Absolutely Sickening...

Just in case anyone doesn't understand why it's important to be nice to customer support reps, even when we're frustrated and ticked off at the company, this should help us understand:

http://www.woio.com/story/15681533/time-warner-workers-death-sparks-a-carl-monday-investigation

Seriously. I don't think I can add anymore to that. Just my deepest prayers and condolences for the family and those involved.

Okay, they were going somewhere....

Okay, good, Nokia brought out their new Lumia 800. Their new Windows Phone device. And the design is absolutely beautiful. I can't deny that. Stephen Elop is being totally stuck up. He claims that it's "the first real Windows Phone" - I bet Microsoft's other partners aren't too happy hearing that. The person introducing it - Kevin Shields screamed "IT LOOKS AWESOME" - and judging by the video, yes it does. But it's plastic. They call it polycarbonate, and they're pointing out that provides excellent antenna performance. Seriously. A plastic premium smartphone that they're saying uses plastic. "It's a Nokia, it's gonna have a great camera." Yikes.

I will admit it's interesting. It does look good, and it's completely different from anything else on the market. But is that going to be enough? It's hard to tell from a video, without the device in my hand. But going on specs, I'd much rather have an iPhone 4S. Apple's using glass and metal, with a state-of-the-art camera and AI voice assistance. Nokia's providing Windows Phone in a unique (and seemingly really small and well designed) package. Hmm... the guy just referred to "what you don't see is a lame grid of application icons." When your major keynote introduction refers to the competing products as "lame"...

UPDATE - they also introduced a lower-end Lumia 710. And they do have some really cool features. Like free offline navigation. I still don't think it'll be enough to save Nokia, but they are nice products. For anyone who loves to complain about American mobile networks, Vodafone UK failed for Nokia (they were unable to call between phones on stage); and their Wi-Fi network at the announcement also apparently had issues.

UPDATE 2 - Nokia is not bringing these devices to the United States it would appear, instead they have promised a "portfolio" of devices for the US in early 2012. They also hinted that at least one of the carriers would be Verizon by stating that in addition to W-CDMA/HSPA they planned to bring CDMA and LTE devices for "specific local market requirements" - without getting into detail. Obviously, that combination is pretty much unique to Verizon Wireless worldwide. I'd be a little surprised if AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint don't also see some of Nokia's new goodies, but they're definitely strongly hinting that Verizon will see something from them early next year at the least.

Nokia's Focus on Emerging Markets

Today, Nokia's talking about bringing smartphones to the "next billion" at their Nokia World conference. Calling them "young and aspirational" and living in "high-growth economies" with a median age "below 25." In other words, to put it bluntly, it appears as if Nokia's giving up in the developed world. Apple and Google have completely destroyed Nokia. By being excited about developing markets (a good thing, do not get me wrong), Nokia has given me the appearance that they're done here. "It's gotta be about affordable, it's gotta be about irresistible, it's gotta be about easy to use, it's gotta be about inviting, it's gotta be just great." They marketing to people who don't have "a hell of a lot of disposable income." She gets the Asha 300 touch/type phone.

They're showing off people in developing countries and telling their stories to show how Nokia's new phones fit these users. And the boy in Nairobi supposedly is "fantasizing" about a dual-SIM phone so he can have two phone identities. Thus the Asha 200 phone. This lady is seriously a little over-enthusiastic about phones, more than Steve Jobs got. And Steve Jobs was introducing products that "change everything." These are low-end Series 40 Nokia phones (NOT the new Windows Phone devices). And the big draw is that Nokia's bringing Angry Birds to Series 40. Seriously.

We shall see what comes later in the presentation, but so far, I'm thinking this is death to Nokia...

PenTile and the Galaxy Nexus

I've heard a lot of whining about the PenTile matrix (RGBG) pixel layout being used on the Galaxy Nexus. The image above is my Galaxy S (poor color uniformity is a result of the iPhone camera used to take this photo, NOT the display). It's sharp, really sharp. But it's got a weird characteristic to that the iPhone couldn't quite focus well enough to capture. There's a red "fuzz" around letters. That's the result of the PenTile 2 subpixel-per-pixel structure. But, I don't think it's a problem in the Galaxy Nexus. It may even be a good thing. How? Well, first we need some background...

PenTile is controversial, and the fuzziness caused by the PenTile layout annoys me. It makes text less crisp, plain and simple. For photos and videos, it looks beautiful. The human eye is more sensitive to green light than to red or blue. The science, there, is solid. For blue, which is the point, PenTile is just fine. But you can see the structure of the red subpixels on the Galaxy S. The human eye is sensitive enough to red. That results in a weird red fuzziness around text.

Some people see this, some never notice it. That's on an 800x480 display. With the 1280x720 pixel display, even the red subpixels are now close enough together than even fewer people will notice the reduced number of red subpixels (the blue doesn't matter so much).

PenTile has a purpose, and a benefit. Like all emissive displays, OLED displays are subject to burn-in - uneven wear. Green OLEDs have the longest life, Blue the shortest. On my Galaxy S, the blue channel has the status bar very noticeably burnt in. The red channel also has noticeable burn in. The green channel does not.

The PenTile layout keeps this from being even worse than it already is. The most important color visually (to the human eye for sharpness) also lasts the longest? Bigger OLEDs last longer. So if you make the red and blue ones substantially physically bigger and pair only red OR blue with each green, you have a display that's going to exhibit less burn-in, and less shift towards green over it's service life.

Combined with advances in OLED lifespan, PenTile helps make OLED displays last longer and is keeping them more competitive. I agree, it was an issue when it came to sharpness of text. However, I have not seen one of the new 1280x720 displays, and I'm sure you haven't either. The pixel density of the whole thing is so high that I expect it to look VERY good, and I do not expect the problem of visible red subpixels to exist.

We'll see, but wait until you have it in your hands to judge. There are some very good engineering reasons to use the PenTile subpixel layout, and as pixel density goes up the disadvantages become less and the advantages greater.

P.S. I'd like to make one additional note, there's a site online claiming that the PenTile subpixel layout results in worse color rendition. Actually, NO, part of the point is to IMPROVE color rendition by reducing uneven wear between channels over the life of the display. No part of this scheme worsens color rendition. The PenTile layout that worsens color rendition is their RGBW (Red, Green, Blue, White) LCD layout. That is a completely separate system that reduces the color gamut to gain brightness (a similar system has been used in single-chip DLP projectors for years)

Happy Spirit Day!

Okay, so I'm a few hours late on this one, but I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Spirit Day, October 20th. What is Spirit Day you ask? It's some gay pride thing, right? Well, yes - and no. Spirit Day was started by a teenager, Brittany McMillan, in remembrance of LGBT youth who took their own lives. No matter what you believe, where you stand on political issues, religious issues, etc, I hope that we can all agree that suicide is a horrible tragedy. Everyone's life is valuable, and I just want to take a moment to tell the families, friends, and loved ones of those youth - you are loved, there is hope, life is valuable and precious. I stand with you, and I support you as you go through such a difficult loss. Let's set aside the politics for a bit, and focus on the most important thing of all - love. Showing every person how valuable and important they are, no matter what.

P.S. I hadn't mentioned it yet, but for October, I'm sure you've also noticed my black and white theme is wearing pink date headers. This is in support of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month - my best friend's mom had a horrible struggle with breast cancer. She's one of the lucky ones who made it - but it is an unbelievable struggle. Please join me in praying for a cure for all cancers!