Review: Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera

Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera. Photo by NICHOLAS YEO

This Micro Four Thirds camera packages modern features with old world charm

 SINGAPORE - The Olympus OM-D E-M5 is the latest Micro Four Thirds camera from Olympus. The retro-designed camera will fit into any locally curated museum, but does it live up to the rich OM legacy?

The advent of the single-lens reflex system saw cameras increase in size as well as weight and Olympus' OM series was born out of an aspiration to create a product that was capable of photographing everything, yet housed in a compact and light body.

The E-M5 pays homage to the series that was first launched in 1971.

The design of the camera follows the OM series very closely, which places dedicated control dials and direct access buttons within reach of fingertips.

The E-M5 arrives at no better time as street photography and retro imaging through apps such as Instagram gains massive popularity. That the camera offers 11 filters and five art effects will endear it to retro fans.

The beauty of the E-M5 lies in the combination of modern features in a vintage 35mm-film shell.

First on its lengthy list of modern features is the 16-megapixel Live MOS Sensor and the TruPic VI image processing engine. The sensor might be smaller than those found in DSLRs but it delivers superb dynamic range. Compared to the Olympus E-P3, the E-M5 has considerably less noise.

Even when I shot at a sensitivity as high as ISO 6400, images were impressive for a camera of its size.

The E-M5 features a 3-inch, 610,000 dot capacitive touch OLED monitor that swivels to facilitate shooting at high and low angles. The intuitive screen displays crisp, high resolution images even in bright light.

A common complaint of compact system cameras is their slow focusing speed. The E-M5 addresses this issue with its "Fast AF" system - the fastest in the world among interchangeable lens cameras, according to its press release.

Another advanced feature of the E-M5 is the "5-axis" image stabilisation system that compensates for camera shake of any kind. This came in very useful, especially during video operation in Full HD mode.

During night-time shooting, the image stabiliser allowed me to shoot pin sharp images at slow shutter speeds.

From a professional standpoint, the electronic viewfinder (EVF) may be the only major trade-off on the E-M5. Make no mistake, the EVF is of high resolution and contrast, and most cameras of such size do not even come with a viewfinder. However, a limited refresh rate means it cannot replace the optical viewfinder or the hybrid viewfinder like those found on other mirrorless cameras.

The E-M5 is one of the most customisable compact cameras currently available in the market. A range of professional accessories make it truly a compelling choice for travellers and street photographers.

It is also natively compatible with Panasonic-branded Micro Four Thirds lenses, which means Micro Four Thirds lens owners do not have to spend money on a new lens system.

The body of the camera is constructed with a durable, dust and splash resistant magnesium alloy that can withstand the harshest environmental operating conditions - as demonstrated by an Olympus executive at a press conference held earlier this year.

The Olympus OM-D E-M5 comes in black and silver, and is currently available at retailers from S$1,488 without lens. NICHOLAS YEO

 Source: todayonline.com

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Apple's patent not infringed by HTC's 'slide to unlock' mechanism, court rules

LONDON - Apple lost a key patent battle against smartphone rival HTC in the high court in London today, meaning that the Silicon Valley company cannot ban certain of the Taiwanese firm's products in Britain.

As rumours intensified that Apple is about to launch a cut-price version of its iPad to grab even more of the tablet market, HTC won what one independent lawyer called a "significant" victory after the high court invalidated a patent covering the "slide to unlock" method used to access the main screen. That means that Apple cannot ban imports to the UK of HTC phones that use a similar system - and the decision could affect other Apple cases in Europe against HTC, Motorola and Samsung.

Elsewhere, Bloomberg reported that two sources have told it that Apple is preparing an iPad with a 7in screen - about half the area of its current 10in product. The smaller version could be priced to fight off competition from Amazon and Google, which both have similar offerings: Amazon's Kindle Fire, and Google's Nexus 7, made by Asus and expected to go on sale later in July.

The UK court ruling is the latest round in an international patent war between Apple and rivals that make handsets and tablets using Google's Android mobile software, which is now the most used on smartphones worldwide. Earlier this week Apple won an injunction against Samsung preventing it from importing its Galaxy Tab tablets and Galaxy Nexus smartphone into the US. In response, Samsung and Google are working on a software patch to change how the devices work and circumvent the cause of the injunction.

