Disqus - Latest Comments for bvlad

Re: International Contest: Win 1 of 5 Phones From Poweramp and Negri Electronics, Including a Galaxy S5 and One (M8)

Vlad Bobleanta — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 17:00:39 -0000

I think I'd go with the Galaxy S5 if I were to choose. I own the Note 3, the Nexus 5 has horrible battery life, the One M8 is a lot taller than it should be, and I simply dislike the plastic on the G2's back (not plastic in general, just that plastic). So by process of elimination, we're left with the S5. :)

Re: Win a Galaxy S 5, HTC One M8, LG G2, Nexus 5, or Note 3 courtesy of Poweramp, Negri Electronics and TalkAndroid [updated with winner]

Vlad Bobleanta — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 16:55:41 -0000

My first Android was the Samsung Galaxy Spica (i5700). Bought it in 2010 as far as I can remember, though it launched in 2009.

Re: [Update: Winner] Win One Of Five Devices From Poweramp, Negri Electronics, And Android Police

Vlad Bobleanta — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 16:53:42 -0000

I want one.

Re: How to access the US Google Play from any country, no proxies or VPN necessary

Vlad Bobleanta — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 11:19:05 -0000

No idea. It's amazing how random the list of countries these two ship to seems to be (at least to me). There are many EU countries missing, for example - though others are OK. Ah well, I could Google something like this and maybe find another one, but how will I know it's safe to use? Problems, problesm. Thanks for the help, again.

Re: How to access the US Google Play from any country, no proxies or VPN necessary

Vlad Bobleanta — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 10:58:33 -0000

Thanks, both of you. Unfortunately digging thru both sites I just found out that neither ships to my neck of the woods. That's not something I expected, but such is life... :)

Re: How to access the US Google Play from any country, no proxies or VPN necessary

Vlad Bobleanta — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 12:49:06 -0000

Does Borderlinx actually work? I've always wanted to use something like that, but feared it might be a scam. Crazy, I know - scams on the internet :)

Re: Samsung shipped 800K Galaxy Gears. Very impressive, but there are some caveats

Vlad Bobleanta — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 09:04:21 -0000

Some APIs needed for the Gear to function properly have only been added in Android 4.3 afaik. That means that support is indeed limited for now, but not to just the Galaxy Note 3 - it's limited to Samsung Android devices running Android 4.3 or later. Those aren't very many at the moment (in some parts of the world the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note II are already set to receive such updates, as is the Galaxy S III). As Samsung updates more handsets (hopefully), support will increase. The Gear is clearly a first-gen "beta" type product, that's aimed at those with money to spare and who have to have the newest "it" thing no matter what. But it's already gotten better itself, now with support for displaying notifications from all apps. It may get better thru software in the future, or Samsung may just do a Gear 2 which will be better in some way. The price is imho the main issue with the Gear. Which is why these bundles have obviously been successful, though I haven't seen them in many places - so don't think all of those sales can be attributed to just bundling.

Re: Leaked document from French operator SFR says LG’s G2 will get Android KitKat this month

Vlad Bobleanta — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 09:17:00 -0000

That's not a leaked anything. It's straight from SFR. This is the page it comes from: http://smartphones.sfr.fr/a...

HOWEVER, it was a mistake. If you look now, the table has changed, simply saying something along the lines of "no OS update planned yet".

PS: I would have loved LG to finally understand that software updates are important. Alas, we wait.

Re: I’m All In With Google And Why This Should Worry Microsoft

Vlad Bobleanta — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 17:56:55 -0000

Well if you're diving into Android for the first time, I'd say by all means only choose Nexus devices. It really doesn't make sense to do things otherwise, and you'll be spared many headaches, especially about software support.

In terms of tablets, if you like the 7-inch size, then go for the new Nexus 7. If 10-inch is more your thing, go for the Nexus 10, but if you can wait, do wait for the next one (probably will get unveiled in October). The current Nexus 10 could use a beefier processor, and the next one will probably get that. At $229 and $399, respectively, either of these is incredible value for money.

Smartphone-wise, once again I say Nexus. Again, if you can wait, do wait for the Nexus 5. It will be more high-end than the Nexus 4, and hopefully offered for a similar price ($349 unlocked for 16 GB is again incredible value - if they manage to keep the price the same).

