Here are a few comparison pictures between the new Nokia N9 (MeeGo), iPhone 4 (iOS) and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc (Android). Enjoy!
Showing posts with label Sony Ericsson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sony Ericsson. Show all posts
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Meet the new Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray
Sony Ericsson today announced Xperia ray, a stunning new smartphone alongside CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore. With a 3.3” screen and running the latest Android platform for smartphones (Gingerbread 2.3), the phone packs in a powerful 1Ghz processor, Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine, a 8.1mp camera with Exmor R for mobile and HD video functionality. At only 9.4mm thin, Xperia ray incorporates market leading design for which Sony Ericsson has become known.
To add to a full set of specifications, the phone incorporates a front facing camera and a scratch resistant screen with excellent resolution and brightness and integrated touch keys. Sony Ericsson’s unique integration of Facebook inside Xperia delivers a unique consumer experience for greater social interaction. In combination with the Google services, as well as access to over 200,000 Apps via the Android Market, it provides a solid and entertaining smartphone foundation.
Daniel Sandblom, Global Product Marketing Manager, Sony Ericsson said: “We expect Xperia ray to appeal to consumers who are looking for a combination of beautiful design and a rich feature set. We are able to uniquely deliver this with a combination of premium materials and multimedia features provided by Sony.”
Sony Ericsson Xperia ray will be available globally in selected markets, including Japan, from Q3 2011.
Sony Ericsson Xperia ray at a glance.
*Please note that all services mentioned below may not be available in every market.
Colours
- Black
- Gold
- White
- Pink
Facts
- Operating system: Google™ Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
- Size: 111 x 53 x 9.4mm
- Weight: 100 grams
Camera
- 8.1mp camera
- 16x digital zoom
- Aperture f/2.4
- Auto focus
- Face detection
- Face recognition
- Photo light
- Front-facing camera (VGA)
- Geo tagging
- HD video recording (720p)
- Image stabiliser
- Scene detection
- Self-timer
- Send to web
- Smile detection
- Sony Exmor R™ CMOS sensor
- Touch capture
- Touch focus
- Video light
- Video recording
- Video stabiliser
Music
- Album art
- Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
- Music tones (MP3/AAC)
- PlayNow™ service
- SensMe™
- Sony Ericsson Music Player
- TrackID™ music recognition application
- xLOUD™ Experience
Internet
- Android Market™
- Bookmarks
- Google™ search
- Google Voice Search
- NeoReader™ barcode scanner
- Pan & zoom
- Web browser (WebKit)
Communication
- Call list
- Conference calls
- Facebook™ application
- Google Talk™
- Noise Shield
- Polyphonic ringtones
- Sony Ericsson Timescape™
- Speakerphone
- Twitter™ (Timescape™ integration)
- Vibrating alert
- Video chat ready
Messaging
- Conversations
- Google Mail™
- Instant messaging
- Picture messaging (MMS)
- Predictive text input
- Text messaging (SMS)
Design
- Auto rotate
- Keyboard (on-screen, 12 key)
- Keyboard (on-screen, QWERTY)
- Picture wallpaper
- Reality display with Sony Mobile
- BRAVIA® Engine
- Touch screen
- Wallpaper animation
Entertainment
- 3D games
- Media browser
- Motion gaming
- Radio (FM radio with RDS)
- Video streaming
- YouTube™
Organiser
- Alarm clock
- Calculator
- Calendar
- Document editors
- Document readers
- E-Manual
- Flight mode
- Google Calendar™
- Google Gallery 3D™
- Infinite button
- Phone book
- Setup Wizard
- Widget manager
Connectivity
- 3.5 mm audio jack
- aGPS
- Bluetooth™ technology
- DLNA Certified™
- Google Latitude™
- Google Maps™ with Street View
- Media Transfer Protocol support
- Micro USB support
- Modem
- Native USB tethering
- Synchronisation via Facebook™
- Synchronisation via Google™ Sync
- Synchronisation via Sony Ericsson Sync
- Synchronisation with computer
- Synchronisation via Exchange ActiveSync®
- USB High speed 2.0 support
- USB mass storage
- Wi-Fi®
- Wi-Fi® Hotspot functionality
- Wisepilot™ turn-by-turn navigation
Display
- Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA® Engine
- 16,777,216 colour TFT
- Capacitive touchscreen (multi-touch)
- 3.3 inches
- 854 x 480 pixels
- Scratch-resistant mineral glass
Memory
- Phone memory (user-free): Up to 300MB
- Memory card support: microSD™, up to 32GB
- Memory card included: 4GB microSD™
Battery life
- Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 6 hrs 50 min*
- Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 430 hrs*
- Talk time UMTS: Up to 7 hrs*
- Standby time UMTS: Up to 440 hrs*
- Music listening time: Up to 36 hrs
- Video playback time: Up to 6 hrs 45 min
- *According to GSM Association Battery Life Measurement Technique. Battery performance may vary depending on network conditions and configurations, and phone usage.
Networks
- UMTS HSPA 900, 2100
- GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
- UMTS HSPA 850, 1900, 2100
- GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
In the kit
- 1500mAh battery,
- Stereo portable handsfree
- 4GB microSD™ memory card
- Charger
- Micro USB cable for charging
- Synchronisation and file transfer
- User documentation
- (LiveSound™ in selected markets)
Sony Ericsson Xperia Active – A smartphone for your active life
Introducing the Sony Ericsson Xperia active, the ultimate smartphone for your active life. Featuring a 1Ghz processor and running Android Gingerbeard, the Xperia active is dust-proof and water resistant meaning it’s perfect for outdoor activities and people who love the great outdoors.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 with Android Gingerbread
Heres a brief hands-on overview of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 with the upcoming Android Gingerbread update. Enjoy!
NOTE: Availability and application content is market dependant. Also the Xperia X10 in the video is a prototype phone with beta software so there might be minor differences compared to the final commercial version.
