Wednesday, 9 November 2011

Message: Living & Technology: Lithium Battery Care, Your Phones and Cameras Updated

Hi there,

The article, Living & Technology: Lithium Battery Care, Your Phones and Cameras has been updated today and an extra article has been added to your reading. You are recommended to read the article if you care about your phone batteries.

See you later!
Locky

Resources:
Living & Technology: Lithium Battery Care, Your Phones and Cameras @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/11/living-technology-lithium-battery-care.html

Monday, 7 November 2011

Technology & News: Free Apps To Recommend Part 1

Image from mail2web.com

Is our English Playground turning into a mobile technology blog? Nope, but really, mobile technology has become my recent favourite topic of research. Anyway, the election just finished in Hong Kong yesterday was boring, stock market has been quiet, Toy Story Playland hasn't officially opened, so, might as well return to the funniest topic!

So continuing this morning's 2am entry Living & Technology: Lithium Battery Care, Your Phones and Cameras, I mentioned that I'm recommending some apps for you guys, including some games and the ones which will help to lengthen your battery lifespan, and here they are!!!!!

Android Only

Angry Birds (Original, Rio, Seasons)

Image from digitaltrends

Image from software2tech

Image from http://www.symbiantweet

First of all, yes, Angry Birds games by Rovio, but wouldn't it be a bit out to recommend them now? Nope, because there are a lot of iPhone users out there not knowing that these games are free on Android phones. Those free versions on iPhone are the trial versions, but these on Android are FREE FULL versions! Download here: Original, Rio, Seasons.

TouchTalk

TouchTalk is a real-time translator. You can choose which language as input and which language as output, and then it will translate that for you right away. I haven't checked with all the languages, but English <--> Mandarin and English <--> Japanese are quite accurate! Fun to play with!

JuiceDefender

JuiceDefender is a software which helps you save battery power, which is an important app addressing to the battery drain issue. It has pay and free versions. The free version offers limited functionality but are good enough for most standard users of smartphones. It also simplifies the process quite a bit by offering less. If you want to get full control of the power-saving policy, then you will need to buy the Ultimate version.

Image from Android Market

Battery Monitor 3 (free)

Battery Monitor 3 provides great control for those who actually knows the lithium batteries. You can set an alarm to remind you when the upper limit and the lower limit have been reached when recharging and discharging respectively. The upper limit and lower limit are adjustable at your own will. I set the upper limit at 93%, so I will not forget to remove the charger.

iPhone Only

Find My iPhone

Find My iPhone is a must have for those of you who have iPhone. There has been cases which the owners of the stolen iPhones have been successfully recovered because of this app. It is a free app which requires GPS for accurate positioning.

Audiobooks

Audiobooks offers almost 3000 free audiobooks for listening. English Playground readers, this is a must-have for your listening practice.

Available on Android & iPhone

LINE (Android, iPhone)

Whatsapps' strongest competitor, LINE took the world by surprise by bringing down Whatsapp from the top position of the most popular app chart on App Store. No wonder there are rumours that LINE is charging its users secretly, except that it DOESN'T!!! App Store didn't want to take any chance and so LINE was removed from it while Android Market remains unmoved by the rumour. Now LINE is back on App Store, proving that the rumours are untrue and it was only a false alarm, or that some other companies were freaking out and had to come up with something to bring LINE down. Anyway, LINE is kind of like Viber-and-Whatsapp-in-1, combining free messaging and free calls, and it is more fun than Whatsapp to use! Emoji and Stickers adds fun to messaging and Shake it! searching users nearby (making connection will still need approval by the other end-users, so it is pretty safe). Then just like Whatsapp, Group chats, individual chats are available, but unlike Whatsapp, you can add your own profile photo to show your friends. And the most competitive point about LINE? It is FREE!!!!! Battery drains faster because of using LINE? I don't think so! I use it to make free calls to my mum in Ireland and it was roughly the same as making normal calls in terms of battery usage.

Vlingo (Android, iPhone)

If you don't want to wait for an iPhone 4S upgrade or Siri to start including Hong Kong's data in its server, then Vlingo is your answer. Other than the fact that Vlingo doesn't really talk back to you and it has to follow certain pattern in your sentence structure when giving commands, Vlingo can almost do whatever Siri can. Vlingo on iPhone has 3 functions missing on iOS compared to Android, 1) to "Open" apps through voice command, 2) integration to the Voice Input for the Android phone into all typing apps, including Whatsapp, LINE, Facebook, etc. 3) Driving Mode (with simulated voice similar to that of Siri), allowing Vlingo to talk to you, read you incoming notification messages and take your voice commands.