There are many OEMs of course, but in the end Nexus is Nexus. You get updates first, and you get to experience Android as Google intended it. Most of the things that may seem to be missing from stock Android, in terms of software gimmicks and such, can be added painlessly to the Nexus devices by simply installing a few apps from the Play Store. This is the beauty of Android - how customizable it is.

Re: Top 10 things I hate about Android

Vlad Bobleanta — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:14:39 -0000

I think it's simply wonderful that you finally decided to come out.

Re: HTC ThunderBolt free at Verizon until January 26

Vlad Bobleanta — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:14:17 -0000

Verizon lists it as shipping with Android 2.2. So I guess you may get the update notification once you start it up. Post edited. Thanks.

Re: MetroPCS launches Samsung Freeform II (SCH-R360)

Vlad Bobleanta — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:56:15 -0000

Won't work on MetroPCS' 4G (LTE) network. The only phone that's already out and will work on that network is the Samsung Craft (http://www.unwiredview.com/....

As for the 3G, the Freeform II supports AWS 1700/2100 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wik.... I thought that was a 3G only space, but I may have been wrong. Info is scarce at the moment. For full specs including supported bands, hit the Via link. Thanks for reading.

Re: Verizon HTC Droid Incredible Froyo build leaks, official update starts tomorrow

Vlad Bobleanta — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:32:31 -0000

There's no mention of that in the leaked docs, but we'll only know for sure if there will be some kind of official announcement regarding this update.

Re: How to flash the leaked Android 2.2 Froyo builds for the Samsung i9000 Galaxy S

Vlad Bobleanta — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:47:36 -0000

Sorry to hear that. This is one for the bleeding edge very-early adopters, no doubt. Anyway there's at least a good chance that more firmware versions will at least be leaked in the future, if not officially launched before September/October. Which is good for those who just can't wait. I know I wouldn't be able to. :)

Re: Low-end Android-based Alcatel OT-980 shows up in France, launch may be imminent

Vlad Bobleanta — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:46:12 -0000

Ooops...
Sorry. Fixed.

Re: Android Market welcomes Opera Mini 5.1

Vlad Bobleanta — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:27:44 -0000

That may be. I've only seen it now.

Re: Android Market welcomes Opera Mini 5.1

Vlad Bobleanta — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:09:53 -0000

Most important new feature I've seen is that you can now make Opera default browser, without having to use the separate app called "Make It Default".
A big win for Opera fans.

Re: Nokia’s perception problem continues

Vlad Bobleanta — Sat, 15 May 2010 19:58:09 -0000

If I were running Nokia, I would have a different perspective, and I may even do exactly what you say that Nokia should do. But I'm not running Nokia, and so I can 'call it as it is'.

The N8 won't get the positive press you are expecting, mark my words. And not because it won't be a good phone, but because it isn't revolutionary in any 'big' way.

And the "western" press, aka based 99% in the US and the rest in the UK ("special relationship" and all that) will never think of anything that is not made (Sorry, designed) by a US-based company as revolutionary or groundbreaking. Call me whatever you want for saying this, but I'm willing to bet on it. (And please check the last time that ever happened in the mobile space - I honestly can't remember)

If Palm in 2009 was ZTE, Huawei, or even Nokia, no one would have cared about their desperate effort to reinvent themselves, or about what is in my opinion one of the best mobile OSs on the market even now. But Palm being Palm (HQ where?), the hype reached almost iPhone-esque levels. And for what? Mediocre hardware and, yes, interesting software.

But Symbian won't ever become interesting to those people. Because it will always build upon what it is right now. The UI may change in ^4, but I don't think anyone can afford to change it so dramatically that it will be completely unrecognizable.

Symbian is going down in price levels towards the mainstream (the mid-end) and will stay there for another decade. Ground-breaking stuff may come from MeeGo if someone just shoots the person who came up with that brand. And if Nokia decide to actually work on something for more than a year before scrapping it or turning it into something else.

The MeeGo play in the embedded space though is absolutely huge, and if it succeeds (a big if) even a little bit, will change everything around us. Because in 2-3 years "embedded" may be anything, from your vacuum cleaner to your kitchen table.

And that's that.

So, Nokia - bureaucratic? Definitely. Show me one huge corporation that isn't (Apple is a dictatorship, that doesn't count). Slow? You bet. But my opinion is that they have good ideas. And, strange as it may seem, they see where the future is headed. They're just too slow to do everything right and at the right time (m-banking comes to mind as a perfect example, also the free nav - they never would've done that if Google didn't, and that was stupid as they could've been the first ones to implement it).

