DiPot: Ice Tea tech » Events

9th Techblog Workshop; Android or WP7?

ageor — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 07:45:17 +0000

Last Friday, October 22nd, 2010, HTC Hellas hosted the first presentation of its recent lineup of Windows Phone 7 and Android moblies in Greece, in the form of the 9th Techblog Workshop. We were welcomed warmly in a very hospitable environment. No less than four of HTC Hellas’ staff and management team were there to answer all our questions. They offerred us enough room and time to fiddle with the Desire HD, Desire Z, HD7, Trophy and Mozart in an informal and quire friendly atmosphere.

In a room full of cheerfull people, unique, desirable mobile phones and plenty of snacks and drinks to go around, my task was to answer all the questions raised by the relevant literature I read after the introduction of WP7 to get an informed opinion about both the latest Androids and WP7. More than that, I am to be the first consumer of my own verdict!

All the phones are impressive, but HTC does that all the time. So much so that I regularly wonder why they don’t make a device with a choice of Android or Windows or both so everybody would be happy and able to switch platform at will…

My dilemma between the two platforms has been the major issue since the announcement of WP7. So, having the opportunity for a hands-on experience with a top-of-the-line WP7 device (thanks to Costas Vlachakis and techblog.gr, I had tried many Android devices including Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab) is all it took to resolve it.

WP7 is great as it should be, but some of its limitations are just unacceptable to me: controlled multitasking, fixed browser, search engine & media player, no flash support, no copy/paste, windows live account requirement (plus my old hotmail account probably won’t do) and no greek keyboard out of the box.

Based on the above, my preference goes to Android. While it has limitations of its own, it is more open and developers get more freedom to deliver on the platform. Which Android, then? An intentional Android limitation quite serious to me is lack of direct Outlook synchronization. So, since HTC has the only real solution to this problem that I know of and its devices are top notch anyway, I am having an easy choice there: If Android then HTC.

Yes, Super AMOLED is probably better than SLCD. Interestingy, Desire HD, with its 4.3′ screen, did not feel as bulky as the HD2 originally felt although their actual size is about the same; I guess the idea hs grown into me. And 4.3″ is better than Samsung Galaxy S’s 4″. The other contender, Galaxy Tab, is still at the back of my head as a single, middle ground solution, compared to a phone and a netbook or notebook. However, I think I am not ready to carry my phone in a bag just yet.

I am now waiting for HTC Desire HD’s availability to go on and get it. But I’m not talking about it much, because last year I was saying that about HD2 and then WP7 was announced…

Thank you, techblog.gr for a great workshop. Thank you HTC Hellas for your hospitality. Thank you both for a very productive evening!

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3rd Media Camp Athens 2010: The Program so far #mca2010

ageor — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:23:39 +0000

The program below is hot-linked to the “Presentations” box of the “Events” tab of the 3rd Media Camp Athens 2010 site. If you want to host some of its pages or the event widget to the right yourself, please ask for the javascript code.

This page requires frame support. Please use a frame compatible browser to see the amiando ticket sales widget.

Try out the online event registration system from amiando.

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Athens Startup Weekend 2008

ageor — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:53:30 +0000

First things first. I told them all in person and I’m saying it here as well. Special thanks go to Andrew Hyde, the mind behind Startup Weekends, Alexandros Pagidas, the person who brought it in Athens, Patrick Malone, our host in Microsoft Innovation Center venue (Patrick and Lydia, you definitely improved Microsoft’s image for all of us), the sponsors of the event (Domino’s, Loumidis, Coca Cola-3E, Wind; hopefully I am not forgetting anyone) and all the professionals who dropped in to give us a hand. I won’t go into the event itself. Others have already done that; follow the event’s site and the links all over this post for that.

In danger of giving the feeling of repetition to readers of other relevant posts, I’ll say it: Athens Startup Weekend was a successful event and proved several points (Greeks can actually work together without shouting or arguing all the time, previous acquaintance is not important, teams can form without guidance or many introductions etc.). Plus, it produced and set off a number of ideas that can eventually work.

Andrew mentioned that Startup Weekends are not meant to create viable startups over the weekend but, rather, form a community among the participants. In a private conversation he said only 4 such startups were created in Startup Weekend history so far (unfortunately I didn’t get the names). The event is meant to prove that people who didn’t know each other before can sit around the same table, share and expand on an idea and make the most out of it in a very short time-frame. The important thing is not the idea, but that these people can work together, add their talents to a cause and produce a combined result that’s greater than the sum of their individual strengths. At the end of the day, these people become potential partners/collaborators in these very same or other promising projects.

The event put the best out of us all. We expressed our opinions and discussed difficult matters (we sometimes knew nothing about) in a civil, productive manner. We all got out of there with some fresh ideas, some new potential friends and partners, the knowledge that talented, cooperative people are there waiting to be found and great accomplishments are so much closer than expected. Indeed, 10 great projects were born.

I consider myself privileged to have been a part of it and hope the event does go annual so we can experience it again.

Here are a few additional relative links (no particular order; I’ll be happy to add links I’ve missed):