Dropbox (Android, iPhone)

Living & Technology: Lithium Battery Care, Your Phones and Cameras

(Updated 2011-11-09)

Battery Drain Problem of iPhone 4S

Ever since I started using Galaxy SII, I realise that the issue of battery drain is really quite serious, (but iPhone 4S also has this problem). So I have been trying all sorts of methods to reduce battery loss, there are some apps I am using and I do think they are quite good but I will leave it to the next blog entry to introduce them. Today, I want to talk about some research I did about the most important component of power in a smartphone, the battery -- Lithium-ion (Li) battery.

Ni-Cd Batteries
Image from itp.nyu.edu

There are many myths about rechargeable batteries, and we are going to crack them! But before we start, we have to learn 2 terms, "charge" is to add power to the battery, and "discharge" is to use the power from the battery.

Lithium-ion polymer battery
Image from Wikipedia

Lithium-ion battery is different from the traditional nickel metal hydride (NiMH) or nickel cadmium battery (NiCd) battery in many ways. The differences are listed below:

Li-ion battery has a slow loss of charge (about 5-10% per month) , allowing the power to be stored in the battery for a longer time when not used. [1] This explains why the lithium batteries available in shops and supermarkets are usually charged to a certain amount. Cell phone batteries, known as Lithium-ion polymer batteries, are similar to the above, carries about 50% of a full charge for long period storage [3].
Li battery has no "memory effect" which NiCd battery has. In simple words, NiCd batteries require overcharging in the first charge, then should be charged fully or even overcharged in the subsequent charges. [2] On the other hand, Li battery does not and MUST NOT be overcharged. [1]
Li-ion polymer battery should not be fully-discharged (reaching 0% and idling the battery for a long period of time), or else it may be damaged and may lose certain amount of capacity[3].

Image from sony.com.au

Summarising the points above, I have come to understand why my old Sony VAIO's laptop comes with a Battery Care Function which used to fix my Li-ion battery at 80% charge. In my entry Technology & Opinions: Hate. Believe. SONY, I talked about how much I hated this because Sony said this Function gives longer battery life, and I thought Sony was just bluffing! And so in the entry Message: SONY VAIO Battery Care, "I OWN YOU!!!" I mentioned that I have finally removed that Function and I finally get to charge my laptop 20% more, but looks like Sony was right all along! Full charging your Li-ion battery does shorten its lifespan.

So, after going through the researches , I have come to a simple conclusion of dealing with Li-ion batteries,

No 0%, No 100%, No memory.

It means that we should not leave battery at 0%, we should not full charge the battery, but we can charge as many times as we like.

Sounds great isn't it? But you might have to watch your battery charge from now on because your phone will full charge itself without stopping, what can we do?

I have a solution for you in the next entry, if you are using Android smartphones.

(Updated 2011-11-09)
Apple has a nice and clear article on how Lithium battery works, and the key information have been extracted below for your better learning.

Rechargeable lithium-based technology currently provides the best performance for your Apple notebook computer, iPod, iPhone, or iPad. You can also find this standard battery technology in many other devices. Apple batteries share the characteristics common to lithium-based technology in other devices. Like other rechargeable batteries, these batteries may eventually require replacement.

Standard Technology

Lithium-ion polymer batteries pack in a higher power density than nickel-based batteries. This gives you a longer battery life in a lighter package, as lithium is the lightest metal. You can also recharge a lithium-ion polymer battery whenever convenient, without the full charge or discharge cycle necessary to keep nickel-based batteries at peak performance. (Over time, crystals build up in nickel-based batteries and prevent you from charging them completely, necessitating an inconvenient full discharge.)

Chart illustrating lithium-polymer battery voltage/cell and charge current over time during the fast and trickle charge stages

Standard Charging

Most lithium-ion polymer batteries use a fast charge to charge your device to 80% battery capacity, then switch to trickle charging. That’s about two hours of charge time to power an iPod to 80% capacity, then another two hours to fully charge it, if you are not using the iPod while charging. You can charge all lithium-ion batteries a large but finite number of times, as defined by charge cycle.

