adonismobile

Appview: Google+

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 18:34:00 +0000

With the slow incremental release of Google+ the big G has released an Android app to accompany the new social network for users on Android devices. I've been running it on my HTC Desire for a few days now and I have to say it's easily one of the most slickest apps I have come across.

The aim of the app is to allow access to Google+ on the go on your Android handset. Whilst the app does miss a few functions in comparison to the desktop browser experience, overall it's a pretty well built app, albeit in an early stage and does have some bugs.

Google+ for mobile makes sharing the right things with the right people a lot simpler. Huddle lets you send super-fast messages to the people you care about most. With your permission, Instant Upload automatically puts the photos and videos you take into a private album in the cloud, so you can share them anytime, from anywhere. And no matter where you are, the stream lets you stay in the loop about what your friends are sharing and where they’re checking in.

Features:

Circles - let you share the right things with just the right people. It's a great way to create filters and organise whom to share what with. It is also a good way to filter out specific content coming into your stream and filtering them as desired.
Stream - is where you can get updates from your circles or see what people are saying about things nearby. There is also an incoming section, which has content from those that have included you in their circles, but aren't in any of yours.
Instant Upload - automatically uploads videos and photos to your own private album in the cloud, to make sharing a snap. All images are uploaded to Google's Picasa photo hosting service.
Huddle - is super-fast group messaging for everyone in your circles. This is only available on the mobile app. The web interface does not support Huddle.
Images - uploaded to your Picasa account or shared on Google+ and those that you or your friend have been tagged in are shown here in their relative albums.
Notifications - is also another feature which is implemented better on the app over the browser interface. There are push notifications which appear in the native android notifications area and in the app notifications area.

Pros

Very slick and clean UI
Extra features over web interface
Easy Access to Google+ on the go

Cons

Early bugs can be found
Notifications can get overwhelming

If you are lucky enough to have found a way into Google+ and have an Android handset, you really should download and install this app. It's a great addition to experiencing and keeping up with what's going on in your Google+ circle.

Poll Results: Favourite Mobile OS

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 14:31:00 +0000

With the new redesign I decided to add a few new widgets to the right hand sidebar of AdonisMobile. One of which is the Facebook Like box. If you like a post or want to stay updated with the latest from AdonisMobile straight to your Facebook page, you can "like" it.

There is also a new monthly poll section where readers can vote. The first poll went live shortly after the redesign and the results are in.

Thanks to those that voted, be sure to check out the latest poll, which can be found as always on the right hand side. Each month I'll put up a new poll and post the results of finished ones.

The results for the Favourite Mobile OS are somewhat indicative of what I tend to cover on AdonisMobile in recent times; mainly Android with some iOS and Nokia stuff. So the results pretty much mirror the posts found here.

Results

iOS5 - Apple Reigns In The Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Apple recently announced the latest updates to it's iOS platform, which runs on the Apple iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone devices. The latest update (iOS5) includes 200+ new features and improvements to the platform. I'll highlight some of the biggest improvements below why they may not be good for innovation and for Apple in the long term.

Notifications

It was a well known fact notifications on iOS were intrusive and lacked any real use other than to do a very simple basic function of notifying. The new notification center improves on the old poor implementation and actually adds value. Albeit looking very similar to that of Android and WebOS. Many would argue Apple has ripped off the two aforementioned platforms, but I think they've not only done that but improved on it, and probably in a way neither Android nor WebOS could have done if they had attempted. All in all this is good for both Apple and it's competitors. A great example of how improvements can be carried out and upgraded.

...you can keep track of them all in one convenient location. Just swipe down from the top of any screen to enter Notification Center.

iMessage

For users of the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices which will support iMessage, this is a very good feature. A unified integrated platform to message and share content for free. For the 3rd party developers this is perhaps a big kick in the teeth. Platforms like WhatsApp, will be pushed out of Apple's system with this. Apple may be trying to impersonate Blackberry's BBM service, but what they have created is an ecosystem where Apple users will in reality choose to ignore those 3rd party services and use the native in built system. That's just how things work. Operators selling SMS bundles might as well just give up now.

You can send unlimited text messages via Wi-Fi or 3G from your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to anyone one with those devices. iMessage is built into the Messages app, so you can send text, send photos, videos, locations and contacts.

Twitter

This surprised me somewhat. I didn't expect Apple to put Twitter integration deep into the OS.With this feature users will be able to tweet away to their desires from within iOS devices. What this will do for Twitter's 3rd party apps is yet to be seen, but yet again, having an integrated service in such an environment will only constrict innovation and make 3rd party developers for the platform that much more difficult to break through. Apps like Seesmic, Tweetdeck and Hootsuite will have to find new ways to make sure users download their apps by offering better innovation and services. With Twitter clamping down on how Twitter is experienced in 3rd party apps, this could get ugly.

Sign in once in Settings, and suddenly you can tweet directly from Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube, or Maps.

PC Free

Android, WP7, WebOS and in more recent times Symbian users have had this setup for a long time, finally Apple decides to join the de-facto method of activating and updating devices via an OTA (over the air) method. Where previously activating or upgrading an iOS device required the use of iTunes, now it's a lot more easier. I do think this was done in order to clamp down on the jail-breaking of Apple devices. With the announcement of iCloud this is yet another instance where I think Apple tightens its hold on controlling the Apple experience whilst being done with those looking to do stuff with their devices Apple doesn't approve of. As small as this crowd maybe, I fear for the platform.

With iOS 5, you no longer need a computer to own an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Activate and set up your device wirelessly, right out of the box. Download free iOS software updates directly on your device.

Whilst I do applaud some of the great improvements and enhanced features included with iOS5, I do fear for the flexibility users have when signing up to the system itself. As we move forward I do think it may become a matter of choosing one platform and being locked into that environment over another. With the way Apple likes to control its user's experiences, it feels quite like a dictatorship from an outsider looking in. I hope we don't end up being in a situation where owning a mobile handset means signing up your choices and liberties too.

Molome Available For Android

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 11:43:00 +0000

I refrain from posting news about applications being available without doing a thorough check of it for myself, but this is slightly different. I'm not sure how, but to say the least I'm excited and glad Molome has now been released on Android.

You can download and install it on your Android device from the Market right now! Symbian users have been using it for a while now and it looks like a clone of many other camera effect apps around Instagram, Picplz, Camera360 etc, but I wanted to experience it myself to see what offered.

MOLOME is a easy & fun way to share your journey of life. Grab your phone, shoot a photo, choose from our 19 amazing filter effects and share it with your friends and family.

You will also meet with MOLO, our sweet, lovely and energetic owl. MOLO will help you to have more fun shooting photo, applying his magical filters, and share your photos on MOLOME community, Twitter and Facebook page.

MOLOME is a cross-platform photo sharing social network for smartphone users worldwide. It is free and it will always be free for everyone to use.

Key Features

Fast camera access for instant sharing
19 magical filters, including the all time popular Tilt Shift, Vignette, GentleArt, Slide Film, Old Paper, Vintage, Sepia, Black and White and Selective color removal
New filters for MOLOME Android release: Slick UI, Pinky Leak
Sharing to MOLOME network, Facebook and Twitter
Earn Badges
Follow and view Friends' photos
View Popular photos
Love and comment photos
Notification
Easy view and update your own profile & photo
Optimize performance for Android phones
Fast upload speed
100% free and unlimited photo uploads
Support for both 320x480 and 480x800 screen resolution

If you are already using it or download it, you can add me on there.

HD Voice - What You Should Know

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:21:00 +0000

Last year Orange released HD Voice and Three have just announced they we've rolled it out since May of this year. What you as a user should realise is that you'll need to do minimal work to experience this feature. As HD voice is enabled on a network level and is only available on 3G networks, all you as a user will need is a compatible handset.

