So here are the six Oppo Find 5 photos that didn’t get uploaded yesterday. There’s a bunch of annoyances on the software side which takes points off from an otherwise great device.

Oh, and the camera isn’t impressive. Red tint galore when in relatively low light and the sensor produces photos inferior to the Galaxy SIII, which makes it even far more inferior than the Lumia 920. Although I think the SIII may have had a camera software upgrade over the past year. Photos from the SIII never looked so sharp before. Btw those photos of the Find 5 were taken using iPad mini.

Unboxing Oddo… I mean Oppo Find 5 I haven’t seen a packaging this well done and this stylish in a long time. Oppo might be considered a rookie in this space but the company certainly knows how to make a first impression. Haven’t played with the phone much but it does feel pretty decent to hold. Still, I can’t get over the fact that it’s just big. I mean it is a 5” phone. Huge. Taller but thinner and feels lighter than my Lumia 920. Good placement of the power and volume buttons. Not keen on the custom icons and theme though. Will write a review in the next several days. [update] I have no idea why the other six photos failed to upload.
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Unboxing Oddo… I mean Oppo Find 5

I haven’t seen a packaging this well done and this stylish in a long time. Oppo might be considered a rookie in this space but the company certainly knows how to make a first impression. Haven’t played with the phone much but it does feel pretty decent to hold. Still, I can’t get over the fact that it’s just big. I mean it is a 5” phone. Huge. Taller but thinner and feels lighter than my Lumia 920. Good placement of the power and volume buttons. Not keen on the custom icons and theme though.

Will write a review in the next several days.

[update] I have no idea why the other six photos failed to upload.

CNN picks up one of those bash Apple stories

Steve Kovach for Business Insider:

Apple also isn’t nearly as versatile at adding new software features to its devices. Apple usually makes users wait a year or more for a new version of iOS, and even then some older devices can’t access all the latest and greatest features.

As opposed to Google which releases major updates to Android on roughly a yearly basis with more than half of the devices currently still running versions from three years ago and cannot be upgraded even to the version of Android released back in 2011.

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Source: CNN

Google and the competition

This morning I found out that Google is removing support for Exchange Active Sync. This essentially cuts off proper Gmail services to Windows Phone. As the creator of Exchange, Microsoft isn’t keen on supporting the open alternatives to Exchange services but without such support, all consumers considering Windows Phone will hear is, “Windows Phone doesn’t do Gmail” or “Gmail sucks on Windows Phone” and then they’ll go running to iPhone or Android.

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To be honest, WP8 isn’t a burning ship. It’s more of a ship under construction. I agree about BB10, though. It’s burning badly, even before construction.

In comparison, Android is a huge ship with a large but badly disorganized population. iOS is a ship that’s well polished but keeps shooting torpedoes at the ships around, screaming “YOU COPIED ME!”.

bilalakhtar commenting on The Verge

Review: Samsung Galaxy S III

Of all the phones that I’ve ever had to use, I’ve never had one anywhere near as large as the Samsung Galaxy S III. At 4.8 inches, the S III is the largest phone I’ve ever held in my hand, but it’s also the thinnest. The screen is simply enormous and it is quite a sight to behold. It is also very clear and very sharp. This new flagship phone from Samsung runs Google’s latest version of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich, and comes in two colors which it calls Marble White and Pebble Blue. It officially retails for Rp 6,999,000 (USD 740).

I hardly ever use the telephone function on these so-called smartphones. As far as I’m concerned, these are data pads, mobile devices that take advantage of the high speed cellular connections for various Internet-reliant apps and services, and for this purpose, the S III simply screams. It’s clearly up there among the best, if not the best Android phone I’ve ever used.

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Samsung lied in its latest Galaxy Note video

Samsung Mobile USA put up a video this week showing several tasks that supposedly the iPhone can’t do but can be easily done on a big ass 5-inch Galaxy note with a stylus. A STYLUS! How 1994.

Of course, when Tap Magazine found out about it, they went to work on rebutting every point in the video by doing everything it said the iPhone can’t do, on an iPhone. Including shooting and editing the video.

Samsung could show off Tizen-based phone at MWC in February

I can’t believe I forgot about Tizen, the MeeGo offshoot that Intel and Samsung had been working on since September after Nokia practically abandoned MeeGo to join the Windows phone camp. This is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about in my earlier blog post.

Looks like Tizen is far enough in its development that Samsung is said to be ready to show it at Mobile World Congress next month in Barcelona.

Given that Samsung has been delivering phones that have become hits among consumers, it’s only a matter of convincing them that these Tizen phones are as good if not better than its Android offerings.

Though Tizen right now looks like a poor copy of Android, things could change between now and launch time.

An important factor in delivering a mobile platform is the support of third party developers working on the most important apps for consumers. Right now, apps and web services are still the primary draw cards for smartphone platforms and if Samsung can convince developers to create the right apps for Tizen, consumers could be ready to pick up.

It’s never the number of apps available on a platform but which apps, games, and services are available. At the moment, social network services as well as photography apps are the major draw cards to smartphones in addition to productivity and games.

Put the right apps and payment system in a platform’s application store, and consumers will be tempted. Of course, this is if the phones and the operating system themselves are solid enough. Nokia’s N9 with MeeGo and Microsoft’s Windows Phone have the hardware and operating systems all set but neither have managed to convince developers of the most persuasive apps and web services to adopt their respective platforms.

Not having killer apps would kill a platform. All platform vendors know this and it’s something they have to deliver to ensure consumer adoption.

Why Android Tablets Failed

Jason Hiner for Tech Republic:

If we look at actually tablet usage, the numbers get really ugly for Android. Recent reports (like this one from ComScore) that track web traffic from tablets show that the iPad accounts for 95% of tablet traffic in the U.S. and 88% globally. That means that either Android tablet sales to paying customers are much lower than previously reported or the people who buy Android tablets aren’t using them very much, or a combination of the two. Whatever the details are, it’s an ugly scenario that means Android tablets have almost no traction in the market.