inFamous Diangkat ke Layar Lebar

Saat sekarang ini, apabila sebuah game meraup sukses dan popularitas yang besar, maka kemungkinan yang tidak kecil juga akan muncul untuk versi layar lebarnya. Hal ini telah berlaku untuk Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, belum lama ini Dead Space, dan kini juga dengan inFamous.

Menurut sumber dari berita terbaru ini, Sony Pictures kini tengah membuat persetujuan untuk hak atas adaptasi game eksklusif PlayStation 3 ini ke layar lebar. Sebagai produser untuk film ini adalah Avi dan Ari Arad dengan Sheldon Turner sebagai screenwriter-nya. Sebagaimana Sheldon yang telah mencoba game-nya, komentarnya antara lain tidak bukan merupakan komentar yang membesarkan hati para penggemar game yang dikembangkan oleh Sucker Punch tersebut.

“Apa yang membuat saya sangat tertarik terhadap game ini merupakan gagasan besar yang muncul untuk ide dan pengembangan karakternya. Saya yakin bahwa ini merupakan masa depan dari gaming,” menurut pernyataan dari Sheldon.

inFamous mengisahkan tentang Cole McGrath, seorang pria yang berhasil selamat dari ledakan. Tidak hanya berhasil selamat, ia bahkan mendapati dirinya telah memiliki kekuatan super untuk memanipulasi listrik. Tujuan gamers di game ini adalah untuk menentukan kegunaan dari kekuatan super tersebut apakah untuk kebaikan atau kejahatan.

Proses produksi dari versi layar lebar inFamous ini diperkirakan akan segera dimulai pada tahun 2010 mendatang.

VGI

Cracked Windows 7 RTM Ultimate Activated with OEM SLP Master Product Key

In less than a week since Windows 7 was released to manufacturing, the first crack for the Ultimate edition of the latest iteration of the Windows client is already available in the wild. The Windows 7 Build 6.1.7600.16385 Ultimate crack is capable of activating the high-end SKU of the operating system indefinitely. The product key comes from the only source possible, an OEM, as original equipment manufacturers are the first and for the time being the last group to receive the gold bits of the operating system from Microsoft. Together with the RTM development milestone of Windows 7, the Redmond company has also supplied OEM partners with activation product keys, one of which was extracted from a leaked OEM image of the platform.

Reports from various forums and websites (which I will not link to because they offer the proof-of-concept of the Windows 7 RTM Ultimate crack, along with the activation product key, which is illegal) indicate that the cracked client can bypass Windows genuine Advantage validation with no problems whatsoever. A Windows 7 Ultimate OEM DVD ISO from Lenovo has reportedly made the hack possible. Leaked on a Chinese forum, complete with the download links, the ISO allowed for hackers to grab the OEM-SLP (System-Locked Preinstallation) product key as well as the OEM certificate for Windows 7 RTM Ultimate via boot.wim.

The bypass designed for Windows 7 RTM involves abusing OEM activation 2.1, and in this regard the circumventing process is nothing more than an OEM hack. Via OEM activation 2.1, namely SLP 2.1, Microsoft allows OEMs to pre-activate Windows 7 for distribution preinstalled on new computers. In this context, the activation bypass process leading to the hacked Windows 7 RTM needs to be based on a BIOS (SLIC) hack first of all.

The procedure is by no means new. Hackers have managed to crack Windows Vista much in the same manner. In fact, the Windows 7 RTM Ultimate activation crack also relies on an OEM certificate from Windows Vista in order to function. At the time of this article hackers have made available in the wild SLIC 2.1 BIN harvested from computers on the market, as well as the genuine OEM certificate digitally signed by Microsoft, which automatically brings to the table the Private Key and the OEM Public Key as well as the OEMID (from SLIC in BIOS). Together with the leaked OEM SLP master product key Windows 7 can be hacked and the activation process bypassed. The result is a cracked copy of Windows 7 RTM Ultimate permanently activated.

It also seems that the crack is not limited to Lenovo machines. The activation process can also be circumvented on HP, Dell, and MSI computers according to reports. Because of the OEM product key, the crack is limited to the Ultimate edition of Windows 7 (useless for all other SKUs, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional), but can be used on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the operating system.

softpedia

BlackBerry Termurah, Curve 8520, Akhirnya Dirilis

Setelah dinanti-nanti, Research In Motion (RIM) akhirnya merilis tipe baru BlackBerry yang diusung sebagai handset termurah dibandingkan tipe-tipe sebelumnya, Senin (27/7) waktu setempat. BlackBerry tipe Curve 8520 ini sebelumnya banyak disebut dengan nama Gemini.

Konsumen pertama yang akan menikmati produk baru ini adalah di AS dan Inggris mulai awal Agustus 2009 nanti. Di AS, RIM menggandeng T-Mobile yang akan menawarkan harga tiap unit 129.99 dollar AS dengan kontrak langganan dua tahun mulai 5 Agustus. Untuk Inggris, belum ditentukan harganya dan RIM belum mengumumkan mitra operatornya.

Banyak hal baru yang hadir di handset ini yang sempat beredar menjadi rumor akhirnya menjadi kenyataan. Misalnya, Curve 8520 merupakan produk pertama BlackBerry yang menggunakan trackpad optik sebagai alat navigasi untuk menggantikan trackball.

Selain itu, Curve 8520 menjadi produk pertama BlackBerry yang dilengkapi media keys di bagian atasnya sehingga akses musik dan video, seperti play, repeat, dan mute dapat dilakukan lebih mudah. Juga ada BlackBerry Media Sync yang memudahkan sinkronisasi dengan iTunes atau Windows Media Player. Selain itu juga ada aplikasi BlackBerry App World yang merupakan bursa aplikasi untuk BlackBerry.

Sekilas penampilannya tak jauh berbeda dengan pendahulunya, BlackBerry Curve 8900 (Javelin) dengan keyboard QWERTY. Namun, ada sedikit pengurangan pada Curve 8520 seperti kamera hanya 2 megapiksel, sedangkan pada Javelin 3,2 megapiksel.

Layarnya 2,64 inci TFT LCD 320X240 piksel. Ketebalannya hanya ,39 centimeter, panjang 10,9 cm dan lebar 6 cm. Beratnya 106 gram. Beberapa fiturnya juga setara belum mendukung 3G, baru GSM/GPRS/EDGE. WiFi dan Bluetooth tak ketinggalan. Curve 8520 menggunakan prosesor 52 MHz, memori internal 256 MB, dan mendukung slot memori eksternal microSD/SDHC dari 16 GB yang kini tersedia hingga generasi berikutnya 32 GB.

RIM menjanjikan bahwa produk ini mendukung sinkronisasi di komputer Apple Macintosh. Pengguna dapat melakukan sinkronisasi informasi kontak, kalender, dan note dengan BlackBerry Desktop manager yang berjalan di Mac. Namun, aplikasi ini baru akan tersedia mulai September.

Curve 8520 tersedia dalam dua warna, hitam dan putih kebiruan.

kompas

Windows 7 RTM Original ISO Leaked and Available for Download

The official Build 7600.16385 ends up in the wild


Just days after Windows 7 was released to manufacturing and Microsoft started handing out the gold bits of the operating system to original equipment manufacturers, the original ISO images of Build 7600.16385 were leaked in the wild and are now available for download. Too-eager-testers had had the chance to grab the gold release of Windows 7 RTM Build 7600.16385 even before the platform was RTM'd on July 22nd, 2009. Fact is that Microsoft compiled the gold build of Windows 7 as early as July 13th 2009, and only made the official announcement on July 22nd.

The full build string of the gold release of Windows 7 is 7600.16385.090713-1255. The following numbers: 090713 indicate that the code was wrapped up on July 13th, 2009. On July 13th Microsoft both confirmed and denied that Windows 7 had been released to manufacturing. At that time the company noted that it hadn't signed off the successor of Windows Vista.

At the end of the past week, both the 32-bit and the 64-bit of 7600.16385.090713-1255 were leaked and started being served by various third-party sources, from torrent trackers to warez websites, a move that is obviously illegal. You can take a look at what the RTM development milestone of Windows 7 has to offer via this article. One critical aspect that needs to be underlined is that Windows 7 RTM 7600.16385.090713-1255 can no longer be activated with the Beta or Release Candidate product keys from Microsoft.

In addition, there is no way to actually activate the operating system without an OEM, MSDN, TechNet, ISV, IHV or Volume License key as of yet. Users who decide to jump the gun and start using Windows 7 RTM will only be able to prolong the trial period for 120 days, and buy a legitimate license starting with October 22nd. Otherwise, the option to stick with Windows 7 RC is best. Build 7100 of Windows 7 can be used until March 2010 for free with no hassles attached.

Kingston DT300: Flash Disk 256GB Pertama di Dunia

Setelah berhasil menjadi manufaktur pertama yang merilis flash disk 128GB pertama di dunia pada bulan Juni lalu , Kingston kembali mencetak sejarah dengan merilis flash disk 256GB pertama di dunia, DataTraveler (DT) 300. Kapasitas 256GB dapat menampung lebih dari 51.000 gambar (JPEG hasil capture kamera digital dengan resolusi 10MP) dan puluhan ribu music files (ukuran rata-rata 5MB).

Kingston DT300 diklaim memiliki kecepatan read 20MB/s dan write 10MB/s. Kingston juga melengkapi DT300 dengan feature Password Traveler dimana Anda dapat melindungi data Anda dengan proteksi password tanpa membutuhkan hak akses administrator. Selain itu, DT300 juga tetap menggunakan desain cap-less yang melindungi konektor USB ketika tidak digunakan, dan Windows ReadyBoost yang memungkinkan penggunaan flash disk ini sebagai disk cache pada sistem operasi Windows Vista dan Windows 7.

CHIP

Disney Jualan Film via Kartu microSD

Sebuah perjanjian baru saja ditandatangani oleh Panasonic dan Walt Disney Home Entertainment. Keduanya akan bekerjasama dalam mendistribusikan film-film Disney di kartu microSD mulai bulan November.

Film pertama yang akan dirilis di kartu microSD ini adalah trilogi Pirates of the Carribean. Judul-judul lain akan dirilis bersamaan dengan jadwal yang ada di DVD. Film-film tersebut bisa ditonton pada sistem navigasi mobil dan ponsel. Sekadar informasi, Panasonic sudah memiliki TV panel datar dan kamera video yang punya built-in SD card reader.

Sayangnya kita di tanah air belum dapat menikmati kartu microSD ini. Sebab peredaran kartu berisi film itu sementara waktu terbatas di Jepang. Selain itu, harga kartu itu cukup mahal, US$ 53. Maklum di dalamnya juga terkemas teknologi anti-copy.

kompas

September 2009, Megaxus Luncurkan Game WarRock

JAKARTA - Perusahaan online entertainment multimedia Indonesia, Megaxus Infotech berencana merilis game online WarRock dua bulan mendatang.

"Mudah-mudahan dalam waktu dekat WarRock bisa segera memasuki masa close beta," kata Managing Director PT Megaxus Infotech di sela acara Megaxus Game Festival, di Kelapa Gading, Kamis (23/7/2009).

WarRock merupakan game FPS (First Person Shooting) Online. WarRock dikembangkan Game Execution dan diklaim memiliki tingkat detail dan kompleksitas dibandingkan game-game serupa seperti CounterStrike dan Point Blan.

WarRock menawarkan fitur yang memungkinkan pemain dapat menggunakan beragam kendaraan militer seperti helikopter, tank hingga anti-aircraft.

"Yang jelas kami belum bisa memberikan kepastian tanggalnya," kata Eva.

Pada kesempatan yang sama Megaxus menyelenggarakan pesta game online yang hampir diikuti sekira 300 peserta. Megaxus Game Festival diselenggarakan sejak 21-26 Juli 2009 di Ruko Italian Walk Blok C No.1, Kelapa Gading.

Rangkaian acara Megaxus antara lain menampilkan kompetisi Final Audition AyoDance Music Choice dan Lineage II costumplay. Megaxus Game Festival kali ini merupakan ketiga kalinya, yang diadakan sejak tahun 2007.

Menurut Eva, festival game sangat dibutuhkan untuk mengembangkan pertumbuhan game di Indonesia.

"Kami menggandeng banyak game center di Indonesia kali ini," kata Eva.

Jumlah pengguna game di Indonesia, lanjut Eva diperkirakan akan semakin meningkat dan hampir mencapai 10 juta gamers.

"Pengguna internet di Indonesia saat ini mencapai 25 juta tapi gamers paling hanya 10 jutaan," katanya.

okezone

Microsoft: Windows 7 Siap Diproduksi

Setelah melalui beberapa kali proses pengujian, Microsoft akhirnya menyatakan bahwa Windows 7 siap diproduksi. Saat ini proses pengembangan sistem operasi terbaru itu telah mencapai tahap release to manufacturing (RTM) yang siap dikomersialkan.

