Do You Need a Smartphone Power Bank?

Something I am not too happy with the Nexus 5 about is the battery life. At 2300 mAh, it's pretty poor. It would be fine for an occasional or normal user but the Nexus 5 really is the sort of phone that a serious smartphone user would have, so for it is certainly disappointing. If I were getting another phone now the benchmark would be at least 3000 mAh, and that is what you find in the OnePlus One and the Sony Xperia Z2.

Nonetheless, I fixed this problem simply by buying a qi wireless charger off eBay for only about $13. I have it at work and this allows me to charge my phone at work simply by laying the phone onto the charging mat. It is incredible how convenient inbuilt wireless charging is. It should be standard across all phones.

The qi wireless charger allowed me to have full power by the time I leave work and even after using the phone on the commute home and at home, I can charge the phone again overnight via micro-USB and then come back to work again and keep charging it. I effectively charge the phone twice in a day. It's a little bit of overkill, but more power is better than no power.

Of course, the only problem is if I don't go to work at all. For example, sometimes in the holidays I go out somewhere and I am gone for the whole day. For example, recently I went to a wedding. The ceremony was at lunch, which means I commuted in the morning, and the reception was in the evening and went on into the night. I was taking photos on the phone like a madman and at around 8pm the phone was dead in spite of my best attempts to keep brightness down and turn off data.

My friends at the wedding with iPhones and therefore even smaller batteries also had low batteries but at least many of them seemed to have power banks on them and they recharged their phones by plugging it into a power bank. I thought this was a brilliant idea, so I resolved to get one for myself.

I looked on eBay and found some for pretty cheap, around $20. However, everyone who used power banks at the wedding were females and they had handbags and purses in which to carry their power banks. I am a man and therefore a bag is beneath me. I need to travel light. Where would I store the power bank? I decided to look for slim power banks with similar dimensions to smart phones so that I can carry them in one of my other pockets. But then I remembered that the power bank is more than the battery itself. You need to carry around a USB to micro-USB cable (or USB to Lightning cable for iPhone) around with you as well. I then looked at buying a wireless power bank given that my phone had a wireless charger, but wireless charging is actually much slower than charging with wire and because much energy is lost via heat with wireless charging, the power banks need to be bigger than normal power banks. Wireless power banks were also note expensive, reaching about $50.

Then I realized, why bother buying a smartphone size power bank with a cable on me when, if I know I am going to use my phone a lot during a day, I can just being along my spare phone? If my Nexus 5 has low battery, I can just take out my spare phone from my other pocket or play games or read books offline on my spare phone, and if I am desperate for internet I can set a hotspot. Everyone should have a spare phone lying around when they upgrade. It is necessary because your main phone might break or get stolen. Instead of carrying around a power bank, it is much easier to just carry around two phones and use the other one instantly when low on battery.

Khmer Font on Sony Xperia Z

If you are a Cambodian person using an Android device, I highly recommend Khmer Standard Keyboard (or try Khmer Standard Keyboard Small Screen for mobile). Once you install one of these apps, go to Settings >Language & input > Default and enter Khmer Standard Keyboard as the default keyboard. The Khmer keyboard should show up whenever you type. The keyboard has a button on the bottom-left that allows you to toggle from an English keyboard to a Khmer keyboard.

If you go to a Khmer website like rfa.org/khmer, you can see Khmer text rendered on the website and, if you are Cambodian, you can read in Khmer on this site. This works for my Firefox browser on my desktop, the Nexus 5, and the Samsung Galaxy S4, as well as many other devices.

However, when you go to rfa.org/khmer using a Sony Xperia Z, the Khmer text does not show up!

This was extremely frustrating. I spent many hours trying to get Khmer font to show up but nothing worked. All the websites kept telling me to root the phone, but rooting the phone can void your warrantly, so it's best not to do that.

I finally got around the problem by installing Firefox for Android and then searching for add-ons and then installing Khmer Fonts Package. This seemed to fix everything up. Khmer text still does not appear on Chrome browser and other apps but it does show up in the Firefox browser, which means you can do a Google search in Khmer and read Khmer websites.

