Camera phones are changing the role of the traditional camera by adding an omnipresent touch engaging a newly personal awareness and unrelenting vigilance to the visually newsworthy making amateur photojournalists out of its users. Additionally reporting is evolving by quieter methods but with equally important practices under the radar of published news at the micro and macro variety.

The mundane is now elevated to the potential news level and sending camera phone photos to major news outlets are just one end of the wide range of everyday mass second-rate journalism via camera phones.

Camera phones are also revolutionizing the watchdog role of publishing institutions by providing an open medium for amateur photojournalists on a micro and macro scale. The innovation of the camera phone has also affected the entertainment industry by giving birth to a new generation of amateur paparazzis.

Newsworthy, noteworthy and photo-worthy covers an expansive continuum from the personal that are never shared to the intimately newsworthy moments. Camera phones have transformed journalism from the latest news headline to news shared between family members.

Camera phones capture the more fleeting and unexpected moments where the world can practically view news with the immediacy of an eyewitness. For example, during the recent cyclone in Burma the local people with camera phones were able to provide live photo and video footage of scenes that would normally pass by uncaptured.

Camera phones are also wearing away the power of totalitarian governments to control communications, and giving the outside world an inside look at the real situation that the citizens are facing. This is especially worrisome for the China officials as it gives much leverage for opposing political groups. In neighboring Burma, where the military dictators are even more strict, camera phones have provided the outside world with a firsthand look at the kind of violence and brutality that the regime uses to control the people. When the brutal crackdown on the monks took place 6 months ago, photos and videos of the demonstrators being beaten immediately surfaced all over the internet – largely taken by multimedia phones. When the government found out, they shut down the internet in the entire country for two weeks while attempting to confiscate as much of the footage as possible, but to little avail.

By popular request, here is the full step-by-step guide to using a Asus Eee PC with a Novatel Merlin XU870 3G/HSDPA/EDGE wireless card.

You will need.

• Asus Eee PC (this guide is for the Linux version)
• Novatel Merlin XU870
• USB Extension cable*
• USB - Expresscard adaptor*

* Note: Both the USB extension cable and the USB-Expresscard adaptor are supplied free if you buy your XU870 from Edge Thailand, for this demonstration I am using a DTAC sim card in Thailand, the principle is the same worldwide and I have used the same set-up with UK providers including 3 in the UK.

Step By Step Guide.

Switch on your Asus Eee PC , plug the XU 870 into the adaptor and then connect to the Asus Eee PC using the USB extension cable.

Next..

Click on the “Network” Icon as shown..

Next..

Click the “Create” button as shown..

Next..

Choose “GSM / 3G (UMTS) / HSDPA” as the connection type and click the “Next” Button as shown.

Next..

Assuming that your Novatel is connected and a sim card is installed then you should see it in the select hardware window, select Novatel Wireless and click the “Next” button.

Next..

Click the “Search” button.

Next..

After a scan of available networks, your network should appear highlighted in green, if you are roaming then you may have more than one choice.

Click the “Next” button..

Simply choose a name for this connection, or accept the default.

Next..

That’s it, you can now connect via your Novatel Merlin and enjoy real mobile internet.

Thanks to Tim at www.edgethailand.com for the Novatel Merlin and the USB-Expresscard adaptor that makes this possible.

The new Blackberry 9000 is known by a few names; it’s also called Blackberry Bold and most infamously the ‘AK’ (Apple Killer).

The latter was surely coined from within their own circle of followers since it’s not very likely to live up to it. This is mainly due to some blatant weaknesses caused by rigid adherence to unreasonable beliefs, such as the CEO of RIM and his aversion for touch screens.

It wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve even rigged the 9000 to scan and blacklist all fingerprints that come into contact with its screen. Although the display quality has gotten nothing but good reviews, it’s just too small. In fact, it’s one of the smallest of all smart-phones and a whole inch smaller than the iPhone. It seems that they could easily have removed a row of buttons (talk, end, scroll ball) by giving them touch screen support, this would allow the screen size to be increased quite easily. The full QWERTY keyboard turns out to be much more improved than the previous 8800 version, although it remains a little bulky and compromises the size of the display (as mentioned above).

If it’s interested in competing with the iPhone one of the first things to do would be to improve the camera, but according to the specs released, they stuck with 2 measly mega-pixels. The only noticeable advantage over the iPhone is that it includes 3G. So if the new iPhone is as near to being released as is suspected, it will leave the Blackberry with quite a bland taste in comparison. The Blackberry 9000 will be released sometime this summer as soon as it goes through carrier certification.

Power is limiting factor when it comes to smart-hand-held technologies. Everyone would love not having to worry about recharging their phone for a week, or being able to run their laptop off the battery for a whole working day. Fuel cells may be the panacea for portables, since they have a capacity 10 times greater than they types of batteries currently in use. In terms of raw power output, methanol fuel cells produce 40 times more wattage per liter than lithium-ion batteries.

In Sony’s latest prototype, 10ml of methanol sustained 14 hours of cell phone video play. But it’s a bit bulky and only a hybrid prototype - the new fuel cells aren’t stable enough to stand alone yet. That seems to be what’s got the FAA nervous as well. Although the Department of Transportation will allow the fuel cells to be taken on planes, the FAA is currently conducting multi-scenario ‘flammability-tests’ before giving the final approval.

