I can’t help but wonder what Apple would do if RIM or HTC were to rubbish the iPhone on stage at a press conference, I’m pretty sure that a lawsuit would quickly follow.

RIM have responded with this statement….

Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.

– Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie

I personally didn’t like the Bold 9700 and went back to the Bold 9000 so I cannot confirm nor deny if it does lose its signal when held, but I do have the Bold 9000 and I can confirm that it holds onto its signal no matter how I hold it, how tightly or for how long it just wont drop those bars, when displaying db’s instead of bars it stays at -70db.

The same can be said for the Nexus One, only the signal actually improves when reading the db’s and it is held in the left hand….

If anyone wants to call BS on the above I am more than happy to post the videos to prove it….

In the meantime a little sign for you all to share!

No need to turn off the iPhone 4

I have played the addictive game that is Angry Birds on the iPod Touch, iPhone and N900, but according to Rovio I will be able to enjoy it on the Nexus One in the summer, as we are actually in the summer I hope to see this being available to the Android Market very soon!

Sign up to http://android.angrybirds.com for immediate notification of when Angry Birds is released for Android.

Browsing the Android market yesterday I came across SoundHound, a music ID service similar to Shazam but with a difference, it will identify you humming or singing a song as well as recorded music. So I thought I’d give it a try, compare it to Shazam and share my thoughts.

Click on the images to enlarge…..

Visually I prefer SoundHound until it comes to the history page, where Shazam’s use of album art wins.  With regards to the overall functionality of the app again I prefer SoundHound, the ‘eye candy’ whilst listening to a track is far nicer than that of Shazam, showing the feedback from the mic as it listens.

SoundHound also offers the ability to share the track you have just found via email or Twitter, a function not found in Shazam.  It also offers the option to tag a track that you hum or sing, which amazingly worked as I casually sang ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams at my Nexus One.

Both Apps carry ads to support them, but with SoundHound you only get 5 tags per month (sharing tracks to Twitter will get you an extra 3) at which point it will cost £3.38 ($4.99) to upgrade to the premium version which will allow unlimited tags and will be ad free. Shazam on the other hand gives you unlimited tags (AFAIK) and there is no option to upgrade and remove the ads.

I am typically a low user so 5 tags will be enough for me, but a one off cost of £3.38 isn’t too bad if it will recognise tracks in my head….

SoundHound wins overall for me….

SoundHound over Shazam:

Positives

• visually pleasing UI
• Tag share via email or Twitter
• Lyrics displayed
• Hum, sing, speak or type a song

Negatives

• limited tags

In a conversation between @Mechanical_Mind, @Burgaz and myself on Twitter Wednesday evening, @Mechanical_Mind was asking what I will do about Twitter when the World Cup is on as he knows I detest football, my answer was easy, global filtering on TweetDeck will come to my rescue.

‘but what about when you are on the Nexus??’ he asked, again I replied TweetDeck,

‘How he asked?’

this lead to some quick thinking by myself, I had read here that it was coming shortly so I bluffed saying I had it on my Nexus One…..

Then @Mechanical_Mind wanted proof so I posted this image to satisfy him…..

But to simply show the home screen icon wasn’t enough to satisfy @Burgaz‘s needs, ( he is Welsh after all..) he asked for proof of the app running with his post shown within……

So a few minutes later I came up with the following image using photoshop and a screenshot from the iPhone running TweetDeck…..

This satisfied everybody immediately that I was running TweetDeck on my Nexus One…..

BUT….. Unbeknownst to myself, the images had been spotted by a French Blogger and the above images are doing the rounds in France, Spain, Germany and Italy! sorry guys!

By far my favourite Twitter app for my BlackBerry is socialscope, and I have been using it for quite a while now, but SocialScope has to be the longest running Beta app ever, (not quite as long as Google mail etc held their beta status for!!) and those not yet lucky enough to have SocialScope are feeling left out in the cold.

As well as handling Twitter, SocialScope brings your FaceBook status updates into the mix, keeping you completely updated. All this is neatly handled with tabs a top of the screen, giving you instant access to either Twitter and FaceBook, @ replies, DM’s, Twitter or FaceBook. Add to that your own channels/tabs such as individuals or lists. SocialScope supports keypad shortcuts and autotext, shortcuts are the most important for me and saves a lot of scrolling and clicking.