There are a few other apps that seem to show Khmer text on the Xperia Z, e.g. Khmer SMS, Kohsantepheap Daily, and even Google Translate.

Sony Xperia Z2 vs Nexus 5

My Sony Xperia Z is currently in for repairs due to a faulty camera. My main gripe with the Xperia Z is the camera, which is far too slow, and the emergence of dust particles in the lenses doesn't help either. In the meantime I have been using my backup phone, the $150 Kogan Dual Core, which although it is cheap is quite poor compared to the Xperia. It is significantly slower and the display is simply bad. If you really need to buy a cheap smartphone, I recommend paying a little bit more to get the Kogan Agora HD (Quad Core) or the Motorola Moto G. I do not recommend the Kogan Agora Dual Core smartphone. The slowness of the device alone has frustrated me.

I am really tempted to simply buy a Nexus 5 right now but I have heard rumours that the Sony Xperia Z2 will come out soon. The Xperia Z2 is rumoured to have the following specifications:

• 5.2-inch Full HD display with a resolution of 2560x1440
• quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor 
• 3GB of RAM
• 20.7-megapixel main camera
• 3,700mAh battery.

A 2560x1440 resolution would make this a 2.5K phone, which is quite incredible. The screen size, at 5.2 inches, it starting to get quite large. The Z and Z1 were already large phones, but the Z2 is looking even larger. That being said, if largeness were a problem, there is always the 4.3 inch Xperia Z1 Compact, but there is something about returning to a small screen that doesn't appeal to me. If you pay a lot of money for a phone, you want to get your money's worth, so getting less screen real estate, fewer pixels, smaller battery, and so forth just doesn't sit well with me.

Amaysim Round Up to Nearest MB

As much as possible, I try to avoid debt. This means that I buy a car outright with cash rather than get a car loan. With phones, I never go on a phone plan where there is an obligation for me to pay e.g. $60 per month. Rather, I buy a phone outright and get a pre-paid SIM card.

Although I do make some phone calls and texts, the amounts are negligible. I tend to use only mobile data, so when I shop around I look for the cheapest possible pre-paid mobile data. Currently in Australia, this seems to be Amaysim. For $100, they provide you with 10GB of data for one year. However, there is a catch.

Rather than billing customers according to kilobyte, Amaysim bills customers according to megabyte. For example, if you send an email or Facebook message, you will use about 4KB of data. Companies that charge you according to kilobyte will bill you for 4KB of data. However, Amaysim rounds this up to 1MB (about 1000KB) and charges you for that. This practice has been exposed in this Sydney Morning Herald article: Telcos take a byte out of pre-paid mobile deals.

SMH summarises the charging practices of telcos below:

Vodafone - Will charge in 1 kilobyte increments from February 13 on all pre-paid plans. Was proposing 1 megabyte increments across all plans before it about-faced.
Telstra - Charges in 1 kilobyte increments on most pre-paid plans but does charge in 1 megabyte increments on its "Simplicity" plan.
Optus - Charges in 1 kilobyte increments on 1 pre-paid plan and 1 megabyte increments on 2.
Virgin Mobile - Charges in 60 kilobyte increments on all pre-paid plans.
Red Bull Mobile - Charges in 250 kilobyte increments on all pre-paid plans.
Woolworths Mobile - Charges in 1 megabyte increments on all pre-paid plans.
Boost - Charges in 1 megabyte increments on all pre-paid plans.
Crazy Johns - Charges in 10 kilobyte increments on all pre-paid plans.
Amaysim - Charges in 1 megabyte increments on all pre-paid plans.
Kogan Mobile - Charges in 1 megabyte increments on all pre-paid plans.

All this makes it difficult to compare among different providers because you are not comparing the same products and therefore you cannot compare by price.