Video: Android Flash 10.3 – 720p performance
This video is a test of the flash capabilities of four high end Android Phones:
- - HTC Incredible S (1 GHz Qualcomm 2nd Generation Snapdragon MSM8255)
- - Motorola Atrix 4G (1 GHz Dual Core Nvidia Tegra 2)
- - Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc (1 GHz Qualcomm 2nd Generation Snapdragon MSM8255)
- - Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate 4G (1 GHz Samsung Hummingbird)
Android app: Age of Zombies – Gameplay video
After launching initially as an exclusive for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Halfbrick Studios’ Age of Zombies is now available for a wider selection of Android devices
Monday, 27 June 2011
Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, otherwise known as the PlayStation Phone, is the most talked about smartphone of recent times. The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY is the first PlayStation Certified device and the first specialized Android gaming phone to hit the market. It features a slide-out gamepad, 4″ LCD screen and a second generation 1GHz Snapdragon chipset. There is a dedicated section on Android Market for it, which will list titles written specifically for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, or ported over from other mobile devices.
Sony Xperia X10 Custom ROM List
*This list of Custom ROM is only for Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10*
*Flash your device at your own risk*
(04/24/2011) [SS] Cyanogenmod V7.0.0 J016a (U)(2.3.3)
(04/21/2011) [SS] X10projectMIUI 004
(04/21/2011) [SS] X10x EWJet V007ex
(04/20/2011) [SS] Achotjan V01.3
(04/20/2011) [SS] MIUI 1.3.18 v2 (2.3)
(04/12/2011) [SS] scamble v01.3 (2.2.1)
(04/12/2011) [SS] XAT CM6FROYO RC2 Build 106 (2.2.1)
(04/12/2011) [SS] TripNMiUI FINAL 1.0.4 (2.3)
(03/01/2011) [SS] Blue Sparks V051 (2.1)
(02/03/2011) [SS] kX10 R2B001 (2.1)
(03/27/2011) [SS] FreeX10 BETA 4 (2.2.1)
(01/08/2011) [SS] TripNRaVeRs ROMs v0401.1 (2.2.1)
(01/07/2011) [SS] X10 Custom ROM 008b
(01/05/2011) [SS] AOSP mod GB style v2.2 (2.1)
*Most source links are from xda-developers forum*
Permalink: http://goo.gl/sSYzK
U – Unofficial
Canalys: Android grows 1,309% Q3 2009
Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading (UK) – Monday, 1 November 2010
In Q3 2010, the worldwide smart phone market grew an impressive 95% over the same quarter a year ago to 80.9 million shipped units. Nokia retained its leadership position, albeit by a diminished margin, with a 33% share of the market. Apple’s healthy performance this quarter saw it achieve a 17% share worldwide, a little ahead of RIM, which held a 15% share this quarter. In the world’s largest smart phone market, the US, Apple ousted RIM from the top spot, seizing a 26% share as iPhone shipments continued unabated. RIM has also launched its latest generation smart phone, the Torch, though it only saw half a quarter’s shipments in the US. But the plethora of smart phones running the Open Handset Alliance’s (OHA’s) Android platform meant that Canalys’ final published country-level data shows that it took the lead in the US market by operating system (OS), with a 44% share.
As well as the positive picture in the US, Canalys’ detailed country level smart phone research has consistently highlighted the importance of, and differences in, ‘emerging markets’. For example, in what are now being called the ‘BRIIC’ countries (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia and mainland China), smart phone shipments increased by 112% year-on-year, faster than the market overall, and each country individually saw strong growth. Nokia was the leading vendor in all five BRIIC markets in Q3 2010, benefiting from its global reach and channel relationships. In India, for example, Nokia held a 65% share of the smart phone market, and grew its shipments 208% year-on-year to 1.1 million units. The combination of affordable smart phones and its Ovi suite, which offers e-mail and messaging, navigation and music services, continues to prove popular in India, with products such as 523x series of smart phones performing well.
Despite ongoing discussions with the Indian authorities over the monitoring of encrypted communications, RIM has also continued to grow its business in the country and held an 18% share of the market in Q3 2010, with volumes up 412%. ‘For RIM, aggressively priced BlackBerry smart phones, such as the Curve 8520, have helped drive volumes across emerging markets, aided by its engagement in substantial marketing activities. It remains the number one smart phone vendor in Latin America, where it holds nearly 40% of the market,’ said Chris Jones, Canalys Principal Analyst. ‘Where smart phone growth in mature Western markets has been driven by high-end products, in many emerging markets where disposable income is more constrained, growth is being driven by good-quality products that can attract mass-market volumes in the mid-tier of the market. To succeed in these markets, vendors need to offer smart phones that provide consumers with the same ability to engage with the locally relevant mobile applications and connected services that consumers want to use, but at a more locally accessible price.’
Once again this quarter, it was devices running the Android platform that proved the greatest driver of growth in the worldwide market, up 1,309% year-on-year from 1.4 million in Q3 2009 to more than 20.0 million units in Q3 2010, forming a quarter of the market share. ‘With Samsung, HTC, Motorola and Sony Ericsson all delivering large numbers of Android devices, and with focused efforts from many other vendors, such as LG, Huawei and Acer, yielding promising volumes, the platform continues to gather momentum in markets around the world,’ said Canalys Senior Analyst Pete Cunningham. ‘Android has been well received by the market and in some geographies it is becoming a sought-after consumer brand. It has rapidly become the platform to watch, and its growing volumes will help to entice developers, ensuring consumers have access to an increasingly rich and vibrant mobile content and application ecosystem. Vendors are now delivering Android devices across a broad range of price points, from high-end products such as the Samsung Galaxy S or HTC Desire, to aggressively priced devices such as the LG GT540 Optimus or the Huawei built Vodafone 845, ensuring that Android devices are available and affordable to consumers on almost any budget.’