Charge Cycle. Using and recharging 100% of battery capacity equals one full charge cycle.

A charge cycle means using all of the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle. Each time you complete a charge cycle, it diminishes battery capacity slightly, but you can put notebook, iPod, and iPhone batteries through many charge cycles before they will only hold 80% of original battery capacity. As with other rechargeable batteries, you may eventually need to replace your battery.

Vocabulary:
bluff -- (vb) [I or T] to deceive someone by making them think either that you are going to do something when you really have no intention of doing it, or that you have knowledge that you do not really have, or that you are someone else

Resources:
Lithium-ion battery @ Wikipedia
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery

Memory Effect @ Wikipedia
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_effect

Lithium-ion polymer battery @ Wikipedia

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_polymer_battery

http://www.tekcomm.com.hk/
http://liionbms.com/pdf/ElithionBatteryPower10.pdf

News & Technology: iPhone 4S Battery Problem? @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/10/news-technology-iphone-4s-battery.html

Technology & Opinions: Hate. Believe. SONY @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/10/technology-opinions-hate-believe-sony.html

Message: SONY VAIO Battery Care, "I OWN YOU!!!" @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/10/message-sony-vaio-battery-care-i-owned.html

Apple -- Lithium ion Batteries
http://www.apple.com/batteries/

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/bluff_1?q=bluff

Thursday, 3 November 2011

Health and Fitness: Breast cancer link to small amount of alcohol

There are many topics which interests me these days, but time doesn't agree with me. Well, I'll try my best to write as much as possible.

Today I read a news article on BBC News about a research on breast cancer, finding shows that with a small amount of alcohol drinking (between 3 to 6 small glasses of wine a week) the risk of breast cancer will be increased by 15%.

2 November 2011 Last updated at 02:44 GMT

Breast cancer link to small amount of alcohol

Alcohol has been linked to breast cancer in
previous studies

Regularly drinking even a small quantity of alcohol could increase the risk of breast cancer, say researchers.

A study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggested that between three and six small glasses of wine a week was linked to a 15% increase in risk.

The study, which followed 105,986 people for nearly 28 years, said the increase was "small".

Experts said cutting down on alcohol could reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Other studies have linked the effect of drinking alcohol to breast cancer, but the authors of this study argued that the effect of low-level drinking had not been fully explored.

In women who never consumed alcohol, there were 281 breast cancers per 100,000 women per year.

That increased to 333 cancers for people drinking between three and six glasses of wine per week. There was a much greater increase, to 413, for those consuming more than 19 glasses.

'Small'

One of the researchers Dr Wendy Chen said: "We did find an increased risk at low levels of use, but the risk was quite small.

"Although the exact mechanism for the association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer is not known, one probable explanation would involve alcohol's effects on circulating oestrogen levels."

Breakthrough Breast Cancer's Dr Rachel Greig said: "This study adds weight to what we already know; regularly drinking alcohol can increase your risk of developing breast cancer.

"We do know that limiting your alcohol intake can decrease your risk of developing the disease, as can maintaining a healthy weight, and being physically active."

Sarah Williams, health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "This study adds to already strong evidence that drinking even small amounts of alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer.

"Cutting down on alcohol can reduce the chance of developing breast cancer - as can keeping a healthy weight and being physically active.

"A healthy lifestyle isn't a guarantee against cancer but it helps stack the odds in our favour."

Opinions:
I still remember a rumour saying that drinking a little alcohol every day is actually good for the body, maybe it was the one about antioxidant and red wine, but now there seems to be an undesirable effect on alcohol consumption.

Would you like to keep drinking alcohol?

Our liver treats alcohol as a toxic substance and works hard to expel it from the body, maybe this would shed some light on the issue.

Almost 2am, time for bed, let me write more on the next topic. Sleeping early is important in keeping the liver fit too.

Vocabulary:
oestrogen -- (n)[U] primary female sex hormones.
stack -- (vb) [T] to arrange things in an ordered pile
antioxidant -- (n) [C] a substance which slows down the rate at which something decays because of oxidization (= combining with oxygen)
shed light on sth -- Something or someone that casts/sheds/throws light on a situation provides an explanation for it or information which makes it easier to understand

Resources:
Breast cancer link to small amount of alcohol @ BBC news
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15539450

Oestrogen @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oestrogen
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/stack_3
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/antioxidant?q=antioxidant+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/cast-shed-throw-light-on-sth#cast-shed-throw-light-on-sth__1

Liver Disease @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver_disease

Monday, 31 October 2011

News & Technology: iPhone 4S Battery Problem?

