Smartphones and Cell Phones

Clash of the Touch Titans: iPhone 3.0 3G vs HTC Touch Diamond2

This is the final article in my Clash of the Touch Titans articles after taking a look at the iPhone 3G 3.0 and the Palm Pre, HTC Magic, BlackBerry Storm, and Samsung OmniaHD. The iPhone, Pre, Magic, Storm, and OmniaHD all have capacitive touch screens while this last contender, the HTC Touch Diamond2, has a resistive touch display. As I wrote before, I laid out what we know of the iPhone 3G with 3.0 OS operating system in my first article so I won't repost all of that content here. I will run through each section for the HTC Touch Diamond2 and then offer my personal thoughts on how it compares to the iPhone 3G with 3.0 OS update on the last page of this feature. Next Monday I will post a wrap-up post that includes a spreadsheet comparing all five of these devices in simple to view format.

April 21, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Check out all the user guides for AT&T E71x, launching on 4 May

The Nokia E71 is one of my favorite devices (check out my review) and I was pleased when Nokia revealed that AT&T would be carrying this device. I had a chance to get some hands-on time with it at CTIA and a tipster sent me all the user guides and information on the device to be posted on my Nokia Experts site. If you visit my post there you will find the full User Guide, Quick Start Guide, FAQs, and more, including an image that shows the E71x should be launched on May 4th.

April 20, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Image gallery: Quickoffice for iPhone has a couple major limiting issues

The iPhone is one of my favorite mobile devices, but the lack of Office document support is a bit limiting for those of us who need a device that lets us view, edit, and create documents and spreadsheets on the go. I was quite excited after seeing Quickoffice for the iPhone at CTIA. I talked with them about the upcoming product and some future updates already underway for the application. I have been checking iTunes regularly and finally saw it appear in the App Store so I went out and purchased it. Quickoffice is composted of Quicksheet, Quickword, and Quickoffice Files and you can actually purchase them separately if you like. After a couple hours of usage, I have to say Quicksheet is quite good and Quickword needs a couple of immediate updates. The application still shows how other mobile platforms are far ahead of the iPhone in some important areas (file structure/access and Office document support). Check out my image gallery for screenshots.

April 18, 2009 by Matthew Miller in iPhone

Quickoffice for iPhone arrives in the App Store

I had a chance to sit down with the Quickoffice folks at CTIA and was extremely impressed with the application. Since you can never tell when applications will appear in the App Store I have been checking it every day and searching for Quickoffice. I was pleased to finally see it appear in the App Store (iTunes link) and immediately purchased it and installed it on my iPhone 3G. I will have a walk through video and review with several screenshots up as soon as I get a chance to spend more time with the application, but wanted to let you all know about it now so you could try it out too.

April 18, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Sorry Android fans, 21 April T-Mobile event focused on Sidekick LX

I was getting all excited after reading about the upcoming T-Mobile 21 April event with just about everyone thinking it was going to be an Android launch event. I flew from Seattle to NY for one day for the G1 launch, but was not going to make the same trip for a G2 launch. Speculation then turned to a BlackBerry launch because RIM will be in London that same day for another event with T-Mobile. I received my invite today and can confirm it is a T-Mobile Sidekick Social Club event focused on the new Sidekick LX.

April 17, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

New T-Mobile Sidekick LX to support Exchange ActiveSync

My first wireless data device was the first T-Mobile Sidekick and I was pretty excited to be able to quickly bang out emails and instant messages on the device. T-Mobile just announced the latest and greatest Sidekick, the Sidekick LX, that will be the first 3G-enabled, GPS-toting Sidekick device that is still heavily focused on messaging and communications. It will be available in orchid and carbon colors and have several improvements over existing Sidekick devices. One of those improvements includes Exchange ActiveSync support so the Sidekick LX will actually be a device that could be used by the business user.

April 16, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Collaboration

Will we ever see a SlingPlayer Mobile client for the iPhone?

Sling Media showed off a version of SlingPlayer running on an iPhone just about a year ago and we still do not have a SlingPlayer Mobile client available to install. At first The Boy Genius Report stated that AT&T may have asked Apple to reject the application, but their sources then stated that Sling has not yet heard anything from Apple. So at this time, there still may be a SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone application coming down the pike. There has also been a bit of controversy surrounding the news that SlingPlayer on the iPhone will only work with the latest and greatest Slingbox products so many people will have to upgrade their Slingbox just to use the mobile application.

April 15, 2009 by Matthew Miller in iPhone

RIM CEO confirms more touch products coming in the future

Laptop Magazine had a chance to sit down with RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis and posted this wrap-up of the interview the includes some vague discussion of future plans, thoughts on the iPhone, and feedback on BlackBerry App World. I recommend you check it out to read what the head of RIM is thinking about at this exciting time in the mobile space.

April 15, 2009 by Matthew Miller in iPhone

Workout with your iPhone? Keep that headphone jack dry

Just about every mobile phone I have used has a moisture indicator somewhere in the battery compartment so a rain drop here and there is not going to void your warranty. I have never dropped a device in water and have never seen this indicator activated on a device before. If you have an iPhone though, you better take extra care to keep any water or moisture from getting into the headphone jack opening where the indicator is located. Since the iPhone has no removable battery or battery compartment Apple decided to place the indicator in a poor location that is actually quite easy to get moisture into. If you use your iPhone to work out you could easily have sweat drip into the opening or if you walk in the rain a drop could easily slide down your headphone cable and into the opening. CNN reported that people are now discovering how sensitive the iPhone can be to moisture.

