Opinion: Mid-Rangers or Ex-Flagships?

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So many phones to choose, so limited my budget. Anda berbicara bahasa Indonesia? Baca artikel terjemahannya di sini.Another month, another opinion-based article. In this opportunity, I want to talk about whether you should buy ex-flagships (aka the former kings) or the new mid-rangers when you have limited budget. Honestly, it’s not easy to choose one unless you really know what you really want and what you’re going to buy. Normally, sellers will offer you newer goods, but old stuffs don’t always mean outdated and obsolete, right? I’m going to divide this article to 2 sections: Ex-Flagships and Mid-Rangers. In each side I will point out its related pros and cons. Hopefully, you will find them clear enough. So go on, head past the break to read them all! 😀 Ex-Flagships: Ex-Flagships were the kings. PROS It was the best No matter how you look at it, old Flagships were the kings… Well, at least they were. They just don’t have enough power or features to take on their successors. Bear in mind that they carried the best design, features, and performance at launch. Even if they are older than a year, chances are their powers are still on par with …

A Take on Current Smartphone Industry

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Okay, this article serves as some kind of an editorial–my own comments and take towards a specific topic. The first article I officially consider as such. While I don’t have an academic skills to prove this, I have my own reasons, and promise to be as objective as I can. To make it more credible, I’ll also try to include some supporting data. A brief history of cell phone prices throughout the decade taken from timetoast.comToo small? Click the image above to zoom in. Anyway, the year is now 2016. Cell phones are no longer expensive. Cell phones are no longer for the rich and for show off. Well, at least most of them aren’t now. Additionally, cell phones are no longer a tertiary necessity. Cell phones are now primary necessity and now I dare you to comment if you’re not using a cell phone. On second thought, don’t. You’re going to spam my mailbox if you do so. Just consider yourself a very capable survivalist, for not having even a single cell phone. Today I’m going to talk about how you, as a customer, can choose the perfect smartphone based on your criteria. During the course of the article, I …

An Ad-Ware Horror Story

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A screenshot from Microsoft’s campaign about using pirated software.This is what happened to me yesterday… technically speaking. If you’ve been in the Internet long enough (and are familiar with Internet and all threats within), you’re bound to know about ad-ware (or adware, whichever one is right doesn’t matter). If you don’t know, then I’ll gladly give you a brief explanation. Generally, computers (that have contact with the outside) have two kinds of threats: malwares (worms, viruses, trojans, etc.) and adwares. Malwares, as the name suggests––malicious wares, are programs created with the intention to break or damage your system. It can steal your precious data, delete important system files, or even access your computer when you least expect… or, just multiply itself to annoy the hell out of you. Regardless, malwares are evil, that’s for sure. But, what about adwares? Well, adwares aren’t as malicious as malwares, but they’re still annoying anyway. They’re created to ‘offer’ its potential users with ‘relevant ads’ that usually pops up within your browser or worse, they can do something worse… just like what just happened to me. Head past the break to find out more. An example of what adware can do Hey, I know …

BlackBerry: Rising Up? (And My Smartphone History)

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Well, I know that this sounds like a fanboy article, but the truth is… I’m looking for a topic to write, since I’ve become quite bored on my limited holiday. There are tons of tasks I wanted to do during the holiday, but just like most teenagers in my country, I’ve been procrastinating until the last few days of my precious holiday. I just want to share some of my stories. If you think this is a fanboy article, you’re welcome to leave. But before that, please note that I’m sick of hearing fanatics defending their favorite brands. It’s just a company, geez. If they make good products, good for you. If they don’t, then don’t waste your time defending it or aimlessly point out other products’ faults. Companies and competitions are there for our benefits. Imagine if there were just one company that produced all the smartphones in the world. There would be no innovations, would there be? Anyway, I’ve written this piece after having experienced (almost) all mobile OSes. Though I understand some technical stuffs, this article is based on my daily usage of those OSes. All kinds of illegal activities that include jailbreaking, unlocking, and rooting are …

A Thought on Convertibles

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ASUS VivoTab, One of Available ‘Convertible Laptops’ No doubt, technology is becoming more and more advanced as it is getting more and more fascinating as time goes. The end of 2012 was the beginning of ‘hybrid laptops’ era, or also known as convertibles, or anything else you want to call a laptop with detachable display. These convertibles have been around since Windows 7, but only recently, they’ve become available to more audience, and their price is getting more and more reasonable. Initially, I had nothing against it… except for the fact that most affordable ones are powered by Atom processors. But after owning one (Acer Iconia W510), I changed my mind. This low-end offering from Intel is improving. It’s certainly not a gaming powerhouse, but it handles Office applications pretty well. Of course, you wouldn’t think of playing Crysis 3 on a sub U$700 tablet, right? Moreover, their designs seem to be kind of futuristic, regardless of the materials it is made of. Okay, that’s enough opening speech; let’s get back to the title. As what I’ve mentioned in the previous paragraph, I recently bought an Acer Iconia W510 tablet. It’s a 32GB no-dock model. The dock costs around U$130, …

Power Bank or Spare Battery?

