Season's greetings

Sending out e-Christmas cards to my friends has been a tradition of mine for something like 10 years already and the card has always contained a drawing I have made (If you're interested, there's more of my art at my homepage). This is my second year when I have used a Wacom Bamboo drawing board to make the drawing directly to a digital format. The subject of the picture this year is the old town hall of Rauma, my lovely home town.

I only wish we had this much of snow. Last year at this time we had plenty - this year: nada. But let's not let the lack of snow turn our spirits down, ok? =) I wish my blog readers a very pleasant and joyful Christmas and all the best for the coming year!

Warm wishes, - Juho

Hello from Dubai!

I returned from a short vacation in Dubai few days ago. The trip was a success since I finally got to visit Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world (on my previous trips to Dubai, it was closed).

Not going to talk much about the trip itself, but I can say that my new mobile phones, HTC Radar and Nokia Lumia 800 both with WP 7.5 were in active use. The Lumia 800 was my phone/back-up camera on the trip. The green tint is present in many of the photos taken in mixed-artificial light, but otherwise the quality of the photos is good, although in very dark they turn bit blurry. Despite some hard-time focusing, the HD 720p video in the Nokia is very impressive in quality!

HTC Radar worked as my Wi-Fi connector/poolside gadget/Angry Birds console during flights and did that job extremely well. I think it had way better battery life than the one of Lumia 800 (not sure how much the mobile network activity drained it's battery, though). When talking about pictures, HTC Radar had the color balance almost always correct + the Panorama shot mode was really a nice feature to capture some amazing landscapes in Dubai!

Check out the image albums below to see some photos from the trip. You can find the 720p HD (sample) videos shot with Nokia Lumia 800 from my YouTube account.

Dubai 2011 mobile photos taken with Nokia Lumia 800

Dubai 2011 mobile photos, taken with HTC Radar

Nokia Lumia 800 unboxing pictures

Quick note on Nokia Lumia 800

Multiple efforts later I found an unlocked Nokia Lumia 800 available on Amazon Germany and this week, finally, the phone found it's way to me. Once upon I saw the design of N9 embedded with a neat, growing ecosystem I knew it was the phone I've got to have and just couldn't wait until next year for it to go on sale here in Nokia's homeland of Finland.

The device is just as beautiful and elegant as I expected, and WP7 looks and feels absolutely brilliant on it. But the phone has some lacks too. The most annoying thing to me is an odd green tint that appears when taking pictures, especially indoors. I hope it will be fixed with a software update. Also the gorgeous screen of the Lumia 800 has it's pros and cons, but I'll write more about them and other things once I've had more time with phone.

I am taking the Lumia 800 on vacation with me, along with my HTC Radar so hopefully I can have some true "field tests" with both phones, especially by photographing and sharing some moments to my fellows back home.

Donated to Wikipedia

Today, for the first time, I donated a few bucks to Wikimedia Foundation. Why? Because I use the site a lot. I constantly keep on googling for things and end up reading Wikipedia about the subject - and other stuff related to it.

I understand that some, if not most of the money may not really go to the things they claim them to go. Is this a reason not to donate? I don't think so. There are always people that take more than "their fair share" in this world, but it should not stop people from doing things out of good will. In general I think people are much more selfish these days than years ago. And really, few euros won't hurt your personal economy in any way.

Personally, I like the idea that even a few cents of my donation end up being used to buy a new server for Wikipedia, a server with information I might be soon looking for. And maybe by donating we get that Jimmy Wales face off from the top of the page more quickly ;)

Donate to Wikipedia

HTC Radar with WP7

I have now been using my HTC Radar for about a week and here's some of my thoughts of it in brief. I also added sample photos and couple videos for you to see.


Windows Phone 7.5 'Mango'

For the past few years I had been using Apple's iPhone 3G, a great phone, but badly outdated by now. I could've stayed in the iOS 'ecosystem' but decided to try something new - WP7. When I got my hands on the HTC Radar, it was my very first experience with the Microsoft developed mobile OS. Previously I had never seen or tried a WP7 phone anywhere, except for YouTube videos.

