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  • 2012 for BlackBerry: A New Hope?

    From CrackBerry.com: Rendering of the BlackBerry "Milan", a new BlackBerry that will run OS 10.

    Let’s face it: Research in Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry smartphones, floundered dramatically in 2011. What with the near-week-long international outage, a failure that is the PlayBook, and a series of hit-and-misses, there’s no doubt that its leadership will be wishing for a miracle to launch them back into the smartphone game.

    You must understand, BlackBerry was, not so long ago, the leader in the pre-smartphone era, when it came to email and instant messaging on-the-go. However, like Nokia, they did not see the phantom iPhone storm that changed the entire notion of the mobile phone.

    So, after the average attempt at modernizing the operating system that powers their phones in 2010 (with BlackBerry OS 6), RIM brought out OS 7 earlier this year, along with new phones that integrate the touch screen and physical keyboard that so defined these phones.

    Now, RIM is pinning their redemption hopes on a new, modern operating system they call BlackBerry 10 (formerly BBX). It’s based on the strengths of the PlayBook, and supposedly aims to bring the aging smartphone brand into the race with the likes of iPhone and Android.

    Whilst I lambast the BlackBerry on a daily basis (my own phone, a BlackBerry Bold 9700, crashes daily), and I continuously tout the brilliance of the iPhone, I do hope that Research in Motion will take heed of their mistakes in 2011, and launch courageously into the new year with the promise of a better start. If anything, it’ll force the market leaders (iPhone) to be on top of their game.

    RIM must realize that you can’t hope for success in this arena by simply sticking a touch screen onto an existing, old platform. You need to rethink the entire concept of the mobile phone in this age. That’s what Apple did with iPhone, and the success speaks for itself. BB10, then, should re-envision the BlackBerry product, not merely updating it to fit today’s standards. They need a better application store (App World), and they need to entice developers. They need to make the platform lucrative, and prove that they’ve got something that can hopefully withstand the might of the iPhone. Yes, BBM is a selling point (and a customer magnet). It forces most consumers to stick to the platform, as most of their friends are reachable in an intuitive manner. RIM has already begun to leverage this strength with BBM Connected Apps. But they need to do more; they need to have an holistic, complete developer toolkit similar to what Apple offers with Xcode and the iOS developer programme. Once developers realize that they can, in fact, work on this platform, there will be better content available with which users can interact with. And content, as we’ve seen with the iTunes and Apple App Store model, are what work best to entice consumers.

    However, things are already not looking too good: BlackBerries running the new OS 10 will only be available in the third quarter of 2012. So, in the meanwhile, we’ll have to remain content with the current, rather lackluster series of devices running OS 7. Don’t get me wrong; OS 7 is still a significant improvement over the previous software, but it remains no match for what the guys over at Apple, Android and Microsoft are up to with their respective mobile products.

    Looking forward to seeing how RIM will fare in 2012…

  • Thoughts on “Inheritance”

    So, I finally finished reading Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance. All 849 pages of it. I’ve followed the journey of protagonist Eragon for five years now, ever since I heard about the books from a classmate who delivered a book review talk for English in Grade 8. The story piqued my interest back then, and I’ve become engrossed in the richly-imagined world created by Paolini ever since.

    However, upon completing the fourth and final book of the Inheritance Cycle, I’m left with a bitter aftertaste. I won’t divulge any details (to avoid spoiling the story), but the last 100 or so pages just seemed to waffle, sputtering the story to a forced conclusion. It was quite obvious (and Paolini did mention it in the afterword) that there will be an inevitable return to the land of Alagäesia (and beyond…).

    These characters’ stories have yet to conclude. Whilst I would’ve liked to have a proper, full conclusion, providing closure to the cycle, I am somewhat excited at the prospect, no matter how small it might be, that there will be a Book 5.

    Overall, I do recommend Inheritance to all fans of the fantasy genre, and of the series.

  • Tablet Computing and the Post-PC Era: You Say You Want a Revolution?

    When Steve Jobs took to the stage at the beginning of 2010, he brilliantly illustrated the current conundrum of our computing landscape: on the screen behind him was a picture of an iPhone and a MacBook, separated by a significant gap. He posed a question to the audience: was there room, between these two well-established devices – the mobile phone and the laptop computer  – for another device? The answer, according to the technological visionary, was a resounding “yes!”