In the exchange of comments with Celia in the last entry, she mentioned that there has been complaints about the battery life of the iPhone 4S, which I thought was a unique issue to the Galaxy SII. Today when I went on to Google News, the first news I saw was the following one by The Guardian.

iPhone 4S battery life problems: bug in location services suspected

User tests suggest that bug in iOS 5 may be polling mobile mast data too frequently and running down battery

Charles Arthur
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 29 October 2011 18.25 BST
Article history

System location services on iPhone 4S: using too much battery?

A flaw in Apple's location services system in its new iOS 5 software is increasingly suspected of being the cause of rapid battery drain for some owners of the iPhone 4S.

A growing number of people have found that the "Setting Time Zone" element of the Systems Services within the broader Location Services product seems to be operating even when there is no chance that the user would have moved to a different location or time zone. An icon beside the setting, which indicates whether it has been used in the past 24 hours, suggests that it is running repeatedly to access the phone's location even when there is no apparent reason to do so.

Location services can prompt large drains on any smartphone's battery: they use a combination of the Wi-Fi network name, where available, plus mobile mast data and GPS sensor input, to calculate the phone's position. The mobile mast data, for example, is usually calculated by comparing the strength of signals from the three nearest phone masts and triangulating against them. However if such a calculation is made too often, by polling the masts, it will begin to use battery power unnecessarily.

On iDownloadBlog, Oliver Haslam suggests: "it appears that iOS 5′s GM release introduced a bug that causes the Setting Time Zone function to keep the location tracking circuitry running constantly, draining battery power considerably. Switching it off may mean that your iPhone will no longer set its own time zone when you travel, but that's a small price to pay for having your iPhone last more than 12 hours on a full charge… We have tested this method on 4 different iPhone 4s handsets, including an iPhone 4 and an iPhone 3GS. All have reported drastically improved battery life after switching 'Setting Time Zone' off."

Some commenters have suggested they see little difference, but the purple icon beside the setting indicates that it is active - and for many people will have been active during the past 24 hours.

Apple's use of location services is deeply integrated into the iPhone 4S and iOS, but others have suggested that it is consuming too much battery power. "Two years working with dedicated GPS units taught me to be extremely careful with GPS settings: [it] kills battery very fast," David Hamilton, a web and Java consultant, remarked on Twitter.

Discussions on Apple's support boards are still raging over what specifically could be draining the battery so much more rapidly. Apple has not so far made any comment, but the Guardian reported on Friday that its engineers have begun contacting some people who have been reporting exceptionally rapid use.

The Guardian's own latest tests on an iPhone 4S found that it achieved 36 hours of battery life with a mixture of Wi-Fi, mobile data, and combined use, including 6 hours' using apps, phones, browsing and some location services. The majority of that included having the "Setting Time Zone" tab activated. There is no data yet from the ongoing tests about what effect disabling it has had.

• The "Setting Time Zone" setting can be found in Settings -> Location Services -> scroll to bottom to "System Services" -> Setting Time Zone.

Updated: corrected name to iDownloadBlog, not iDownload

Actually, with a software constantly updating itself, up and downloading information, for sure it will drain your battery, so it is advisable to switch off unused GPS apps and notifications no matter you are on iPhone 4S or other smartphones, but I chose to buy an extra battery pack just to play safe. I went to Broadway the other day and bought a $68 Tekcomm Li-ion battery pack and I've been using it for the last 2 days. So far so good, but a battery at such a low price makes me think that there must be a catch to it, something must be absent in the design or else it wouldn't be so cheap. So I went on to do my research.

First thing I did was of course to research on the company. Tekcomm didn't provide much information on their website, but it does list out the number of different models of lithium batteries they produce, and it does say it is a Hong Kong company. Whether that implies good quality is a subjective opinion, but it does mean its products should comply with the regulations of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department of Hong Kong. But must Tekcomm follow the regulations? That I suppose is up to the company itself and nothing is guaranteed.