Technically HD Voice is just an updated codec (WB-AMR Wideband Adaptive Multi-Rate codec) which captures more data, which in turn is sound. I experienced a few HD calls way back in January 2010 where Three did a little demo to a few journalists and myself on some Sony Ericsson K series devices. The difference in quality of HD voice is very much like day and night.

HD Voice

Background noise is significantly reduced.
Speech is much clearer - this is advantageous for understanding similar sounding words and letters.
Sound is transmitted at a higher rate - deep low booming voices have more base, whilst higher pitch voices are clearer.
Calls are more intimate - it almost seems the person is right there in your ear speaking to you.
Requires both caller and receiver to have HD voice compatible handsets.
Doesn't cost anything extra

Compatible Handsets (as confirmed by Three)

Nokia C7, E7, N8, X7
LG Optimus 3D

Further handsets will be confirmed by Three, so keep a check on their blog for news about your handset.

As HD voice calls are still new to us they’re only available between people on the Three network, and both the caller and the receiver need to have an HD Voice equipped phone. We are also looking to roll out cross-operator calls in the future. As soon as we can let you know more on this, we will.

Push N8 - Paint SKATE

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:08:00 +0000

Following on from the great video of the Long Distance SKATE, we've got yet another early access exclusive. This second video is slightly different. Titled Paint SKATE, it uses the same Push Skating Prototype as before but with a bit more paint.

The second film is Paint SKATE and something completely different from our first Push N8 film, Long Distance SKATE. Produced by a New York based group of skateboarders and filmmakers, Paint SKATE is an artistic take on a skate video featuring two skaters battling it out in a real-life version of Tony Hawk’s videogame version of the game of HORSE, called SKATE. The film is layered with cool visuals and some seriously slick skating tricks, all scored using the Push Skating prototype.

Enjoy it below. As usual keep your rss catchers aimed at the PushN8 Blog and follow the @NokiaPush Twitter account to stay up to date.

HTC ChaCha - Can Facebook, But Can It Dance

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:50:00 +0000

The HTC ChaCha is a peculiar handset amongst the Android family and it's not because of it's dedicated Facebook button either. The full QWERTY candy bar style with the landscape screen orientation will further add to the fragmentation of Android itself for some, but I personally think it tackles issues Android hasn't experienced yet.

Hardware

The Cha Cha comes in a mixture of white plastic and silver metallic casing. It has a full QWERTY thumb pad, touch Android user buttons, whilst the dedicated Facebook button sits at the bottom of the "chin" found on older HTC handsets such as the Hero and Dream (G1). The included charger is also white and there is a snazzy twist clip function, although one wonders how long the plastic on plastic twisting would take to ear it out.

Physically I found the handset to be smaller than expected, the press and advertised images make it look a lot bigger than it actually is. At most I'd say it's a half centimetre wider than the Desire, whilst it being a half centimetre shorter. It fits comfortably in one hand, although one handed operation isn't easy, nor does it seem it was designed for one handed use either.

The HTC chin is back on the ChaCha. Design wise it's not too bad, I didn't find any advantages to this design. It might make viewing the screen more optimal, but I think the screen needs more help than just a little tilt upwards. The rounded edges and the smooth finish on this handset make it slightly slippery, I would think the chin plays a little part in this.

Keyboard

The rounded keys and little spaces in-between them make typing away on the ChaCha easy to get used to. Once familiarised with the layout (here we have yet another variation) and where to access the FN (function) key for your access to symbols and special characters, you'll be updating your status, commenting and chattering away on Facebook pretty quickly.

What I found missing was the lack of a trackball, whilst the arrow keys do make up for them, having them in the bottom right corner instead of in the centre under the screen is somewhat undesirable. Most Nokia and Blackberry models have that setup, the ChaCha does not, so this might take a little getting used to. But as the ChaCha does have touch screen functionality there is some compensation.

The two dedicate answer / reject buttons just under the touch Android buttons went unnoticed, it would be better utilising this space for more screen real estate.

Screen

The screen maybe a higher resolution to some other similar handsets the ChaCha will be competing in the market against, but I think there are a few factors which hinder the experience.

First and foremost, Android is not optimised for landscape use. Whilst there are a few options to make it usable, using any Android device in landscape mode all the time will be painful and the lack of support and optimisations will be clear. Apps in the market have not been optimised to run landscape nor on this resolution (480 x 320), which really make getting as much info on screen at one time very hard. Screen retail space is a major concern here. There is a real feel of claustrophobia when using the ChaCha for long periods of time. Those used to the landscape mode may not experience it as much, but coming from a larger screen, it was definitely something I had to consciously get used to.

The screens other fault is the viewing angle. The viewing angle is not as wide as I would have liked, whilst the reflective nature make it hard to see when outdoors. At times viewing images or a video at a slightly slanted angle weren't crisp or as sharp I'd like. Having to view them almost straight on or past that line of limit is not ideal.

Camera

The 5 mega pixel camera on the back of the ChaCha is not really the selling point of this handset, so I wouldn't expect amazing images from it. But the images captured were good enough for sharing to Facebook. In good lighting conditions it wasn't a problem whilst in lowlight it performed OK, whilst the LED flash wasn't as blinding as on my Desire. The option to take images in a 3:2 widescreen resolution is a nice bonus. The 480p video capture ability is sufficient for grabbing quick videos in good light, but in lowlight it's not advisable. There is also the option to capture in widescreen mode here too - 720x480. A couple of sample images and comparison with the Desire can be found below. Click them to open in higher resolutions.

ChaCha vs Desire (Auto)

ChaCha vs Desire Auto (Flash)

ChaCha Closeup

It wasn't easy trying to get the pictures as desired due to the fact the ChaCha doesn't have a dedicated camera button and also the fact the pictures were taken using the phone vertically. It's not comfortable at all.

Facebook

The ChaCha's main selling point is the Facebook integration. Not only does it have a dedicated button for quick access to Facebook, the ChaCha's software has also been optimised to utilise this. Like most of the HTC's Android handset loaded with Sense, Facebook comes as part of a pre installed package. But HTC have gone the extra yard to make use of the dedicated Facebook button. When pressed it loads up a quick status screen where one can update their status, upload a picture from the gallery or snap one using the camera to post something on one of theirs or their friend's walls. The integration works well and it's super quick to do. Holding the button down allows the user to check-in to a place by using Facebook places. Again, very easy and quick to do.

FB Chat is also preloaded on the ChaCha. This allows the user to quickly see who's online and available to chat. There are also various widgets to stay alert with the latest from Facebook on your homepage. Whilst HTC's optimised Friend stream is a one stop shop to see what everyone is up to or what they are sharing. All of which can be filtered by categories; Photos, Status Updates, Links etc.

Conclusion

The HTC ChaCha is clearly aimed at a specific crowd. I'm not sure whether it excels at what it's aimed to do. But if the handset can be priced at a decent market, then there would be relative success. High end users on the whole would prefer a different setup or handset. There is too much change and adaptability for them. I think if it's aimed at the budget market the ChaCha may succeed, but put it up against a Blackberry Curve for example and it would have no chance, despite it's overwhelming features.

The ChaCha for me is a good experiment to see where Android users could end up and how far they would go to try something different. I don't quite agree having a dedicated Facebook button would make it a more social handset. There are plenty of apps, widgets and customisations in the Market to easily turn any generic Android handset into a "Facebook" phone. I'd rather HTC and others concentrate on doing what they have and expand on those, the HTC G2 and Desire Z are great examples. A dedicated camera button instead of a Facebook button would be a starting point.

The HTC ChaCha asks more questions than it actually answers. Can Android cope with handsets purely designed to work in Landscape mode. Are developers aware of Landscape mode and are they optimising their apps to utilise these options. Can Android become flexible enough to cope with varying different resolutions and handset design without fragmenting itself even more? I for one hope so.

