Posts filed under 'Phones'
Here’s Motorola ROKR E8. It’s a pretty normal phone with one very special feature…
Without a doubt the E8’s main feature is it’s changing keypad.
When it’s off you can’t see any of the keys - then It changes depending on what program you’re using.
Numbers show up when you’re dialing a number, they disappear and other buttons appear when you’re listening to music, taking a picture, etc.
I’ve also noticed that the keypad lettering is red (when it’s on) in sunlight while it’s glows white indoors. Cool!
The keypad is actually a touch sensitive surface with bumps where the ‘buttons’ are. The buttons don’t move in when you press them but thanks to the E8’s haptics it sure feels like they do.
Unlike other touch sensitive buttons, the E8’s keys don’t respond till you actually put pressure on them. So they won’t work if you accidentally brush your finger across them - amazing!
It’s kind of freaky how good the haptics are. Even though I know the front of the E8 doesn’t go in when you press it.
I suppose one could argue that while as cool a trick that it is, the keypad serves little purpose and at least from a functionality level it sort of does. That said, it’s new and really neat - I love it. However, I’d probably hate it if Motorola brought it out for all their phones (it’s that sort of thing).
Around the nav pad is a dial you can put your finger on and slide around (similar to what you find on some iPods). The dial doesn’t actually go all the way around, it stops at the bottom. Unlike the keys, the dial doesn’t require much pressure to use so there’s a hold switch on the side which turns the keypad off. If you don’t use it, you might find that the E8 will keep turning on in your pocket and drain the battery faster.
There is a micro USB port on the right side that’s used for charging and for connecting to your computer. On top is a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The left has a volume switch and a camera button.
Software wise the E8 runs Linux.
Menu speed is kind of slow. To be honest I kind of remember the ROKR being much faster. So I don’t know if the slow speed is due to firmware customizations or due to my bad memory.
There are 3 different menu layouts; Grid, List and Spinner.
You can quickly jump to menu items using numeric shortcuts plus you can change the order of menu items though you can’t seem to remove/add items to the top level menu.
As a phone, the E8 seems pretty competent. You can search the phonebook by entering as many letters of a contact’s name as you want. You can also start searching your phonebook by entering part of a phone number/contact name from the standby screen.
The E8 has a talking phone feature which can read you your messages, read the menu to you etc.
The default music player (on the Rogers branded E8) is the Rogers one. You’ll want that if you want to use the Rogers music store. The Rogers music player will play your own music as long as you store it in the MyAudio folder on the memory card - otherwise it won’t see it. It can sort your music by album, artist, etc and it will automatically pause when you receive a call.
I was a little surprised that the Rogers music player is able to use the E8’s mode shifting keys.
My complaints about the Rogers one is that every time you want to do something else, you have to tell it to run in the background plus you can’t seem to fast forward/rewind in a song - you can only skip backwards or forwards to the next song.
The Motorola music player is much better; with the exception of being able to buy music over the air, the Motorola can be put into the background by just pressing end. You can control it from the standby screen plus it has an equalizer.
The Motorola music player can be found under the Media menu under Media finder.
There is a 2 megapixel camera. There’s no flash or self portrait mirror. It’s nothing special.
The video recorder is also unremarkable. 144×76 resolution videos with no time limit.
The built-in browser is called Symphony (older Motorola Linux phones have Opera). It’s a full HTML browser so it can handle regular websites. I like how it has tabbed browsing so you can load more than one page at a time. I’m not sure how many tabs you can open at once but I found the browser would crash if you had too much stuff open at once.
Symphony renders pages so that they fit on the E8’s screen without requiring you to scroll sideways.
I’m not sure if Symphony uses a proxy (like Opera Mini) to reduce the sizes of images and compress text before it gets sent to the phone. Normally this is done to speed up the time it takes to load webpages. Based on the time it takes to load pages I’d say it doesn’t which is kind of disappointing since the ROKR is only an EDGE phone.
You can use the scroll dial to scroll or you can just use the nav pad. You can quickly switch between tabs by pressing the 4 button or open a new url using the 5 (there’s no option to open a new url in the menu, you have to use 5).
Overall while I thought Symphony was a decent product, it takes a long time to load regular pages and that sours the web browsing experience.
I’m a little disappointed you can leave the browser running in the background if you switch to a different program because you can do that if you load Opera Mini … just double check that your data plan covers browsing with Opera Mini.
Normally Motorola’s Linux phones come with a decent (for a regular phone) email client. For some reason I can’t find it on the E8. All I see is a Rogers one. I don’t mind carrier email clients but I’d like to see users have a choice so I’m pretty annoyed that the normal email client is missing.