Considering the background, the switch from iOS was surprisinly easy and pleasant. Maybe it was because I'm tech-oriented guy. Nonetheless, the WP7 operating system is very nice. It's different from iOS or Android, and fits somwhere in between them, in my opinion. The logic is different from the two most popular mobile systems, but after a short while you'll get used to it. Most notable are the features of Live Tiles on the home screen and the Metro style UI.

Live tiles are more than the typical icons on iOS and Android because they show much more information. E.g. "Me" tile shows notifications from social media apps, calendar shows upcoming events, etc. etc. Metro style is in use in most of the apps, the logic is that different views inside the app are horizontally arrangend. You move between these views with familiar swipe gesture. Live tiles are colored according to the current theme color and it can be changed from the settings at any moment.

 WP7 application count is growing at fast pace with some 40 000 apps currently available at the Marketplace. Many of the most popular apps are already available, such as Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and WhatsApp. There are some nice "WP7 specific" things, such as pre-installed Office suite and of course Xbox Live that is really nice addition to a mobile device! It makes it's easier to keep up with Xbox Live friends and it's more fun to collect achievements from games on your phone rather than just playing them without such goals.

The Windows Phone slogan "Put people first" is apt. One of the cool features of the OS is "people hub" that integrates your contact info from all social medias and accounts into one place. Then, by tapping a person you can choose which way to contact him/her, whether it's a post on Facebook wall or SMS. You can also arrange people into groups and tap contacts to the start screen.

Some of the settings where rather hard to find or I wasn't unable to find them at all. Sometimes (mostly in the early stage) it was also difficult to understand that the physical "back" button on the phone itself also applies to moving within the applications.

Other than that, WP7 is easy to use, swift and - imho - looks gorgeous.


HTC Radar

General

My first impression of the phone was: surprisingly elegant. HTC Radar is packed in a neat, clean package with not too much of extra materials. Once I took the phone out of the box, it looked and felt great: the grey metallic body was quite sleek and it had a feeling of better quality than what I expected.

Sure, it sorf of looks like the most of the usual smartphones out there, but itlooks great anyway. It's almost identical in the size with my iPhone 3G (Radar: 120.5 x 61.5 x 10.9 mm, iPhone: 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm) with a little taller and slimmer design.

Setting up the phone was easy by following the on-screen instructions. Sadly though, my SIM-card didn't have any contact so I had to manually insert people who were not on my Facebook or Window Live services. I hope the transition to my next phone will be easier, though I doubt it.


Screen

The screen in HTC Radar is 3.8" in size and with the WP7 standard of 800x480 pixels it gives a very nice resolution of around 246 ppi. To me, it was a positive surprise to realize how sharp the screens in the smartphones are these days. The text is so sharp that you basically don't see the pixels anymore. Also the viewing angle is great (comparing to my old phone).

The glossy surface of the damage resistant Gorilla Glass display looks and feels great, although it reflects lamp lights etc. in "right" angles. The automatic brightness level setting seems to work well and I like to keep it on.


Camera

The camera on HTC Radar is a 5 Mpx with a F2.2 lens that gives a bit more wider angle and better low-light photography than perhaps the average cameras on other phones (it's getting more common I think, though). The photo quality is OK: looked up close the pictures are quite blurry on flat surfaces, but for any online use they scale down to be great. Photos taken on daylight can also qualify for regular print photos, but not any larger print than that I think. But what I really love is the simplicity of taking a photo: even when the phone is in lock screen, you can start the camera quickly by pressing down the camera button.

Once in the camera mode, you can either choose to take pictures with the physical camera button, or tap on the screen to focus and shoot on a specified target. You can also access the many options and settings of the camera while in the camera mode. I especially love the Panorama mode that helps you take panorama pictures by stitching 3 photos into one as you turn your camera horizontally. Very easy and great way to capture landscapes etc. Click the link to see some of my HTC Radar sample pictures

HTC Radar can also capture 720p HD video that seems to be quite good in quality. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to really test it in life, but you can see some of my not-so-great test videos on YouTube: HTC Radar HD video sample 1 | HTC Radar HD video sample 2

HTC Radar also has a front facing camera, but that I haven't had a chance to test in any way. Guess it'll be useful if you like to make video calls.


