LonelyBob's blog: December 2008

Web Browser on Nintendo DSi Review

One of the main reasons I got the new DSi was to see how the Web Browser compared to Browsers in other mobile devices. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed at how well the Browser on the DSi works.

The Browser is a version of Opera for the DSi that works very nicely with the touch screen. There has previously been versions of Opera available for DS and DS Lite on cartridge form, but the difference here is on the DSi it's a Free Download/install from the DS Game Store, where previously in cartridge form it cost about $20. This is what the address bar entry looks like on the DSi.

Notice the convenient entries for quickly entering 'www.', '.com', '.net', '.org', '.co', and '.jp' each can be entered easily with the touch of the stylus or finger. Also text input can be easily switched between Hiragana, Katakana, english, and other alphabet sets.

By default the Top screen displays a Zoomed out view of the webpage, and the Bottom screen displays a Zoomed in view of the webpage. This can be easily swapped on the fly by pressing the 'Up-Down' icon, and there is a nice animated transition affect when the screens swap.

There is an RSS Feed Reader built into the Browser, when an RSS Feed is selected it displays the Feed Titles from the feed in a Fullscreen list with an arrow next to them, click on the Arrow next to a Title and the Entry Body slides out from the arrow. The RSS Feeds can be saved as a Bookmark for quick access later on.

In the Browser you can search for words on the webpage you're viewing. A fairly standard feature, but important none-the-less.

The Browser doesn't have any Flash support (not even Flash Lite), but I wasn't surpised by this considering the limited resources of the DSi both in storage space (without an SD Card inserted) and RAM. But it also can't play MP3s or audio files linked on a webpage either.

All actions on the DSi are performed with Single tap, having no Double Tap action provides good consistancy and I think makes things easier for the user. So while there is no double tap action, I was surprised to find that Long Press is a recognized action, and when long pressing then sliding the Stylus or your finger across the words text on the page can be highlighted! I found this very impressive, considering no other Browser that I know of has the capability to highlight text on a mobile device; this includes the iPhone Browser, Android Browser, S60 Browser, windoze mobile Browser, Netfront Browser, and the other versions of Mobile Opera; none of them have support for hilighting text on a webpage! After I discovered that text could be highlighted, I looked for a Copy/Paste option but found none. I was thinking, what is the purpose of highlighting text if it can't be copied? Until I noticed that the Search icon lit up when text was highlighted..

After pressing the Search icon I was asked if I'd prefer to use Google or Yahoo to search with. I selected Google, making it the default Search engine, clicked Search and was immediately brought to the Google results for the search! This is an amazingly quick and easy way to search for text you see on a page, the usability of this feature is excellent!

To Summarize here's a list of the Pros and Cons about the Browser.
Pros:
- One of the most important things in a Browser is that it's Easy to navigate, and the DSi Browser accomplishes this with easy to scroll up/down/left/right and around the page you're viewing using the Touchscreen.
- Navigating in the Browser works best with the Stylus, but it can also be used with your finger.
- When Scrolling Up/Down/Left/Right both the distance the Stylus moves and the Speed that it moves is used, this makes scrolling down a long page easier because quickly touching and flicking the Stylus will cause the Browser to scroll down quicker than repetitively pressing on the screen and dragging the length of it.
- Shortcuts for quick entry of URLs (ie. 'www.', '.com', '.net', '.jp', etc.)
- Built-in Search using Google or Yahoo.
- Support for reading RSS Feeds.
- Ability to Highlight Text, then easily Search for the highlighted text with Google or Yahoo.

Cons:
- I don't think this is such a big problem, but several people that tried the Browser wanted to control the Zoom level (ie. Zoom into our Out from the page.) The Browser on DSi has no support for controlling the Zoom level, but with that said I found most of the time the Zoomed in view to be readable and the Zoomed out view easy to tell where on the page I was.
- No Flash support.
- No support for playing MP3s or other audio audio from the Browser.
- While loading a large page the performance of scrolling is affected, but it is still pretty easy to scroll around.
- It's fairly easy to cause Memory Full messages when loading a large webpage, when that happens the page stops loading and what text and images were rendered is viewable. During the time that a page is loading scrolling around the page still works pretty well. I don't know how much RAM is available on the DSi, but my guess is it's less than most S60 mobiles/iPhone/Android devices that I'm comparing the browsing experience to. Thus the Memory Full message isn't unexpected.