Peter Bell, senior associate in the intellectual property team at law firm Stevens & Bolton LLP, said the decision was "a considerable defeat" for Apple in the smartphone patent wars: "Two of Apple's prize patents have been knocked out in the UK, including the patent that protects the 'slide to unlock' mechanism that consumers are likely to associate with Apple's products, and a third patent has been knocked out in part. The fourth patent that was in dispute was held not to be invalid, but not infringed by HTC's devices."

Bell suggests that Apple will take the case to the court of appeal, while HTC will try to use the result in other ongoing cases around Europe. Richard Windsor, technology analyst at the stockbroker Nomura, said ahead of the ruling that: "The issue here remains Android. If these [Apple] patents stand up to examination at trial and are found to be valid then there are substantial implications for all Android devices, as it's that software where the infringement claims are being made."

Apple UK on Wednesday declined to comment on the judgment, but reiterated its stance on patents, saying in a statement that "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

Interest in a smaller iPad has intensified, meanwhile, with rumours that Apple will launch such a device, which have circulated on the internet since May 2010, growing as sources in the supply industry have begun to suggest it will happen. Apple has previously taken a similar approach in the music player market, which it dominated with the iPod as the iPad now does with tablets, offering smaller versions at lower prices to shut out rivals.

Bloomberg declined to name its sources, or a date when the product might be launched, but many expect it would launch in the autumn, perhaps alongside a new version of the iPhone. Apple executives declined Guardian requests for comment.

Apple has about 61 per cent of the tablet market, which researchers DisplaySearch say will be worth US$66.4bn (S$84 billion) this year. A smaller version could undercut Google and Amazon's ambitions to get a profitable slice of the market, Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach, told Bloomberg: He reckoned Apple could price it at about US$199, the same price as the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7. "It would be the competitors' worst nightmare," he said. "The ball is in Apple's court." While Android tablets have a sizeable share of the market, none apart from Samsung has over 10 per cent.

Microsoft is also trying to shift into the tablet market, having announced that it will make and market an 11in device, the Surface, though no price or launch date has been given.

Wu told Bloomberg that the gross margin on the latest iPad is about 37 per cent of its price, and that Apple could earn a similar profit on a smaller iPad by using a cheaper screen, while charging a bit more than rivals - and even then not lose sales. "This isn't like the old days, when it cost thousands of dollars more to buy an Apple product," Wu said. "Fifty or a hundred bucks wouldn't be enough to make someone switch [from Apple]."

If Apple releases a smaller iPad, it would directly contradict the late Steve Jobs's withering criticism of such devices in October 2010, when he said people would have to sandpaper their fingers to make the tips small enough to use the devices. But Jobs was not above misdirection either: In September 2005, asked whether Apple would launch iPods able to play video, he said it wasn't clear what the use would be. One month later, Apple launched the first iPod capable of playing video. GUARDIAN

A man cycles past a HTC advertisement in Taipei in this December 7, 2011 file photograph. REUTERS

Source: todayonline.com

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Record S$7.5 billion second-quarter profit for Samsung

SEOUL - Soaraway sales of the Galaxy smartphone drove record quarterly profit of US$5.9 billion (S$7.46 billion) at Samsung, though the South Korean tech giant is fretting over how Europe's debt crisis is denting demand in its biggest market for televisions and home appliances.

In its April-June earnings guidance this morning, Samsung, valued at US$170 billion and the world's leading maker of TVs, smartphones and DRAM memory chips, estimated operating profit jumped 79 per cent to 6.7 trillion won (S$7.47 billion) from a year ago.

The average forecast in a Reuters survey of 23 analysts was for 6.67 trillion won. That forecast had been revised down slightly due to delays in shipping the latest Galaxy S III smartphone. The estimated second-quarter profit is 14.5 per cent higher than the previous record quarterly profit of 5.85 trillion won in the first quarter.

Samsung estimated its second-quarter revenue at 47 trillion won, just below a 50 trillion won forecast.

Samsung is due to release its full second-quarter results - the first since former components chief Kwon Oh Hyun took over as CEO - towards the end of this month.