Driven by Nokia, the Symbian Foundation retained its position as the leading smart phone OS vendor worldwide. Of the 56 named countries that Canalys tracks, it is still the number one OS vendor in 37 of them because of Nokia’s dominance, plus in Japan, where its position is supported by Fujitsu and Sharp. The Symbian Foundation has been in a recent state of flux, with a streamlining of the workforce and the departure of its Executive Director, Lee Williams, along with the withdrawal of support from Samsung and Sony Ericsson. But it still has continued backing from the Japanese vendors and dedication from Nokia to its ongoing development. The launch of Nokia’s new range of Symbian devices, particularly the N8, will give a boost to its holiday season shipments, and the outlook into 2011 remains positive as Nokia aims to push Symbian devices further into the mid-tier of the market to attract mass-market volumes. ‘There has been a lot of speculation about whether Nokia will adopt another platform, but that looks highly unlikely. Its current strategy is clear and makes sense,’ added Pete Cunningham. ‘But Nokia still lacks a truly high-end product to compete against the iPhone and leading Android devices. The market is moving quickly and Nokia urgently needs to deliver an exciting and genuinely differentiated, high-end flagship MeeGo device early next year to regain its reputation as an innovative technology leader, and to retain its leadership position in the market.’
Devices running Microsoft’s OS accounted for just 3% of worldwide smart phone shipments in Q3 2010, though with the launch of Windows Phone 7 devices, the outlook for the fourth quarter and beyond is significantly improved. ‘Windows Phone 7 is streets ahead of earlier iterations and provides a vastly improved user experience that will pleasantly surprise many people when they come to use it. The integration of Microsoft service assets, such as Xbox Live, Bing, Zune and Office, greatly strengthens the proposition and we are confident that the initial array of products will perform well,’ said Chris Jones. ‘But the big challenge will be for handset vendors to differentiate their devices sufficiently given the restrictions Microsoft has placed on customizing the user interface, and its relatively demanding minimum hardware requirements, which will confine devices to the higher end of the market. The market is also awaiting the platform’s availability in non-roman languages to support its expansion into important emerging markets. Failure to deliver this soon will restrict the volume opportunity.’
Canalys analysts in Asia Pacific, the Americas and EMEA are available for press interviews on topics related to mobile devices and the growing ecosystem for mobile applications and services. To arrange an interview, please send a request to press@canalys.com. Analyst biographies, with photos, are available here.
About the service
The shipment estimates discussed in this release come from the market-leading Canalys Smart Phone Analysis services. Canalys offers services looking at the markets by country in Asia Pacific, North and Latin America, and EMEA, as well as providing worldwide market overviews and analysis of consumer and enterprise end-user attitudes and preferences toward mobile applications, devices and services.
About Canalys
Canalys specializes in delivering high-quality market data, analysis and advice to the world’s leading technology vendors. It is recognized as a key provider of continuous advisory services and confidential custom projects for marketing managers and strategists within blue-chip IT, telecoms, navigation and consumer electronics companies. It has unrivalled expertise in routes to market for all kinds of high-technology products and services and provides worldwide market data and trends analysis. Canalys does not release preliminary, incomplete data and uses consistent definitions and methodologies to ensure total consistency across all of the market data that appears in its services. The company publishes its final market data every quarter for every country tracked simultaneously on the same day.
Cross posted from Canalys
Is this the Android-powered PlayStation Phone?
It's hard to believe that what we're looking at is real -- but we assure you, the picture above is in fact the PlayStation Phone you've long been waiting for. As we reported back in August (below), the device you see is headed into the market soon, likely boasting Android 3.0 2.3 (aka Gingerbread), along with a custom Sony Marketplace which will allow you to purchase and download games designed for the new platform. The device snapped up top (and in our gallery below) is sporting a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 (a chip similar to the one found in the G2, but 200MHz faster), 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and the screen is in the range of 3.7 to 4.1 inches. Looking almost identical to the mockup we hit you with this summer, the handset does indeed have a long touchpad in the center which is apparently multitouch, and you can see in the photos that it's still bearing those familiar PlayStation shoulder buttons. For Sony buffs, you'll be interested to know that there's no Memory Stick slot here, but there is support for microSD cards.
The particular model in these shots is still in prototyping mode. As such, the unit doesn't have a custom skin (not even SE's Timescape design seen on the Xperia devices), and is said to be rather buggy. We're digging into more facts as we speak, but it's likely that much of what we reported earlier is still accurate, and though the device could still be headed for a 2010 release, 2011 is looking much more realistic. Still, there's a lot of time between now and the holidays... so keep your fingers crossed!
August report:
There's no question that gaming on the Android platform has heretofore been relatively underwhelming, but that looks like it's all about to change. It seems that Sony Ericsson -- a company that has yet to even introduce an Android 2.0 device -- is at work on a project to redefine gaming on Google's mobile platform. We now know (via a trusted source) that the company is actively and heavily developing a brand new gaming platform, ecosystem, and device (possibly alongside Google) which are already in the late stages of planning. And we've got the goods on it.
Here's what we can tell you about the hardware: if you're a gaming fan, this is exactly the kind of phone you've been waiting for. The device is described as cross between the Samsung Captivate and the PSP Go-- in other words, it's a landscape slider with game controls in place of the typical QWERTY keyboard. The D-pad is here, but instead of the small joystick, the device will have what was described as a "long touch pad" for analog controls, along with standard PSP buttons and shoulder buttons. The phone has a large display, described as being between 3.7 and 4.1 inches with WVGA or better resolution, a 5 megapixel camera that we're told might not be final, and it'll likely have a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU on board. The phone is mostly black with some silver highlights, and the gamepad area is white / silver in color. Apparently it's currently branded as a Xperia device, but it looks like it will carry PlayStation branding as well. Those who've seen the phone say it looks "pretty damn sexy." The mockup above probably doesn't do the actual hardware justice, but it should give you an idea of what you'll be dealing with.
