The streets of Sri Lanka have beautifully been lit up during Vesak by Pandals(Thoran) and Vesak lanterns. Meanwhile Hiru FM and Hiru TV have created an online Vesak Thorana to light up the web space. The digital Thorana developed through Flash looks quite beautiful and displays the Maha Kapi Jathaka Kathawa. When accessed you get a voice intro on the Thorana, and subsequently you can click each separate sections in order to listen through the Jathaka story.
The mobile space is getting important by the day as it is becoming an essential part of peoples lives. From interacting with people to buying goods to playing games, mobile phones keep finding various areas which it adds value and thus making its usage soar. The below infographic shows the impact of the mobile landscape and also how it is used. (Infographic credits to New Relic)
Not long after successfully bidding for the LTE frequency, Dialog launched its Mobile LTE network few weeks back. This enables 4G network on supported mobiles and USB LTE modems. Lets take a look at some of the aspects of this new service
Frequency
The frequency band used is 10 MHz from the 1800 MHz band. The 1800 MHz band is currently the most used frequency band for LTE deployment around the world. The 700 MHz band would have provided better coverage, but seems free bands on it were not available.
Coverage
The Mobile LTE coverage is currently available in the Colombo 1 – 15 area. Since the frequency band used is in the 1800MHz range, the indoor penetration of the signals would be less than in the case where the 700MHz band was used. However since there wont be large number of users initially, even with marginal signals one should be able to get good speeds.
Speeds
As the frequency bandwidth is 10MHz, theoretically one would be able to reach upto 50 Mbps speeds. However 20-30 Mbps would be the practically achievable speeds. This might also vary according to the bottlenecks in the server you are accessing and also the device category.
Supported Devices
You would require a FD-LTE 1800 MHz Band 3 compatible handset or a dongle to be able to use Dialog mobile LTE. The dongle currently available through Dialog is the Huawei E398U which is priced at Rs. 16,000. That is quite a price for an USB modem. The price of these type of units directly depends on the quantity in the production line. Since the demand is still less for these devices, the number of units manufacture in batches are low and hence the high price.
Only a few mobile LTE supported mobile phones are currently available in the market, although this number would increase significantly by the end of the year. Please check below for some of the supported mobile phones available in Sri Lanka.
Samsung I9305 Galaxy S III
Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100
Sony Xperia V
Sony Xperia Z
LG Optimus G
(Note: Mobile LTE is not supported on Apple devices have not enabled the service for Sri Lanka)
Use cases
Dialog Mobile LTE would be used less for personal broadband data as the price of the dongle is high. The dongle would be more appropriate for an office use, where it is used to create a Wi-Fi Zone.
In the initial stages Mobile LTE would be used more in phones. Streaming HD video would be a main usage. With the large HD displays on the supported handsets, watching HD videos would be a treat. Browsing and email would also be a breeze with 4G , and if needed one can always generate a hotspot from the phone for a high speed WiFi.
What do you need to start using Dialog Mobile LTE?
You will need a supported device (phone or dongle) and a 4G enabled SIM which you need obtain from a Dialog outlet for Rs. 150. Also you would need a postpaid connection as it is still not available for prepaid.
Back in 2010 Nvidia released the world’s first ARM Cortex A9 dual core SoC called Tegra 2. After that, back in 2011 they announced the world’s first ARM Cortex A9 quad core called Tegra 3 which was manufactured under 40nm process. It was a huge success and still, most of the tablets and smartphones are powered by Tegra 3. This system on a chip had a 12 core GeForce GPU which can roughly produce 10 to 14 GLOPS, which wasn’t the best GPU compared to other SoCs at that time. However a few months back Nvidia announced the Tegra 4 (28nm) Cortex A15 quad core SoC which has 72 GPU cores and it can roughly produce 96 GFLOPS! If you compare that to the previous generation, this new chip has 6 to 7X improvement in GPU power and they didn’t stop there, in Antutu 3 benchmarks Tegra 4 CPU scored 36000 points while Tegra 3 scored only 12000.