Samsung's flagship Galaxy smartphones are likely to have stretched their lead over rivals Apple and Nokia - despite a parts shortage that meant it struggled to keep up with stronger-than-expected demand for the S III model. REUTERS

Source:  todayonline.com

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Samsung wins bid to sell Nexus in Apple court battle

An employee of South Korean mobile carrier
KT holds a Samsung Electronics' Galaxy tablet 10.1 (R)
and Apple Inc's iPad (L) at a registration
desk at KT's headquarters in Seoul
, in this August 10, 2011 file photo. REUTERS

WASHINGTON - Samsung scored a partial victory against arch-foe Apple yesterday after a US appeals court lifted a freeze on sales of its Galaxy Nexus smartphones but upheld a lower court's decision to temporarily halt sales of its Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer.

Apple accused its Asian rival, the leader in global mobile device sales, in lawsuits of blatantly copying its hot-selling iPhones and iPads.

Last week, a San Jose court granted rare, temporary injunctions against the sale of the Galaxy mobile devices in question, a triumph for the Silicon Valley consumer electronics giant that had asked for the bans until their trial begins July 30.

Apple has waged an international patent war since 2010 as it seeks to limit the growth of Google's Android system, the world's most-used mobile operating platform. Opponents of Apple say it is using patents too aggressively in a bid to stamp out competition.

Apple and Samsung Electronics, the world's largest consumer electronics companies, are waging legal battles in about 10 countries, accusing each other of patent infringement as they vie for supremacy in a fast-growing market for mobile devices.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said it would temporarily stay the smartphone injunction while it considers Apple's arguments, the court said in a brief order. It gave Apple a July 12 deadline to respond.

The decisions are the latest in a long-running battle between Samsung and Apple in US courts but are unlikely to severely depress the Asian tech-power's bottom line since it is rolling out new tablet and smartphone models. On Friday, Samsung announced that soaring sales of its smartphones helped drive a record US$5.9 billion (S$7.5 billion) quarterly profit.

Earlier this week, US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, rejected Samsung's request to lift her June 26 order to halt sales of the tablet, which runs on Google Inc's Android operating system and goes toe-to-toe with the iPad.

Koh also slapped a pre-trial ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone a week ago.

Apple sued Samsung last year, accusing the South Korean electronics maker of "slavishly" copying the iPhone and iPad. Samsung denies the claim and countersued.

Samsung's Galaxy touchscreen tablets are considered by many industry experts to be the main rival to the iPad, though they are currently a distant second to Apple's devices.

Apple sold 13.6 million iPads from January through March to control 63 percent of the global tablet market, according to research from Display Search. Samsung sold 1.6 million tablets, giving it 7.5 percent of the market. REUTERS

Source:  todayonline.com

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Judge halts US sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab

SAN FRANCISCO - A United States judge yesterday backed Apple's request to stop Samsung Electronics selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the US, giving the iPhone maker a significant win in the global smartphone and tablet patent wars.

Samsung's Galaxy touchscreen tablets, powered by Google's Android operating system, are considered by many industry experts to be the main rival to the iPad, though they are currently a distant second to Apple's device. Microsoft and Google are also preparing tablet offerings.

US District Judge Lucy Koh had previously denied Apple's bid for an injunction on the tablet and multiple Galaxy smartphones. However, a federal appeals court instructed Judge Koh to reconsider Apple's request on the tablet.

"Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products," Koh wrote yesterday, adding the order should become effective once Apple posts a US$2.6-million (S$3.3-million) bond to protect against damages suffered by Samsung if the injunction is later found to have been wrong.

Apple has waged an international patent war since 2010 as it seeks to limit the growth of Google's Android system, the world's best-selling mobile operating platform. A decisive injunction in one of the US legal cases could strengthen Apple's hand in negotiating cross-licensing deals, where firms agree to let each other use their patented technologies.

Opponents of Apple say the iPhone and iPad maker is using patents too aggressively in its bid to stamp out competition.

"The relief being given to Apple here is extraordinary. Preliminary injunctions are rarely asked for and rarely granted," said Prof Colleen Chien, a professor at Santa Clara Law in Silicon Valley.