I'm not in any way defending, for example, the countless reorgs. But then again, consider that most of the "top" people DO NOT work for you or me, the bloggers, the press, or even the consumers. In reality they work for the shareholders. And since (I hear) most of those may be "Western"-based, they may grow market share but the stock prices fall. Which is a discussion for another time, but suffice to say that it's a bit counter-intuitive. The fact that investment firms are also under the spell of the iStuff is really, really funny and ridiculous, btw. That the press and blogosphere are is fine with me. Well, not the press.

Which brings me back to my press point. The guy you quoted I would have fired if I was his superior. That writing is not journalism. It's opinion-blogging disguised as news reporting. Which is perfectly cool (to me) on Giz, but not in a newspaper. And the fact that they do less and less actual journalism and more of this is one of the reasons people stop caring about traditional media organizations and stop reading. Again, a bigger discussion for, perhaps, another time.

One more thing. There was an event not long ago (can't for the life of me remember the name, it may have been CTIA, I hope I'm not wrong), in the US, where the entire Nokia keynote was dedicated to explaining their strategy. The response from the Giz's of the world? Yawn.

Re: Nokia’s perception problem continues

Vlad Bobleanta — Thu, 13 May 2010 19:10:55 -0000

This is not Nokia's problem. Or rather, this is not a problem with Nokia. I'm sorry. Someone had to say it. Although I love marketing and PR, I have to contradict what seems to be an unwritten rule of both, that "you create your perception". Well, sometimes you do. Sometimes, after working hard (and spending a lot of money only on this) for many, many years, you do (Apple does).

But sometimes you don't, can't and shouldn't.

I'm generally fine with bloggers writing things they don't understand. Because hey, bloggers aren't journalists (Eric Schmidt said that, so it must be true). You know, not the elite. (Well, apart from Gizmodo, who definitely do seem to think the crap they spit out every day has something to do with journalism). So GigaOM, Engadget, Gawker and the tons of copycat blogs out there can continue to think that the world ends on the US-Mexico border, or that they can see Russia from somewhere. The internet is open for anything.

But to see such rubbish in a newspaper... and they say the media isn't dying. It's killing itself with articles such as this. With writers such as this guy. They're all too busy crying for lost revenue (which they are not *entitled* to, but that's something no one gets) to actually *make* journalism. You know, as in "a process".

Hence, I declare myself a journalist.

If this guy is, I'm twice the journalist he is.

And Ewan, I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but, again, this is not Nokia's problem to solve. It's the people who write stupid things. They are the problem. And I don't see how better communication from Nokia or Symbian^5 will ever be able to change them.

Re: Why Symbian Needs to Add Power Management Profiles

Vlad Bobleanta — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:17:16 -0000

LOL^2 (if you get the joke), my E55 (S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2) has a Power Saving mode. Press the power button and it's right there under the various profiles. I honestly have not used it once, so I have no idea what it does. But it's there.

Re: Calling all Nokia & Symbian geniuses: Am I wrong?

Vlad Bobleanta — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:10:04 -0000

What Rafe Blandford said. And what Steve Rowlands said.

I won't say I disagree with you Ewan, because I can't disagree with something as subjective as this rant. But, I would point out that I find it very interesting that you're dropping all the blame on Nokia and Symbian (and sometimes inter-changing these with no particular logic, I might add).

I do admire your "developers, developers, developers" motto and mantra (if that means anything even remotely related - I honestly don't know but love the way it sounds).

But I don't share it.

The developers you so cherish and credit for being the future (whatever that word means) are mainly a bunch of crybabies. Sorry. Ignorant crybabies.

And if they choose not to develop for Symbian, it's their *choice* and their loss. Literally: loss. As in, money lost, not whuffie points from Scoble.

Me? I always want more apps. I like apps. And the more, the better.

The real world, however, could not care less. That's a reality. And if you are going to call those mobile device users ignorant, then please, apply the same logic to developers.

What's the average price for a successful Twitter app for the iPhone? Compare that to what Jan Ole Suhr gets for his app on Symbian.

As for the fragmentation, bollocks. That app I just mentioned above, that serves as a great example (Gravity) comes as ONE sis file that you can install on THREE different generations of S60.

