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| RIM BlackBerry 8800 - more towards the consumers |
| 2007-03-06 13:14:18.263725+00 |
 Review RIM is on a roll with another new BlackBerry that leans more toward a consumer construct than the previous devices. It takes the form factor of earlier models, adds in a welcome tweak here... and creates a device that borrows from both the consumer and corporate worlds.
The BlackBerry 8800, of course, owes a lot of its design features to the model that preceded it - the Pearl 8100. Like its lower numbered sibling, the 8800 is finished off in sleek black with silver touches here and there that work well together.
The 8800 ditches the side mounted click-wheel that previous models used in favour of the Pearl\'s trackball for getting around the interface. The ability to go left and right, as well as up and down, makes for a much better experience. It\'s much improved for jumping around webpages and finding your way through the user interface. When you\'ve highlighted the item you\'re after, selecting it is simply a matter of clicking in on the trackball.
To the left of the trackball are buttons for dial and menu, while over the other side sits a cancel/go back button and hang up. The larger size of the device means the buttons are easy use. Below you\'ll find a full Qwerty keyboard which makes for much faster typing than on the Pearl which only has space for enough buttons to house half the number of letters and relies on software to determine what you\'re trying to type, similar to predictive text.
The keys are also slightly domed and angled away depending on which side of the keyboard they\'re located. So those on the left, for example, have a raised area predominantly in the bottom left hand corner, which makes for easier thumb typing and less mistakes due to hitting multiple keys. It still takes a little while to get up to speed with the keyboard, but you can pick it up and use it straight away without having to learn any new skills.
It\'s obviously wider than the Pearl - due to squeezing in a full Qwerty keyboard, but it\'s not much taller or thicker, measuring 11.4 x 6.6 x 1.4cm. It\'s piled on a bit more weight, but it\'s still easily portable at just 134g with battery. The increased form factor also means a larger screen can be incorporated, with a 2.4in landscape display offering a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and capable of displaying 65,000 colours.
While it has more of business head, the 8800 is still capable of a little fun now and then. Although you won\'t find a camera there\'s a built in media player, which supports MP3, AAC, WMA and WAV tracks and on the video front it\'ll stretch to MPEG 4 Part 2 Simple Profile, H.263 and WMV. The screen\'s not bad for viewing video on - though given its size you\'ll probably want to stick to short clips rather than full length movies.
The built in speaker is relatively decent - although push it too loud and it starts to distort. Dare by the Gorillaz proved too much for it at full blast but was reasonable at lower volumes. For personal audio you have to use the included stereo hands free kit - the connector on the side is too small to take a standard headphone plug. The audio quality through the hands free is passable, but like the internal speaker will distort if you push it too loud.
The internal memory only stretches to 64MB, so you\'ll want to make use of the MicroSD slot for additional storage if you\'re planning on taking full advantage of the media playback facilities. To swap cards you need to remove the back of the unit and grapple with a cradle (similar to a hinged metal SIM card holder seen on some phones) that keeps it locked in place, which doesn\'t make for quick switching.
The 8800 is a quad-band handset, with support for the usual 850/900/1800/1900MHz frequencies and can handle GSM, GPRS and EDGE networks. You can hook it up to your PC via the mini USB port (which also usefully doubles as a charger) or if wireless is your thing there\'s support for Bluetooth 2.0.
RIM claims the battery lasts for 22 days standby and five hours talktime. With moderate use you should be able to get a week out of it between charges. The 8800 supports the standard BlackBerry email services so once you\'ve tapped in your details then new mail will be pushed to the device. There\'s no need to manually refresh your inbox, new messages will appear soon after they\'ve left the sender\'s outbox.
It will work with both the consumer/small business oriented BlackBerry Internet Service, which integrates with an existing email account, or the corporate focused BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which is likely to require the help (and approval) of an IT support department to install.
RIM has also included a GPS receiver in the unit, which when combined with the included BlackBerry Maps application allows you to find out where you are. Rather than store map information on the device, the application downloads the data as and when it needs it, which will increase your data use if you use it a lot.