Software

The phone came pre-installed with some HTC specific apps, but I haven't found them that much useful since there are many other apps that can take their place (weather apps, photo editing tools). But when getting started, they were a good addition.

Talking about the photo editing apps, it's great how easily you can edit the photos on your phone. Once you've taken a picture on your phone you can directly open it in your favorite image editing app from the camera roll. Then, after editing the photo is saved in Saved pictures folder.

One absolutely great thing is the easy of sharing pictures and videos into social media: just tap on the share action and you can choose to which services you wish to share that picture, whether it's Facebook, Twitter, email or SkyDrive. One thing to notice: the built-in share feature compresses the images into smaller size, so if you want to upload the full resolution image, you need to use specific app of that service, e.g. Facebook. Many of these share and other features are part of the WP7 system and it has been just a thrill for me to find and use them on this my first WP7 device.

One of the not so great experiences is the syncing the of the phone with my computer that happens to be a Mac. There is an Mac application for this use and the interface is nice and easy to understand, but when syncing it uses iPhoto which I don't use, and getting iTunes music to the phone seems to be blocked because of some DRM things. But you can get files off the phone with direct file download, which I tend to use now. It's a shame the phone doesn't shop up on desktop as a USB memory or a connected camera like the iPhone does.


Some final thoughts

The price tag for HTC Radar is very compelling, since it's a mid-range smartphone and not the flagship phone or even flagship WP7 phone of HTC (Titan is). There are some lack of hardware: the processor isn't the best of all with 1Ghz but it's enough to run almost everything very smoothly. The only case so far I've had a slight lag is on some games with alot of stuff going on. Radar doesn't have a compass either, so some apps will miss it.

On the other hand, HTC Radar has most of the stuff a modern smartphone should have: great screen, good camera with HD video, GPS, front facing camera, tons of sensors for games and apps to use etc. etc.

For regular use HTC Radar has all you need, it looks and feels good and it's nicely priced. WP7 is worth trying and if you don't require the most top-notch phone, HTC Radar might be a great choice for you.


You can find detailed technical specifications of HTC Radar here: http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_radar-4131.php

HTC Radar sample photos

I put up an album on Picasa to show some of the photos I've taken with HTC Radar. The album includes indoor and outdoor photos as well as shots from day and night conditions. The album also includes Panorama mode examples and some shots that have been image-edited on the device. Click on the album link below to see the photos.

HTC Radar sample photos

Happy 10th Anniversary Master Chief!

Ok, I'm few days late with this, but better late than never, right? =)

Anyway, so it's been 10 years since the launch of the original Xbox from Microsoft, along with Halo, it's launch title and what one might call the console's "killer app".

I was thrilled about the original Halo since it was to be released on Mac by Bungie who had made the outstanding Marathon game trilogy (indeed, Marathon is the spiritual predecessor of Halo). I kept watching this video of the initial Halo announcement by Steve Jobs over and over again.. But then Microsoft bought Bungie to port the game for their upcoming console. It was such a sad moment and I lost interest in Halo - until the summer of 2010.

It was my little brother who introduced me to Xbox 360 and two titles in specific: Dirt 2 and Halo 3 (in multiplayer). I was so impressed about the games and the thrilling atmosphere in Halo 3 multiplayer that very soon I bought my own Xbox 360 and Halo 3 alongside it (before playing the campaign I also bought and played through the original Halo: CE and Halo 2 so I wouldn't miss anything from the story!). Later on I also got my hands on Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST.

Now, I will have the opportunity to play the original Halo completely refined to match the look of modern games. The original Halo: CE I bought and played on my Xbox 360 was already 9 years old, in 4:3 ratio and with laggy frame rate and old graphics.

So it's time for me to finally experience Halo: CE as a new game just like the others had enjoyed it 10 years ago. I also look forward on the new multiplayer map experience over Halo: Reach. See you on Xbox Live!