Sure, Nokia could do more for developers. Symbian too. And so could Apple. And they all will, because they have to constantly improve everything.

But the fact that you and I can't go and develop our own app, no matter what the platform, in 5 minutes with no actual knowledge of, well, anything, means that in order to be a developer you have to have developing skills.

Creating a fart app (or 10,000) does not qualify you as a developer in my book.

Again. More promotion from Nokia? Sure. More help for developers? Sure. But let's also have real developers, ok? I don't look forward to licking my phone.

Re: Nokia SBBL | The Mistery Is Slowly Unravelling

Vlad Bobleanta — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:52:00 -0000

More details? Well, for now, look here: http://maemo.me/mystery-sol... :)

Things may change or at least evolve, starting on Thursday.

Re: Nokia N97 Competition: What Does Mobile Computing Mean?

Vlad Bobleanta — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:58:18 -0000

I have a desktop computer at home, a 15" laptop and a 10" netbook. On a usual day, the desktop is on for at least 16 hours, and at least one of the notebooks is on for at least 8 hours. Mobile computing, to me, means that I can choose not to turn any of them on for a day (or even a week or more) while still enjoying my highly connected lifestyle. Mobile computing makes staying connected less about the location, less about the device, and more about what it is you want to do or find out. Mobile computing makes being connected 24/7 truly possible, even in the remotest of areas. Mobile computing is spontaneous and allows you to be spontaneous, and, most of all, true mobile computing is something you don't have to think about. It's something you don't have to prepare for, to plan in advance, to make compromises for. With the N97, it's just there, always with you, with one single and pocketable device. You're always just a few taps away from your friends, your social networks, the news, writing a new blog post, and so much more.

Re: Exclusive: James Whatley announces he [CONFIRMATION OR DENIAL] a co-founder of The Really Mobile Project

Vlad Bobleanta — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:09:46 -0000

Right on. I can only fully agree with Dominic on this one. James, I hope you're reading this :)

Re: Nokia will take 7 years to react to Apple iPhone (that’s 2014 folks)

Vlad Bobleanta — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:29:13 -0000

2014? Bullshit. People will be speaking of the iPhone in past tense by then. It's very clear that Nokia did not foresee the iPhone. And by that I mean it did not foresee the trend, created by the iPhone, of emphasis on usability/UX/UI/touch instead of features/sheer capabilities. That's clearly seen in when the 5800 was released. About a phone developing cycle later.
So, Nokia was slow to respond to the touchscreen trend, but eventually did. It has yet to respond to UX/UI, and it will when Symbian^4 ships (2011, not 2014).
So what?
People keep saying shit about Nokia. So what? You actually think its market share will drop, what 50% YOY? Bullshit. It won't. And even if it does, so what? I mean, if you're not a shareholder in Nokia, so what? Apple will rule the mobile world? Yeah, exactly in the same manner they rule the computer world.
Give me a break. Apple has stopped innovating in the mobile world the second it released the original iPhone. Everything they did after that was incremental stuff. Which everyone loves bashing Nokia for.
The truth is, no one is doing anything groundbreaking anymore. And in the last 3 years, only 2 devices were such: the N95 and the iPhone. The rest is PR nonsense which revolutionizes the world twice a day. The industry (I mean the device-making part) is slowing down, because there seems to be little else they can include in these products that is innovative or of any real use.
I think we'll all have to wait for the web to evolve (to HTML5). This will enable the next real groundbreaking moment in mobile. Which, imho, will not be "a" moment. It will be a process.
In the mean time, let's all talk about another Apple product that won't ever go past 10% market share no matter how you spin the definition of "market" (tablets, anyone? Guess who invented that?!)
As for the pretty, I'm getting tired. Really sick and tired of hearing this faux argument. In the real world, where the tech bloggers absolutely do NOT live, people care more about getting things done than staring at pretty UIs. And for that they have Nokias and Blackberrys (I wonder if that's the correct plural).
The rest is hype feeding on itself and defining itself by itself and in itself. (Stefan Constantinescu's post on IntoMobile about the Apple tablet is a very very nice dissection of the methods used to create hype out of thin air, EVEN if the tablet will exist at some point).

Sorry. I'd write more, but I'd be repeating myself. And sometimes I just can't type fast enough. I need a podcast. :)