On the software side, it looks like the device will be running Gingerbread (Android 3.0) with a phone-specific skin, and there will be a new area of the Android Market specifically for the games. That content will be initially accessible only by the halo device, but from the sounds of things, these titles might be made available to other Android phones if their specs and button layouts meet requirements. Games will be graphically in the range of PSX or PSP games, meaning true 3D gaming is headed to Android. Titles currently being shown off seem to be focused around some older PSX as well as new PSP offerings, with God of War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and LittleBigPlanet possibly on tap, and future plans for titles which incorporate augmented reality features.
In terms of release, it's possible that the phone and ecosystem could be introduced as early as October of this year, but we have yet to confirm.
Right now we're working on getting even more detail about the phone and partnership, but we can tell you now that this is not a random rumor -- we have reason to believe that what we've heard and seen is real and coming to market. It makes perfect sense in a way -- Google gets a much-needed push into the gaming and entertainment space for Android, while Sony (via its partnership with Ericsson) finally delivers the PlayStation phone users have been wanting. We see it as a major win for both companies and the consumer... and we always need another distraction. Stay tuned to this space for updates as we get them, and in the meantime, start socking away the pennies.
Here comes Google TV
(Cross posted from GoogleTV blog)
It’s been almost five months since we introduced Google TV to the world at Google I/O, and today we’re happy to give you an update on our progress. For those who haven’t yet heard of it, Google TV is a new way to think about TV: it’s a platform that combines your current TV programming and the open web into a single, seamless entertainment experience.
One of our goals with Google TV is to finally open up the living room and enable new innovation from content creators, programmers, developers and advertisers. By bringing Google Chrome and access to the entire Internet, you can easily navigate to thousands of websites to watch your favorite web videos, play Flash games, view photos, read movie reviews or chat with friends—all on the big screen.
Since our announcement, we’ve been overwhelmed by interest from partners on how they can use the Google TV platform to personalize, monetize and distribute their content in new ways. Most of these partner sites already work with Google TV, but many are choosing to further enhance their premium web content for viewing on the television. Today, we’re excited to announce several of these content partners.
- Turner Broadcasting has been hard at work optimizing some of their most popular websites for viewing on Google TV, including TBS, TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, available anytime through Google TV.
- NBC Universal has collaborated with Google TV to bring CNBC Real-Time, an application that allows you to track your favorite stocks and access news feeds while enjoying the best financial news from CNBC directly on the TV screen.
- HBO will bring access to hundreds of hours of programming to Google TV with HBO GO. Authenticated subscribers will soon be able to access all of their favorite HBO content on-demand in an enhanced website for Google TV.
- NBA has built NBA Game Time, an application that lets you follow game scores in real-time and catch up on the latest highlights from your favorite team in HD.
In addition, we’ve partnered with some of the leading premium content providers to bring thousands of movie and TV titles, on-demand, directly to your television. Amazon Video On Demand offers access to over 75,000 titles for rental or purchase, and Netflix will offer the ability to instantly watch unlimited movies and TV shows, anytime, streaming directly to the TV.
We have also been working with some leading technology and media companies to optimize their content for Google TV, including news sites like The New York Times and USA Today; music sites like VEVO, Pandora and Napster; information networks like Twitter; and online networks like blip.tv. And with YouTube Leanback, we can offer the best experience for you to watch your favorite viral videos and personalized channels on the television.
You can get a sneak peek of some of these apps in the video below:
This is just the beginning. Over the next few weeks, you can expect to hear from more sites that are enhancing their web content for the television. If you’re interested in learning more about how to optimize your website for viewing on Google TV, please visit our developer page.
Today we also launched a new website that provides more information about these apps and all of the other great features of Google TV.
We’re really excited about the enthusiasm surrounding the platform and can’t wait for it to reach your living room. Devices powered by Google TV will launch this month, so look out for more information in the next few weeks from Sony on its Internet TV and Blu-Ray player, and Logitech on its companion box.
by Ambarish Kenghe (AK), Developer Product Manager, Google TV
Convincing Your Non-Techie Friends To Go Android
I have always been a techie. As a child of the 80s I had an IBM PC with a 10 megabyte hard disk that had to remain completely immobile and level or risk scratching, I had a 300/1200 baud internal modem and I stayed up all night downloading a 64 kilobyte game that, at the time, was the coolest thing I had ever seen. My wife, on the other hand, thought anything with a screen needed rabbit ears to get good reception and that PC stood for popcorn.
Convincing her to get an iPhone was almost impossible. She thought $200 for the phone was money headed straight down the toilet. To her, phones made phone calls and one was about as good as another.
It took her about a month before she would try the camera, but 24 hours after that, she was posting to her “peeps” on Facebook, finding recipes on the Allrecipes.com app, and searching for a Quiznos with Google Maps. She was addicted. In the time between then and now, two important things have happened. She is coming up for contract renewal, and Android has hit the market.
When I discuss changing her iPhone to Android, I get an icy stare as though I had just left one of our children stranded in the Siberian tundra without food or clothing. To her, a smartphone is iPhone. Why should she change?
To those of you who are not married or in a committed relationship with a non-techie, please stop reading. This does not apply to you. To the millions who have received the same death stare when you dare bring up the idea of changing phone operating systems, let me share what I have learned in helping your non-techie make the switch. Be warned, it is still not easy.
They are not like us
If you read these blogs, you are probably someone that other people ask for computer/cell phone advice. You wear the badge of Geek proudly, and you have strong opinions about subjects like ‘net neutrality, open source software, and fair use for DRM material. By now you also know that most people are not like you. You are not “regular folk.”
“Regular folk” think of a phone the same way they see a hammer — it is a tool that helps them get a job done. When they go to the cellular store, they get a phone that does exactly what a phone is designed to do — make and receive calls. If they previously had a smartphone and used it, then they may see the possibilities of a smartphone, but still see it as a single experience probably from Apple or BlackBerry.