Even though Amaysim rounds up to the nearest megabyte, the other providers seem to charge much more than Amaysim and even for pre-paid they charge fixed amounts per month. I will stick to Amaysim for now, paying $100 for 10GB and try to limit my data usage to 800MB per month, even though they round up.

Sony Xperia Z1 Compact

I am very excited about the upcoming Sony Xperia Z1 Compact, which is has the same flagship features of the Sony Xperia Z but in a smaller body with a 4.3 inch display rather than the normal Z1's 5 inch display. Sony's phone will be crafted from aluminium and glass (compared to plastic used in Samsung phones and a combination of plastic and aluminium in the iPhone 5 and HTC One). The Sony phones are also waterproof and dustproof.

Sony Xperia Z - 10 Months After

I've had the Sony Xperia Z for about ten months now, so it's time I give an update on this phone.

First I'll start with the good points. I still think the Xperia Z is a beautiful phone with a unique design. It is a phone that I feel good carrying around because of its beauty. It is slim and lightweight, meaning that it fits in the pocket and doesn't bulge out. Even though viewing angles are not as great compared to other phones, the full HD display coupled with Sony's proprietary Mobile Bravia Engine produces excellent, vivid pictures, especially on colourful images of landscapes. Often I would take a picture of amazing scenery, send it to my friends, and they'd be amazed at how much better the same image looked on the Xperia Z.

Another good point about the Xperia Z is its speed. Even though, when it came out, it used the slightly older Snapdragon S4 Pro chip rather than the Snapdragon 600 found in the Galaxy S4, the phone seems to not be bogged down too much and feels smooth and snappy. It's not really the speed of the CPU that I am concerned about. Rather, I prefer consistency. The Xperia Z is consistently good whereas, for example, the Nexus 7 (2012 edition), which uses the Tegra 3 chip, has moments when it is fast, moments when it is slow, and moments when it is frozen.

Onto the bad points, and there are a few now that I've had time to play around with phone for ten months.

Camera

The main issue I have with this phone is the camera. It is a 13MP camera that takes decent phones. It suffers in low light, but all smartphone camera suffer in low light, so that's not a major issue. My main issue is that the Sony camera app takes too long to load. When I talk around, see something I want to take a phone of, I take out the Xperia Z and swipe left from the lockscreen to go to the camera. The phone takes on average about five seconds to fully activate the camera. Phones that have fast cameras include the Nexus 5 and the iPhone 5S. Fast access to the camera is a necessity.

Another issue I have with the camera relates to dust particles. After using the Xperia Z for a while, I have noticed dust particles on the lens. The dust is inside the lens, so I cannot wipe the lens with a cloth to fix it. A Google search reveals that the Xperia Z dust particle issue is not a one-off, but a systematic issue with the phone itself.

Battery

The battery life on the Xperia Z is too short. They have definitely fixed this on the Xperia Z1 by providing 3000 mAh, but the 2300 mAh on the Xperia Z is not enough. Even with power saving features, this phone often runs out of energy in the afternoon. I tend to use phones more than the average person, so perhaps the 2300 mAh is not good enough for me. For the person who using the phone occasionally, the battery capacity is fine.

Cheap iPhone will turn Apple into Samsung

Apple creates the iPhone 5 for $200 and sells it for $700. Google, on the other hand, makes zero or little profit on its Nexus devices (Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10).

Some people do not understand Google's philosophy, citing the fact that Google ads are found on Apple phones as well. The best way to understand Google's plan is to imagine what the world would look like if Googlr never invented Android and Apple controlled the entire smartphone market. Apple would make its iPhones for $200 and because they can they will charge $2000 for it to maximise profits. Because the price is so high, they will not sell much phones but because there profit margin on each phone will be so high, Apple is happy. Google makes money off advertising. If smartphones were all $2000 thanks to lack of competition as a result of monopoly, hardly anyone will use smartphones and therefore not many people would look at Google's ads and Google would not make much money. By creating Android, giving it away for free, and producing high-quality and cheap Nexus and Chromebook devices, Google is able to put pressure on Apple to bring its prices down and get the iPhone into more people's hands. Apple is content with selling fewer phones buy making high profit margins on each, explaining why Apple takes in 80% of smart phones profits even though 80% of smartphones run on Android.