The Calendar, Task and phonebook can synchronize with your PC if you have Mobile Phone Tools.
Calendar, File Manager, Alarm Clock, World Cock, calculator, task list, notepad.
The alarm is slightly confusing if you just want to set a one time alarm. The way the interface is setup it looks like it wants you to choose an alarm that goes off on certain days of the week. To set a one time alarm, ignore the days of the week and just choose a one time only alarm. Otherwise I like how you can choose which days of the week to have an alarm sound.
Performance:
Incoming sound quality is quite good, there’s a tiny bit of background hiss but it’s not obtrusive. RF performance is average.
Maximum earpiece volume is adequate.
Conclusion:
Haptics aside, the ROKR E8 is a pretty normal phone. I liked the included HTML compatible browser and the built-in music player isn’t bad. I’m not impressed with the limited Rogers email client and I’m even less impressed that the email program that is normally built into Motorola phones is missing. You can change the softkey shortcuts or the music key. The menus are also slower than what I’ve come to expect from Motorola.
That said I still liked the E8. The keypad is a much better conversation starter than pulling out a Smart phone and trying to explain how fast the processor is, how much memory it has, that sort of thing. Anyone can appreciate it when you turn the E8 off, turn it back on and let someone play with it while it’s turning on.
10.23.2008
Howard Chui
October 23rd, 2008
I had a chance to meet up with the folks at Sling Media earlier today.
I asked them how SlingPlayer Mobile for the Blackberry and iPhone are coming along. They are coming along though they’re not quite ready yet. It looks they’ll be getting Sling Player Mobile 2.0.
I checked out 2.0 on a Blackberry Bold it was playing a stream over HSDPA and it looked pretty good. The big changes with 2.0 is that the interface has changed so that there are some icons on the bottom. There will also be support for your Sling account so you just have to remember your login and not your SlingID. The interface speed seemed fine.
You’re going to need OS 4.5 at least to use it on a Blackberry
After they roll out 2.0 for those 2 platforms expect Sling to update the existing players for Symbian, WM, etc.
Going forward they are looking at supporting higher streaming resolutions. Currently Slingplayer Mobile maxes out at QVGA (320×240) with a bit rate of around 500kbps. Next up should be half VGA (640×240) and then VGA eventually. You’ll need a powerful enough device of course.
I asked them about Android and they said it was on their radar. I also asked them when Slingplayer will work on my Nokia e71 - they said they were working on it (I’m guessing that means wait for 2.0).
The real interesting thing was the SlingCatcher. I’ll be honest. I thought the SlingCatcher was just for watching your Slingbox on a TV. On the back are component video, composite video, S-Video and HDMI outputs along with a SPDIF and regular audio out. Along with a network jack and 2 USB ports.
Besides watching your Slingbox it has a few tricks up its sleeve. Besides letting you watch your Slingbox without a computer it has 2 other neat features:
First off you can load media files onto a FAT32 formatted USB storage device, connect it to the SlingCatcher’s USB slot and watch them on your TV. Apparently it supports a wide range of file formats: avi, vob, ifo, pc, ts, mpg, wmv, asf, mov, mp4, m4v, mp3, mp4a, wav. It also supports the following codecs: wmv, mpeg 2, mpeg 4, h.264, Xvid, mp2, mp3, wma, aac and ac3.
There will a program for your PC which will check your files to make sure that the Slingcatcher can play them and if it can’t the program will transcode them into something the catcher will understand.
The other thing is called SlingProjector. It’s software for your PC that will play whatever you’re watching on the PC on your TV. So if you’re watching YouTube you just fire up the program, click on the YouTube video and it will show up on your TV. If you’re PC can decode it, it will play on the Slingbox.
Mac users should know that SlingPlayer 2.0 will come to mac eventually.
Before I move to the next subject I should mention that at this time SlingCatcher only outputs video at up to 640×480, 1080i support will come soon.
Finally Sling.com is currently in beta. When it’s done you’ll be able to watch your Slingbox via their website so you don’t have to install a client on your computer.
It’s good to see SlingMedia is adding new features to their stuff.
October 21st, 2008
Here’s the (unfortunately named if you remember Ms Cleo) Samsung Cleo:
- Bell exclusive
- CDMA
- QWERTY keyboard
- 1.3 megapixel camera
- microSD card slot (SDHC presumably)
- launches Nov 7th
- $49.99 on a 3 year
- Champagne and Pink at launch with Baby Blue to come later
- Pink ones will come in a gift set with Cake brand cosmetics and a phone charm.