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This Has Become a Trend Lately… No doubt, we’ve already entered an era where having a smartphone is mandatory (for most parts of the world) or at least having a feature phone for communications on the go. Smartphone technology has also been evolving in the last decade, and now those little things we carry in our pocket everyday almost have processing power equal to a PC (Octa-Core is rumored). Unfortunately, the development of the technology isn’t accompanied by the development of power-saving tech. In the past, phones will need to be charged at least once in two or three days, but now, you’re lucky if you can squeeze your juice for a full day (especially for Android and BlackBerry phones in Indonesia). Such fact will mandate us to carry a portable charger (featured in the picture) or a spare battery with us, especially those whose job forces them to be mostly on the streets or places with shortage of power jack (I think University Student is one of them…) So, just like the previous post, I’ll give you some thoughts into either bringing a spare battery, or a power bank… or both, if you’re rich and can afford them all. …

Digitalizing Your Assets. Is It That Important?

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Symbolic. In this 21st Century, where technology has accelerated to its limits, or even past the limits, the humanity is offered a ‘paperless’ era; an era that is said to be eco-friendly by limiting paper usage to minimum. The synonym of this would be ‘digitalization’, where important papers and documents would be transformed into digital files that will ease the delivery and distribution of such. Sure, it cuts modern companies various delivery costs and paper purchase every year… but what about home assets that have existed decades ago… or even older? Do we need to digitalize it like other modern-day documents? I’m trying to offer you guys an insight about this, as I’m being told by my parents to digitalize such assets and store it somewhere that I still don’t know…You’re welcome to read it after the break 🙂 Alright, to make things easier, I’d like to split this post into two big parts: Aye and Nay. Aye is like the pros of going digital, while Nay is the complete opposite. Please bear in mind that although I’m trying to think as objective as possible, these are still opinions, and might contain subjectivity in my mind. I apologize should any …

What’s FUP?

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If you speak Indonesian, you ought to understand what FUP is through this fan-made message :p Okay, after the review of an Indonesian internet modem product, I think I’m going to explain something that most customers don’t know when they’re subscribing to an ISP or telco company. If you’re in Indonesia, there are lots of companies that use FUPs aside from their unlimited data plan (some are limited, but also have FUP). What’s FUP? Let’s find out after the break! 😀 If you understand what the image on top of the post says, then it’s most probably that you can guess what FUP is, never mind about what it stands for. If you don’t know what the image says, let me translate it for you: FUP for togetherness. How nice it is to share bandwidth. Hahahahaha, gotcha! 😀 Well, jokes aside… FUP actually stands for Fair Usage Policy. I’ll spare all the technical details and explanations, since I’m not technical… and here it is: FUP is actually used to limit your data use, so that people who are in the same plan as yours won’t experience a choke, since you take all their bandwidth by brutally using it for streaming, …

Extracting Audio from Video

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Today, I’m going to post something which might help you all who tends to look for mp3 files and music. Have you guys ever felt kind of pissed… or annoyed when you can find the music video but not the mp3 to listen to from your iPods? If you have, then I guess we have something in common. You see, the other day, my little sister asked me to download a classical piano song for her practice. Well, I immediately hit Google and searched for the song by bluntly typing the long title. And then, yeah… not many people actually recorded their playing, but there are lots of talented pianists who gave learners/newbies video lessons. Most of their videos were uploaded to YouTube, so that students can see which fingers are used for which tuts and see how the song is actually played, rather than focusing on songbook and a metronome alone. So, I downloaded the video straight away… and you should know what I did next. The title should speak for itself, huh? Hehehehe. You can find out after the break. And so, I did a little Google search for an instruction about how I can rip the audio …

Dropbox and Cloud Computing

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A Simple Diagram of Cloud Computing. Everything’s Connected. Okay, so I guess it’s no wonder that we’re currently living in the Digital Age, where (almost) everything is run or managed using/by computers. We got e-papers, e-mails, e-form, etc. In the midst of this beneficial technological advancement, one invention has the potential to forever change our way of handling our data, and working in a large team conveniently. That invention is called Cloud Computing. So, what’s a Cloud Computing? Find out after the break. Just like the diagram in the above image, cloud computing is actually a concept of everywhere computing. What does that mean? Well, to be put it simply, everything’s connected. For example, you have just sent your important report to your boss from your laptop. Unfortunately, when you’re in a supermarket, your boss called and wanted you to fix the error he’s just found. You don’t have your laptop with you. If you were in the old days, you’re screwed… and might leave your boss disappointed. However, not this time… when cloud computing begins to get famous. Some renowned Cloud Service Provider If you happen to have a smartphone, or a tablet (can be an iPad, a Galaxy …