"Kode RTM akan kami kirimkan kepada mitra kami, dalam beberapa minggu ke depan, yang sedang menyiapkan produk-produk baru dengan Windows 7 pada 22 Oktober," demikian pernyataan resmi yang dirilis tim Windows dalam blognya.

Meskipun demikian, akan ada pelanggan yang lebih dulu merasakan Windows 7 ini. Pelanggan MSDN dan TechNet sudah dapat mengunduh mulai 6 Agustus dan pelanggan volume licensing (VL) sudah bisa mengunduh dan mulai meng-install sejak 7 Agustus.

Secara umum, Windows 7 memang baru akan hadir di komputer-komputer baru keluaran vendor yang melakukan kerja sama original equipment manufacturer (OEM) mulai 22 Oktober 2009. Mulai tanggal yang sama, perangkat lunak tersebut juga akan tersedia untuk dijual terpisah untuk di-install pada komputer-komputer lama.

kompas

Fujifilm Mulai Era Fotografi Digital 3D

TOKYO - Sebuah kamera kini dapat menghasilkan gambar dan video tiga dimensi. Harganya yang mahal, sudah pasti akan menyasar segmen high-end.

Tanpa membutuhkan kacamata khusus, penikmat foto kini dapat melihat gambar dan video berformat 3D. Kamera jenis ini telah diproduksi oleh vendor kamera asal Jepang, Fujifilm, dengan harga sekira 570 euro. Sayangnya, kamera seperti ini baru akan menyambangi Inggris pada September nanti.

Kamera 3D dengan nama seri FinePix REAL 3D W1 ini berdesain mirip dengan sebuah kamera digital poket biasa. Namun dia dilengkapi dengan dua buah lensa dan dua buah sensor. Kedua sensor dan lensa tersebut nantinya, masing-masing akan berfungsi sebagai penangkap gambar latar depan dan latar belakang sebuah objek.

"Setelah kedua lensa dan sensor itu bekerja, prosesor dalam kamera akan menyatukan kedua imej untuk menyajikan gambar dan video berformat 3D," ujar Manager Produk Digital Fujifilm Theo Georghiades, seperti dikutip melalui Telegraph, Kamis (23/7/2009).

Semua orang bisa melihat hasil tangkapan gambar dengan berbagai cara. Baik melalui layar berukuran 2.8 inci yang terintegrasi atau melalui sebuah bingkai digital berukuran 8 inci.

Fujifilm diklaim sebagai perusahaan kamera pertama yang berhasil menggelontorkan kamera 3D digital sejak era digital mulai masuk ke dunia fotografi.

okezone

6 September, Hari Kelahiran Intel Core i5?

Intel dirumorkan akan mengeluarkan prosesor Core i5 yang diberi nama Lynfiled pada 6 September mendatang. Sebenarnya Core i5 adalah sama dengan saudara tuanya yakni Core i7, namun diusung dengan sedikit perubahan.

Perubahan tersebut ada pada third memory channel yang telah dihilangkan, dan penggantian Direct Media Interface oleh QuickPath Interconnect. Intel Core i5 ini memiliki kecepatan 2.66GHz dengan 8 MB L3 cache, yang dapat di-overclock hingga 3.2GHz.

Adik dari Core i7 ini menggunakan Socket LGA 1156 dan memiliki dual channel memory controller DDR3 1333 MHz secara terintegerasi. Chip ini nantinya akan ditawarkan dengan kisaran harga sekitar US$196.

Lebih jauh lagi, Intel juga dirumorkan akan merilis dua jenis prosesor quad-core. Seperti dikutip detikINET dari techtree, Kamis (23/7/2009), dua jenis prosesor tersebut adalah 2.8GHz Core i7 860 dan 2.93GHz Intel Core i7 870. Keduanya menggunakan soket LGA 1156. Intel mengklaim bahwa saat di-overclock keduanya mampu mencapai kecepatan 3.6 GHz.

Hingga kini belum ada kabar lebih lanjut dari pihak Intel, mengenai kepastian dirilisnya Core i5 tersebut.

detik

Sam Raimi Confirmed to Direct World of Warcraft Movie

Not a single day without a Hollywood-related piece of news it seems, as the rumor mill started spinning yesterday about who would direct the upcoming World of Warcraft-inspired movie, and now official confirmation has arrived from both Legendary Pictures and Blizzard that reputed director Sam Raimi will be at the helm of Warcraft.

For those of you who aren't familiar with his work, Raimi is responsible for the more recent Drag Me to Hell horror flick and can also boast having directed the Spider-Man movie franchise, proving that he can handle, at least sometimes, the pressure from fans and will deliver a great mainstream approach to cult figures and characters.

While Legendary Pictures and Blizzard will be the two main companies behind the Warcraft project, Warner Bros. will also pitch in to co-finance and distribute it around the world. Besides Raimi, former associate producer of The Dark Knight, Charles Roven, will also work on this new movie.

Raimi will supervise the early stages of development for Warcraft and will commence shooting after work on the future Spider-Man 4 movie will end, supposedly next year. “At its core, 'Warcraft' is a fantastic, action-packed story,” Raimi revealed in a statement made after the official announcement.

“Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures have a shared vision for this film and we searched at length to find the very best director to bring that vision to life,” said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “From our first conversation with Sam, we could tell he was the perfect choice. Sam knows how to simultaneously satisfy the enthusiasts and the mainstream audience that might be experiencing that content for the first time. We're looking forward to working with him to achieve that here.”

No word yet on which of the many conflicts in the Warcraft universe will be tackled but it’s safe to say that both the Alliance and the Horde factions will be in for some truly epic battles. Hopefully the project will get funded properly and Raimi will take care of it and manage to deliver an experience that is great for both hardcore fans of the series, who have played every game, and for people who aren't really into gaming or the Warcraft universe.

Do you believe that Raimi's addition to the team of this project will make a considerable difference and might make you go and see it or will the Warcraft movie disappear from your must-see list? Leave us a comment with your thoughts.

softpedia

Dell Adamo, Tipis dan Bersih

Saat pertama kali melihatnya, kami terkesima. Kok tipis amat sih? Ya ketipisan fisik memang merupakan daya tarik utama Dell Adamo. Kendati cuma setebal 1,6cm, badannya tidak terasa ringkih. Maklumlah seluruh badan notebook dibuat dari lempengan alumunium utuh. Karena itu ‘kepipihan’ notebook saat dipegang maupun dimasukkan ke dalam tas beda. Mantapnya merata.


Faktor lain yang menyebabkan badan Adamo tipis adalah penggunaan SSD (solid state disk), bukan harddisk, sebagai storage. Dell mengemaskan SSD 128MB di sini. Namun SSD ini juga berperan besar dalam mendongkrak harga notebook.


Enaknya, bukan hanya badan notebook yang dibuat tipis oleh Dell. Unit adaptor dayanya pun demikian. Adaptor Adamo ini tipis, setipis unit notebook-nya sendiri, sehingga nyaman dibawa-bawa.

Sayang walaupun tipis dan kuat (tahan gores), bahan alumunium pada Adamo memberikan konsekuensi berat. Ya, bobotnya memang belum mencapai 2kg, tepatnya 1,814kg. Namun itu jika kita tidak menghitung adaptor dan kabel daya yang akan memberi tambahan bobot 0,268kg. Karena itu memanggul tas berisi Dell Adamo lengkap dengan adaptor dan kabel dayanya dalam waktu agak lama terasa cukup membebani pundak.

Atraktif
Jika kita pandang casing luarnya, Dell Adamo sungguh atraktif, lain dari yang mayoritas notebook yang beredar selama ini. Cover unit uji kami yang tanpa sudut lancip ini berwarna hitam – Dell menyebutnya Onyx.

Cover ini dibagi dua bagian. Sebagian atas terbuat dari kaca keras hitam mengilap yang bisa dipakai berkaca. Sayang mengilapnya casing atas ini juga membuat kita harus sering mengelapnya – karena sidik jari siapa pun yang memegang notebook ini akan tercap di sana.

Setengah bagian cover – bagian bawah – yang juga berwarna hitam. Namun yang ini bahannya adalah metal brushed alumunium dengan serat-serat horisontal yang mengesankan kekokohan. Berbeda dengan bagian atas yang aktif mengumpulkan cap sidik jari, bagian bawah ini justru anti sidik jari.

Antara dua bagian ini ditingkahi oleh ‘jalur’ selebar sekitar 1,3cm yang hitam doff. Di sisi kiri tampil tulisan adamo dalam huruf kecil. Di sisi lawannya, kanan, logo Dell hadir. Kedua tulisan ini tidak ditempel, tetapi digravir langsung di cover.

Penampilan Adamo bertambah unik dengan menonjol keluarnya bagian badan yang ada di belakang engsel. (Menurut pengalaman, bagian yang menonjol ini biasanya adalah batere.) Unik, karena bagian yang berlekuk itu dihiasi pola lubang-lubang kecil yang teratur. Tepat di bagian tengah, tampak setitik sinar putih memancar mantap (jika notebook dinyalakan atau catudaya listrik dipasok).

Bersih, Padat
Jika kita teliti fisiknya, Adamo memang bersih. Tidak ada stiker apa pun – termasuk stiker garansi – mengotori badan luarnya.

Kebersihan ini juga ditampilkan di ketiga sisi notebook. Sisi kiri dan bagian depan Adamo bersih dari pernak-pernik port apa pun. Pengecualian berlaku untuk sisi kanan. Di sana, ke arah belakang, ada satu lubang untuk jack headphone. Sementara jack mikropon tidak terlihat.

Namun secara umum sisi-sisi Adamo padat, masif, tanpa lubang sedikit pun. Tak perlu mencari-cari lokasi lubang Security Lock, karena memang tidak tersedia.

Kepadatan juga tampak pada bagian bawah Adamo. Tidak ada lubang apa pun di sini. Tidak ada sekrup, atau lubang ventilasi. Juga tidak ada satu stiker pun. Pun tak tampak slot untuk kemasan batere. Lho? Begini, batere Adamo ini bersifat built-in, jadi tidak bisa dilepas atau diganti - ini agak menguatirkan jika kita tidak disiplin ketika mengisi ulang daya baterenya.

Di bagian bawah ini, tepat di tengah bidang, yang tampak hanyalah sebuah pelat persegi empat bertuliskan Dell yang dikungkung oleh sebuah lingkaran. Di bawah lingkaran tampak jelas tulisan adamo dan thirteen – merujuk ke besarnya layar LCD. Di sudut kiri pelat kita akan melihat logo Windows Vista, yang diimbangi oleh logo Intel di sisi kanan.Di antara kedua logo tersebut hadir tulisan halus Made in China. Semua tulisan ini digravir di badan.

Mengungsi ke Belakang
Lalu ke mana semua port yang biasanya ada itu? Semua port diungsikan ke bagian belakang unit.

Di bagian ini berjajar deretan port – satu LAN, satu USB/eSATA, dua USB 2.0, dan satu displayport- DVI adapter. Jack DC-in pun berada di sini, di sebelah kiri. Di bagian belakang ini pula kita akan menemukan graviran halus tulisan nomor Service Tag dan Express Service Code – digunakan saat Anda ingin menservis Adamo.

Selain port, kedua sisi bagian belakang menampilkan lubang-lubang. Inilah satu-satunya saluran pembuangan udara, alias ventilasi, Adamo. Dari lubang-lubang tersebut – yang bergradien miring - pula suara akan dikeluarkan oleh speaker yang juga ditanam di dalam Adamo. Mungkin karena itulah, suara dari speaker terdengar kurang kuat walaupun volume sudah disetel maksimal sampai angka 100.

Lubang-lubang itu boleh jadi kurang memadai untuk mendukung kinerja speaker, tetapi sukses mendukung sirkulasi udara Adamo. Nyatanya, Adamo tidak mengeluarkan panas yang berlebihan saat bekerja.

Panel Gelas Superlebar
Yuk kita sudahi dulu mengagumi bagian luar Adamo. Sekarang bukalah cover. Wow, layarnya kok terkesan lebih lebar dari biasanya ya? Dalam spesifikasi, lebar layar disebutkan berukuran 13,4”.

Namun penggunaan panel gelas dari ujung ke ujung dengan bingkai hitam membuat layar terlihat superlega. Di balik layar ini tertanam antena nirkabel untuk Wi-Fi dan Bluetooth. O ya, penggunaan gelas di sini juga menyebabkan Adamo agak berat.