Interestingly, methanol is environmentally friendly, also called bio-fuel since it can be made from organic waste products. A favorable alternative to the volatile lithium-ion batteries. On the other hand, researchers are looking for an alternative to methanol because it requires an expensive catalyst such as platinum. Such a limitation would keep the cost of production too high to integrate with modern devices, and lack of alternative materials has slowed research. Bringing fuels cells down to the nano-scale may be another solution to this problem since it can greatly increase the surface area of the catalyst exposed. Improved methods of manufacturing are bringing these nano-scale fuel cells closer to production.

The recent developments in fuel-cell technology seem to be the first step towards running things off water. In fact, Samsung is planning to have a cell phone that runs off of water by 2010.

I recently needed to use my Eee PC whilst on the move, no problem at airports and other areas with (sometimes) free wi-fi but I ended up in a Travel Lodge where they wanted ten pounds extra to use the wi-fi, so instead I bought a “3″ sim card for a tenner and it came with 1 gb of internet use.. more than enough for me to answer a few emails and surf a couple of websites.

I had my trusty Novatel Merlin XU870 in my bag and my USB adaptor so that it plugs into my Asus Eee PC, I slipped in the “3″ sim and the next thing I knew I was surfing at true broadband speeds via HSDPA at nearly 3 mbps… amazing.

My Novatel Merlin is the most flexible of data cards as I can connect it to:

• Expresscard directly
• USB Via USB Adaptor
• PC Card Slot via a Caddy
• PCI slot via a PC Caddy and PCI Adaptor.

All the adaptors and the datacard itself came from Tim at www.edgethailand.com who always seems to have the best prices and a wealth of information that you just wont find elsewhere. Thanks Tim.

Yesterday I bought an Asus Eee from Pantip Plaza (Thailand) and it’s an amazing little notebook that is great fun to use and does everything well.

I bought it to use when I travel around, as do quite regularly. It was important to me that I can use it with EDGE so that I can have internet access everywhere and not just within range of a wi-fi access point. To my utter amazement I plugged in my Novatel Merlin XU870 via a USB adaptor and the Eee recognised it immediately and virtually set itself up and even recognized Dtac and set up the APN correctly.

What makes this machine so special?

1> It’s cheap, very very cheap.

2> It’s the lightest notebook I have ever seen.

3> The screen and keyboard are amazing for the size.

4> Long battery life and miniture charger.

5> Works with my EDGE card

6> It’s fast.. really fast.

7> Boots up in seconds.

8> Switches off in seconds.

It’s fair to point out that good as the screen is, it could do with being an inch or two bigger with slightly more resolution, and the trackpad is small and not so easy to use.

The reason this is so fast is because it uses a SSD instead of an old fashioned hard drive, and the Operating System is a customized version of linux that works faultlessly and feels very much like windows, only faster.

This morning I had a delivery from Fed-Ex, nothing unusual about that except this one had kept me awake at night in anticipation since I placed my order on eBay.com for my sim free iPhone.

I won’t go into the nitty gritty of how much this sucker cost me, but let’s just say that it was expensive by any standards, especially when you consider the cost of shipping. My real concern was that It may be intercepted by customs, I have had that happen before and It takes all day to get it sorted as technically your need a licence (costing 1500 baht) to import communications devices.  No problems with customs getting my iPhone today.

I should point out here that this iPhone is unlocked, most of the ones on eBay are locked to AT&T which would not work in Thailand at all.  It cost more than a standard iPhone, and I should say here that I have no idea at all about how to unlock a iphone, either for use in Thailand or elsewhere.

Like all Apple products the iPhone is very nicely packaged, it’s obvious from the start that this is a very high quality product.

I slipped my AIS sim card into the iphone, switched on and after a moment and an impressive startup I now have a working iPhone in Thailand.

I’m going to play with setting up my email, browser etc.  I have already made a couple of calls to check that it’s all working and it seems to me to be very high call quality indeed.

One problem that I need to get sorted is that my AIS prepaid sim charges me 1 baht per min for data transfer, this thing seems to be using the data connection all the time so I need to get that changed to an unlimited plan, perhaps DTAC will be a better option.

Now that we are close to the US release of the iPhone, many of us expats here in Thailand are looking forward to being able to buy one here. I know I am.

Looking at the spec it should work fine in Thailand straight out of the box, the reason for this is that the iPhone uses GPRS/EDGE rather than 3G/HSDPA/EV-DO/CDMA or any of the faster data services and THATS GOOD! Thailand has virtually wall-to-wall EDGE service across the country, and even where there are holes in the EDGE network it will fallback to GPRS.

I spoke to Tim at EdgeThailand.com the other day. Tim had been importing and selling all the latest gadgets for years and I’m confident that he will have a batch of iPhones for us here in Thailand within days of the US release..he did not confirm that, but he did not deny it either.

I will be interested to see what the UK spec iphone will have, there is no EDGE in the UK and GPRS whilst it’s ok for fallback is still a bit too slow. Anyone importing “grey market” iphones into Thailand will have it easy if they source them in the US.

Expect to see a review here soon after US launch!

I have always been a big fan of real wireless data. Not the Wi-Fi rubbish that is about as useful as a cordless phone, but GPRS. EDGE, 3G HSDPA or EV-DO technologies which allow real wireless freedom.

Since I changed to a MacBook Pro I have had to use a mobile tethered to my my Mac by a USB cable, not very elegant and to be honest the data rate has never been able to match my trusted old Sierra Wireless 860 which will not fit in the Mac’s Expresscard slot.

I just found salvation in the form of a Novatel Merlin XU870 supplied by www.edgethailand.com.

The card is a dream to use, supplied from Edge Thailand complete with data sim card and easy to use software for both Mac and PC, and it’s quick too.

Now I’m truly mobile once again, thanks to Tim at Edge Thailand.