My gamer tag: AliquisNJ

First touch with Windows Phone 7

Yesterday, finally, I had my first touch with the Windows Phone 7 (Mango) OS on a brand new HTC Radar. I haven't had time yet to try all of the features, and since I'm new to the OS (been using only iOS for the last 3+ years), I don't even know all of the basics yet. But this I can tell you: I'm loving it so far!

The leap of waith was quite something for me, when reflecting it on my history with Apple products. It was simply time to try something new, and WP7 is truly that - a fresh approach to a mobile OS, and it's very snappy too. As a noob, it was fairly easy to adapt to the logic behind the user interface as well.

I'll post a longer "review" on the HTC Radar and WP7 Mango later on, when I have more time. Meanwhile, if you've never tried the OS before and are planning on getting a new phone, go ahead and give it a try! You might be positively surprised.

Mission to Mars

Now that the simulation for a manned Mars mission, experiment MARS-500 has ended successfully I wanted to post some of my thoughts about space exploration here on my blog.

I have always been interested in science and astronomy - I even have my own mirror telescope. Haven't been watching the stars actively in late years, but every once in a while I get so excited when I hear new great news about space exploration. A manned Mars mission, even being in it's early planning stage, is one such news.

Concept for NASA Design Reference Mission Architecture 5.0 (2009) Retrieved from Wikipedia.

If I was asked what is the single most greatest achievement in the history of mankind, I don't think I could answer anything else than: "Putting man on the moon". Beating the forces of gravity, dealing with the vacuum, radiation of space and then landing on a stellar object far away from Earth and then getting back safely.. it just shows how great things human being can actually do, when they really push it. And they did that in the 60's! Imagine the computers of that time. These days your phone has more processing power than NASA's computers back then.. and still they managed to pull it off (unless you're one of the conspiracy theorists).

Anyway, I guess they succeeded because they poured almost unlimited amounts of money into the space program. Of course, it was a silent battle against Soviet Union those days and a nation's creditability was at stake. But no matter the motives, I hope they will get all the resources they need to pull of a mission to Mars, since I believe any investment in such great endeavor is always better than just raising the amount of money spent to warfare and such.

I would be glad just to see a colony on the Moon too, if Mars is still too far away for any executable program. The main reason is that I simply think "it's good to not keep all the eggs in the same basket". Or how'd you express that in English? =) The idea of human race being able to survive (for some time) even a planet-scale disaster by doing something so bold just lifts my spirit. We truly should dare to reach out for the skies - and succeed in it.

I want to conclude with a message to the people at NASA, words coming from Arnold Schwarzenegger in the classic sci-fi/action film Total Recall: GET YOUR ASS TO MARS!

Arnold on the surface of Mars in Total Recall. Not the most credible movie in history, but great entertainment!

Online Dating

Sorry, a boring, non-gadget-related post with no pics =)

"Inner beauty matters the most", sure, but mostly in Hollywood movies. I know the basic message behind that phrase is very true, but why is it that so many people on online dating sites have lists of features they want from their partner, mostly related to their appearance. Yes, I use online dating sites/apps myself.

The sad thing is, pretty much the only thing I can't change in me is the thing most women don't like… and that is my height (166 cm). And if it's a close call, there's always the "I wear very high heels" explanation. I'd say about 80% of nicely gone conversations have ended immediately once this "issue" has popped up - and that is before even meeting anyone in person. Of course, there are some truly nice women out there too to whom height isn't the most relevant thing.

The second problem with online dating is, that you truly can't tell about the personality of someone based solely on text messaging. I'm a bit of a shy person, geeky and tend to get (too) excited on certain subjects and none of these help on real life date, no matter how well I may write down words on messages =) Messaging though is a good way to learn quite a bit about a person, her/his values and interests and thus to evaluate if it's even worth to meet that someone.

But still, even after longish conversations there seems to be false expectations of one's appearance as I have learned quite a few times. Or maybe my online pics are distorted (which I believe is not the case). Maybe this problem could be fixed with webcam conversations, but that just sounds way awkward to me..