Resolusi di LCD ini bisa disetel sampai maksimal 1366x768. Hmm, aspect ratio layar Adamo pun bukan 16:9, tetapi sudah 16:10. Format ini memungkinkan dua halaman A4 ditayangkan berdampingan. Dibandingkan format 16:9, format ini tidak terlalu lebar dan pendek, sehingga taskbar atau menu bar di bagian puncak atau bawah layar saat kita menonton video widescreen tetap terlihat.

Tampilan di layar tampak jernih, terang, dan tajam, kendati – karena sifatnya yang gelas – memiliki efek pantul yang kuat. Untuk mengurangi efek pantulan, doronglah layar LCD ke belakang sampai sekitar 135 derajat Tidak bisa lebih dari itu, karena akan terganjal oleh bagian belakang notebook.

Ada yang menyenangkan terpampang di layar LCD ini. Ini adalah docking (Dell menyebutnya StarDock). Ini pada dasarnya adalah semacam shortcut ke sejumlah aplikasi favorit yang sering diaktifkan – mirip yang disajikan Mac. Shortcut ini merujuk ke e-mail, Internet, Photos (Webcam), Music, Videos, Security, Help & Support, Recycle Bin, dan Internet.

Di bagian atas panel LCD, seperti biasa hadir lensa Webcam 1,3 megapixel. Di sisi kiri Webcam terdapat sebuah lubang kecil, yang akan memancarkan cahaya putih saat Wecam diaktifkan. Bingkai bawah panel LCD memamerkan logo Dell dalam warna perak.

Webcam diaktifkan dengan dua cara. Pertama, melalui aplikasi Dell WebCam Central dan memilih Open WebCam Central. Cara kedua, melalui Docking. Pilih icon bergambar Kamera, lalu pilih Take Pictures. Kualitas hasil rekaman Webcam – foto dan video cukup baik. Cuma untuk video, ada jeda sepersekian detik saat merekam.

Panel Tombol Sentuh
Sekarang kita beralih ke panel keyboard. Panel ini dibingkai oleh bahan alumunium dalam warna hitam pekat.

Sekali lagi menguar kuat aura kebersihan di sini. Tidak tampak tonjolan apa pun di sini. Tidak terlihat adanya tombol on/off, apalagi tombol-tombol shortcut multimedia. Semua tombol itu absen. Lho, jadi bagaimana menyalakan notebook?

Pengamatan lebih lanjut mengungkapkan bahwa semua tombol itu ternyata ditanam di dalam panel notebook. Letaknya dekat engsel. Tombol on/off ada tepat di tengah, rata dengan panel. Tekanlah, maka notebook yang dipersenjatai oleh sistem operasi Windows Vista Premium ini akan memulai booting-nya dalam tempo 40 detik. Tombol on/off pun langsung memancarkan sinar putih terang.

Kini sapukan jemari Anda ke sisi kanan tombol on/off. Nah, delapan icon akan menyala putih terang. Itulah tombol-tombol shortcut multimedia – Backward, Play/Stop, Forward, Mute Volume, Volume Down dan Volume Up. Tidak usah menekannya jika ingin memanfaatkan salah satu di antara fungsi tersebut. Cukup sapukan ujung jari Anda di atas tombol terkait, karena tombol tersebut peka terhadap sentuhan. Keren bukan?

Yang juga menyenangkan, Adamo dilengkapi dengan sensor cahaya. Jadi tak perlu risau kalau kita harus menggunakannya di ruang yang temaram, atau dalam kegelapan total sekali pun. Panel kyeboard-nya memang hitam pekat dan huruf-hurufnya yang lebar agak sulit dilihat justru pada kondisi cukup cahaya – mungkin akibat digravir.

Namun begitu di ruangan yang cahayanya kurang, cahaya putih akan menerangi seluruh panel keyboard saat kita menyentuh salah satu tuts yang ada. Font-font di tuts akan tampak sangat jelas, apalagi di ruangan yang gelap total. Tingkat iluminasi ini bisa diredupkan/dinaikkan dengan menekan kombinasi Fn-F6/F7. Cuma kami tidak menyarankan menggunakan Adamo di kegelapan. Sebab pancaran cahaya LCD-nya akan terasa sangat menyilaukan dan kurang baik untuk kesehatan mata Anda.

Tuts-tuts pada Adamo lebar, full-sized. Sayang butuh tekanan agak kuat untuk menekannya. Selain itu terdengar bunyi tik-tik di setiap ketukan tuts yang cukup memecah keheningan suasana.

Di bawah panel keyboard, di tengah bagian palmrest, seperti biasa terdapat sebuah touchpad yang mengundang perhatian. Bukan karena ukurannya yang lebar, atau adanya pola melingkar ke arah dalam. Juga bukan karena touchpad terbuat dari sejenis metal. Tapi karena touchpad ini benar-benar mulus saat disentuh, dan sudah mendukung fitur multi-gestures. Jadi untuk men-zoom gambar di layar kita cukup membuat gerakan menjauhkan jempol dari telunjuk di touchpad tersebut. Arah sebaliknya – merapatkan jempol ke telunjuk – dipakai untuk mengecilkan tampilan gambar di layar.


Touchpad ini ditemani oleh sepasang tombol klik – kanan dan kiri.

Kinerja
Dell Adamo dimotori oleh prosesor Intel Core 2 Duo U9300 1,2GHz, sebuah prosesor ultra-low-voltage (ULV) yang dirancang mampu menghemat daya batere, yang dipadu dengan RAM DDR3 2GB. Penggunaan prosesor ULV mampu membuat daya batere bertahan cukup lama – lebih dari 2 jam dalam pengujian kami. Daya tahan ini cukup baik mengingat batere yang bersifat mati (non-removable) dan layar LCD Adamo yang lebar.

Skor PC Mark Vantage Adamo – berkat dukungan SSD yang kinerjanya lebih baik dibandingkan harddisk - cukup baik, yakni 2865. Begitu pula angka Cinebench R10-nya.

Namun saat melakukan encoding video, Adamo butuh waktu cukup lama. Sementara itu skor uji 3DMark 2006 menunjukkan Adamo kurang menunjang kegiatan bermain game 3D.

Namun bagi pengguna biasa yang menggunakannya untuk menjelajah Internet, menyunting dokumen teks dan kirim/terima e-mail, kinerja Dell Adamo sudah mumpuni. Dan jika Anda juga akan menggunakannya untuk menyunting video secara teratur, kami sarankan Anda untuk memilih yang jumlah memorinya maksimal (4GB).
***



Jadi untuk siapa sebenarnya Dell Adamo ini? Jelas bukan untuk pengguna kebanyakan. Pertama, karena harganya supermahal, dimulai dari US$ 2499. Kedua, fasilitasnya tidak selengkap notebook lain yang fisiknya kalah cantik dan juga kalah tipis. Ada satu hal yang sangat kami sesalkan, yakni tidak tersedianya slot kartu memori pada Dell Adamo.

Kembali ke pertanyaan di atas? Untuk siapa Dell Adamo ditujukan? Jawabannya: Adamo ditujukan bagi siapa pun yang sangat mementingkan gaya dan ketipisan unit, plus tidak peduli akan harga. Penggunaannya pun untuk aplikasi yang biasa saja, alias bukan kelas berat seperti 3D. Untuk menunjang kegiatan ber-Facebook, e-mail dan aplikasi office cukuplah.

PLUS: Fisik supertipis dan bersih; panel sentuh; layar LED lebar; aplikasi StarDock.

MINUS: Tanpa slot kartu memori; kinerja grafis 3D; batere ditanam.


HASIL UJI Dell Adamo
(Intel Core 2 Duo U9300 1,2GHz, RAM 2GB, Intel Cantiga GS45, 13,4”, Win Vista Home Premium)
Kinerja
Cinebench R10: 2470 CB-CPU; 5 menit 57 detik
Encoding Video: 30 menit 9 detik
Encoding Audio: 3 menit 43 detik
PC Mark Vantage: 2865
3DMark 2006: 634
Daya Tahan Baterai
Memutar HD Video: 2 jam 18 menit 53 detik
Battery Eater 05: 2 jam 5 menit 32 detik


SKOR PENILAIAN
(maksimal 5)
Kinerja: 4
Fasilitas: 4,1
Kemudahan: 4
Harga: 3,7
SKOR TOTAL: 3,97

SPESIFIKASI Dell Adamo
Prosesor : Intel Core 2 Duo U9300 1,2GHz
RAM : DDR3 1066 2GB
Chipset : Intel Cantiga GS45
Kartu grafis : Intel 4 Series 798136kb
Kartu Suara : IDT High Definition Audio CODEC
Harddisk : Samsung SSD Thin uSATA 128GB M ATA
Optical drive : -
Fasilitas : LAN, Wi-Fi 802.11 draft n, Bluetooth, 2 USB 2.0, 1 USB/eSTA, displayport DVI adapter, jack headhone
Layar : 13,4", 1366x768 pixel
Sistem Operasi : Win Vista Home Premium
Baterai : Li-Ion 12,5V 3,7Ah
Dimensi : 33,1x24,2x1,6 cm
Bobot (termasuk baterai): 1,814kg + 0,268 gram (untuk kabel daya dan adaptor)
Garansi : 1 tahun
Situs Web : www.dell.com
Harga kisaran*: US$ 2499
Dell Indonesia, (021) 235-84200.

kompas

Kazaa to Be Relaunched as Legal, Subscription-Based Service

Illegal file sharing services coming back as legit products is nothing new, though for the most part, they haven't exactly been an overwhelming success. Napster tried it and is still at it offering a legal, subscription-based music download service, the Pirate Bay is apparently doing something similar though details are scarce, and now it seems the infamous Kazaa is making a comeback also with a subscription model.

“Kazaa is a subscription-based service brought to you by Brilliant Digital Entertainment (BDE) a leading online distributor of licensed digital content. BDE provides the means for record labels, film studios and software developers to market and sell their products to a worldwide audience of 70 million users. With the Kazaa service you get unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of CD-quality tracks for one low monthly fee,” the description on the site reads.

The brand will resurface as a subscription-based music and ringtone download service having secured content from all four major music labels as well as other sources. A beta version has been available for a while now and the site boasts “over 1 million premium tracks.” But from the start it looks like the site is inferior to pretty much any other service out there. It will offer unlimited downloads for $20 a month but the tracks are DRM-encumbered and encoded in the WMA format. Meanwhile, Napster offers unlimited downloads plus portable player support for $15 per month, along with unlimited streaming and five MP3 downloads for $5 per month.

Somehow Kazaa's offering doesn't sound like much of a deal unless it can offer some added benefits. Still, while most subscription-based music streaming or downloading services have so far proved unprofitable, not that there is a short supply of those trying, someone is bound to find a working business model and it might as well be Kazaa.

source : softpedia

Pesanan Windows 7 'Rubuhkan' Situs Microsoft

Sistem operasi Windows 7 sudah dapat dipesan di berbagai wilayah, misalnya di Eropa. Microsoft pun boleh tertawa lebar karena ternyata peminatnya relatif besar, bahkan di luar dugaan.

Dikutip detikINET dari Cnet, Sabtu (18/7/2009), toko online Microsoft Eropa sempat karam dan sulit diakses konsumen karena permintaan Windows 7 yang tinggi. Salah satu pemicu kelarisan ini barangkali karena adanya diskon harga yang ditawarkan Microsoft.

"Terkait tawaran pre order Windows 7, kami mengalami level permintaan yang tinggi di situs kami lebih dari biasanya. Artinya Anda tak dapat mengakses situs saat ini dan kami minta maaf," demikian salah satu pesan yang tertera di situs.

Sistem pre order Windows 7 di Eropa bakal berlangsung dari 15 Juli sampai 9 Agustus 2009. Tawaran serupa juga berlangsung di Amerika Serikat. Windows 7 sendiri rencananya bakal resmi dirilis Oktober mendatang.

source : detik

Command & Conquer 4 Will Require a Constant Internet Connection

Strategy fans are certainly extremely excited these days, as two of the biggest franchises in the genre, StarCraft and Command & Conquer, will deliver new titles in the near future, either at the end of 2009 or in 2010.

But as StarCraft II fans were disappointed to see that no LAN support would be added in the first chapter of the game, C&C fans will now get their fair dose of sadness, as Aaron Kaufman, a community manager from Electronic Arts, which will be publishing the upcoming Command & Conquer 4, has revealed that the title will need a constant Internet connection.

The reason behind this claim is the new player progression feature, which will chart the progress of the player and reward him properly in terms of new units and new scenarios for the single and multiplayer modes of the game. The manager has also revealed that, while you can say that the title will be going on an MMO route, it won't be like World of Warcraft for instance.

