I admit it, I was super excited to hear about the return of the RAZR brand.  I also will proudly admit that I was the owner of more than a few RAZR’s in my day and, at the time, thought it was the coolest phone to ever come out.  So, with a flagship brand name like RAZR, I felt like we might be in for a treat.

THIN!!!

My experience with the Motorola brand and design has brought the following words to mind:  Angled, cluncky, thick, hard edged, industrial.  Anything but sleek.  When the first photos of the RAZR started to appear, it was a shock.  The industrial look and hard lines are still there but boy is the RAZR thin!  The kevlar back is a nice novelty, although stop bullets it won’t.  The glass is nice and has the same tapered feel as the Bionic.  Also, like the Droid X(2), it has the fat upper lip where the camera and connectors reside.  You are either going to love how thin RAZR is or hate it.  I suggest you go into your local VZW store and hold one before making the purchase.

Battery

I think the biggest knock on the RAZR, certainly in the forums and in the Android community at large is the lack of removable battery.  I know there are many of you out there that swear by carrying an extra battery and wouldn’t own a phone without one.  I have owned every iPhone made and none have had a removable battery.  It’s all about your routine, access to a charger and what your days are like.  If you are away from a wall charger for more than 10 hours a day, this may not be a good choice for you.  For me, the lack of removable battery isn’t an issue.  Speaking of battery life, it is just ok.  I got about 8-10 hours of use out of it with my normal usage and that is about on par with other 4g units I’ve tried.

Motoblur

If you read back to my review of the original Droid X, I pretty much slaughtered Motorola and their half-assed attempt at a skin in motoblur.  The Motorola skin that comes on the RAZR is a different animal and when I say different, I mean better.  It’s far less obtrusive, less in your face and actually has some useful features.  I don’t absolutely hate the skin anymore and it is something that I didnt even feel the need to install Launcherpro.  And, that is saying something!

Screen

The screen is a 4.3″ Super AMOLED qHD, and is a vast improvement from the Bionic.  The Bionic is a pentile screen that creates a pixel pattern when you look at it a certain way.  I am told not everyone sees it, but I sure as heck do.  I hated the Bionic display and was glad to see the improvement on the RAZR.  It still isnt as nice as the  GS2 or the upcoming Galaxy Nexus, but it is a bit better.

Calls

One thing that Motorola is absolutely known for is their build and call quality.  The RAZR is no exception.  Calls were crystal clear, didn’t drop and sounded like a landline.  This may be one of the best sounding phones I have ever used.  That fact alone is why I would recommend this phone.

Smart Actions

A new feature to the Motoblur for the RAZR is what they call smart actions.  These are like system macros that allow you to totally customize how your phone behaves based on day, time, location, battery guage, etc.  It is like Automator for the Mac!  You can set up something like:

1) If battery is below 20%,

2) Then shut of GPS, background data, lower brightness, disable cellular data, activate WIFI, etc.

You can also set up location-based triggers like:

1) If at work,

2) Raise volume, turn on wifi, raise brightness, etc.

You just need to tell the phone where work is and it will trigger these actions when you arrive at work via the GPS.  Very cool!!!!

Zumocast

While I didn’t really get a chance to play with this new feature, it seems cool for those without a cloud solution for media.  Essentially, it allows you to stream music, videos and share files with your phone.   You just need to download the software to your mac/pc and let it communicate through your zumocast.com account.  I personally use both Google and Amazon for most of my cloud storage solutions so this really wasn’t all that appealing to me.

Feel

While I was amazed at the phone for its sleek design and thin stature, I am not a huge fan.  It felt a bit out of balance or top heavy in my hands.  I had to think about how to handle it to create the most comfortable hold.  I want to just pick up a phone and have it naturally cradle in my hand.  The RAZR didn’t do that for me, but it might for you.  I suggest you go hold one and see for yourself.  The kevlar back was cool and had a nice feel to it though.

Camera

I wasn’t overly impressed with the camera, but the pics I took and the ones I have seen online put it at par with most of the other 8mps cameras.  Video was amazing, shooting in 720p.

Conclusion

Would I buy the RAZR?  Yes, it is the fastest, sleekest phone on the market today.  For the call quality, updated software, camera, speed, and build quality, I would say that the RAZR is a winner.  I would just urge buyers to go hold one first and see for themselves.  My sense is that you will love the RAZR, especially with ICS coming to the RAZR early next year.   If the Galazy Nexus weren’t coming out in the (rumored) next couple of weeks, I would get the RAZR.

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It’s been a while since my last post, and to be honest, there hasn’t been much to review/write about lately.  Today, Apple announce the long awaited upgraded iPhone.  They deviated from there normal release schedule (they usually release in June) for reasons unknown.  Below I will share some thoughts on the announcement as well as give my recommendation as to whether you should buy it now or wait.

What?  No iPhone 5?

The entire world was under the false impression that the next iPhone to be released would be the iPhone 5.  Various tech blogs had posited many theories about what it would be, including the iPhone 4S (which is what they announced).  Some even thought Apple would release multiple iPhones, including the 5.  As we all know, Apple decided to release an incremental upgrade, much like they did with the 3G/3GS.  The 4S will retain the 4′s shape and build, save for the antenna.  The Antenna is a definite cool upgrade in that it is auto sensing and is both outfitted for CDMA and GSM (you can use the same phone on AT&T, Verizon and presumably, Sprint).  The camera is also an upgrade, which I really like.  It is getting to the point where the iPhone 4S camera will rival most point and shoots and kick the crap out of their HD video.   I have to say, I was disappointed, but not surprised that they didn’t release a new form factor.

