Nokia V.S. Smartphone manufactures

Back in high school

I went to High School in Beijing from 2002 to 2005. It was the time when coloured screen and 3D ringtones got popular and more importantly it was the time when Nokia left other manufactures deep under the ground. When I first entered the high school, my mom gave me her Samsung cellphone. I couldn't remember what it was, but it was sold for about 500 USD at the time. It had a regular keypad hidden under a flippable cover and a small square screen located at about the top 30% of the phone. In addition, I remembered the phone was very thin and had a green screen (maybe orange). Soon it was replaced by a Nokia 8310 given by my cousin. My first impression was that the keypad on the phone blinked when it rang; plus the design of the phone was just amazing at the time. I loved it, even if it was both thicker and heavier than the Samsung I had. It had the style I wanted because after all, a cellphone is just used to call and text back in the days; also it was used to play some games when people are really bored. In less than a few months, both 3D ringtone and coloured screen came to the market. We started seeing people carrying phones with coloured screen and phones making amazing sound at ringing; then we started talking about what haves have however many colour so on. Then I got myself a Nokia 3100, which had 3D ringtone (although not many), coloured screen (although it doesn't have the most colours) an it had the blinking keyboard when being rang. Then we started seeing many more different Nokias carried by our school mates. We could tell that they were happy with the phones. I think most importantly they are happy with who they are when they are carrying the phone because it seemed like the phones gave them a better self image to identify themselves. Nokia gave souls to their phones and the souls gave us styles and become part of our life.

What was really going on during high school?

Cellphones reached the end of its era. The technologies have made the cellphones receiving better signals, making clearer calls and doing efficient text messages and so on. This was why they were called cellular phones anyways.

I do not know where to find evidence to prove it but I felt that Motorola had always been more popular before my parents bought me my first cellular phone. To me, Motorola seemed like the real gold digger as they found the gold. However, Nokia advanced it and brought life to the “gold”. Eventually the big winner was Nokia.

What will happen now?

Apple brought the first iphone in 2007, which changed the Smartphone Market (Smartphone wasn't invented by Apple btw, it was still Nokia but Apple brought the first Multi-touch smart phone). Apple had its way of doing things, which is a really good way. Samsung has been producing very impressive Galaxy Line-ups as well with Android OS, and there are HTC, Sony, Huawei and so on who are also big players at the smart phone market. Where does Nokia stand?

Many people say that Nokia and Microsoft are both too late to join the battle. In my opinion, it is right on time. Microsoft has brought a lot of stylish features - the soul, into its new Mobile OS. Partnering with Nokia, the one who knows how to bring souls to the hardware device, will really again make smartphones closer to people than ever. Again, they will win and Nokia will win just like the a few years ago.

A Lumia Talk

Its not long since Nokia came out with their first Lumia - the Lumia 800. The curved glass screen, European styled design really impressed everyone. My first impression was, the once mobile phone king stands up again and we knew it will from the first day iPhone came out.

I myself am a Lumia 900 user. The slightly bigger version of the Lumia 800. It ran Windows Phone 7.5 from day 1 and eventually upgraded to Windows Phone 7.8. At that time, I put it back to the phone box  and switched back to a Galaxy Nexus. Don't get me wrong. I do love the Lumia. In fact, I hoped that the WP 7.8 update would get me more interested in the Lumia 900 and make me continue using it until I find another astonishing Lumia device to use. However, the blur resolution after the update just makes me think that the difference between the 900 and the Lumia 920 is way too big and my Lumia 900  is really outdated.

The Windows Phone OS experience

Android and Windows Phone OS are two of my favourite mobile OSs. I have more than two years of Android experience, more than one year of Windows Phone experience and I have been an iPhone user for a short time and an iPad user all the time. My experience with iOS is that it just works, not much complaints but not much impressions either. I can't say I am happy or excited about the OS or whatsoever. The iPhone has become a standard smartphone. I believe that its not just myself having the same feeling. The Android, on the other hand, backed by one of the biggest software companies on the planet always come up with fancy things like animated UI, different widget layout and so on. Many people complaint about the Android Ecosystem containing crappy applications. I don't disagree but hey, the craps are there but you don't have to take it, right?