People like my wife who think this way are not wrong. A cell phone is a tool, and a tool that works well is a beautiful thing. After I showed my wife an Android phone, her comment was, “well it looks exactly like the iPhone. Why should I change?” Same icy stare. The gauntlet has been thrown.
Why choosing a phone OS is different than choosing a phone
Choosing a phone operating system is more than choosing a phone. We are at the cusp of changing our computing habits. The most important technology innovations are not on our laptops or desktops anymore, but in our pockets. Cell phones are now sporting specs equivalent to desktop computers from 2-3 years ago. Consider this — most Android “super phones” have 512 megabytes of RAM, can comfortably handle up to 32 gigabytes of storage (via microSD cards), and have a 1 gigahertz processor. The minimum specs for a computer to run Windows Vista are 256 megabytes of RAM, 20 gigabytes of storage and at least an 800 megahertz processor. Despite the fact that these phones make calls, these are not phones. These are computers, but they are not PCs.
Well that would not impress my wife. So today’s phones are more powerful. Gotcha. Now, why does this make any difference to me? I like my iPhone, thank you very much, and you still have not said a thing about why this matters.
Choosing which piece of hardware does not make much difference. If you take a picture with a point and shoot camera or a high end Nikon SLR, it does not make a big difference if you got the picture you wanted. Likewise it makes no difference if you write the Great American novel on a high end Sony Vaio or barely running Commodore 64. They both are tools that can produce something you want, and when you are done with them, they can be thrown away. In the end, the product is here and how it was produced is irrelevant.
Likewise, if you are using a phone primarily for phone calls or texting, then it makes practically no difference what you use. No one will be able to tell what phone you are using while in a call or writing a text. The phone is a tool and is irrelevant once you have done what you want with it.
The point is we are not using our phones primarily for phone calls and texting. Likewise, while we do produce things from our phones (like photos, videos, Facebook posts, etc.), the production of stuff is not the only thing we are doing, either. The phone, more than any other device, is becoming the thing that documents our history, makes sense of our surroundings, entertains us while we are bored, keeps us updated on our friends whereabouts, connects us to our important documents, and allows us to seamlessly communicate all that information to others instantaneously. It is our gateway not just to the World Wide Web, but also to our personal web.
In other words, our phones have our important stuff. Don’t believe me? My mother-in-law last week went into the office supply store to get an address book. When was the last time you heard someone doing that? By the way, they had one — but just one. The world has not stopped using address books, they just have them on their phones now.
Our phones allow us to produce, consume, store, organize, contextualize and communicate stuff more elegantly than any other single device.
Now my wife thinks, “there’s an app for all of that — and it is on my iPhone. You STILL have not said why I should change.”
True.
So why Android?
I do not deny that Apple makes great hardware (probably the best in the business, even in light of the iPhone 4 antenna issues). For that matter, BlackBerry does, too. I also would not deny that other vendors make a great OS. You can have an awesome experience on any number of smartphone platforms, specifically the iPhone’s iOS.
But the Apple (and BlackBerry) experience reminds me a lot of a Vegas casino. There are lights, excitement, and magic, but there is no clearly marked exit when you want to leave. The more we live with our phones, the more stuff it begins to acquire. My address book now has over 900 names in it. Most of them are people I do not contact regularly, but when I need a number, my address book is now the first place I look because it is probably there. When I switch phones, I do not want to type in 900 names again. If I switch from an iPhone to another iPhone, it is no big deal. Apple’s iTunes takes care of it seamlessly.
But what if I want to go from an iPhone to a BlackBerry? It is definitely doable, but it is not intuitive. It is easiest if I sync to Microsoft Outlook, and then get BlackBerry to sync with that, but that is hardly seamless. It means I have to use three programs (iTunes, Outlook and BlackBerry Desktop). While those of us who are techies easily see how to do the conversion, remember that you are dealing with non-techies and this scenario sounds like a nightmare. Apple wants me to stay in the Apple ecosystem to be easy. In iPhone, it is easy to import almost anything, but exporting is tricky. Once I try to incorporate something that did not come from the halls of Cupertino, things get complicated.
In Android, it is easy to export data as well as import it, and much of it can be done in the cloud. The big caveat is you must have a Gmail account. Once you have that, almost everything else follows. On your Android phone you can easily import your Gmail contacts — they are loaded wirelessly as soon as you put in your Gmail account address.
The iPhone can also import Gmail contacts easily, but what if you wanted a spreadsheet of your contacts? What if you wanted vCards? What if you only wanted to export your work friends? Just your family? What if you wanted to export your high school friends to Outlook?
Contacts are not the only thing you can export easily. What if you wanted to export your Google Docs to PDFs? To Word files? To RTF? All of this is done easily with Gmail or Google Docs. What if you change cell phone providers and lose your old telephone number? Google Voice has you covered. Likewise, your new phone on your new carrier can have all your stuff quickly whether or not it is from Android.
By design, your life on Android can be imported and exported easily. If you decide that your true love is iPhone, you can take your Gmail, contacts, documents, etc. to Apple and live happily ever after. If you have a spat, though, an iPhone divorce can get messy with information being split down the middle depending on how Apple defines data custody.
But what about the apps?
Ah, but many a marriage would stay together for the sake of the app children. Apple has the lion’s share of apps, but that is a race that is still being run by Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, etc. That said, many apps are tools. For example, Jotnot is an iPhone app that allows you to use the camera as a pretty good document scanner. Its functionality is duplicated by several other iPhone apps such as ScannerPro and DocScanner. Likewise, there are several Android apps that do the same as well, such as Droid Scan 2, or the Android version of DocScanner.
But once you have the document, what parts (apps, websites, etc.) of the phone can actually use it is key. Can you use that document with several apps on your phone? Well, with great tools like Evernote, Dropbox, and Google Documents, the answer is yes. All of these tools are cross platform with apps available on Android. In iOS you usually have one option for a data file, and that is usually the app that created the data file. While apps are great, most tool functionality is available in another form on Android. There are notable exceptions, but for the most part the functionality of many apps can be replicated across several platforms.