Then why not buy the original factory manufactured battery? Well, because it costs more than $200, that makes a huge difference! Anyway, I suppose no company will replace my phone no matter which battery it catches fire with. Paying more means you get less chances of catching a phone fire? I really don't know about that.

Still the most important thing to remember is to maintain the battery temperature, so watching it closely while it is charging is advisable, and of course, try not to put the phone into my trousers pockets.

In the future entry, I will be working on some facts of the lithium batteries, so follow the playground if you are interested in the topic.

Vocabulary:
flaw -- (n)[C] a fault, mistake or weakness, especially one that happens while something is being planned or made, or which causes something not to be perfect
drain-- (n) [S] something that uses more of your energy, money or time than you want to give
rage -- (n) [C or U] (a period of) extreme or violent anger
catch -- (n) [S] a hidden problem or disadvantage
comply (with) -- [I] formal to act according to an order, set of rules or request

Resources:

Technology & Opinions: iPhone 4(S) VS Samsung Galaxy SII @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/10/technology-opinions-iphone-4s-vs.html

iPhone 4S battery life problems: bug in location services suspected @ The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/29/iphone-4s-battery-location-services-bug?newsfeed=true

Tekcomm
http://www.tekcomm.com.hk/

Electrical and Mechanical Services Department
http://www.emsd.gov.hk/emsd/eng/welcome/index.shtml

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/flaw_1?q=flaw
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/drain_6
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/rage_1?q=rage
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/catch_14
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/comply?q=comply

Friday, 28 October 2011

Technology & Opinions: iPhone 4(S) VS Samsung Galaxy SII

iPhone 4 and Galaxy SII
Photo by Locky's English Playground

Too many people have been making their comparisons of the two phones for a long time. And yes it may sound useless to do a comparison now because so many others have already done it. But when you actually get to spend time with the two phones, the iPhone 4 and the Galaxy SII, like 16 hours a day, switching from one to another, I do have comments which are different from other critics.

Or maybe not, anyway, I just want to write my own review for the two phones.

I have been thinking whether I should do this review in a traditional way comparing specifications and details, but if I do follow this pattern, I will fall into the same track as the other reviews, so I'm going to do this review in an extremely subjective way!!!

Weight and Grip
First, I like the Galaxy SII being super light, lighter than the iPhone 4(S), but that is just the first feeling, when you start using it without the protective casings, iPhone feels better on my hand and I can type better with one hand due to the narrower size, Galaxy SII is too big for my one-hand grip and too light to stablise, so it does spins around on my small palm. But if your hand is big, I think Galaxy SII will serve you better with bigger keys to press on the bigger screen. And the over-underweight problem of the Galaxy SII can be solved by adding the protective casing, or a silicon one will also increase the grip.

Anyway, I don't recommend anyone typing on the phones with just one-hand holding onto it.

Verdict: iPhone 4(S) wins marginally.

Image from www-bgr-com.vimg.net

Screen Size
I just love the 10.8cm (4.3 in) Super AMOLED on the Galaxy SII!!! It is so crisp! It is an addiction! The colours are so sharp!!! And the size... man!!! Size does matter in this world! iPhone 4(S)'s screen size made me dizzy after using for a short while.

Verdict: Galaxy SII beats up iPhone 4 badly!!!!!

Image from igitaltrends

Apps
In the past, I heard reviews from the internet saying that App Store from Apple has far more apps than the Android Market, but when I actually do search through the Store and the Market, even if App Store may still have more apps, yet really useful ones? I don't see too many. Pay ones I do see a lot. But one good thing about the Android Market is that they have many useful ones which are free!!!! Angry Birds, Angry Birds Rio, and Angry Birds Seasons are FULL versions available on the Android Market for free!!!! I will definitely start recommending apps in the future, but for now, the Angry Birds game have already saved me quite a bit of money. Plus, Samsung has its Samsung Apps for you to download free apps which are not available in the market, it isn't very big, but it is free.

Verdict: Galaxy SII's Android Market beats iPhone 4(S)'s App Store in terms of free apps

User-friendliness
I started off learning from the iPhone first before I learn to use the Galaxy SII, at first I thought iPhone operations are hard and difficult, if I didn't have my sister to teach me, I wouldn't know how to use it without reading the instruction booklet, although once I have got used to it, it gets better and more user-friendly. Galaxy on the other hand, didn't take more too long to get a hand of it. Page-to-page is really smooth and quick except the arranging of apps which turns out to be completely different from iPhone and took me 2 days to figure out how to arrange them.