“As of right now, you need to be online all the time to play C&C 4,” Kaufman says on the C&C Den. “This is primarily due to our 'player progression' feature so everything can be tracked. C&C 4 is not an MMO in the sense of World of Warcraft, but conceptually it has similar principles for being online all the time. While some may be taken aback by this, we've been testing this feature internally with all of our worldwide markets.”

This is certainly bad news for people who don't have a stable Internet connection or who don't want to go online just for a single feature in a game. Of course, besides the reason of charting a player's progress, this requirement will also be a big hurdle for video game pirates, who will find it that much harder to crack the game and offer it as a download on Bittorrent websites or file sharing networks when it will be available in stores.

source: softpedia

HP ProBook, Kualitas Hi-end, Harga Low-end

"HP ProBook, it's slim, stylish, dan All Business". Kalimat singkat tersebut cukup untuk menjelaskan inti dari seri notebook terbaru HP, ProBook. Hari ini, Kamis (16/7), di IndoChine FX Mall, HP Indonesia secara resmi meluncurkan HP ProBook 4410s (14 inci), 4510s (15,6 inci), dan 4710s (17,3 inci).

Seri Probook ini merupakan penerus HP EliteBook, seri hi-end dari notebook HP, yang sudah memenangkan banyak penghargaan. Bedanya, seri ProBook diciptakan untuk menghadirkan sebuah notebook tangguh dan bergaya, tetapi terjangkau dari segi harga.

Tidak main-main, agar seri notebook ini bisa menjangkau usaha kecil menengah, HP memasang harga ProBook di bawah 1000 dollar AS Dollar. Untuk HP Probook 4410s misalnya, bisa didapatkan dengan harga 699 dan799 dollar AS.

"HP ProBook mengambil unsur tangguh HP EliteBook dan unsur affordable dari seri Compaq," jelas Yohan Wijaya, Market Development Manager, HP Business Notebook.

Meski harga murah, bukan berarti HP ProBook adalah seri notebook rendahan. Sesuai dengan tujuan utamanya untuk menjadi notebook yang tangguh tapi terjangkau, HP ProBook memiliki spesifikasi yang sekualitas notebook hi-end. Untuk seri 4410s misalnya hadir dengan VGA Card ATI Radeon HD 4330 yang mumpuni untuk urusan grafis, slot HDMI untuk merasakan High Definition Experience, dan Processor Intel Core 2 Duo.

Selain spesifikasi yang tergolong wah, HP ProBook juga memiliki lima fitur yang mereka tonjolkan dan diyakini belum dimiliki notebook brand lain. Fitur yang pertama adalah HP Quicklook 2 yang memungkinkan pengguna ProBook untuk mengecek Microsoft Outlook (program email) dengan satu tombol dan dalam keadaan notebook mati.

"Dalam hitungan detik, anda bisa mengecek Microsoft Outlook. Anda bisa melihat email, addres book, dan agenda anda," ujar Yohan Wijaya menjelaskan fungsi HP Quicklook.

Fitur yang kedua adalah HP File Sanitizer. HP File Sanitizer adalah fitur untuk menghapus file atau folder yang diinginkan tanpa bisa direstore lagi. Diyakini sektor Zero Cluster di harddisk drive pun tidak bisa dimanfaatkan untuk merestore file yang sudah terhapus fitur ini.

Fitur yang ketiga adalah HP 3D Driveguard. Sebagai pencegahan rusaknya harddisk drive, HP memasang fitur Driveguard untuk mematikan kerja harddsik apabila laptop berada dalam kecepatan atau kemiringan tertentu.

Keyboard pun tidak luput dari perhatian HP. Fitur keempat adalah Spill Resistant yang mencegah rusaknya keyboard apabila tersiram air (cairan) dari atas (bukan dari samping).

Last but not least, fitur terakhir yang ditunjukkan HP pada peluncuran ProBook adalah HP Privacy Filter. Fitur ini berguna untuk melindungi laptop kita dari mata pihak-pihak yang ingin mengintip apa yang tampil di layar monitor. Jika dilihat dari samping kanan/kiri, layar akan terlihat hitam.

Dengan spesifikasi yang tergolong tinggi, fitur yang khusus dikembangkan, dan harga yang cukup terjangkau, HP ProBook bisa dijadikan pilihan oleh pengguna notebook yang ingin mencari notebook dengan kualitas hi-end, harga low-end.

"Dengan range harga seperti ini, belum ada laptop yang stylish dengan fitur-fitur bisnis seperti yang kami tawarkan," ungkap Yohan Wijaya menegaskan keunggulan seri ProBook. HP Probook tersedia dalam pilihan warna merah marun dan hitam.

source : kompas

Purna Jual BlackBerry di Indonesia Harus Seperti Singapura

Jakarta - Pemerintah akhirnya melunak dengan mencabut larangan impor sebagian produk BlackBerry. Namun sebagai gantinya, Research in Motion (RIM) selaku prinsipal harus bisa membangun pusat purna jual sebagus dan selengkap yang ada di Singapura.

"Kami minta kualitas service center yang akan dibangun di Indonesia sama dengan yang ada di Singapura, total solution. Jangan sampai kalau ada BlackBerry yang rusak di sini tetap masih dibawa ke Singapura juga," kata Kepala Pusat Informasi Depkominfo, Gatot S Dewa Broto kepada detikINET, Selasa (14/7/2009).

RIM rencananya akan membuka purna jualnya di Jakarta pada 26 Agustus 2009 mendatang. Namun secara teknis, purna jual layanan BlackBerry itu itu sudah bisa berjalan 21 Agustus.

Seperti dipaparkan kepada pemerintah, RIM mengaku butuh waktu untuk pembangunan. Jadwal yang mereka paparkan adalah Hype Plan (14 Juli), Site Construction, Material Delivery, dan Training (31 Juli), Line Setup (7 Agustus), Trial Run (17 Agustus), Quality Assurance (20 Agustus), dan terakhir Go Live (21 Agustus).

"Pada 15 Oktober nanti, RIM juga janji akan buka tambahan dua service center lagi di dua tempat. Mereka tak sebutkan di mana. Namun target total RIM akan bangun enam purna jual," pungkas Gatot.

source : detik

Microsoft Office Web App Siap Duel dengan Google Docs

Mulai tahun depan, Microsoft akan menggratiskan aplikasi Office dalam versi online. Layanan ini akan menjadi pesaing berat bagi Google Docs yang lebih dulu menyediakan layanan serupa.

Layanan Office dalam format web application memungkinkan pengguna melakukan pengolahan kata, tabel, dan presentasi tanpa harus membeli software dan menginstal di komputer. Hal tersebut cukup dilakukan dengan mengunjungi situs di internet dan melakukan pendaftaran untuk memperoleh hak akses. Data-data hasil pengolahan akan tersimpan di server layanan tersebut.

"Office web application merupakan versi browser yang ringan dari Word, PowerPoint, Excel, dan OneNote yang menyediakan akses ke dokumen dari mana saja," demikian Microsoft. Layanan ini akan ditempatkan dalam Windows Live dan untuk mengaksesnya harus memiliki akun Live.

Rencana tersebut diumumkan dalam pembukaan Worldwide Partner Conference di New Orleans, Senin (13/7). Dalam ajang tersebut juga diumumkan bahwa generasi baru Microsoft Office 2010, Visio, Project, dan SharePoint Server akan dirilis pada tengah tahun opertama 2010. Saat ini versi trialnya sudah diuji coba kepada puluhan ribu penguji terpilih.

source : kompas

Evergreen, Kartu Grafis DirectX 11 Pertama AMD

AMD kini tengah menyiapkan jajaran kartu grafis mereka yang berbasis DirectX 11. Evergreen, dikabarkan akan menjadi varian kartu grafis AMD yang bakal dirilis pada penghujung tahun 2009.

Setelah memamerkan teknologi DirectX 11 pada acara Computex Juni 2009 lalu, AMD mengatakan bukan tidak mungkin mereka akan merilis kartu grafis berbasis DirectX 11 bersamaan dengan peluncuran Windows 7, yakni pada bulan Oktober 2009.

AMD pun sesumbar bahwa produk mereka akan mampu menjalankan aplikasi ataupun game yang sudah memanfaatkan DirectX 11. Bukan hanya mampu, AMD yakin produknya akan sangat 'bertenaga'.

"Kami tidak menghabiskan uang untuk membuat hardware yang 'loyo', kami memprediksikan bahwa pengguna akan terkesima ketika kami merilis kartu grafis berbasis DirectX 11," jelas Richard Huddy, Kepala Developer Relations Department AMD. Seperti dikutip detikINET dari Pcgameshardware, Jumat, (10/7/2009).

Huddy juga menambahkan bahwa Evergreen nantinya akan disertakan pendingin yang cukup besar, bahkan kartu grafis tersebut akan memakan 2 slot ketika dioperasikan. Dan dapat dipastikan bahwa, kartu grafis tersebut akan dipasarkan dengan harga di atas USD 100

source : detik

Android Pertama Sony Ericsson Pakai Interface Sendiri

Sony Ericsson akan menggunakan interface buatannya sendiri pada smartphone berplatform Android pertamanya. Demonstrasi tampilan perangkat yang disebut-sebut akan diberi nama Experia Rachael itu muncul selang seminggu sejak desain rancang bangunnya bocor di Internet.

User Interface yang juga diberi nama Rachael itu menampilkan widget yang banyak di layar yang lebar. Dilihat dari aplikasi yang sudah disiapkan, Xperia Rachael sangat mendukung layanan jaringan sosial seperti Twitter dan Facebook.

Smartphone yang menggunakan navigasi penuh dengan layar sentuh ini juga didukung spesifikasi hardware tinggi. Prosesor yang digunakan adalah prosesor paling ampuh di smartphone saat ini, Snapdragon buatan Qualcomm dengan kecepatan 1 GHz. Fitur lainnya sudah mendukung koneksi data HSDPA 7,2 Mbps, kamera 8 megapiksel dengan autofokus, dan grafis 3D.

Namun, sampai saat ini belum ada penjelasan resmi dari Sony Ericsson kapan perangkat tersebut akan dirilis ke pasaran. Berbagai smartphone dengan platform Android diperkirakan akan mulai menjamur antara akhir 2009 hingga 2010.

source : kompas

Inilah MOSES, Software Kelas Dunia Buatan Mahasiswa ITB

Sekali lagi keberhasilan putra-putri Indonesia di arena internasional. Tim "Big Bang" dari ITB berhasil memenangkan Imagine Cup 2009 untuk kategori Mobile Device Award. Selain Indonesia, Brasil dan Kroasia juga memenangi kategori yang sama dalam kompetisi yang diselenggarakan di Kairo ini.

Tim yang terdiri dari David Samuel, Dody Dharma, Dominikus Damas Putranto, dan Samuel Simon ini menang atas proyeknya yang diberi nama MOSES (Malaria Observation System and Endemic Surveillance). Aplikasi ini menggabungkan teknologi client runtime dengan aplikasi di PDA untuk melakukan diagnosis dan analisis terhadap pasien yang diduga terkena malaria secara cepat. Solusi ini diharapkan dapat membantu masyarakat yang berada di daerah terpencil agar dapat memperoleh pelayanan kesehatan secara cepat dan tepat.

"Big Bang" menciptakan sebuah virtual character (avatar) bernama Marceline, yang dapat membantu petugas kesehatan. Pada saat pendiagnosaan tersebut, Marceline akan bertanya kepada pasien beberapa hal sehubungan dengan penyakit malaria dengan teknologi yang disebut voice recognition.

Setelah seluruh data yang berhubungan dengan analisis tersebut didapat, petugas kesehatan juga dilengkapi dengan alat yang bernama PDAscope yang terdiri dari sebuah modifikasi mikroskop plus PDA. PDAscope ini menyerupai sebuah mikroskop asli yang dibuat dengan bahan-bahan yang murah. Hal tersebut merupakan pertimbangan dari "Big Bang" atas faktor ekonomis pada implementasi solusi ini.

PDAscope ini nantinya akan dapat menjadi alat pelengkap agar kamera yang berada pada PDA yang dapat meneropong sampel darah yang diambil dari tubuh pasien. Setelah PDA tersebut merekam hasil gambar dari sampel darah tersebut, petugas kesehatan dapat mengirimkan gambar sampel darah tersebut ke pusat kesehatan yang berada pada lokasi yang jauh dari tempat tersebut.

Moda komunikasi yang ditentukan untuk melakukan transmisi data tersebut adalah dengan menggunakan teknologi 3G. Hal ini dilakukan dengan asumsi bahwa telecommunication provider di Indonesia akan segera memperluas daerah jangkauan layanan data pada lokasi-lokasi yang terpencil.