Pros

Keyboard has great feedback and is easy to use.
Facebook users will love the integration.
The Camera isn't bad for everyday use and point and shoot scenarios.
Small, compact and very ergonomic.
The White on Silver design works well.

Cons

The landscape screen is alien to regular Android users.
The lack of a trackball won't help those coming from Blackberry and similar setups.
Lack of apps optimised for landscape.

The HTC ChaCha is available on ThreeUK on The One Plan with AYCE (all you can eat) data.

Appview: GO Launcher EX

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:37:00 +0000

There are plenty of alternative Launcher applications for Android for those that are bored with their default Android launcher options. Many have nice and snazzy UIs, widgets and extra functionality. During my time with Android I have cycled through a few; Launcher Pro and ADWLauncher being two of the most popular in the market.

I decided to try out something new ever since I upgraded to a custom Gingerbread (2.3.4) ROM. This is when I found GO Launcher EX.

"Yet another Launcher" - I thought.

I installed and started messing around with the Launcher settings and configuring it to the way I prefer. What I found were some very nice transition effects and customisation options. Whilst there were also an abundance of custom themes available from the market. I settled on a Honeycomb theme, and with a few tweaks my Android experience was yet again somewhat different whilst staying consistent.

One thing I would recommend for those trying out GO Launcher EX is their Calender GOwidget, which is pretty awesome. It gives all the functionality of the Android calender in the widget itself. Very convenient for those that live forever in their calenders.

Extended version of GO Launcher, one of the most popular home application.
GO Launcher EX is the extended version of GO Launcher, one of the most popular home apps in Android Market. It’s a highly customizable home replacement application, which will run when you press your android phone’s HOME key.
GO Launcher EX supports hundreds of themes, fast flip speed and tons of useful functions.

Features

- Hundreds of themes

- Fancy home screen transition

- Smooth scrolling experience

- Icon popup menu

- Folder and task manager in app drawer

- Gesture supported

- Scrollable & resizable widgets supported

For those to looking enhance their Android experience and looking for something different with a lot of choice, you should try GO Launcher EX out. It's FREE, easy to install, customise and use.

HTC ChaCha Overview

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 11:43:00 +0000

**The Full HTC ChaCha Review Here**

The HTC ChaCha is an Android Qwerty smartphone, but unlike any other it's got a dedicated Facebook button and is in a typical Blackberry form factor. The landscape screen orientation along with the Qwerty keyboard and dedicated Facebook button make the ChaCha a potential social messaging smartphone to rival all others.

Whether or not it will succeed is yet to be seen. I was lucky enough to be invited by Three to a meetup for the ChaCha and get my hands on the handset. The initial impressions are pretty good. It's a lot smaller than it looks in the pictures. It's not as flimsy or light as I thought it might be. I'll be testing it out in the coming weeks to see exactly how this handset performs on it's main selling points; Facebook integration and messaging.

Highlighted Features:

Dedicated Facebook Button
Qwerty Keyboard
2.6-inch touch screen with 480 x 320 resolution
800 MHz CPU
5 megapixel color camera with auto focus and LED flash + VGA front camera
512MB RAM
MicroSD card support
1250 mAh Lithium-ion battery
WiFi 802.11b/g/n
Android (2.3.3.) with HTC Sense 2.1

In the meantime check out the video from the lovely Sedge of the Three Social Media team and check out the features on the official website for the HTC ChaCha

If you have any questions or queries, or anything you'd like me to try out with the handset, leave a comment below, find me on Twitter or e-mail me.

Push N8 - Long Distance SKATE

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:48:00 +0000

If you're not familiar with the Nokia Push stuff, then you must be hiding under a rock. They do very cool stuff with Nokia phones. I've covered a few of the cool stuff they've been doing before. Especially the PushN900 and PushBurton stuff they were doing with the Nokia N8.

Exclusive readers of AdonisMobile can get an early look at the latest stuff they're doing with the Nokia N8. Keep your RSS services glued to their blog, but in the meantime enjoy the cool video early.

Nokia Push is about showcasing the creativity of people by giving them the opportunity to demonstrate the power of Nokia devices and the Push N8 project is a great example of that. We challenged people to show us the most creative ways of demonstrating the Push KAPing and Push Skating prototypes through film and the eight teams are now ready to unleash their final films.

The first film is Long Distance SKATE. Using the Push Skating prototype, a London based group of skateboarders and filmmakers set out to show what could be possible with the technology. Using the prototype, two skaters battle against each other to outdo each other’s tricks – one in London and the other in Paris.

AdonisMobile v4

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 13:35:00 +0000

Welcome to AdonisMobile V4.

This is the latest and greatest overhaul to the design of the site thus far. It's more spacious, smoother and easier for me to handle as an Admin.

There are new features implemented with the new design. Feel free to look around and tinker with stuff. It's designed to get you the reader to interact more and express yourself.

There will be a monthly voting on questions related to mobile on the right pane.
The Facebook group widget, which you can like.
There are also more clearer and easier options to subscribe, follow on Twitter and Like on Facebook too.
Popular posts of the month are displayed, so you can see what's being read on AdonisMobile often.
The new featured posts section is bigger with larger pictures, highlighting some of the reviews and content I've written previously.
There is also a contact / about me page at the top. This will help you get in contact with me briefly as well as giving you insight into how AdonisMobile is run.
The share buttons at the bottom of posts are now also on the main homepage, allowing you to share posts quickly.

I'd appreciate feedback on the design, features and bugs if you come across any. I hope you enjoy your experience. If you don't remember what v3 looked like, see below. I'm sure you'd agree, it was more compact and less flexible in comparison.

Appview: Revision3

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:54:00 +0000

Revision3 have a really great web page to access some of the great content they create. I'm a keen Diggnation fan, I watch it mainly for the banter and the interesting conversations between Alex and Kevin, whilst I also catch up with Destructiod to keep up briefly with my gaming news and snippets.

The Revision3 Android app is pretty similar to their slick web page UI. It's been designed for touch, has some nice graphics and above all high quality content. This is the biggest pro for me. Having access to the shows I watch on there in great quality on the go. There are many apps out there which have video streaming, but all suffer from choppy poor quality streams. Revision3 doesn't. The streams are high quality HD video - screenshot below from an actual stream.

Revision3 - the leading Internet TV network featuring Diggnation,Tekzilla & more

Watch your favorite Revision3 shows on the go on your Android phone with the official Revision3 app!

We've made it quick and easy to watch your favorite shows from the Revision3 lineup, so if you're into Diggnation, Film Riot or Tekzilla, it doesn't matter - they're all here for you to watch and enjoy!

If you haven't checked out Revision3 and you are interested in most things to do with technology, then you should check out Revision3. There are plenty of shows on there to choose from. The quality of the content is great and with their Android App you can keep up with the latest from your favourite shows anytime, anywhere.

I'd like to see some extra features in the app itself.

A way to subscribe to a show and be notified with push messages when new episodes are posted.
Also a nice offline sync feature perhaps with the ability to watch the shows later offline.

Their rss feeds already has the link for the videos in them, but it would be nice to have an option there which would make this available via the app.

Xperia Arc And Play Get Gingerbread And Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:01:00 +0000

Sony Ericsson has just released the latest update to their Xperia Arc and Play handsets, which upgrades the handsets to the latest Gingerbread build (2.3.3).

This update brings lots of fixes and optimizations within many different areas but here are some important ones:

Battery performance
General software stability
Wi-Fi stability
HD Video recording performance (Xperia™ arc)
Touch responsiveness

This update will be possible to perform over the air directly from your phone or through PC-Companion.

Besides these updates the main focus will be on the Facebook integration which will turn the handsets more Facebook focused. The integration is very deep and is pretty much everywhere. From the gallery, to the contacts and even lock-screens, Facebook will be predominantly visible and integrated.

The video below shows brief examples how "Facebook Inside Xperia" will be.