- Everyone who purchases a Cleo from Nov 7th thru Jan 15th has a chance to win a day with designer Katya Revenko . The winner will get a custom fitted dress from Katya Revenko, plus travel to and accommodations at the Drake Hotel in Toronto.
It kind of looks like a compact - so I’m a little surprised the inside display doesn’t double as a mirror.
October 20th, 2008
Occasionally I’ll get media kits from companies in the mail. They’re generally not very interesting. Some print outs of phones and a USB flash drive. I generally look over the print outs, recycle them and add the flash drive to my collection of flash drives. Today I got something slightly different (click images to see full size):
Pretty sweet huh?
October 14th, 2008
So I just got a new Slingbox PRO-HD. If you don’t know what a Slingbox is, it’s a device that hooks up to your favorite video source (like a PVR, satellite receiver, DVD player, etc.) and then allows you to watch it elsewhere on your computer or compatible device. It works on Windows, OSX, Windows Mobile devices (2003 SE and newer), Palm OS, S60 plus it has been demonstrated on Blackberry and Apple iPhone.
To be honest, if you use your Slingbox mostly on your phone, then the Slingbox PRO-HD won’t be very relevant for you. The main point of the HD is to let you watch your high definition source elsewhere. To do this you’ll need a really fast connection and a really fast processor; two things you won’t really find on a phone. A Slingbox Solo will work just fine if you just want something for a phone.
Get one if you a) have a SlingCatcher or b) a fairly new computer.
You place the HD between your video device and your TV. The HD can handle up to a 1080i signal.
I was upgrading from a Slingbox Solo, so I was able to reuse all the same cables. I had to add one more cable for the coax digital connector.
I connected the component video out, coax digital audio out and regular audio out on my HD PVR to the Slingbox PRO-HD. Next I plugged the IR flashers in and placed them near my HD PVR’s IR receiver. Then I connected the component video and regular audio out to my Sharp LCD TV. I could also connect to another source using the composite/s video connectors.
The coax is for the built-in cable/ATSC tuner.
I could also hook up a video device to the composite video connectors or just connect the Slingbox PRO-HD directly to my cable (so up to 3 devices).
Next, I connected the Slingbox PRO-HD to my home network via network cable (gigabit ethernet).
Once I hooked up the Slingbox PRO-HD, I fired up SlingPlayer on my computer. It found the new SlingBox PRO-HD immediately and then proceeded to update the firmware - I should point out that SlingMedia has one of the coolest firmware update utilities I have ever seen. Instead of just a simple progress bar they also have a really stylish animation.
The setup was ridiculously easy.
There are 2 qualitative ways to measure video quality, resolution and bit rate. In the short time I’ve had the PRO-HD, I’m not sure what resolution the streamed video is (I suspect it’s whatever signal is being inputted) but I can tell you about bit rates.
I tried it on 3 different computers: a Mac Mini running Windows Vista (1.66Ghz Core Duo), regular Vista computer (3.0Ghz Quad Core), and a Lenovo X300 also running Vista (1.2Ghz Core 2 Duo). I didn’t bother listing more specs because to be honest, the only thing that matters is the processor speed and to a lesser degree the network connection.
The Slingbox PRO-HD player software is called SlingPlayer. From playing around with the settings, it seems the maximum supported bit rate is 20 mbps. However, from my experience, it won’t go past 8 mbps. At 8 mbps, image quality is really good unless you’re viewing a scene with lots of action (such as explosions, outdoor concerts with a big audience, etc). When there’s too much action, you might start seeing compression artifacts - there will be little squares in areas with fast motion.
One thing I noticed about Slingplayer is that it only uses one processor. So it won’t help if you have multiple cores.
*UPDATE* I’m watching TV right now and SlingPlayer is at 50% CPU utilization (that’s 2 out of 4 cores).
I found only 3.0 Ghz quad core could handle 8 mbps fairly easily. When I say easily, I mean that the video is smooth and doesn’t stutter or anything. SlingPlayer would try to stream video at around 6 mbps on my Mac Mini and laptop but video would stutter occasionally. Both of them can only handle around 4 to 5 mbps.
At 4 mbps, image quality is still good provided there isn’t much action. When there is action you’ll see more blocks than at 8 mbps.
I’m guessing you’ll need around 12 mbps for almost perfect video.
SlingPlayer 2.0 has one neat trick - it allows you to timeshift up to 60 mins (of high def video). So even if you’re watching a movie or sporting, you can pause and replay parts without having to control the source. You’re pausing/replaying video that’s stored on your computer.