You may know that Tegra 4 powered devices aren’t still out yet, but hopefully we will be able to see a device within 1 or 2 months. When it arrives it will surely be the world’s most powerful chip. However it is also quite interesting that a few days ago Nvidia CEO “Jen-Hsun Huang “showed off their upcoming Tegra 5 engineering sample which was running “Battlefield 3“. This new Tegra 5 (code named “Logan”) has a Kepler GPU inside. Gamers might be familiar with the Kepler GPUs as the powerful GTX Titan desktop VGA is powered by the Kepler architecture. Tegra 5 is a beast because it supports DirectX 11 with complicated shadows and lighting. Battlefield 3 is one of the most demanded PC games currently available, this game draws lot of GPU power. On a PC for example, if you are running this game at 720P high settings then you have to have at-least a GTX 4 series GPU to run it smooth. (Gamers would know)
As you can see from the above video, the smoothness of the graphics, the lighting, shadows and particles are truly awesome! Nvidia’s CEO explained “We want to get multiple years ahead of the competition, so the company made a strategic decision to delay other priorities in order to move Kepler Mobile forward” and while demoing the Battlefield 3 game he said “It had features such as high-dynamic-range lighting, while the latest iPad is capable of doing graphics that are “vintage 1999”. This is a bold statement because the iPad 4’s GPU is the most powerful GPU currently out there on handheld devices. However since Tegra 5 is still an engineering sample and might need at-least one year to get a stable release. Once released, it will surely be a treat and a big leap for mobile gaming. In the meantime we will have Tegra 4 to keep us entertained.
Did you know that tweeting on specific days or limiting tweets to a certain number of characters can increase user engagement significantly? If your handling a brand twitter account, you might want to check the below infographic to #maximize your tweets. (Infographic by Buddy Media)
Even a casual visitor to Hong Kong will not fail to notice the ubiquitous purple, yellow and green signs marked “Octopus” — displayed on everything from shop counters to vending machines to trains and buses. You will see locals of all ages waving similarly colored cards over readers in almost all cases where you would usually expect them to use coins. “Octopus” is a contactless smartcard — simply waving it over a reader will deduct a specified amount from your personal account, which can be reloaded with money electronically.
The scheme in itself is nothing new or fascinating. What is fascinating is that the system has been in operation since 1997 and 95% of the region’s population use it with ease for a variety of purposes, generating about HK$130 million worth of transactions every day.
It is also fascinating that the system has never been successfully hacked. While many North American and European cities use similar smartcards for their public transport systems, the Octopus card is used almost everywhere. Wherever a credit card reader is present, an Octopus card reader will most likely be present as well. You could even board buses that look as dilapidated as the private buses you get in Colombo, and find a card reader near the door. Hong Kong is a case study in how such a system may be practically implemented.
Colombo is a city that clearly has bigger needs that a contactless payment card, but let us look at the hypothetical pros and cons nonetheless.
Coins have become an expensive problem for the Sri Lankan mint — they have become more expensive to produce than the value they represent. While the government has responded by reducing the mass and composition of the coins, much greater savings can be achieved by switching to a contactless smartcard for making small payments (such as bus fares).
There are significant differences between using a contactless smartcard and a credit card. The smartcard never leaves your hand (you wave it over the reader when the cashier tells you or the machine prompts you) and it cannot be used to perform CNP (“card not present”) transactions by using a number (as in online transactions). The card has to be physically present. Readers usually display your card’s balance immediately after the deduction is made — no monthly bills or interest are involved. However, like credit cards, they can be cancelled if stolen — these cards are not transferable.
Yet another thing to consider is consumers’ tendency to overspend with credit cards — unless an SMS alert system is setup, there is no running balance indication. Since an Octopus-like system displays an immediate balance, consumers may be less likely to overspend. They will definitely not spend beyond their means because the system is based on debit.
In terms of difficulties, the biggest problem would be getting vendors to adopt the system and the initial capital cost of deploying readers at vendor premises.
Bus conductors are unlikely to look at the system kindly, given how it might put them out of a job. Getting the general population — especially in and around Colombo — to adopt the system is less likely to be a problem.