There is also news the Xperia X10 will also get this update, whilst all handsets coming from Sony Ericsson onwards, will have Facebook heavily integrated within the handsets.

Appview: BBC News

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Thu, 26 May 2011 12:01:00 +0000

Finally there is a proper app for the BBC News website. Previously the BBC News was just a bookmark which loaded up your browser and pointed you towards the BBC Mobile website. But this new BBC News in the Android Marketplace is a proper app with a nice UI and features.

Key features:

Simple design with scroll functionality to enable efficient browsing
Tap to reveal full-screen article and in-story video
On a story page, swipe sideways to read the next story
Sharing tools to post stories to a range of social networks, or email / SMS to a friend
Latest and breaking news ticker
An 'Edit' menu, allowing you to personalise the homescreen by adding and removing news categories to suit your preferences
Live streaming of the BBC News channel for Android 2.2 devices running Flash
Settings to allow the app to automatically update in the background
Font controls to increase or decrease the story text size to suit you
Full range of News categories: Top stories, World, UK, Sport, Technology, Entertainment & Arts, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Business, Politics, Health, Education, Science & Environment, Features & analysis, Also in the news

Not only is the app easily customisable to your preference, it's smooth UI is nice to use, the app is clearly designed with touch in mind. All usual Android touch related gestures work. Swipe through the different categories to see stories, swipe through whilst reading a particular story to find more in that category, whilst pressing down on any story gives the options to share it via Twitter or other platforms.

There is also a live stream of the BBC News channel, although it has to be said, it's jittery and of poor quality. Probably the only negative thing I could find about the app.

Windows Phone Mango - The Juicy Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:18:00 +0000

Microsoft has announced the latest and long awaited update to Windows Phone 7, codenamed Mango. With it brings features we've all been waiting for, in order to bring Windows Phone 7 up to par with it's competitors. Below are the juicy titbits from the official press release.

Improved Live Tiles, which provides even more real-time information to the home screen. Live Tiles on Mango can be more dynamic and contain more information.
Multitasking allows users to quickly switch between recently used applications and pick up where they left off by simply pressing and holding the back button.
Live Agents, which enables developers to create a number of multitasking apps for scenarios involving media, communications, augmented reality and more – all without compromising battery life and performance.
Personalized Live Tiles make it possible for users to easily access individuals or groups from the home screen. Individuals can be pinned to the start screen as Live Tiles, providing users with at-a-glance access to real-time updates from social network feeds and notifications without having to open multiple apps.
Multiple email accounts can be combined and linked into one inbox.
Built-in voice-to-text/text-to-voice functionality, which will allow for hands-free texting or chatting.

Web browsing now also has an added layer that allows users to take advantage of functionality such as location awareness, the phone’s camera and its microphone.

Local Scout prioritizes hyper-local search results based on user preferences and recommends the closest restaurants, shopping and activities in an easy-to-use guide.
Visual search enables users to initiate a Bing search by photographing barcodes, QR codes and Microsoft Tags (without using a third-party app).
Music search allows users to search Bing and get detailed information about music (like song title, artist and album title) by simply holding the phone up to a speaker.

Those are just the highlights of the latest release which will be available to current and future Windows Phone 7 users by Autumn. For the full press release, click through.

Google Serves Ice Cream Sandwiches All Round

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Wed, 11 May 2011 11:18:00 +0000

The future of Android is becoming more focused, structured and linear, according to Google's latest announcements at their I/O session. The biggest news is that Ice Cream Sandwich - which is essentially a mashup of Honeycomb (Android 3.0) aimed mainly at tablets and the more well known and distributed Android mobile OS Gingerbread (Android 2.3), will be deployed universally to all handsets and tablets. The aim here is to unify the experience and have less of a "fragmentation" that seems to be the concern for many.

With the current rate of handsets coming with dual core processors and bigger screens, the gap and distinction between phone and tablet is becoming smaller than the gap between laptop and tablet. I think it's essential to start planning for a unified look between either platforms and a universal experience as Android starts to approach maturity - something Apple has achieved to a certain extent with the iPhone and iPad.

As we move towards more focused to data services, in the next 2 years voice calls, sms and other similar add-ons will be the exception rather than the rule. It's already a case in my personal lifestyle, but with Google's other services being integrated into the latest iteration of Android and a true universal convergence of devices, voice, sms and similar offerings will be effectively irrelevant. Everything will be focused on data. Google Voice + Chat could essentially replace voice calls and sms, indefinitely. I see similar things happening with the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft, whilst Apple already has Facetime but seem to be the weakest link going forward.

Supporting Devices

I'm glad finally there is some work to universally support devices for longer and is being taken up by the members of the Open Handset Alliance. The whole argument of Android's fragmentation has been due to the various different versions of it on various differing specs and features of hardware. Hopefully this will remedy this, although I do think 18 months is quite short, but going forward not so much if the pace of developments around mobile is sustained.

Beyond Mobile

Android long term has been always planned as a convergence OS, which would essentially work on almost anything, it was designed to be flexible. I said 2.5 years ago Android would take over everything and would be everywhere in 5 years time, and this seems to be where Google is also planning to go with Android Open Accessory, Android Home.

Fridges, Ovens, TVs, Car Dashboards, Garage Doors, Lights and Doors could essentially all be running on Android, interacting, syncing and communicating together - all controlled by your Android handset / tablet. A truly connected future.

Google Music

Just a little side note on what Google Music is and why in my opinion it won't be anything more or better than what we already have with services such as Spotify. The whole cloud streaming concept is a good one, I like the concept and idea behind it, but like many things at the moment, it's more of a case of trial and error until it can be 99.999% full proof and the infrastructure to support such services can built and perfected.

Only open to the US in usual Google exclusivity which gets all those first time exclusivity people excited, it essentially offers backing up your music collection to the cloud and streaming it wherever you go. Which is fine. But here is where the problems start.

Streaming - I don't necessarily want to stream my music, especially high quality content which would require a lot of bandwidth. Also we don't have a 100% signal everywhere we go, if I have signal it's likely I would be using my data connection for other means; e-mail, Twitter, RSS, podcasts. Whilst that can be remedied with offline storage my point here is; then why bother with streaming? It's not like storage is an issue here. Maybe in 2000 when storage was a big issue and we couldn't fit our collection of music on our devices, it would have been a good idea to be able to stream / download our music to our walkmans, phones etc then. But now? Not necessary.
Who Profits - This is the bigger point, who profits from the use of this services? Operators and distributors. The user has minimal profit from this situation. It's a system designed more to make it easier for those cloud shops to be able to distribute their wares and make profit wherever you are. Essentially you the user become a walking, living, shopping trolley.

I personally think a more connected service would be better. Give us devices with more storage, give us a faster, more reliable and better network to utilise this service. Have total sync with the cloud, hand-held and desktop. Use the cloud as a backup storage for my desktop and hand-held device. Have the content locally stored on the hand-held and desktop and sync / backup via the cloud. If I download content on the go, give me the security of knowing that's it's also been synced to the cloud and my desktop, with me as a user having to do minimal work. There are many ways to extend this use case and improve on how cloud streaming can be used more effectively, but in essence until we get the infrastructure to be able to support it, it will be a test service.

This is where operators can come in to help ease and improve the situation and help progress a lot quicker. This is an ideal chance for them to stop thinking the old dinosaur way of marketing; selling minutes, sms bundles and data bundles. Create a fast reliable tiered data network. Sell prioritised speed data packages over amounts of data. Tier the the speed of data user subscribe to rather than the amount they can use. For those looking to utilise such services as streaming music / content - bill them for data speeds as they require. If the network infrastructure doesn't exist, start building it, don't get left behind.

UI Overlays Another Way

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:51:00 +0000

HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson all have their own UI overlays for Android, the aim being it offers a user "experience", alters the way the phone works and aims to add to the overall Android experience. It's their attempt to try and differentiate between each other. Whilst I see the point here, I don't quite agree with this strategy.

