alexmanchester.com

Anatomy of an Android phone review

After playing with an HTC One X at the weekend and feeling inquisitive (Is it really that powerful? Am I being dumb in not getting Android's / Ice Cream Sandwich's odd UI scheme and buttons?), I began looking at broader reviews of it.

After the second one I read (which is about the 355th Android phone review I have read in the last few years), it struck me that, when it comes to an Android manufacturer's new flagship or 'hero' phone, you can almost predict the review's fundamentals without even reading it.

The screen is big. Enormous, in fact. 

The screen is great, nearly (but not quite) as good as the iPhone 4/4S.

The design is amazing, but it gets grubby/is plasticky/feels a bit cheap. But it's still amazing. Best design ever.

[The gimmick] is, well, yeah I don't mind it, but Beats Audio / that clear plastic bit that doesn't do anything / the curved screen / the NFC that doesn't work anywhere is a bit of a gimmick. It's cool though. Really. It may be of use sometime in the future. 

(YAY!) [The manufacturer] has [finally] simplified (toned down) their [awful] Android skin [now they've realised, five years in, that it limits their ability to update to new versions of Android quickly].

There are some usability issues with Android but, hey, it's a quantum leap on from the last version, which was great and all, but this one is so much better. 

There's no expandable storage whaaaaaaaaaaa whingggggggee boooooooo.

It's lightning quick. That new latest mega-core processor is awesome.

But, oh, Android still isn't quite as responsive as iOS, it's still a bit laggy. But that's OK. It's better than the last version. It's nearly there. Honestly.

One caveat though, yeah, if you use it  a lot, (like on the bus to work for 20 minutes) those 16 cores really ruin the battery life.

The battery is sealed whaaaaaaaaaaa whingggggggee boooooooo.

Buy it! Best phone out there!

But, also, wait for [other manufacturer's] new superfone which will be out next week too, and the the chip it has should be so much better. And it'll be 4G!

[Image source: dailyiphoneblog]

Patent wars: Google buys Motorola Mobility

Google buying Motorola Mobility is a massive acquisition in the tech world. There's some fantastic analysis on the news, but this paragraph by Jon Gruber captures it all nicely: 

Google just spent almost two years of its profits to buy a second-rate phone maker that itself is unprofitable,¹ almost went bankrupt, and is arguably only the third-best maker of Android devices, behind HTC and Samsung.

It's going to take a lot of ads to claw that purchase back, but it will likely be worth it to stave off a potentially humiliating, patent-based destruction of Android. 

Also a great question raised today: What is it again that Google do; software, hardware, sales...?

Who knows. They do still make a ton of money, though, this purchase will be funded out of the $35 billion sitting in Google's cash account. 

[Daring Fireball(s)]

"Nokia needs to focus"

Probably the last post for a while on Nokia (until they come out with another handset that's worth taking a look at), but Stowe Boyd's recent post - Nokia, the General Motors of Phones - has some concise points that are worth taking on board, if this market interests you:

"If Nokia is to have a place in this brave new world, they can't tie themselves to a sinking technology like the Symbian operating system.

Could Nokia specialize at the high end... Or should they focus on the low-end, and become the Toyota or Honda?

At any rate, I think they need to pick and focus, or they will find their future defined by the choices that others make."

I agree with that, and believe Nokia's existence is not guaranteed (and maybe even 'doomed') in the high end area unless they come out with a phone significantly better than the supposed 'flagship', but sadly flawed, N97.

In the comments on a recent post, Mick Leyden said Nokia should stick to what they're good at, like the N85. Perhaps that suggests a future somewhere in the middle: high end, non- 'smart' phones, that are good, very good, at lots of things, but perhaps not groundbreaking.

Of course in the near future they could still do something with Google Android...

[Stowe Boyd]

An Apple Tablet for 2009 or 2010? This time the rumours might just be true

There's a definite pattern to Apple product rumours that begins long before any prospective event, and long, long before we actually see a product in stores.

It's a pattern that's not always easy to discern and, even when you can see it, it's still mostly hidden underneath a true mountain of of innacurate, wrong and maybe even purposefully misleading stories about potential Apple products.

Today the news sites and tech blogs (AppleInsider and then Gizmodo, Techcrunch etc.) are awash with "confirmed" stories of an "Apple Tablet" device, something that's long been touted, wished for and rumoured. We're talking years of anticipation, longer even than the iPhone was rumoured for, if this 2004 comment is anything to go by.