Setelah sampel darah yang dikirimkan diterima di pusat, aplikasi yang berada pada server penerima akan segera melakukan analisis terhadap sampel darah tersebut. Sistem akan melakukan analisis terhadap butiran-butiran darah yang dimaksud dengan melakukan pattern recognition atas parameter-parameter yang telah ditentukan sebelumnya, apakah butiran darah dari sampel darah tersebut terjangkit malaria. Sistem akan menentukan berdasarkan penghitungan jumlah butiran darah yang terjangkit malaria, apakah sampel darah yang dikirimkan benar-benar terbukti positif terjangkiti penyakit tersebut.

Proses penghitungan butiran darah tersebut merupakan sebuah kemajuan teknologi yang dibantu oleh neural network algorithm, metode yang membantu mempercepat penentuan hasil, apakah sebuah sampel darah tersebut terjangkit penyakit malaria atau tidak. Saat ini, untuk menentukan diagnosis masih menggunakan penghitungan manual yang cenderung memiliki tingkat kesalahan tinggi.

Segera setelah sistem memperoleh hasil dari pemeriksaan butiran darah tersebut, sistem akan otomatis mengirimkan hasil kepada petugas kesehatan yang masih berada di lapangan untuk melakukan penanganan.

Nah, kemenangan ini telah menunjukkan pengakuan dunia bahwa putra-putri Indonesia bisa membuat perangkat lunak kelas dunia. Namun, masih ditunggu, apakah ada niat baik atau dukungan pemerintah dan berbagai pihak agar perangkat lunak tersebut bisa digunakan dan bermanfaat, baik bagi masyarakat Indonesia, maupun dunia.

source : kompas

Dell Studio 1737 (s1737-USE0145)

If you can spot the Dell Studio 1737 (s1737-USE0145) ($749.98 list) in your local Staples, your eyes are already locked in on the prize: Its sweet, delectable 17-inch widescreen will dazzle you, and its 4GB of memory should be ample for your needs. For performance seekers, however, the system's budget processor and Intel integrated graphics might be deal breakers. Otherwise, it's one of the most affordable desktop replacements laptops around.

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Design
The 1737 is an easy system to spot since it's fairly large, measuring 15.4-by-11.4-by-1.4 inches (HWD) and weighing 7.5 pounds. It's the type of system you'll want anchored to your desk, though, replacing your old desktop. The HP Pavilion dv7 (2173cl) and dv7-2170us are each only two-tenths of a pound lighter (7.3 lbs) and take up just as much space. If the lightest 17-inch laptop is what you're after, Apple is the only one that offers it in the MacBook Pro 17-inch (Unibody). The 1737's looks are simple, and has a common theme seen in most Dell laptops: You get to pick from a crop of colors or personalize your own from over 200 designs, though Staples only has a select few in stock. This configuration is draped in Midnight Blue, which is otherwise a $40 option through Dell's Web site.

The 17-inch widscreen is the 1737's most prized feature, as it enriches the movie experience and allows you to work with multiple windows—while keeping eye strain down to a minimum. At this price, though, you so have to understand what you're missing. While it's perfectly acceptable to use the aging 16-by-10 screen aspect ratio, the dv7 (2173cl) and HP HDX18t have already transitioned to 16-by-9 screens, which share a common resolution with consumer HDTVs. The 1737 has a 1,440-by-900 resolution, but is dwarfed by the 1600-by-900 and the 1,920-by-1,080 resolutions found in the dv7 (2173cl) and dv7 (2170us), respectively. At $750, though, a baseline resolution is an acceptable concession. Alternatively, Dell's Web site offers better screens (RGB option) and a higher resolution (1,920-by-1,200), but you'll have to buy it there.

I've come to love Dell keyboards over the years, but this particular one has a noticeable bend in the middle. It's not enough to cramp the typing experience, though. If you're intent on minimizing keyboard vibrations, both the Macbook Pro 17-inch and the dv7 (2173cl) have sturdier keyboards, with stronger backings. Otherwise, the 1737 includes a full-size numeric keypad—bigger than the ones found in the dv7 (2173cl) and dv7 (2170us). And its mouse buttons are soft and completely free of clicking noises; both the dv7 (2173cl)'s and Macbook Pro 17-inch's mouse buttons have faint clicking noises.

Features
The 1737 has the most USB ports found on a 17-inch system—five, with one that acts as an E-SATA combo port. And while not many systems in this price range gives you a FireWire port, the 1737 has it for those who have compatible camcorders and external storage devices. It includes an HDMI port, which is now a standard feature on media centers, and the slot-loading dual-layer DVD burner (is usually a crowd-pleaser over the tray ejecting ones found in the dv7s. In features, there are several reasons why you're paying less than the dv7 (2173cl) and dv7 (2170us): Their 500GB hard drives are bigger, for one (although you won't hear anyone complaining about the 1737's 320GB one), and the 1737's Wi-Fi capability maxes out at 802.11g (both dv7s support the 802.11n standard).

Performance
The dollar savings on the 1737 are also reflected in its performance parts: It runs a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor. While it's fast enough for the majority of multimedia tasks, the dv7 (2173cl) and dv7 (2170us) run faster and more energy efficient Intel processors—at least on paper. Though you won't even notice the CPU's speed differences in the real-world scenarios, the 1737 beat the dv7 (2173cl) in video encoding and Cinebench R10 tests. It also helped that the 1737 included 4GB of memory. Gaming and 3D scenarios, however, fell short against its rivals. Its Intel integrated graphics was simply no match for the midrange ATI graphics cards found in the dv7 (2173cl) and dv7 (2170us)—another reason why it's a cheaper system. That said, the 1737 is not a powerhouse gaming system or even a moderate one for that matter.

A less burdensome graphics subsystem translates to better battery life. Even though this configuration uses a 56Wh battery, it outlasted the dv7 (2173) and the dv7 (2170us) and their bigger 73Wh batteries by a handful of minutes. (The 1737 scored 3 hours, 37 minutes in Bapco's MobileMark 2007 tests). A bigger 85Wh battery ($45) is available through Dell's Web site only and can easily get you into the 4- to 5-hour range.

The Dell Studio 1737 (s1737-USE0145) is not the powerhouse everyone expects from a laptop that takes up a considerable amount of desk space. Although it has the dimensions to accommodate scorching parts, this particular configuration is targeted as a value proposition for big-screen lovers. You don't get the high-end 3D graphics or a thoroughbred processor. For $750, though, most frugal shoppers can look past those parts and reap the benefits of its features and the gorgeous 17-inch widescreen.

source : pcmag

Norton Internet Security 2010 (beta)

Last year Norton Internet Security 2009 made quite an impression. Symantec rewrote the suite from the ground up for improved performance and gave the UI a substantial overhaul, too. Judging by the free public beta, Norton Internet Security 2010 (downloadable from norton.com/nis2010beta) focuses on keeping the product's impact small while enhancing malware detection and giving the user better access to useful information. And, wonder of wonders, Symantec finally replaced its lame spam filter with something that really works. I spent a day with the beta, and it already looks very, very good. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the final version when it's released this fall.

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		Slideshow | All Shots

The installation process is quick and simple. A tiny downloader utility collects the program installer and the latest anti-malware definitions and launches the install process. As before, you agree to the EULA and launch the install with a single click. That's it—the next thing you know, the product is completely installed and actively protecting your system.

Flipping User Interface

Symantec has long been working to keep unnecessary minutiae out of the user's face. The 2010 beta goes a step further and moves much of its detailed reporting to a new location on the back of the main window. Yes, the back. Click "Flip Screen" and the main window visibly turns over. Well, most of the time—Netbooks and other systems with low-powered graphics can't render the 3D flip effect. On those systems Norton just displays the "back" of the screen as a separate dialog. Perhaps Symantec should check out Panda Cloud Antivirus, which flips its main window even on my underpowered virtual machine test systems.

On back of the screen is a chart of CPU or memory usage and a visual timeline of events like scans and detections. Clicking a point on the CPU chart lists the three applications taxing the CPU most at that moment. Clicking an event in the history displays more detailed information.

A link from the back of the main screen takes you to the list of Norton's background tasks with another graph of CPU and memory usage. By default, the suite does all its work in the background, so as not to get in the user's way. On this background tasks page, you can see which tasks have managed to run in the background and manually launch any that seem to be overdue.

There's another new interface element right on the main screen: Vulnerability Protection. This link brings up a list of applications with known vulnerabilities for which Norton offers protection. Clicking on an app displays a list of its specific vulnerabilities, and clicking one of those takes you to a Web page with details. You can't do anything with this information, but it's nice to know you're protected.

Deeper Insight

Norton Insight, introduced in the 2009 edition, checks all the programs on your system against Symantec's database and identifies trusted programs. Skipping trusted programs speeds up malware scanning tremendously, but the database's usefulness extends beyond that. The new Norton Insight screen lists the trust level for each application. Insight's display now also includes columns indicating how many Norton users have each program installed, how big an impact each has on system resources, and how long each has been installed on your system. You can dig in for more information about any given program, including its origin and a graph of its resource usage.

You invoke this same feature when you click for more information about a threat that Norton found or blocked. If the file has been identified as malicious, however, the resource usage page is replaced with a list of malware actions and Norton's resolution of each. Symantec has had this information all along, but is just sharing it with us now.

Spam Protection That Works

For some years, planners at Symantec believed that the vast majority of users had moved or would move to Web-based e-mail, making local antispam irrelevant. Naturally they put little or no energy into the suite's spam filter, and naturally it stank. That wholesale migration to Web-based e-mail never quite materialized, so the 2010 suite includes a brand new (and highly accurate) spam filter.

Powered by BrightMail, the antispam technology works on two levels. A set of local filters identifies and marks spam in the e-mail stream. If a message gets past this first stage, Norton checks it against Symantec's servers to see if it's known spam. It doesn't pass along the message, just a unique hash-code fingerprint.

This approach definitely works. In testing, the spam filter didn't mark as spam a single valid personal message, nor did it block any of the newsletters and valid bulk mail. Eleven percent of the undeniable spam made its way into the Inbox, which is not too bad. Overall it turned in a 4-star performance, vastly better than last year's suite.

Prize-Winning Malware Removal

With the 2010 edition, Symantec cranked up the power of its reputation-based malware detection system. Wildly mutating polymorphic malware threats are hard to catch using traditional signature-based detection, because every instance is unique. That very uniqueness can, however, be a clue for security software. If a file has never been seen by any of the millions of other Norton installations, it's immediately considered suspect and subject to further investigation. This SONAR 2 reputation-based technology plus standard signature-based detection gives the product supercharged malware detection. Or so Symantec says.

I initially planned to test the Norton beta against just a few of my malware-infested test systems, but it was so successful that I wound up completing a full anti-malware test. Norton's performance was absolutely stellar. It scored 8.0 of 10 points for malware removal, beating previous top scorer Panda Internet Security 2010. It also set a new record on the malware blocking test: 9.6 points, trumping Prevx 3.0, the previous champion and our Editors' Choice for standalone anti-malware.

At 6.8 of 10 points, Norton 2010 tied with Webroot AntiVirus with AntiSpyware 6.1 for the best score in removing commercial keyloggers. The only main scoring area where it didn't take the top spot was blocking commercial keyloggers. At 7.3 points, it was well above average, but it didn't approach the 9.0 score from Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 6.

This is an extremely impressive performance. It clearly shows that Symantec wasn't just blowing smoke with claims of the software's advanced malware detection technology.

Compare Norton Internet Security 2010 beta to similar security suites.

Easy on Resources

A shortened round of performance testing suggests that the beta remains light on resource usage—mostly. The browsing test took no longer than the baseline. The file moving and copying test took 2 percent longer, and the zipping and unzipping test took 4 percent longer. Norton did add 35 percent to the time required for the automated installation and uninstallation test, about the same as Norton 360 Version 3.0.

The one unpleasant surprise came from my boot-time test: The beta added 31 percent to the boot time. That's significantly more than Norton 360 or Norton Internet Security 2009, and they were scored under a slightly stricter test. Naturally I'll run this test again on the final released version of the suite. This is, after all only the beta—I hope there's still some optimization to be done for the final version.

And The Rest

Besides antispam, Norton's other weak link has been parental controls. Norton 360 Version 3.0 offered to install OnlineFamily.Norton (then in beta) rather than the standard parental controls. The current suite beta puts the impressive OnlineFamily.Norton right on the main screen. Symantec assures me that even when OnlineFamily.Norton switches from free to a subscription-based model, users of the Norton suites will get a free license.

I didn't try to test every element of the beta. I'm assuming, for now, that the firewall is still outstanding, that the phishing protection still beats that of the competition, and that Identity Safe still manages your passwords and personal information. Of course, I'll retest all those areas when the final version of the product is released this fall.