I did find SlingPlayer to be a bit buggy at times. When you change channels there won’t be any video for a few seconds. Occasionally the video would stutter and once or twice it disappeared from my Windows taskbar.
There is support for 5.1 digital audio but I haven’t figured out how to get SlingPlayer to output it yet.
To be honest I love my Slingbox PRO-HD. I’ve always hated how I’d have to watch stuff in HD in the same room as my HD PVR. Over the years I tried to fix this by running a really long HDMI cable from upstairs to downstairs (it didn’t work). The Slingbox Solo was nice but it didn’t stream high definition quality.
The software isn’t perfect but SlingMedia is usually pretty good about releasing new versions of their software. For example, SlingPlayer 1.0 and 1.5 didn’t have the time shifting feature. Hopefully they’ll also have version 2.0 for Macs soon.
Now we just need mobile networks and phones that can handle HD streams.
10.11.2008
Howard Chui
October 12th, 2008
Like Verizon, Telus and Bell have officially announced that they’re going to using HSPA for their 4G networks. They will be sharing 4G networks to save money. The big deal here is that when it’s done Rogers, Bell and Telus will all have compatible 4G networks. Notice I said 4G, I doubt Rogers 2G and 3G phones will work on Telus and Bell and vice versa.
http://about.telus.com/cgi-bin/media_news_viewer.cgi?news_id=956&mode=2
http://www.bce.ca/en/news/releases/bm/2008/10/10/74991.html
October 11th, 2008
Here’s my review of the Samsung Instinct. For some reason it is sometimes marketed as an iPhone competitor. Is it really? Read on.
The Instinct feels well made and solid. It doesn’t creak and shift much when you squeeze it.
The display is 3.1″ measured diagonally and looks fine.
On top there is a power button plus a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The left side has 2 volume buttons plus the charging/data connector.
On the right are the microSDHC card slot, voice command button and camera button.
When you touch the screen, the Instinct vibrates slightly - it’s called haptic feedback. At first I thought it was a really stupid feature because there is a split second pause from when you touch, to when it shakes. It makes it feel detached. However, after using the Instinct for a few days I grew accustomed to it and began to like this feature - go figure.
Below the screen are 3 other ‘buttons’; back, home and phone. They’re actually touch sensitive and not really buttons which gives the Instinct a sleek appearance. Like other touch sensitive buttons I’ve tried, these ones are really easy to press accidentally if you’re not careful. To keep this from being too big of a problem, the Instinct usually asks if you really want to exit a program when you accidentally press one of the ‘buttons’.
When you’re not using the Instinct, you can deactivate the screen by pressing the power button located on the top left. If you want to use the Instinct you have to press the power button once and then once more and hold it. This is not very intuitive because if you just press it twice (without holding the second time) then the screen just turns off again.
Text entry is either an on screen QWERTY keyboard (in landscape mode) or a vertically oriented alphabet (in portrait mode). There is an auto correct feature but you have to turn it on every time you want to use it. There’s no way to leave the auto correct on all the time. Other then that I thought text entry was adequate.
The menu items are organized into 4 tabs. It looks like the Instinct has tons of features but really half of the tabs link to Bell’s website.
The built-in email and messaging client is only for MSN. If you’re listening to music and want to change songs you have to exit the program, change songs, then sign back in. Not very impressive. It’s slow and in my opinion not worth the 8 bucks Bell charges for it since you can’t leave it running in the background. If you do receive a call, you can go back to the messaging client when you’re done. I would just get the unlimited browsing option and go to mobile.msn.com.
The built-in mapping program (on Bell) is from Telenav. From my experience Telenav is an excellent program but you have to pay to use it. Even if you just want to look at the map and aren’t interested in directions. Bell wants $3.50 each day you use it or $8 a month plus any data charges.
Anyways Telenav has spoken directions and traffic support. It downloads instructions and maps as you go.
Telenav seems to have a devastating effect on the battery. I drove for 40 mins and the battery went from full to half empty. Make sure you get a CLA for the Instinct. I also found Telenav would sometimes take a long time to get a GPS fix - even if I was outdoors with no tall buildings around.
There is a notes app plus a calendar
The music player is the carrier branded kind. As far as carrier branded music players go, the Instinct’s isn’t horrible but it’s still slow.
You can sort music by artist, album, genre, etc.
The player is integrated with Bell’s music store. If you plan on paying $15 a month for music then you’ll probably like how the Instinct comes preloaded with a bunch of popular music.
If you prefer your own music, the music player can play mp3’s stored on microSD/SDHC cards.