Colombo camp community is coming back in June 2013 with the first ever product engineering conference. Software services and outsourced development sector has a strong footprint in Sri Lanka compared to the software product development. However software products have the potential of breaking the barriers of sizes of economics when they are positioned strategically. Leveraging on that aspect requires in-depth working knowledge of how modern day fast moving software products are built worldwide. This event will be an excellent forum to discuss the common problems faced by the product engineering as a whole. Organizers believe that this will be a milestone in the Sri Lankan IT community in bridging the gap in the knowledge and skills.
Colombo camp community is inviting CEOs, CTOs, IT Managers, Software team leads and Tech leads to join and get the benefit of this event.
About the Organizers
Colombo camp community is an independent group of software professionals whose goal is the advancement of the Sri Lankan IT community making Sri Lanka a global hub for global IT services. They are famous for a list of camps and conferences in the last few years including Colombo code camp, Agile camp, SharePoint camp, iPhone Dev Camp and Agile Conference.
About the Event
The event will be held on the 14th of June at the Grand Ballroom, Waters Edge. Please visit www.spec.lk for more information.
Telemedicine is the term used for the process, where healthcare advises and services are provided when the patient and the doctor are far apart. Even though there are discussions and trials on this area it is not practiced in Sri Lanka until recently.
One such initiative is eDoctor, mainly an internet based medical consultation service lead by a team of Sri Lankan medical practitioners to provide initial medical advice remotely at a family doctor level.
With today’s busy life schedule, people tend to neglect their minor health issues due to time restrictions in visiting a medical consultant, which might raise pretty serious medical conditions. eDoctor is a very relevant service for such people specially to receive advises and guidance at the initial stage of any medical condition. People can contact eDoctor from their homes, offices, while at work or even while travelling. It’s just a matter of being online and sending the issue through web site www.edoctor.lk. Medical consultations can be done in many forms such as through a filled form through web site, text chat, voice and video chat depending on the registered package.
edoctor service offers following three packages for people to choose from.
Package Type
Number of Advice
Time Period [DAYS]
Amount LKR
PLATINUM
Unlimited
365
2490.00
INTRODUCTORY
10
365
1000.00
VISITOR
1
1
Free
Comprehensive information is available in edoctor website www.edoctor.lk and further updates on edoctor services are avaiable via their eMagazine, eNews-letter, blog (http://edoctorlk.blogspot.com/), Twitter feed (twitter.com/eDoctorLK) and facebook page (www.facebook.com/eDoctor.lk)
It is fascinating how the internet has progressed in the last 10 years while providing us information and entertainment in ways we couldn’t have imagined. The below infographic displays the turnaround in the internet considering many aspects. It also highlights the importance of businesses adapting to the internet in order to survive. (Infographic created by www.bestedsites.com)
It all started with Samsung launching the Samsung Galaxy S android smartphone in 2010, which had decent sales. They improved on it with the Samsung Galaxy S2 and had even more success with the Galaxy S3. Now with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4, will the Galaxy S series become the most popular smartphone series in the world? I guess we will have to wait and see. Meanwhile, take a look at the below infographic on the evolution of the Galaxy S series.
A couple of days ago in New York, Samsung unveiled its new flagship Android device, the much speculated Galaxy S4 (i9500). One year ago we saw the predecessor of this S4 the ever so successful Galaxy S3. When moving on from the Galaxy S2, the Galaxy S3 had a proprietary elegant design with poly carbonate exterior. Samsung made the change in design due to Apple’s law-suits and other comparative reasons. Due to the success in the S3 design, Samsung kept the same look in the S4 as well with some minor changes.
So lets kick off with the design and size in detail. The predecessor Galaxy S3 had a 4.8inch 720P display, with phone dimensions of 136mm, 70.6mm and 8.6mm. The new Galaxy S4 has a 5inch 1080P display, with phone dimensions of 136mm, 69.8mm and 7.9mm. So basically we have a phone similar to the S3 design, with less thickness and 0.2 inch more screen area thanks to edge to edge screen technology. The Galaxy series generally have super displays and Galaxy S4 is no exception. It has a 1080P (441ppi) display which is powered by Samsung’s Super AMOLED HD display technology and it’s protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
Power wise, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is the world’s most powerful smartphone currently available. The reason for that are its power packed internal components. This new phone is powered by a Samsung Exynos 5410 octa core processor. Yes! it has 8 cores in total, inside the Exynos 5410 exists 4+4 cores, 4 ARM Cortex A7 CPUs at 1.2GHz and 4 ARM Cortex A15 CPUs at 1.6GHz, when you are doing simple tasks like web browsing, reading, etc etc Exynos 5410 will use the low power A7 cores but if you start a heavy duty task like gaming the Exynos’s A15 cores will kick in. This technology which is called big.LITTLE makes the SoC more powerful and at the same time makes the phone more power efficient.