Anyways, I hope there are still some decent women out there that truly appreciate some of the virtues I believe I have: honesty, fairness and being reasonable at all times. I don't smoke nor drink much of alcohol, keep myself fit.. etc etc. In other words, I'm not a "bad boy", and unfortunate to me, they sure seem to be in fashion.

So, perhaps there's a business idea for someone? Dating site where short men are not looked down on. Well, thinking of it, I bet there are some out there already. Maybe I should join? Or maybe I should move from this land of beauty queens and ice hockey players to some crazy, smart short people country. Japan, South Korea, perhaps? =)

Nokia goes Windows Phone

It's been 8 months now since Nokia announced the strategic partnership with Microsoft, involving a complete adaptation of the Windows Phone operating system in all price categories. Yesterday at Nokia World, finally, the first Nokia Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" devices were introduced.

 Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango

Since I've known for months that there would be a Nokia phone with WP7, I have patiently kept using my old phone in hope of a jump to the next level. I loved the design and simplistic aspects of N9 very much, but there were two major defects that I simply couldn't ignore: 1) high price 2) lack of future apps. Now just to make it clear: I'm not an app-fanatic but e.g. when searching for some cool photo/panorama apps for the N9 from Ovi Store, there just didn't seem to be anything to satisfy my needs.

Nokia's Lumia 800 was exactly what I was hoping for. Ok, front facing camera is missing, but in the end I figured I probably wouldn't need that so much. NFC would've been cool too, but it's more of the future features as well. But everything else was pretty much great stuff: The gorgeous N9 design, good camera and other decent specs + the benefits of the Windows Phone eco-system.

Then I realized they wouldn't release it in Finland, not this year anyway.

I was quite pissed off. Of course, I understand and approve CEO Elop's strategy to go to big markets with a rumble first, but still.. Finland is Nokia's homeyard and I wonder if they have ever before decided to skip the premiere launch of a flagship product here.

Anyway, so here I am, still patiently waiting.. or more to say, trying to figure the heck out on what phone to buy next. Yet, perhaps some hope remains. Thanks to the loose borders of the EU (at least in the economic terms), I might be able to order a phone for me all the way from UK or Germany. I surely hope I can somehow get the phone I want and all this wait hasn't been for nothing.

Video: Nokia N9 Journey

The Nokia N9 is definitely one of the most beautiful phones ever built. Now they've managed to create a very cool video of the manufacturing process of that device. You can see it on YouTube:



It's been interesting to see how great ads Nokia has been making in the past few months (new ad agency perhaps?). Although, I don't like the N9 ads with extereme shot cuts, but many of the videos featuring CGI renders and great music really create a positive image of Nokia. You can see the official videos from Nokia at YouTube.

Sports Tracker

If you like outdoor sports, such as bicycling, running, walking, skiing etc. and are used to carry a smart phone while you're out there, you might like Sports Tracker. With Sports Tracker you can easily save the data from each of your exercise, such as route in visual format, kilometer count, speed, calories burnt etc. and share it with your friends - or the whole world. If you prefer, you can keep your stats private, of course.

At least personally, I love statistics! I love investigating maps too! I love.. ok, enough of that.  Anyway, I have kept record of all the kilometers I've ran since 2000, but with Notepad style. I'm stickin' to my old habits though, since no matter how great Sports Tracker truly is, it has it's downsides. Most annoying thing is that (at least on my cellphone) the GPS signal is pretty unreliable (and it consumes A LOT of the phone's battery life). Still, I recommend you to at least give it a try, it's fun!

Here's an embed of one of my exercises:

Panorama photography

I love taking photos, but I have not been able to produce panoramas due to my old phone. Thus I have used my employer's iPad 2 to create some panoramas. I love how easy doing panoramas has become, and how good in quality they are (reflecting on the amount of effort put in making them).

Multiple images stitched into one render with Photosynth. 

Taken at our summer cottage in 2011.

The two software I have tried are: Occipital 360 Panorama and Microsoft Photosynth. Mostly I have used the former, because it seems to be faster and has better recognition when doing full 360° panoramas. On the other hand Photosynth seems to have better image quality when the stitching has gone well. It's worked great for partial, wide-angle photosynths like the example above. The examples on the official web sites of both software indicate, however, that with right skills (and device?) you can make some really amazing stuff with them.