Voice Assistant

This is probably the coolest addition to the 4S.  Apple’s purchase of Siri looks like it is finally paying off.  You can ask it for things like the weather forecast, adding contacts, reminders, calendar items, etc.  It looks like the first real voice technology that is as natural as asking a human a question.  While I haven’t seen it in action, it looks promising and possibly the only real reason most people would upgrade from the iPhone 4 to the 4S.  There are lots of other upgrades, check out the videocast apple has on their website to see the entire presentation.

Why no iPhone 5?  Why did it take so long?

I can only speculate to both of these questions.  My personal assumption is that Apple really wanted to wow everyone with Siri.  It really looks awesome and my guess is that it took a lot longer than the June deadline gave them for their normal release cycle.  I say this because nothing else was really that groundbreaking.  There was a ton of speculation that the iPhone 5 would have the same type of form factor as the iPad 2 (teardrop shape, aluminum backing, etc.).  I was pretty surprised to be honest that this announcement was an incremental upgrade.  Their stock got pounded today as well.  I guess the market was expecting more from Apple today.

So, should I get the iPhone 4S?

That depends…If you have an iPhone 4?  I would say wait to see if the assistant is as awesome as it looks.  If you are really into photography, again, it looks like the camera upgrade is pretty great and may be worth it.  If you have a 3G or 3GS, I would say go for it.  It is a significant upgrade and if you have an original 3G/S, your phone will likely be pretty sluggish and the battery at about 50%.   We really don’t know if Apple will pick back up the summer release schedule or if fall is the new schedule.  With all technology, you can’t continue to wait as there is ALWAYS something better coming down the road.  Given that the iPhone 4S has a dual core processor, retina display, new antenna, 8MP camera/HD, I would say it would be an amazing phone for the next 2 years.  I personally am going to wait to see how good the assistant is and if I would really use it.  If it isn’t all that, then I will likely keep the iPhone 4 for another year.  Alright, who am I kidding, I will get the 4S on the 14th!!

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Since this review is a bit late to the game, and, as usual, I will try to keep this review opinion based, I have decided to break this out into a few different categories: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.  Not sure if I can organize my thoughts this way, but lets give it a try as we take a look at Verizon Wireless’ newest 4G LTE Android Smart phone, the Samsung Droid Charge.

The Good

As we saw with the Thunderbolt, the main draw for these 4G devices is clearly the wireless data bandwidth speeds.  I saw incredible download speeds: both apps and browsers flew and it makes using a smart phone so much more like desktop or web app.  I’m not sure there’s much more to say about the network as we have covered it before.  The Charge had a strong signal in both Minneapolis and Phoenix and I didn’t notice much of a difference in either city (I was on a trip to Phoenix whilst doing the review, so I had a chance to see the device perform in two of Verizon’s LTE cities).  The signal was generally strong in both cities and I didn’t really have any dropped calls.  I did have an issue with tethering, in that, it didn’t work until about my 4th day with the phone and an update was pushed to my device.  After the update, tethering worked as expected.

The screen is gorgeous!  It uses Samsung’s Super AMOLED, which means, it is amazingly clear.  Everything pop’s and to be honest, is the screen I prefer with the exception of the iPhone 4.  Nuff said.  The other thing that I am having a tough time with is the question: hardware or software based Android buttons.  I am not sure on this.  I guess it depends on the implementation.  I really like how HTC has the hard coded (capacitive touch) buttons on the Incredible 2.   However, with hardware based buttons, you can really operate the phone without looking for minor tasks.  The Charge buttons work and do so well enough.  What I am annoyed with is how every manufacturer seems to feel the need to switch the placement of the buttons.  Why can’t we standardize, really?

As with most newer generation smart phones, the Charge comes with a nice 8MP camera that takes really nice pictures.  It also has a FFC, but as usually is of lesser quality than the rear camera, reserved for video chats.  But the main camera is quite nice both in and out of doors.  You will not be disappointed.

The Bad

Ok, so there were some really nice features on the phone, and while the first item is on “The Bad” list, it is still an improvement from the other 4G LTE smart phone, the Thunderbolt.  Battery life, while still totally sucky, was WAYYYY better than the Thunderbolt.  One of the conclusions most people came to (myself included) on the battery life for the Thunderbolt was the 4G LTE.  Having a small battery didn’t do much for the Thunderbolt, but the Charge is a definite improvement.   I was able to last until early evening, whereas with the Thunderbolt, it was early afternoon under similar conditions.

Size was an issue for me for the first time.  While they say bigger is better, not in this case.  I found the phone a bit too big.  It was just a touch larger than I would have liked, and honestly, I never thought I would say that.  It is a bit too tall and too wide.  While it was really thin, the proportions were just not right for me.  While reviewing this phone, I came to a conclusion….I think the perfect size will end up coming out to 4″.  Part of this is the speculation that Apple will revise the iPhone 5 to 4″, from the 3.7″ in all previous iPhones.  The other part is the other phones I have reviewed that have been 4″ are really optimal for me.  4.3″ is too big, 3.7″ is too small and like the 3 little bears, 4″ is just right.