My problem with Android is that it always tends to be slow. This really gives me bad experience with the OS. I have been carrying two phones for some time. One lumia 920 and one Galaxy Nexus. This is a Single Core CPU vs Dual Core comparison, and a 512MB RAM vs 1GB RAM comparison. The Lumia clearly beats the Nexus in every single way. The UI experience on the Lumia is just smooth. When I had so many applications installed on the Lumia, it still felt smoother than when I first got the Galaxy (without 3rd party app). One time, Google released a major update which improved a lot on the UI experience on the Nexus but there is still quite a bit gap between the two

The way the Windows Phone manages the UI brings some inconvenience to the users, especially the 7.5 Mongo. You can't put too many application entries at the front because it will end up appending them to the bottom which result in the very vertically long home screen. The purpose of having that home screen is to provide easy access but with too many apps at the front, it makes it even harder to find the app you want. In the application page, where you see a list of applications installed. You can't organize them by categories so you end up having to memorize the name of the applications if you want to find it because it organizes the apps alphabetically.

The Windows Phone ecosystem really lacks a bit of applications. However, I do see it catching up very quickly. Especially those big apps that almost everybody uses on their iPhone or Android, they already appear in the Windows Phone Market. I believe the Windows Phone 8 has a lot more applications than the 7.5/7.8.

The Lumia 920

I didn't bother purchasing the Lumia 920 although it was the world most innovative smart phone when it was first launched. I tried the phone at the store and I was really impressed. The feel of the device and the combination of the hardware and software really make it a piece of art. I was only afraid of getting dumped by Microsoft like they did with their first generation of phones (Lumia 900 can't be updated to Windows Phone 8) because if you spend the money to pick a piece of art, why don't you want to keep it longer as you would protect it better.

The Lumia 720

Nokia first showed up the Lumia 720 at the MWC. This is a very interesting device with a lower price point. Its available in 5 different colors and it has a more slim and lighter design. However, the availability of the device in Canada is still a question and if they do appear in Canada, it will be sold for around 450 price range.

The Lumia 928 and The Lumia 950

The rumours about the Lumia 928 and the Lumia 950 are really heating up. Some say the Lumia 928 will be a aluminium cased Lumia 920 launched specifically for Verizon in the US. It will be much lighter than the Lumia 920. The Lumia 950 will be the next Nokia flagship device. My opinions is that Nokia wouldn't want customers to wait for their new phones and forget the phones already released. Thus, the rumors could really be true; but which one would you get?

e commerce is HUGE

Lets open the discussions with a question below:

If you were to open a coffee shop, where would you place the coffee shop to?

You would be thinking to put it around a high traffic area. Ideally, it will generate more revenue than the case if you put in somewhere else. The problem is your cost will be higher too because the generally the landlord will tend to charge more rent, and so on.

What if you put a coffee shop online? You may think I am crazy but why not? You may ask HOW? I don't even know but why CAN'T you do it? 

More people will realize the power of e-commerce and eventually more business will switch to the internet based. In other words, less people will use an actual store. What will happen next? Rent will be brought down, cost will be brought down if you were to open a store on the street. Eventually it will find a balance. E-commerce affects the entire economy

There is no copy or everyone is copying

Just Before Apple Mac started to take more and more market shares, an old news about how Bill Gates copied Steve Jobs' original ideas of making the graphical user interface based operating systems were heating up. A lot of people, especially the apple fans truly believed that Mr Jobs is the true idea man in the world, and most importantly, they believed that the all time richest man in the world is a big copy cat. Really!? one thing to say about this case is that those kids should really become more mature and learn that they really should talk about something that they didn't really see or it's just totally gossip. Bill Gates isn't really a copy cat no matter what he did before. He has been the real technology leader for so long that he can predict what the technology world will evolve to. Or more precisely, he's mind drives the tech world. There are some facts that can better explain. Tablets idea has existed for long before iPad even started being shaped in the uterus. The idea may not belong to Mr Gates but he has been the most important player because without Microsoft's tabletnpc specification, there would not be any oem tablet existing. Software capability has driven the hardware industry, and software is driven by consumer needs. The second example, around late 2010, an Tv interview was hosted and both Mr Gates and Mr Jobs were the main guests. Bill Gates was asked for the future technology preview. Mr Gates talked about Internet edition. He thinks where you learnt from web should be high lighted,Just like a degree. He believes that no matter how you came about your knowledge, you should get credit for it. Whether it’s an MIT degree or if you got everything you know from lectures on the web, there needs to be a way to highlight. He said “Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world." Look at what those tech companies are doing now, for example Apple ITunesU. It is only 2012, which is 2 years from that interview. Can you say that Steve was copying Bill? There isn't really such a thing called copy. Copying means that one takes the other's work and make it his/her own. Did Mr.Gates take Mr Jobs work and make it his own? In fact, if you read Paul Allen's Idea Man , you would know that Microsoft found the GUI OS company earlier than Apple and windows OS was just the result of fair market competitation. If we call that a copy, then everyone is copying; Hyundai is copying Lexus to make their Equus. No that's not copying. It's just inspired by.

Who we really are?