As it is, however, the beta version of Norton Internet Security 2010 is very impressive. It brings the previously weak antispam and parental control elements in line with everything else. It offers more information to users who want it and hides more from those who don't. And it turned in record-breaking scores in my anti-malware tests. I can hardly wait to put the final released product through its paces.

source : pcmag

Samsung S8000 Jet review: Airborne

Introduction

It's that time of the year and the living is easy: pool parties, blockbuster movies and new gadgets. The Samsung S8000 Jet sure knows good timing and gallantly promises a bit of everything - style, entertainment and impressively light and lively handling. It's a thing to show off to your friends and help you enjoy and capture the hot moments of the season.

The S8000 Jet is not exactly jet set stuff but claims a big piece of the touchscreen action. And it knows who it needs to kill to get it. The Jet is the direct and brave answer to the LG KM900 Arena and boy isn't it a tough call between these two. The S8000 Jet has the fancy 3D interface upgrade, 5MP camera with D1 recording, Wi-Fi, GPS and all the stuff to put this touchscreen phone in the desirable category. We have a thriller of a local derby and the high-end contenders need to do everything and do it well.

Samsung S8000 Jet offical photos

We were impressed in our preview with the new visual upgrades of the TouchWiz interface, which combine the best part of the 3D LG cube and page-organized iPhone menus. But now it's time for the final and deciding round with the Samsung S800 Jet.

Here is the full ammo of the S8000 Jet, along with what might be the deal breakers.

Key features

• 3.1" 16M-color resistive AMOLED touchscreen of 800 x 480 pixel resolution
• 800 MHz processor
• 5 megapixel auto focus camera with dual-LED
• Geotagging, image stabilization, face detection, Smile Shot, Wide Dynamic Range (WDR)
• Latest TouchWiz 2.0 UI with Motion UI, Media Gate 3D, Smart Unlock
• Quad-band GSM support and 3G with HSDPA 3.6 Mbps and HSUPA support
• Wi-Fi
• GPS receiver
• 2 / 8 GB onboard storage
• microSD card slot with microSDHC support
• Built-in accelerometer for screen auto rotate and turn-to-mute
• Proximity sensor for display auto turn-off
• TV out
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM Radio with RDS
• microUSB port and stereo Bluetooth v2.0
• Web browser has full Flash and Java support
• DivX/XviD video support
• DNSe and SRS sound effect
• Smart dialing
• Speaker Call

Main disadvantages

• No smartphone capabilities
• microSD slot is under the back cover
• Smart dialing only works for numbers, not contact names
• No preinstalled GPS navigation software

As the specs suggest, the Samsung S8000 Jet is nothing short of a multimedia monster. The picture is complete with full Flash support - still quite a rarity among today's handsets - DivX/XviD video codecs and great music package. The camera is a high-end snapper with premium features that the LG Arena doesn't have, while the Smart Unlock, Speaker Call and Motion UI just add to its uniqueness.

Samsung S8000 Jet in our office

Unboxing the Jet

The Samsung S8000 is a high-end multimedia handset, but comes with an almost standard package. There is the mandatory charger, microUSB cable, 2GB microSD card and a two-piece headset. Its remote ends on a 3.5 mm jack so you have quite a choice of alternative headphones to use with the phone. A bunch of leaflets and a CD with the latest Samsung PC Studio are also supplied.

Unboxing Samsung S800 Jet • the headset

The only extra thing you get with the Jet is a weirdly designed leather carrying case. It hides almost the whole phone except the speaker, mouthpiece and the 3D Cube button. The two call buttons positions are marked, so you can take calls without pulling the phone out. Of course there's no way to know who is calling.

The weird carrying case

Samsung S8000 Jet 360-degree view

With a touchscreen device like the Samsung S8000 Jet the seen-one-seen-all impression can't be helped. The big screen on the front and the few buttons underneath are non-negotiable. This is a limitation of the form factor and makers are pressured to give their devices a distinct face.

For a phone aiming to make a big splash, the S8000 Jet looks and feels quite palm-friendly. At 109 x 53.5 x 11.9 mm and 99g, the S8000 Jet is a just about the same size as the LG KM900 Arena, but a few grams lighter.

Design and construction

As we said, the touchscreen form factor does limit the design somewhat, but Samsung still need to work a bit harder to distinguish the handsets in their own line-up. Their touch-enabled phones are beginning to look so similar that it's difficult to identify which one's which. Phones nowadays are not only about the features, but the style and the look as well.

Size comparison: Apple iPhone 3GS, LG KM900 Arena vs Samsung S8000 Jet and Samsung S5630

The Samsung S8000 Jet front is quite sleek with black glass framing the display, while the surface around the buttons is made of a matte material that helps keep fingerprints away. However, apart from that area of the phone, the rest is so fingerprint-prone that at some point you may feel the need to get some tape and play at being a CSI agent.

The edge is bordered with a strip of glossy black plastic, which is quite nice and in fact is the only thing that really distinguishes it from other Samsung offerings.

The back, however, is unique and surprisingly stylish, yet at the same time a huge letdown as the glossy plastic attracts a lot of smudges. Anyway, the dark red and black stripes are shaded in such a way that any direct lighting creates interesting - holographic - effects.

The Jet's front of course is dominated by the display and the 3.1-incher beats the LG Arena screen by a whisker. And with a WVGA resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, the S8000 Jet punches its weight with other devices offering the highest resolution on the market. Now add the AMOLED technology that provides contrast, unrivaled by any LCD and you get the idea that with the Jet you receive top-notch image quality.

Not the biggest screen, but pleasingly crisp and responsive

The only thing that stops it from being perfect is the resistive display. Or at least that was our first thought. But when we started tapping on the Jet's screen, we instantly forgot the technology behind it. As we already saw the same kind of display in our Samsung M8910 Pixon12 review we have no concerns about resistive displays used by Samsung any more.

It reacts to even the slightest touch just as a capacitive screen does, with the added bonus that you can use anything you want to interact with it - stylus, pencil, nails, gloves, etc. Writing, scrolling, typing, zooming - everything is as easy as on the capacitive screens of Samsung's M7600 and S8300.

Sadly, there is always something to spoil the deal and here it's the disappointing sunlight legibility. Performance in bright sun is the same as the Pixon12 and far from the best we've seen. Yes, you will be able to see most of the screen on a bright sunny day, but it's far from perfect and users will be struggling under direct sunlight. We know it's not the best part of a Samsung handset, but it shouldn't be make or break.

The Jet screen beats the LG Arena's by 0.1"

There are three hardware buttons below the display - Call and End keys obviously and the center button. Now, that's where we see the major change compared to the pre-market unit we first tested. To begin with, the control now looks transparent like a gem cut into a cube shape. A 3D Cube it sure is but it doesn't launch the Cube launcher like we saw in the earlier Jet sample. A short press toggles the main menu on and off while a press and hold launches the Task Manager. So, that leaves the former task-switch knob (right next to the shutter key) in charge of the Cube Launcher and the Motion Gate.

The buttons on the front are large and solid to press

The video-call camera and a slightly oversized ambient light sensor are above the display. Right next to them is the proximity sensor that takes care of turning the display off when you hold the handset next to your ear in a conversation.

Video-call camera and ambient light sensor

On the left side of the phone is the volume rocker and on the right side are the hardware Lock (or Hold) key and the Cube Launcher/ Motion Gate / shutter key combo. The latter is not a single button as we've seen in a number of recent Samsung handsets but a rocker-style control where the shutter key is tangibly raised. This can be half-pressed to handle auto-focus. All controls are easy to operate in both single and two-handed use scenarios.

One rocker-styled control on each side plus a hardware lock button

The top handles connectivity - it houses a 3.5 mm audio jack and a standard microUSB port with a protective cover. The phone charges off the microUSB port - just like most of its recent siblings - and is quite useful as you can leave the charger at home when traveling if you have a computer with you. There's nothing much to note at the bottom - only the mouthpiece is there.

The microUSB slot, audio jack and the power button • the bottom side

As usual, the 5 megapixel camera lens is at the back of the device along with the dual LED flash. It is not protected by a lens cover but there is a slightly raised edge surrounding it.

The back of the Samsung S8000 Jet also hosts the small loudspeaker grill, with a small nub so the speaker isn't muffled when you put the handset flat on a desk.

The lack of stereo speakers is a shame, especially given that otherwise the device is a very capable portable media player.

The back is plasticky and attracts smudges, but still looks amazing

Under the back cover you'll find a 1080 mAh battery and the SIM and microSD card slots. Typically for the latest Samsung devices the memory slot is under the back cover and even though it's hot-swappable, you still need to open the cover first. If the S8000 Jet is meant to compete with the Arena successfully, it should have much more internal memory than 500 MB or at least a more accessible microSD slot.

The microSD card slot is hot-swappable but under the rear cover

The build quality is quite solid. The rear cover is not held by any complicated lock but fits solidly in place and there are no audible creaks or other disturbing sounds. The front buttons don't wobble and have a very satisfying press.

Samsung S8000 Jet in the hand

The Samsung S8000 weighs in at 99 grams and is very pocket friendly. It feels as good in the pocket as it does in the hand. With a size identical to the LG Arena it should find its place as one of the most compact multimedia devices on the market.

TouchWiz UI just got better

Samsung S8000 Jet comes with the latest edition of the home-baked TouchWiz interface. This time it is spiced with more eye-candy and accelerometer control with the Motion gate and the Media gate applications.

If you have been keeping track, you would know that the number of available effects has been reduced since the early pre-release samples of the S8000 Jet, but what has remained is still enough to make the Jet quite a treat to navigate. Those effects are sure to wow users but if you want even faster response you are free to switch them off.

The Jet packs the latest version of the lively TouchWiz UI

Another thing that has an extremely positive effect on the user experience is the exceptionally sensitive screen. Even if you are used to capacitive touchscreen you are unlikely to feel the slightest discomfort with the Jet. The 800 Mhz processor that Samsung were so keen to brag about is also doing a great job for a really responsive and neat ticking device.

The Samsung Jet has the same homescreen layout as the Pixon12 monster of a cameraphone we recently reviewed. It gives you three different non-scrollable screens that you can alternate by sideways sweeps. The current selection is indicated by three thin bars at the top.

You can fill up each of those homescreens with as many widgets as you like and assign a different wallpaper each. The widgets are tucked in a tray on the left side of the screen by default. Once you open the tray, all you need to do is drag them to a place on the screen where you would like them to be. If you decide that you no longer need a widget just drag it back to the tray.

Widgets are mini-applications that you can use to customize your home screen. One shows the time in two time zones, another has the weather and so on. Even the operator logo is a widget and can be tucked away.

Some widgets are handy like the AccuWeather thingy that shows the local weather and a clock with two time zones. There are others like the 'Go on a diet' or 'Quit smoking' that count the days you've been 'clean'.

There are widgets that simply serve as shortcuts to an application, but there are also some widgets that help you run the others. One brings up settings for both the offline widgets (the one that don't need an internet connection) and online widgets (such as the aforementioned AccuWeather) where you can set up the network connections for the online widgets. The other very helpful 'meta' widget help you search for new widgets to download.

Selecting a widget to download launches the browser and directs it to a page with a short description of the widget and a screenshot. At the time of writing, there are 24 of them available to download but this number should increase as the user (and developer) community grows. You can also find updates for the already downloaded widgets that contain bugfixes and new features.

Aside from the homescreen, Samsung have also rearranged the main menu. It now stretches over three different screens, which are sweep-scrollable sideways. The reason that so much more space was needed is the fact that almost all apps are now brought to the main menu, arranged in a flat iPhone-like structure. You will only need to dig deeper for the settings but if those were also to be brought to the fore, the main menu would most certainly have become a huge mess.

The main menu has a flatter iPhone-like strcture

You can pick between three different themes for the menu and you can also assign a custom background. The image selected sits slightly dimmed in the background so that it doesn't interfere with the icons and hurt usability. Strangely enough, the Jet doesn't allow the user to reshuffle the main menu as the Pixon12 did.

The three available themes

In both the main menu and the homescreen, you have a button bar at the bottom that features four virtual keys - keypad, phonebook, messages and a button to toggle between the homescreen and menu.

The Samsung S8000 Jet, like most recent Samsung phones, comes complete with multitasking. The task manager gets launched by pressing and holding the hardware Menu key. It has a nice 3D view and a more classical grid one. You can alternate or even close the tasks straight from there. A "End all applications" key is also present in case you don't want to waste time closing applications one by one.

The Task manager packs a cool 3D view mode

A true cheer raiser around the office is the Samsung S8000 Jet's Smart unlock feature. First featured on Samsung S5600 and Samsung S5230, Smart unlock allows users to not only unlock the phone but open a menu item or an application, or even dial a contact, just by drawing a letter on the unlock screen.