While the free application does allow you to quickly find your location, its route planning abilities are basic to say the least and it\'s no replacement for a dedicated Satnav unit. However, if you just want a helping hand when you\'re lost, then it\'s more than adequate.
Verdict
The 8800 is aimed more at the BlackBerry converts and those that value a better keyboard over size. It\'s a stylish device too - taking a number of cues from the Pearl to create a handset that most people wouldn\'t be ashamed to have on show. Add in a decent-sized screen, QWERTY keyboard, media playback facilities, reliable BlackBerry email and built-in GPS and it\'s a well thought out and competent device. While its size may put some people off, if you value text over talk then it\'s an obvious choice.
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| On the way tool |
| 2007-02-28 13:12:38.675857+00 |
 The P4350 is a modest device, containing already-proven technology. There\'s no HSDPA or 3G, just GPRS EDGE; no 802.11n WLAN, just 802.11b/g, leading one to hope that the user concerns of previous models has been ironed out.
Herald attempts to deal with a basic conundrum facing mobile device designers: reading documents is optimal on a page-oriented portrait screen, while data entry (at least in the West) requires a keyboard, which forces the screen to be in landscape mode. Herald solves this by adding a sliding keyboard to what\'s primarily a pen input device, the screen and device rotating 90 degrees. It\'s an approach taken by the more fully featured, but larger, HTC Wizard, and it has its merits.
At 109x59x17mm the P4350 is an agreeable size for what in essence is a tablet device, although it feels extremely heavy: at 168g it appeared to be made of some extremely dense, heavy material originating from outside our Solar System. It certainly felt heavier than the advertised weight.
The 320x240 screen supports 16 million colours, although our unit only reported 65,000 colours, and expansion is possible via a MicroSD slot. As already mentioned WLAN is supported, but not 3G, although Bluetooth 2.0 finds its way into the device. Physical connectivity is provided by HTC\'s USB implementation, ExtUSB, which supports audio in addition to data transfers. It also sports a 2 megapixel camera, taking acceptable pictures in daylight but useless in darkness.
Under the hood, there\'s a TI OMAP 850 application processor running at 201Mhz, an ideal trade-off between performance and uptime. HTC claims a battery life of five hours in use and 200 hours standby time - which weren\'t far off the mark and may have been more than adequate a year ago. The surprise success of Nokia\'s E61, however, puts it in the shade. The E61 is lighter than the P4350 yet boasts a larger battery and superior power management: giving it nine hours talk time on GSM/GPRS networks, and all-day (and longer) always-on WLAN, so it can be permanently set as a VoIP phone.
In practice, the HTC performed well as a PDA, and better than expected overall, but radio communications (voice and WLAN) really drained the battery. The slideout keyboard, given the limited space, feels cramped, and although it\'s backlit, there\'s no sensor. The user must type in the dark to activate the keyboard although Windows Mobile offers a wider choice of pen entry methods than competitive platforms.
The 38-key thumb board sports two additional hard buttons for activating the softkeys, but we found it too easy to press these accidentally while typing: there\'s no special dispensation given to the Start or OK keys, the two most important keys on the device.
The P4350 excelled in some areas, but the overall user experience was disjointed and confusing. Let\'s start with two things it does very well.
Contacts look-up is much more efficient than in UIQ or Nokia\'s S60. The Contacts applications performs substring matches on any field, not just first name or last name, and not just on the initial letters of the name. It also performs \"first initial firstname - first initial lastname\" lookups that have proved so popular on Palm\'s Treo range.
Once configured, ActiveSync also performed smoothly and reliably. We also liked the SMS notifications, which tell you who the sender is, and the first line of the text message, without any user intervention. Since it can take 10 seconds or more to view the contents of a text message on some of Nokia\'s S60 phones, one wonders why rivals couldn\'t incorporate this feature, as it saves a great deal of time.
Not by accident, all three positives derive from one team, or a team within one organisation: Microsoft itself.