Have you ever thought about who we really are and why we even exist on this "planet"? Why do I quote "planet", read on. If you ever played an online game, you may also know what an online game consists of. If you dont know yet, let me tell ya. An online game basically consists of a lot of computers as servers, the Internet, and a software (the game) sitting on the servers. Without any of these three, there is never online games. Ever heard about RPG? It stands for Role Playing Games, in which you control a role. That role could possibly be a person as well; you most likely control him/her to do something you would image doing yourself such as buying clothes, attacking others, hungting and so on. However, do those roles have brains? In other words, do they think? If I already got you guys thinking, you are a questioner. We should never stop asking questions, but we shouldn't ever take an answer that is unclear to us. Those roles in the games, to us, may not be able to think by themselves, but you can never say they do not have the ability to think just because we created them, or we are controlling them. They may have their own world, and in there, they have the ability to think. Whatever the command you are sending them via a mouse click or a key tab, they may think that the command comes out of their own mind. They have no clue that someone else in a different dimension is controlling them. I know, it is not science. In fact, there is no science ever existed in our world. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely admit that many scientists have put so much contribution in the human society, and they are the greatest. Plus the stuff that they call science has provided a lot of advantages to us and without that science, we could never been who we are now. Just because those science, i started thinking about other stuff that science can never explain, e.g. The black hole. If thinking from the perspective of any educated party, anything should be explained and anything should have a logical pattern built in there waiting for human beings to find out. If it is the case, why would we bring religion to the world to explain things that science can not explain. Back to the topic about the RPG online game. Has anyone ever experienced logging into a wrong server with your role? If you haven't, I can tell you that it is very likely to happen. Have you ever experienced déjà vu? Think about the similarity between the two two questions I just asked you. Maybe what you are thinking is just a command and the socalled science is just part of a software program or algorithm. And the "planet"....

philweigeomatics.com is up and running

From today, my own website about my professional is up and running! The domain name is philweigeomatics.com

Dojo widgets and their domNode

Today, I understood better with dojo widget which is so called dijit system. I realized more about what a dojo widget deeply is and how they are formed. Here I want to share my experience with every reader.

First, I want to talk about the difference between dijit.byId() and dojo.byId() which will be heavily used by any dojo user. To summarize, dijit.byId() returns a dijit (dojo widget) and dojo.byId() returns a dom node. A dojo widget maybe formed by many dom nodes, and within dojo toolkit, a widget is also a javascript object. To better explain this, lets look at a dijit.form.TextBox created below:

< div id="iBox" dojoType="dijit.form.TextBox">< /div>

What will be the output be if we simply just do dijit.byId("iBox")? It will output "[Widget dijit.form.TextBox, iBox]. it means what dijit.byId("iBox") returns is a widget object. It is very clear and simple to someone who has already had experiences with dojo; as you see there, because we created a widget in the markup, we are supposed to get a widget returned from dijit.byId().

what about dojo.byId("iBox")? what will it return? It returns a dom node object with value [Object HTMLInputElement]! Wait a second here! As what I described above -- dojo.byId() returns the dom node, should it return [Object HTMLDivElement] then? No, absolutely not. The reason is that when dojo parse the widget, it will replace the markup you created with something else pre-defined in the templates. For the dijit.form.TextBox widget, please go to your dojo directory, open folder "dijit", then open folder "form" under "dijit", then open the "TextBox.html" file within the "templates" folder under "form" folder. What you see in the html template file is how the TextBox widget is rendered. As you would expect, it is rendered by "input" tag. Thats just why dojo.byId("iBox") returns an "input" element. The same output will be obtained if you do dijit.byId("iBox").domNode. However, it is not always true!!!!

if dojo.byId() is used on a dijit, it will output the most effective tag wrapped to this dijit; whereas dijit.byId().domNode will returned the outermost tag wrapped to the dijit. For example:

< div id="iButton" dojotype="dijit.form.Button">< /div>

This is a dijit.form.Button widget, again looking down to its template, you will see a "button" tag is wrapped by 3 "span" tags outside of it. In this case, the outermost "span" tag is the outermost html tag wrapped to this widget, whereas the "button" tag is the most effective tag of this widget. As you would expect, dojo.byId("iButton") will output "[Object HTMLButtonElement]" whereas dijit.byId("iButton").domNode will output "[Object HTMLSpanElement]".

Here comes another question, where did the "id" attribute get assigned to? The answer is the most effective dom node. It turns out that dojo.byId("iButton").id will actually return the id "iButton" (even if it is considered a bad way in practice), whereas dijit.byId("iButton").domNode.id will return nothing -- "undefined" (it is an even worse example in practice).