The smart unlock is one of the best things about the S8000 Jet

Each letter from A to Z can be set to trigger one of those actions. For instance, you can use it to start features like the music player, messaging, web browser, Java apps or the dialing keypad. It also makes it a piece of cake to call some of your favorite contacts without even needing to unlock the phone.

Media gate

Two new exciting multimedia features are making anofficial debut with the Samsung S8000 Jet. The first is the 3D Media gate. Launched upon a short press of the dedicated button right above the shutter key, it brings out a cube UI that you flick on screen for quick and easy access to six key multimedia features: Photo album, Music player, Video player, FM Radio, Games and Web browser.

Quite impressively, you can really roll the cube in all directions and it reacts fluidly to the lightest and fastest of your sweeps. Even if you tossed and spun the cube around so the side of the cube displays its icon upside down or side up, it will smoothly rotate to its proper viewing position. An icon bar at the bottom of the screen also features the six applications of the cube launcher - if you tap any of them, the cube will roll to the relevant side. Or you can choose to tap and hold to launch the desired feature without rotating the cube.

The Media gate is quite impressive

Once you are done rolling the cube and click on one of its sides, the respective app will launch a nice 3D interface to let you browse your photos or the tracks you'd like to play. It's not the regular interface of the actual multimedia apps, but a new and cool (albeit probably not the most practical) redesign.

Motion gate

The Samsung Motion gate a.k.a. Motion UI featured on the Samsung S8000 Jet is Samsung's own motion recognition engine which gives you access to your multimedia favorites just by tapping, tilting or flipping the handset. It gets activated by a long press on the same middle key on the handset's right side, which launches the Media Gate.

A cube appears on screen again but this time only two of its sides are usable and you can pick which two applications should go there. The available options are camera, music player, FM radio, speed-dialing a favorite contact and motion game.

The Motion gate allows motion-based control of two multimedia features of your choice

To launch a Motion gate application you need to flick the phone left or right. The Samsung S8000 Jet apparently has a remarkably sensitive accelerometer as it precisely recognized almost every command.

Once you launch an app through the Motion gate (except speed-dialing which simply dials the predefined contact) you once again get an interface different from the one you can find in the menu. It allows you to control its features by double tapping on the phone's panel, snapping the phone left or right or flipping it.

For example you can double-tap to play/pause the music player and snap it left or right to skip to the previous or the next track.

In case it seems somewhat complicated to you, Samsung have also included a motion tutorial that explains how each gesture works.

Not much more to want from the phonebook

The Samsung S8000 Jet comes with a phonebook that can store up to 2000 contacts with multiple fields. You can assign a photo to each contact, or even a video if you so wish. On the downside, those pics can only be used as caller ID and are not visible in the contact list. You can view contacts in the phone memory, the SIM card, or both.

The Jet offers two search patterns for the phonebook. The first is the traditional search by typing a part of the contact's name. It doesn't work all that well with the virtual keyboards however. You have one extra click to open the text box to type and only after you tap 'Done' do you get to see the search results.

Samsung Jet's phonebook

So, we ended up using the alphabetic scroll most of the time. Quite nicely, Samsung have provided the option to place the scroll bar on either side of the screen to facilitate single-hand usage for both left and right-handed users.

Frankly, the Jet screen size favors single-handed use anyways but we guess the variable scroll-bar position is still a nice touch. Of course, the kinetic scrolling is also available in the search but it's not quite so convenient in longer contact lists.

We like it that this time Samsung found enough space next to contact's names to place a Send Message and a Call button. The photo you may have attached is not displayed.

When editing a contact there are first and last name fields along with a field for the display name. So you can have a contact appear by his nickname while still keeping the contact's full name on record.

Editing Dee Dee's contact info

Another useful feature to avoid duplicate entries is that the phone will display a warning if the number for the new contact you just entered is already in the phonebook.

Photo contacts if you like

Just as most recent Samsung the S8000 Jet features an interestingly looking alternative to the phonebook. While it still relies on the regular contact database, the Photo contacts application might save you the effort of ever entering the phonebook again, once you've filled it up.

The app itself allows you to tag parts of photos, which can then be used as shortcuts to various contacts. That might be pretty handy if you are into grouping your contacts. You can take a photo of your colleagues and another one of your buddies and than tag each face to its respective phonebook entry. Then you are one photo away from calling everyone in for a poker night at yours.

With Photo contacts you can use faces instead of names for browsing your contacts

Bear in mind that when adding a photo, faces are detected automatically but tagging is manual, even if you've already tagged that contact.

So in general photo contacts might not be the most practical application, but it is certainly one of the funniest ways to dial a number.

Call management is fine, Speaker Call we like

Quite expectedly the Samsung S8000 Jet is very good at its main job - making calls. Reception was problem-free with excellent voice quality during calls.

The dialer gets activated through its reserved shortcut on the homescreen or from the main menu. You can proceed to dial just like you would on any other phone. Unfortunately the smart dial feature works with numbers only, instead of names, which makes it pretty useless. When you punch in some digits, the contacts whose numbers contain them pop up but we doubt it anyone really remembers just a part of a contact's number.

The smart dial feature is a no-go on the Jet

Normally that app should search contacts, whose names contain the letters corresponding to those digits but we guess it will take another device to get that right.

As most recent Samsungs, the Jet has a nice accelerometer-based telephony feature. It allows you to mute the ringtone of an incoming call by turning it face down.

The Jet also packs another cool accelerometer feature, which we do like. The so-called Speaker Call allows it to automatically activate the speakerphone when you take the handset off your ear during a call and place it on a level surface. Lift the phone back up to your ear and the regular mode kicks back in. Be warned however that switching modes takes a second or two so don't just stick it to your ear right away.

Calling Dexter on the Jet

Samsung S8000 Jet also has a proximity sensor, which automatically turns off the display when you hold it next to your ear. Working like a charm, it makes sure you won't accidently press anything with your ear, while giving you instant access to all the on-screen controls when you take it off.

New events like missed calls or incoming messages show up on the homescreen as a widget. It has three tabs each signaling a different type of event. It also displays the sender's number and the time of the call or text.

Finally the Samsung Jet comes complete with a reject list option that allows you to selectively block numbers you don't want to receive calls or messages from.

As for the loudspeaker performance, here is how the Jet ranks alongside some of the other devices we've measured. You can find more details about the test itself, as well as the full list of tested devices here.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Apple iPhone 3G	66.1	62.1	71.7	Below Average
LG KM900 Arena	70.9	68.2	78.3	Good
Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH	70.1	66.7	75.8	Good
Samsung S8000 Jet	75.5	68.1	77.9	Very Good
Samsung S5230 Star	77.1	75.7	82.0	Excellent

Messaging is nicely organized

The Samsung S8000 Jet messaging department is an exact copy of what we saw on the Samsung M8910 Pixon12. The handset has a shared editor for SMS and MMS and a separate one for emails.

The SMS and MMS editor is the familiar intuitive application which allows you to add the recipient from your phonebook, from your recent contacts or punch it in manually. You can also add a whole group in the recipient field for mass messages, instead of adding contacts one by one.

Sending Dexter a message

The messages can be broken down into up to 15 parts for sending if you exceed their maximum character limit (standard 160).

Email support is also duly covered. There's a Gmail icon in the Google menu but all it does is open the gmail.com webpage in your browser. You might as well use it if you prefer web-based access but the native email client seems the far better option to us.

The greatest problem we had with it is that it didn't automatically detect the settings for Gmail so we had to enter them manually, but once that's done, handling email is a breeze. Still most other brands are already providing some automatic configurations for the email clients on their handsets and maybe it's about time Samsung did something about it.

The email client could not configure out mailbox settings automatically

The downloading email limit is 5MB, enough for receiving most types of files. If you receive an office document as an attachment, you will be able to view it as well.

As far as text input, the Samsung S8000 Jet has support for all three options that touchscreen handsets can offer. The first one is the traditional thing - typing on a customary (albeit virtual) 3 x 4 alphanumeric keypad.

An alphanumeric keypad is the first text input option

Turning the phone on its side automatically expands that numpad to a full-fledged on-screen QWERTY keyboard. The 3.1" display provides enough space for this layout, especially given that the number keys and symbols are in separate screens that toggle on and off upon a tap. Typing is really comfortable by touchscreen standards, once again the very sensitive display and the haptic feeback count in favor.

The full QWERTY keyboard is easily the most comfortable typing method on the Jet

The final option is handwriting recognition. While very intuitive and precise in most cases, the lack of embedded stylus is almost ruling it out as an option. If you don't mind your stylus (mind you, there isn't one in the retail box so you will have to find it yourselves) dangling on the side of the phone, be our guest.

We cannot see handwriting recognition working without an embedded stylus

File browser cuts it

True to its pedigree, the Samsung S8000 Jet is equipped with one of the most elaborate file managers you can find on a feature phone. It can display the files and folders on the phone memory or the memory card, and even both at once with matching folders nicely brought together.

There are folders for different types of files (images, video, sounds) and this allows the handset to sort the memory contents. However, you are not forced to follow this structure - you can place your files wherever you want and the phone will have no problems handling them.

There's nothing to complain about the file browser

You can copy or move files - both one by one or in bulk, and you can create and delete new folders (except the default folders, like Images, Sounds and so on).

When deleting multiple files you can choose to delete protected images, contact photos and so on. By default those options are off so you won't accidentally delete a contact photo or a ringtone.

Files can also be sent via Bluetooth, again one by one or in bulk. Throughout the whole file manager, you can pick files you would like to lock to prevent accidental deletion.

Luckily, the Jet has almost no issues handling memory cards unlike some of its siblings which we recently reviewed. Initialization and reading a 16GB memory card isn't the fastest around but it isn't frustratingly slow either.

Gallery improved

In line with other recent Samsung handsets, the S8000 Jet has two different picture galleries. They are both optimized for touch operation and very user-friendly, plus this time each sports a cool new view mode.

The first gallery is an inherent part of the file manager and accessing it is as simple as opening any folder that contains images. It allows sorting your images by date, type, name, and size.

The gallery offers grid, list and a nicely looking zig-zag view layouts. The latter is definitely the most visually elaborate but also certainly the least functional as it needs quite a lot of scrolling in some folders.

The zig zag view mode is a nice touch to the file manager gallery

Going through photos is quite fast with the Jet, we're delighted with image browsing speed. Once you open an individual image, you can sweep you fingers across the screen to see the next images without having to return to the image list. Alternating portrait and landscape modes is automatic thanks to the built-in accelerometer.

Alternating portrait and landscape modes is automatic

Samsung have also implemented the so-called one-finger zooming, which is recently getting new press hype by Samsung. It's marketed as a novel feature, but it's been around for quite some time already on the original Samsung i900 Omnia. And we just saw it implemented on the Pixon12.

Zooming is extra simple and takes only a single move of your thumb - you just need to hold it on the screen for a second and then drag up or down for zooming in or out. This method works in both galleries (as well as the web browser) and at first glance it even seems more convenient than the pinching gesture on the iPhone.

The one-finger zooming is a nice little feature to have onboard

The alternative to the picture gallery is the Photo browser. Strangely, the Media browser that we found on the Pixon12 wasn't present here and we really liked it a lot more. At least the images are ordered chronologically by default unlike the previous versions of the app we have seen. You can also opt for some other filters such as the usual "by file name" or the more intriguing "by color".

The Photo browser app

As usual the two galleries also have another Samsung proprietary accelerometer-based feature. It lets you browse pictures in fullscreen landscape mode by simply tilting your phone up and down.

The sensitivity of the tilt scrolling has been improved to a point that it is acceptable and quite usable. It is a great improvement over the rather annoying implementation in previous handsets that we have tested. But still, that feature is more of a gimmick and among the less practical things we've seen in the image gallery ever since it was first introduced on the original Pixon.

Minor facelift for the music player

The music player usually found on Samsung devices has received a light refresh on the S8000 Jet. It sports slightly different icons when browsing your tracks and a new way of displaying album art in Now Playing mode.

There're not much new stuff in the music player

The music player allows filtering tracks by author, album, and genre. Automatic playlists (recently added, most played etc.) are also generated and can subsequently be used as filters. If that doesn't seem enough, you can create your own custom playlists. The music player can naturally be minimized to play in the background.

The music player widget allows you to operate the app straight from the homescreen

The new option here is the '5.1 ch' button which, when activated, makes the player do its best to emulate 5.1 channel sound on normal stereo headphones. There are quite a few equalizer presets available, but no option to set up a custom equalizer.

Further on, the three different visualizations are a nice touch to the music player and the album browser (quite like the one on Omnia HD) takes after Apple's Cover Flow, something we quite appreciate.