The Ugly

Ok, this is something that would make my ugly list for any Samsung Android phone and that is the Samsung customized “Touchwiz” UI.  I hate it.  I hate it so much that any Samsung I get, after a day or two of use, I have to replace the UI with LauncherPro.  Most Sense UI phones I can deal with.  I personally love the Vanilla Android and any phone that comes out with vanilla Android is aces in my book.   Ok, so that being the only real thing I HATE about the phone isn’t too bad since you can do something about it.

Wrapup

Did I like the phone, yes.  Would I recommend it?  Yes.  Is it the best phone on the market?  I don’t think so.  It is the best 4G phone for Verizon, but at the pace they are releasing these Android phones it is going to get too saturated in the marketplace and their won’t be much to distinguish the phones.

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It has been an interesting couple of years in the smart phone space, especially for Microsoft.  The iPhone continues to soar, Android came out of nowhere and Microsoft, a bit late to the party, finally has a decent mobile OS.  While Microsoft may have been first to the scene with version 6.x, it was a pretty unsatisfying user experience.  Windows Phone 7 (WP7) makes up for what version 6.x really lacked, a touch screen based UI.  The iPhone really is the OS to be copied and Microsoft seems to have taken pages out of both Apple and Google’s playbook in their latest mobile OS.  For this review I am not really going to talk much about hardware.  Most of the WP7 phones out there are pretty similar due to Microsoft’s extreme constraint on manufacturing approval specs.  Generally, they are are about the same and screen resolution/brightness, battery and materials are all that are different.

So, lets start with the recommendation.  I like WP7!  I like it more than Android to be honest.  Here is why:  WP7 takes what makes the iPhone great; easy to navigate UI and combines it with the useful widgets of Android.  They call them live tiles.  Some are not so live to be honest, but many are.  At a glance you can easily get to your essential apps, and the tiles update dynamically to let you know which apps need attention.  As Steve Ballmer said in their presentation of the OS, it is really easy to get in and get out.  The phone doesn’t get in the way.  On the Android OS, it sometimes takes me 30 seconds to get something done.  A swipe here, a button press or 4 there and you finally get what you need.  The iPhone is a bit too dumb, no real dynamic updating of app icons or widgets (don’t get me started on notifications).  With WP7, it is a very quick button press, then a back press or home press to get back out.  Notification are unobtrusive and get the job done, but could be improved.

The UI is absolutely gorgeous.  The Metro interface is stunning.  I personally LOVE the font scheme and how emails render on the device.  It is by far my favorite device for email look and feel.  It and easy and you can do everything you want with one exception.  No unified inbox.  Maybe in an update.  The calendar interface is pretty decent with one exception.  You cannot have multiple calendars for a single account and that is a problem for me.  I have 3 calendars I keep in Google and WP7 only displays the main calendar.  Microsoft, if you are reading this, please fix this.  Android and iPhone have no problem with this.  A pretty bad oversight if you ask me.

The marketplace for WP7 leaves something to be desired.  When you run a search, it is global and brings back apps, music, movies, etc.  It is really annoying to search for an app with a common word in it as it will return hundreds of results.   They REALLY need to work that one out.  Otherwise, as of this writing, the marketplace for apps is about 20,000 strong.  That ain’t saying much since the Apple App store just passed 500,000.  That being said, most of your more popular apps are going to be found for WP7; Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, Kindle, ESPN, Seesmic, Groupon, Yelp, OpenTable, Foursquare, etc.

Of course, the Verizon network is rock solid and the signal is as strong as the other phones I have tested for their network.   I have yet to have a dropped call on the Trophy, so that is good?  One of the interesting things that Microsoft did was to auto-hide the top information bar which includes the cell strength and network info, the battery info and any reminders.  The time is always displayed and if you want to see the info again, just a quick swipe-down will bring it back.  The lock screen is pretty decent, with a notification area and a swipe up, it gets the job done.

My company unfortunately doesn’t support Activesync, so I was unable to test the Outlook integration, but I am assuming since it is MS, it will be pretty great.  The email uses the same Metro UI and if my company ever decides to get with the 2000′s, I will like to see how Outlook on WP7 looks.  HTC includes some apps, including the HTC hub.  This is a sort of Sense UI built into WP7 and is launched as an app and shows the animated weather and has access to other HTC apps I really didn’t find all that impressive.  Those who are used to the Android Sense UI will feel at home and the live tile is pretty cool!

Ok for the bad.  The battery life is pretty bad.  The Trophy is shipped with a 1300mah battery and to be honest, they could have done with a few extra hundred mah.  With light to moderate use, I ran out of battery by late afternoon.  It doesn’t have multitasking, but I couldn’t imagine the battery life supporting any more strain to be honest.  The Mango update, due this fall, should cure the ill of no multitasking.  It will be interesting to see how Microsoft executes their plan for multitasking.

I really love the WP7.  The Trophy is ok.  I personally would get the Samsung Focus if  I were not dead set on Verizon and I didn’t hate AT&T enough to swear them off forever.  Since the Trophy is the only Verizon WP7, I would not hesitate to get it, especially over any Android phone.  Even without multitasking!