The plan is working, and Apple is giving in. Apple will soon release a cheap plastic iPhone in an attempt to compete with Android at the lower end. Regardless of whether the cheap iPhone increases sales of Apple devices and steals market share from Android, it does not matter since Google ads are on Apple devices. A cheap iPhone will only dilute the Apple brand and transition Apple from a boutique low-volume high-margin company into a commodity mass-manufacturing, high-volume low-margin company. In other words, Apple will become Samsung.

The Key Difference Between Android and iOS

With the latest iOS 7 update, Apple phones look almost exactly like Android phones. According to Know Your Mobile, iOS and Android have copied each other to the point that they are indistinguishable.

Given that Google and Apple are both Silicon Valley tech firms, it is likely that engineers who work at Google will also one day work in Apple and vice versa. Engineers moving around ensure similar ideas are spread. Of course Google and Apple will copy each other.

While I agree that the two operating systems have similar appearances, there are still key differences between the two operating systems. For one, Google is primarily a software company that makes 93% of its revenue from advertising. They Google produce a phone, tablet, or computer, e.g. the Nexus 7, they make no profit on the product, aiming instead to move the market forward, get the device into more people's hands, and make money off advertising. Apple, on the other hand, makes most of its money off the hardware, e.g. making the iPhone 5 for $200 and selling it for around $700 to $800.

Reasons Behind the Decline of the PC

There is a lot being side nowadays about the decline of the PC as sales of tablets and smartphones boom. I still find the PC to be useful mainly because then functionality of most programs and websites on a bigger screen is enhanced significantly. Furthermore, typing on a physical keyboard is faster than a touchscreen keyboard because the touchscreen is smaller, meaning you need to use your use your thumbs to type, and on a large tablet the fact that there is no tactile feedback hampers the efficiency of touch typing. I can type quickly on a tablet, but not as fast as on a physical keyboard.

Another reason why I like to use a PC is because it is more ergonomic (see Are tablet ergonomics a pain in the neck?). Using a tablet for long periods of time causes your neck to move down and forward because you typically hold the tablet (or smartphone) down and lean down to look at it. A PC monitor, on the other hand, sits vertically in front of you, meaning it is safe.

So why do statistics show the PC is in decline? One reason, I think, is because many people already have PCs. PCs are necessary for email, banking, job hunting, and so forth. Because everyone already has a PC, not many people feel a need to buy another. They will keep it until it breaks. Not many people have smartphones or tablets, but that is changing. Many people are switching from features to smartphones and many are buying tablets.

However, just as many people are satisfied with their PCs and don't bother upgrading to the latest Alienware, I believe the smartphone market is not immune to consumers sticking to their old phones because it is good enough and not worth the upgrade. Many Apple users seem to stick with the iPhone 4 rather than upgrade to the 5 and I see many Samsung users sticking to their Galaxy S3 or S2.

One factor working in the smartphone's favour is that the smartphone is a public device. I carry my smartphone around with me and many people see me with my smartphone, so if I were very sensitive about other people's opinions of me, I will buy a beautiful and powerful smartphone to show others that I am stylish but also technologically sophisticated. The PC and tablet, on the other hand, stays at home, so getting something good enough for the lowest cost is the priority.

Many people carry tablets around, e.g. to play games or swatch movies on the train, but I only ever keep my Nexus 7 at home. I normally don't carry anything with me other than a phone, keys, and a wallet. I find it inconvenient to carry a bag or briefcase, and with everything done electronically nowadays, I think it is unnecessary.

To me, a tablet and desktop computer are similar in that they are devices used at home that offer more screen size than the smartphone. At home I rarely use the smartphone because I prefer the bigger screen on a tablet, and if I need a physical keyboard I use the PC.