The philosophy matters
I am not sure if my wife is convinced. Knowing my wife, she still sees the dollar signs for another phone and wonders why we should shell out more cash for a device that will do essentially what she has now. She just got the iPhone the way she wants it, and she also knows that going to another OS will require another learning curve. She is not wrong. Jumping ship from one OS to another will cost cash, and for a family with four kids, that is not a decision to take lightly.
First of all, as all computer owners know, while the hardware may not soon wear out, its functionality will. Older computers will not run newer OS updates. Companies will not maintain old OSes long. Further newer OSes give greater value, so there is a strong case to be made for upgrading. You do not have to ride the bleeding edge, but there is a definite disadvantage to trailing an end of life technology. In other words, there is a time to let go of technology, even if you like it.
But my main argument is that our phones are not just phones anymore. They are the most personal piece of technology we own. Most people would not dream of leaving the house without their phones. Why? Because our phones and their accompanying operating systems are becoming less accessories and more personal histories. Sure, our phones know who we know and keep us in touch with our environments, but more importantly they record our conversations and know where we have been. When we want to know what someone said, we can look up their e-mail/Facebook post/SMS. The longer we stay with one operating system, the further back our phones can take us. We will be able to look up SMS messages from 2003, and thanks to good search options, we will be able to find it. We will be able to search our e-mails quickly.
Every phone OS comes with a learning curve, and depending on which smartphone OS you choose, the more likely you are to stick with it. That little piece of muscle memory keeps people stuck on several technologies from the innovative to the truly vapid. So if you choose an iPhone, you are likely to stick with an iPhone and never think about jumping ship because your history is on an iPhone. In the mean time it begins to collect all your "stuff" investing you deeper and deeper into the platform. So which OS you choose matters because it is what you get used to. That would be fine if it did not also entail an important philosophical issue as well.
The OS that you own will dictate how you access information, make sense of it, and communicate it. Further, that OS will say something about your own philosophy. I do not mean to make this solely about Apple, but as the big kid in the playground it is hard not to. Steve Jobs has a beautiful vision for the smartphone. It is revolutionary, magical, and largely under his control. “You can check out any time you like, but you can ever leave.” That is the way many successful businesses run. BlackBerry has a similar vision, just more phone choices.
Android is inherently different. Android is not a perfect experience, but the exits are well marked, and mean that you can take the data from one app to another (i.e. you can open Google Documents in several applications), you can access much of it on the web, or you can exit the platform altogether and take all your data with you. The philosophy is an open platform as opposed to a closed one. That comes with advantages and disadvantages, but for my money, if you must change phones from time to time (and you will), and you want to have more choices, it makes sense to already be invested in a platform that allows you the flexibility of many choices in hardware and data manipulation than in a singular vision that has few choices, no matter how beautiful it is.
The bottom line is the bottom line
"Yeah, but I just want a phone. You’re over thinking this. I’ll only have this phone for a year or two then I’ll switch." The children are no longer in Siberia, but my wife now thinks this is a lot of text for a simple decision.
Then let me go to the bottom line. You can save cash with Android. These arguments are all fine, but knowing how much we could save makes my wife’s eyebrows raise.
Depending on where you live, different service providers have different coverage areas. If you are lucky enough to have all four big names with decent coverage in your area, then you are in a great position. AT&T and Verizon have the lion’s share of the market with Sprint and T-Mobile trailing. Not surprisingly AT&T and Verizon also charge the most which means Sprint and T-Mobile have to try harder to get subscribers by offering more features cheaper. For my wife and I, that means that we can get unlimited data and texting for $130 on Sprint, which would save us $50 a month. If in the future, a different carrier has a better deal, we can change carriers again, all the while keeping all of our data from one Android phone to the next. As a subscriber, you now have the power to use the competition of the market in your advantage. Very smart.
If we build it, will they come?
My wife’s icy stare has thawed some. She does not disagree with any of my points, but she is also not wild about change. Who is? But she does like the Galaxy S screen, and the easier texting of the Epic 4G, and most importantly with the cost savings, it just might be a slam dunk. Until the end of August, we will just have to wait and see.
via Android Police by Kenny Embry
Sunday, 26 June 2011
2009 GSMA WMC
2009 GSMA WMC: "
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The 2009 GSMA World Mobile Congress have set its curtain down last Thursday, after 3 days of exhibitions, starting from Feb 16 in Barcelona, Spain. There are lots of new mobile products, with cutting edge technology and design, have been exhibited during that time. Here are some of the great mobile phones that have been unveiled there.
HTC Magic: Vodafone UK have unveiled the new Google’s Android phone, the HTC Magic, successor of the Google G1 (HTC Dream). Unlike the G1, the HTC Magic lacks the slide out keyboard and depends entirely a responsive multi-touchscreen. It’s lots smaller thann the G1 and got a ‘nicer’ look too; with 3.2-inch screen, curved edges and shiny, elegant finish. It is a quad band phone (GSM/GPRS/EDGE/ HSDPA/WCDMA) so it can be used all around the globe. It have a built in GPS antenna, Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi. The bad things about this phone is that it got no 3.5mm headphones jack and the 3.2MP camera got no flash. And before I forget, this phone only available in UK for this time.
HTC Touch Pro2: The HTC Touch Pro got a nice update in the look department. Just like its predecessor, it got a slide out keyboard, but angled at some degree like the Nokia N97. The screen is a bit larger compare to the Diamond2, at 3.6-inch WVGA. HTC equipped the Touch Pro2 with what they call the aforementioned zoom bar for easier zooming of the webpage and emails. One cools thing about this phone is that it will automatically switch our call to speakerphone if the phone is flipped over and place on flat surface, what HTC called it, the Straight Talk technology. Among other the phone is equipped with WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, dual cameras (3.2MP & VGA) and it runs on Window Mobile 6.1.
