So here is the much expected HTC Diamond. Very nice, but lacking a keyboard. Its a real shame too because there’s space to have a front facing keyboard which running smartphone OS would have made a stunning device.
I’m very interested in the fact that it has accelerated graphics with a GPU which is normally a no-no for battery performance (only 900mAh!) but they are quoting 100 hours usage with push email working which is very good.
Other stand out features I noticed are 4GB storage and a 3.2MP camera which support video calling (HSDPA 7.3mbps and HSUPA). It also has an accelerometer like the iPhone so it can detect changes in position to change display to landscape and back (or maybe as an ad-hoc Wii controller). The big change is the UI which HTC seem to want to make their own, in the form of TouchFlow 3D. Its a nice phone, but evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
… and please make devices with front facing keyboards!
My T-Mobile contract is coming to its end and thought I should just check back with Orange to see if their data plans had joined the 21st Century, and seems good news is on the way. Apparently on the 6th April Blackberry users will be given a new 2GB allowance for £6/month and the rest of us will get a 2GB allowance for £8 permonth from May 5th.
Time will tell if these come to fruition as there have been many false dawns for Orange data plan upgrades so far, if so then I would like to welcome Orange to the 21st Century!
I have to say I love the new WindowsMobile 6.1 upgrade. I’ve tried it on a few devices including the T-Mobile Mail and it feels twice as fast and a lot smoother. One device it has brought back from the dead is the Qtek 8500/HTC STRTRK/i-mate smartflip, the fab clamshell device that had been languishing with WindowsMobile 5. WindowsMobile 6.1 really flies on this device and makes it feel fresh and modern. Watch this space for the official announcement at CTIA!
The Samsung i710 has been delayed again to mid April, so I’m tempted by this cheaper £195 (half the i710 price) Toshiba G710 which is almost the same dimensions as my beloved Dash and its WM6 Standard. Its a pretty weedy processor and an otherwise unremarkable spec but it does come with built-in GPS. No software, but at least the hardware is there. Its due early April so I may give it a go instead.
Filed under: Apple, Mobile — tim CARMICHAEL @ 10:23 pm
Yesterdays iPhone announcements seem to have started some general momentum for the iPhone which is looking very attractive. The games produced for launch by EA and others are fantastic and make use of the accelerometers very effectively, even the SaleForce demo was great.
Today the BBC announced the iPlayer is available, albeit only over WiFi. This unfortunately harshley exposes the limitations of not having 3G support in the iPhone which is desparately needed. Roll on June …
Filed under: Apple, Dev, Mobile — tim CARMICHAEL @ 11:16 pm
So its finally here. After a long wait we have the iPhone SDK.
Actually, the most interesting thing for me is the announcement of the beta of iPhone 2.0 OS which amongst other things includes a native Exchange synchronisation client based on Microsoft ActiveSync. this is a good move as it brings the iPhone formally into the corporate support fold without having to use ’sticky tape’ to get messages from all your different email providers. Surprisingly, Apple implemented device wipe as well as part of the Exchange support. this is logical in the sense that Exchange supports this functionality, but I hadn’t quite believed that Apple would go so whole hog on the Exchange integration.
Well it had to happen. the excellent T-Mobile Mail (HTC S620) is discontinued. No stock left, all traces erased from the T-Mobile website. I am really sad as this was a fantastic device, the best I ever owned. Now its unlikely to ever get an official 6.1 upgrade from T-Mobile, which will mean unlocking the phone and applying an HTC image… when it arrives.
So what next? Well the Samsung i780, thats what. Almost identical dimensions plus assisted GPS and WiFI. I almost bought one on Orange, but their stingy data allowance means I’ll wait for an unbranded device and continue with T-Mobile. There is no unlock for this yet either. I don’t like the number keys being two in, they should either be on the left edge or one in. The only other thing I’m not sure about is that this is a WM6 Pro device (PPC) not a smartphone, and I’ve not yet seen the need for a touch screen on a phone, and theres a stylus to lose, but we will see.
… or rather lack of it. No WindowsMobile 6.1 announcement from Microsoft, no real big announcements on Android, no iPhone SDK. pretty boring. The most interesting item for me was the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 which departs from previous strategies and embraces WindowsMobile (6.1 in this case) and the Android impinging LIMO initiative.
