Nokia & Microsoft join forces, Brilliant or Utterly Stupidity?

Remember those days when everyone around you has a Nokia phone? Those were the days, now the future of Nokia is could be worse.

Last week, Nokia and Microsoft announced partnership on their mobile platform, which quickly drew mixed reactions from the mobile tech world. Some said it was a good decision, but most said it is stupid. Even some said that Microsoft had sent a trojan horse, current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (former Microsoft director) to sabotage and buy Nokia.

Although Nokia is still the best seller of 2010, it is quickly caught up by Apple's iPhone and Google's Android phones, so all Nokia did was pact up with Microsoft, using Windows Phone 7 and dump their popular Symbian completely.

For me, it is Goodbye for Nokia right now. Here's why:

• Windows Phone 7 is a limited and flawed platform

Windows Phone 7, which is technically a big step forward from Microsoft's previous effort, the Windows Mobile. But the OS is still severed by "several" drawbacks (or limitation):

No system-wide file manager

No Bluetooth file transfers

No USB mass storage mode

Limited third-party apps availability

No Flash (nor Silverlight) support in the browser

Too dependent on Zune software for file management and syncing

No video calls

New ringtones available only through the Marketplace

Music player lacks equalizer presets

No multitasking

No copy/paste

No DivX/XviD video support (automatic transcoding provided by Zune software)

No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far

No internet tethering support

No handwriting recognition support

This has put Nokia is a very bad situation, WP7 is untested and severely limited platform.

• Symbian is great but only flawed

Symbian is a very good OS, used by Nokia since the early 2000s, it is still one of the most popular and friendly OS in the market. But Symbian hasn't aged quite well, the Symbian on Nokia touchscreen phones are horrid. It is outdated that makes Symbian less competitive to Android and iOS, not poor platform at all. If Nokia put in more effort redevelop the Symbian, it could be a powerhouse yet again in the smartphone market.

What do they do now? Shove Symbian completely and adopt WP7 as their primary platform. This makes Nokia no longer the vertically integrated supplier, building hardware, software, and online services, to just another handset builder, like HTC, Samsung or others.

• Nokia phones still have the "unappealing to the public" design

Nokia phones generally have the same looks over the years, square-ish, blocky, sometimes even ugly. Some are striking, yes, but most of them are just really meh or yucks! For example, my Nokia 5730 Xpressmusic, the one with slide out QWERTY keyboard, is very unique when putting between my friends' phones, but oh my gawd!! Boy, it's ugly!!! It looks like a big black brick! If Nokia needs to change, change the looks too!!!

• Lack of marketing hurts!

Nokia still think they are back in the 90s or early 2000s, back when they were a dominant company, with little marketing, the company can be successful. Forward to the world of today, the market has changed, now we have Apple, HTC, Samsung, LG, Acer, Motorola (they are back), Sony Ericsson and more. The landscape has changed, consumer nowadays have even more choices than before. With Apple and Google quickly becoming the "it" in the mobile market, Nokia must ramp up their marketing...


Life is tough ahead for Nokia, with the market share and stock tumbling. Nokia is no longer the best of the bunch, more should be done rather than switching to Windows Phone 7 and losing identity in the process...

The Mini Darth Vader

Long time didn't blog... Because I'm running out of creativity to write my blog (Damn you, Facebook)...

But found out this funny advert on YouTube, and I love it...

Review: Tron Legacy

A sequel 30 years in the making, and almost no one, I mean no one (including me) in my generation have ever watched the original film. So, can the movie makes people with no clue about the 1980s film watch it? Yes, it did.

Let's start with the effects and presentation, which is the high point of the movie. The visual effects are beautiful and stunning. The Grid looks edgy and high tech look, the fight and the light cycle battle is exciting and looks very cool. One of the main highlights of Tron: Legacy is Clu, I mean of my god, his face is almost flawless. Oh, I forgot to mention that Clu is the exact face of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) 30 years ago, I will post a video soon about it. Although not all the sequences are in 3D, but most of the time 3D is available in The Grid, at least the movie makers are truthful with the 3D in the beginning. And the movie's Walt Disney's logo is one of the coolest and prettiest I've seen yet.

The story is decent, but is not going to win any awards either, the story has been here done that. The story will not make those who didn't watch the original movie blurred because in the movie they got explanation and prologue of Kevin Flynn tells the Tron world to his son, Sam.

In many ways, the movie does bring out my inner geekiness in me. I'm a tech enthusiasts and an avid video gamer. I do often think about what if we are able to enter the computer or the game itself, what can I do with it or in it. This movie captured my imagination.

Overall, Tron: Legacy is fantastic and is one of the popcorn flick you don't wanna miss.

Verdict: 4.5/5