As I See Tech

Did you ever wish your notebook is thinner, lighter, powerful AND cheaper? Then the Macbook Air is for you! Actually, to say that an Apple product is "cheaper" comes in as a surprise. Compared to a netbook, the MacBook Air is actually more expensive. However, with specs that could match a notebook, the 2010 release of MacBook Air becomes an attractive and competitive piece starting at $999. This price is rare for a product that can truly claim to be the slimmest, yet powerful, laptop.

Do you notice it? The hybrid hype is slowing down! There are no more new major models being announced. It seems like everyone's just waiting for the sales and numbers to come out. Everyone's playing safe!

Computers as we used to know it may be reduced to just a touchscreen monitor. It's not sci-fi. It can be real. Let's look at the trend shall we...

Google TV is being blocked to access content by some TV network and broadcaster owned web sites. The motivation is greed. Perhaps just stupid. But when almost a hundred million dollars are at stake, you can't just sit down and wait for things to happen only to realize the favor's going for Google alone... yeah, right!

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 features a unique experience called the Metro UI . This design philosophy drives the content-centric designs initially implemented to Windows Media Center and Zune. By bringing the Metro UI to Windows Phone, Microsoft is able to fully differentiate themselves in the mobile phone business.

The Playstation Move is Sony's answer to Nintendo's Wiimote and Microsoft's Kinect . I've tried playing PS3 Move with one of its flagship game called the Sports Champions . The technology and the game are amazing, fun and simply (highpitch) awesome!

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 hits the stores this October in Europe and Asia releasing with some of the most beautiful devices for the new mobile OS like the HTC 7 Mozart, Samsung Omnia 7 and LG Optimus 7. Unfortunately, these models won't be available in the US when Windows Phone 7 gets released this November.

I just read a transcript of Steve Job's recent speech delivered while celebrating Apple's recent $20 billion quarter news. There were some truths to his statements, but mostly, they were direct attacks to Apple's competitors. It's not unusual for a company to make compelling statements about its competitors. However, it should never be taken lightly -- specially when it could potentially affect the confidence of your customers, partners and stakeholders. I personally call this "acid marketing". A company drops an "acid". It could corrupt everything it touches as it spreads, unless someone would do something to neutralize the acid. By the time all of the acid has been neutralized, it is possible that the damages already done by the acid are irreversible.

If you look at the big picture, software solutions go through a cycle of its own as we evolve to adopting the software and what it can deliver, allowing us to use them like as if they are parts everything that we do everyday.

Part 1: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler? Part 2: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler? Part 3: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler? As the population of smart phone owners continue to grow, the smart phone designs and models continue to grow in numbers as well. The smart phone is fast becoming like a computer, but in a small form factor. It's still primarily a phone, but even that would soon change...

Part 1: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler? Part 2: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler?  The cellphone, as the cellular phone was later called, spread like news! Everyone was willing to pay the extra dollars for the convenience of making calls as desired... and the inconvenience of getting calls when and where not desired. There were calls on the street. There were calls in the train. There were calls in the bus. There were calls in the meeting. There were calls in the theater. There were calls in the restroom...

Part 1: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler? The cordless phone proved to be a hit! There's no need to rush to the phone anymore. You could reach for a phone as soon as it rang. You could reach for a phone almost the same instant you felt like calling someone. You could reach for the phone while cleaning the car in the garage. Your friends could wake you up at 2 AM for a late night party invite simply by calling your phone in the bedroom. It was convenient. It was like your world just got smaller. Or did you get bigger? Well, the living room was not getting bigger after all. With four cordless phones in the house, the house showed its true size... it was actually smaller than you thought. Now that the phone is within reach wherever you are in the house, or even outside in the garden or in the backyard, you came to a realization that would humble you forever: there were just too many phones in the house. Meanwhile, you could hear all four phones ringing at the same time....