I've pointed out before short term it's a decent strategy, when Android itself was still an ugly duckling. But, times have changed, Android is no longer the ugly duckling it started off as. It's more polished, streamlined and capable since release and personally think all these UI overlays and experiences actually hinder the overall experience of Android. Of course they serve a purpose and do have some great additional stuff the user gets for purchasing their own handsets, as each experience is locked to the handsets purchased (without hacking).

But why are they restricting their "experience" to only their handsets? Why not use the available space to attract customers from their competitors using the Android Marketplace?

Lets take for example HTC and their Sense UI on their Android handsets. I myself own a Desire and am quite satisfied with it. I'm rooted and running a custom ROM (GingerVillain). I do this because I want the latest Android release ASAP, also for the fact there are some optimisations included in the custom Rom which make my life easier and using Android much more pleasant. But, I do miss some cool features form Sense; mainly the Camera and Music player. Now I'm not going to re-flash back to the stock Sense Rom to gain these things, rather I'll look for alternatives. This is where I think companies like HTC are missing an opportunity. Why not offer the Camera and Music player, or even the Framework in the Android Market?

There's an easy and simple revenue model there; have a free and paid versions of Sense elements found on their handsets, make them compatible with other manufacturers or with stock Android and offer them in the Market. Not only do you get income from those who may not have purchased your handsets, but you're offering your current customers the choice of picking and choosing which elements they may want or not on their handsets. This benefits you in another way and gives you some free market research data:

You can easily see which elements of your custom UI are popular and can include them in your next handset versions and remove the bloat-ware no one is using or installing.

Now I'm not familiar with the technical obstacles which may be there, but from what I have seen, the Android community can pretty much bake a custom Rom to their liking with features added and patched as they please.

So what's stopping these multi million pound companies with bigger resources? If you want to differentiate between yourself and your competitors in an even playground, in my opinion change the landscape to your liking. Use it to your advantage. When it comes to Android, the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) is the biggest gateway for any of these manufacturers to bend and change as they please. It's just staggering how any of them aren't doing any of this. Instead they're opting to add in gimmicky features like Facebook and Twitter integration. To me it seems like once again, we're back to the same situation we were in the days before the iPhone - a starvation of innovation. Linear thinking and strategies.

Rolling Out The One Plan - Monthly

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Fri, 06 May 2011 10:11:00 +0000

In my last blog post I wrote about the easy way to move to the awesome AYCE plan on ThreeUK and even how I found calling customer service an easy process. I've been on PAYG for a while now, I decided to not be bound by long term contracts, for me they just aren't flexible enough. Just recently Three announced The One Plan on a Monthly Rolling contract.

I've decided to make the jump and get one, why? For me it's easily the best value SIM only plan out there, with enough flexibility to be able to cancel if my needs change. The AYCE data and the free SMS and Calls, make this a pretty easily sell-able plan for me. But this isn't why I'm writing this post! Here's why:

I spoke with ThreeUK on Twitter about tethering on this new rolling monthly plan, but was told everything was the same as the 12+ month contract except the tethering. I wake up this morning to read this - a total opposite of what I was told. Through the power of Social Media and because they actually "listen" to their customers, ThreeUK have turned everything on it's head and are allowing tethering on the Rolling Monthly contract too!

The rest of you should just watch and follow lead; there's much to be learnt here. THE best affordable plan out there, bar none. You know this is true, when I'm rocking it too.

From 3Pay To AYCE

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:25:00 +0000

Being a massive data consumer I decided to move from the very affordable £10/month 3Pay which gave you a very generous amount of freebies, which included:

Three-to-Three calls: Free for 90 days with top-up
Texts to any UK mobile: Free allowance of 600 with every top-up
Mobile internet: Free allowance of 150MB with every top-up

This has served me well for the last 9 months or so that I've been using it, with only a net spend of around £15 a month.

I'll be honest, I rarely call anyone, and I rarely send texts, my preferred method of communication is Twitter. Always on, always available (although if it does go down, alternative methods are used). I'm also always carrying Three Gmail accounts around, which are also always on, always available - literally. It's safe to say if it isn't data, I really don't want to know about it.

I do make the occasional call and send a few occasional text messages, whilst I'm not bothered about the latter, the former does annoy me. All of my friends are on other networks; mainly T-Mobile or O2. Mainly because they're dinosaurs and mainly, because they're all easily hyperbole-d into believing the iPhone is the saviour of the human race. I'll be frank, they're stupid is as stupid does when it comes to technology. Whilst they leak money out of their pockets to 18 and 24 month contracts on stupid price plans they don't need, "just" because they can't control themselves, I do have to keep in contact with them now and then, I mean what are friends for? Well to me it seems, for tech issues mainly, but that's besides the point.

So yes, I do have to make cross network calls now and then. 300 minutes is more than adequate for me (currently). So I decided to move to the AYCE (All You Can Eat) Pay As U Go plan from ThreeUK. Which is geared more to add-ons pick and mix style.

When I discovered I would actually have to call CS and ask them to make the change, I decided to leave it towards the end of the month - fearing the worst. ThreeUK seem to have a bad opinion from the public when it comes to Customer Service.

Dialling 333 on my handset and moving through the menus to speak to someone led me to a friendly chap who was clearly from the motherland (Indian) going on his accent alone. I explained to him what I wanted done, he made the changes, whilst reminding me that I wouldn't get my Free 3to3 minutes anymore if I made the change (I know where his priorities lie), I assured him I was fine with that, he made the change and 45 seconds later I was done. The whole thing took less than 2 minutes and was no trouble at all.

Preconceived opinions of services are understandable, I understand we will decide to avoid certain brands and services because of poor experiences, hell I know just as well, I got away from T-Mobile for a reason, poor signal was just one of them. But things do change over time, it's sometimes worth giving a 2nd chance, everyone deserves a 2nd chance. I had opinions of ThreeUK's poor network performances from their early days of 3G, but I gave them another chance, and I can't say I've been as happy with a network ever.

Return Zero

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:08:00 +0000

A 3D psychedelic racer with a great soundtrack.

Now I'm not a mobile gamer, I very rarely tend to play games on my mobile, I only tend to play games that load quickly and can be played quickly, completed and put down. Return Zero is one of those games that does this well. Being a racing game and also having a cool soundtrack and some psychedelic 3D graphics (which look very Tron-ish if you ask me), I gave it a go.

The aim of the game is to go through as many blocks of blue as quickly as possible, whilst avoiding the red blocks and other obstacles in your path. There are both completion percentages and timed stages, which need to be met to unlock further levels. The higher the levels you get to the more complex and difficult they become.

The Android Market has a free version which has three worlds with various levels on, that should get you started and into the pretty addictive soundtrack and graphics of the game pretty early on.

What this little game is, is a nice casual racer for when you have a spare 2 minutes, and I do mean 2 minutes, because that's how quickly you'll be finishing a level.

Xperia Launch Party

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:46:00 +0000

I went to the Xperia Launch Party last week held in the Old Sorting Office on New Oxford Street, by Sony Ericsson. During the day the whole place was transformed into a public exhibition where the public could walk in and check out the Xperia Play handset whilst also enjoying the great atmosphere created.

Check out the great pics from during the day on TheAverageGamer - looks pretty brilliant! Events conspired against me as I had planned to attend during the day to try and check it all out, but I did make the VIP Launch Party in the evening, which to be frank, was a party! Fellow blogger and amazing amateur photographer @JonChoo, has captured some awesome pictures of the night, which if you'll notice contains images of Tinchy Strider, who was headlining the night. Check out his views of the night also.

For me personally it was a case of just turning up and enjoying the event arranged. Too many times I find myself going to events and not enjoying or appreciating the efforts put in to having a good night. This was not the case this time around. Although I did get to meet a few Twitter folk for the first time: @Dan_Vivian and @TomRPI and as usual catchup with many fellow bloggers and usual socialites; my mindset was to be just relaxing to the thumping bass, enjoying the free booze and noodles and hanging out.