HTC Touch Diamond2: This phone runs on Window Mobile 6.1 but it is upgradable to the new Window Mobile 6.5 (Q3-4 2009). It features a brilliant 3.2-inch (480 X 800 WVGA) touchscreen, main 5 mpx and front VGA cameras, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, accelerometer and FM radio, among others. Like the HTC Magic, it lacks the 3.5 mm headphones jack but HTC provide an adaptor, HTC ExtUSB™, for the solution. The phone operates on quad band that useable in Asia and Europe only (for now).
Acer Tempo M900: This is the first time that Acer get involved in smartphones business after failed to thrived in MP3 player industry. the M900 runs on Window Mobile 6.1 and equipped with 3.8-inch touchscreen WVGA. Messaging and emailing made easier with the slide-out keyboards. Users don't have to worried about security with this phone as it equipped with a fingerprint reader for password! Other features of this phone includes GPS, WiFi, 5MP camera, HSDPA. 3G. The M900 is targeted more for a business user. Acer also unveils three other new Tempo’s smartphone collections.
Samsung OmniaHD: Samsung unveils new and improved to its ever popular Omnia at the GSMA. The one great update of the new OmniaHD is its screen, up from 3.2-inch TFT-LCD to a stunning 3.7-inch AMOLED 16 million color. And get this, this phone can play and record 729p HD videos! This phone is also equipped with dual cameras, the main 8MP auto-focus camera and the front VGA for 3G calling. It got 8GB or 16GB options of internal memory and an additional microSD slot, supported up to 16GB. Other ‘boring’ features includes Symbian S60 OS, 3G, GPS, WiFi, FM radio, accelerometer, and proximity sensor.
Samsung Blue Earth: Samsung with its slogan ‘Eco-living with Samsung mobile’ announced the eco-friendly Blue Earth phone. Everything about this phone is green , or should i said blue. It’s made of recycled plastics of water bottles. The phone is the first full touchscreen phone that is solar-powered. The design is strikingly elegant and at the back is where the solar panel is placed. According to Samsung the phone is free of harmful substances such as Brominated Flame Retardant, Beryllium and Phthalate. Blue Earth features a pedometer that tells you how much CO2 emission you’ve save by walking instead of driving. Its charger is qualified for 5 star energy efficient which uses standby power lower than 0.03W. Unfortunately, other technical specs are not yet revealed by Samsung.
Nokia N86: Nokia officially reveal its first 8MP camera phone, the N86. Similar to the N96 & N85, the N86 features 2-way slider design; down for numpad, up for media control. This is yet another OLED screen phone, with 2.6-inch scratch-resistant hardened glass. It got 8GB of internal memory and expendable to 32GB with 16GB micsoSD card. The phone can play music up to 25 hours on one charge. Other features includes 3.5mm jack, stereo Bluetooth, A-GPS, FM radio & TV out jack.
Sony Ericsson Idou: The world first 12.1MP camera phone is here. An yes you heard me right, 12.1mp! Sony Ericsson said they want to combine the CyberShot and the Walkman together and walla the Idou get born. It got a brilliant 3.5-inch 16:9 16.7 million color touchscreen with intuitive 3D user interface. The camera functions much like a stand alone camera; touch focus capability, cropping & slideshows. There are not much know about this phone other than that. After all, Idou is only a concept name for now and SE said the phone will be out on second half of 2009.
Garmin-Asus nuvifone: As Sony Ericsson combining the camera into the phone, the Garmin Asus join venture starts to integrating GPS device into the phone. Garmin-Asus unveils two version of nuvifone; M20 and G60 during this year WMC. The phones support quad band GSM and tri band 3G network. Unlike other phone, G60 is a Linux-based phone (M20 runs on Windows). Both phones are equipped with 3MP camera, touchscreen, turn-by-turn voice-giuded GPS, geotagging, WiFi and microSD hot swappable slot. G60 3.55-inch TFT, 4GB; M20 2.8-inch TFT, 4 or 8GB.
NVIDIA Tegra 600: NVIDIA have announced that it will working with mobile phone company to integrate its Tegra processor into Windows Mobile and Android OS phones. Tegra platform lets the device plays full HD video up to 1080p with ease. Tegra enables rich and fluid 3D and advance multimedia functionality to provide intuitive user interface. It consume low power and charging is required after days of use. NVIDIA aims to ship out the Tegra in mid 2009.
Windows Mobile 6.5: Steve Ballmer have announced the new Windows Mobile 6.5 during his keynote speech. The new OS brings lots of improvements and enhancements including a new apps store, backup and restore capabilities and improved web experience. My Phone function lets the user to backup and restore the phone via a password protected web service. Windows Marketplace for Mobile lets users to download apps over the air to their phone. The new mobile IE will support Flash and Java application plus better zooming capabilities. The new 6.5 version is designed to be more user friendly and people centric. The start menu will features honeycomb format that allow more spacing for touch interface.
CES 2009
CES 2009: "
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Here are some of the cool things showcased and unveiled during the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2009, Jan 8-11 in Las Vegas
Cell phones & Smartphones
I think it is appropriate to start the review with the first touch-screen Palm, named Palm Pre, which won the award for Best of CES 2009. It's packed with lots of wonderful features and powered by Palm own OS, the long-waited Palm WebOS. It comes with Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, a 3.1-inch screen, GPS, 3mpx camera and 8GB of storage, among other things. Along with a multitouch display, it also equipped with a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. Just like the iPhone, you can pinch in and out to zoom the web pages, but sadly without flash support.
The Icephone by the Medical Phone is the world first tri-panel phone. It got two keyboard with one full QWERTY and the other is for navigation purposes just like a mini-notebook. Just like the common smartphones, it's equipped with 3mpx camera, WiFi and GPS. The unique features about this phone is that it comes with software that can store your own medical record, and being dubbed as 'a phone that could save your life'.
Sony Ericsson unveiled its C905 phone which have a 8.1mpx camera with 16x digital zoom, the highest so far Sony Ericsson produced. It is a slide phone and currently not available in the US but only in Europe and Asia.