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The HTC/Verizon Thunderbolt is the first device to utilize Verizon’s new LTE/4G service.  This device, which reminds me a lot of the HTC Inspire on AT&T, has some major differences.  This review will look at the good and the bad of the latest and greatest that Google, HTC and Verizon have to offer.

Hardware

I won’t go into details about the specs, you can find them at verizonwireless.com.  What I would like to focus on is my opinion on the device in terms of what makes this different/good/bad.  As stated above, it is built with a similar construction as the Inspire.  It is a unibody construction that feels very well built.  The battery cover is the only thing that is plastic on the outside of the unit.  HTC did a good job, unlike the Inspire, in creating a unibody device that can accommodate an extended battery.  The battery cover is strategically placed above the kickstand so that it doesn’t get in the way.

The headphone jack is at the top, which I like (I can’t stand headphone jacks on the bottom of a device) and the micro-usb port is on the lower left side.  When I first saw this, I thought it was pretty stupid.  Without a dock (which are available), you won’t be able to charge the device and rest it on the kickstand in a horizontal position.  A design flaw if you ask me, but perhaps they want to encourage everyone to use a dock.

The speaker is located behind the kickstand, and to be honest, the kickstand doesn’t really muffle or mute the sound in any way when closed.  The speaker is LOUD!  I was streaming Pandora and playing it over the speaker and in all honestly, it sounded almost as good as my Sony Dash.  Ringtones can be easily heard and using it to play music will be a pleasure compared to other smartphones.  Very impressed.

The screen is big, but not the nicest screen out there.  The iPhone 4 still holds that title.  It is a WVGA screen, so the tech is a bit old.  However, it still is pretty nice tolook at.  The device has a front and rear facing camera.  The rear camera is 8MP and took pretty good images.  The front camera is 1.3 MP and will be quite nice to use for video chats.  Again, my favorite phone camera is the iPhone 4 and it’s quality has yet to be matched.

There is 8GB of onboard storage and a pre-installed 32GB micro-SD card.  40GB is plenty of storage and I do believe the Thunderbolt has the most out of the box storage for a phone.

Software/UI

The Thunderbolt comes with Android 2.2 and Sense 2.0.  It is pretty identical to the Inspire in that regard, and Sense 2.0 has some extra goodies that I really enjoyed.  Scenes and skins are new to Sense, and provided a nice customization capability.  While the skins are downloadable from HTC, the choices are few at the moment.  We should see more coming in the future.

The three big disappointments from a software perspective were: No Skype, No Netflix and Verizon’s NFL Network app didn’t work.  Much was hyped at CES about this device having Skype built in to allow video chats, but was not included in the retail devices.  This may come in the future, but for now, don’t expect to use Skype for video chats.  Netflix is also missing and it is truly unfortunate since there have been rumors and speculation that it would be included in the final build.  Sorry, to disappoint, but it isn’t there yet.  Finally, the NFL network app that many of you enjoy and were looking forward to on this huge display doesn’t work.  You can download it from the Market, but when you try to run it, it says it’s not supported on this device.

Using the device is a pleasure.  The Snapdragon processor flies.  Moving through various applications and windows is seamless.  While I don’t have any benchmarks to prove it, it felt as snappy as the Motorola Atrix.  Users will not be disappointed as there was very little, if any, lag.

Call Quality/Battery Life

Call quality on the Thunderbolt is excellent.  Callers were able to hear me clearly and the speaker front speaker is very loud.  On most calls, I needed to turn down the volume a bit.  It never distorted, but it is really loud.  Using the back speaker for calls is also very loud and clear.  For those business users that sit on conference calls all day will love the volume the rear speaker projects during a call.

Ok, here is where things git a bit dicey.  The battery life on the Thunderbolt reminds me of the EVO 4G.  I wasn’t able to make it through the day on a single charge.  I needed to both bump charge the device in the morning (removed from charger at 8AM) and by 3PM, with moderate usage, got the 15% warning.  One of the real issues here is you CANNOT turn off 4G.  For the life of me, I couldn’t find a toggle switch or setting to enable/disable 4G, much like the EVO.  I even tried downloading Widgetsoid and the 4g toggle is grayed out.    I am pretty certain that users in a non-4G area will not have as bad a battery problems as those in an LTE area.  So, I recommend you; get an extended battery, have a charge close by or buy an additional battery.

LTE

Here is where the Thunderbolt really shines.  It is fast!  The LTE in my area is strong and using the web version of Speedtest.net yielded consistently fast results.  I was able to achieve 9-12Mb/sec download on average and 2-5Mb/sec upload.  One word about the speedtest.net app for Android.  It is flawed on the upload speeds showing a consistent 28-35Mb/sec.

Browsing web pages is unbelievably fast and downloading apps is equally as fast.  No app took more than 5 seconds to download, although, most of the apps I was downloading were less than 5MB.  Still, the launch of LTE for Verizon is going to be big.  It is no comparison to AT&T’s HSPA+.  LTE blows away Sprints 4G as well,  I haven’t tested any T-Mobile phones so I cannot compare their 4G, but I find it hard to believe anyone will equal Verizon’s LTE in the near future.