PC software tends to offer more functionality than the tablet, but not by much, and although I prefer a physical keyboard, many people may not care, and if this is the case many people may find that they can save money by doing without a $500 PC and instead use a cheaper tablet. Decent tablets like the Nexus 7 cost around $200 to $300. You can check email, Facebook, do internet banking, pay bills, and job hunt on a tablet. You don't need a PC. Even if you do need a physical keyboard, you can simply buy a $50 Bluetooth keyboard to pair a $200 Android tablet, and you effectively have a laptop that costs less than most PCs (PCs typically cost around $500 or more).

All these factors I think explain the decline in PC sales. PC manufacturers should just switch and focus on making more phones and tablets.

Stock Android is Overrated

http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/i-tried-the-android-now-give-me-back-my-iphone-20130719-2q92e.html

The opinion piece above from The Age has boiled my blood. I feel I need to address it. The piece claims that Android phones are bad because they are not pure Android phones and even if they are pure Android phones.

I currently have both a Nexus 7 running stock Android and a Sony Xperia Z running Android with Sony refinement. I find the Xperia Z to be much better than stock Android mainly because of added functionality, e.g. small apps and Bravia Engine. Many people actually want to pay more money for more features.

The Nexus devices make sense because they are cheap. The Xperia Z costs about $600 off contract compared to about $330 for the Nexus 4. It makes sense to pay less for something with lesser functionality and features. But $600 for a Google Play Edition Galaxy S4, which is the same price as the normal GS4? No thanks. The iPhone 5 is even worse, as you are paying $800 for an operating system with even less functionality and features than stock Android.

The Importance of Android

The Android operating was invented in 2003 as a camera operating system. It was purchased by Google shortly after and the operating system was modified slightly for use on touchscreen smartphones.

The Apple iPhone was released in 2007 and quickly dominated the touchscreen smartphone market previously dominated by Microsoft's Palm devices. The Apple iPad was then released, also dominated the tablet market, quickly outselling Microsoft's Tablet PCs.

Android started slowly but its growth was explosive. Today Android is used on 70% of all smartphones. It is a free and open source operating system used by numerous manufacturers.

One of the benefits of Android is that the manufacturers who use it are faced with greater competitive pressure, leading to greater value for money for the consumer. If you owned an iPhone 4S and wanted to upgrade to get a faster phone, so you search online and realise that the fastest phone on the market today is the Samsung Galaxy S4. You want to buy it but realise that if you do, you will not be able to transfer your music on iTunes, your apps on the Apple App Store, and so forth to the Galaxy S4 because it uses a Android. So you reluctantly buy an iPhone 5, a phone that is more expensive than the Galaxy S4 but two times slower. This problem exists because you are trapped in the Apple ecosystem. But what if you were in the Android ecosystem and used, say, a Samsung Galaxy S3? Then your upgrade choices are infinite. You buy a phone from HTC, Sony, Motorola, LG, Huawei, Asus, HP, Oppo, and many more. You can buy a phone to suit your preferences and tastes, and if any company wants to rip you off, simply move to another one. You cannot do that with Apple. You are stuck with one company that has no incentive to offer you a better product for a lower price.

Although it is difficult to move from Apple to Android, it all depends on how invested you are in the system. If Apple takes advantage of its customers too much, they may get so angry they will be willing to switch to Android regardless of the costs, so the existence of Android does put pressure on Apple as well as Android partners.

Kogan Agora 5 Dual Core Smartphone ANTUTU BENCHMARKS

I purchased a Kogan Agora 5 dual-core smartphone from kogan.com.au about a week ago when Kogan was offering free shipping. This meant that I paid $149 for the phone rather than $169 for the phone with postage and shipping costs.

This is a 5-inch smartphone that I purchased for my mother for Mother's Day. Unfortunately, my mother used it for one day, found that it was too big to fit in her pocket, and went back to using her old Samsung Galaxy Y Duos. I therefore gave it to my father who gave it to his children (my siblings), and they use this phone as a portable gaming device.