Overall:
The Browser on DSi provides a Comparable experience to the iPhone/iPod Touch Web Browser, eventhough the DSi has a Resistive Touch screen, and the iPhone/iPod Touch as a Capacitive touch screen. I'd say the DSi provides a fairly high benchmark for ease-of-use in a resistive touch device. While certainly having Google and Yahoo quickly accessible from within the Browser is not something new (iPhone/iPod Touch Browser, Android Browser, and Opera Mini have already had Search built-in for some time), the ability to highlight text is something that no other Browser (that I know of) on a Mobile device have support for. Based on my experiences with the Browser, it's no laptop replacement, but it is a welcome new application on the DSi and will come in handy for quickly looking up information or browsing websites when on the go.

Posted at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thai Truck for Lunch

Today is Wednesday that means Thai Truck for Lunch in Meguro. Yes, eventhough it's Christmas Eve I'm still working, that is because Christmas is not a holiday in Japan. But this will be the last Thai Truck of 2008 Japan does have off for the New Year's holiday, and for those of you that do celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas!

Thai Truck Lunch

Photos taken with the Nokia N82.

Posted at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nintendo DSi Vs Original Nintendo DS

Here's my comparison photos that I took of the new Nintendo DSi and the Original Nintendo DS and my thoughts on the Nintendo's new portable. The DSi was released in November for sale Sale in Japan, but according to press announcements from Nintendo the DSi won't be available for sale to the US and European game markets until mid-2009 or possibly even later.

The original DS was a bit bulky, and the new DSi is much slimmer and slightly less wide and long, similar in size to the DS Lite. With the decrease in size it fits much nicer and easier in your pocket.

The new DSi does not have a port slot for Gameboy Advance games, this means that if you have some of the older Advance games you'll want to stick with the original DS or DS Lite that both have Advance slots.

But if you are new to the DS and don't own any Gameboy Advance games, there is no problem with getting the DSi since all of the new games are in DS cartridge form and the games are no longer made for the Gameboy Advance.

There is now an SD Card slot on the side of the DSi, this can be used to save photos taken with either of the 2 cameras on the DSi, play music saved on the SD card, or install games to the SD Card that can be downloaded from the new DS Store built into the DSi. About the Music Player in the DSi, it only supports AAC playback and without support for the MP3 codec this really limits it's usefulness since MP3 is the most commonly used audio format on the web for Music as well as Podcasts.

The UI layout of the menu interface has been totally redesigned with many open slots where shortcuts to installed games and downloaded applications from the DS game store can be placed. The DS Store is only available on the new DSi. The DS Store uses a DS points system for game purchases very similar to the Wii Online Store, but unfortunately you can not use your Wii Points from your Wii console to purchase games in the DS Store. This seems to have been an oversight by Nintendo, that hopefully will be corrected in the future. It would be easier if there was one set of Points that can be used in either the DS Store or the Wii Store to buy games online, it doesn't make much sense to have them separate.

The volume key has been moved to the Side on the DSi, from the DS and DS Lite. The Volume has also been changed from an analog slide volume control, to a digital Up/Down Volume rocker control.

There are 2 cameras built into the DSi, one on the inside in the center and one on the outside on the Top Right corner. When the DSi was first announced there was some confusion about the resolution of the cameras, both cameras take VGA (640x480) resolution images. The quality is so-so, but the fun comes in with the Photo editing application that comes built into the DSi. There are many easy to do and fun modifications you can do to the photos you take, similar to the Photo Booth program that comes standard on Mac OSX.

The Stylus that comes with the DSi is longer and slightly thicker than the stylus that came with the original DS. This makes holding the stylus much more comfortable and natural in my experience.

Here's a comparison of the UIs from the Original DS and the DSi.

Top screen on the Original DS

Bottom screen on the Original DS

Top screen on the DSi shows a random photo you've taken with the DSi camera. Each time a game is played, an application opened, or the Screen is Closed then Opened again the Background Image changes.

Bottom screen on the DSi shows the new application layout, with many positions where downloaded games/applications can be accessed.

One of my main interests in the DSi is to see how the Web Browser performs and handles compared to other Browsers on mobile devices. The Browser is actually a version of Opera for the DSi. The DS and DS Lite have previously had versions of Opera available for sale in cartridge form. While a Browser is a very important application, in reality nobody wants to pay about $20 for a Web Browser. The Browser and Camera are 2 of the key features demonstrated on the commercials for DSi in Japan. When I first powered on the DSi, after entering the Date/time/etc. I looked around for the Browser but could not find it, I thought this was strange for it not to be pre-installed considering it's advertised on the commercials. But then I opened the DS Store and one of the first messages that popped up was about the DS Browser available for download and installation for the cost of 0. Based on this, I think Nintendo is using the Browser installation process to educate their customers that the DSi can install applications, and that games can also be purchased and downloaded from the DS Store. Without this experience, the customers might not consider or know about the DS Store or how it works. The actual download and install process was pretty easy, espcially if you've already configured a WiFi network on the DSi. I am really impressed with the Browser on DSi and I have a lot more to say about it, so I'll write a separate Blog post including Photos about the Browser on DSi.