Summary

The Thunderbolt is an amazing phone, no doubt about it.  My only real gripe at the moment is the battery life, which can be addressed in a few ways.  I have read that users experienced improved battery performance over time and I am sure the rooting community will come up with ROM’s that improve battery life as well.  Why Verizon and HTC elected to remove the ability to switch off 4G is beyond me.  It is a battery crusher and I believe with 4G turned off, battery life would improve greatly.  Oh well, you can’t have everything.  All of that being said, I do highly recommend the Thunderbolt!

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It’s hard to review a tablet computing device and not compare it to Apple’s iPad.  It is really hard to believe that Apple was able to take a first generation product and make it so good right out of the gate.  Sure, Google did answer with the Samsung Tab, but it really never felt like a tablet when compared to the iPad.  The Tab has always felt like a big Android phone and not a tablet computer, especially when contrasting it against the iPad.  Apple did things correctly by not just making the iPad a big iPhone; they made a separate OS for the iPad and encouraged developers to create apps specifically for the iPad.  When you compare the size of a 4″ phone to a 9 or 10 inch tablet, it makes sense that you would want a computing environment made specifically for that much real estate.

Enter Google’s first real competitor to the iPad, the Motorola Xoom.  The Xoom is device that is in between the iPad and Tab in terms of size.  At 9.8 inches wide by 6.6 inches tall, it feels more like a widescreen device than the iPad, meant to be held in landscape mode.  It’s .5 inches thick and 1.5 pounds so it really is fairly portable.  It comes with a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and has 1GB of RAM.  The display is a 1280 x 800 capacitive  screen and the unit I reviewed has Verizon Wireless’ 3G connectivity.  I was told by Verizon that in 90 days, users will be able to send their device into Motorola for an upgrade to LTE, which should take about a week. There are three pricing plans for the Xoom: $799 with no contract, $799 with a month-to-month contract and $599 for a 2-year contract with monthly data fees starting at $20/month.

Hardware

As stated, the 10.1 inch device is really geared toward the user holding it in landscape, and I found that to be the case.  There are front and rear facing cameras that allow for HD video and high rez stills.  Motorola has decided in a very strange move, to do away with USB charging.  I found it very annoying to have yet another cable clutter my desktop.  The power adapter is a pin-based adapter that plugs in the bottom.  It is next to an HDMI port and a micro USB port.  On the back are a pair of stereo speakers (they sound ok) a 5MP camera and flash.  Also the power button is located in the upper right corner of the back so that when you are holding the device facing you, you can depress the sleep/power button with your left hand on the back.  On the top of the device is a slot for future LTE SIM card and a micro-SD card.  The Xoom feels very well built and Motorola didn’t skimp on the manufacturing of this device.     While it is nice that Motorola included a front-facing camera, I am not sure why they did the rear.  Shooting video or stills with a device this big seems silly.  If you are on the go and need to take a video or shoot a picture, its nice to have the 5MP camera and it did take decent photos.

As stated above, the Xoom contains a Tegra 2 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage.  It is also equipped with WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Verizon’s EV-DO Rev. A, along with GPS, a light sensor, and an accelerometer.  Not bad!

Usability/Software

Battery life on the Xoom is amazing.  With general use (web browsing, email, RSS, Twitter, Facebook), I was able to run the device for a couple days before needing a charge.  It definitely keeps pace with the iPad, yet most of my time was at home using WIFI.  I am certain had the 3G been active, I would not have seen as good a battery life. Motorola claims that you can get 10 hours of life displaying video and I would tend to think it would be close.

The screen is quite nice and while the aspect ratio really caters to a landscape mode, I found myself holding the Xoom in portrait more often than not.  It is awesome for web browsing!  I found myself using the Xoom for browsing the web in portrait mode, way more comfortable than the iPad.  With the 1280 x 800 compared to the iPad’s 1024 x 768, the Xoom has much more real estate for web browsing.  I also loved reading my Kindle books on the Xoom in portrait mode, as the real estate was terrific.

What really sets the Xoom apart is the software.  It ships with Android’s Version 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb.  It is a version of Android designed for tablets.  It is a complete overhaul of the 2.x version of Android and you can tell it was truly created with tablets in mind.  While there are some similarities, there are tons of enhancements that really make the OS more on par with the iPad.  For starters, there are no hardware or fixed buttons on the Xoom/Honeycomb.

To get to the home screen or go back, the software buttons are on the lower left and rotate with the screen.  Also, the notification systems has moved from the top of the screen to the bottom right corner.  There is also a software button that shows you your running apps.  As you can see from the photo on the right,if you press on the time in the lower right corner, it brings up the time, day, battery life and WIFI SSID if connected.  Press the little settings icon and it will provide quick access to things like Airplane mode, orientation lock, brightness and notification settings.  You can then press the settings button again to get to the rest of the system settings.  Very slick.

Honeycomb came with 5 home screens that you gesture left/right to scroll through and like previous versions of Android, you can litter it with widgets, folders, shortcuts and apps.  Adding apps to the home screens is a breeze and has a very cool animation.  When browsing the apps section, you can quickly press the picture of the marketplace at the top to go find new apps.  A very nice convenience.  With so much real estate, each page of apps contains 35 icons, so most users will only fill a few pages of apps.  At the top of the screen is a google search box, a voice app, the app drawer access button and a plus sign which allows you to quickly add new widgets, app shortcuts, wallpapers and other homepage apps.  When you add a new item to a hompage, it shows you all of the home pages and you can, in one screen, add the item to any home page you want.  It is very nice.