In my opinion, this phone is excellent value. It is no Samsung Galaxy S4, but instead of paying A$700 for the GS4, you only pay A$149. The Agora 5's dual core processor allows it to be fast enough. The battery life is enough to last a day with 2000 mAh, which is decent. The display's pixel density is on the  low side at around 180 ppi, which is about equal to that of the iPad mini. The Agora 5's display is not anywhere as good as the full HD 1080p displays of the GS4, Sony Xperia Z, or HTC One (440 ppi to 470 ppi) but it is good enough. The colours on the Agora 5 appear washed out and lacks vibrancy. Nevertheless, these criticisms are not major and considering it is only A$149, it is forgiveable.

Today I performed an Antutu benchmark test on the Agora 5. It scored 6547 (see image above). This is definitely on the low side. The Kogan Agora 10 dual-core tablet scores 11505 on Antutu. I believe the main reason why the smartphone scores poorly on Antutu given it is dual-core is because it only has 0.5 GB RAM whereas the Agora tablet has 1 GB RAM.

That being said, my siblings like to carry the Agora smartphone around with them for portable gaming likely because it is portable and lightweight. The Agora tablet, on the other hand, like the iPad, is too heavy to simply carry around with you. Unlike the more expensive iPod touch, the Agora smartphone is faster, has a bigger screen, and can be used as a telephone, which I think makes the Agora a better gift for children.

Kogan Agora 5 Dual Core Smartphone

The current phone I am using is a Sony Xperia Z, which I really like. I purchased the phone for about $700 from Kogan, and about a month or so later I notice that it is selling on Kogan for about $550. I probably should have waited.

I will likely go travelling soon to Malaysia. When I go travelling, I don't want to bring my Xperia Z along because, when travelling, I will be throwing my phone around and treating it roughly. It will be crammed in suitcases and SIM cards will be taken in and out, and I may drop it or have it stolen. Instead of carrying around a $500 or $600 phone that is made of glass and that looks very premium, I'd rather bring along a cheap phone for travel.

That is why I purchased the Kogan Agora 5. It is only A$149, and every now and then Kogan has free shipping. Today is one of those days.

Before buying the phone, I've done some googling. I've checked YouTube videos. I've also checked the hardware specifications.

Based on my googling, I don't expect this phone to be as great as phones like the Xperia Z, HTC One, or Galaxy S4. But these high-end Androids cost about five times more.

What really attracts me to the Agora 5 is that it has a dual core processor, which is not typically of phones in this price bracket. A dual core processor is not in the same league as the quad core Xperia Z or HTC One or even the octocore GS4, but since a lot of software is only designed for single or dual core processors, having a dual core processor is often enough. Dual core puts the Kogan into the same league as the Apple iPhones, which are all dual core, (although the cores of the iPhone are not Cortex A9 processors).

The major problem with the Agora 5 is its poor display with its low resolution pixel density of 186ppi, which is about the same pixel density as the iPad mini's horrible display. This is terrible compared to the full HD 1080p displays currently out with pixel densities ranging from 440ppi to 470ppi. Nevertheless, I decided to buy the Agora anyway because 186ppi is not that bad. Low pixel density is bad for reading. It can hurt your eyes. I don't plan to read much while I travel. There is no point travelling if you're just going to read on your phone the whole time. You may as well stay home and read on your tablet. I plan to just do light emailing, Facebooking, and instant messaging when I connect to a hotel's WiFi. Therefore, I will read, but I won't read much. If I really want to pass time, I can play light games.

Another issue with the Agora 5 that I have read about is the camera. Although 5MP seemed adequate, I have read that the camera is horrible and that it does not produce realistic colours. I checked some sample pictures out and though that although it is not perfect, it didn't look that bad, and it certainly looked good enough. Many people are very picky about their phone cameras and are especially concerned about accurate colour reproduction, but in don't mind it too much if the phone goes crazy and makes the colours more vivid horns bit different. It livens upon boring images. I'll have to wait until I actually get the phone before I test there camera. I will put sample photos up.