"That this was a design patent and copying was alleged distinguish this case from plain vanilla utility patent cases. Cases involving these kinds of patents are based more on a counterfeiting theory than a competition theory, so I don't expect this case to have ramifications for all smartphone disputes, but rather those involving design patents and the kind of product resemblance we had here."

The injunction against Samsung comes less than a week after Apple suffered a serious setback when a federal judge in Chicago dismissed its patent claims against Google's Motorola Mobility unit. Judge Richard Posner ruled that an injunction barring the sale of Motorola smartphones would harm consumers.

Samsung will likely seek to appeal Judge Koh's ruling to a federal appeals court in Washington, which has exclusive jurisdiction over intellectual property disputes.

"Apple sought a preliminary injunction of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, based on a single design patent that addressed just one aspect of the product's overall design," Samsung said in a statement. "Should Apple continue to make legal claims based on such a generic design patent, design innovation and progress in the industry could be restricted."

The South Korean firm said it would take necessary legal steps, and did not expect the ruling to have a significant impact on its business, as it has a broad range of products. It brought out three tablet models last year alone.

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet reiterated a prior statement from the company, saying Samsung's "blatant copying" is wrong. REUTERS

Source:  www.todayonline.com

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For Samsung, Galaxy halo effect comes with supply crunch

Samsung expects sales of its new Galaxy S III
to top 10 million during July. REUTERS

SEOUL - Samsung Electronics' struggle to keep pace with rampant demand for its new Galaxy S III smartphone may have cost the South Korean firm some 2 million units of sales in just a month.

For a company that has never stirred the sort of consumer frenzy that accompanies each new Apple gadget, overwhelming demand is a nice problem to have. But some of the shortage stemmed from a manufacturing glitch that affected some European sales, while major carriers in the United States have had to delay delivery of some pre-ordered phones.

The Galaxy S III has received the most positive reviews among any of the Samsung smartphones, and the technology giant says the phone is on track to become its fastest selling smartphone, with sales likely to top 10 million in the first two months since its launch.

The latest Galaxy's launch has been well timed as the next iPhone is not expected until later this year, and offerings from others such as Google's Motorola and Nokia have not created much of a market stir.

"Samsung might have been caught off guard by the demand, not because they did not believe in their own products, but because they might have over-estimated the competition," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. "In other words, aside from the iPhone and HTC's One X there's not much out there at the moment, which would have certainly helped Samsung."

Analysts reckon the Galaxy shortage will be a temporary hiccup, affecting some 2 million units of shipments in the April-June quarter. Samsung expects another record quarter of earnings from its handset business in the current period, helped by solid sales of its predecessor S II and phone-cum-tablet Galaxy Note.

Barclays lowered its forecast for Samsung's second-quarter Galaxy S III shipments to 6.5 million from 8 million, but raised its third-quarter shipment forecast by 1 million to 15 million.

Samsung said component shortages have been resolved and it is running at full tilt to meet demand. "It is simply that demand far exceeded our expectation. But that doesn't mean we had set a very conservative demand forecast," Samsung said in an emailed statement to Reuters. REUTERS

Source:  www.todayonline.com

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Ring in the new phones

by Nicholas Yeo

04:45 AM Jun 01, 2012

Are you on the hunt for a new mobile phone for when your contract runs out? Here are some new models that have been launched - or will be available soon - with their bare essentials so you can make an informed decision.

ASUS PadFone

This Android phone-tablet hybrid from Asus switches seamlessly between phone and tablet mode. A separate keyboard turns the tablet into a PadFone Station Dock, giving greater ease of typing. S$800 without contract.

LG Optimus 3D Max

This Andoid phone's HSPA+ network allows faster Internet access. You can also view movies in 3D without the aid of glasses. Preset modes like car, office or sleep detect location and adjust settings such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS accordingly. S$698.

Nokia Lumia 900

This Windows phone has features such as an Xbox Live hub, syncing with Office applications and Nokia Drive with turn-by-turn voice navigation. S$849 without contract.

Samsung Galaxy Beam

Besides being able to project multimedia content onto flat surfaces up to 50 inches wide, this Android phone - designed for gamers - lets users upload their own games or pick from 1,000 titles via Samsung's Game Hub.

Source:  www.todayonline.com

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