If you're interested, you can see some of my 360 Panoramas at my homepage's panorama-page.

Thinking Differently

Here's my geek history in brief. Enjoy! =)

My greatest nerd/teenage years were around the time when Apple ran it's famous "Think Different" campaign. Late 90's were probably the peak of my Apple fanhood as well. But it all began much earlier.

It was in 1991 when my mom bought the first computer to our household. It was her work machine, but naturally the rest of the family got to try it. The computer was Macintosh LC and I still remember my first comment being something like "I'm never going to learn how to use this". How wrong was I =)

It wasn't long 'till I was indeed the nerd/tech support guy in our family. I also loved creating drawings with KidPix, animation/first multimedia applications with HyperCard etc. etc. I always tried to tell my friends how great, easy to use and cool system Mac was, but only got mocked in return. In that aspect, "Think Different" suited me well amid all my pro-PC/Windows friends. Naturally, I thought of Windows as the pure evil itself.

After Steve Jobs returned to Apple he basically rocked the grey IT-industry with the candy colored and beautifully designed iMacs. I think the move to consumer electronics with iPod was the point when "regular" people also started to give Apple a try (Graphics design/Ad companies had always been the core Apple users before).

Meanwhile, in the early 2000's I also got my first phones from the Finnish national pride, Nokia. Their devices were greatly popular, I guess because they were easy to use, stabile and well-built. Much like Apple's computers.

So there I was, happy, to finally see Apple bloom, while using my iMac and sending SMSes with my Nokia (Windows was still something I never ever wanted to use).

Then, in 2007 came the iPhone that truly changed the game. I was probably the first one ready to jump over to Apple's vision of a mobile device. And just like me, millions of others saw it as the future and Nokia's descent began. Nokia has been in trouble since and Apple has been making more money than ever. But I am not so happy.

The reason? I think it's because Apple has lost it's underdog pioneer status, and (as a result?) it's innovative speed seems to be falling behind competition. I think this is the exact same reason why Nokia has had troubles. So things do change. I was literally stunned when I first saw what Windows 8 would be all about - I saw the future. Equally delighted I was to see and try Nokia N9 and it's sexy, new design.

This has truly made me think differently. What if  Nokia has gotten it's golden touch back? What if Windows was the pioneering OS now? 

I admit I still love Apple's products, but I refuse not to give a try at something new. I give great respect to Microsoft for having the balls to try something so fresh. Same goes for Nokia. Then there's also Google with Android, who knows what they have in their sleeves? In any case, I look forward to see the gadgets of the near future - and try to keep thinking differently.

All of my cell phones

Yeah, these are all of the phones I have ever owned =) So I guess it's time to get a new one already, huh?

I got my first phone, Nokia 3210 in year 2000, I was so thrilled about my first phone I even made it into a drawing. My second was also a Nokia, 1100 to be exact. Still stickin' to the cheaper models and a black&white screen.

Then, when I heard Apple was making a phone (I'll write another post to explain my history with Apple and technology in general), I knew it would be my first top-notch phone. Sadly, the first iPhone never arrived in Finland, but the 3G did and I bought it immediately.

The iPhone 3G has served me well for over three years so I guess it's already passed it's retirement age. Now then, I'm finally ready to upgrade since the latests smart phones have these things I want:

1) Good camera with HD video recording. I like taking photos, but I am so tired to always carry my large Canon EOS400 or Ixus pocket cam with me, e.g. when traveling. Bad camera and no video rec has been the #1 drag of iPhone 3G.

2) More processing power, enough to run the latest software. I don't think Angry Birds works on iPhone 3G.

3) The "Wow" effect. Or at least something fresh. Everyone has an iPhone these days, and they all look pretty much the same and the main UI is still about static icons. Easy to use? Yes. Innovative? Not anymore.

So, now I am still waiting for that next wow-phone to arrive. It may already be out there, but I have decided to wait for the first Nokia Windows phones to see if they've got that something special I'm looking for.