The biggest and most welcome change from my perspective was the complete re-write of the Gmail app.  At a glance you can see that they are using tables to parse out the elements of Gmail.  On the left, you have your folders/labels, then on the right are your messages in those folders/labels.  Having it in landscape mode offers greater views in the horizontal architecture of the app.  As you move your way to the right, you will get more granular from the folder/label level, into the specific message.  Clicking the Gmail icon in the upper right will bring you back up a level until you reach the root of the app.  I found it very easy to navigate and a welcome change to an already confusing UI experience that is Gmail on Android.

Much like version 2.x of Android, Gmail contacts and calendar users will be used to having the PIM in different apps.  As you can expect, they take advantage of the real estate and are well put together.  I enjoyed using them on Honeycomb far more than on my iPad.  Also, for Honeycomb, Google has rewritten the YouTube app and it is very cool.  It presents like a 3D wall of videos and scrolling through is nice.

Google Talk was a surprise that included the Video chat capabilities.  It is a pretty straight forward app that takes advantage of the front and rear facing cameras to do video conferencing with other users of Google Talk.

Summary/Conclusions

Overall I really enjoyed my time with the Xoom.  I love where Google is going with Honeycomb and see great competition between Google and Apple.  There are some things that still need tweaking through updates, but I think that it is an amazing start.  Some of the drawbacks right now are a lack of apps for the tablet (which will change over time) and a few bugs that cause the system to go a bit haywire.

If your data is in the cloud with Google and you are an Android users, you will love the Xoom.  If you are an Apple person and have a small fortune spent in apps, you still may like the Xoom.  However, the iPad 2 is being announced in a couple hours so we will see what Apple has up their sleeve.  I would recommend the Xoom to anyone, despite its high price.

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I have been a Google Voice (GV) user since it was Grand Central back in 2007.  It was a nice idea, yet it had a missing essential component preventing it from really going mainstream — number porting.  That is until now.  Google has finally enabled it’s users the ability to port their cell phone numbers into their Google Voice account (Sorry it does NOT work for home phones).

What is Google Voice?  It is a phone exchange system, which can route calls to any phone number you register with GV.  For instance, if you want to have calls immediately forwarded to your cell, home and work number at the same time, you can do that.  Android and iPhone users have dedicated GV apps that work with your GV number.  Using the GV apps on Android and IOS, you will use the GV dialer and it will route through Google’s servers so that callers will see your GV ID, even though you are using your cell phone.  Be aware, calls will NOT be considered mobile-to-mobile minutes since you are calling a server at Google.  Your cell phone will see it as a land line unfortunately so be careful!  If you have an unlimited calling plan, no worries.

Another very useful feature is the voicemail.  It will allow you to utilize GV as your main voicemail and can alert you to new voicemails via SMS, Email or notifications on Android and iPhone.  One of my favorite features is the transcription service, which basically translates your voicemails to text and includes that text along with the voicemail.  Also, you get free text messages, which for iPhone users, is about $240 per year if you have unlimited texts!

So, how did number porting go?  In a word, smooth.  When you are either signing up for GV or want to change an already existing GV number to your ported cell phone number, you will need to go to Voice settings and then Phone.  It will give you a hyperlink to port your number.  You will need to check about a half dozen disclaimers, and then enter your current cell phone provider’s account number.  It is very easy and took Google exactly 24 hours to complete the process.  Text messages come about 3 days later.  The cost for porting your number to Google is $20.

So, what is the drawback?  If you are still in the middle of your current cell phone contract, it will immediately cancel your current contract and you may be charged early termination fees.  I would suggest calling your wireless provider and explain what you are trying to do.  You may get lucky and have them waive the ETF.  If you were wondering how this works, once you port your number, you will need to re-establish service with a cell phone provider.  Perhaps this is something you can use to persuade them to not charge an ETF.  Another drawback is that it does not do MMS.  It will do SMS, and hopefully Google will enable this functionality soon.  Another thing I will caution you all to: If Google’s service goes down for any reason, you will not be able to receive calls or texts by people calling your GV number.  You can still make calls with your cell, it will just be utilizing the temporary number assigned by your carrier.  So, people who are used to your cell number will not recognize the caller ID when not using GV.

What I like most about GV is that I don’t ever have to port my number again.  It will remain with GV forever and I can just get new cell phone numbers whenever I change providers.  I also like having everything integrated into the GV app; calls, voicemails and text messages.

So, if you are at or near the end of your contract, or just want to give it a try, I do recommend it.

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Having just watched the announcement for the iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless, I wanted to share my thoughts as to why I won’t be jumping ship and joining the masses as they line up to purchase the iPhone on America’s most reliable network.

