe is to be believed), for the NGP is definitely powerful. With a Quad-core A( processor, it is about 4 times as powerful as your iPhone and demos from the release event showed the thing playing PS3 games near perfectly. In addition it comes with WiFi, GPS, front and back facing cameras AND a 3G connection, which, apart from loosing the UMD, is my only real issue with the thing (and one I have raised before in regards to the Samsung Galaxy Tab). I already have a phone and so don’t want to have to pony up more money to a Telco!

The NGP, or whatever it ends up being called is supposedly going to be available in at least one market (I’m guessing Japan) in time for the Christmas holiday season / late 2011. No word on pricing – but as with all things Sony expect it to be pricey – at least to begin with.

Between now and then I will need to find a commute to justify buying one.

[Images CC unless otherwise noted]