My Soapbox

I had been here once before, but was escorted by a few wannabe-geeks who got bored after an hour walking the streets of Electronics Paradise: that is Akihabara Electric Town in Tokyo.

This time I went alone, spent eight hours walking through shop after shop, quickly becoming desensitized to the schoolgirl-costumed girls handing out coupons, the crowds shamelessly shoving, and the rain that poured. I was in Akihabara - the candy store district for grown-ups.

I sadly finished the day having bought very little. I eyed many compact HD video cameras, phones of every shape in bright colors (check out the new Sharp Willcom units here that run Windows Mobile) that played high-quality wireless TV, games for my XBOX 360 and PSP, and a million and one computer accessories. In the end, format and voltage worries kept me at bay. But, I still had a thoroughly satisfying day of drooling over gadgets. If you're ever in Tokyo, Akihabara is a must visit for any fellow geeks!

I know that rising airline ticket prices are putting some major hurt in everyone's wallets. However, I was reminded about another kind of airline hurt yesterday when I flew from Singapore to Beijing: that's the literal PAIN IN YOUR [INSERT PERSONAL WORD HERE] kind of hurt from the lousy seats and layouts of too many planes today.

What frustrated me most is that I wasn't flying some low-cost airline - this was Singapore Airlines. Their older planes are configured similarly to many other mainstream carriers today (I know from personal experience that it's like United, Northwest, American, British Airways, KLM, etc.):

• After an hour or so lots of surprising lumbar support appears - you know, the type that comes when the foam has fallen out of older seats so it's just your precious flesh against a metal frame.
• It seems like the seat to your left and right are quite spacious, but the one you were so lucky to nab has an unwanted heater box on the floor, the curtain to the next class keeps flipping against your head, or every passer-by bumps into you because the aisle location changes direction at your knees.
• Then there are those planes where the back 10 rows have a jet engine directly outside the window: if you didn't bring ear plugs you'll be deaf for 24 hours after you land.
• Probably the worst seat location is right outside the toilets. I've had some Alaska and United flights where the fumes were enough to kill you.

Anyway, in the middle of my flight last night I remembered a great resource - a must-use tool for any traveler; I stopped using it over the past year because I'm always on Singapore Airlines and I'd never - until last night - had a bad seat. Try out Seat Guru - it will save your back, butt, nose, ears and sanity :)

This morning at the office I received what I thought to be a mistaken shipment: a good-size wood crate addressed to me from Korea. I was expecting a couple of OMNIA phones to show next week at Communicasia where I'm speaking - but the box here totally threw me.

I've only had a few minutes to play with the phone, but my early impressions are:

• Snappy performance
• Gorgeous WVGA screen
• Interesting widgets you move around on the home screen - need to play with these a bit more; you get a bunch of customization options, still curious about usability
• Best camera I've ever used on a Windows Mobile phone. Some people might say that isn't saying much; however, at a glance the image quality appears better than the big shooter on my Nokia N82 with a Zeiss lens.
• Overall great build quality/craftsmanship: it feels like you're holding a high-end phone

For an actual review visit CNET; Michael over at MobileBurn has a good overview and pics as well. If you're in the market for a new smartphone it's a great time to shop around: The HTC Touch Diamond (got one of these last week - WOW!), the OMNIA, Apple is about to make a big announcement, and I know Nokia has a few phones to unveil next week too...  Good times!

I see a lot of phones, so many that I can tend to be a bit critical of things most people would consider minor, if at all. However, the new HTC Diamond (The Unwired has several good reviews) has got me feeling like a kid on Christmas morning.

Check out the video on HTC's website - this one is a must have...

Yeah, I know there have been lots of lists like this published over the years. But I thought this one was interesting as it was published by CRI, a Chinese news site. There are of course some expected locations, but the order is a bit different than what Western surveys have produced...

1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Seoul, South Korea
3. Singapore!
4. Hong Kong, China
5. San Francisco, USA
6. Seattle, USA
7. Helsinki, Finland
8. Bangalore, India
9. Munich, Germany
10. Tel Aviv, Israel