The music player can play music while in the background so you can use it while surfing the web. I did find that sometimes I wasn’t able to switch back to the music player so I couldn’t change songs. Also, remember that when you switch from the web browser to change songs, the browser will exit and you’ll have to reload the page when you switch back.
For $10 a month you can watch TV with the Instinct. Video quality wasn’t bad but I didn’t like how you couldn’t do anything else while watching or listening to the TV.
The camera has a resolution of 2 megapixels and has a self portrait mirror. There’s no flash. It does have this neat feature which tells you when you’re not holding the camera still enough and are going to get a blurry picture. You can switch to the camcorder from within the camera app.
While not outstanding, image quality is not bad for a 2 megapixel camera phone. Like all camera phones you’ll get better results outdoors. The video app is limited to 20 second clips.
There is a browser that supports full HTML. It’s actually pretty good, especially when you consider that the Instinct isn’t a smartphone.
I didn’t like how the Instinct would close the browser every time you switched - similar to when you’re changing songs on the music player.
RF performance
RF performance is nothing special. If you’re in an area with poor network coverage, consider a different phone.
Incoming sound quality is pretty horrible. I found people to be really fuzzy sounding, however when the person on the other end is silent, the Instinct blanks the audio. To be fair the audio blanking is also a function of the carrier. Outgoing audio has noticeable background hiss.
One thing I really noticed is that the Instinct has a bad habit over over emphasizing the loud part of each word. It’s really annoying.
Earpiece volume is excellent. When I cranked the volume up I thought I was going to go deaf.
The speakerphone is adequate.
Conclusion:
The Instinct wasn’t an easy phone to review. On paper it does have a reasonable amount of features. But the thing is, features are only part of what makes a phone great. The phone has to be fun to use and intuitive. While I wouldn’t say the Instinct was difficult to use, it lacks a certain something that makes me want to use it. So that’s one strike against the Instinct and the main reason why Instinct and iPhone shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence.
I wasn’t pleased by the Instincts lame email client. Not everyone uses Hotmail, I’d like to see at least POP and IMAP support. And even then you still need to pay to use the email client. Besides paying for the email client, you also have to pay for the GPS. It would be nice if you could at least look at maps for free and only pay when you want navigation. Don’t forget the music player - the Instinct comes with music but you have to pay if you want to listen to it. Talk about dangling a carrot … strike two.
Still I wouldn’t give it 3 strikes. The Instinct’s GPS is pretty good. The TV isn’t fantastic but it doesn’t suck either. The same could be said about the browser - which is decent considering the Instinct isn’t a smartphone.
It took me a while to figure out who would want to use the Instinct but then it hit me. Many of the Instinct’s features are just links to the internet. If you’re the type of person who doesn’t really like to play around with their phone and is happy just surfing whatever links the carrier puts in the phone then the Instinct is for you.
As for being an Apple iPhone competitor … while the Instinct may come with a few features that the iPhone does not, they’re really not that similar. They’re 2 different classes of phone with the iPhone being a much higher end device.
Howard Chui
10.09.2008
October 9th, 2008
The BlackBerry Curve is coming to Virgin Mobile Canada. It will be $99 on a 3 year. Unlimited personal/work email and instant messaging are $15 on VMC.
October 6th, 2008
Here’s the new Nokia 5800. It’s been a while since Nokia’s launched a touch screen device.
Specs:
- S60 5th Edition
- 360×640 display
- touch screen
- Quad band WCDMA (850/900/1900/2100)
- MicroSDHC
- Bluetooth/WiFi
- micro USB
- 3.2MP autofocus camera
It’s marketed as a Music phone and is one of the first “Comes with Music” phones which come with unlimited music for one year. After a year you’re supposed to dump the phone and get a new one.
Does anyone find the stylus kind of retro?
full specs here.
October 3rd, 2008
$299.99 with contract, $99 with 3 year.
It’s a regular phone with one special feature; a search function which you can use to find contacts, web addresses, even phone functions. I tried it a while back and it’s pretty impressive - it’s fast and more importantly, it works.
Other stuff:
- MP3 Player with expandable microSD memory slot up to 4GB
- 2.0 megapixel camera with zoom and video capture
- Bluetooth wireless technology for stereo and hands-free accessories
- EVDO dual digital mode CDMA 800/1900 MHz
- Internal 240×320 2.2” high-resolution QVGA screen
- Windows Live Messenger
- Text, picture, and video messaging
- Downloadable ringtones, images, videos, games, and applications
- Web browsing
September 30th, 2008
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