Whilst there was a shortage of beers during the night (which was testament to the efforts made by all to enjoy the evening) this was quickly rectified. Whilst it was a struggle to get any long conversation going, this was of course a party. A pretty well organised, funded and enjoyable one at that.

Nokia E7 - Wasted Efforts

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:39:00 +0000

The Nokia E7, at the very least it's a confusing piece of hardware and pretty much sums up how Nokia as a company has been running for the last 2/3 years. It doesn't really know what it wants to be, nor do the people behind it.

If you want a "proper geeky" review of this handset then you are clearly in the wrong place, exit door is here. Rita as she does, has done an excellent job rounding up the handset from all objective points of view, go and read that. If you want to know why Nokia and the E7 are confused and have lost their way, then stay here and carry on reading.

Hardware

The E7 is actually a very well built device, but don't get build quality confused with good design. I still stand by my opinion of the retro 70s look, it looks nice. These are the things that annoy me about this device from a design point of view and something Nokia keeps doing with different handsets. Stop. Moving. Things. Around.

Sliders

They really should take a note from the "if it's not broken, don't fix it" book - yes I am talking about the lock slider and the slider volume. Why and why did those things get changed? Is this device designed for left handers in particular? Are they trying to capture an untapped market somewhere? From my experience with the X6 and 5800XM the slider has always been on the right side of the handsets, easily able to lock and unlock. Simple, works. Perfect. Why have the volume buttons turned into an uncomfortable slider, and the lock slider moved to the other side? Anyone care to explain what was wrong with how they were? Are sliders cool now in Finland? Is Jerry O'Connell making a comeback?

Keyboard

Those that love, want and need a physical keyboard will not be disappointed. The keyboard on this E7 is awesome. The actual keys are well spaced, have good feedback when pressed and I found myself pretty comfortable using it immediately. The space bar could have been slightly moved to the left a bit more in my opinion, it's not quite positioned exactly as found on a full QWERTY keyboard. But that's just a little niggle which anyone can adjust to easily.

The only thing annoying about this physical keyboard is this, sliding it up. As the E7 is identical to that of the N8 in design, adding a keyboard to it should not have been just sticking an N97 style hinge on it. Trying to push it up is not a nice feeling nor is it easy to do. It doesn't feel natural, nor does it feel safe. Every time I found myself trying to push it up I felt it would drop out of my hands. Yes it looks nice, and cool, but it's not a pleasant experience.

Screen

It's a thing of beauty. It's easily one of the best screens I've ever seen on a mobile. Everything is just so sharp, the colours pop out, the blacks are rich and the 4 inch real estate make it a pleasure viewing pictures and videos on it. The CBD AMOLED screen is an amazing piece of technology, you'll have to see yourself to see exactly what I'm trying to explain here. The screen and the angle it pops out at make it a great desktop accompaniment. One could easily use this as a media centre, especially with the HDMI out functionality.

Camera

8MP - That's what is printed on the back of the E7, right next to the dual LED flash and the lens. Yes there is no Carl Zeiss optics, no autofocus or no quality image sensor here. This is a "business phone" aimed at professionals. They don't know how to take pictures nor do they care much about photography. They're main priority is having access to their e-mails, which they would use the excellent screen and keyboard to deal with. That's what I'm getting from this decision. My question is, why bother with an 8MP camera then? Why not just stick a bog standard 5MP or even a 3.2MP one on there? This all makes sense now, and this is why the great camera capture experience found on the N8 has been removed.

The Nokia E7 takes pictures like a blind dog. Sure in perfect conditions and with some practice one could learn to take some great pictures. But wasn't the point of discarding all that tech to "dumb" it down for those business users who don't know how to take pictures? I'm confused. For those that don't know, here's the deal with the camera on the E7:

taking pictures with the E7 is like trying to fight gravity, you'll win, but only temporarily

The dedicated camera button is a shocking piece of engineering. There is no feel to it and with the EDOF (Extended Depth of Field) instead of the Autofocus you'll be snapping away before you even know it. Don't forget to take the flash off, otherwise it will suck all the saturation away. It's like a black hole, everything you see on the big screen is sucked away, just like that, in a flash, literally. What the E7 has accomplished is designed a camera experience for a child, snap, snap, snap. "look mommy I take pikchar!"

Software

Where do we go with this? What's changed since I had a Symbian phone? Quite a lot it seems. The home screen mainly seems to have been revamped. But how good is it? If you are coming back from Android, iOS or WebOS, then get ready for some confusing days. I'll try and keep it short. Here's the problem; nothing works as user would like them to. Nothing has been engineered / designed to be user friendly, or work with human instincts. It is and will be until its death an OS that was adapted from non touch to touch. Symbian can never be user friendly for touch. It goes against it's very existence.

I know how robust it is, how powerful and capable it is, I have been a user for years, but the problem here is this; evolution takes time, time is something you don't have in the current mobile market. But yet you can still fix some of the annoyances, and yet they haven't been fixed? Why? Very simple things, which would go some way to act as a stop gap between the transition to whatever is next for Nokia.

Homescreen

Right off from the go, one is met with a confusion of icons and widgets and screens. That's the greeting a new user gets when turning the E7 on first time? Why? Simplify it. Start an on screen tutorial, get the user to set-up all the accounts and settings and explain to them how the handset works and how to interact with it. Don't assume the user is going go know how to use the device from the get go. Symbian is not something anyone can pickup as quick as iOS or Android or WebOS.

The dedicated Menu button is nice, but why isn't there one on-screen? Yet there is an Options and Call buttons on-screen? Why are they in text? Why do you assume everyone can read? Yes this IS an E7, but it's the same across the whole range of Symbian devices.

Widgets

Why is it designed to be such a pain in the ass to move things around? Why does everything consist of having to go through menus after menus, selecting, deselecting and confirming, before the user can actually make changes to their list of widgets. Why are they all confined to selected regimes of a linear universe? Is this digital cyberspace controlled by Clu? Where is the freedom for the user to be able to move stuff around anyhow they want by dragging icons. Why does it take 5 different menus to get through before one can change the shortcuts to apps displayed on the homescreen? Why does it take Android and iOS "ONE" step to achieve all this?

Everything Else

I really would like to go into detail on how to improve everything around Symbian, well maybe 2 years ago when something could have been done. But now it's too late. Apps, Games, OVI? I'll put it simply, Where? and Why? Where are they? And Why is OVI still alive?

Conclusion

As I said the at the start of this post. The E7 is a piece of hardware design in the midst of chaos with a regressive mentality by a company riddled with incompetence and lacking in progressive thinkers all wrapped up in red tape and bureaucracy. It's a bi-product of not having a clear strategy of what a device should be. All devices should be created with a purpose, not to just fill the gaps in markets missing from your portfolio.

I understand Nokia is going through a transitional period. What annoys me is in the matter they got to this point in their existence. It's a shameful way for such a giant of the industry to fall. We can all see the how, why and when now, but when it was happening, where were the people who should have been doing their job to listen.

At the end of the day, it's all business. The problem with being a multi-billion-dollar business is you've grown so big, you can't see your feet anymore.

All You Can Eat On Three - No Strings

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:59:00 +0000

Three have decided once again to shake up the industry, they previously removed the "unlimited" from their tariff descriptions as it wasn't really true, but now they're bringing it back but in a more honest and relevant way by announcing unlimited data on Pay As You Go tariffs. No strings attached.

In simple terms; new Pay As You Go customers will get a choice of 2 different tariffs with both coming with unlimited data for 30 days - true unlimited data.

Three’s Sales and Marketing Director, Marc Allera, said: “We want to get people using their smartphones in the way they were designed to be used, and that means data.