And when a publication like the FT also joins in with 'confirmed' details, and the story goes that "Steve Jobs has cemented the launch date", plus stories of new types of media and content deals and a special project called "Cocktail", all following on from "10-inch touchscreen rumours" and "unit orders placed with Foxconn for an October release", there is, based on previous Apple product patterns, a sense that this could really be it. The timelines are building, the weak rumours are becoming stronger "confirmed" rumours... We may actually see the Apple Tablet in the very near future.

Of course, it throws up all sorts of questions: will it be iPhone OS based, what will power it (will it be chips from Apple's recently acquired P.A. SemiConductor company?), how big will the screen really be, and... what will we use it for (because there's little doubt many people will buy one)?

All good questions, but Apple has that knack of delivering products that we don't even know we want yet. Remember that clever Telstra Operations chief saying "Can they really make a great phone? Maybe they should stick to their knitting." Since that comment, not only is Telstra [semi-reluctantly] carrying the iPhone, but it's become the benchmark device, a game changer.

If the Apple Tablet does appear, there's a good chance it will be pretty smart, and it'll already have some competition in the shape of the hopefully-soon-to-be-released Crunchpad (right) and maybe even the Kindle Dx, which can't be a bad thing.

And then again, being Apple, well, we won't really know for sure until someone, hopefully Steve Jobs, unveils it in the spotlight at some hotly anticipated, widely covered event that other companies would kill for, but can never match.

At this stage I give it a 6.5-7/10 on the rumour-to-truth-o-meter, and the mercury is definitely rising.

Is Nokia doomed?

If you're coming late to the party, you really need to turn up with something special. Nokia, it seems, has dropped the ball in a big way with the new N97, the $1129 handset upon which it's staking its hand on in this round of the phone wars. The new flagship phone has received a pasting from Gizmodo:

The N97 is Nokia's attempt to stand tall in an unfamiliar, hostile world populated by the iPhone, Pre and Android the only way it knows how: by throwing the kitchen sink at them. If this is it, they're doomed.

Strong words, and slightly surprising that it's so bad, or maybe the bar has been raised so much that it would have been good - but about two years ago?

Reviewer Matt Buchanan highlights the woeful Symbian S60 Operating System, dodgy viewing angle, poor keyboard feedback, underwhelming screen, resistive touchscreen (old-fashioned compared to the capacative touch screens found in the Palm Pre, iPhone and Android phones), and an underpowered processor driving it all.

Positives included great overall feel, expandable storage, two-way FM transmitter, and an OK 5MP camera.

 Is this really the best Nokia can do? Their future in this segment doesn't look too good - and this is from a phone that's 30-40% more expensive to buy outright than its immediate competition.

Furthermore, since Gizmodo first posted their review yesterday, a company called Generator Research is predicting Nokia will crumble in the next few years and Apple will pass it in marketshare in just two years. Ouch.

Perhaps they should rethink their strategy about not using Android? And that massive N97 advert on Gizmodo (see right), has to hurt.

[Gizmodo]

The iPhone 3GS "costs" less than $200

iSuppli has done a cost teardown of the new 16GB iPhone 3GS, and it comes in at just US$178.96 including manufacturing costs. According to the site, that's a little over $5 more than the existing iPhone 3G.

As the related MacRumors article points out, this does not include R&D costs, marketing, shipping and logistics, patent royalties and so on, which is why the outright purchase costs from Vodafone Aus yesterday came in at AU$929 (roughly US$730).

That cost of the phone, plus mobile data and call allowance, really makes the the 2-year, $1656 cost of the $69p/m (including "free" phone, $400 of credit and 1GB data p/m) plan from Vodafone look like very good value.

The new HTC Magic Google phone and the Toshiba TG01

I wrote recently that Google's Android, the open-sourced, linux-based mobile phone operating system (OS), does really seem to be the sole competitor to the iPhone's OS X-based software. It's been designed from the ground up with modern-day mobile handsets in mind.

Since then we've seen the Palm Pre launch and Palm's "WebOS" at CES and this week in Barcelona, mobile manufacturers are unveiling new products en masse at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) event. Two handsets, the HTC Magic - aka the Googlephone Mk2 - and the Toshiba TG01 have so far really shone out.