Posted at 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

100 Things In Life

Here's my 100 Things Meme entry.
You're welcome to copy and post to your blog, remember to put in Bold the Things that you have done and any extra details you'd like to share.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii (For the First time last year, 2007)
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (Been to the one in Florida, Disney World and Tokyo, Disney Land)
8. Climbed a mountain (Mount Fuji, and another smaller Mountain that I don't remember the name of in upstate NY)
9. Held a praying mantis (I think that Praying Mantis are so cool!)

10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (Not yet but are planning to go on a cruise next year)

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person (Almost, but there was a snow storm at the time so we just stayed in the hotel in Buffulo, NY and never saw the falls)

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person (didn't get to go inside)
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class. (only one free Karate class to see what it was like)
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (I donate atleast twice per year.)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards (Seen at the Tomb of the unknown soldier in Washington DC)
77. Broken a bone (I've broken 2 bones, each time when I had a younger brother that was 2 years old, furtunately my parents aren't having any more kids so no more broken bones.)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (Does almost new count?)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Se Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a mobile phone (Yes I own afew of those..)
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Well that was fun, feel free to Copy and make your own 100 Things in Life post and remember to put in Bold what you've done.

Posted at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thai Truck for Lunch

Today is Wednesday that means Thai Truck for Lunch in Meguro!
As Patapete requested, as today's Thai Truck Lunch I had the dishes Gai pa bai kapao, Kapao Muu, and Tom sam gai.

Thai Truck Lunch

Photos taken with the Nokia N82.

Posted at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

December's 10 People to Follow on FriendFeed

With the recent Meme of listing the top 10 People you recommend to follow on FriendFeed, I decided to select 10 people who I follow on FriendFeed that have contributed the most interesting posts. Before you hop down through the list, don't forget to Subscribe to my FriendFeed.

Without further ado here are are my picks for the top 10 people worth following on FriendFeed for December:

Leo Laporte - is the Chief TWiT of the TWiT Netcast Network. Hosting several different Netcast Shows of largely Tech content every week. I list him first, since his explanation of FriendFeed on recent episodes of TWiT and Net@Night is what first motivated me to join FriendFeed.
FFundercats - Mark Wilson from Ontario, Canada, Josh Haley from Texas, USA, and John Worthington from Brisbane, Australia make up the trio of FFundercats. They produce a weekly podcast discussing the top posts on FriendFeed, interview some of the top users on FriendFeed, and generally provide a funny and entertaining show. Yes technically that is 3 people, but this trio have such good chemistry FriendFeed might as well make a Subscribe to 1-get-2 Free button! =)
David Weinberger - The name might not sound familiar to you but one of his books probably is, he is a co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, and technically he should be called Dr. David Weinberger. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and is a Professor at a school you may have heard of, Harvard University. He doesn't comment all that much on FriendFeed directly, but all of his blog posts and tweets provide lots of interesting content that is pulled into his FriendFeed account, this is what makes him worth following.
Ethan Bloch - I first came across Ethan on (the now defunct Pownce) and his excellent video show WSYK (What Should You Know), recently he has been producing videos discussing the economic downturn and stock market that he apparently follows very closely (atleast much closer than I do).
Tina (AKA Stupid Blogger) - Tina posts lots of funny and technically interesting links and photos. I first heard of hear on FFundercats Episode 3.
Rahsheen - Rahsheen is very active on FriendFeed, posting interesting links to technical and funny stuff. I first heard Rahsheen on FFundercats Episode 2.
JD Lasica - he is one of the founders of OurMedia.org the site that works with Archive.org and where audio, video, and photos can be uploaded at no cost, he is continuously active in the Social Media industry.
Morton Fox - I first came across Morton's Flickr photo account, where he posts photos of food he eats almost daily. I really enjoyed his food photos since I tend to do the same, taking way too many photos of the food I eat. It turns out he's very active on various places around the web, that I found out after finding him on FriendFeed.
Silpol - Silpol and I happen to work for the same employer (Nokia) though we've never met, he tends to work on the Maemo side of things running onthe Nokia Internet Tablets. He is very active on the web, posting on a variety of topics, including some photos that are borderline NSFW.
Soup - While Soup doesn't post as frequently as some of the other FriendFeeders on the list, the links and photos that are posted are quality, always interesting articles or funny photos/videos.