Once upon a time, there was a phone. Although it enabled instant communication, there was one major drawback: the  phone stayed where you placed it. So, when you were away from the phone, and you came up with a brilliant idea that you wanted to share to your best friend who's living in another part of the town, there was no way to make a call immediately where and when you needed or wanted to. All the news and all the excitement would have to be held until you've driven through the traffic, parked your car in the garage and rushed to the shining black analog phone at the far corner of your living room -- which suddenly seemed bigger than how you remembered it earlier that morning. As soon as you reached the phone, you immediately lifted the handset, (literally) dialed the number and waited for the other line to answer. One ring... two rings... three rings. For a moment, in the middle of the third ring, your heart skipped a beat as soon as you heard that the phone on the oth...

Microsoft lost the mobile industry -- defeated pound per pound by Nokia, RIM Blackberry, Apple iPhone and Google Android. Microsoft had it coming... it was their fault. For a multi-billion dollar company, it is surprising to even figure that Microsoft can be schooled by a young player in the mobile business . The approach of Apple to aggressively penetrate the mobile market with iPhone paid well to surprise even the leaders at that time such as Motorola, Nokia, RIM and Palm to name a few. Further pushing Microsoft's Windows Mobile efforts down and out of the game. On the 11th day of October year 2010, Microsoft announces its second take to building a name in the mobile industry.

I use Opera 's web browser. Before Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla Foundation Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari ever came out with tabbed browsers, Opera was already doing it since 2000. This is not the only "first" from Opera that some other web browser makers are claiming to be theirs.

Do you know what should hold you from getting a new smart phone this year? The answer comes in 2 alpha-numeric characters: 4G.

Here's a quick run down of some exciting new products to save up for the holidays. Mobile Apple iPhone 4 , Blackberry Torch , Samsung Galaxy S , HTC phones w/ Windows Phone 7 Tablet Apple iPad , Samsung Galaxy Tab , HP Slate w/ WebOS or Windows 7 TV Sony Bravia XDR HX909 Series 3D , Samsung Class 9000 Series 3D LED HDTV , Vizio TruLED LCD HDTV , Sony Google TV Camera Canon PowerShot SX30 IS , Canon EOS 60D , Nikon COOLPIX P100 , Nikon D7000 eReader Amazon Kindle , Barnes & Noble Nook Personally, I still have Modu , Hasselblad or Leica in my "forever" wish list. What's in your list?

Have you tried YouTube Leanback ? It's like YouTube on steroids! You visit the page, let it load and then you can just lean back as streams of videos are played automatically one after the other.

While writing this article, http://downrightnow.com/facebook reports a likely service disruption from Facebook. You might be tempted to check out http://blog.facebook.com but because Facebook is down, what do you expect? Meanwhile, people post their status through Twitter (or on other social networking accounts) about Facebook being down.

In my recent article , I focused on setting up an Internet TV with a basic TV, a PC and an Internet connection. The requirement of course is to dedicate at least one PC at home as the family's entertainment hub. If you have an XBox 360 already, you can hook that up as an extender so that you can still use the PC while the kids watch on the TV.

Here's a quick roundup of what's happening worldwide with some of the popular technologies we use everyday. There are some surprising trends building up here...

Windows Live Spaces is migrating to WordPress . I was able to migrate my Windows Live Space to WordPress with just a few clicks. The migration is a breeze! If you are a Windows Live Space user, check out your space and you should be prompted to migrate your account to WordPress. When you're done, your old "spaces.live" URL will automatically redirect to your new "wordpress.com" page.

When I recently visited Best Buy , I was so amazed by one of the displays: a 55" ultra-slim Samsung 240Hz 3D LED HD Internet TV . It features a touchscreen remote control and a unique wall mount design. Simply put, the beast is beautiful!

Humanoid robot designs had been man's fascination some millenniums before Leonardo Da Vinci even came up with his design in the 1400s. It took around 500 years later for the term "robot" to be invented by Karel Kapek, a play author. It was then followed shortly by the term "robotics" coined by Isaac Asimov , a science fiction author, to refer to the science and study of robots. I believe that something is important if it has a name. If you think about it, 500 years to give it a name demonstrates how slow the development of robots had been. To date, more than 50 years later, we are nowhere close to The Bicentennial Man .