Tag: twitter

iPhone 4 Review

Remember that I got my hands on the iPhone 4 from the Maxis iPhone 4 Launch? I finally got to test out its features.

So what’s new with it? What’s the difference with iPhone 3? The following are my observations.

Appearance
iPhone 4 appears sleeker than iPhone 3. It is flatter but heavier. It can get quite slippery sometimes due to the glass-like surface. Cool factor is of course there.

Retina Display
Retina display on iPhone 4 makes the screen clearer and more detailed. It’s like high definition TV. You can zoom out from a screen and still see the words clearly.

iOS4
iOS4 is the newest version of iPhone operating system. Although iPhone 3GS supports iOS4, I heard iPhone 3GS with iOS4 causes problems e.g it lags. It’s like trying to install Windows Vista on a Pentium I (ok, I may be exaggerating). With iOS4, the speed is good and multitasking is useful.

FaceTime
iPhone 4 has an additional camera on the front. It allows for “FaceTime” where a caller can look at the front camera and see the other caller.

The front camera however is slightly lower quality. Check out the comparison between a picture taken using a front facing camera and the back camera.


Front camera

Nevertheless, the front camera do take nice video. Like this one prepared by Jamie Toh.

Connection
The so-called Antennagate didn’t cause any problem for me. I think its over hyped by the media.

Since I got an iPad 3G, I subscribed to Maxis Broadband which provides for 3G connection using a Microsim. I used it on my iPhone 4 to go online.

The Maxis 3G connection is quite fast. I played a video on YouTube and it didn’t lag one bit. Check out the video below.

On the other hand, if you wish to subscribe to Maxis’ iPhone 4 plan, which plan you would require depends on our budget. For me, iValue 1 is most suitable for me. 1gig of bandwidth and 16GB iPhone are good enough for me. I just need to skimp on my data by turning on Wifi when I download large files. For more details on the plan, check out http://www.maxis.com.my/personal/iphone4/rates.asp

My only complaint about the iPhone 4 is the battery. It run out quite fast. But this is quite common among smartphones. To conserve battery, 3G, Wifi and cellular data should be turned off when not needed.

Applications

As many of you know, iPhone allows a user to download applications off the Apple store. Some are free and some must be purchased.

Facebook and Twitter are essential to me since I am hooked to the Internet. Facebook has its own App hence don’t bother searching for others. As for twitter, I downloaded Echofon as my Twitter App.

The problem with many free iPhone Twitter apps is that they are unable to retweet tweets. Echofon is one of them.

As for games, I downloaded the Millionaire Tycoon for my girlfriend. It only costs US$1. Additional map packs (extra maps) costs US$1 per piece.

Angry Bird, one of the world best selling app, is worth purchasing. I have the HD version on my iPad. 😀

Closing
Overall, iPhone 4 is a good phone. Many people asked me whether a Blackberry or an iPhone is good. To me, it’s like comparing apples and oranges. Blackberry to me is good for emails, chatting and work. But it’s terrible for surfing and games. Blackberry’s default browsers cannot load many websites. Maybank2u’s website is one example.

As for iPhone, it’s good for web surfing and games. It’s a little bit difficult for me to type but I guess I can get use to it. I did a typing contest with TimothyTiah once using a Blackberry and an iPhone. Our speed and accuracy were about the same.

So after downloading and installing all the essential apps, my iPhone 4 was perfect. Good things ought to be shared and hence, I gave it to my girlfriend 😀

Hope she will enjoy it as much as I do!

Social Media and Law

w00t! My article on social media and the law was published in The Star newspaper on 21 January 2010. My article was originally named “Social Media and Law” but The Star changed it to “Tweet at your own risk“.


I look like I got lipstick on -_-

The article is below – I’ve added links to some of the words.

Tweet at your own risk
Putik Lada
By FOONG CHENG LEONG

The explosion in Internet-based social networking – fuelled by ease of DIY publishing – is throwing up new challenges, business and legal, to the online community.

THE year 2009 marked an important year for social media networking. It brought change to politics, society and business.

Many politicians set up their own Twitter accounts to connect with the masses.

Many companies – from multinational companies to our local restaurants – set up accounts on social media networking websites to publicise their business, and even to manage consumer complaints.

Malaysian company MOL Global Pte Ltd entered into an agreement with Friendster, Inc to acquire 100% of Friendster.

Also launched was Project Alpha, Malaysia its first online TV show about Malaysian bloggers.

Social media, designed to be disseminated through social interaction, is created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques, Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.

Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures, videos, ratings and bookmarking (Source: Wikipedia). Examples of social media networking websites or tools are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Friendster.

With social media websites rising in popularity, there are now more content generators on the Malaysian online community. Publishing content, once a technical and time consuming task, has been simplified; users merely need to enter text and click a button to publish.

Is Malaysian law able to cope with such changes?