Here are a number of reasons why I won’t be standing in line on February 10th:

1. I have gotten used to being able to make calls and utilizing the data on the AT&T network simultaneously, I have a hard time thinking about making the switch to CDMA technology.  The iPhone 4 on Verizon will NOT allow you to use the voice and data simultaneously.  This is a big issue for me, since I am on the phone a lot and many times will check out an app that uses the data steam while on a call.
2. With Apple’s refresh cycle, the iPhone 5 will likely be out in 4 months and being someone who likes the newest devices, being outdated in 4 months sucks.  For those that sign on next month, it will be 4 months until a refresh of the iPhone 5.  Now, at the conference someone asked if the AT&T and Verizon iPhones will be on the same refresh schedule.  Tim Cook from Apple declined to comment.  It would seem pretty disadvantageous to one carrier if the iPhone 5 came out for only AT&T.  It is likely that the iPhone 5 will come out for both carriers this June.
3. We still don’t know how the Verizon network will handle the onslaught of millions of new subscribers on day one.  AT&T still has issues with bandwidth and dropped calls after 4 years.  If I had to make the jump, I would at least wait a week or two and see how Verizon is handling it.
4. If the rumors are to be believed about the number of people jumping from AT&T to Verizon, logic would dictate that there will be fewer dropped calls on AT&T due to the freshly vacated bandwidth?

Well, those are the reasons, at least for now, that I am sticking with AT&T.  Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind as February approaches.

Good luck!!!!

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The Samsung Galaxy Tab is the first real competitor to the iPad and a formidable one at that.  It has been a long time coming since it was first announced and it will be very interesting to see if it can challenge the iPad with any kind of sales competition.  This is the first in a large group of Android-based tablets that will hit the market soon.  So, how does it stack up to the iPad?  This post will look at the strengths and weaknesses of the device and try to compare it the iPad in some respects.  As most of my reviews do, I really don’t go into too much detail on specs, but will try to provide honest feedback on the things I like and things I dislike about the device.

The Galaxy is a 7″ form factor that was an interesting choice for the first tablet to truly compete with the iPad.  The iPad is a 10″ device so it is surprising to see Samsung not go directly after the same size device.  The price point for the Galaxy is $599 in the USA and has a few data options for internet access.  The entry level price point for data access is $20 for 1GB and $35 for 3GB per month.  This is a month to month plan so, like AT&T and the iPad, you are not locked into any multi-year agreements.  That being said, this data plan is $10 per month more than the iPad on AT&T, but has an extra GB of bandwidth, so it will be interesting to see if they can compete.

One of the first things that I did when I picked up my test device was to put it in my front pocket.  It fit!  I was wearing slacks that had a pretty big pocket, so dont try to put this in a pocket in a pair of skinny jeans!  With a 1024×600 TFT WSVGA screen, it has plenty of real estate to browse the web, play games and watch videos.  Although it doesn’t have the Galaxy S AMOLED screen like its phone counterpart, the screen still looks quite nice.  The Tab also has black or white plastic back, so it is a bit lighter than the iPad, which as we know has a metal back.  Overall I liked the form factor, it never really seemed to be too small to do any of the things I normally do on my iPad, but I do think 10″ offers more comfortable room to play.

From a software perspective, it runs Android 2.2 (froyo) and isn’t really all that different from its mobile counterpart.  At this time, there are no real special tablet-based apps like there are with the iPad.  It really is a blown up version of the Galaxy S.  It does have pretty much the same processor as the iPad at 1Ghz, so it does perform adequately opening and running applications with a few exceptions I will discuss later.  One of the things hardware wise that I did like to see was the dual-cameras for both taking pictures and video chatting.  This is one thing that a lot of people hoped that the iPad would have, but doesn’t yet.

The Tab has both built-in 3G as well as Wireless N wifi.  You can’t buy the Tab without 3G, so there are no alternatives to compare to the wifi-only iPad.  Samsung also announced that they are going to produce a 16 and 32GB Tab, but the 16GB is the only one to hit the market thus far.  One of the things the Tab has over the iPad is an additional micro-SD card slot so you can expand the storage if you need up to 64GB.

While the Tab does have a fast processor, I wouldn’t say that it is as smooth as the iPad.  It lagged a bit doing some of the more simple gestures and actions, but this will probably be addressed with future OS upgrades.  As with its phone counterparts, the Tab comes with Google Maps/Navigation, which really does blow away the maps implementation on the iOS devices.  As far as battery life is concerned, it isn’t close to the performance of the iPad.  I was able to get about 5 hours use before it needed recharging and it was definitely not continuous use.  The battery performance issues that plague Android devices is evident in the Tab as well.

One of the things that I didnt like about the Tab was the fact that it is not an OS optimized for tablets.  Also, as stated above, the applications in the Market are not optimized for a 7 inch screen.  The result is some blurry interfaces in applications that made it look a bit like running iPhone apps on the iPad.  Perhaps this is why Samsung chose to limit the screen size and resolution?  It would be nice if Google created a Tablet-based OS and developers began created apps optimized for the larger real estate.

One of the things I really liked about the Tab was the notification bar had the toggle switches for power, wifi, bluetooth and GPS built-in.  This was very cool and perhaps we will see this in the phone versions soon.  I also really liked the email/calendar implementation on the Tab.  It is slick and the UI is very nice.  It made it feel like a truly customized interface for email and rivals that of the iPad.  Another thing I liked about the Tab is Flash support, although the implementation wasn’t perfect as I did have some trouble with a few sites.  But it is better than nothing!?