Verdict: Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4(S) are both fine as long as you learn how to handle the interface. Tied.

Battery Life:
Galaxy SII's battery life is really dries up faster. At times, you can lose 10% of your battery in 10 mins if you are playing games with volume! Battery Save Mode can be adjusted to switch on when the battery is down to 70%, and you can switch off many applications before that, but still, feeling wise, I still think the iPhone's battery lasts longer than Galaxy SII's. Some users buy an extra battery pack to be safe, while I bring the charger with me for the Galaxy SII. The recharging is quick if you use the plug charger, so that is fine, but if you are really looking for long lasting battery life, then the original battery which comes with the Galaxy SII isn't going to do very well as it is only 1650 mAh (The iPhone 4 has even less at 1420 mAh), but the good thing is you can change your battery pack when you think it is not enough.

Verdict: iPhone 4(S) wins in terms of battery life, but Galaxy SII allows you to up that battery.

Camera and Image Quality
So I don't know how the performance of the camera on the iPhone 4S is like, but from what I've heard, it has this zero shutter lag which allows it to take quick photos. As of Galaxy SII, I don't think it is as fast as zero shutter lag, but the image quality of the SII is definitely better than the iPhone 4 and should be more or less similar to the iPhone 4S'.

Verdict: Unsure about this one, but I suppose 4S has a slight edge over SII in terms of speed, but image quality wise, similar.

Resistance to Drop
From the drop test video that I have posted some entries ago, titled News & Opinions: iPhone 4 Steve? Siri-ously? What about iPhone 5teve?, we knew that Galaxy SII wins big time in this one! No doubt about that! I beat that Siri knows the answer for this now.

Verdict: Samsung Galaxy SII wins! Period.

Operating System & Tools
Synchronising the phones using iTunes or Kies are more or less the same, but since I don't really need to Jailbreak anything on the Galaxy S2, I'm not as annoyed with the Kies as I am with the iTunes. The openness of the Android Gingerbread system is really more welcome than the protection-freak of the iOS.

Verdict: Android Gingerbread is less protective and thus more friendly than the iOS.

Expandability
Talking about increasing your smartphones, iPhone doesn't let you change your battery, doesn't let you add memories but Galaxy SII lets you do both! If you are planning to build a super smartphone, Galaxy SII gives you that advantage and remains good looking. If you want to do the same with the iPhone, you will need to add bits and pieces outside of the phone, making it real clumsy and ugly.

Verdict: Galaxy SII keeps his cool while iPhone 4(S) has to gain weight. SII wins!

Resell Value
Not sure about other countries, but in Hong Kong, the second-hand reselling price of all iPhones beats all other mobiles by a full stretch. If it wasn't for this factor, I will have already considered Galaxy SII for sure, but if you are looking for money-back through the years, then iPhone has a definite advantage! But if you happen to get a faulty iPhone 4(S), then you will most likely end up getting a fixed phone (possibly with scratches) used to be owned by someone else instead of a brand new one. Try your luck really!

Verdict: iPhone 4(S) wins big time, if it never has anything wrong that is.

So the final decision is, I just love the Galaxy SII now!!!

I have included two more articles on the Galaxy SII, you may want to read up on it too.

Samsung Galaxy S II: More diamond, less rough @ BGR
http://www.bgr.com/2011/10/19/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-more-diamond-less-rough/

Samsung overtakes Apple to win smartphone crown @ CNET
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20126831-94/samsung-overtakes-apple-to-win-smartphone-crown/

Vocabulary:
clumsy -- (adj) awkward in movement or manner

Resources:
News & Opinions: iPhone 4 Steve? Siri-ously? What about iPhone 5teve? @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/10/news-opinions-iphone-4-steve-siri-ously.html

iPhone 4S Camera Hands-on Review @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalRevCom#p/u/2/Oxm-uE5ABRg

[ENG] Samsung Apps & Kies Tutorial (English) - Official video @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIzeSa1usZk

Samsung Galaxy S II: More diamond, less rough @ BGR
http://www.bgr.com/2011/10/19/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-more-diamond-less-rough/

Samsung overtakes Apple to win smartphone crown @ CNET
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20126831-94/samsung-overtakes-apple-to-win-smartphone-crown/

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/clumsy?q=clumsy