The HTC Magic is the successor to the HTC Dream or "G1" - which was a total and utter brick and which, typically for Australia (always last in the gadget launches), was released here just last week on Optus. I was quite surprised just how ugly the Dream was upon launch, and it lacked proper features such as a decent headphone jack. It seemed rushed, poorly designed and completely unnappealing. Thousands still bought one because of Android.

 There's no comparison between the old Dream and the sleek, new HTC Magic (left), which is mightily close to the iPhone in aesthetics and key touch-interface components, namely the keyboard. This could prove a serious contender to Apple's finest. A great interface and OS finally married with a great looking phone.

The Toshiba TG01 (right) seemed to spring out of nowhere just a couple of weeks ago and its specs are something else. From Engadget:

The TG01 is a 9.9-mm thin handset will feature a 4.1-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) touchscreen display, HSDPA data, GPS, WiFi, a microSD slot, and custom Tosh 3D GUI.

It looks like a promising design, but it has one serious floor - the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. Oh dear. Windows Mobile 6.5 was also big news on Tuesday, but to be honest I could care less if they introduced Windows Mobile 27. As with so many other products put out by Microsoft (and that's not to dismiss they do make some great ones too), Windows Mobile 6.5 is still so weighed down by legacy requirements and subsequent crippling complexity it really looks pretty sad next to truly modern mobile mobile operating systems (like Android and Apple's Mobile OS X). As Engadget puts it:

As expected, Windows Mobile 6.5 brings some much-needed interface enhancements to the table along with the Windows Marketplace app store and My Phone syncing, but some longstanding issues remain -- the biggest one being that it still doesn't support capacitive touchscreens. We spent some time with it, and while we're impressed with the new lock screen, honeycomb app launcher, and browser, it's obviously just a paint job -- it's still kinda laggy and the media features haven't been changed at all.

That's a pretty disappointing approach from Microsoft given the pace of change and the increasing sophisitcation of the competition. With this in mind, I expect the TG01 to be little more appealing in reality than the Sony Ericsson Experia X1. A great looking handset that's strangulated by its core OS.

Apple vs. Android vs. Palm it is then.

At last - the first proper iPhone competitor

Despite the two years since its introduction, I haven't seen a single mobile phone handset that really comes close to the aesthetic of the original iPhone. Even the 3G one's slight widening and plastic back make it come in a close second to the slim, aluminium adorned 2G model. Chuck in the mini Apple OS and you have a phone that is practically unbeatable as an overall package.

But this China only handset made by Thinkpad manufacturers Lenovo, has got me thinking. It's a beautiful looking thing that seems to grab the best details of the iPhone and make it a little bit more futuristic.

Sadly, its SCDMA radio technology means it will never see the light of day over here (or outside of China), but just imagine this coupled with Google Android as is reported (Android really the only genuine challenger, it seems, to the iPhone's OS). All up it's probably something that will make the Cupertino company sit up and take notice.

[Picture via Engadget]
 

Wireless iPhone earphones - but at a price

A short interlude from all talk of intranets and enterprise 2.0....

In some casual web browsing of the Apple store at the weekend I came across the new Sennheiser MXW1 wireless earphones. Just take a look at these things!
 
They work with pretty much any MP3 device, converting the audio signal via a wireless transmitter that looks neat and tidy. They don't work on Bluetooth, but a system called KLEER and have a range of about 10m.

The downside? They're almost £300 or over AU$660! Wow on the price, but wow on the product.They'd go great with an iPhone.

I guess another downside is that you can't tell from the pics how they'll look in your ears. Clever gadget or Star Trek fan accessory? Hmmm, who knows, but it would be cool to find out. I think I'll wait for something a bit cheaper mind you.

The reason these are so appealing is because I hate headphone cables and wires. In fact cables of any kind are a nightmare. Where's the wireless power that Tesla dreamed up in the early 20th century?

In the meantime, a 1GB iPod shuffle and some Sennheiser CX300 plugs are my solutions for gym music without too much cable interference (better than an iPhone or even a Nano). The clip design of the Shuffle means you can put it somewhere like your t-shirt neck where the wires can hidden away without being so far as to drag on your ears all the time.

Another option is the wireless headphone bands offered by Motorola and the like, although I'm not all that sure on their compatibility with Apple products and less keen on the whole band design. Anyone know of a good solution? The KLEER store has a few, but none as slick as the MXW1s.

Either way, these have to be gadget of the month.