The law governing online activities remains the same. Content generated through social media websites are still governed by laws on defamation, trade mark, copyright, and as well as the Computer Crimes Act 1997, Communi­cations and Multimedia Act 1998, and so on.

Internet users should be vigilant when posting updates, blog entries, tweets, comments and emails.

Even a 140-character limit tweet may get you into trouble. For example, Courtney Love, the widow of Kurt Cobain, was sued by her former clothes designer for defamation, invasion of privacy and inflicting of emotional distress for “an extensive rant” on Twitter about how she was billed for custom clothing.

Social media websites or tools have also been used to attack others. Some users think they can hide incognito behind the screen. However, some were unmasked and had to endure severe punishment.

In 2008, in the case of Applause Store Productions Limited & Anor v Grant Raphael [2008] EWHC 1781 (QB), the claimants were awarded £22,000 in damages against Raphael, an old school friend, who had created a false personal profile of the claimants on Facebook.

Back home, in July 2009, a former bank employee was charged with posting vile and indecent material in a blog with intent to annoy another colleague. He was fined RM8,000, in default two months’ jail.

Making a complaint against malicious users is now fairly easy and can even be done online – at http://aduan.skmm.gov.my, the website of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (MCMC) complaints bureau.

In the face of severe punishments, malicious users will take all sorts of steps to keep their identity secret. They may use fake names and emails, proxy servers, and also install devices to ensure that their identity cannot be traced. However, they are not safe from the long arm of the law.

In the case of The Author of a Blog v Times Newspaper Limited [2009] EWHC 1358 (QB), a blogger sought an interim injunction in the English court to restrain Times Newspapers Ltd from publishing any information that would or might lead to his identification as the person responsible for a blog.

The blogger argued that his anonymity protected him against any action being brought against him. His application failed. The judge commented that blogging is a public activity and any right of privacy would likely be outweighed by public interest in revealing his activities.

Anything posted on the Internet will stay on the Internet. It will travel and be read by other people. Nothing is ever private on the Internet.

A clear example is the case where a former high school teacher in the US was forced to resign over photos and expletives on her Facebook page. The page had photos of her holding wine and beer and an expletive.

Although one may argue that it is one’s right of privacy to have one’s personal activities protected, the law does not prevent others from doing so.

Trade marks and trade names have also been highly abused in social media websites. Many users register their username using trade marks or trade names of other companies or individuals.

Companies have had to seek legal advice on the available courses of action in restraining such action or in obtaining such names back. This resulted in hefty legal fees and also time.

In combating such problems, Facebook gave trade mark owners the opportunity to register their rights to the username before the launch of personalised username and URLs. In doing so, Facebook had taken steps to avoid any lawsuits over trade mark.

Twitter on the other hand was not so lucky. A well-known US sports figure, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa sued Twitter over an account created in his name.

The false account posted updates that gave the false impression that the comments came from La Russa. The suit said the comments were “derogatory and demeaning” and damaged La Russa’s trade mark rights. The case was eventually settled.

The year 2010 will be another interesting year. Internet-enabled phones and data plans are offered at an affordable rate. Users can now access the Internet through their mobile devices whenever and wherever they are.

It will be interesting to see what are the new tools for online social networking, and the new legal challenges for the online community.

> The writer is a young lawyer. Putik Lada, or pepper buds in Malay, captures the spirit and intention of this column – a platform for young lawyers to articulate their views and aspirations about the law, justice and a civil society. For more information about the young lawyers, please visit www.malaysianbar.org.my/nylc.

I think the article was published at the very right time – just a few days after the #yorais trend. I posted the following tweet in the morning and it was subsequently retweeted by other fellow Twitterers.

w00t my article about social media and law is published in d Star newspaper today! http://tinyurl.com/yfxu2pl

It earn me an additional 400 page views!

I have another similar article on Putik Lada published last year entitled Minimising the risks in blogging. Click on the link to read it 😀

Churp Churp

Tweet Tweet, Churp Churp.. does these sounds familiar? If you don’t know, both of them are related to the well known social networking website, Twitter.

Churp Churp, a Twitter advertising network, has come to town. Now you can earn money by having a Twitter account. The payment structure is currently not clear as the website has only recently been launched. But you can check out the mechanism of this advertisement tool below.

Notwithstanding this brilliant method of doing business, some Twitterers are not happy with it. Some has gone into the extend of “unfollowing” anyone who automates their Tweets with advertisements. I, on the other hand, embrace this new media. When Nuffnang came on board with blog advertisements, it cause some resentment in the blogging community. Many complained that their favourite blogs have been commercialised. I think that the advent of Churp Churp on Twitter would suffer the same fate but eventually may become smooth sailing thereafter. All the best to Churp Churp.

Speaking about Twitter, Messrs Richard Wee Lopez has been appointed by the Bar Council to represent them in the inquest into the death of Teoh Beng Hock tomorrow. You may follow their Twitter for live updates.