Ever thinking about a phone with circular display? Well Motorola is the first to did so with their new phone, the AURA. It got 1.55 inch (in diameter) round LCD display with 16 million color and 300 dpi resolution, giving a rich, photographic display quality. The display lens is made of 62-carat sapphire crystal, one of the most scratch-resistant material on earth! The phone is a designer centric phone with stainless steel housing with aluminum keypad. AURA is a swivel phone.
There are rumors about the new Nokia N97 all over the net for the past months but now it's unveiled at CES 2009. The N97 have a 3.5-inch 16:9 touch screen (640x360px) with also a slipped out full QWERTY keyboard. It got 32GB internal memory, 5mpx camera, accelerometer, proximity sensor and 3.5mm jack, just like iPhone does. But what it does have compared to iPhone are FM receiver, flash supported web pages, and also video recording capability. We can say that this is the true iPhone contender for sure.
Save the best for the last. LG have announced the GD910, a prototype wristwatch that can make and take call, or in other words, it is a watchphone! Its so secret and sleek, there are no one can touch the watch except the LG representative! It has a touch screen interface, Bluetooth , 3G, speakerphone and a music player.
Computers & Hardware
Asus Eee PC, the netbook pioneer, have a new model for Eee netbook line, the T91. The 2-pound, 1-inch netbook features an 8.9 inch LES backlit panel and it runs on Intel Atom processor and Windows XP. The screen can be flip-out 180 degree and it is touch enable.
HP debuts its own ultraportable, the dv2 and dv3, that have 12.1inch and 13.3inch display respectively. They are the first netbook powered by AMD's Yukon platform, the rival of Intel Atom processor. It starts at 3.8 pound with an inch thick at thinnest point.
Ever think about wireless charging? Well PowermatUSA have successfully make a product that will wirelessly charging your devices like phone, mp3 player, portable gaming device and even a laptop, by using magnetic induction process. Available in Spring 2009.
Done with netbook and now lets talk big. I mean it when I said big. Lenovo W700DS is indeed a big and heavy laptop, weights more than 11 lbs (5kg). The best thing about this laptop is that its powered by Intel Quad Core processor, NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M (1 GB) and got two hard drives. For the record, it is not the first laptop that powered by a Quad Core processor (Its Hypersonic Aviator EQ7). However, this laptop sets its own record for being the first laptop with two display; 17' 1920x1200 WUXGA TFT LCD and 10.6' 1280x768 TFT LCD. With a starting price of $3,663, this laptop is design for graphic and video professional.
Digital Photo & Video
Let start of this section with the cool Sony Cyber-shot DCS-G3. It is a 10mpx camera with nice looking black metal design and 4GB of internal memory. What nice about this camera is it have 3.5inch LCD and its touch screen! Another cool thing about this camera is that it got 802.11b/g wireless connectivity and you can simply upload your photos and videos to services like Photobucket, Picasa and Youtube on the go. You can get it online for $499.99!
Kodak unveils the new Z980 super zoom camera with 24x zoom. It is a 12mpx camera with 26mm wide angle lens and its also capable of recording HD video. What best about this camera is that it have a vertical shutter release and detachable vertical grip that can be seen in most professional camera like Nikon D3 and Canon Mark III.
Music & Video Player
Sony introduced its NWZ-X1051 walkman with internal capacity of 16GB and 32GB. It is the world first portable music player to have an OLED screen on it! It has 3-inch touch screen LCD plus WiFi, FM tuner and noise cancelling capability.
One of the highlight at iRiver booth was their new P7 PMP (Portable Media Player). It got intuitive user interface coupled with sleep design and 4.3-inch touchscreen display (480x272). It comes in three model of 4, 8, and 16GB. Other features include FM radio, full movie codec, SRS WOW sound equalizer and picture viewing capability.
Samsung updated it PMP line with the new P3. The P3 is really an update to the previous P2. It got 3-inch touch screen with gorgeous user interface and also Bluetooth connectivity that can be sync to other PMP for music sharing. The Bluetooth is also can be sync to you phone and the P3 can be a surrogate for your phone in taking phone call, as its equipped with speaker and microphone. It also got a haptic feedback (vibration) as touching the icon on the P3.
Television
One of the 'boom' during CES 2009 is the accouchement of several LCD models with ultrathin design. One of them is the LG 55LHX, a 0.97 inch (2.4cm) thick, 55 inch HDTV (1080p) with LED backlit. It is capable of wireless streaming. It have its own media box that talk to the TV wirelessly using 60GHz radio signal and multielement antenna array, making it capable to transmit uncompressed full 1080p video.
Samsung have step up one step ahead with their 31 inch OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) LCD prototype. To date, it is the largest OLED display ever been produced, surpassing the last year largest display of 11-inch from Sony. It is 1080p HDTV but consume only half the power compared to typical 32-inch LCD. And do you have any idea how thin this display is? It is only 4.3mm (0.17-inch) thick! Can you imagine that? Samsung also unveils a 52-inch LED HDTV with thickness of only 6.5mm (0.255-inch)!
There is another contender for ultrathin display and this one come from Panasonic. The thinnest point is only 8mm (0.31-inch). It is a 50-inch LCD display with 1080p capability.
Sony with their 27-inch OLED display with contrast ratio 1,000,000:1 really brings out the color and it is 100% better than the NTSC version. The display is less that 10mm thick! Beside their ultra-thin displays, Sony also announces its first flexible full color OLED display. The display is 2.5-inch prototype with just 0.3mm thick (as thick as papers!) and it has a resolution of 169x120
If you really concerned and said 'That it?'. Well here I just wrote the stuffs that really shake and shock the world with their ground breaking technologies and features. Actually, there are about 2,700 exhibitors represent 30 product categories. So go suit yourself and enjoy the rest of 99% of the product at CES website or any other sources (i.e. CNET TV)