“More importantly, we want people to feel comfortable doing this without worrying about the cost. That’s why the new offers include all-you-can-eat data along with a huge allowance of minutes and texts.

“Three’s network was built for data, and it’s the confidence in the strength of our 3G network that means we can introduce deals like this.”

The introduction is also a reaction to research that suggested people didn’t always know how much data they needed to do different things. Instead they didn’t use much data at all through fear of running out of credit.

What's interesting to see is, not only will there be unlimited data on offer, but also free minutes and texts, which vary on tariff chosen:

All in One 15 costs £15 and gives 30-days access to all-you-can-eat data along with a massive 300 any-network minutes and 3,000 texts.
All in One 25 costs £25 and offers 500 minutes, 3,000 texts and all-you-can-eat data for a 30-day period.

If you're someone like myself who relies mostly on data for day to day usage, then this is a great move on Three's part. Once again they're leading the way in innovating and more than anything giving their customers what they want. Which should be the business plan for all networks. The inclusive any network minutes and texts just make this a no-brainer.

New customers can now access all-you-can-eat data by buying one of Three’s new Pay As You Go, All in One 15 or 25 Add-ons. Pay As You Go Customers who joined Three prior to September 2010 will need to migrate onto the current tariff.

XperiaMWC In London

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:03:00 +0000

An invitation arrived in my inbox from Brando for an event taking place in London which would involve getting hands on with some of the latest Sony Ericsson handsets, which I eagerly obliged to accept. I was last invited to a Sony Ericsson event way back in, wait, never actually. So a first on the cards here. Brando are not alien to myself though, I did attend one of the events they hosted since acquiring the Three account.

Eager to see what was up with the Sony Ericsson Play and Arc in particular I ventured out.

Hosted at Kyashii - a very stylish and recently renovated and under new management, it was visually pretty accommodating, logistics wise could have been better. That didn't deter from the fact I liked it. From the black on black decoration in the passage way which made me feel like I was somewhat in some other virtual world to the well highlighted private areas with more light and a brighter white décor and fish tanks, it was setting the mood up nicely. Not that many around me seemed to appreciate it, most were queuing up at the bar for the free beverages on offer, something else I'm not alien to, but alas this time I was purely on Lemonade.

The only negative I thing I could say about this whole situation comes in two points;

Far too many people were invited / turned up and there was not enough devices around to play with.
The venue wasn't big enough to host the event itself, as swanky as it was, moving back and forth between two floors is not ideal. The Play stuff was hosted on one floor upstairs, whilst the Xperia handset demos were downstairs.

I know the temptation is there to make it a successful meetup and try to get as many people involved as possible, but more doesn't always = better. The key thing I'd point out is getting the "right" mix of people invited, a mix of bloggers, gamers, tech enthusiasts who would offer feedback and get the "hype" going on social networks might be more beneficial for everyone. Looking at the hashtag for the night #XperiaMWC, it's kinda evident myself and a few fellow bloggers were the only ones tweeting from the event itself.

Moving on from my my mini rant, here's how the devices imprinted their impressions on me. Keep in mind I was told all these were pre release devices. All were running Gingerbread (Android 2.3) from what I saw.

First things first - The Xperia Play - The Playstation Phone

The rumours of this phone in development have been around for years, literally. My thoughts to this day still has to be; is there a need for it? Is there a market for it? In my pretty blunt opinion - no, not for a device anyway. Mobile gaming yes, an actual handset geared towards gaming, not so much. It's yet another example of a company thinking in the wrong mindset, in this instance unfortunately Sony Ericsson.

Nokia has been down this road with it's N-Gage devices and it's failure twice highlights this very fact quite evidently.

The Playstation Suite makes more sense and is in line with my thinking of how mobile gaming should be approached. The success of the iPhone and it's gaming capabilities highlight this fact pretty evidently. The Playstation Suite itself though is only a step towards the right direction, there is still a lot being missed, which Microsoft and Xbox get and have been doing so for years - but that's maybe for another post.

The actual Xperia Play device just like it's many brothers and sisters is very stylish, Sony Ericsson design some gorgeous hardware (yes it's an opinion), it's very similar to the PSP and incorporates many of the Sony Ericsson Xperia line-up of phones nicely. The D-Pad is pretty good as expected from Sony, very much Playstation experience being deployed here. The device itself is slightly bulky due to the slide form factor which is to be expected. the analogue stuff isn't exactly easy to use and the general consensus was, it might have been better utilising this space for something else - say a mini physical keyboard. I personally thought it would be better to get rid of the whole slide and have touch gaming only. Here's why;

Fatigue - Physical fatigue in this case. The Play suffers from the same problems the PSP does; it's not comfortable playing games for any length of time because there is no support for the two smaller fingers which aren't being utilised. Sure through extensive playtime you could train and get used to this, but why should one have to?

There are other physical annoyances too; the two trigger buttons are nice when the device is closed, but when open (which is when they are being used) they are hard to actually use, don't expect to try and quick scope if / when there is a FPS game released on the Play.

Software - Android - Graphics

The custom Sony Ericsson Timescape and facelift is evident and looks decent eye candy. Fans of it will love it as it's been improved. There is minimal lag and response is pretty decent. The Adreno GPU powering the graphics for gameplay somewhat struggles at times. During Asphalt 4 there were many times when the Play struggled to keep up with my drift cornering (yes I owned the Play) there was severe lag and loss of frames. The dust effects were great, but the game didn't run smoothly due to some of these effects. It did look amazing mostly though. The 3D graphics were on par with the PSP stuff I've seen, but then again the iPhone can compete here too.

I also had a play with a beat em up Bruce Lee game which didn't suffer from any of the problems found in Asphalt 4, but then again there are less frames to contend with and gameplay is a lot slower paced.

Although I don't agree with the device being made at all, there are ways to improve it and it's services to try and make it as successful as it could be;

Dedicated game suite. As the Xperia Play is aimed at keen gamers, why isn't there a gaming hub / suite in place? Far too many people where asking "where are the games?" - this is due to the games being installed on the device as applications like most other generic stuff. Why isn't there a dedicated button to launch a gaming hub / suite. One that directly takes the user to the games and closes / kills all other non essential apps process to give more attention to the games.
It's a phone gaming device, yet I see there are no options to tell your friends you are playing on the Xperia Play, there is no social integration within the device to allow one to have a "gamer ID" and play online together. How about integrating the Playstation's PSN features here? Online presence, friends, chat, messaging, all this creates a more social hub to get users not only taking part in gaming and keeping them hooked in, but also spreading the word and getting more involved in doing so.

The biggest failure of the Xperia Play will be the same issue every handset has right now; battery life. I've seen and heard numbers being quoted of how many hours of gaming it will offer. Nonsense. The device will die in 2 hours of gaming alone - guaranteed. Problem is now you've also lost your phone functionality and connectivity too.

To conclude; the Xperia Play is a device which should never have been made and will fail solely for the very reasons the PSP failed. The real problem is there doesn't seem to be anyone in charge who seems to see the "massive" opportunity to do it right.

Xperia Pro - Less Is Sometimes More

Forgetting the really stupid naming scheme here lets get this over with quick. The Xperia Pro is a middle of the range, mid tier phone aimed to please those who don't really give a damn about mobile phones, what they run on, what megapixel it is, they just want one thing; the physical keyboard. They are the addicts of Messaging. So to them the keyboard is king.

The physical keyboard on the Pro is very spacious, and to be honest pretty comfortable. I'm not a massive fan of physical keyboards, I've long since moved on to the modern era and new way of doing things, but the keyboard itself is very impressive. Within a few minutes of getting used to it, I was typing away like a squirrel on caffeine. I left a nice little message in the device for anyone that may have found it later.