3 are doing a great deal for Skype users. Buy a Skype phone from 3 on Pay As You Go for £49.95 and a you get ‘unlimited’ Skype calls over 3’s cellular network. The only constraint is that the PAYG service must be valid or renewed within 30 days of expiring. But of course you can buy a £10 non-expiring PAYG credit and then just use it as a Skype only phone. And its a very neat phone too! Cheaper and better looking and handling than the Belkin and Linksys Skype phones, both of which need Wi-Fi and therefore aren’t portable away from your home or a hotspot like the 3 phone.
Its not a smartphone, but is reasonable to use and for Skype alone its dead easy. Just click the central Skype button and Skype launches and you can make and receive Skype calls. Easy!
The only problem I’ve encountered is that the service frequently flip flops to 3G and back which seems to have less signal strength at home. Details here http://www.3skypephone.com/
At CES there’s a buzz that the Wistron GW4 Linux phone could become one of the first real Android handsets. Apparently their rep announced that it was capable of running the Android image … the question is when can I get one?
You may or may not know that your mobile device can track you wherever you go, at least to the nearest cell which in a city can be tens of metres or several kilometres in the countryside. But did you know that someone (anyone) can actually track your phone by signing up for a tracking service where they can locate you or see where you have been on a map? I must admit I found it amazing that the mobile operators will provide this information without my consent to any third party. So, as long as I know the mobile number of the person concerned, I can subscribe to the service, check the box that says I have their permission to track them, and start watching where they are.
Safeguards ? Well the only safeguard is that an intermittent text must be sent to the device saying that it is being tracked. But this is only a code of conduct not a regulation. So, maybe the tracking company won’t be very diligent in sending the SMS or maybe you can have access to the phone and remove the SMS before the owner sees it. Anyway, its not very foolproof for the phone owner.
So what can you do about it? Well apparently not much… the mobile operators don’t seem to believe they have a duty to protect this information from being given to anybody at all on demand as for some bizarre reason its not deemed private information.
The solution? Well the only solution that I have found (in conjunction with my operator) is to turn off Location Based Services (LBS) which then does not collect the data which cannot then be forwarded to a third party. However, you lose any benefits of LBS that you may have enjoyed like finding local services to your current location.
Do you really want a burglar being able to see when you are not home, or being stalked by someone, I don’t think so. The mobile operators should classify this as highly personal data and not allow its use without explicit consent. What next, your call history?
BoyGeniusReport got hold of a Motorola Q9 with WM 6.1 and they have done a video review helpfully picking out some of that latest features so that I don’t bust my NDA;
Copy / Paste
Domain Enroll in Settings (Enrolling in a domain will connect your device with company resources.)
New home screen (pan left and right to check out missed calls, notifications like email, sms, etc.)
Change Master Security Code
Added text input settings
Recent Programs when pressing Start menu
Threaded SMS!
When you compose an email, or SMS, and start typing the name of the contact in the “To:” field, the contact names finally pop up like Windows Mobile Professional!
Internet Explorer now lets you define a homepage, and also zoom in and out using a nice and clean interface
Task Manager now shows CPU usage as a whole, and also lists it by process
Internet Explorer offers 6 zoom modes and copy / paste functionality
IE also uses a new font, which looks worlds better
ActiveSync will now try to automatically configure your Exchange settings once you enter an email address
Wi-Fi indicator in the status bar, just as in Windows Mobile Professional
New “Vista” home screen and theme
The list does however, miss out one feature that I think is probably the most important change for WM 6.1, but I can’t mention it…
Filed under: HTC, Mobile — tim CARMICHAEL @ 11:27 pm
I just noticed that HTC have published an update for my Dopod C730 ‘Cavalier’ on their support site. No idea what it does, and its not the latest WM6 build. The update is ROM 1.16.708.7 with CE OS 5.2.1238.17445 and Radio 1.43.50.
Finally, TMO UK are releasing WM6 updates for 3 devices, the Compact III, The Vario II and fortunately the MDA Mail. Goto http://www.tm-phonedownloads.com/ to get them. Bizarrely, the MDA Mail is located under MDA but Other. I can’t figure out why its taken TMO UK so long to catch up with these updates although you do get a newer build, CE 5.2.1620.18125 which is a benefit I guess. I hope that they are going to also provide WM 6.1 updates for at least these devices, although I probably shouldn’t hold my breath.