If you would like to apply to become a beta tester you can do so here

This is what SocialScope have said over the matter,

We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the SocialScope beta process and want to address them. First, no one should feel left out because they haven’t received an invite or are running a different version then someone else. As the beta progresses every one will be upgraded and more users will be added.
Second, we’re always seeding new versions of the app to small groups of users to test, tune and tweak SocialScope. Keeping the test groups small allows us to work closely with these users; making changes that would otherwise drive you crazy and lead to overwhelming number of support emails for us. This is an iterative process that can take many versions until its ready for a wider group of users.
Finally, we’ve tried to be as inclusive as possible leading to a very very large private beta. That means we can’t respond to every email or @reply (we wish we could, but we’re a small team), but your feedback is really valuable to us and we read every email we get.
“How do you select users to seed versions to?” Its largely random, but sometimes based on device type and carrier if we’re trying to track down a specific issue.
“How long will it take for me to get version x?” We can’t give you a date, but as soon as its ready you’ll get an upgrade notice within the app.
“I haven’t even gotten an invite yet…” We’re constantly expanding the beta when a spot opens up or the app is released publicly we’ll let you know.
Finally follow us http://twitter.com/socialscope and become a fan at http://facebook.com/socialscope to stay up to date with our latest news.
-Team Conan er SocialScope

Just spotted this over at GSMarena.com, I have only just got my self a dual core PC and have the 1ghz snapdragon Nexus One on its way and it seems I’ll be slap bang out of date again before the end of the year!

Dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon CPU coming before the end of the year: “And all of a sudden your 1GHz Snapdraggon-powered HTC HD2 doesn’t seem all that powerful any more. Apparently Qualcomm are almost done with the development of not one but two new mobile CPU units that are about to top their lineup.

Before January has ended 1.3 GHz Snapdragon 8X50A CPU with reduced-size 45nm core process will be offered to manufacturers and is expected to appear in end-products by the end of this year. We guess, HTC HD3 will be getting one of those.
Now for the even better news. Before 2010 has ended Qualcomm will unveil another powerful processor. The dual-core Snapdragon 8X72 will have two Scorpion cores clocked at 1.5 GHz. That would make it powerful enough for usage in smartbooks too – not only phones. According to the manufacturer this CPU should have no trouble providing 1080p resolution video output.”

Google launched their first Google phone for sale in the US, UK, Hong Kong & Singapore through their new on-line phone web store.  It is available to the four countries sim free for $529 so roughly £408 inc VAT + delivery to the UK, add another $20+VAT to that if you want the Euro charger with the phone!

Now this may cause a little confusion here and there as you may be thinking the G1 was Google’s first foray into the mobile world, but that was more of a joint venture between Google, HTC and T-Mobile, the Nexus One on the other hand is Google going it alone, with the device built by HTC and available through the T-Mobile network or Google. I hope that clears things up!

Anyway, I am still waiting for mine to be shipped so for now I’ll leave you with the specs, taken from Google, and a few vids and I will post my review and unboxing when Google get the phone out to me.

HTC Smart – Overview

Today HTC announced a new way forward for themselves with the HTC Smart a new type of smartphone that creates a new category of easy-to-use, connected smartphones that are accessible by people all over the world. The HTC Smart will be available this spring across Europe and Asia.

“HTC Smart breaks new ground in delivering the powerful, in-demand smartphone features that consumers want on a more accessible device for global markets,” said Paul Jacobs, chief executive officer, Qualcomm Incorporated. “We are pleased to be supporting HTC as they utilize the capabilities of Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile Platform open operating system to offer high-end capabilities and a compelling mobile user experience at mass-market price points.”

Qualcomm Brew Mobile Platform (Brew MP)
HTC Smart utilizes Qualcomm’s Brew MP, a popular mobile operating system that enables smartphone devices to be offered at more aggressive price points, providing HTC with the flexibility to deliver smartphone features on devices across multiple tiers.
Overview
The HTC Smart is a compact phone that’s ready to help you be a smarter YOU and a funner YOU.

Make it Mine
The HTC Smart is at your service, be it for your productive side or your playful side. HTC Smart comes with Scenes—different phone configurations that reflect different moods in your daily self. There’s a mode for your busy weekdays, filling your home screen with panels that help you ease on through your workdays with apps like email, calendar and the web browser. There’s a mode for relaxing (or not!) weekends, which brings fun to the forefront with music, camera, and photo album panels. There’s even a scene that you can personalize to fit your unique style and daily needs.

Stay Close
With HTC Smart, your interactions are neatly placed right under the pics of your favorite people. Rather than having to open multiple applications, there’s a single view of all your communications, be it email, text, or a Facebook update with any one of your contacts.

Discover the Unexpected
The more you use the HTC Smart, the more small touches you will find – each one elevating your phone experience. For example, with just one tap you can turn your web browser to landscape mode so you can get a better view while surfing the internet. There is also smart zoom, which enlarges and reflows the text for your reading pleasure with just a double tap on the screen.

OK I managed to get me a Hero through on Orange on Wednesday and it was delivered 24 hours ago, since then I have put it through its paces before writing this review.

First Thoughts:

Having used and loved the G1 for a number of months now I was expecting to be disappointed in the Hero due to its lack of physical QWERTY, perhaps just cushioning myself for what lay ahead. As the courier handed me the parcel I could hardly believe the size of the box within the bag, It is literally half the size of the G1 box and there isn’t a magnetic catch in sight!