    The introduction of the original iPad in 2010 cased, as usual, a plethora of copies – the Samsung Galaxy Tab and BlackBerry Playbook being two significant attempts – and led to another paradox amongst consumers: the uncertainty about what exactly “tablet computing” was all about. For some, it served as a fancy new accessory, something to go along with their iPod or mobile phone. Others lambasted it as a larger, “squashed” iPod touch. And still, more were left confused: was there really a need for yet another technological gadget? Surly a netbook computer (a smaller, less-powerful but ultra-portable notebook computer) would be more than necessary; surely that was the obvious direction in mobile personal computing?

    So what, then , is the true purpose of the iPad? There must be some reason, seeing as it’s been heralded as one of the most significant advances in technology… I believe that in order to understand the iPad’s raison d’être, one needs to adopt a shift in the perception of the personal computer; one needs to re-think the very definition of where it stands, in today’s cloud-focussed era.

    In the early 2000s, Steve Jobs described the personal computer as a “hub” for your digital lifestyle: your photos, video and music would “live” on the computer, and other devices would plug-in to this system to sync with it. Think of the iPod + iTunes – where the iPod “fed-off” what was in your iTunes library. But the problem, as the technological river flowed on, was that it became quite untidy and rather tedious to plug various devices into the hub. Enter cloud computing: all your files stored in “the cloud” (actually, some discreet warehouse storing row upon row of servers), and you would access these files through that lovely invention called the Internet. In essence, you wouldn’t need a single computer for your own – you could sign in to any Internet-connected computer, retrieve a document, work on it, then sync it to the cloud, ready to be pulled down from another machine whenever you needed it.

    Within the context of the cloud fits the iPad. It becomes your mobile leech to the cloud. It’s intuitive interface and plethora of apps makes it a cinch to connect, edit, and sync. This is what Apple envisions the future of personal computing to be – the “post-PC” era. It is, perhaps, the last great legacy of Jobs: he gave us the PC, the digital lifestyle hub, and now: post-PC with the iPad.

    I write in terms of the iPad, seeing as it’s the first to bravely foray into this new territory. But in time, as has already happened, more copies will emerge: the fledgling (and perhaps already failing) BlackBerry Playbook, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and other Android devices. They will also attempt to do what the iPad is doing: offer a seamless integration to the cloud.

    But whilst cloud-computing is foremost on the iPad’s agenda, it also enables users to create and consume dynamic content through innovative apps – it can transform at the tap of an icon into a piano, drum kit, guitar, paint canvas, sketchpad, word processor, database, and even a book. In Walter Isaacson’s brilliant biography, Steve Jobs, Jobs talks of wanting to transform the textbook industry next: offering excellent school textbooks for free on the iPad. Think about it: students would no longer need to lug backpacks crammed with heavy tomes from class-to-class (a chiropractor’s nightmare…). Instead, all they’d need is a sleek, thin, light iPad containing all their textbooks, annotations and notes. Intuitive, just the way Jobs liked things to be.

    In short: a tablet computer IS NOT a mobile phone, laptop computer, or personal computer. It represents our transition into what’s being lauded as the “post-PC” era – where cloud computing (storing and retrieving files, updating them, and synchronizing with all devices under your account) is emphasized through the user experience.

    We’re entering the next age of the digital experience. Be wary of which brand you trust – in choosing a cloud-computing partner (from Amazon’s SkyDrive to Microsoft’s Azure, or even Apple’s very own iCloud) and the devices that connect to that service. It becomes very similar to choosing your next computer: it needs to be secure, reliable, and meet the requirements of what you want to get out of it.

  • Why I Reccommend Paolini

    Sure, the books have an uncanny resemblance to the great epics of English literature – those paragons of science fiction and fantasy written by the scriveners George Lucas and the legendary J.R.R. Tolkien. Sure, his writing style has fluctuated through the saga that is The Inheritance Cycle. But one thing remains: Christopher Paolini is a published author, and you’re not (unless, that is, you are in fact published, in which case my argument crumbles quicker that the great Ozymandias… oh well.)