One of the great things about WindowsMobile is the fact the the OS is signed and sealed by MS before it goes onto an OEM device which means that an app which runs on the emulator sholuld run on any physical device (of same version at least). I applauded Android’s entry into the market because I feel it will open up devices in a way netither WindowsMobile or Symbian can, becuase of their limited market penetration, price and technology. I believe Android drives a simliar standard down to devices that would never be able to run WindowsMobile or Symbian due to cost or power. However, I’m slightly worried that implementations by manufacturers may lead to a uneven ISV playing field because of what and how is delivered to be an ‘Android’ device. This leads me to think that the compatibiltiy and capability problems that have plagued Symbian may turn up in Android. To a certain degree its inevitable because certain ‘Android’ phones will be below the ideal feature quality bar, but I would have liked to have seen more plans for certification of the OS platform so ISV’s can actually write once and run everywhere. If only Microsoft could have generated the critical mass to have WindowsMobile on bog standard (featureless) phones as well as high end devices. Trouble is, I think that particular train has left the station now, and after 5 years of pushing water uphill as an ISV, I see that most of the water got away. If half of Samsung, Motorola and LG phones ran WindowsMobile it would be a wildly different story.
So, I now watch with interest to see some real implementations ie not on the emulator. Of course I’m referring to deep device system stuff as opposed to fluffy graphics for a game. Anyway, we’ll see….
Although VS2008 ships with WM5 R2 SDK, it does have the new emulator which continues the great pedigree of this component. It really is a class developer tool and because it runs a real image from a device yours apps are true to life performance. Even better, the cellular emulator makes allows the device to communicate with a fake network so you can send and receive data. This is Microsoft at its best producing a quality development toolset to make our lives easier.
VS2008 finally hit RTM tonight which is good news as the betas have been so much more stable than VS2005 was at the same point. One of the best features (from an ISV perspective) is multi-targetting where each project can specify which version of the .NET Framework to work with (although not to SP level). This means we can just upgrade the IDE without converting existing project files until we’re ready. Overall the IDE and packaging tidy up a lot of loose ends and I think this is a very worthwhile update nowithstanding any language enhancements there are.
One decidedly bad ommission is the lack of the WindowsMobile 6.0 SDK, with 5.0 R2 included instead. This is a terrible ommission considering how close the 6.1 SDK is now. Its easily if irritatingly fixed by downloading the 6.0 SDK’s (~700MB) but beware, make sure you get the latest refresh and not the original, get the refresh here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=06111a3a-a651-4745-88ef-3d48091a390b&displaylang=en
Here’s an example of how the Android team are on the right track for developers. (OK I’m no Java fan boy, but it works and there are plenty of knowledgeable devs out there) For example, the android.telephony.gsm.SmsMessage class has lots of usefull functionality thats easy to access and use, look at these methods for example; (now I really want a real device)
Calculates the number of SMS’s required to encode the message body and the number of characters remaining until the next message, given the current encoding.
Filed under: Android, Mobile — tim CARMICHAEL @ 7:07 pm
IMHO, Android is going to be big, no make that huge. I say this from the perspective of a developer and I can actually feel the Android initiative accelerating under my feet. I have to say that Google have followed the Microsoft approach to developers (embracing) rather than the Symbian model (which involves a barge pole). Google are aggresively targeting the developer community which will drive content for devices which will attract manufacturers and operators and ultimately combined with sexy devices, gets end users. I predict a race occuring amongst handset manufacturers to be first to market with the ‘G-Phone’.
The Linux core makes for a solid foundation, and Google have built a compelling and architecturily comprehensive developer stack. Looks real good. My only concern is the security model which I haven’t had a chance to examine yet, especially around the XMPP android to android data protocol.
I downloaded and installed the SDK and ran up the emulator, and I was very impressed with its performance and integration. Obviously it can’t make a call, but the data services are hooked up so that the internet is available as if it were a real phone for app testing. At first glance the emulator works as well as it looks!