You might remember the original Galaxy S’s GPU the PowerVR 540 single GPU. It was the most powerful GPU at that time period but Samsung went ahead with the Mali-400 graphic solutions for their S2 and S3, The S2 had a Mali-400 dual GPU and S3 had a Mali-400 quad GPU but those are not powerful enough for the GPU hungry games. So Samsung decided to go back to PowerVR solutions again with the S4, having a PowerVR 544 triple GPU which is running at 533MHz. According to anandtech this GPU roughly can produce 51GFLOPS of GPU power, which means you can except iPhone 5 like GPU power.
Samsung Galaxy S3 had an 8mega pixel camera and it took some amazing pictures. This new Galaxy S4 has a 13mega pixel camera and it has more exciting features than the S3. The new camera interface has more scene selections like Eraser, Cinema photo, Drama shot and Sound and Shot. In Eraser mode you can erase the unwanted background area and in the Cinema photo mode you got some exciting freeze features while you record a video. Now you can enable both cameras at the same time to take a picture, so you will not be left out in the group picture. By the way both cameras support 1080P video recording.
As you know, Samsung heavily customizes the Android OS through their TouchWiz UI. This new Galaxy S4 runs the Android 4.2.2 with the latest features built-in. This new OS includes Air View, Samsung Smart Pause, Samsung WatchON, Optical Reader, Group Play, ChatON dual video call, S Translator, S Health and more. Air view lets you control the mobile phone with gestures above the screen, while smart pause will hold the video your playing if you look away from the screen. Lot of nifty features but it is unlikely that they will be used heavily in day to day activities.
Looking at the Galaxy S4, it is powerful piece of hardware with some tweaks in the software of its predecessor. However, since there is no major change in design or any new wow features, one does feel a bit disappointed with the Galaxy S4. Just when they were edging past the iPhone, they seem to have lost steam…sigh.
Galaxy S4 Full Specifications
Processor: Exynos 5410/ PowerVR 544MP3 GPU.
RAM: 2GB
Display: 5inch 1080P (1920×1080) Super AMOLED.
Internal memory: 16GB/32GB/64GB plus SD card slot up to 64GB.
Being the super app it is, Google Maps is what most people would use when they want to find directions from A to B. However if you plan to travel by bus, you would need to find out which bus route to take. This is where Colombo Bus Route steps in to help you. This android app will provide you options on which bus to take to get to your destination within the Colombo area.
Colombo Bus Route gives the user 4 options to find details on Bus Routes.
Route Number – Displays the bus route information of a particular route number
Place to Place – Displays the possible bus routes to take from start to destination
From Current Place – Display bus routes starting from your current location
Through Current Place – Display bus routes going through your current location
When viewing a particular route number, you are given the ordered main locations of the route, which you can also view on a map. When you search for the routes between to locations, you are presented with a list of bus routes or combinations of bus routes depending on query. To specify the start and destination, you can either enter the location through the keyboard on specify the location on the map. In the case where multiple buses need to be taken, the app highlights the locations where you need to get down and take the other bus. The visual representation of this on the map with the routes and main locations marked gives a clearer picture.
In the case you search for the bus routes starting or going through your current location, the app picks your current location through GPS and provides you relevant bus routes accordingly.
The app is easy to use, and provides you the required information on bus routes. However we would like to see some modifications in the next update. In the case where multiple bus routes need to be taken, the options should be sorted according to shortest distance first. Otherwise the user has to go through each to find the best method. Also when maps are loaded in the app it should be loaded in the optimum zoom level. We had to zoom in several times to see the location details.
The Colombo Bus Route is a great app which provides you all the info you need to know on Colombo bus routes. It already has 10,000 to 50,000 downloads, and with a few small tweaks this could end up being a very popular and successful app.