April 14, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Will people really pay $800 for a SIM-unlocked iPhone 3G?

There are rumors of a new iPhone(s) coming in June around the time of the Apple WWDC and this seems to jive with the fact that you can now pick up a SIM-unlocked 16GB iPhone 3G for a low $799.99 from Buy.com. The iPhone is capable of software updates and will allow you to use it with AT&T or T-Mobile without any contract or rebate forms. I buy lots of phones from Buy.com, but $800 for an iPhone 3G is a bit out of my price range and really have to wonder how desparate Apple is to get rid of existing stock. If they were trying to dump stock I would think you could pick up an unlocked model for $600 or so with the AT&T subsidized ones running $200 and $300. This price seems a bit ridiculous to me, especially after I just recently found one on Howard Forums for $400. You can get them on ebay too for something like $500.

April 13, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Finance

Clash of the Touch Titans: iPhone 3.0 3G vs Samsung OmniaHD S60 device

We have now taken a look at the iPhone 3G 3.0 and the Palm Pre, HTC Magic, and BlackBerry Storm. The iPhone, Pre, Magic, and Storm all have capacitive touch screens and the last one in my series with such a display is the Samsung OmniaHD. The Samsung OmniaHD (aka i8910) is the first S60-powered capacitive touch screen device following the Nokia 5800 and N97 resistive touch screen S60 devices. The use of capacitive displays generally makes for a better user experience, except when looking to use handwriting recognition or small stylus-optimized keyboards. The OmniaHD is also one of only a few S60 devices made by Samsung. Let's take a look at how the Samsung OmniaHD stacks up to the iPhone 3G running the 3.0 OS.

April 13, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Hardware

Review: First look at the Nokia E75 messaging device

The Nokia E71, see my review, is one of the best QWERTY smartphones on the market and everyone who holds it wants it because it feels so solid and is extremely powerful and functional. I think the E71x should be a popular handset with AT&T when it launches this month for only $100. Two Nokia Eseries devices, the E75 and E55, were announced in February at Mobile World Congress so my goal at CTIA last week was to hunt these two down and get some hands-on time. I found the Nokia E75 in black and red, but the E55 was nowhere to be found and one person at the Nokia booth told me this device was cancelled so I am still trying to find out what the status is regarding its existence. I was able to secure an E75 to evaluate and have been using it exclusively since last Thursday. Check out my image gallery for photos of the hardware and some software as well as my YouTube video below of the device in action.

April 7, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Mobility

Clash of the Touch Titans: iPhone 3.0 3G vs RIM BlackBerry Storm

I have now written up my thoughts on the iPhone 3G vs. Palm Pre and iPhone 3G vs. HTC Magic so now it is time to move on to the RIM BlackBerry flagship product, the Storm. The BlackBerry Storm is currently the only RIM device with a touchscreen and thus fits in perfectly with our look at touchscreen focused devices. It also runs the latest version of the BlackBerry OS, version 4.7. I laid out what we know of the iPhone 3G with 3.0 OS operating system in my first article so I won't repost all of that content here. I will run through each section for the BlackBerry Storm and then offer my personal thoughts on how it compares to the iPhone 3G with 3.0 OS update on the last page of this feature.

April 7, 2009 by Matthew Miller in iPhone

CTIA 09: Is the Palm Pre keyboard the Achilles heel of the device?

Since I didn't have a chance to see the Palm Pre in person and there are no review units out yet, I couldn't really pick a favorite in my first Clash of the Touch Titans article. Last week I was able to see the Pre in person and get my hands on it a bit. I shot a video of the Pre in action showing some 3rd party apps and overall user experience. I will say that the experience and some of the functionality look quite amazing. However, I was able to also get my hands on and enter text using the Pre keyboard and found it to be a major disappointment that may be the Achilles heel of the device. I find the onscreen keyboard on the iPhone to be much better than the Pre keyboard. So far we have only seen keyboard input as being the only way to enter text so you always have to switch to portrait mode to do this and my first impressions were not good. In the photos I saw before I actually touched it I thought it would be more of a Treo 800w or at least Treo Pro keyboard, but it is much more similar to the Palm Centro keyboard with rubber sticky keys/bumps set on a flat panel. The keyboard felt pretty cramped and I am sure I could get used to it over time since I do have magic thumbs, but Palm was always known for excellent Treo keyboards and to not put one of these types on this new flagship product may be an issue for many people.

April 5, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Hewlett Packard Enterprise

CTIA 09: PalmOS Classic lets you run Palm OS apps on the Palm Pre

Are you someone who has a ton of Palm OS apps and do not want to lose them if you upgrade to the Palm Pre? Palm previously said that Palm OS apps would not work on WebOS directly, but did leave it up to 3rd party developers to come up with a solution. As you can see in the video on PreCentral.net you will be good to go with the Palm OS emulator called Classic. Classic PalmOS emulator is from the folks at MotionApps and it actually looks pretty incredible. Applications run fast and may even be faster than what you see on many Palm OS devices today.

April 3, 2009 by Matthew Miller in Enterprise Software

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