When I am not travelling, I can use the phone as a backup phone, or if I find someone who still uses a dumbphone, I can offer the phone to them as a gift. I find that smartphones make excellent gifts. I gave my old HTC Desire HD to my grandma and a Samsung Galaxy Y Duos to my mother. These are cheap phones, but people tend to perceive smartphones as very expensive devices, which explains why companies like Apple and Samsung can get away with pricing their phones so high even though it cost them little to make. My prediction for them future is that as time goes by, consumers will understand what they are buying and will choose devices based on price and specs, which will result in competition that will cut margins and make it difficult for companies to make profits. It's already happened in television. In see it happening in phones.

Google Retail Store is a Good Idea

I was at Myer today buying wedding gifts. While there, I walked by an Apple Store and looked at all the iSheep inside playing on iPhones, iPads, and iPad minis. I then remembered news that Google will one day had retail stores just like Apple. I think this is a great idea. The reality is that Google products like the Nexus 4, 7, and 10 are great products but because most people don't buy things online and like to touch and feel things in their hands, there needs to be a physical presence. Once people touch and feel the Nexus smartphones and tablets, realize that these are excellent products that are a fraction of the cost of the equivalent iPhone or iPad, there is a good chance they will buy. Why get the $350 iPad mini with dual-core CPU, 0.5 GB RAM, and low-resolution screen when you can get the Google Asus Nexus 7 with Tegra 3 quad-core CPU, 1 GB RAM, and high-resolution screen for only $200?

Some people say Google starting its own store is just a copycat move by Google to get in on Apple's turf. But Apple did not invent the store. They have existed since ancient times. Selling things in a shop is not new.

Update 15 March 2013: Google have confirmed that they will not have retail stores, which is disappointing.

Did Samsung copy Apple?

Apple is up to no good again. In an effort to impede the success of Samsung's flagship smartphone, the Galaxy SIII, Apple is suing Samsung.

Apple should focus on making phones. The fact is that just about all phones are copies in that they take existing technology and improve it. The iPhone is not original and copied technology e.g. the touchscreen and app idea came from the IBM Simon. The iPhone 4S is definitely an improvement on the IBM Simon, but nowadays the 4S is an overpriced dinosaur. For the same cost (or slightly more) you can get far more powerful smartphones e.g. the HTC One X. This is just natural evolution of phone technology.

Facebook phone is a good idea

There is an article on The Age titled Facebook smartphone? Dumb idea that criticizes the idea that Facebook may create its own line of smartphones.

The article states that there is not much money to be made in smartphones. According to the article, there are two ways of making money in the smartphone industry: the Apply way, which involves creating a phone that is worth $150 and then selling it for $800, thereby making huge profits and making Apple one of the biggest publicy owned companies in the world; the Android way, which involves creating a phone at a cost that varies from $100 to $800 and selling it for only a little bit more, thereby making small profits.  The article assumes that Facebook will opt for the Android way and maybe use the free and open Android operating system or create its own operating system and gain market share by heavily subsidizing the phone and lowering its cost considerably. Facebook intends to make money by gaining large market share and then putting ads on the phones.

I don't think this is a bad idea. However, the article states that this is a poor idea because Facebook is already integrated in most Android and iOS phones. This may be true but Facebook does not control the prices of these phones. Rather, Apple, Samsung, HTC, and so forth control the prices. If Facebook makes a phone, it can subsidize heavily and undercut the rest.

I wouldn't mind buying a supercheap phone and have ads on my Facebook. I'd rather see ads on my Facebook than pay more money on a phone. Comparing smartphones with 1GHz processing power only, currently you can buy a iPhone 4S outright for about $800. You can buy an HTC Desire HD smartphone with 1GHz processing power for $380 outright and unlocked. Suppose Facebook offered a smartphone that was only $150 outright and unlocked with Facebook installed with ads. I certainly would buy it. In terms of value for money, it makes sense. Anyone who is smart with money will do the same things. Facebook will steal customers from Apple, Samsung, and HTC phone users and make more money from advertising revenue. Sounds very smart to me.