Bundled in the box is the new type HTC charger which utilises the data cable to charge the phone, a set of 3.5mm headphones with built in mic, play/pause, forward and backward controls and a quick start guide, oh and obviously the phone itself.

There is no manual bundled or a CD containing software, the later not being surprising seeing as Android devices don’t sync with the PC (or do they) and applications are installed over the air through the market.

Sadly the Hero doesn’t come with a slip case as the G1 did.

So I gently lifted the Hero out of the box and turned it on, the familiar vibration went off in my hand and it started to come to life, the Hero feels a lot better in the hand over the G1, it doesn’t creak for starters which means it feels a lot more solid and more expensive as the device has a rubberised feel to it, with a nice cold brushed steel bezel around the screen and housing the four oval evenly spaced buttons, Call Home Menu & Call End (power on/off) , below that with have the centrally placed trackball and a single switch containing Search to the left and Back to the right, I have yet to mistakenly press one for the other and if pressing the Back key causes spasms in your thumb then you are holding the device wrong and yes, I am right handed!

Above the not so smudge proof screen lie what appears to be two leds separated by a nice piece of mesh covering the internal speaker, to the left are the only other two buttons and that is the Volume rocker switch, yep the Hero is devoid of a dedicated camera button (more about that later) to the top we have a not so familiar looking hole on a HTC device and that would be the 3.5mm headphone socket, oh joy of joy’s at last I can listen to music whilst the device is being charged, i.e when in bed! The battery cover covers the whole back nothing new there, and it has four holes, one for the camera (just a hole no glass!) and oval slot for the speaker and another smaller oval for a lanyard and the hole at the top for the 3.5mm socket. The only Orange branding externally is the logo to the back, which means it will be easily replaced as soon as new covers are available.

So initially I like this device over the G1 it feels more solid, smaller, looks more expensive and has a 3.5mm headphone socket, BUT it does lack the physical QWERTY and a dedicated camera button! how will I cope??

The Device Boots:

And so it begins, set up on the Hero is a little more than just giving the device your Gmail account, the Hero wants more, it wants your FaceBook details, your Flickr details and your Twitter details I’ll go into that in more detail later, in order to really test the device I want to use it just as I did the G1 although that will be limited due to the fact I was running the G1 as a Dev phone which was rooted and I ran the apps from the SD this option isn’t open to me yet with the Hero. Realising that the Hero comes bundled with a paltry 2GB micro SD I will need the 8GB card out of the G1, which will need formatting before being used, I also don’t want to lose the bundled items from the supplied 2GB card so I will have to copy them across too.

On the supplied 2GB card is HTC Sync a piece of software to install on your PC which will allow synchronisation with Outlook on the PC something I haven’t used since Google came along and I can sync, contacts & calendar OTA to both the Hero and the Bold so I haven’t installed HTC sync yet, though I will if only to see what it is all about. As well as the sync software the full Hero manual can be found in PDF format, and a few sample images, a video and quite a bit of music.

Setting up the home screen is far better with all the HTC niceness that comes bundled with the Hero there are far more widgets to choose from including the original Google widgets which to be honest would look out of place if you were to implement any of these. From HTC we have the Bookmarks widget with a choice of 2 styles, the Calendar widget again with 2 styles, the Clock widget with 12 styles to choose from, Footprints with 2 styles, Mail & Messages widgets with 1 style each, the Music widget with 2 styles, People, Photo Album & Photo Frame widgets with 1 style each, HTC’s own search widget, Settings widgets including Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, GPS, Mobile Network & WiFi, there is a lot a choice of 3 styles of Stock widgets, 2 styles of Tweeter widgets and 3 styles of Weather widgets.

So we got a 3.5mm socket:

This means I can use my Shure’s with the device which can only be a good thing as the bundled headphones are pretty poor, no volume control to be found just forward/back & play/pause yeah that is more than the Shure’s have but I’d rather have no remote and proper sound!

Hopefully HTC will bring out a nice set of headphones with an in-line remote and a 3.5mm socket just after. The location of the socket works well for me too I prefer to have the socket at the top as it feels better in the pocket.

Final word (for now)

So is the Hero an iPhone killer? No it isn’t!

Why oh why do we have to have that question asked all the time?? why does the iPhone need to be killed off?? surely that would be for the worse!

What we have is a bloody good device in it’s own rights, sure it shares similarities with the iPhone but people seem to forget we had touchscreen phones long before the iPhone!

The Hero is a good alternative for those who want to use an up and coming OS, for those who don’t want to sign away their soul to O2 for an iPhone, for those who are sick of Nokia feeding them S60 which they have done for a good few years now, for those who are fed up of the archaic Windows Mobile which is still essentially the same OS I was using nearly 10 years ago on my Hewlett Packard Jornada.

I certainly don’t regret getting the Hero and doubt I will, OK there will be newer and better devices out, some using the new Snap Dragon processor but for now I’m a happy chappy!

I will be adding more to the Blog as I individually test out apps on the Hero so keep tuned!