The handset itself is bulky due to the addition of this slide out keyboard and overall felt a lot heavier. Even more heavier than the Play. Saying that it was just about the right size for one handed use when operating the rest of the phone functions. Yet again Sony Ericsson have added their bit of "extra" value to it by customising the UI. Whilst the music player might be something useful keeping from all this UI overhaul, on the most I'm not a big fan.

So there you go, if you're looking for a mid range messaging device which is a Sony Ericsson running latest Android with a physical QWERTY keyboard, then there is only one choice. Go Pro.

Arc - All About The Curves

Lets get over the façade. I was only turning up for one reason; to get my hands on the Xperia Arc. This is the top of the range device announced by Sony Ericsson. This is the cream of the crop, the big daddy, the high end user, the social elite of all the Xperia stuff. The premium device Sony Ericsson has to offer to this day.

With the gorgeous design, the features and specs announced I was quite clearly tempted and had to get my hands on to try and make sure this was all it was hyped up to be. First impressions on seeing it with my own eyes was pretty decent. Everything looks different away from the perfection of a render, the Arc was no different. It didn't jump out at me as expected. Perhaps this was due to the poor lighting around the demo area, but I can look past that. I somehow managed to get the rep into a one on one situation to give me the full beans on this thing, which he obliged. He seemed to know what he was talking about, but still he was a demo rep, so there were limitations to his knowledge. Lets take the features on at a time;

Screen That Screams Out

There is a massive 4.2 inch screen taking up the most of the front of the device, it's vibrant and looks pretty gorgeous. Now I'm not a big fan of these massive screens, my tiny little hands just aren't big enough to operate them, but it was something beautiful to view. Having checked out a few videos and pictures I can honestly say it's pretty awesome.

HDMI Out

The Xperia Arc comes with HDMI Out so does the Nokia N8, but this is where the two similarities end. The HDMI Out in the Xperia Arc does so much more. Unlike the N8, the Arc still has full functionality of all the features whilst plugged in. This means one can use all the functions on a big screen. So doing that VOIP video chat is possible using the 50 inch TV instead of the small screen. But is it really something you'd want to do by using the handset still? Well here is the clever bit.

I was told with the newer TVs, once the phone is plugged in via the HDMI, the four coloured buttons on the TV remote can be used to control the functions of the phone, which essentially means you could leave the phone 5 feet away and control it with the TV remote. The TV in the demo obviously didn't have the feature so I didn't quite get to see it with my own eyes. So I'll wait till I see it perhaps.

8.1 Mega Pixel Camera

The Arc comes with a decent camera. There is a Sony Exmore CMOS sensor at the heart of it all, which takes better pictures in the dark from what I was told. There are also some software features which help the camera take pictures; Aperture f/2.4, Auto focus, Face detection being a few of those. I didn't manage to take any pictures to test it out. With camera's I think it's always better getting a better idea over a few weeks in different scenarios. There were some already taken by many before me, browsing through them I couldn't really judge how good they were as I don't know which settings were used, but they did look decent.

Physically Fit

The Xperia Arc claims to be the thinnest phone available, which is true if it's measured at it's thinnest point, but the top and bottom are a lot thicker. If you want to believe the hype then do so. Overall I was surprised by not how thin it was, but by how light it was. I was expecting something that was slightly heavy, this was a "premium" phone, but it felt like it was made from magical components. This reminds me of the Vivaz, if you like your phones to have a distinct weight to your handset, then this won't do. If you put it into a jacket or shirt pocket, you'll forget which one.

Timescape - Face The Realisation; You Are A Handset Maker

I put some questions to the rep regarding the Timescape and the UI customisation Sony Ericsson do to the Android handsets they've released. My main concern was the length of time it takes to deploy the updates released by Google and whether it was worth the time and effort put into customising the UI, keeping it updated and how much value they were adding by doing this.

From what I gathered the answer was; there have been changes made to ensure that updates released by Google are deployed to Sony Ericsson users as soon as possible. The changes relate to getting rid of the Mediascape feature found on the Xperia X10, which suffered from getting updates due to this very feature, which has now been scrapped. I was also told of some very ambitious on updates. According to the rep, Sony Ericsson "aims" to be the first to deploy latest updates to their devices after the official Google phones get the update. Whether they can meet these is yet to be seen. But good luck to Sony Ericsson in their efforts.

Are Android UI customisation needed anymore, are they justified, do they add any value to the whole Android experience? This is a post I'm forming in my mind and have been doing so for a week or so now. When it's done it will be up on here for all.

Conclusion

Whilst the venue was nice and there was WiFi available, there was 3G reception throughout the night and the football was on afterwards, some thoughts into getting more value from these meetups might enable Sony Ericsson getting more insight into how they can do better. I didn't get to chat with everyone on the night (there were far too many), but in general, the crowd are knowledgeable, they have visions of the future themselves, they can predict the next big thing and have expectations on what should be happening around their own specialised scenes and tech they cover. Tapping into this wealth of relatively cheap resource would reap benefits for all.

Some of us are more opinionated than others and some of us have different visions, preferences, which is to be expected. But the biggest piece of information I got from most I spoke to during the night was "Meh!"

That in itself tells me there is a lot more that can be done to learn from the community by actively engaging with them, their ideas, their opinions. The best way to do this? Get together in more intimate environments, more often, work with them. Find out what you're doing wrong, pay attention to the negatives above the positives.

One company used to do that, they got it, but seem to be engulfed by it in more recent times.

Nokia And Microsoft Get Into Bed Officially

noreply@blogger.com (Adonis) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 19:25:00 +0000

The rumours were flying around the whole internet about Nokia moving to Windows Phone 7, haters, lovers, fanboys, fangirls, employees, everyone has been pretty much going on about this for a few days now, and to be honest I was kind of sick about it all. So much, that I basically ignored everything.

But now it's Official I'm starting to wonder about a few things;

How will this effect both companies and more importantly; Me. Yes that's the big question here. I've personally long moved over to Android as my choice of mobile platform. Whilst on the whole I am satisfied with the whole OS, the choice of hardware is frankly not up there with the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson, in particular the camera. This is one major flaw in every Android handset, the camera quality on every device out there in the market is absolute crap. This leads me to start dreaming; a Nokia N8 running on Windows Phone 7. Surely not, well, 6 months ago perhaps, but in 6 months time; why the heck not? Imagine the possibilities.

My biggest gripe about Symbian in particular was the fact the UI was dated, painful to go back to after I had sampled Android, WebOS, INQ and WP7. It felt like going back to the 90s, and not in a good way.

As much as I was willing to give it a chance to try and change, it was quite evident there wasn't going to be any major overhauls to the UI any time soon. Talk of QT and revamping experience etc were to me personally all talk and very little action and progress. In my mind Nokia needed to start from scratch, something perhaps they were trying to do with MeeGo, but MeeGo (Maemo) was like the bastard child, nobody loved enough to give it a chance, and even still, they're trying to find a foster parent for it by giving it one final chance, before having to kill.

Windows Phone 7 is still a very young, rough and buggy platform, but I've said before the potential for it is there. Wait a year or so for the OS to mature, the platform to grow and it would be a contender to challenge the likes of Android, iOS, Symbian and WebOS. One of those has now thrown in the towel, so that's one less to compete with. I personally would have liked Nokia to have gone with WebOS to challenge Android and iOS, but things weren't right at the time for that to happen. Android does seem like the logical route for a user and a fan, but in Nokia's eyes maybe WP7 is the only route left for them. Whilst Android has now built enough steam and quite frankly might not need Nokia as much as WP7 and Microsoft would.

By going with WP7 Nokia also wins; they get a modern OS with a fluid UI and the success of the platform would be attributed to them if/when it does happen. They also potentially get all the apps and developers for free, this frees up a hand to focus on delivering quality hardware, something that's not Alien to them.

So whilst the decision to go with WP7 to many has been met with distaste, betrayal, and many other negative feelings, for the long term Nokia and Microsoft look to be in a much healthier position than yesterday.