However, in many other areas it appears Windows Mobile had been thrown together by teams who\'d never met – even until the release of the product. And apparently, no top-down oversight in the Q&A department spotted these anomalies.
While SMS notifications are helpful, other instances of Windows Mobile notifications are quite infuriating. For example, the device informs the user that it\'s receiving data. It doesn\'t say how much or how fast, as there\'s no progress display. The Dialog contains a \"Hide\" option but can\'t be \"hidden\", nor can it be moved.
In another instance of poor quality control, for example, the basic WLAN configuration offers two almost-identical control panel icons, one labelled \"Wi-Fi\" and the other \"WLAN\". One turned out to be a near replica of the Windows XP network dialog box, the other a formidable five-tab dialog, which also invited one to \"enroll\". And additional \"Comms Manager\" pane simply led to one or the other.
Once WLAN was configured, the device constantly informed us of new networks in the vicinity. Which, since this reporter lives in an apartment block, was about once every 45 seconds. In this sense, at least, Windows Mobile perfectly replicates the Microsoft Windows desktop experience: with endless popups you don\'t need to see.
HTC also has added another distracting feature: blinking lights. The control panel also proved to be something of a tarpit: more than once it required a reboot to exit the Connections tab.
On the telephony side there\'s been progress, although device was strangely hesitant about hanging up a call. Call quality was average, although boosted by a decent loudspeaker. In landscape mode it was not possible to start Word Mobile or Tasks. There seems to be no sense behind this decision. And while the variety of pen input methods was welcome, there seemed no logic to when the text entry box would appear or disappear. Sometimes it just liked to hang around.
Cursive handwriting recognition was impressively accurate, but the agonising delay between inputting and rendering the text makes using it feel too much like a game show. It\'ll get there, with more processing power.
We also longed for more logical navigation than using the Start menu as a task-switcher and a more sensible option than an OK button, which also closes, or sometimes dismisses - one is never sure - the application with focus.
The parts of the Windows Mobile that work best are the parts that Microsoft has written, or had the most control over. This business model permits original design manufacturers (ODMs) to innovate and customise their devices, but there\'s little evidence of innovation and the \"customisation\" has resulted in a user interface disaster. Perhaps it\'s because the ODMs rarely meet the end-users, being insulated by operators, and other companies who re-badge the product.
Verdict
The parts of the Windows Mobile that work best are the parts that Microsoft has written, or had the most control over. This business model permits ODMs to innovate and customize their devices, but there\'s little evidence of innovation and the \"customization\" has resulted in a user interface disaster. Perhaps it\'s because the ODMs rarely meet the end-users, being insulated by operators, and other companies who re-badge the product.
IT departments whose primary need is contacts, calendar and mail sync do look for a native Microsoft option, but the quality of the Windows Mobile devices in so many other areas is severely compromised. It\'s little wonder they\'ve turned to Blackberry devices, or Good software, or a third-party Exchange sync running on a superior, easier to manage mobile device.
Nokia offers far superior hardware to anything Microsoft\'s Asian ODMs can offer, and Motorola\'s return to the UIQ fold gives it a first-class product with global reach to market. With only incremental improvements on the horizon in Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft should look at new development models and routes to markets. The current approach offers users few disadvantages, and a great deal of trouble. IT departments with considerable investments in Microsoft infrastructure deserve much better than this.
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| Me-Mo Modular Phone |
| 2007-02-26 13:54:14.665303+00 |
 Cell phones these days are turning into Swiss Army knives, packing in all sorts of functionality which may be nice and all, but could tack on unnecessary bulk that we may not need all the time. The Me-Mo concept phone breaks down the components into several pieces so that you can remove the camera if you don\'t need it, or detach the QWERTY keyboard when you don\'t plan on doing any emails or SMSing.
The gadget is made up of several modular parts. In addition to the camera and keyboard mentioned above, other tiddly bits include the screen, MP3 player, and GPS navigator. When you need the functionality of any given component you simply snap it on using the \"jacket buttons\" and the handset \"should be able to detect which pieces are there and adjust accordingly.\" |
Source: MobileMag
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