    I always see Tolkien as the trail-blazer of the fantasy genre. He opened-up the worlds of fantastical creatures and epic quests. Subsequently, many an aspiring fantasy writer has adhered to this “blueprint” in etching out their own work. Christopher Paolini is no exception. The Inheritance Cycle is literally one giant quest, where our unsuspecting hero, Eragon (see that play on “Dragon” there?) and his… wait for it… dragon, must battle the evil forces of the King Galbatorix and his dragon, Shruikan. Along the way, they are trained in the ancient arts of the Elves (residing, no less, than in the forest of Du Weldenvarden [“the guarding forest” in the ancient language]), maintain diplomacy between the diverse creatures that form the resistance (“the Varden”) – elves, dwarves, urgals (strikingly similar to Orcs from LOTR) and humans, and fight the various battles that take them closer to defeating the King.

    The tale is set against a complex character background, where Eragon’s history and pedigree is brought to the fore in determining his stature as a hero. This is where the similarity with Lucas’s Star Wars series is evident.

    Yet I thoroughly enjoy reading this series. Why? Because it is both inspiring to know that at merely 15 years old, the author wrote the first book, and it also provides for a captivating read. As an aspiring writer, I found it interesting to follow Paolini as he grew as a writer through the series. He truly found his voice in designing the multifaceted world of Alagäesia. His determination to write has inspired me to experiment with longer pieces of text, and, fundamentally, if you’re a lover of drawn-out tales consisting of colourful characters and epic landscapes, this is one series you should really check out.

    Nothing will ever compare to the might of Tolkien. But we can’t be forever re-reading The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings (or, for some of us daring souls, Tolkien’s “Bible” of the world he created, The Silmarillion). Authors like Paolini are perhaps to our generation, and the generations to come, what Tolkien and his contemporaries were to their era: vessels through which we can experience the magic of the written word.

    The final novel in the cycle, Inheritance, was released to much fanfare on November 8th. I’ve finally received my copy, and from what I’ve read (I’m about 200 pages into it…) I’ll be posting my thoughts on the series finalé once I’ve finished it. Until then, what’s your take on the Inheritance Cycle? And on fantasy/sci-fi writing, or simply books in general? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

  • Upgrading to BlackBerry OS 5: A Breath of Fresh Air

    This may sound strange, but I recently “upgraded” my BlackBerry Bold 9700 from OS 6 to OS 5, after almost a year with the supposedly “more advanced” OS 6 operating system. I decided to return to the phone’s “original” software after having experienced nothing less than mobile phone grief with the OS 6 variant.

    When I originally “updated” to OS 6 earlier this year, I was excited to bring my phone into the modern age of mobile software. OS 6 was stylish, slick and was able to support some of the beta apps that I loved to try out. Back then, being able to use the latest and greatest software – even if that meant using software that was so new, it wasn’t even officially released yet – was immensely important to me. But now, you could say, I’ve grown older and wiser. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I couldn’t continue living with a phone that crashed every two hours, and required constant re-booting to get it up to speed again.

    The primary problem I had with running OS 6 on my Bold 9700 was that it has a huge memory leak. This means that, over time, the phone loses memory on its own, to such an extent that it renders the phone unusable unless it is re-started. And then the cycle continues… The worst part? I wasn’t even using any “illegal” or pirated version of the software; my phone was using a legitimate version of OS 6, the latest version in fact, that was recommended to me by the BlackBerry Desktop Software when I synced my phone with my Mac.

    This brings me to the point of this post: why would a company like Research in Motion, a company that is already struggling to keep up with the fast-pace ferocity in the mobile market with the likes of Apple and Android, release such crap software? I mean, sure, the Bold 9700 isn’t the latest BlackBerry. But it’s still your product, RIM. They should be looking after their customers, no matter what hardware they’re using, and provide proper software that ensures a user experience that binds the customer to the platform. Perhaps RIM has become so complacent, given that their BBM service is quite a selling point, especially in this BlackBerry-crazed country of ours. But that’s no reason to promise your users a “better and upgraded user experience” with a new operating system, and deliver software that has critical issues, which you’ve failed to resolve in over four updates (perhaps even more). As I’ve discussed with my friend and fellow blogger, Bryan, RIM is seriously annoying me. The service is slipping, and the scales are ever-tipping in favour of jumping-ship to the iPhone camp. Well, I’ve still got a few more months on this contract… Maybe they’ll salvage themselves with a killer OS 7 device that doesn’t have battery issues like the new Bold 9300.

    On a brighter note, though: upon moving back to OS 5, my phone’s been performing brilliantly. I’ve made the user-experience adjustment fairly easily, and am enjoying using a phone that doesn’t freeze-up every two hours. Perhaps having the “latest and greatest” software isn’t such an important factor in my computing life after all…