So, would I buy the Tab?  In a word, no.  It is just a big Android phone to me without the phone (although it does have a dialer and you could theoretically use it as a phone, but you would look pretty silly with one of these against your head).  There are no real tweaks or modifications to the Android OS that make it feel like a tablet.  Apple really did set the bar by having increased performance, amazing integrated tweaks and the ability for developers to create tablet-specific apps.  Until Google puts together a tablet-based OS for Android, I believe all Android tablets will play second fiddle to the iPad.  However, I do believe that this was a pretty good first go at an Android tablet and I am excited to see whats in store for the future.  That being said, if you are a Android phone user and have a lot of apps purchased, you may like the addition of the Tab to your Android collection.

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I have recently had the opportunity to spend some time with the new Samsung Fascinate by Verizon Wireless, which is the Galaxy S variant, and am happy to report that I am pleasantly surprised with the latest Android handset to come from Verizon.  While there are some things that I like and some I dislike, I thought I would start off this review with my conclusion; I prefer this phone to the Droid X.  It doesn’t get as hot, isn’t as heavy and clunky, is more streamlined in that it has sleeker lines and nicer curves, I do prefer the Samsung bloatware to the Moto-blur, and overall the phone feels like it has less problems than the Droid X.  For now it is my favorite Android phone.

Hardware

The Samsung has a nice glass front and a plastic back.  The plastic back isn’t going to please everyone, but it is what makes the phone so light and sleek.  It doesn’t necessarily feel as cheap as I thought it would; it somehow feels well built even thought it has a plastic back.  When I first picked it up, I thought it was a bit cheap, like the iPhone 3G, but somehow, like the 3G, it feels well put together, and at the same time, feels great in your hands.  I also have to say, a 4 inch phone is a really nice sweet spot.  4.3 inches is a bit too clunky.  Maybe it is the industrial feel of the Droid X and the cold metal and rubber, but the Fascinate just feels more sleek to me like the iPhone 3G.  From a size perspective, 4 inches is perfect!  Not too big and not too small.  The phone fits great in your hand and the screen is a lot of real estate.  I love the super AMOLED screen.  Very bright and crystal clear.  The images pop both in and outdoors and are very bright.  I was able to read my kindle books while sitting at a Caribou Coffee after receiving the phone and really didn’t have too much problem with glare.  I can’t really do that with my iPhone or other phone, so I think that the AMOLED screens do help with that.

Unlike the Droid X (which has an 8MP camera), the Fascinate has only has a 5MP camera, but in my opinion, takes way better pictures.  Both have a 720p video camera, but again the Fascinate takes better video than the Droid X.  Both have a flash, but neither really do much of anything to help so it isn’t really worth mentioning.  I was never really able to take good pictures with the X, but was with the Fascinate.  The pictures were sharp, in focus and I was able to take a quality picture on the first take.  This was not my experience with the Droid X.  Another complaint I have from a hardware perspective is the lack of a notification LED.  Not sure why they missed this one.  It is one of the main complaints I have with the iPhone.  Oh well.

Two other bones of contention on the hardware side; first, the lock/unlock button is on the right side of the phone and it is tiny and hard to find without looking sometimes.  Here is the problem, when you go to lock the phone, the volume keys are on the left side of the phone at the same level and you inevitably will grip the phone and turn up or down or worse, turn the volume off, every time you lock the screen like I do.  Poor design in my opinion.  On to the software…

Software

The bloatware, I mean, Touchwiz 3.0 that is built into the Fascinate is what Samsung is calling their version of the modified Android.  It kinda of looks like romper room for Android.  It is a bit different, from the unlock screen, which is a puzzle piece that slides to the right, to the boxes that represent the apps, this is not your stock Android.  You can change the unlock screen to a slide the glass, thank goodness, but for the most part, Samsung has modded this Android in more ways than even Motorola.

I do like the built in SMS application, it is well put together and has a nice, threaded messaging interface.  For those that like Handcent, you may forgo the download, it is pretty decent.  Here is where other built-in’s get a bit weird.  Google search is no where to be found.  Bing is the default.  I am not sure if this is a Samsung or Verizon thing, but for a Google phone, I really am at a loss how this happened.  Also, Google Maps/Navigation does not come stock, at least on the phone I received.  You can download Google Maps from the Marketplace for free, so go ahead and do that once you get the phone.

All of the other standard Verizon bloatware comes on the phone from VZ Navigator to V Cast to Blockbuster.  There are also a bunch of other Samsung apps like Daily Briefing and other widgets that come on the phone you may want to check out and see if they are to your liking.  One of the things that I found, at least on the phone I received, was that there were way less stock Android widgets available to me than normal.  Usually there are dozens and on this phone, there were only a handful so check out the one at your local store to see if it has been crippled like my test phone was.

As always, you can install LauncherPro and do away with all of this customization these manufacturers put on the phone and create a near stock Android phone.  So feel free to do so and have a really awesome piece of hardware.  I personally found most of the widgets and bloatware that Samsung put on the Fascinate to be helpful and not too in the way.

Beyond my few gripes, I really enjoyed my time with the Fascinate.  Early on, there was a GPS bug that was fixed during my eval period with a firmware update so it isn’t really worth mentioning.  The phone is sleek, fast, light, has a fantastic screen, and if the lock screen button was larger and were on the top of the phone, it would probably be my phone of choice for Android.  For me, it is that annoying.  But, I would say check out the Fascinate, it really is that nice of an Android phone.

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