Last, but certainly not least, the player is nicely touch-optimized for fast forward and rewind, just like the Pixon. This adds up to an excellent music application that can fully replace your portable MP3 player.

The music player widget is cool, allowing quick access to the full version of the application by only a single tap. You can also start, stop and skip tracks straight on the home screen if you prefer.

FM radio and RDS on board

The Samsung S8000 Jet features an FM radio with RDS. The advanced RDS allows displaying the station name on one row and some additional info on the other. It is complemented by a user-friendly and easily thumbable interface with several large buttons appearing on screen.

The Jet can automatically search and save all the available stations in your area. Alternative frequencies of a given station are automatically detected too, so you don't have to retune manually when traveling. There's an option to record radio broadcasts as well.

We are pretty pleased with the FM radio interface

The Samsung S8000 radio comes complete with an integrated music recognition feature called Find Music, which works much like Sony Ericsson's TrackID.

If you won't bother hitting the menu, the Radio widget on the homescreen gives you more immediate access. Tapping on it brings up the radio or you could just use the widget's controls to start/stop the radio or change the station. It can only jump saved stations though, and if you want to search you'll have to do it in the application.

Speaking of stations, you can save stations but they are labeled by just their frequency and can't be renamed. There's a separate list for your favorite stations.

Video player up to scratch

The video player has a nice touch-optimized interface and all the essentials are covered. It can play video files in fullscreen landscape mode (auto-rotated of course) and you can fast-forward and rewind videos in the same way as the music player.

The video player even provides the same 5.1 channel option when you plug in a headset. It also allows direct uploading of a video on the web.

Thumbs up for the video player

The Samsung S8000 Jet has no problem playing VGA or even 720x480 videos at 30 fps. Not a great surprise but worth noting since compressing videos to view on mobile devices can be a time-consuming business.

One of the best parts about the Samsung S8000 Jet video player is its DivX and XviD support. This means you no longer need to convert your videos to play them on your handset - just get them onboard and you are good to go.

Audio quality

The audio quality of Samsung S8000 Jet is pretty decent. The only concern we are having about its audio reproduction capabilities is about its somewhat shaky frequency response. It tends to deviate from the perfect for large parts of the audible range.

The rest of the scores however are excellent. Both the noise level and the dynamic range of the Jet can easily rival dedicated music player, and so can the stereo crosstalk. We have no grudges against the distortion levels either.

Here go the results so you can see for yourselves how the Jet compares to its competition. Things seem pretty equal between it and the LG KM900 Arena, with the LG winnig by the slightest of margins.

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
Samsung S8000 Jet	+1.01 -2.03	-87.9	87.0	0.015	0.060	-85.9
LG KM900 Arena	+0.09, -1.61	-91.6	91.7	0.0017	0.101	-90.4
Samsung S5230 Star	+1.02, -2.41	-88.0	87.8	0.0045	0.222	-82.3
Apple iPhone 3GS	+0.01, -0.05	-92.1	92.1	0.0035	0.011	-95.0
Samsung M8800 Pixon	+0.54, -1.25	-86.4	85.7	0.0048	0.0165	-38.3
Sony Ericsson W995	+0.04, -0.40	-89.1	89.0	0.0033	0.048	-88.7

Samsung S8000 Jet vs LG KM900 Arena frequency response graphs

You can learn more about the whole testing process here.

A pretty decent camera indeed

The Samsung S8000 Jet is equipped with a 5 megapixel autofocus camera that can take photos with a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1920 pixels. A dual LED flash is supposed to improve the low-light capabilities of the handset but as one might expect it hardly has a spectacular effect.

The camera also has a number of nice built-in features including the Samsung proprietary wide dynamic range option, the anti-shake digital image stabilization, geotagging, face detection, smile shot as well as viewfinder gridlines.

The camera interface is nicely touch-optimized and is certainly one of the most comfortable camera interfaces on a touchscreen device so far. The only complaint is that the auto focus settings are not visible in the viewfinder but are instead buried in the 3rd screen of the settings menu . Since this is one of the most frequently used controls it's pretty strange that Samsung didn't give it a more convenient place.

The camera user interface

The camera snaps photos quite quickly and is ready for the next photo without much delay. Disabling the automatic preview reduces the shot-to-shot time even further and makes taking photos with the Jet a very enjoyable experience.

As far as the image quality is concerned we are very pleased with the Samsung S8000 Jet camera results. The images have nice contrast, precise colors and good amount of resolved detail. The noise suppression algorithm is very mature, resulting in relatively noise-free photos, without too much fine detail loss. It still eradicates all detail in fine foliage, for example but we have seen cameraphones do far worse. Here go the samples so you can see for yourselves.

Samsung S8000 Jet camera sample photos

Synthetic resolution

We also snapped our resolution chart with the Samsung S8000 Jet Star. You can check out what that test is all about here.

Samsung S8000 Jet resolution chart photo • 100% crops

As you can see the Samsung S8000 Jet fails to deliver as much detail as the Nokia N97, while its noise reduction is obviously more aggressive. Still the difference between the two devices isn't too great so it probably won't even be noticeable in most cases.

Nokia N97

Nokia N97 resolution chart photo • 100% crops

Video recording - D1@30fps

The Samsung S8000 Jet can record D1 videos at 30 frames per second but unlike some phones where the video looks choppy even at 30 frames (some of the frames are interpolated so it's not really 30fps), this is pretty decent with vibrant colors and high levels of detail.

The camcorder viewfinder

Unfortunately the compression applied to the videos is a bit too strong, even at the highest quality setting, resulting in some artifacts.

Here goes a sample video for you to check out.

The S8000 Jet is also capable of recording slow motion video shot in QVGA resolution at 120fps. The quality of those isn't really impressive however with even more artifacts visible.

The general camera performance of the Samsung S8000 Jet is good, although of course it is no match for the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD or the M8910 Pixon12 imaging monsters.

Connectivity packs it all

The Samsung S8000 Jet is perfectly usable worldwide with its quad-band GSM support. The 3G network compatibility is not as complete with just the 900/2100 bands supported. The phone provides 3.6 Mbps HSDPA speeds.

Bluetooth is also available and comes with A2DP, which is no news on even lower end phones.

The microUSB port is quite welcome as it's a lot more popular than the proprietary port the previous gen Samsung phones used to come with. You can set up the phone to connect in mass storage mode or PC suite mode (Media player) or to prompt each time it's connected.

In mass storage mode it gives access to the memory card but not to the internal memory and you cannot use the phone for calls or data in this mode.

To round it all off, the Samsung S8000 Jet is WLAN enabled. It sports a nice Wi-Fi manager that makes it easy to add an access point to your list, while throwing some nice graphics in the same time. The problem is that you need to update each application's profile every time you want to use it with a different access point.

The Wi-Fi manager

This means that if you are at work and you have set your browser to use your office WLAN, you will have to reach for the profiles when you go home and switch to your own network, or if you want to use it over 3G. We really hope Samsung will come up with a more intuitive solution to automatically handle the networks currently available.

Almost perfect web browser

Samsung S8000 Jet is among the pioneers of the new WebKit-based Dolfin web browser, which is an in-house developed application. With full Flash support and the new one-finger zooming, it is one of the finest web browsers we have seen so far (especially on a feature phone).

The new web browser allows up to 5 pages to be open at the same time. Multiple downloads in the background are also supported and there is also a built-in AdBlocker. Unluckily, it tends to run out of resources pretty fast, displaying a warning with only three not really heavy sites opened at once. We cannot quite see it managing the promised five pages but we don't really use that many on a cell phone anyway.

The web browser is just great

The one-finger zooming works like a charm. Of course you can also rely on double tapping a block of text or an image and the handset will automatically zoom in on it. Another double tap and you are back to the previous zoom level.

On top of Flash and Java support, the new web browser also offers kinetic scrolling and fullscreen view mode. In all fairness, the kinetic scrolling is somewhat bumpy and not as smooth as on the iPhone but it still does the job. The lack of auto-complete when typing the address of already browsed websites is a bit of a letdown, though.

One of the Jet's web browser coolest features is the full Flash support, including Flash video

Organizer in full gear

The Samsung S8000 Jet has a good number of useful time-managing applications.

For starters, the calendar offers three views - daily, weekly and monthly. You can choose which calendar view should be default and you can pick the starting day of the week - the options are Monday or Sunday. However, with the Jet there are only two types of events available in the calendar. You can set the starting date and time of the event and set an alarm to act as a reminder.

The calendar is pretty standard

The alarm is widely customizable. You can set up to 10 alarms, each with the following configurable options - custom ringtone, volume, repetition days and name.

You can set up to 10 alarms with the Jet

The calculator of the Samsung S8000 is pretty much as basic as it gets. Among the other organizer offerings are a voice recorder, a world time application and a unit converter. The voice recorder limit is 60 minutes. A countdown timer and a stopwatch come in useful too.

Some more of the Jet's organizer apps

There are also to-do and memo applications for taking down tasks and notes. You can also use the memo widget to place a memo on the homescreen where you're unlikely to forget it. The widget and the application are separate so don't expect your memos to automatically pop up on screen. There's a to-do widget as well.

The Video editor also deserves a mention. It can handle videos of up to D1 resolution and there's the option to edit them - trimming, splitting or inserting text. You can even use photos instead of videos - you just set the time for them to be on screen (from 1 to 30 seconds).

The world clock allows you to quickly check out the time in any given time zone around the world.

The world clock app

Finally, one of the most important applications of the Samsung S8000 Jet organizer is the office document viewer that supports Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF files. It's an application developed by Access and is one of the nicest additions to the software package.

The document reader is one of the nicest we have seen

The document viewer is quick enough when opening files; however, panning is rather slow. The document viewer also works in landscape mode (once again, rotating the screen automatically), which makes reading a little easier.

GPS Navigation is missing

Even though the Samsung S8000 Jet comes with a built-in GPS receiver our unit didn't have any voice-guided navigation application preinstalled. The Google maps app was available but it simply cannot match a full-fledged SatNav solution like the Samsung Navigator that was available on the Pixon12.

Luckily even if you are in the same spot as us, you can go and purchase the Samsung Navigator software separately. The rebranded Route66 product will set you back about 70 euro for a one-year voice guided navigation license for your region. Expensive it really is but at least you can be sure that its functionality and map data is sufficient.

Bear in mind though that this is strictly market dependent so you better check with your local provider if the Jet has any SatNav software preinstalled or not.

There aren't many real games onboard

Typical Samsung, the Jet offers a bunch of trial games. Entertaining though they might be, they can only keep you occupied for a short while and the full versions have to be bought for a small fee.

The trial games aren't much fun really

The only game section that isn't a trial is called Rollercoaster Rush. The Java title uses the built-in accelerometer for control and ranks decently on the fun scale.

The accelerometer-based Rollercoaster Rush saves the day

There is also another motion-based game inside the motion tutorial that comes preinstalled on the handset. With it being more a proof of concept than real gaming material you are extremely unlikely to play it more than once.

The motion game is hardly too entertaining

Final words

So, in a nutshell - the Samsung S8000 Jet is quick to please and keen to entertain. If not the feature load, we're impressed with the fluid, lively and ticking user interface. Sometimes fun to use does matter as much as all the extra features in world.

The best thing about the Samsung Jet is it really puts the user first. The rich and captivating interface and the sharp and inspired accelerometer controls make the Jet unique and entertaining. Furthermore Samsung have managed to deliver a pretty decent hardware package too. Sure, the S8000 Jet is no Pixon12 but it hardly has any significant omissions in the specs sheet either. Well the smartphone capabilities might be a deal-breaker for some but if that's what you signed for you won't be let down.

The main rival that the Samsung S8000 Jet has is of course the LG KM900 Arena. The two devices are almost perfect matches specs-wise with the Samsung taking a slight edge in terms of screen for packing a little larger AMOLED unit.

Some might argue that the capacitive technology of the Arena touchscreen is an advantage but we can assure them that they won't feel that much of a difference between the two. In fact the remarkable job Samsung have done of boosting the resistive display sensitivity lifts the user experience to such a high level. That said, the differences between the Jet and the Arena are so minor that picking between those two is strictly a matter of personal taste.

LG KM900 Arena

The only thing that can be held against the Jet is probably the not so prominent exterior, revealing little of the exciting little treats that lay in store for the user.

Anyway, the Samsung Jet is bound to rub shoulders with devices that fall in quite a different price range. But if smartphone skill is a must, you will simply have to dig extra deep in your pocket and asset your sights on Samsung i8910 Omnia HD (for the features) or an Apple iPhone (for the attitude). But hey, if some delighted Jet user should tell you their device kicks the snot out of Omnia HD and the iPhone, just don't be too quick to laugh it up.

Samsung i8910 Omnia HD • Apple iPhone 3GS

source : gsmarena